An update was made to Hover: Revolt of Gamers back on October 26th, 2017. The end of the month update brought a ton of new modes, fixes, polish, performance updates and bug squashes. However, one odd addition to the changelog was actually the removal of the game’s subtitle “Revolt of Gamers”, because the developers claimed that it was similar to a “group of crazy people on the internet”.
The change to the title of the game wasn’t met with the strongest of support. Over on the Steam community page the change to the title was tucked away near the bottom of the changelog, where it reads…
“Hover’s subtitle “Revolt of Gamers” got deleted because of the similarities with a group of crazy people on the internet.”
Some of the community spoke up about the change, stating that it makes the devs seem as if they have ulterior motives, with Plake Snissken writing…
“Without the subtitle the name sounds pretentious and dull. Also changing it out of nowhere because of ulterior motives only shows what kind of devs you are.”
The game’s subtitle still hasn’t changed on the official website nor the splash art on the main page. So it’s hard to tell if it was done just for appearances on Steam or if they have yet to get around to changing the name elsewhere.
The issue was brought to the attention of OAG thanks to a tweet from maramala, who pointed to another tweet from user Alex R., who claimed that he refused to buy the game because the subtitle made Alex find the game unappealing.
“Hover’s subtitle ‘Revolt of Gamers’ got deleted because of the similarities with a group of crazy people on the internet.”
Nice. Despite my interest in a more refined Jet Set Radio imitator, this was the thing that originally led me to ignore this game.https://t.co/0Ov7Yo33bJ
— Alex R. (@alexand_rs) November 19, 2017
When pressed further to explain himself, he simply stated the following…
No developer is owed a purchase. I, for one, could stand to spend a lot less on video games than I currently do, so no opportunity to save my money is too petty from my perspective. Having said that, Hover has my attention now.
— Alex R. (@alexand_rs) November 20, 2017
Many presume that the developers changed the name because #GamerGate was (and still is) associated with gamers revolting against corrupt practices in the media industry.
One would think small indie development studios like Fusty Games or Midgar Studio would appreciate that gamers would be willing to stand up for them when corrupt media outlets malign or libel developers with false accusations the way they did with other indie developers like Tim Soret or Notch, or James Desborough. However if they truly believe that #GamerGate was about “crazy people” then they’re either vastly misinformed given that all the evidence has always shown that it was about fighting back against unethical media practices, as verified by the FBI and FTC, or they’ve chosen to believe the harassment narrative because that’s what they want to believe.
I did reach out to Fusty Game and Midgar Studio for clarity on their decision to alter the name and what exactly they were referring to when they removed the “Revolt of Gamers” tagline as the subtitle.
