News of the disastrous launch of the official Sonic the Hedgehog Discord server made rounds on most gaming websites yesterday. We even published a brief overview of the situation, which still seems like a colossally silly idea in retrospect. Still, things are seemingly under control now according to Sega Japan’s Aaron Webber, former social media/PR director and now current director of Strategy, Studio, and Community Relations. In a thread on Twitter, he outlined how the launch of the server was “pretty wild,” but the preceding hours were “wholesome” for the rest of the day.
“You may see cherry-picked screens of bad actors trying to cause havoc,” Webber writes, “but these were all swiftly removed and banned. One of the key ways the server is kept clean so quickly is through the automatic filters, which are very strict right now. (Probably too strict!).” He explains this has led to some users being incorrectly banned, but the moderation team is unbanning accounts to ensure they can participate in the community. The filters will be tweaked over time to ensure blanket judgment isn’t passed down for minor infractions.
Admitting that his team still has lots to improve, Webber concludes, “Finally, though the headline: ‘Sonic Discord has very busy start and then fairly wholesome rest of the day’ is nowhere near as exciting, I do want to take a moment to say thank you to the positive and supportive fans who we’ve been interacting with. You all are great!” Overtime, Sega will open the different server channels up, so fans can enjoy the Discord as intended. I’m still not sold on the idea of a Sonic Discord, but maybe there’s hope yet.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
