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Smite commentator and streamer Brandon “DM Brandon” Nance is resigning from hos position with Hi-Rez Studios. This comes after he reacted to a viewer’s donation message talking about his struggles with suicide. Since joining the studio as a tournament caster in March 2013, Nance has become well known in the Smite community. He has nearly 80,00 followers on Twitch and also co-hosted Hi-Rez’s caster search “So You Think You Can Cast” last year.
After receiving the donation, Brandon launched into a rant about suicide and depression. While he has long been known as being outspoken- even saying once “I have always been loud, abrasive, and I don’t know how to change it. I don’t know that I would.”- many felt that the rant was extremely inappropriate. While there is video of the incident, we have chosen not to include it. However, some excerpts follow.
“There are a lot of streamers out there who would appreciate that message, I’m just going to call you an asshole. It’s a selfish, stupid thing to do. “Everyone has loved ones. Family. Parents. If you kill yourself with another person on the planet that cares about you, you’re being a selfish prick, plain and simple. If you don’t like my opinion about that you can find somewhere else to watch who’s going to tell you that killing yourself is okay. Go fuck yourself, kid.”
Nance then went on to talk about how he’s tired of “this constant, ridiculous self-pity bullshit like ‘I have depression I can’t do anything in life.’ Everyone has fucking depression and anxiousness. Everyone has a hard time fucking waking up, and still a lot of us do it without putting the burden on a lot of other people. There is therapy, there are friends and there are people to help you.”
Needless to say, this has not been received well. In a statement posted on Twitter, Nance stated that while he could deal with the hate caused by his comments, he didn’t think that Hi-Rez studios (his employer) should have to deal with it. In his resignation message, he stated that he will continue streaming and focus on his charity works. He also plans to move from Atlanta back to New Jersey.
Kotaku also reported on this story and reached out to Hi-Rez Studios president Stew Chisam who gave them the following statement:
“At Hi-Rez, we care about our community deeply and we take topics like suicide, depression and mental illness not lightly. All our employees are free in their opinions, but when people don’t respect the values we stand for as a company, we treat it seriously.
“If any good comes from this episode, we hope it shines a light on mental illness issues, and the need for broader education, support and open conversation about how these devastating illnesses are perceived and discussed in our society. All of us have important people in our lives that have been touched by mental illness. How we talk about these diseases is important.”
Bethesda and id have brought back DOOM, one of the most revered and respected arena shooters from the beginnings of PC gaming. With the multiplayer beta weekend recently completed, we’re ready to give you our thoughts on the game.
DOOM’s multiplayer is developed by Certain Affinity who have previously worked on the multiplayer for Halo and Call of Duty. Many of these games have clearly had an influence on the new iteration of DOOM. The new game includes loadouts, unlockable weapons, customizable armor and in game perks that reward you for dying to much.
While the new DOOM engine has a certain shine to it, there are many problems with the multiplayer, both in terms of balance and in terms of the basic design of the game. We’ll show you the ins and outs of the loadout system, customize some hideously ugly armor for you and then jump into a team Deathmatch as well as the new roving capture point type Warpath. During the matches, we’ll discuss the problems with the game. So click that play button!
If you’re in the mood for a new multiplayer sandbox survival game (and you might be), good news! One is about to enter Early Access with a decent amount of playable content already!
Set in medieval times, The Black Death sees you trying to survive by picking up work and supplies while hopefully not falling prey to the titual disease that wiped out a quarter of the population back in the 14th Century.
While it won’t be 100% finished (hence Early Access), it will be launching with some of the map, three playable classes, improved combat and a city arena where you can fight to the death if you should choose to. It’s nice that they’ve set aside an area for the murder that’s inevitably going to happen anyway in a big multiplayer survival game like this. When it is done, the game hopes to offer an eight-square-kilometer map to explore and survive in.
Pre-orders are already up on Green Man Gaming and the Humble Store for £14.99. Otherwise expect to see it on Early Access on April 19th.
After an absence it’s time for an update on things happening in the world of gaming Kickstarters.
Starting off with our updates on previously covered campaigns, a good number have finished by now. The good news is that a lot of them were successful, such as MachiaVillain, Make a Mess, Grifters and A Place for the Unwilling, all finishing their runs with their goals met or exceeded by a sum.
However, as always it’s not all good news and unfortunately significantly more campaigns failed or found themselves cancelled due to lack of funding. These were GameSpawner, Wounded, BEER HEROES, Mythical Might, Null of Hope, Villains & Henchmen and Penalty Box. Also, GAME OVER is stuck at a low total with only 5 days left to make it up. Unless something major happens, it’s safe to say that it too will most likely to fail to reach its goal in time. A number of these campaigns are planned to be relaunched again some time in the future so not all is lost though.
Speaking of relaunching campaigns, the developers of another previously covered game, Ghost Theory are going to be relaunching their Kickstarter sometime this month. When it does launch we’ll cover it obviously.
First up we have a card game in which your entire game it determined by both the luck of the draw and the roll of the dice.
DiceHunter sees you attempting to be the best hunter, bagging more animal cards than your opponents. To do this you need to roll one of the numbers on the dice of the animal card you have drawn. Not getting the number ends your turn, while winning means turning over the card for an outcome. This could see you bagging the animal or facing some other consequence, either minor or hugely negative and game-ending. Once all players have had a game over the results are compared and a winner declared.
DiceHunter has 29 days to go to make $6,000. It has currently raised $269
Next up is a card game about politics, particularly relevant to those living in America right now – as the cards seem to be based off American politics.
The point of the game is to survive two ‘terms’ – which means going around the circle of players once after you have drawn a term card from the draw deck. The other players will try to use their cards to stop the player serving a term from completing it, but at the same time it is possible for the term-serving player to use cards to make it harder for their opponents to screw them over.
Terms and Scandals has made $1,004 of its $10,000 goal and has 27 days to go.
This one is an adventure game, where you fight through the use of potions you craft yourself… if you fight at all that is.
The titular character Luna is a young witch whose talents lie in potion making. The world is inspired by fairy tales, and the creatures that you meet can be dealt with in a number of ways – burn them with fire from a potion bottle or engage them in conversation to peacefully trick them out of resources you need. You’re also able to use other enemies’ attacks to defeat them if need be – it’s up to you!
Potions: A Curious Tale has a $62,000 goal of which it has made $13,451 so far. It has 30 days yet to go.
Lastly, we have an old school roguelike in which you can actually revisit previous floors.
Unlike most roguelikes, the door at the end of the floor is not the last time you’ll see a floor. You might find yourself climbing back up the way you came to unlock a door and head a different route, or to find an item you left behind previously but now have use for. It’s certainly an interesting and different take on it and one that intrigues me.
BirthStone has made £30 of it’s £10,000 goal, and has 28 days to go.
Hyper Light Drifter is the result of a successful Kickstarter campagin by Heart Machine games. The game has a gorgeous pixel art aesthetic seen from a top down view.
The game places you in the shoes of a nameless protagonist as you venture through a strange sci-fi world and battle enemies and bosses in a quest to find out the truth behind the events taking palce in the world.
Part Zelda, part Dark Souls, Hyper Light Drifter relies on fast paced and brutally tough combat. Players are armed with a sword and a handful of sidearms that can be found throughout the game and must battle their way through hordes of enemies by using careful dashing, timing and learning enemy patterns,
With a tough as nails combat system, interesting art style and a story thats left of to the player to discover, Hyper Light Drifter is certainly unique. But how is the game in reality? Does it live up to it’s hype or does it fall short?
