When Fortnite Chapter 5 rolled out on Dec. 3, the team at Epic Games had a lot of reasons to be excited.
After a year of hard work, the animation team in particular was releasing an updated look for the movement system in the popular battle royale game. One Epic Games employee involved with that team took to X and expressed how happy they were to share the hard work they and their team had done on the game. However, what started as a celebration for that person soon turned dark.
Almost immediately, people began commenting on the employee’s post, swearing at them and calling them various slurs. In some cases, accounts made implicit or explicit threats against their safety and life. Some of those accounts had thousands of followers, and regardless of the size of those posting, the sheer volume of comments when you search for the person’s name on X is terrifying to behold.
I’ve chosen not to share the name of the Epic Games employee here to avoid the possibility of further harassment being directed at them. Additionally, under normal circumstances, I would provide a link to various social media posts. However, in this case, I’ve chosen to exclude any that may explicitly identify them.
For context, there are a lot of reasons that people claim to dislike the new movement in Fortnite. The critiques range from it feeling slower than the previous version to a general sense of jankiness that gamers are experiencing. On X, the official Fortnite account broke down the changes, noting that while some types of movement were slower, others were faster or stealthier. They’ve since said that they’re looking into making some changes to the new movement system.
The harassment towards that employee, though, hasn’t stopped, and it got so bad that they locked their X account. Despite the fact they’ve gone private, though, the threats and attacks have continued online. As recently as a half an hour before I wrote this sentence, one user said online that the employee better hope they don’t find them. Otherwise, people are still directing slurs and insults at the person.
There have also been a number of rumors swirling around the Epic Games employee, with some claiming that they were fired. The implication of those claims was that they were terminated in relation to the new animations and movement system.
The employee was not fired, and those rumors are false, The Escapist can confirm. I also firmly believe that any campaign to get an employee fired over a change to a video game is genuinely ludicrous.
While the employee was not fired, during the harassment campaign against them, they were doxxed and had their personal information leaked online.
I’m not going to link to it here, but I can confirm that there was a thread on X in which the person’s information was seemingly leaked online. The thread has since been deleted, with a note on the platform saying the post was removed for violating the X’s rules. Doxxing is among those things that violates X’s rules. As per Reddit, in the original post, the poster reportedly said that if the old movement system wasn’t restored that “things will get wicked.”
Numerous replies to the alleged doxxer called the poster out for going too far. The alleged doxxer then replied to one of those users saying, “u wanna be next?”
In cases like this, I’ve generally found that vocal minorities are responsible for the majority of hate. However, that doesn’t make the hate any easier to deal with. Getting a barrage of posts insulting you and threatening your safety is genuinely harrowing. No one deserves to experience that.
And there are a lot of Fortnite fans who agree.
On that same post, one user said, “It’s not only a crime but also morally reprehensible.
Another said, “I feel for that person. No matter how much one dislikes something, it doesn’t give them the right to treat someone that way.”
That same sentiment has been echoed across various social media sites, with Fortnite players noting that the majority of hate is coming from a vocal minority and that such behavior is absolutely unacceptable.
Internet harassment has a real effect on the people being targeted. I can tell you from experience volunteering at a crisis text line that a lot of folks message in because such behavior has had a massively negative impact on their lives.
I’ve been the target of harassment myself, and it’s deeply difficult to deal with. It makes you doubt yourself and can result in a lot of despair. I can’t speak for the employee, but the constant barrage of vitriol was harrowing and depressing. No one deserves to feel that way.
Being mad at a change in a video game doesn’t give you the right to hurt or negatively affect another person. It doesn’t give you the right to demand that they be fired, wish them harm, or message threats or slurs at them. Harassment is utterly unacceptable behavior.
Epic Games agrees, and shared the following statement with The Escapist:
“Threatening and harassing Epic employees is totally unacceptable. We take threats to our employees seriously and take action to support them.”
