Kotaku Cites Small Sampling of Tweets as Proof of Harassment of Wolfenstein: Youngblood Designer

Spencer Baculi |

Jul 31, 2019

A recent Kotaku article claiming that a designer on Wolfenstein: Youngblood faced harassment appears to be running a false narrative based on two negative tweets from a single user.

In the article, Wolfenstein: Youngblood’s Microtransactions Aren’t Even Worth Getting Mad At, Kotaku staff writer Joshua Rivera claims that lead level designer Mitja Roskaric received such aggressive harassment prior to the game’s launch that he was driven to lock his Twitter account, sparking an outpouring of support across the industry:

“Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a video game with microtransactions, which is another way of saying that there are some who will object to its existence out of principle. Some people became so angry about microtransactions in the new game that they harassed one of its lead level designers, Mitja Roskaric, on Twitter, causing him to have to lock his account.

In response, developers across the industry tweeted out messages of support that also noted the ridiculousness of the situation, since level designers have almost no input in how games are monetized. Beyond that, the microtransactions in Youngblood aren’t even that obtrusive.”

Roskaric has since deleted his Twitter account.

However, it appears that Roskaric only received less than a handful of negative responses, far from the outpouring of harassment Kotaku claims he received. Upon reading Kotaku’s claim, Reddit user /u/sodiummuffin searched Twitter for “tweets mentioning Roskaric’s username since before the game was released,” finding only one negative exchange. Roskaric reassured a player concerned with the presence of microtransactions in Youngblood that the microtransactions would be purely cosmetic; upon the game’s release, and upon discovering that the microtransactions also included gameplay boosters on launch, the player responded with an image of rap artist Tyler, the Creator which read “So that was a fucking lie.” (Archive link: http://archive.is/qDceC)

i am excited to play it but im wary about the MTX

— alex (@alex75346) July 25, 2019

pic.twitter.com/8P03BfAIcG

— alex (@alex75346) July 29, 2019

/u/sodiummuffin found one other instance of negativity in a response to Roskaric’s defense of the game’s microtransactions. After another user expressed his reasons for disliking microtransactions, the above mentioned “Alex” provided a screenshot of the game as ‘proof’ that Roskaric was a “liar,” causing the user to become more dismayed towards the release of Youngblood:

MTX existing might not be intrusive but they’re annoying and many times game design gets influenced by their existence.

I haven’t played Youngblood so I don’t know if this is the case with that game but I am dissuaded from playing by the inclusion of MTX.

— Gideon The Nomad Gamer (@GideonOnGaming) July 29, 2019

He is a liar pic.twitter.com/JQTq3XAirB

— alex (@alex75346) July 29, 2019

And I assume the game is a tedious grind without those boosters. Now I’m dissuaded even more.

I just wanted a cool co-op adventure. Not all of this bollocks.

— Gideon The Nomad Gamer (@GideonOnGaming) July 29, 2019

The discrepancy in Roskaric’s claims and Alex’s accusations is due to an error present during Wolfenstein: Youngblood’s release. In the game, players can purchase various ‘boosters’ to give them an advantage in combat. While boosters should only be purchasable using in-game currency, the option to purchase boosters using real world currency was present at launch in the PS4 version of the game. Bethesda quickly removed these options and explained that these options should have been patched out before launch:

“Update (July 29): Bethesda has explained that the discrepancies in items offered across different platforms — with differing currencies used to purchase those items — should have patched before launch, and has been done so now. We’ve checked both the PC and PS4 versions of the game, and the extra booster options have been removed, along with the option of paying for boosters with gold bars. The story below has been updated for accuracy.”