Years ago, we started binning all our positive stories under the “warm fuzzies” tag and our uggggg stories under “this is why we can’t have nice things.” The latter one is where we put all the stories that just make us want to close our eyes, push our faces into our keyboards, and roll around a bit. They’re that bad.
Unfortunately, as bad as 2020 was, 2021 was even worse for the gaming industry itself, largely thanks to a certain company I won’t need to name because if you’re reading this, you already know. Fortunately, 2021 is almost over, so per tradition, we’ve collected all of these stories about the worst online gaming has to offer into one final post, the last of the year, and we’re tossing them into the raging dumpster fire on our way out.
Take one last look at the awful things that happened in our genre’s orbit this year – and then leave them in the past where they belong.
Bizarre World of Warcraft stream suggests a surge in botting activity
WoW Factor: Oh no, not the Sylvanas redemption arc
Twitch lowers a (temporary?) banhammer on Donald Trump
Star Trek Online player is banned following lifetime subscription refund bungle
Kickstarted Jane Austen MMORPG Ever, Jane closed its doors over the holidays
Cyberpunk 2077 bosses: ‘Don’t fault any of our teams for what happened’
RuneScape studio Jagex disputes RICO-tinged lawsuit over its convoluted ownership
The Reddit-driven GameStop stock spike isn’t going to end well
With some trading restrictions lifted, GameStop stock is taking off again
Lawful Neutral: The bizarre corporate effort to buy RuneScape studio Jagex
Discrimination class-action lawsuit against Riot proceeds in spite of Riot’s arbitration success
Elite Dangerous players are apparently being duped into indentured servitude
Terraria cancels its Stadia release after Google openly mishandles the developer’s YouTube account issues
Stick and Rudder: Leader of Elite Dangerous ‘slavery’ racket espouses a ‘cult-like’ guild full of ‘chaos and evil’
Former Riot Games staffer accuses CEO Nicolo Laurent of sexual harassment in new lawsuit
Hackers have successfully sold stolen CDPR source code and internal documents in a dark web auction
Gamestonk’s gamified guerilla trading made losers of both the good and bad guys
Epic Games lobbies for a North Dakota bill that would force Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems
TitanReach addresses early access funding – and how it pays its staff
MMO Business Roundup: CDPR’s misery, Gamestonk revives, Riot’s Game Changers
Insiders expose Google Stadia’s rushed release, poor hiring practices, and stymied studios
Final Fantasy XIV bans over 5,000 accounts for RMT activity
EU MechWarrior Online, RUST servers go offline following French data center burning to the ground – no one hurt
The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the worst general chat channel?
One of City of Heroes’ rogue servers, Sanctuary, has apparently been taken out by hackers
EA admits that ‘one or more EA accounts’ is involved in FIFA 21 trading scandal
Fortnite rolls out Primal season, disqualifies esports pro over vile tweet
Development of a Warframe-inspired tabletop RPG is halted thanks to toxic fans
Elite Dangerous YouTuber is denied free access to Odyssey’s alpha due to ‘offensive’ content
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen begins selling NFT-minted artwork to fund development
Sony confirms that the PlayStation 3, PSP, and Vita stores will shut down this year
Chinese police team up with Tencent to take down a video game cheating ring
Working As Intended: There is no good reason for MMO gamers to fund Dreamworld
Activision launches lawsuit against indie game dev over Warzone trademark
Path of Exile exploit banwave hits one of the game’s main streamers, furor over accessibility ban caused by a troll
Humble Bundle’s charity donation caps cause an uproar among donors and subbers
An infamous WoW Classic griefer sees his 16 accounts all banned during a livestream
EA insists it’s focused on ‘engagement,’ not monetizing FIFA players into gambleboxes
Dreamworld co-founder’s ex-fiancee calls out Kickstarter fibs but says he’s not intentionally scamming
Riot Games’ demand to shut down a fan-run 10 year-old League of Legends build causes a community uproar
Activision-Blizzard is halving Bobby Kotick’s exorbitant salary and bonuses
The Epic v. Apple trial is already offering a look behind the scenes of Fortnite, the Epic Games Store, and Sony
Blizzard and Fox are headed for a trademark fight over the Diablo name
Players begin leaking footage of The Division Heartland closed test
Roblox is now referring to its ‘games’ as ‘experiences’ in light of Epic v Apple trial arguments
LOTRO shutting down Ithil progression server, offers free transfers
Roblox scalpers make an absolute killing selling in-game Gucci handbags
A toxic hacker has forced Sony to disable its online Little Big Planet servers
