Matt Hansen’s tweet is NOT racist, here’s why:

[eddie {in venom voice}]

THE SHORT EXPLANATION:
He was just fighting racial inequality while also making fun of himself.

THE LONG EXPLANATION:
I feel like most of the people who got offended and dissuaded from this game, because of the art director’s “racist” tweet, didn’t actually read said tweet, or at least didn’t take a good look at it, and just got angry through online echo chambers. I don’t mean to insult anyone here, I just don’t like it when people spread slander and misinformation, and I want to add context and give some benefit of the doubt the week before the game comes out.

What Matt Hansen actually said (on his now-deleted personal twitter, not the game’s account) was:

“Reminder to Black artists out there who are looking for portfolio reviews or job advice: my DMs are open, and you will always have my priority.
We got too many crusty white dudes in this field, please let me help you replace me one day - I want to go back to living in the woods.”

This was clearly a joke. Yes obviously there’s some truth in there, in that there’s still racial inequality in the industry, and that Matt wants to help POC devs get more work. BUT there are people out there who are blowing this out of proportion and jumping to the wrong conclusions.

The last sentence alone makes it clear the “crusty white dudes” wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. It was a self-deprecating joke. Matt’s white, so it’s more like “lol there’s too many of us, help me out of a job haha”, not a legit insult. Plenty of famous black comics make fun of themselves, so why not laugh at yourself?

Matt also doesn’t hate gamers. I apologize for the whataboutism, but the developer for Kingdom Come Deliverance II has literally lashed out at criticisms of his own game on social media with crying gifs and name-calling, and I know some of you have that game already. If what he did is somehow okay, how is what Matt said not okay? He wasn’t even making fun of white gamers, just white game developers, himself included.

There’s also NO illegal hiring practices. Art directors can’t hire people. He only said he wants to help with their portfolios and give job advice. This is NOT proof of discriminatory hiring. Say what you want about DEI, it’s still a merit-based hiring process, and if anything he still prioritizes merit because he’s offering to help improve POC skills so that they can build enough of said merit and skills to be hired and perhaps surpass him.

And in the end, if Nightmare Kart has taught us anything, it’s that it doesn’t really matter who the developers are, as long as the game is good (which I’ve heard it is). But if it does matter to you, I hope this sheds some light on the situation and maybe calms the place down a bit.

TLDR; Matt’s tweet wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. He’s against racial inequality and was just making fun of himself. If the game is good, that’s all that matters.

[November]

You used logic and reason. I'm quite proud, however, there are hundreds of trolls in this forum who will dispose of those qualities and rant for hours about something that doesn't affect anyone negatively. Fake outrage, misplaced outrage, or lack of reading and context comprehension will still ensue.

[WeirdWizardDave]

I'm a lefty liberal and I'm getting tired of this crazy self destructive obsession many who share my political and social views seem to have developed for trying to virtue signal and only succeeding in harming the very virtue they're seeking to promote.

The backlash against this rhetoric is real and helps no-one but the people who seek to use it against us. Publicly saying you will positively discriminate is not helpful in 2025. Young white people hoping to find employment in an increasingly harsh world will not thankyou for it, and you will need them to build the better future we all want. Lets not squander the real progress that was made in past decades.

[Randy]

"Guys ! "

"He was just JOKING"

You know what - It was funny; its just that Matt does not know that.

[Brangutang]

The only way you get to justify defending his tweet because "it was just a joke", is if you would be saying the same were he discussing any other race or for any other company. But perhaps more importantly, Matt is not a comic. He is a director at a company.

The man has a history of certain behaviour both in tweets and in interviews that does not make it clear it's a joke, so I can imagine 2 scenarios - 1) People who might not see it as a joke at all react poorly. Like it or not, those subjects are extremely sensitive atm. Either he is a moron who doesn't realise that or made the statements regardless. Either way, he deserves that criticism. 2) The average person takes it as a joke and moves on with their life. Well, frankly, the joke is so bad and in such poor taste that he still deserves the criticism.

There is no universe in which he (and by extension the company he represents) doesn't deserve backlash, and by trying to defend him you are essentially endorsing his actions, which is fine, you're allowed to. But people are allowed to do the opposite. You're not setting any record straight by assuming the people upset don't know why they're upset. Further, the only real method gamers have to be heard is through their wallet, so it is simply not true that if the game is good that's all that matters.

[monster_urby]

A lot of people also seem to gloss over the fact that the tweet was made in June of 2020, within a couple of weeks of George Floyd's murder and during the height of the #BLM protests.

[uka21]

Amount of gaslighting in this post is on another level.

[Bullpup]

There was a time when the majority could discern jokes from context by using common sense and generosity of spirit aka benefit of doubt.

That time was bloodily murdered by wokeies who took a no-prisoners approach to mis-speaking, joking, retweeting without comment, allegations of historical heresy against wokeism etc.

So now it's time for the right to adopt the exact same approach - everything at face value. Humour is already dead so nothing lose. Equality of standards.

[Rampage]

my god there are actually people like this? we're doomed lol

[Chrius]

Well, tbh I don't care who they hire as long as it's the most competent person for the job...

The reason I stopped paying attention to the game was when he said he wanted to make the most woke game possible... That tells me his priorities are not really right for a game developer.

I'm waiting for release hoping he failed and that it's an actually good game, because I like obsidian, but he certainly made me lose all interest I had in the game before...

Edit: Art Directors 100% hire people. While companies have HR to filter the applicants, its the Directors who will end up choosing who gets hired or not unless the company is so absurdly huge that the directors are there only for their paycheck and don't have any involvement on the actual running of the company (which I'm pretty sure isn't the case here).

[cypher]

Originally posted by Chrius:

Well, tbh I don't care who they hire as long as it's the most competent person for the job...

The reason I stopped paying attention to the game was when he said he wanted to make the most woke game possible... That tells me his priorities are not really right for a game developer.

I'm waiting for release hoping he failed and that it's an actually good game, because I like obsidian, but he certainly made me lose all interest I had in the game before...

oh yeah i forgot about this, that racist dude said he wanted to make the game the most woke possible just to piss off Elon Musk hahaha

[Ginaz]

"iT's JUsT a jOKe gUYS!"

[c.lheywood]

Originally posted by Chrius:

I stopped paying attention to the game

then why did you respond lmao

[LazyJoeBeard]

It was not a joke, if it was he would have claimed it when the backlash got bad. He said things meant to be in an insulting way and linked it to race. He was being racist.

[Chrius]

Originally posted by c.lheywood:

Originally posted by Chrius:

I stopped paying attention to the game

then why did you respond lmao

Originally posted by Chrius:

I'm waiting for release hoping he failed and that it's an actually good game, because I like obsidian, but he certainly made me lose all interest I had in the game before...

[c.lheywood]

Originally posted by Chrius:

Originally posted by c.lheywood:

then why did you respond lmao

Originally posted by Chrius:

I'm waiting for release hoping he failed and that it's an actually good game, because I like obsidian, but he certainly made me lose all interest I had in the game before...

well tbf i genuinly didnt notice that but fair enough