Helldivers2 has set a new standard for live storytelling, and not a little of it is game fiction online between Arrowhead Gaming Studio and playerbase, which, after the game's first real blunders, the requirement for an account link mandated by Sony, last week, Helldivers organized and (and) released a new version of the game. What else) found an epic expression that saw him bomb his beloved game on Steam to reverse the situation.

The helldivers themselves have something that, albeit figuratively, amounts to an explosive solution. Helldivers2 was a huge success for Sony as a concurrent PC release, already the seventh highest grossing film in the U.S., and this collaborative pushback clearly caught publishers off guard. After easily doubling the requirements, Sony abandoned it: for now, at least.

Hell divers investigated the wreckage, and it was good. While players generally heaped praise on Arrowhead (not so much Sony) for being big enough to reverse the course, there was a community effort to get Steam's rating of the game back to where it should be (although recent reviews remain "mixed", it became "mostly positive" overall). We have launched a community-led initiative. There were victims — 1 community manager was unfortunately too vocal in support of the player's tactics and then lost his job — but the disaster was averted.

I find this stuff almost as fascinating as the ongoing galactic War itself. Arrowhead has succeeded in engaging the player base on a huge scale, making it feel like it has some control over how this game unfolds. Helldivers2 players are already seriously investing in this universe, and when they're not playing the game itself, they can use countless out-of-game tools to track it down and give feedback The fact that this is well mapped to the satirical themes of helldivers2's managed democracy and collectivism is just icing on the cake. It is not.

A major part of how Arrowhead is involved is being done through the developer's prospective CEO Johan Pilestedt. Pilestedt decided to follow up on the account, which links the controversy, by acknowledging "negative emotions" and offering a hostage to Fortune. Polar Patriots premium warbond, due to be released today, is aDLC10 DLC pack that adds new armor sets, guns and other cosmetics. But, as Pilestedt shared, "concerns have come out from the team," which will soon release a new (paid) warbond is tone deaf."

The world of Helldivers 2 had 1 solution. Pilestedt offered a "true vote in a true democratic way," meaning Arrowhead would release warbond as planned, and simply "delay release" without further details.

The poll attracted more than 12 responses in 180,000 hours, with 73.9% of Helldivers voting to deliver warbond on time. Only 26.1% voted to help the enemy of humanity.

When the vote was over, "I thank you all for your contribution," Pilestedt said. "Democracy is spoken.

There are many different ways to see this. You can call it Genius Community Management, after all, what's the big deal if the Pilestedt throws an arrowhead at the tender mercy of its players who seemingly provide a moment of different hairshirts delayed for weeks"There's no big risk here and Arrowhead is a short online voting respondent. Most engaged and Guan

But if things were this easy, other studios would have done it before. The modern gaming community has to be the scary stuff that studios deal with at times, and even the ability to respond en masse to real and perceived things, punishing games with review bombing and other tactics. Live games attract especially huge passion and engagement, which is why many examples deal with their communities at arm's length: getting involved too, thinking lines

Arrowhead's approach, and Pilestedt's iconic poll are brave and even wacky attempts to square the circle. Every studio says, "We're listening," and it rarely leads to change, but Helldivers2 players (at least the most enthusiastic ones) see their complaints act in near real time, and their actions prompt important decisions.

The kicker, of course, is that Helldivers 2 players understand that they have some sort of collective power, even if it's a fantasy of power, why a major part of the Helldivers2 piece is that the core design isn't afraid of an unpopular choice: friendly fire's a killer, a killer that many enemies can use to kill you. You can use it to create your own photos. Arrowhead's catchphrase is "A game for everyone is not a game for everyone.""But in these last two weeks, it's playing a little bit in the gallery, perhaps, showing a populist streak.

It's all going well and the show will continue. But Helldiver had a taste of power in this universe, and when the next controversy rolls around, you'll remember it as it certainly does. Just like Super Earth, Arrowhead should be careful how it manages democracy: so that it does not suddenly find its citizens mutiny.