Last June, Jagex – the developers of medieval MMO Runescape – found themselves at odds with players after deciding not to create any new content for Pride Month. Disputed internally at the studio before the discussion then leaked online, the decision appeared to be a retreat in the face of a world turning on minority groups.
Following up in September, Games Industry asked Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy if he stood by the call to simply re-run existing Pride-themed quests and events. “Ultimately, my job is governance and protection as much as anything else, and so sometimes those kinds of harsh decisions have to be made to protect the imminent future of the game,” he told them. “If there are tough decisions to be made next year, we’ll make them. If the world has changed a bit and the environment is different, we will react accordingly.”
Five months on and with this year’s Pride Month on the horizon, we’ve asked if the environment is different.
