2020 was an extremely difficult year. Why? Well...let's start at the beginning.
In the early morning of January 20th, 2020, while I was asleep in bed, someone entered my Discord server for the sole purpose of spamming to see how quickly they would get banned. The image they decided to spam was an unflattering photograph of my face. Predictably, a moderator quickly banned them - not because of the picture they were posting, but because they were spamming. After getting banned, this person went to Twitter and said, "YandereDev banned me for posting this picture of his face!"
I wasn't the one who banned him, and he wasn't banned because of the specific image he posted. However, the narrative of "YandereDev gets really mad and bans you if you post his face!" was a funny concept. Because it was funny and made people laugh, it became a meme, and spread quickly - even though it wasn't actually true.
People started showing up to my server to confirm whether or not the meme was accurate. They spammed pictures of my face, and - predictably - the moderators banned them for spamming. However, they assumed that they had been banned for posting my face, rather than being banned for spamming a chatroom and making it impossible for anyone hold a conversation. This led them to draw the conclusion that the meme was true - that an enraged YandereDev was spending all day furiously banning people on Discord.
Because it was funny and making people laugh, people decided to make a "game" out of it; the idea was to "speedrun" getting banned and compete for the fastest "time." All it took was one viral tweet to turn it into an instant fad, and within just a few hours, literally tens of thousands of people flocked to my Discord server purely to spam pictures of my face and get banned.
It's extremely unfortunate that it's so easy to make tens of thousands of people participate in mass harassment by framing it as a "funny game" rather than what it actually is. If you make something sound fun and silly on social media, then, no matter what it is, tens of thousands of little kids will start doing it without a second thought. Remember the Tide Pod challenge? Kids actually put laundry detergent into their mouths - not because it's actually fun to have soap in your mouth, but because it was a fad. Little kids will do absolutely anything - no matter how stupid - if you frame it as a fun game. Especially if they think it will get them attention (likes, retweets, views).
People blindly believe whatever they hear online, and jump onto bandwagons at a moment's notice. If someone had started a rumor that "Toby Fox hates cats and will ban you from his server if you post cats," people would have been spamming in his Discord server, instead. People even did "ban speedruns" on the US Army Discord. People didn't decide to "speedrun" my server because I did something bad, or because I deserved it; it was a completely spontaneous phenomenon that started because one dude created a false narrative that was entertaining enough to catch on.
Anyway, because the objective of the "game" was to get banned as soon as possible, people began spamming things that universally result in an instant ban - gifs of people being killed, dead bodies, pictures of mutilated genitals, gore, scat porn, bestiality, animal abuse, gifs of animals getting killed, etc. Eventually, I woke up, got out of bed, and checked on my Discord server. By this point in time, my moderators had been dealing with gore spam and bestiality spam for several hours straight. They asked me if it would be okay to "close the server" temporarily, until the fad died. Discord doesn't really have a "close server" button; the best I could do was edit every channel so that nobody was able to send messages, so that's what I did.
My Discord server was originally created for my Twitch subscribers. It would be unfair if my Twitch subscribers were disallowed from communicating purely because trolls and children were spamming in the server, so I gave my Twitch subscribers the ability to send messages. This caused some people to develop the belief that I "set up a paywall" so that people could only talk in my server if they paid me money. Even though it wasn't true, it was an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people chose to spread.
On a side note: Occasionally, when someone deliberately tried to get banned from my server, I asked them why they were doing it. The majority of them said "i dunno lol" "for the meme" or "my friend told me to." The majority of them didn't even know who I was, or what Yandere Simulator was. They didn't think of me as a bad guy who deserved harassment; they just knew that it was a meme to harass me, and that's all the justification they needed. Occasionally, I asked them how old they were. The majority of them gave answers like "12," "13," "14." That is the demographic that is drawn to drama, jumps on hate bandwagons, and harasses targets without a second thought.
(Oh - and the guy who started the entire mess? The first guy who spammed my face to see how fast he could get banned? He did it because - in his own words - he was "thirsty for Internet clout". I know this because he said so himself, when he messaged me to apologize for his actions.)
By this point, you've probably noticed a pattern: People prefer entertaining narratives over boring truths. This didn't magically start to happen in 2020; over the course of half a decade, a lot of misinformation and false accusations had been stacking up. "YandereDev is deliberately prolonging development to milk his Patreon," "YandereDev supports pedophilia," "YandereDev is rude to his fans," etc. None of these claims are true, and I've already debunked each of them - but that doesn't matter. If the truth is boring, then nobody is going to spread it. If a narrative is entertaining, then it's going to spread like wildfire.
Drama YouTubers seek to make videos about topics/people that will guarantee lots of clicks and views (and thus ad revenue). When clickbait YouTubers and drama YouTubers noticed that tens of thousands of people on Twitter were talking about me, I instantly became the next target of the clickbait/drama community.
