In a follow-up story involving Piranha Games Inc., it seems the developer took an adverse reaction to negative press. Attempting to first rename the article on their forums then censor it, and finally hide it from anyone outside the community. Worse still, this has been alleged to not be an isolated incident.

This specific case began when members noticed that the thread title, copied almost directly from the previously linked article, had been re-worded to list “Starburst: MWO Faces False Accusations Of Widespread Advertising”. When it was realised this had taken place, the following posts were made:

While potentially only an error on a moderator’s part, the following response to requests for a formal apology, see below, were not encouraging. First seemingly deleting the thread only to then have it re-appear locked and re-titled, with any and all posts commenting upon the re-naming missing. The reasoning listed was only that discussions of moderation had taken place. Interestingly, the thread was locked and posted in by the same moderator accused by others of having been editing thread titles which show the game in a negative light: Niko Snow.

After a thread was made accusing the moderators of abusive manipulation, the thread was then re-opened briefly only to then disappear again. This time it was moved out of the section devoted to discussing Mechwarrior Online articles and news reports and into the area Jettisoned Communication, devoted to supposedly off topic discussions. An area which cannot be accessed unless you have a forum account and out of sight of the public eye. It was briefly given the correct title:

Before it was changed to simply “Starburst” and any posts requesting it be returned to its original sub-forum were deleted:

The thread was eventually given back its original title but remains in Jettisoned Communication.

Whether or not accusations of PGI’s activities like this on the forums being commonplace for negative press are true or not, this is none the less a disturbing trend. First renaming a thread title to suggest the content within is false, then censoring all comments about moderator editing without permission and moving it out of the public eye. Given the negative opinion of the developer by many on the forums, this is not behaviour which encourages trust by the community.

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