Recently, Hearts of Iron IV started receiving devastating reviews on Steam. The flood of 'thumbs down' was so large that recent reviews became 'overwhelmingly negative'. However, this was not due to an update or the quality of a new expansion — the reason was the ban of one community member from the game's official Discord* server.
The player set a real photo of Atatürk as their profile avatar. A moderator noticed this and blocked the profile for using the photo, also calling Atatürk a 'controversial political figure'.
Atatürk is the founder of the Turkish Republic, so local players took this extremely personally. They began expressing their dissatisfaction in reviews: as a result, Hearts of Iron IV received about 30 thousand negative reviews in a few days.
Hearts of Iron IV game director 'Batya' has already reacted to the situation:
We understand what Atatürk means to many of you as the founder of the Turkish Republic and the father of the nation. I want to emphasize that neither our games nor our moderation aim to express an opinion or pass judgment on any historical figure. This case is no exception.
The HoI IV team discussed the rule regarding the use of images of real people as avatars; and as a result of these discussions, 'it became clear that this rule needs to be reviewed and that it has been applied inconsistently'.
The developers plan to analyze the rule itself and the actions taken previously. Then they will announce the decisions made.
- *(violates Russian Federation legislation requirements)