@empatheticrecluse @lyrichartwell

I understand your perspectives, but I'm trying to come at Gio's arguments from as unbiased a perspective as possible, and I just have to wonder if we'd be talking about him in the same way if we weren't all Homestuck fans with a vested interest in the property we like succeeding. Hussie is not a megacorporation and their words obviously can be more personal and (in some ways) easier to trust than, like, if Nintendo were the ones issuing these C&Ds, but it just feels icky no matter how much I try to rationalize against the idea that Gio just happened to suck anyway. I think there are some things that you should not do to someone even if you think they're a terrible person, and without knowing exactly what was said to the Befriendus team (but knowing some of the stuff Gio says Homestuck has claimed about him, which in certain cases looks to me unverifiable to anyone other than personal acquaintances), it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Hussie and their team "feeling unsafe" as a result of the Hiveswap posts is fair enough, but I think that someone who pulled the shit they allegedly pulled probably isn't supposed to feel all that great about it. I can only "both sides" this so long without looking at the power dynamic, and that's without even engaging the fact that the rest of Befriendus (if it is indeed Befriendus) was collateral damage, like Bambosh and the UHC (arguably Sarah Z as well). I don't care how uncomfortable Gio makes them if them shooting back ends up hitting other people. I'm glad the game still isn't dead, I guess.

@singularant

In the blogpost where the game ceased development, they said they planned to keep developing the game as a fan project after WP declined partnership, but it was specifically that this would require crowdfunding that WP said they weren't allowed to get.

@maxnexus

All good info. Don't have much to add other than it's surprising to see the Overseer complaint get called "fake". No idea how true that could be, or what the hell James could possibly have meant by "mostly". It looks to me like they sent a C&D, immediately regretted it, and came up with a cover story.

And yeah, to all this, this is why I'm so reticent to litigate whether Gio is a bad person or whatever, I'd much rather just know what Hussie and WhatPumpkin did or did not actually do. Because even if the answer is that Gio is the worst person ever, how Hussie and their company treats people they perceive as threats can say something about a lot more than just Gio. Would they have become as hostile to metroidhat/eyes9 if she'd refused to take the scalemate tutorial down, even though that absolutely constitutes fair use on all levels?

(side note: hey! she made the SIGNALIS storch plushies!)