Spanish fascists stole the domain of a game publisher

Last week, IGN introduced a game called aztec ecumene – in which you play as an Aztec warrior who finds himself in the middle of a guerrilla war against the Spanish conquistadors. following this IGN profile, aztec ecumeneThe developers of have been harassed by far-right extremists, including the theft of the website associated with the publisher by far-right trolls, who then turned it into a page promoting Spanish imperialism.

In the initial writing of the game, IGN named Giantscraft as aztec ecumenedeveloper and publisher of . Giantscraft is also listed as the publisher of press materials for the game which the edge Has obtained. There are no links to the Giantscraft site at IGNThe article, but searching for Giantscraft reveals a single Instagram page.

On this Instagram page, aztec ecumene does not appear; instead, the page presents a link to the giantscraft.com website. Upon visiting the website, users are greeted with an extremely basic site for a game publisher, featuring a quote attributed to Hernán Cortés, one of the conquistadors responsible for the destruction of Tenochtitlán and the enslavement of its people, as well as like a giant. image of the Cross of Burgundy: heraldry linked to Spanish royalists, South American far-right extremists, and the Nazis. Also featured on the page is a link to another Instagram page that is very clearly some sort of “anti-wake” 4chan account full of memes celebrating Spanish imperialism.

To be clear, Giantscraft does not appear to be affiliated with the Spanish far right. A translation of a post on the fascist Instagram page suggests that Giantscraft did not reserve the domain giantscraft.com and, after the disclosure of aztec ecumenean opportunist stole the domain and created what is essentially a Spanish Imperial fan page. the edge contacted Giantscraft and its PR, and a PR spokesperson confirmed this via email, writing that “since the announcement, they have been targeted by far-right groups” and that the domain was taken over shortly thereafter. AztecAd of . Due to the apparent death threats the development team has received, we are granting anonymity to the PR spokesperson.

Ecumenegames.com is the official website of the publisher, and their PR spokesperson claims that the publisher was in the midst of a name change to Ecumene Games when all this happened.

on social media, aztec ecumene received a mixed response. Some praised the overall concept of the game (after all, there are very few games where conquered peoples get a chance to fight their historical oppressors), while others derided the game’s stereotypical version of the Aztec civilization it presents. an ahistorical representation of Tenochtitlan and humans. sacrifice built into the game mechanics. Another subgroup of detractors was upset that you couldn’t play like the Spanish.

The criticism of the game seemed enough to prompt the developers to update its scope. In an update on the game’s Steam page, the developers wrote that they would be reworking the game to allow players to choose to work with conquerors, as well as implement additional features to make the game more historically accurate.

In a statement made through its PR, the developers of aztec ecumene said the change in scope was due to community requests.

“It was not planned. However, we saw that about 40 percent of [the] audience says that [they] I would like to have [the] choice to join [the] conquerors, so we could actually try to give this possibility. The game is not political in any way and never will be, it is history FICTION”.