Breathe it in: a review of the great Caustic kerfuffle of 2021
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Daniel Z. Klein, who was fired from Riot in 2018 for violating their social media policy, has again run afoul of fans—this time for his work on Apex. While at Riot, Klein had a sometimes combative relationship with League of Legends fans. Around the time of his firing, he called fans "manbabies" in an exchange on social media.
In his role at Respawn, Klein is responsible for balance changes to characters in Apex. After tweeting that a change to the character Caustic took "about ten minutes to do" and "2-3 playtests to convince [him] it wouldn't hurt the game," pro players and content creators questioned his reasoning, as well as the speed of the change.
Klein responded by calling fans asking about these balance changes "nerds" who "scream into the void". When TSM's Hal posted a meme disagreeing with the change to Caustic, Klein tweeted that Hal was irresponsible for replying, "causing harm" by "chiming in." "This is you refusing to take responsibility," Klein told Hal, criticizing his response.
Caustic is seen by many pros as either oppressive or simply an unhealthy character for the meta, who could use a nerf, rather than a buff—and Klein's tweet was taken as evidence that the changes to Caustic weren't thought through.
Fans and other pros were also quick to point out Klein's unprofessional conduct, as well as his track record at Riot. TSM's Snip3down tweeted at Klein: "Pretty sure this is you refusing to take responsibility for rushing a change then coming to Twitter and bragging it only took 2-3 games to decide the buff was a good idea."
Today, the buff was reverted, and the patch notes were changed.
This baffling about-face was bolstered by an appeal to data (lol) and additional explanation from another member of the balancing team. You can read the whole thread below if you like:
At the end of his interesting but ultimately meandering explanation, Larson finally writes “BUT, would this buff be worth it?”, and concludes “I understand the message that it sends. Caustic was a much less spicy topic a month or two ago, and at that point, I think it was worth a shot. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a lump in my throat as I realized this change would be known to the public right at the end of our team break.”
At least someone is satisfied with that explanation! Ultimately, Respawn seems prepared to lay the blame on ill-advised changes made right before going on vacation, rather than an emergency course correction made after a robust community response.
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Setting aside Caustic’s barrel cooldown, Klein’s continued lack of good judgment on social media is an unfortunately normal state of affairs at Respawn. Klein’s boss, CEO Vince Zampella, apologized last year for his team’s combative social media use, but defended the team’s right to “speak out” against “toxic” and “nasty” comments. A reddit user “dko5” who identified himself as a developer was involved with that incident. Drew McCoy, whose Twitter handle was also “DKo5”, left Respawn shortly thereafter.
It’s undeniable that legions of Apex fans are toxic, rude, and poor communicators. These fans clamor for info and transparency and then rage when they get it. But they’re fans—not professionals who should adhere to certain standards of conduct. Respawn has struggled with this in the past and if Klein’s recent interaction with Hal and others shows anything, it’s a continued lack of regard for those standards.
I’ll be back next week to discuss roster shifts, Valorant’s First Strike, and ALGS broadcasts as we prepare for the debut of the Winter Circuit. Until then!
This is why you hire people whose job it is to interact with the community. It's difficult to find people who are good at this. It's also difficult to find good developers. It's asking way too much to have people do both jobs. Community interaction is so important and Respawn and Zampella should have figured this out last year and invested in someone to take on this role for them. They continue to look a bit foolish here.