Official Apology Regarding the Unacceptable Post from a Developer

[TreeNutsGames]

To our valued Steam users and the entire Steam community,

We deeply regret the recent incident involving an inappropriate post made by one of our developers. We sincerely apologize to the affected user and to the entire community for this unacceptable behavior.

We recognize the gravity of the situation and have taken immediate and decisive action. The developer responsible has been terminated and removed from the team. We are committed to ensuring that such incidents do not occur in the future.

To understand how this occurred and to prevent future issues, we have conducted a thorough internal review. We believe that seeking professional help for our team members may be beneficial and are exploring this option.

Once again, we offer our heartfelt apologies. We are dedicated to improving our community interactions and to upholding the highest standards of conduct.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Sincerely,

TreeNutsGames

[AllocDK]

You are sorry you got called out... You even thought that the post was faked

[Smokey the Bear]

Deeply regret getting caught being a POS lol

But hey you fired him? Prove it.

[Dying ArchDevil]

How to fu*k up your career 101: By being an as*hol*, a coward and a liar.

[Snake]

The TreeNutsGames dev profile has been nothing but helpful and kind in all Steam hub interactions with players before today's drama.

If you expect more from the dev, after that explicit apology and after they stopped working with the user / former dev who posted the stupid, edgy comment, you have to be delusional.

But then again, everyone posting here now is a redditor who never played the game, and you can't expect redditors NOT to be delusional, so...

[ChuTheMan]

Originally posted by Snake:

The TreeNutsGames dev profile has been nothing but helpful and kind in all Steam hub interactions with players before today's drama.

If you expect more from the dev, after that explicit apology and after they stopped working with the user / former dev who posted the stupid, edgy comment, you have to be delusional.

But then again, everyone posting here now is a redditor who never played the game, and you can't expect redditors NOT to be delusional, so...

I have never played the game and probably never will, but thats just because its not my type of game.

But i do agree people are going crazy over it. They pretty much go wild rabid mode attacking TreeNut who is not the same guy as the guy who said that vile thing.

the only bad i can say about TreeNut is that he instantly went out trying to say it was faked instead of looking into the case first. Sometimes its better to be quiet for a while until you know what happened.
TreeNut seems like a good guy tbh who got caught in a storm done by someone else.

[WiildFiire]

lmao you literally just used chatGPT

do you not understand the reviewer can press legal charges against you?

[WiildFiire]

Originally posted by ≻ཌ༻ᑕᕼᎥᗴᖴ༺ད<:

Originally posted by WiildFiire:

lmao you literally just used chatGPT

do you not understand the reviewer can press legal charges against you?

Can Posting Online Reviews Land You in Legal Trouble?

The short answer is, yes, legal trouble is possible if you post online reviews. Online reviews and legal trouble are not two things you readily associate with each other. However, as people have the propensity to let loose on the Internet, it was just a matter of time before liability was attached to statements people make online. Let’s dig deeper to understand why, when, and how.

Online Reviews and Its Importance

An online review is the feedback of a past or current customer regarding a product or service they received. Online reviews can be positive, neutral, or negative, and business owners will naturally want all positive Google reviews. Consequently, most businesses will do what they can to make sure their customers are happy.

Given the risk of negative reviews, why do businesses put such a premium on online reviews? They make it a practice to encourage clients to post online reviews because it benefits them in several ways.

Brands with many reviews tend to rank higher in searches, helping their visibility. Online reviews can also help them generate more revenue. For example, positive reviews for a restaurant on Yelp can influence 90% of people looking online for somewhere to eat.

However, what online reviews “giveth can also be taketh away.” Negative reviews can seriously harm a brand’s reputation. Even a single negative review can significantly impact buying decisions, especially for older adults. Such influence can lead some people to post negative reviews even when it is not warranted.
Reviews and Legal Trouble: Can I Be Sued For Posting Online Reviews?

There is nothing inherently wrong with posting online reviews. It comes under the freedom of expression protected under Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, that freedom has “reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” In other words, you can say whatever you want when posting reviews if you are not contravening any other law.

As such, a business can sue you for posting negative online reviews if it can prove that your review constitutes defamation, which is a criminal act under Section 298 of the Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46) of Canada. It defines defamatory libel as any published false statement “that is likely to injure the reputation of any person.”