"YandereDev hasn't actually done anything seriously bad, he isn't really a bad guy, and everyone is dogpiling on him for no good reason" is not a fun or entertaining statement. That isn't going to get you any clicks or views. "YandereDev is a pedophile scam artist who bans people for posting his face" is a much more sensational narrative that is guaranteed to get millions of views, so that's the type of video that people made. Drama YouTubers compiled every false narrative and untrue accusation that had been created by the Anti-YandereDev community over the course of 5 years, and produced videos that mischaracterized and misportayed me.
If you put a YouTuber's name in the title of your YouTube video, the YouTube algorithm will push your video to all of that person's subscribers. Because drama YouTubers put "YandereDev" or "Yandere Simulator" in the titles of their videos, their videos were instantly pushed to my 2.7 million subscribers, exposing my entire audience to false narratives and untrue accusations that - previously - had only circulated in small places of the Internet. As a result, a massive chunk of my audience lost faith in me, and were brainwashed into joining the Anti-YandereDev hate bandwagon. Additionally, I began to receive massive amounts of harassment on a minute-to-minute basis that continues to this day.
As a result of clickbait drama YouTubers pumping out anti-YandereDev propaganda, massive amounts of misinformation spread at a completely unprecedented rate. Some of these false narratives are worth talking about, because they would have a very significant effect on what would happen next, in the 2nd half of 2020.
Yandere Simulator's character models were purchased from the Unity Asset Store. This was never a secret. I openly talked about it in a YouTube video years ago. There are also a handful of other models that were purchased from the Asset Store, such as the bushes/hedges around the school and the boats that you can see in the distance when you're in the town. Very early in Yandere Simulator's development, I sometimes used models extracted from other video games as temporary placeholders. (At this point in time, all models extracted from other games have been replaced.)
When I initially began developing Yandere Simulator, most of the environment models and props were just white cubes. After a few months, these cubes were replaced with original models that were created for me by volunteers. Ever since that point in time, the majority of Yandere Simulator's assets have been original models created by volunteers, and only a very, very small minority of the game's models were store-bought or temporary placeholders from other video games.
Despite these facts, there is a popular false narrative that "Yandere Simulator is made entirely of Unity Asset Store models and stolen models." Even though it isn't true, it 's an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people choose to spread.
One of the most popular false narratives is the idea that "Yandere Simulator's framerate is low because YandereDev uses if-else statements." In reality, if-else statements do not actually have a significant impact on a game's performance. Iterating down a list is easy for a computer. That's not something that a computer struggles with; it's not something that harms a game's framerate. Rendering huge environments, performing physics simulations, animating, pathfinding, and moving dozens of characters...those are the things that affect a game's framerate. However, that's not a fun or entertaining narrative.
Random trolls on the Internet who don't know anything about programming attempted to criticize my code without actually knowing what they were talking about. Their lack of knowledge led them to invalid conclusions, such as "if-else statements are causing a low framerate." YouTubers who also don't know anything about programming didn't bother to fact-check these claims, and carelessly repeated what they were hearing about if-else statements, spreading this misinformation to millions of people. Even though it isn't true, it is an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people choose to spread.
One day, in 2014, I received hatemail from someone who was offended by Yandere Simulator. It was actually the very first time anyone had ever sent me hatemail. Because I felt attacked, I started arguing with the person. In order to feel like I was "winning" the arguement, I tried to be contrarian and contradict everything they said. For example, if they said "Pedophiles are bad people," I would respond with "Pedophila is a mental illness! How dare you insult mentally ill people!" just to feel like I was slapping them with a witty comeback. I tried to contradict everything they said, purely because I wanted to feel like I was "defeating" them.
People have analyzed my statements from that conversation, and developed the impression that I want to "normalize pedophila." It's just not true. Everything I said during that conversation was said purely to be contrarian so that I could feel like I was "winning" the argument. Obviously, I don't stand by those statements; they were as meaningless as any other empty statement that you might make during a heated moment. However, when people saw the statements that I made, they started spreading the narrative that I "defend pedophiles" and want to "abolish the age of consent." I have explained countless times that I have no sympathy for child molestors, and that I have no desire to "abolish" age of consent laws. However, even though it isn't true, it is an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people choose to spread.
I am receptive towards criticism. However, I refuse to tolerate misinformation. When people post false, misleading, or ignorant statements, they are banned, and their posts are deleted. When people saw that negative messages were disappearing, they assumed that I was "censoring criticism", which led to yet another false narrative: "YandereDev can't take criticism." That's the farthest thing from the truth; throughout the development of Yandere Simulator, I have proven numerous times that I value critical feedback and use it to improve the game. The idea that "YandereDev can't take criticism" simply doesn't hold up. However, even though it isn't true, it is an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people choose to spread.
Imagine the following scenario:
If I did that, the Internet would tear me to shreds, right? "You didn't re-create anything!" "You just stole Toby Fox's work and tweaked it a little!" "You can't use that title! Toby already announced his intention to use that title!"
