Indie game Domina faces backlash for anti-mask patch notes

Domina, an indie game, has received hundreds of "overwhelmingly negative" Steam ratings after its creator, Dolphin Barn, employed anti-mask language in patch notes.

The optimisations and bug fixes patch note reads:

TAKE OFF THE FCKN MASKS.
Next time you’re at the grocery store, try showing a woman your face. Be confident, unafraid of the LIES — you might get a girlfriend. Women like confidence. Women don’t like dudes who cover their faces in fear. What are you afraid of? Getting laid? Grow up.

It goes without saying that the notes did not go over well with the players. Only 16% of Domina's reviews in the previous 30 days have been good.

A recent review reads:

Politics and personal views should never be part of the game marketing.
The Dev decided otherwise. To say, C-19 is a lie after literally millions of people died due to this virus, is not just a lack of responsibility but pure ignorance. If the dev don’t want to believe in it, fine.. but trying to convince others who actually show solidarity and responsibility not to do that anymore by luring them with cheap and false arguments is just pathetic.

Another begins:

How to ruin a game in 2 easy steps. 1. Add microtransactions years into release. 2. Add a weird rant about masks into your patch notes. Avoid this dev.

Some people choose to give the game favourable reviews with pro-mask remarks.

One example reads:

Women like men in masks. Those are responsible men. Still a good game despite creator having the wrong take on the world he lives in.

Despite a drop in the previous month, Domina continues to receive "very positive" ratings on Steam, with 7,674 at the time of writing.

Domina is in beta on Windows PC via Steam.

 

[Ana]

Just let folks like this remain irrelevant, please. They very clearly are trying gain some more attention.

 

[Rum]

A ploy to get some attention on the game.