A designer on The Last Night, one of the buzziest indie titles shown during Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference yesterday, has become the subject of an escalating backlash on social media, as Twitter users dig into some of his more political past tweets.
Tim Soret is founder of Odd Tales, which is working on the cyberpunk action game. Following The Last Night’s debut trailer during the Microsoft presser, those familiar with his social media presence resurfaced several of his tweets dating from 2014 to April of this year. These posts included references to anti-feminist ideals and “identity politics;” most notably, Soret expressed sympathies for the hate-mongering GamerGate movement during its height in 2014.
“The Gamergate people are for journalistc integrity, honest debate, transparency, inclusiveness, & egalitarianism [sic],” Soret wrote in September 2014, in one of the tweets that prompted the most discussion.
“I’m against feminism, because it’s getting more and more skewed,” he tweeted just before that, in July 2014. “I am for egalitariasm [sic]. I don’t care, boy, girl, alien.”
In response to celebrity scientist Bill Nye’s new Netflix show, Soret said this past April that “injecting identity politics under the cover of ‘science’, it's not gonna end well.”
As screenshots of Soret’s tweets circulated across Twitter, some who’d been excited about The Last Night began to express serious reservations. The game’s premise, as described on its Steam page, further stoked their ire.
“Stabilised by universal income, people struggle to find their calling or identity, and define themselves by what they consume, rather than what they create,” it reads. Players assume the role of a man named Charlie, who finds himself disaffected in this technological, socialist dystopia.
In response to the growing discontent, Soret posted a series of messages saying that he’d changed his stance.
“Controversy time,” he wrote in the first of three tweets. “That's fine. Let's talk about it, because it's important. I completely stand for equality & inclusiveness.”
“In no way is The Last Night a game against feminism or any form of equality,” he continued. “A lot of things changed for me these last years. The fictional setting of the game does challenge techno-social progress as a whole but certainly not trying to promote regressive ideas.”
We reached out to The Last Night’s publisher, Raw Fury Games, Sunday night about Soret’s tweets. The company responded with a lengthy statement later that evening:
We at Raw Fury believe in equality, believe in feminism, and believe everyone has a right and chance at the equal pursuit of happiness. We would not be working with Tim Soret / Odd Tales at all if we believed they were against these principles in any aspect.
The comments Tim made in 2014 are certainly surprising and don’t fit the person we know, and we hope that everyone reading this who knows us at Raw Fury on a personal and professional level knows that we wouldn’t tolerate working with someone who portrays the caricature of Tim going around the internet right now.
The wording of his statements toward feminism in 2014 was poor, and his buying into GamerGate as a movement on the notion that it represented gamers against journalists was naive, but in the same year he also cheered the rise of women in gaming. In a similar situation as the one happening now, folks on the IdleThumbs forums found questionable tweets and Tim took it upon himself to address them. What came from that was a dialogue where different viewpoints were considered and debated in a purposeful way.
Here is a link to everything including his tweets, his response, and the response of the forum; we hope you’ll take the time to read through it.
Side note: Debating Anita Sarkeesian’s efforts toward highlighting sexism in the games industry is touchy, and though Tim’s post back then was naive we felt that he wasn’t being malicious like so many others have been to Anita in the past, so we share all of this with the hope people can see that first hand. We understand that no matter what there will be people who will not look at Tim the same again and we respect that, too.
A lot can change in three years, including viewpoints, and Tim has assured us that The Last Night does not spout a message steeped in regressive stances. We trust Tim and know that he is an advocate for progression both in and outside of our industry, and we hope that this will be apparent moving forward.
A representative for Odd Tales also told Polygon that the studio’s relationship with Raw Fury Games and Microsoft has not been affected by the outrage.
We’ve contacted Microsoft about Soret’s tweets and the backlash, and will update when we hear back.
The Last Night is set for a 2018 release on Windows PC and Xbox One.
Update: Soret apologized for his past tweets while talking about The Last Night onstage at the PC Gaming Show.
“I want to apologize for those [tweets],” Soret said. “They don’t in any way represent where I am today or what The Last Night will be about.”
A Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon, “We don’t support comments that fail to reflect our commitment to diversity and inclusion, which are part of our everyday business and core values.”
Comments
What if, and this is might be crazy, we don’t immediately write someone off and actually give them a chance to have dialogue, express their thoughts (including what may have changed about what they believe), and actually have a conversation?
