MassivelyOP’s 2023 Golden Yachties: Best Worst MMO Criming

Welcome back to MassivelyOP’s not-so-serious end-of-the-year awards as we present our award for Best Worst MMO Criming. Yes, it’s the Golden Yachties series, named in honor of those bright sparks absolutely convinced that video game blogging is a lucrative career and we’re all sailing ’round the world on ships of gold. (Stay in school, kids.)

And the winner is…

STALKER 2

Technically, it’s the victims of a crime who are running away with this award this round: The Ukrainian developers of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl had the perfect response to the criming of a Russian hacker outfit earlier in 2023. The nationality of the hackers and their victims wasn’t accidental; in their attempt to blackmail the GSC Game World, the Russian hacker group absurdly demanded that the studio rethink its attitude toward Russian and Belarusian gamers and apologize for its devs’ supposedly “unworthy attitude” and “politicization.” The gall almost takes the breath away, doesn’t it?

To its credit, GSC was completely unbothered, mocking the hackers by saying, “We are a Ukrainian company, and like most Ukrainians, we have experienced things that are much more terrifying.” Now that’s shade. File the whole thing under “biggest missed opportunity to tell Russian hackers to go fuck themselves.”

Naturally, we have a few runners-up!

Want to nominate another winner? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our serious MMO awards while you’re at it.