Blizzard is already cracking down on Diablo II Resurrected modders and hackers
Roblox is being sued by music publishers over song infringement claims
EA suffers major data breach while CDPR says its own breach targeted more than just source code
Horse MMO Star Stable apologizes for the dust-up over its Pride event
Activision-Blizzard extends contentious shareholder vote on executive pay
Destiny 2’s $85 toaster that was created thanks to charity donations is apparently not very good
A slim majority of Acti-Blizz investors approved its ‘say-on-pay’ policy after vote extension
Amazon Games responds to complaints that Lost Ark character redesigns are ‘censorship’
Chronicles of Elyria backers sound the alarm on class action waiver in new NDA
Hackers who disrupted Apex Legends to complain about Titanfall issues ‘achieved nothing of value’
Chinese gamers beware: Tencent’s games now tattle on minors using facial recognition
Elite Dangerous threatens to ban players over toxic behavior toward devs
Ubisoft doc suggests toxic management has contributed to loss of talent and image
Google’s Stadia monetizes game engagement, pressuring studios to keep players around
PvP sandbox Fractured is blindsided by ‘rampant’ player killing in alpha tests
Ubisoft faces sexual harassment lawsuit from French game workers union
War Thunder fan accidentally shares classified military documents to make digital tank more realistic
New World turns RTX 3090 GPUs into bricks and bans a streamer for milking an in-game cow
California sues Activision-Blizzard over discrimination and sexist, toxic work culture
Ubisoft’s sexual harassment and racism scandal extended to Skull & Bones studio in Singapore
J Allen Brack addresses Blizzard staff over sexism scandal, Activision doubles down on deflection
Pokemon Go reneges on rewards after Russian players achieve company’s goal
Old School RuneScape became a gold seller’s paradise fueled by Venezuelan hyperinflation
Activision-Blizzard walkout organizers respond to Kotick, Kotaku exposes ‘Cosby suite’ attendees
Massively Overthinking: Has Blizzard’s sexism lawsuit changed your gaming plans?
An Activision-Blizzard worker was arrested for bathroom peeping in 2018
Tencent reacts to Chinese state media calling online games ‘spiritual opium’ by adding new restrictions
New exposé reveals still more layers of sexual harassment and discrimination at Blizzard
EA fires Apex Legends lead designer over past sexist and racist remarks
Amazon Game Studios retracts policies that claim rights to games made by workers after hours
The Soapbox: World of Warships’ aggressive monetization incited a mass-exodus of content creators
Brazilian police have arrested a suspect in the murder of an Overwatch voice actress
World of Warships studio Wargaming addresses row that led to influencer exodus
Cloud Imperium says ‘there’s NO place for racism in the Star Citizen community’
California DFEH moves to protect Riot workers from retaliation for cooperating in state investigation
Kingfall is proudly advertising itself as a casual fantasy MMORPG with NFTs attached
Swords of Legends Online asks you to become an unpaid QA tester
Among Us developer Innersloth raises eyebrows at Fortnite’s Impostors mode and its striking similarities
Pokemon Go’s New Zealand rollbacks show Niantic is more concerned with local law than actual safety
Starbase plans to amend its stance on stream sniping citing language that is ‘too encouraging’
Roblox sees net losses for Q2 2021, struggles with toxic player-generated content
Former RuneScape composer sentenced to 22 months in prison for sexual assault
Roblox’s shameless exploitation of child labor is why we can’t have nice things
Bless Unleashed suggests Xbox players who duplicated cash shop currency may be ‘required’ to buy it back
California lawsuit now alleges Activision-Blizzard HR literally ‘shredded’ evidence
World of Warships apologizes for issuing promo code that personally attacked a content creator
Fortnite had to disable nearly every emote in the Martin Luther King event area
China now limits minors’ gaming time to three hours a week, indicates anti-monopoly policies are forthcoming
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis mars its Sonic crossover event with high-dollar cosmetics
Jagex stamps out an Old School RuneScape mod prior to release, players organize a protest [Updated]
World of Tanks community rep resigns in protest over firing of fellow Wargaming staffer
Tencent, Netease hit with stock losses amid China’s gaming industry clampdown
Twitch unleashes a lawsuit against two alleged hate raid organizers
LittleBigPlanet’s PS3 and Vita servers will remain offline permanently thanks to a toxic hacker
Fortnite might not be back on Apple’s app store for five years – or longer
A new Pokemon Unite bug – or exploit – is letting losers gain rank at will (Updated!)
