If you haven't yet heard about the Donald Sterling situation, first, get out from under that rock you've been living under.
But secondly, here's a synopsis: an NBA owner was caught on tape making some horribly racist comments to an ex-girlfriend over the phone. The tape got out to the media, which further exposed Sterling as a horrible racist (he had a rep long before the tape leaked). Sterling was fined $2.5 million by the NBA and handed a lifetime ban, and the NBA is going to try to get him to sell his team.
Why do I mention all of this? Well, apparently the Sterling saga has spilled over to the video game industry, and no, not to the owner mode in NBA 2K15. Evolve developer Turtle Rock fired community manager Josh Olin yesterday over some comments made on his Twitter about the Sterling situation.
"Here's an unpopular opinion: Donald Sterling has the right as an American to be an old bigot in the security of his own home," Olin said on Twitter. "He's a victim."
Apparently that was quite the unpopular opinion, as 2K Games fired him yesterday for those remarks and a few others, Polygon reports.
"The situation appears to have come to a head today, with developer Turtle Rock tweeting, 'The comments made by our former community manager stand in stark contrast to our values as a game development studio. We sincerely apologize for his remarks and in no way endorse or support those views,'" Polygon wrote last night. "Olin said the situation was 'very poorly handled by malleable management.'"
Olin then sent out a statement to Polygon (and Game Informer, and maybe others) giving his description of the situation:
"Anyone who follows me knows my tweets were not in support of Sterling's actions," Olin said in an email statement. "Rather, they were promoting three core tenets I believe in: 1) The harm sensational media presents to society. 2) The importance and sanctity of your privacy within your own home. And 3) The right to be whatever you want to be as an American, as long as it isn't hurting anyone else. That last point not to be confused with condoning Sterling's actions, which I don't.
"That said, it's disappointing to see that a select few in Turtle Rock and 2K Games management bought into this hysteria without even having a conversation with me - or even thoroughly reviewing the context of the tweets themselves. Ironically, it serves as a great example of why I hold tenet #1 above so close to heart. That said, everyone should totally still buy Evolve. The guys and gals making that game know their ***, and are making it good."
I can appreciate Olin wanting to give his opinion, and he definitely seemed to be condemning the media and invasion of privacy rather than supporting racism. But this was obviously still a very sensitive situation, and it may have been best for Olin to just keep his thoughts to himself as far as that's concerned.
Do you think the punishment of Olin was fair? Let us know in the comments.
Here's an unpopular opinion: Donald Sterling has the right as an American to be an old bigot in the security of his own home. He's a victim.
— Josh Olin (@JD_2020) April 30, 2014