Ontario’s Libel and Slander Act (RSO 1990, c L.12) further addresses defamation as the publication of malicious content “issued for the information of the public.” It has provisions for bringing a civil action for defamation within three months of finding out about the alleged defamatory online review. A landmark case for this is Zoutman v. Graham, 2019 ONSC 2834.

On the other hand, Ontario’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) provisions under Section 137.1 of Courts of Justice Act (RSO 1990, c C.43, s 137.1) can be your friend. If you can prove that your online reviews “relates to a matter of public interest,” then your lawyer can request for a dismissal of the case by filing a motion under the Rules of Civil Procedure (RRO 1990, Reg 194).

However, the motion may not always succeed. If the business suing you can show that the case has merit and that the resulting harm, from your review, is such that it is in the public interest to allow the litigation to proceed, then you have no valid defence for your bad review. Those are admittedly high bars for the plaintiff, but some have succeeded in reaching them.
Components of Online Defamation

The general definition of defamation is the release of any false reviews or statements spoken (slander) or published (libel) that results, or is likely to result, in harm to someone’s reputation. A law firm may define online defamation as any content on a public platform likely to be seen by at least one person, not including the author of the statement and the person against whom the statement was made. Below are components of online defamation.
Publicly available

The content is accessible to people aside from the plaintiff and the defendant. Even if just one person sees the online review, it satisfies this component of defamation.
False

The statements are substantially untrue, dishonest, and malicious. If the comments are true, they may qualify as free speech and not constitute defamation.
Not an issue of public interest

The reviews serve no purpose to benefit the public, such as providing an honest opinion or fair comment about a business, product, or service. If the reviews provide useful or necessary information to protect other people from personal injury, i.e., dangerous products, then a defamation lawsuit might not have merit.

gosh cry me a river kids and calm tf down xD

too long didn't read imagine defending someone who told a person to kill themselves because they left a bad review of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ coin pusher game you're on the wring side of history bro

[Caridor]

Originally posted by AllocDK:

You are sorry you got called out... You even thought that the post was faked

Wow, talk about desperation to keep a hate train going.
I have friends who I don't think would do something like that, it's not unreasonable to assume this guy does too.

[ChuTheMan]

Originally posted by Caridor:

Originally posted by AllocDK:

You are sorry you got called out... You even thought that the post was faked

Wow, talk about desperation to keep a hate train going.
I have friends who I don't think would do something like that, it's not unreasonable to assume this guy does too.

naah I agree with that statement.

OP should have kept quiet until he looked into it further.
He instantly came out saying it was fake, which just made it worse.

[Diego]

You should remove your source code NOW

[Botch]

I'm really saddened by all of this. I mean all of it. It's obviously terrible what the guy said in response to a negative review. I've had a dear friend commit suicide before. It was devastating for me, for our mutual friends, for his family. So I take those words to heart and that person should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

I'm also saddened by some of the responses so far. I've read them all and while the outrage is justified and understandable, the seeming unwillingness to consider an apology and try to understand the circumstances are deeply concerning. Whether you decide to accept this apology or not is your decision and I respect your point of view.

If you're on the fence about all of this though, like I am, both disgusted by the remark and inclined to believe TreeNutGames that this was all a matter beyond their control, an unfortunate incident followed by a (frankly) inexcusable assumption, I want to say this; ask yourself whether there is a path of redemption here. Can they apologize enough? What more can they do that, in your eyes, would allow us all to move forward from here?

I'll be grappling with these questions myself for a while. I don't have an answer for you. All I can say is when I put myself in TreeNutGames shoes and allow them the benefit of the doubt, I can imagine how utterly horrified I'd be and how desperate I'd be to try to make this right. But how?

[Snake]

Just a thought...

Developers can adjust the discussion hubs so that only people who own the game can post...

[Voryn Dagoth Ur]

L, shouldnt have apologized.

[Dan Niton]

"We sincerely apologize to the affected user" You know exactly who that user is, we all do.

All you have to do is say "We sincerely apologize to [insert user name]" yet you did not, looks like you guys are trying to avoid your direct apology.

[fenz]

Not including the name might be an attempt to not turn the person in question into a harassment target. Also not everyone knows names in this situation. For example I don't and I'm not even close to interested enough to learn them.