Bear witness to the confounding Coca-Cola ad that tries to appeal to esports fans, MMO gamers, and world peace
China adds new rules against games with ‘effeminate males’ and ‘blurred moral boundaries’
MechWarrior Online restores trans-focused team names after uproar over name changes and suspensions
Twitch suffers massive data breach as a hacker gets away with source code and streamer payout details
Guild Wars 2’s PvP community is aflame over win-trading [Update: ANet banned 83 perps]
Twitch confirms huge security breach, says credit card and login credentials are safe
California’s DFEH files an objection to the settlement between Activision-Blizzard and the EEOC
Another War Thunder player leaked classified military documents to win a forum argument
Diablo II Resurrected is still suffering from major outages several weeks after launch
Two government agencies are now squabbling over ethics allegations in Activision-Blizzard cases
Racist spammers tried to ruin Fractured’s free-to-play fall alpha test
Star Citizen financial report outlines over £1M in paid dividends to investors as of last year
As Steam heads off blockchain games, the Epic Games Store welcomes them
Post-apoc survival sandbox Edengrad has officially (and quietly) been cancelled
Star Citizen deep-dives alpha 3.15 as players get high and OD enemies with meds
New World’s faction PvP is rife with guild drama over ‘throwing’
Destiny 2’s two new Witch Queen dungeons will require a separate purchase to access
Epic Games retracts a policy that granted extra days off to employees
Ubisoft devs continue to report harassment and mismanagement in spite of corporate claims
World of Warcraft, lacking any sense of shame, releases a new cash shop mount
New World is suffering from yet another exploit, this one revolving around malicious chat code
Roblox emerges, blinking into the sun, after a three-day outage
Wisdom of Nym: Leaking the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker tooltips was a shitty thing to do
Fortnite is closing down in China on November 15
MMO Business Roundup: Ubisoft thinks crypto is just swell
New World’s gold dupe exploit stopgap fix revealed… another gold dupe
EVE Online’s latest newbie experience revamp is paying off as CCP Games dabbles in NFTs
Square Enix earnings drop, FFXIV subs rise, and NFT is here to stay
MMO Business Roundup: Discord crypto mess, Unity buys Weta, Roblox Q3 2021 financials
Vague Patch Notes: NFTs in gaming are a bad, dumb idea
EVE Online players stage in-game protests over New Dawn mining changes
Activision-Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick hit with new accusations, Jen Oneal speaks up, employees walk out
Wargaming has censored another content creator’s World of Warships videos
Roblox sues toxic player for $1.6M over ‘terrorist threats’ and ‘targeted harassment’ of employees and players
New World’s latest problem appears to be… scores of fishing bots
Angry Halo Infinite players prompt tempory closure of the Halo subreddit as devs outline and address updates
Ubisoft made good on its NFT scheme promise with ‘Ubisoft Quartz’
Activision-Blizzard fields new accusations as workers strike, fundraise, and issue union cards
Bungie workers expose a studio mired in sexism and racism trying to right its ship
Nexon America will now accept cryptocurrencies as payment for in-game cash shop items
Peter Molyneux’s multiplayer ‘blockchain business sim’ Legacy sells $53M in land NFTs before release
Bungie’s head of HR steps down and adds her own tale of abuse as more devs come forward about mistreatment
Roblox’s business model prompts fresh accusations of child labor exploitation
Final Fantasy XIV’s pizza emote promotion results in undelivered codes managed by a reportedly random draw
Kickstarted MMO Legends of Aria and its studio just got bought out by an NFT metaverse games company
ArcheAge’s free mana crystal Twitter promotion leads to a 24 hour-long exploitation spree
The Daily Grind: What’s a gripe you have with an MMO you love?
CCP Games CEO voices support for NFTs and play-to-earn schemes but won’t link EVE Online to a blockchain
The Daily Grind: Would you pay to group in an MMORPG?
Steam’s global version appears to have been blocked in China
LGBTQIA New World player is temporarily banned from the game due to a ‘homophobic mass report’
Star Citizen fans complain about Luminalia ‘gift advertisements’, ship pricing, and Legatus pack price hike
Roblox’s CEO has apparently dodged millions in taxes using a ‘small business’ exemption loophole
Tomorrow, we’ll be drinking eggnog and cozying up under the warm blanket of Massively Uplifting and try to start again. Peace out, 2021.
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