DOMINA, a sword fighter training simulation game, ended distribution on Steam on September 2. Currently, the store page has been deleted, but immediately after the distribution, a message posted by Steam, which was discontinued by Publisher request on the store page.
However, in fact, it seems that Valve, which runs Steam, has ended sales, rather than withdrawing the publisher Dolphin Barn Incorporated himself. In fact, the behavior of Nicholas John Leonhard Gorissen, a personal developer of the studio, has been controversial many times.
First, let’s look back on the background so far. The beginning of the thing was the DOMINA patch note posted in March this year. As the updates such as bug correction and balance adjustment of this work are lined up, an item entitled TAKE OFF THE FCKN MASKS suddenly appears. GORISSEN’s claim was developed in the words, What are you afraid of, Don’t be a lie, and Women, such as a man who hides your face and hiding your face.
Perhaps he has a critical opinion on situations where masking is encouraged in Corona. However, the method of sneaking into the patch note of the lack of basis for the patch note was greatly criticized, and as a result, Domina was reviewed and many unpopular reviews were issued (related article).
Since this event, GORISSEN has often argued with users on Steam’s bulletin boards and SNS. He often gives aggressive, provocative and discriminatory comments, and finally banned from Domina’s Steam community (such as bulletin boards). Steam’s support team has disposed of the posting rules guidelines. It was an unusual situation that the developer could not post to his Steam community, which became a hot topic. (Related article).
Gorissen did not seem to be disciplined after such criticisms and disposal. He distributed a new patch to Domina on August 31, local time. The patch notebook also listed the corrections of this work, but also commented on his claim. The main post is the main post without even sneaking into the list. Regarding the contents of the post, it is a sentence that ridiculates transgenders, while having incoherent parts.
First, the title of the post is presented as DOMINUS and the title of this work have been changed. The intention is that it has changed to a male noun from a female form DOMINA to DOMINUS. GORISSEN commented, Changing gender in a game is a normal thing, so it doesn’t confuse someone, and I want you to stop prejudice. He also states that DOMINUS has not existed, such as DOMINA, and said that Dominus, Respect our pronouns and there is no right to feel deceived. The seemingly unknown sentence seems to have imitated the claims of the transgender people. In short, it would be the intention of insulting and provocation for those people.
Gorissen also mentioned a person called Keffals. Perhaps it refers to Clara Sorrenti, Keffals of YouTuber, who has announced that it is a transgender. GORISSEN decides Keffals as a transvestite man and lists insults.
Keffals is a person who has sent out problems such as harassment to LGBTQ+on YouTube and Twitch. Last month, a false report by the Transfobia Group was noticed that the so-called Swatting was damaged twice (Kotaku). The violent harassment of him is also in the midst of a problem by many people, mainly in the overseas community.
In this patch notebook, there are comments such as Do not tell children about basic biology and hurt children. It is clear that GORISSEN has a critical idea of sexual diversity, and in this patch notebook, people such as transgender, such as DOMINA, anthropomorphized as changing to DOMINUS. You can receive it if you ridicule.
And the posting of this patch note stopped in Valve. Steam’s support team has notified Gorissen’s post-insulting a specific person, and noted him from the Steam community forever. In addition, his business with his studio will be terminated.
Valve warns that the business relationship between the two companies will be adversely affected if the rules guidelines are ignored in the previous disposal in the future, and the transactions have been discontinued. Later, DOMINA was distributed on Steam, and the store page was deleted.
After Domina was withdrawn from Steam, Gorissen made a comment on SNS. He said he had distributed a patch to fix the bug for the player, and then acknowledged that Valve had withdrawn the film from Steam. After that, the words of the attack on Valve and the company’s co-founder Gabe Newell were spelled out, including words that insults people such as transgenders. He concluded the post, saying, God wins all battles, and Liar does not prosper.
By the way, GORISSEN made this post is GAB SNS. GORISSEN has been banned not only in Steam, but also in Domina and personal Twitter accounts, and BANDCAMP, which sold songs produced by him. GAB is an SNS that shows a policy to guarantee freedom of speech, and it is said that people who have lost their (in extreme behavior), such as Gorissen, are flowing in. He says that game production is a professional, and in the future he will interact with the supporters on GAB and deliver the work on some route.