It’s not unusual for developers to get overprotective and sometimes a bit rude when their projects get criticized on social media. Battlefield V hasn’t escaped that fate, with a member of the developing team answering questions from the community with an ironic tone, after the whole female player Battlefield V controversy. The member has since then apologized and promised to answer with a more professional tone in the future.
Ryan Duffin, animation lead over at DICE, has created discomfort to the Battlefield V community over the past days as he was answering to fans asking about the upcoming title. Due to the Battlefield V controversy about the historical existence of female soldiers at World War 2, Duffin was a bit oversensitive and ironic causing fans to call him unprofessional and rude.
Since then, Ryan Duffin has apologised in a series of tweets acknowledging that his attitude was unprofessional and that he will try to do better. When answering to the fans’ discomfort about the matter he said:
“It was unprofessional and I apologize. I think I clarified things with the person in question in that particular exchange but it wasn’t professional either way.”
“Yup, I was rude in a reply and I apologize for that. There are legit concerns and criticism and it was all coming at the same time as the more hateful stuff. I made a mistake, “friendly fire” if you will.”
Where Duffin put the blame for his reaction is his inability to differentiate artistic from political criticism. He stated that he had apologized to the person who he wronged with his behavior and will try to do better.
Honest mistakes are made and when there’s such a level of criticism over the project you worked so hard on, sometimes the “human sensitivity” is too much to contain. Let’s hope that DICE will address all matters surfacing in the past with professionalism and without making assumptions over general questions.