Hello, community. I’m Evan, the author of CoG’s latest release, DRAG STAR!, and it’s come to my attention that there have been people trolling it on Google Play and Amazon to give it negative reviews just because it’s LGBTQ-themed. I heard someone even sent a death threat to the company (I’ll wait for that to be confirmed).
I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on this. I worked to make the game very inclusive while still making it appropriate for ages 12+, but that seems to have set some folks off. Some folks don’t like inclusive content. Some folks really don’t like lgbt stuff available to kids.
Before posting speculation, please do look at the reviews. And by the way, although drag is associated with the LGBTQ+ community, your character in the game can be anyone of any gender and orientation, like Choice of Games generally are.
Much love,
Evan J. Peterson
I mean… I don’t really know what there is to say. It’s exceptionally stupid but par for the course on the internet. Sorry you have to deal with it.
If you get any jokes about your last name they’re probably references to Jordan B. Peterson, a Canadian psychology professor who became famous within the internet edgelord right wing for pretending that a bill that was introduced to give trans people the same protections as other minorities under civil rights laws would somehow make it illegal to misgender people. He kind of sounds like Kermit the Frog if Kermit was obsessed with dominance hierarchies and lobster metaphors, and obfuscating his more problematic beliefs with word salad.
Evan - Welcome to the CoG forum community.
Thank you for your work - for me it all the right notes of the “reality contestant show.”
Here is the confirmation:
My thoughts:
- I don’t put as much weight in “reviews” as others in this community do.
- Steam currators picked your game up under recommended … that is good
- I look forward to the next game - I would prefer more in-depth looks at the “production” and “execution” of this type of show, that is something not seen before
- Steam reviews are both positive
-Steam audiences are different then the other marketplaces… your game actually fits in a niche that some Steam gamers pursue, so you might get better sales in Steam than expected.
unrelated thought: There are a few of CoG authors from the Washington area - more than I thought. 
I’d be happy to talk to you in PM more if you wish.
Thank you! We can talk in PM. Your intel/context puts a smile on my face.
I’m somewhat familiar with the other Professor Peterson (I teach creative writing and lit at an art school). I hope people do compare us. It certainly doesn’t hurt that there’s a heartthrob actor named Evan Peters in American Horror Story and the X-men franchise.
The joke’s on them: I’m not any kind of warrior, social justice or otherwise. I’m just a super charismatic queer who writes really good stories. Sips tea
Hi there.
I didn’t play because reality tv show theme is not my thing; but I’d say lots of people in the forum seem to enjoy it. I don’t usually pay attention to reviews and well if they have issues with lgbtq+ stories or games, I think it’s on them and not you. I don’t believe in having to conform to whatever the masses demand you to do/be. I don’t think you need to worry much; people who like this kind of stories will play it regardless what the review said. I don’t really hold IOS/Android review in high regards anyway.
You should continue do your thing and people who understand will appreciate it 
I started typing an answer to this, then scrapped it and retyped it, then repeated that process over and over again. I wanted to be academic about it, because that’s more helpful, but basically it all comes down to toxic masculinity in a patriarchy. (I know, I know, here she goes.) The trash talking in reviews and the death threats are gender-policing by men (and, less commonly, women) who see anything that elevates femininity above masculinity as a threat to their worldview. They were raised to believe that masculinity was superior in every way to femininity, which is why the most effective insults against men are the ones that insinuate femininity. By lashing out publically against anything that takes a more open approach to gender identity, sexuality, gender roles, et cetera, they’re engaging in peformative masculinity.
The thing about performative masculinity (and full credit to my gender studies textbook,The Gender Knot, by Allan Johnson) is that masculinity tends to be tribally enforced by other men. Thus, the “you throw like a girl,” “don’t be such a p*ssy” policing and such. Anything that falls below a certain threshold of masculinity (determined by the group) must be punished, and the act of doling out the punishment itself proves how masculine you are. So, there’s a built-in incentive to punish anything that strays outside of a group’s boundaries. That was a problem in the late 1990’s, where groups were just ten guys. It’s the entire internet now, so there will always be someone who feels the need to enforce their rigid boundaries of masculinity on anything they see as a target. Unfortunately, aggression and violence = peak hypermasculinity, which is why virtually every woman you know with a twitter account and an opinion has received rape and death threats. It sucks.
Certainly there are exceptions, but the exceptions aren’t the ones in comment sections dragging women for having thoughts about Star Wars. In the case of your game, hitting out at something queer/queer-adjacent/feminine is probaby reinforcing the posters’ own belief systems by making them feel powerful for attacking, and/or earning masculinity credit from their perceived tribe. Your game, Feminist Frequency, Captain Marvel, female Ghostbusters–the attacks against them are all fruit from the same poison tree, and you’ve created a game with “Drag” in the title and a drag queen on the cover. While it shouldn’t be, it’s probably being perceived as a direct threat to the people who are trashing you and your game.
I’m sorry. =(
You don’t deserve that shit. None of us do.
Love will win. Especially hot, sexy, gender-open-ended love like I’m peddling.
God, I hope so!
As a SoCiAl JuStIcE wArRiOr it sucks that your game is being treated like this esp. since being Queer shouldn’t be treated as inherently adult. The fact the game is gonna be seen as “Forced Diversity” (or any other variants of that really dumb phrase) is fucked up tbh.
With that said…Congrats on making people spiteful enough that they are taking time and energy to troll your game tho. Fucking power to you and keep up the good work!
