Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s forum moderators have been working in overdrive to squelch dissent and discussion centered around the controversial decision from the game director, Charlie Cleveland, to fire their sound designer, Simon Chylinsky, for making Conservative comments on Twitter, and joking about identifying as an attack helicopter.

Plenty of the forum goers, potential customers, current customers, and long-time fans of Subnautica, have been voicing their displeasure with Unknown Worlds firing Simon Chylinski for the comments he made on his personal Twitter account. In response, the developers have been locking down tons of threads over the past week in attempt to stifle conversation on the topic in hopes of making it go away.

New threads pop up every so many hours and users are banned and the threads locked to prevent further discussion. Users sharing Mundane Matt’s video about the topic are also having their threads locked at first sight.

Even users making threads simply asking about the sound designer being fired for not being an SJƜ are also being locked.

Other threads stating that Unknown Worlds has discriminated against an employee and breached California state laws, have also been locked.

Threads from users stating that if Unknown Worlds is going to discriminate against their employees for political views expressed on social media, they should also remove all their content and contributions from Subnautica, are also being locked.

One user asked a very poignant question, inquiring if Unknown Worlds’ development team was fine receiving money from people they ideologically disagree with.

That thread was also locked… and Unknown Worlds opted not to answer the question.

Users asking for Simon Chylinski to have his job returned to him also have their threads locked.

Threads suggesting that the developers may as well start banning players based on their political views were also locked.

Threads suggesting that Unknown Worlds either make the main player-character genderless or add the option so the mostly male player base can still choose to be male or female, have also been locked. What was the exact crime? Kojavs felt that Unknown Worlds would be forced to forever have to bow down to the SJƜ media outlets and that firing the employee for his political views was “dictatorial”…

“Instead of adding one, Chris himself stated in his Twitter that he is going to make the main char female only. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical? You’re basically taking the food off of one mouth to give to the other. While the other will stop crying, the original one will start. You’re not solving anything. Dig your head out of the sand and do the sensible choice. Let people choose. You’re just going to shoot your own foot with this one. […] “I speak as a true fan of this game and the work of Unknown Worlds. But if this game keeps getting pnched by all this nonsense, I’m not sure I’m going to keep supporting it. “Also, just to throw it out there once more, just for the sake of it. Firing an employee over political beliefs is nothing short of dictatorial.”

This is also affecting the game’s rating, which dropped from “Overwhelmingly Positive” to just “Very Positive”. User Raydeus explained that it was more than just the drama that caused him to change his rating but the developers going across social media to play social justice isn’t helping the game’s rating…

“[…] his is probably the part about the drama that does influence my opinion: The devs seem more interested in playing politics on social media than in working on the now released game. I don’t give a flying **** about personnel changes, but when that appears to take precedence over working on fixing the game and even influencing future content it just rubs me the wrong way.”

For now it appears as if Unknown Worlds will continue to play the censorship game and hope that people will eventually get tired, go back to playing the game, and hope that the overall user rating doesn’t suffer too much from the backlash. However, if you plan on voicing your displeasure with the developers using Subnautica as a political platform to push for third-wave feminism and appease the Intersectional Inquisition, your voice won’t last long on the Steam forums.