Indie dev gets review bombed on Steam after slipping anti-mask rhetoric in patch notes

Indie Gladiator game, Domina, has recently clocked up hundreds of “overwhelmingly negative” reviews on Steam after the developer slipped anti-mask rhetoric into the game’s latest patch notes.

After detailing fixes, new features, and optimisation improvements, slipped into the middle of the list was the command to “​​TAKE OFF THE FCKN MASKS”.

Classic dev mistake: slipping anti-mask rhetoric into patch notes. pic.twitter.com/4evIOv2WeX

— Leon Hurley (@LeonHurley) March 12, 2022

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“​​TAKE OFF THE FCKN MASKS,” the patch notes say between legitimate patch updates. “Next time you’re at the grocery store, try showing a woman your face. Be confident, unafraid of the LIES – you might get a girlfriend. Women like confidence. Women don’t like dudes who cover their faces in fear. What are you afraid of? Getting laid? Grow up.”

“How to ruin a game in 2 easy steps… Add microtransactions years into release [and] add a weird rant about masks into your patch notes,” said one disapproving reviewer. “Avoid this dev.”

“Politics and personal views should never be part of the game marketing,” added another. “The Dev decided otherwise. To say, C-19 is a lie after literally millions of people died due to this virus, is not just a lack of responsibility but pure ignorance. If the dev don’t want to believe in it, fine.. but trying to convince others who actually show solidarity and responsibility not to do that anymore by luring them with cheap and false arguments is just pathetic.”

Consequently, the game’s otherwise “very positive” standing – aggregated from over 7000+ happy players – is nosediving downward with just 16 per cent of positive reviews added in the last 30 days; the rest are “overwhelmingly negative”.

As PC Gamer spotted, it’s not the first time developer Dolphin Barn Incorporated has dropped a strange addition into its patch notes. Back in May last year, an asterisk added to a note about combat said that “weak men lack character” and that “strong moral fibre […] it’s earned through hard work and sacrifice and it cannot be had via onlyfans or pornhub”. The rant ends with “don’t let strangers on the internet tell you how to live your life. if you want to be told how to live your life, read the new testament”.