No Man’s Sky subreddit temporarily melts down over moderator frustration

October 5, 2016 9:30 AM

The No Man’s Sky subreddit was nuked briefly overnight thanks to the frustration of the mods, who say they debated for several hours last night over just what to do with the angry cesspool of negativity that has become the sub. But the head mod who actually locked down the sub, making it private and inaccessible to thousands of users, has contradicted that statement, claiming he did it on his own.

“So I purged the subreddit,” moderator R0ugeW0lf wrote early this morning. “It’s become a hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion. It’s not what we intended it to be and I don’t like providing a platform for hate. I’m sorry to everyone who used the subreddit as intended but you are now in the majority. I’m sure you can find a different place to discuss this game. It’s not hard. This was my decision and mine alone. The other moderators tried to sway my opinion but cynicism got the best of me as usual.”

The sub has since reopened under an actual Reddit admin, Sporkicide, who says R0ugeW0lf is “going to take a break,” while mod The_Music assured readers, “The admins did not seize the subreddit.”

“R0uge didn’t go rogue and decide this alone,” The_Music says. “We all sat down on the Discord mod-chat last night and talked for two hours over voice to make the decision. In the end, it was more or less split between a clean wipe, and mod-approved posting only (temporarily). We held votes, posited other options, and discussed. By the end of it, it was myself, r0ugew0lf, and SDJ67. We gave our positions, and r0uge (being in control of the sub itself), said he’d decide by the end of the night.”

Meanwhile, the /r/no_mans_sky sub declared itself “the default subreddit for No Man’s Sky.”

Tensions have run high on /r/nomansskythegame since the rocky launch of the game, which detractors say was deceptively marketed and grossly incomplete — and very much not a multiplayer game as suggested. UK watchdog group Advertising Standards Authority has said it’s investigating multiple complaints over the game’s advertising practices, including complaints relating to “misleading advertising, video, and screenshots relating to UI design, ship formations, animal AI, large-scale space combat, structures, water flow, load times, aiming, graphics quality, ship AI, creature size, and ‘references to [a] lack of loading screens, trade convoys between stars, [and] factions vying over territory.'”

This isn’t the first and won’t be the last major Reddit meltdown over a video game; here are just a few we’ve covered in the last year or two.