TL;DR – Hello Games has given no protection, or ability to protect themselves, to communities which they have canonized and recognized. As a result, a neonazi troll is griefing bases in the Galactic Hub, and there’s nothing we can do. Every single leader of a canonized civilization agrees that Hello Games has failed civilized space with their inaction. The “Report Base” function returns a 500 Error meaning Hello Games has never seen a single one of those reports, and the in-game “Block” function just doesn’t work at all.
Greetings travelers,
Recently there have been a number of posts relaying experiences people have had in Galactic Hub space, particularly the capital planet, where they’ve encountered a neonazi base-building griefer / troll. This is one example I have saved, but I’ve seen other, similar threads as well that I didn’t save.
For those who are not familiar, to greatly oversimplify it, the Galactic Hub is an 11-region area of space where players build and play together.
Normally, Galactic Hub staff maintains an official policy of “active non-engagement” – that is, we believe the best way to deal with trolls is like starving them of attention, positive or negative, just like you’d starve a fire of oxygen to put it out. However, there have been so many posts about this particular neonazi troll that I felt I should address this situation specifically, and address the situation with trolls and base griefers in the Galactic Hub in general.
First, I’m proud to be able to say that we take every possible countermeasure against these trolls, and implement new countermeasures when needed. We are incredibly effective at limiting their reach; when these trolls post their base griefing on Twitter, it usually gets 0 – 2 likes, because we’ve so effectively isolated them from the community (plus, this community generally isn’t the type to welcome a neonazi griefer). While some individuals will still participate in griefing in the form of PVP, the resounding rejection from the community towards base-building griefers prevents all but the lowest pariahs from engaging in it. It’s a blissfully rare problem.
But that’s what we’re dealing with here, the lowest of the low, an individual with white supremacist references in his username dedicating excessive amounts of time purely to ruining other players’ experiences and hard work. I’m not going to name him in this post as I’m not sure if that’s against any “witch hunting” rules, but suffice it to say, there’s no shortage of direct witnesses and there’s no witch hunt here.
The one silver lining is that you can only upload one base per planet so he’s not actually “uploading” these in the usual sense, just peer-to-peer session sharing. If you get into a session without him there, or go to a different system disable multiplayer and warp back, his bases (except one) will be gone. That would be a great use of the in-game “Block” button, if it actually worked.
And this is the internet, after all – you encounter such unpleasant people from time to time. Game developers realize this, and give their communities and players means to counteract trolls.
Hello Games, conversely, has given their community no meaningful tools to counteract trolls. They’ve also shown a total unwillingness to act directly. We’ve filed report tickets for a variety of base griefers, having multiple GH staff members (as well as the effected individual) file reports so you know they saw them, and no action has ever been taken. The in-game “Block” button, to reiterate, doesn’t work in any way, as far as we can tell – you can still see a troll and they can still join your session. The in-game “Report Base” function returns a 500 Error behind the scenes – Hello Games doesn’t see a single base you report. Presumably, they don’t want to since they wouldn’t do anything anyway. It also doesn’t remove the base for anyone except you, so if someone builds over your base and ruins it, that’s how all visitors will see it and Hello Games is never going to do anything to address that. They haven’t even built the infrastructure to do so.
Hello Games’ hands-off attitude towards trolls and griefers – including, in this instance, a neonazi defacing bases on the capital planet of a community they canonized – is harming their community. Their unwillingness to give communities which have established themselves over a period of multiple years the tools to moderate their own space is resulting in a frustrating and unpleasant experience for many people, for the benefit of a single neonazi troll.
And this is nothing new. In April 2021, I wrote a Statement on Hello Games’ Inaction on a different troll, which was signed by myself (Galactic Hub founder) as well as the leaders of the Amino Hub, Cafe42, the Alliance of Galactic Travellers, and the Qitanian Empire. Every single civilization which Hello Games has canonized agrees that they are mishandling and failing to protect civilized space. The specific troll for which this statement was written is still active, and Hello Games knows that, and has done nothing. The only reason this statement wasn’t posted sooner is because the troll went inactive on their own when the community ignored them, but they’ve since become active again (and are still being ignored).
So for everyone who had a base ruined permanently or temporarily, I’m sorry, but all I can tell you is that it’s in Hello Games’ hands right now, and so far there is no indication they have any will or desire to address the situation. It’s evidently more important to them that trolls have freedom than that dedicated players are able to enjoy the simulation in peace.
