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Gamer Girl trailer yanked from YouTube after considerable backlash (UPDATE)
Earlier in the week, Wales Interactive and FMV Future revealed Gamer Girl for Switch. This FMV game, set in the world of online streaming, followed the fictitious streamer "Abicake99" as she deals with harassment from a mysterious online follower.
The game was quickly met with backlash, as many felt it wasn't appropriate to glorify the harassment of female streamers. Twitch streamer Sweet Anita is a high-profile streamer who's currently dealing with a stalker that stemmed from her streaming, which has resulted in the police getting involved, death threats, and more. This activity has only lead to more gamers feeling that Gamer Girl is the wrong game for the wrong time.
It seems that Wales Interactive and FMV Future are reacting to the backlash, as they've pulled the game's trailer from YouTube. They also completely deleted the online press kit for the game. Whether this means the game is cancelled altogether or will be repackaged in some way remains to be seen.
UPDATE - Wales Interactive has released a statement on this matter. It seems the company is planning on moving ahead with the release.
Gamer Girl is about the impact user comments and actions have on a streamer’s mental health and wellbeing. The reason why FMV Future created the game was to raise the issue of the toxic environment which can often appear online behind the anonymity of a username. Without giving away too much, Gamer Girl is an empowering story of a female streamer who, with the help of her moderator friend, battles the trolls and – overcomes – the toxic characters in her stream.
Gamer Girl was co-written by Alexandra Burton, the lead actress who improvised the entire script. The research into the streaming content of Gamer Girl took 4 years and the dev team at FMV Future interviewed dozens of female streamers, most of whom have experienced abuse of various kinds online – some have even shared their experiences during interviews within the game.
Players start the game as one of Abi’s friends whom she trusts, and it is their job to make the channel a success but also to guide the stream to keep Abi in a positive frame of mind. Online abuse is real and is still happening every day – Gamer Girl seeks to raise awareness of this issue.