Please don't make death threats because a video game got delayed

I can think of lots of reasons to delay a video game, and zero reasons to threaten to kill someone because a video game was delayed. And yet that's exactly what happened to No Man's Sky creator Sean Murray, who announced last night on Twitter that he had received "loads of death threats" following the news that release of his game would be pushed back a couple of months.

I have received loads of death threats this week, but don't worry, Hello Games now looks like the house from Home Alone #pillowfort

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) May 28, 2016

This is, of course, absurd and inappropriate. And if you're thinking "surely this is an isolated incident and people never routinely get harassed online," consider that it wasn't even the first time in the past week that it's happened, over the same game, for the same reason! For merely writing about No Man's Sky being delayed, Kotaku news editor Jason Schreier received a threat of violence on Twitter:

What it's like to write about video games on the internet: pic.twitter.com/a4yRcGMbsA

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 27, 2016

So if you are thinking "I should threaten someone today," let me help you out with a list of reasons never to threaten someone online.

• Don't threaten someone because you're mad about video games and / or the existence of women
• Don't threaten someone because you're mad that a couple guys got called out for their dick jokes
• Don't threaten someone because you're a terrorist group that wants fewer features on Twitter
• Don't threaten someone because they're not voting for your boy
  
• Just don't ever threaten someone

• ViaPolygon
• SourceSean Murray on Twitter