I will admit. Seeing this is just… upsetting.
From my friends reports, discussions and what we have seen, as well as what we tried to do. I agree with this decision. These servers are immoral capitalizations on real world conflicts for attention and players, as well as potentially money through server donations. This includes servers which were predominantly operated by Russians or Ukrainians, keep in mind.
Nelson’s response to this was, in my eyes, a stark contradiction which seems to come from an intuitive focus by Nelson on engaging in public activism through using Unturned as a vessel, rather than making moral choices. To make it clear, I won’t shed a tear for what has happened, rather, I want to state my concerns for the philosophy Nelson has had, and the hypocrisy therein.
Here’s some questions.
Why wasn’t this ban done with any NATO vs PACT server that had Ukrainian themed kits?
Why wasn’t this ban instated on anyone roleplaying wars that, at the time, were still ongoing in the Middle East? Afghanistan RP servers were a thing, yet Nelson only chose to act when a hot button political topic Nelson has showed interest in, alongside members of the community, that being Ukraine, was named.
Were the Muslims, thereby, less worthy of protective action?
Were the coalition of international elements deployed in NATO thereby not worthy of respite?
Respite from being reminded and meme’d in games roleplaying the deaths of their friends?
We can levy all of these points against Ukrainian war roleplay communities, however we cannot underestimate the amount of hypocrisy that this action displays.
Not only that, but this shows that SDG is willing to go beyond their previously stated guidelines to attack get rid of elements of the community that Nelson dislikes, and have been willing all this time. Nelson also outright dismissing negative votes when Nelson’s choice was considered unpopular in the polls by a pretty decent percentage is not just disingenuous of Nelson, but also quite… comedic? It also shows that Nelson is willing to disregard the word of his fanbase in order to, again, prioritize his political initiative above the players beliefs, even when calling on the player’s opinion.
This also has me wonder. If Nelson is willing to ban for moral concerns, why has he shown a complete lack of any tangible desire to remove known predators and other harmful figures from the Unturned community? It seems as though his excuses hold less water each day as major servers host active dangers to children. You could argue that such heinous matters as child predation are better suited for the authorities, and I definitely agree, however taking your own immediate protective actions by booting these predators off. If you are so willing to enforce what you see as morally righteous onto the Unturned community, then why not spread that to other matters? Surely something so heinous that it’s illegal would be something you would moderate. However, when situations like one which will be discussed in an upcoming video by someone who I have recently talked to who met someone who has been victimized by a top to bottom comprehensive list of misconduct, you give meaningless token cookie-cutter corporate responses and dismiss it.
You can do better. You should. Until now, your one solid excuse for doing nothing was that you were some heavily disconnected entity that wouldn’t ban entities except for very very specific lenient reasons that were already previously stated, with several warnings being issued to help prevent that ban. That excuse has been gutted by your recent conduct, and although you may look towards silencing people (of which there are many more people than just me), I feel as though we deserve a response. Not a cover-up. You may try hiding it by silencing people in the forums, but I personally cannot wait to see if you’ll choose to DMCA videos that go over negative aspects of Unturned.
@staswalle might have a clue about what I’m discussing, considering they, another activist, also tried to keep things about this all hush hush