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David S Gallant is, in his own words, a very bitter man. He has been rallying against GamerGate supporters for a while to say the least, but has now taken a dramatic new step by deciding to withhold keys to individuals who have purchased I Get This Call Every Day previously and now also support the consumer revolt.
Having previously pulled his game from Steam (Update: David has responded to this by stating: “I Get This Call Every Day was never pulled from Steam. The game has been Greenlit, but has not yet launched on Steam. My initial decision was to not launch it on Steam in the first place, a decision I later rescinded.“) due to allegations that the platform is “central to “gamer” culture – the same culture aggressively harassing many of my friends“, the indie dev has tweeted:
Basically I have something very cruel planned for anyone who bought IGTCED and also openly supported GG, because I am a very bitter man.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) November 30, 2014
@a_man_in_black Won't really come to fruition until the Steam release. Basically I'm making sure those folks don't get keys.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) November 30, 2014
Needless to say, this has caused confusion due to the prior statement made by Gallant with regards to releasing on Steam. We haven’t contacted Gallant directly regarding this as he responded to an inquiry by gaming/tech site TechRaptor with the following:
Looks like a TechRaptor reporter (who on Twitter has a GG weHeart avatar) reached out via email. I responded with a link to the storify.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
The storify, which you can find here, is entitled “I Get This Call Every Day is coming to Steam, if you bought the game, and you support GamerGate, you aren’t getting a Steam key. Too fucking bad.” The storify includes tweets which explain Gallant’s change of tune towards the Steam platforms aforementioned importance to Gamer culture (Update: This has been amended from “Valve’s undisclosed stance towards GamerGate” which is a misnomer based on the large majority of GamerGate supporters who identify as Gamers, and is not explicitly called out in the Storify, which we have linked to previously).
I Get This Call Every Day is coming to Steam. In August, when #GamerGate started, I got angry; but I had reason talked into me by a friend.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
So my website and Facebook page for IGTCED are out-of-date. Sorry for that misinformation, #GamerGate.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
It’s not clear whether or not David stands behind his previous statement regarding Steam’s importance to Gamer culture, or whether this was also misinformation. He goes on to state his plan with regards to distributing keys for the Steam release:
I Get This Call Every Day has been for sale since Dec 21 2012 using various sites before it was greenlit for Steam in April 2014, #GamerGate
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
It has sold over 6800 copies, not counting the physical edition & free codes. A Steam code has never been part of the purchase, #GamerGate
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
This is not fraud. No developer or publisher owes you a Steam code for a game purchased outside of Steam, #GamerGate.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
What I plan to do is cross-reference my purchaser records with any associated Twitter accounts, and flag those that support #GamerGate…
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
then I will work with my storefront partners to ensure that Steam codes are linked all purchaser accounts but those I've flagged #GamerGate
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
It will take a lot of work for what is essentially a spiteful and ultimately meaningless act. But it is most certainly not fraud #GamerGate
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
If you don't care about the game, good; I don't care that you don't care, #GamerGate. You were never my audience in the first place.
— disarm the cops (@davidsgallant) December 1, 2014
The storify finishes with a further statement:
“To further clarify: everyone who purchased I Get This Call Every Day through itch.io, Humble, Desura, Fastspring, or Sellbox will still have access to their purchases through either their itch.io account or their Humble account (for everyone who didn’t purchase via itch.io). No one is losing the product that they paid for.+
Note: I have been alerted to this Facebook post: https://archive.today/v66bM. This could be construed as a promise of a key for anyone trying to weasel their way to a fraud accusation, so I offer the following amendment.
If you are a member of GamerGate, and purchased the game in expectation of a Steam key based on previous information, I will be handling refunds on a case-by-case basis: contact me with the email used to purchase the game.”
It hasn’t been made clear how exactly David’s system will work, since presumably this will only work for people who are disclosing their name publicly or have used the same email address for purchasing the game and on their Twitter account?
Needless to say, it seems rather bizarre that itch.io, Humble, Desura, Fastspring or Sellbox would comply with such an odd request (Update, David has advised that: “FastSpring and Sellbox cannot distribute Steam keys so they will not be asked to comply with the request. Customers who purchased using those storefronts have been migrated to Humble.”). We’ll be attempting to contact them to clarify their position on the matter.
At the time of publishing, I Get This Call Every Day was on sale for $200 from itch.io, although if petty anti capitalist protests are not your thing, it has now reverted back to its original price of $2.
UPDATE: We have published a follow up to this piece here.