Gamer Girl Announced, then Un-Announced After Backlash

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to new games announced by small FMV studios, but “Gamer Girl” has caught my eye, both because of its intention and because of what happened after it went public.

According to a now-deleted press kit, Gamer Girl put you in the role of a moderator for an up-and-coming lady streamer. On top of being asked to reward good behavior and cull dickish comments from her stream chat, you’d be tasked with solving a mystery of an anonymous predator who’s following her and may be responsible for her close friend’s recent disappearance. To do that, you’d need to guide her choices, telling her what to do at critical junctions, and hoping that your decisions don’t get her hurt… or worse.

According to the Twitter feed of the developer, Wales Interactive, it’s supposed to be a meditation and examination of the abusive culture women often face from the gaming public. It was also supposed to be the story of a strong, independent woman overcoming haters, trolls, and her potentially deadly stalker. But it was a little hard to take that seriously when the (now removed) trailer showed the girl in question relying on you, the moderator, to make, like, every decision for her. She felt less like a strong woman who needs your help and more like someone who could barely get dressed if she wasn’t being given step-by-step instructions each morning.

So yeah. Not a good look. As many people noted, at best, it looked like a cheesy B-grade thriller, similar to the likes of Night Trap. At worst, it looked like it straight-up ridiculed female streamers or tried to make light of some pretty serious issues facing that audience.

In response to this response, Wales Interactive made an attempt to defend their vision, but it was short lived – and they have now basically ‘un-announced’ it. They’ve removed the trailer, taken down the game’s webpage, pulled the press release, and generally tried to wipe proof it existed off the web.

The game was originally slated to release in September. I’m guessing that might not be the case anymore.