Nobody would actually allow me - or anyone else - to get away with doing something like that, right?
Right?
Right?
...well...
Someone extracted Yandere Simulator's assets, dropped those assets into Unity, created a very primitive game prototype, and gave it the name "LoveSick", which I had previously stated was going to be Yandere Simulator's new name. They even used a logo that had been created for my use exclusively!
Despite the fact that their prototype only contained a fraction of the functionality of Yandere Simulator, a narrative was born that "someone re-created the entirety of Yandere Sim in only two weeks." Even though it wasn't true, it was an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people chose to spread.
Anyone can steal another game's assets and make a simple prototype where a girl stabs people in a school environment. That's not impressive at all. (In fact, it really shouldn't take two entire weeks to accomplish something so trivial.) However, most people simply do not understand this.
Instead of roasting the thief over an open fire, people actually praised the thief for stealing my assets and re-creating the most basic, bare-bones mechanics of Yandere Simulator.
Why?
The answer is that the thief announced his project during a point in time when Anti-YandereDev sentiment was at an all-time high. The false narrative "YandereDev can't code" caused people to yearn for another developer to provide a yandere game. The false narrative "All of Yandere Simulator's models are from the Unity Asset Store" prevented people from understanding that the thief was actually stealing original assets, not store-bought assets. The false narratives like "YandereDev defends pedophiles" prevented people from being capable of feeling empathy for me.
Imagine stealing all of someone's work and putting your own name on it...but instead of being punished, you are praised and rewarded with an instant fanbase.
Wow.
After hundreds of thousands of people were tricked into believing that it's possible to re-create Yandere Sim within two weeks, my work was completely devalued, and I began to receive a massive amount of harassment.
If you are a "fan" of a game, and you feel inspired to make a "fan game," there's nothing wrong with that. However, if your "fan game" misinforms hundreds of thousands of people and causes them to harass the developer of the original game, then - if you have a human soul - you'd recognize the damage you're doing and take steps to repair the damage you've done.
Because the harassment was absolutely unbearable, I reached out to the "developer" of the "game" that had stolen my assets, and begged him to stop doing something so horrifically unethical. Because of the nature of the situation, I used very emotional language, such as "You're ruining my life," "You're destroying my project," "You're ending my career," and so forth. I used a lot of these words interchangeably with one another - "ruining, destroying, ending," etc. At one point, I told him that he was "ending a person's life," which, within the context of the conversation, was very obviously a reference to the fact that he was doing significant damage to my career by devaluing my life's work.
The conversation ended on a positive note. However...
He shared screenshots of our conversation with his moderators. His moderators completely misinterpreted my words, and thought that my statement about "ending a person's life" was an actual suicide threat - even though, within the context of the conversation, it was extremely obvious that I was not actually making anything even remotely similar to a suicide threat. The moderators posted these screenshots online, and started spreading the narrative that I "suicide-baited" the guy.
And people just believed it.
Even though the screenshots that were posted didn't even have any references to suicide.
Yeah.
I've heard some people refer to the planet we live on as "Clown World." Nah, I don't believe that. We are not living in "Clown World." We are living in "Nightmare World."
If someone re-uploads your content to their channel without making any type of edit whatsoever, they have violated your copyright, and you have the legal right to submit a DMCA takedown request to YouTube to have the infringing content removed.
A YouTuber re-uploaded some of my content (Twitch streams) with no commentary, additions, or transformations that would make the re-uploads fall under "fair use."
Anytime anyone ever re-uploads my content without making any kind of edit, I submit a copyright complaint to YouTube, because that's what the copyright complaint system is actually supposed to be used for. (If someone was re-uploading your content without making any changes, you'd submit a DMCA takedown request too, wouldn't you?)
However, clickbait drama YouTubers falsely reported the story as "YandereDev illegally copyright strikes a critic to silence him." Even though it wasn't true, it was an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people chose to spread.
Verbally abusing people and harassing people are generally considered to be cruel and unacceptable behaviors. However, under a specific circumstance, it becomes acceptable - when you have managed to convince yourself to believe that your target is a "horrible person" who deserves "punishment."
If you embrace a narrative that someone is an evil villain, you begin to feel justified in ridiculing and harassing that person. You can feel like you're the good guy, taking down an evil bad guy. You can perform actions that, normally, you would never be able to rationalize, or do without tremendous guilt. It is incredibly beneficial for you to adopt the narrative that someone is a "horrible person who deserves punishment." There are no downsides for you.
Furthermore, if you've been tricked into believing false information about a person, it does not benefit you to acknowledge that you were tricked. You would simply lose your ability to ridicule or harass that person, and you would have to confront the fact that you've been shaming and humiliating a target who didn't deserve it.
It benefits you to believe false narratives that paint a person as a villain. It does not benefit you to acknowledge the truth; that none of the accusations aimed at the "villain" were valid.
And so, "YandereDev is a bad guy" continues to be a popular belief, even though none of the above narratives are actually true.