Thank you! I’ve always wanted to create something important enough that some folks hate it while others adore it. Keep fighting the good fight!
Interesting points. I often have trouble understanding how these people can get so upset about this kinda stuff because for whatever reason gender has never been a very important part of my identity. This is something about myself that I often struggle to understand. Like, why does something that seems to matter so much to other people matter so little to me?
I mean, I hate reality shows, and Drag is just confusing to me… So like, I would have been perfectly content to not care about this game at all if it weren’t for the fact that some assholes just have to try and start shit… Well, maybe they’ll end up pilling a Graham Limeyham.
I would love someone to call this entire game “forced diversity”… Like a game that’s literally about being competitively gender non-conforming… Like, you could make a short documentary about the way people drive a phrase to complete meaninglessness through escalating hyperbole. “The Short, Sad, History of Forced Diversity: From Defending a Game’s Lack of POC in Medieval Poland, to Whining That a Game About Competitive Drag Exists.”
Bah…you got nothing to feel guilty over or anything . I don’t know about others places like Google and app and what not (I dont go there or buy from there) . But I’m familliar with Steam and they have pretty much no system of reporting nothing . So its a Zoo full of asswipes who when not happy will down vote and Bomb vote stuff down or up…depand on their bipolére feeling of the day .
Don’t look back and keep walking forward ! thats the most important thing! 
Simple facts.
Not everyone who possesses an internet connection is a rational, well reasoned and stable person. More than half of the internet wouldn’t exist if being civil and rationale was a pre-requisite to using it.
Best approach?
None. Don’t even take the time to respond, otherwise it convinces them that their opinion is worth something.
Negative feedback is important. Only when it’s valid. I’m confident that nay-sayers are adamant their opinions are valid, even when they’re not. People already know they’re definitely wrong.
Two scenarios:
-
Negative criticism about drag and the sort reaches attention. It gets picked up. Becomes the subject of controversy. People start picking it up and it gets mass attention, causing an even greater following, defeating the purpose of their criticism.
-
Doing nothing. It’s a perfectly acceptable option. They want an argument. A huge debate. To see how they get under people’s skin…so what if…there just wasn’t any of that? It’s incredibly hard to keep arguing about something when nobody is saying anything back to you. Even the most die hard trolls will bore themselves if there is no audience.
Breaking it down. There is two groups of these types. The first being people who actually are bigots and the type, and the other being trolls who don’t believe what they say and merely want a rise out of it.
The first group nothing can be done about it. Luckily, the only people who will listen to them is people like them who this game isn’t for anyway. They aren’t going to change anyone’s mind by “Drag is bad. 1/5” and people will give support just to spite them. They believe what they are saying, and it can’t be helped. No amount of conversation or response will change anything. They made up their minds as narrow as they may be and are sticking to it. Nobody ever walks away from an internet debate, more enlightened and open minded than they first entered. They simply find new ways to cement their old beliefs. Because they aren’t looking for a conversation. They are looking for a rant.
The second group, just as equally, doesn’t matter. The way trolls work is they aren’t looking for a positive reaction. They are looking for ANY reaction. Nothing can be done about that. You have your game and they are too busy playing theirs to care about it.
Conclusion: The most efficient strategy? Forget about it. There’s nothing to be gained from the experience of arguing with crazy people by anybody.
So to share a happy bit, in the german google store, and I seem to see only those reviews, there were no rantings against your game, only only detailed review by @MeltingPenguins. I will add mine, after I played the game to the end, but until now I like it very much. The rating here is at 4.1 I do not know if that is also only the german part of the ratings. Stay happy and make more pretty awesome and hilarious games for us 
You did a great piece of art and nobody would destroy that. You make me happy and smile when i was playing and that’s the better appraisal i could give . There is a charming humour and a cheerful irony. Those machists aren’t more than ramble due they’re not giving real criticism is just whining because they are scared lgtbq and feminist.
It’s sucks that was the reaction, but I can’t say I am surprised. The best advice is to listen to @Hex and just not react at all - engaging people like this leads nowhere.
As for the company - I am pretty sure they knew foresaw the reaction and took the game on anyway, because it a fucking fantastic idea. (And from everything I’ve heard it is good written as well.)
This game is a must buy for me as soon as I am in a better headspace. It’s such an unique concept and fantastic that somebody wrote it.
@EJP_DragStar The reality is that there will always be people who will happily trash a game to make themselves feel better. If you want to listen to critiques, then listen to the ones from your target audience. If not, then WHO THE FUCK CARES? It’s your game so do whatever you want. Look, I’ll be honest; I’m a straight, white guy who finds reality shows to be a complete waste of time. So to be blunt, I don’t think I’ll ever play your game. That does not mean that your game is trash. It’s simply not for me, nor does it need to be. My only issue with games that heavily feature LGBTQ content is when they don’t state that fact in the description (there’s a certain game that I’ve commented about before that bombards you with that kind of content, and ultimately makes the whole theme of the game take a backseat), but you made it very clear from the beginning what your game was about and what was in it. So on that note you’ve done everything right. My two cents? Focus on your target audience. If they enjoy it, I’m sure they’d be more than happy to see future works from you.
I reported a couple of the play store reviews and they have now been removed, which is a good sign.
Your game’s inclusivity is a feature, not a bug. I know from experience that it’s nerve wracking, but for every person who grumbles about inclusion, there will be so many more who get satisfaction or validation from what you’ve created.