Paranautical Activity is a successfully Kickstarted/Steam Early Access game described by its creators as a title that “combines the classic FPS action of games like Doom and Quake, with the randomness and difficulty of modern roguelikes like Binding of Isaac and Spelunky.”
The game was just released from Early Access/Beta today.
However, some fairly concerting developments have arisen recently in regards to Paranautical Activity, particularly in terms of the social conduct of one of the game’s main developers and the way he handled negative reviews of the game.
In turn, the game was removed entirely from the Steam Store – the very same day it released from early access.
Find out why and read more details on Paranautical Activity (and its ensuing fiasco) after the break.
Paranautical Activity Removed From Steam
Apparently, earlier today, Paranautical Activity’s developer began begging for positive reviews for the game on its Steam community page, banning individuals who disagreed/gave the game a negative review.
The following comes from Reddit user, superiormind, via Steam’s subreddit:
“The community page for Paranautical Activity shows that the game just got released out of beta, and the developer is begging for good reviews.”
“I said that I wouldn’t give the game a favorable review because the game is still broken, buggy, and they haven’t delivered on promised features (I will admit, I was confrontational and angry, yes. But I did not personally insult anyone). Bam, banned.”
“Another guy does the same thing, banned. They even banned a user who wrote overall good feedback and was really dedicated to the forums, just because he didn’t think it was a good move to release the game.”
“Is it actually okay for devs to beg for good reviews? Doesn’t this go against some TOS?”
Furthermore, one of Paranautical Activity’s main developers. Mike Maulbeck, went on a sort of anti-Valve/Steam tirade on his Twitter, as evidenced by a sampling of his tweets below:
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME STEAM? WE JUST RELEASED OUT OF EARLY ACCESS AND THIS IS OUR FRONT PAGE BANNER? pic.twitter.com/Zfhj4VA8UX
— Mike Maulbeck (@SpooderW) October 20, 2014
First they force me to delay the game because I can't release on weekends, now this.
Steam is the most incompetent piece of fucking shit.
— Mike Maulbeck (@SpooderW) October 20, 2014
I am so FUCKING DONE DEALING WITH FUCKING INCOMPETENT SHITS.
— Mike Maulbeck (@SpooderW) October 20, 2014
Some of Maulbeck’s anger is understandable, as the game just got out of Steam Early Access, instead of being “Now Available on Early Access.”
However, no matter how incompetent some employees at Valve may be, threatening to kill Valve co-founder, Gabe Newell (even jokingly), is probably not the best of ideas for an aspiring video game developer.
The following tweet was tweeted by Maulbeck, but was quickly taken down (however, a screen capture exists, which can be seen below).
Not surprisingly, Paranautical Activity was removed from the Steam Store quickly after.
Welp. PA no longer on steam. I'm done making videogames now. It sucked while it lasted.
— Mike Maulbeck (@SpooderW) October 20, 2014
Following Paranautical Activity‘s removal from Steam, Maulbeck had a few more things to say on his Twitter, such as:
“I’m jumping back and forth between killing myself and getting a job at RadioShack. Depends how close RadioShack is.”
“Mike blows up at Valve on Twitter. Valve wins because Valve.”
“It’s just not possible to make a living in this industry without Steam, so I’m just out.”
“I should take Paranautical Activity through the Greenlight process again and see if they notice.”
“It makes me happy that there are people out there who, on this life-shattering, career-ending day, want nothing but to call me a fucker.”
“I mean, things might suck for me right now, but those people must be the most miserable. All the time.”
What are your thoughts on this situation? Was Steam in the wrong to take Paranautical Activity off the Steam Store the same day the game released from Early Access, or is the game developer’s conduct inexcusable?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.
Source: Mike Maulbeck’s Twitter, Steam’s subreddit
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