Slay The Spire Sequel Torched By Gamergate Spinoff Trolls
By 813 Staff
Hollywood insiders are buzzing about Slay The Spire Sequel Torched By Gamergate Spinoff Trolls, according to Kotaku (@Kotaku) (in the last 24 hours).
Source: https://x.com/Kotaku/status/2052441899735146740
Behind the scenes at Mega Crit, the small team behind the wildly anticipated *Slay the Spire 2* likely expected some debate over its new systems. What they probably didn’t anticipate was a sustained, coordinated review bombing campaign that, according to reporting by Kotaku (@Kotaku), has been linked by industry trackers to the loose network of online harassment groups often labeled Gamergate 2.0. The targeting began shortly after the game’s early access launch last week, with a sudden spike of negative user scores on Steam and a flood of chat messages on Discord servers that, behind the scenes, were being organized in private channels. The numbers tell a different story than the user score alone: while the aggregate review score has dipped measurably, actual playtime and concurrent player counts remain strong, suggesting the negative reviews are not reflective of the broader player base.
Industry insiders say this isn’t an organic backlash against a difficult boss or a new mechanic. The complaints, according to those who have analyzed the posting patterns, largely parrot specific talking points around the game’s slightly more inclusive character designs and the studio’s public support for diversity initiatives in game development. It’s a playbook that has become depressingly familiar in the industry, but the speed and organization of this particular attack caught the development team off guard. Kotaku has confirmed that Mega Crit has not issued an official statement beyond acknowledging the review activity is being monitored, though sources close to the studio say internal discussions about moderation tools and potential review-filtering options are already underway.
Why this matters goes beyond a single card game. *Slay the Spire 2* was positioned as a potential tentpole for the deck-building genre, and a cloud of manufactured negativity could impact publisher confidence in upcoming indie titles that take similar creative risks. What happens next is likely a waiting game. Valve’s review-bombing detection system has historically been slow to act on pattern-based assaults, and Mega Crit will have to decide whether to publicly engage the attackers or let the community’s organic support drown out the noise. For now, the developers are back in the code, and the real players are still climbing the Spire.
