ResetEra instituted a new rule where you’re no longer allowed to say anything nice about or praise Warhorse Studios’ creative director, Daniel Vavra. According to the ResetEra administrators, users are allowed to praise Warhorse Studios as a whole, but saying anything positive about Daniel Vavra is grounds for an instant ban. Some users have been banned for a week, others a month, and another permanently for defending Vavra or not agreeing with the site’s staff that he’s a bigot.

Lo-Ping on Twitter spotted the thread, which popped up after news broke that Kingdom Come: Deliverance sold a million copies in one week across the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

The posts in the ResetERA thread on Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s sales figures are literally insane.https://t.co/mCDqaFVN2z pic.twitter.com/dCt8kfBrOk — 🍀Kiss me, I’m Lo-Ping🍀 (@GamingAndPandas) February 22, 2018

For those of you unable to read the image, in the actual thread, which was created on February 22nd, 2018, the administrators posted a warning about anyone willing to praise, side with or defend Daniel Vavra, with the administrator Rowlf writing…

“We have no intention of banning discussion of this game outright, and the views of the director can be relevant. However, it is clear that there will be no peace in these threads without tighter moderation and brighter lines. Therefore if that discussion is to happen we are laying down two ground rules: “1. Vávra’s views on a multitude of subjects are offensive and racist. Defense of his views will be moderated like any other defense of racism. Do not try to find sneaky ways to circumvent this ruling, like singling out Vávra for nonspecific praise or support. “2. Buying this game does not automatically make someone a horrible person and nothing will be learned or gained by anyone if you take that stance. Do not attack other members just for buying the game or enjoying mundane aspects of the game. Do not attempt to shame them. ​ ”There is room to discuss the sales of the game in a manner where some actual exchange of ideas is possible — but only if the above two conditions are met. If you do not feel you can adhere to those two conditions, do not post in these threads. Be advised that moderators may have to apply stricter penalties than usual to keep the peace.”

Of course, it wasn’t long before some people began asking why they had to hate Daniel Vavra and how his views were racist. The user was warned for making those statements.

When the user continued to ask the modding staff what made Vavra racist specifically or why he was deemed a bigot, the mod refused to answer. Another user chimed in and gave an answer and was promptly banned for “downplaying Vavra’s offensive and racist views”.





Several people asked for proof or evidence of Vavra being racist, but the moderators opted not to provide any screenshots or links to back up their allegations. Instead, they would simply ban anyone for asking about evidence or proof, identical to how NeoGaf handled #GamerGate whenever someone would ask for proof of the consumer revolt being a harassment campaign (for which the FBI concluded that it was not).

Another user was banned for a week for questioning about even saying if Vavra was a good game director.

Another user was permanently banned for saying that the rules dictating that they were not allowed to talk positively about Daniel Vavra was “insane”.

A few others said that they would be willing to bite the bullet and get banned as well considering how despotic the moderators had become in enforcing their Communist ideologies. Shortly after that the moderators shut down the thread.

This is no surprise given that other users had been banned in the past for supporting #GamerGate or even talking positively about it. ResetEra has basically become an offshoot refuge forum for the former moderators from NeoGaf, and they’ve taken all of their authoritarian practices with them from Neogaf to ResetEra.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance meanwhile has sold a million copies in a single week, and continues to receive a lot of praise and support from actual gamers.