My twitter feed of gaming people is full of a lot of immediately dismissive nonsense. Let’s try, for once, to have healthy dialogue about controversial topics. I’m not advocating for supporting racists or Nazis, but this guy does not seem to be one of them, so let’s give him a chance.
By OnLegendary86 on 06.12.17 11:51am
Why? Life is finite and why would you look at someone with a history of super shitty views that directly hurt other people making a pro-capitalism game because he has stated he’s against feminism and people don’t deserve to have their basic needs met and your reaction is "Let me spend more of my valuable time on THAT."
I also don’t seek out flat earthers to debate because what’s the point?
By Ben Kuchera on 06.12.17 11:58am
That’s your point of view on this. Maybe I don’t like what Soret said at that moment. But that’s some time ago, and he said things have changed.
He let a open door for dialogue, and that’s a really good thing. If you want to shut him up, well, It’s your choice on life. I’m open to listen, whatever he want to say, and make an opinion after.
By Madcore on 06.12.17 12:03pm
He said things have changed, but at this point, it’s on him to prove it. And now that he’s got Microsoft looking at what he and his publisher are saying, smiling and nodding in public equals a big payout. So I’m going to take a carefully crafted public statement (with a lack of apology) with a grain of salt.
By pookie02 on 06.12.17 12:12pm
That’s a good point. It’s a public statement. Only a grain of salt isn’t enough nowadays. But at least you let him speak and ear what he want to say.
By Madcore on 06.12.17 12:34pm
My life is finite and I already have a backlog of books and games. My money can go to other companies and I’m ok with that.
By Fkeefe4th on 06.12.17 1:07pm
Good for you Frances. Keep toeing the party line comrade. No need for independent thought on this one, amirite?
By Tazer79 on 06.12.17 7:29pm
Oh, come off it. People are allowed to spend their money as they wish and play the games they want.
By Notorious C.A.W. on 06.13.17 2:13am
Says the guy who didn’t care about this game until the author was discovered to be a bit of a tool on twitter. Now its art that must be defended.
By Fkeefe4th on 06.13.17 7:28am
He can say whatever he wants. I’m under no obligation to listen.
Actions speak louder than words. While saying he isn’t trying to promote regressive ideals, he’s creating a game in which a society where everyone is cared for leads to the ruination of human creativity.
That’s pretty on the nose as far as regressive philosophy goes, no?
By whatthegeek on 06.13.17 10:10am
All true, let’s see what happens.
By Keith Kamikawa on 06.12.17 12:57pm
He engaged in this dialogue already back in 2014. Look at the Idle Thumbs thread from back then:
https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/9728-cyberpunk-cop-killah-aka-the-last-night/?do=findComment&comment=324938
I’m not passing judgment either way, I don’t know enough about this. But he DID engage in measured discourse about this, before Microsoft was breathing down his neck. Fair is fair.
By Necrox on 06.12.17 3:00pm
Maybe it’s just me, but what does he have to apologize for? For having an opinion is that what we’ve come to now where voicing an opinion (not even in a trollish manner I might add) all of sudden you need to apologize for that? I don’t like what’s happening to this country. I’m not into gamergate, thought the whole thing started on a premise of hate, Don’t agree with his statements on feminism. He deserves consequences for offending people with his views because not everyone wants to be associated with them and people should vote with their wallets, but that should be the extent of it. They are still his opinion, I don’t think he needs to apologize for anything imo.
I feel like we are slowly going to the extremes on both sides of the equation and it makes me sad to be honest.
By apoclypse on 06.12.17 4:05pm
He said things have changed, but just april this year he was saying that all the scientific POVs on identity issues was a bad idea, basically giving queer people crap. To me, things have not changed at all, and he makes it clear himself.
By Truck Driving Velociraptor on 06.12.17 1:49pm
Things have changed in one way: his words may hurt his bottom line and he seems to care more about his bank account than about his ideals.
I don’t buy his sudden change of heart.
By Miku on 06.12.17 2:43pm
Except that isn’t at all what he said. He criticized Bill Nye’s new show, which is not science at all and all about cringey raps about identity politics, as masquerading as science.
Maybe stop lying about people. As a bisexual person, Nye’s show is an awful idea.
By mercuriaIity on 06.12.17 6:37pm
I respect your point of view and apologize beforehand if I’m overstepping but he did not criticize Bill’s show. "injecting identity politics under the cover of ‘science’" is pretty much saying that there’s no science at all behind gender issues. Which is understandable, given the construction of our science concepts being dominated yadda yadda I’m sure you’re tired of hearing this.
