'Hatred' Developer Creative Destruction Denies Accusations That Some Studio Members Are 'Neo Nazis'

On Friday a story by F*ck No Videogames alleged that the some of the developers behind the "mass murder" action game Hatred might be tied to extremist groups in Poland. Another report from Player Attack reiterates these allegations and expands on much of the information contained in the first report. We reached out to Poland-based developer Creative Destruction on early Friday afternoon and CEO Jarosław Zieliński responded this morning, calling the accusation that members of his team were extreme-right and Neo-Nazis "simply really stupid."

Before we give you that statement, here's a little background on why the two aforementioned publications have reported that Creative Destruction has ties to an extremist and racist group; according to both reports, a group photo of the studio shows one member wearing a Żołnierze wyklęci (also called "cursed soldiers") t-shirt. The "cursed soldiers" were an anti-communist military group formed during World War II. While seen as important historical heroes in Poland, they are also admired by extreme right-wing activists in country. According to the reports, the person wearing that t-shirt is Jakub Stychno, who also allegedly supports "Obóz Narodowo Radykalny" ("National Radical Camp"), an "extreme-right" anti-communist group.

Creative Destruction CEO and Animator Jarosław Zieliński also allegedly has associations with extreme-right causes; his Facebook page at one time showed that he is a supporter of the "nationalist, anti-Muslim hate group Polska Liga Obrony (Polish Defence League)."

FX artist Marcin Kaźmierczak is also a supporter of "homophobic, racist, unpleasant Facebook pages" (according to Player Attack's report), as well as a supporter of the "nationalistic, homophobic youth organization Młodzież Wszechpolska (All-Polish Youth)."

Both Polska Liga Obrony and Młodzież Wszechpolska are considered right-wing nationalist groups, and Obóz Narodowo Radykalny has been identified by the European Human Rights Association as an organization that engages in hate speech.

But Creative Destruction CEO and Animator Jarosław Zieliński says that all of these accusations about he and members of his staff being involved in (and supporting) extreme right and Neo-Nazi groups is "simply really stupid."

"These accusations are simply really stupid. :)," Zieliński told GamePolitics in an emailed statement.

"'Żołnierze Wyklęci' were an underground polish army, who were fighting Nazis and after the fall of [the] Third Reich, they were treating communists who came to Poland as the same kind of enemy that Nazis were. They were fighting with those new occupants after the war is over. They were never associated with Freikorps, it's bullshit and I don't know where from people get their historical informations. 'Żołnierze Wyklęci' are considered a national heroes of Poland, but their memory is obviously a pain in the ass for all commie-lovers and their supporters, so they try to defame all those who remember. TL;DR - if someone considers people who were fighting Nazis and another totalitarian regime as Nazis themselves, are really fucking stupid."

He also addressed allegations that he supports Polska Liga Obrony on Facebook:

"As for me supposedly 'supporting' Polska Liga Obrony on Facebook. Well, I've liked this page, because it's source of an information what is going on right now in the middle-east and Europe (and a lot of evil shit is going on - those are REAL problems, not our game). Some things media would not show, nor tell. So: no, I'm not any kind of 'supporter.'"

"I hope it clears everything out," Zieliński said in closing. "The truth is - when you'll make a controversial game (or any other type of controversy), there will be some people who will spread false propaganda about you personally. Do not believe them, they feed on naivety. We are group of nice, normal guys, you don't have to be some sick bastard to make a game like this."

Zieliński also posted a statement on his personal Facebook page to speak out about the accusations.

Zieliński, according to a very rough translation from Google, says on his Facebook page that he "does not feel depressed" by all of the "hate" and the questions about "Nazis," and that he cares more about things going on in the real world than any shit storms on the Internet. He also said that about "five percent" of the emails have been about "non-production" of the game and "hate," with the rest being supportive.

You can read his entire post here.

Hatred was announced last week to a mixed reaction by the community and press. The launch trailer for the game shows a nameless protagonist who "hates the world" going on a mass murder spree against innocent civilians. Creative Destruction says that it will be for PC only and will be distributed by Steam and GOG.com if it can receive approval from both platforms. A Rep. from GOG had no comment on the game Friday, only saying that it had not had any contact with Creative Destruction.

Last week after the trailer for the game was released, Epic Games asked the company to remove its logos from it saying it "isn't involved in this project." The game is being built using Epic Games' freely available Unreal Engine 4.

We will continue to follow this story as it develops.

Source http://gamepolitics.com/2014/10/20/hatred-developer-creative-destruction-denies-accusations-some-studio-members-are-neo-nazi#.VEk_EIqXec1