Godot Engine has drawn the ire of certain social media users online as a wave of harassment washes over the people behind the popular game engine.
Since 2014, Godot has helped power popular games around the world. The engine comes from a two-man development team (Juan Linietsky and Ariel Manzur) based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Popular titles that have used the engine as a technological backbone include Brotato, Sonic Colors: Ultimate, and the upcoming Slay the Spire 2.
What Is Happening with the Godot Drama?
Fans are up in arms as recent drama surrounding the game engine Godot has started making the rounds online.
The controversy stems from a tweet posted on Godot's X (formerly Twitter) account, jokingly poking fun at some recent online comments by particularly trolly online users about video game engines being "woke."
Some social users have been calling out developers for using the ready-made game engine Unreal Engine 5 to produce what they deem as quote-on-quote woke content, with many saying the so-called woke developers are too lazy to create their own game engines
This caused the Godot account to share a tongue-in-cheek post, saying "Apparently game engines are woke now:"
"Apparently game engines are woke now? Well then, we won't complain."
As one would expect, this tweet turned plenty of heads online, causing a moderator on Godot's Discord server, named Xananax, to allegedly ban users who were coming to the platform for criticizing the initial tweet.
Xananax's alleged actions have caused several past posts from the user to resurface online, some of which include racial slurs and other condemnable sentiments.
Detractors of Xananax's actions have called the Godot moderator's banning of users in the company's Discord ironic, seeing as he may have been spreading hateful rhetoric himself in the past.
This flurry of drama prompted Godot to release a lengthy statement on X on the situation. In the release, they condemn the actions of those criticizing their initial tweet as well as Xananax's past comments:
"On community moderator Xananax,
We strongly condemn the harmful language used by Xananax, moderator of an unofficial Godot-related Discord server. We want to clarify that Xananax is not hired by nor a spokesperson for the Godot Foundation. As an organization, we have our own official Discord server, moderated together with new volunteers vetted by our team."
Justifying the team's alleged mass-banning of detractors on platforms like Discord, the team said, "The volume of negative engagement overwhelmed our moderation efforts," and they may have "mistakenly blocked individuals who were not participating in the harassment:"
"On Friday, we made a tweet that unexpectedly led to a wave of harassment directed at our staff and community. We unequivocally condemn this abuse. The volume of negative engagement overwhelmed our moderation efforts. While attempting to protect the Godot community we mistakenly blocked individuals who were not participating in the harassment."
"We firmly stand by our mission to keep our community spaces free from hate, discrimination, and other toxic behaviors," they continued, taking a stance against the negative engagement that has befallen them in recent weeks:
"The Godot Foundation Board takes full responsibility for these moderation actions. If you believe you were blocked in error and have not violated our Code of Conduct, please contact us with the form linked below. We are committed to swiftly rectifying any mistakes. We firmly stand by our mission to keep our community spaces free from hate, discrimination, and other toxic behaviors."
Despite the company's addressing the controversy publicly, the negativity continues to follow the game engine maker.
On the company's statement, several fans have said that they should not be forgiven, as the (what they deem has been a) firestorm that has sprung up thanks to all this drama was entirely self-inflicted.
The Godot Engine team can be followed on X now.