But it still science, as far as I can see. At the very minimum social science, but there’s a lot do discuss (and deconstruct) about gender in, say, biology too, right?
By Truck Driving Velociraptor on 06.12.17 9:22pm
Well, in fairness, that criticism has come from the left as well, at least Anti-SJW and identity politics leftist.
By AndrewEB on 06.13.17 5:31am
You’re completely free to dismiss people because you don’t have the time for the discussion, and like I said, I’m not asking to give Nazis a seat at the table or anything, and I’m definitely not suggesting you "seek out" people to debate, I just don’t think that because someone has a different idea when it comes to feminism, that’s enough for me to dismiss them and call for a boycott of their game or something. Now, I’ll fully admit I haven’t read all of his tweets, so I can’t comment on what "super shitty views" means outside of what I’ve seen in this article and from a few minutes on Twitter this morning, but I’d bet we may have different ideas on what that means. If he called for some crazy stuff like the really extreme members of GG did, then sure, that sucks and deserves criticism, but he seems to have evolved a bit from 2014, so why not give him a chance to say that?
It seems like our culture is ready to crucify and write people off if their views don’t fit the narrative. All I’m saying is, let’s give people a chance to say "hey, I was wrong about this. I may still believe a little differently than you do about this issue, but let’s still be friends."
By OnLegendary86 on 06.12.17 12:09pm
The ‘narrative’ as you put it is that people should be treated equally and decently regardless of who they are.
If someone’s views don’t fit in with that, then they can indeed fuck right off.
By The_Ewan on 06.12.17 12:17pm
I do believe that would fall under the umbrella of egalitarianism, as he claimed to be.
By KarmaKillers on 06.12.17 12:24pm
Except that while in principle feminism and egalitarianism are equivalent (‘women are equal to men’ on the one hand and ‘everyone is equal’ on the other), in practice feminism recognises that there is structural inequality that favours men over women, while egalitarianism is about denying the problem exists and avoiding doing anything about it.
It’s the rhetorical equivalent of climate change deniers insisting that the science isn’t settled instead of fessing up that they just don’t like the results.
By The_Ewan on 06.12.17 12:56pm
I was referring to your specific note of the narrative being equal and decent treatment for all.
I’ll perfectly honest, I tend to avoid these arguments these because I’m presently not mentally, or emotionally stable enough to deal with this shit on a routine. There also seems to be far too much dogmatism and and insistence of idealogical purity for me to ever feel comfortable diving back in to it.
I’m in no way opposed to things getting better for everyone, but the methods employed have, for some time, struck me as very poorly thought out. If that makes me an asshole, whatever.
All I know is that people can change, and castigating people for twitter posts years old, when they’ve already professed they believe in equality (to the egalitarian degree) does strike me a productive way of making things get better.
It took me way too long to write, I’m just going to check out of this thread of sanity’s sake.
By KarmaKillers on 06.12.17 1:19pm
Couldn’t have said it better. Can’t tell you how many comments I wanted to engage with here purely to confront that very dogmatism and rudeness expressed all around.
As the collective media and its followers routinely suggest: Live how you please, and live for yourself.
It’s not worth beating yourself up for not making these ideals your ultimate passion so much as to convince the ignorant via brute force and the ever persuasive "join us, or fuck off… like, the whole world is on board with this bro" or whatever else is considered to be ad populum.
By docmars on 06.13.17 9:27pm
Egalitarianism isn’t about denying there is an advantage for men. Its about ACTUALLY researching and figuring out why there is that advantage and coming up with real solutions to it, while also examining the otherside and seeing the shortcomings for equality that affect men.
Feminism used to actually do both, feminists were against women only stewardesses on planes and the difficulty men had getting into those positions at one time. The NEW feminism is not against that, it doesn’t give a shit if there’s a shortcoming of equality when it comes to men and in fact it lauds when men are treated poorly and supports that as "smashing the patriarchy."
A lot of third wavers are threatened by the idea of actually doing research and examining the problem from both sides. Because feminism has unfortunately (coming from someone who identified as feminist before) now a power movement rather than equality. It is not for equality anymore, so I firmly plant myself in the camp of egalitarianism because women, men, and all other genders deserve equal rights and treatment, not just women.
At any rate, Soret said somethings that really… Weren’t that bad. I’ve seen several on the other camp say vicious, disgusting things and even right now are threatening him in all matter of ways right now on twitter. But again, current modern feminists won’t care about those threats because they are not for equality and equal treatment.
By Valaska7777 on 06.12.17 3:57pm