Not everything is fine in the digital wild west. Red Dead Online fans point out that almost a year has passed since Rockstar has significantly updated the open-world MMO, which has left people feeling exasperated by the content drought. But instead of complaining about it, the Red Dead Online cowboys are organizing a kind of protest.
Instead of wearing the usual spurs and 10-gallon hats, players choose to dress up as clowns. The definition of “clown” is pretty flexible here: Accepted participation may be the typical variety of white-nosed, red-faced jesters, but organizers also encourage people to think about broader circus roles. A Discord group with thousands of members is treating everything like a fashion contest where participants can also dress up with strong men, acrobats, mimes, jugglers, ring masters, knife throwers and more.
“Instead of letting it turn negative or unpleasant, which in gaming communities can often happen, I thought about changing [our protests] into something a little more fun or even healthier in some way, “Magnar, one of the administrators of the Red Dead Online group, told Polygon over Discord.
Magnar notes that sometimes aggravated players will call Rockstar developers “clowns” for mishandling the update schedule, but the reality is more complicated than that. When people express dissatisfaction with the state of the game, detractors often respond by asking why they would continue to play if they were not having fun. That, for Magnar, makes players the butt of the joke.
“We are the clowns for waiting for an update or communication, so let’s have fun with that,” he said. That idea soon became such a strong meme that in late June, some RDO fans were painting their faces like clowns in real life:
He was a clown like many others today who expected something. Even if it were little details about what is to come … Here we are empty and angry, I have decided to live my life as what I have now become … a clown pic.twitter.com/Ohgxehcp3O
– (@ BloodLust180) June 30, 2020
Fast forward to July, and the Discord group was able to fill an entire server with clowns, in an effort to draw attention to their situation. Everything was created by the player OnlyPVPCat.
From there, the usual antics ensued: the clowns took over venues, such as hijacked bars or trains, and proceeded to wreak havoc. Since then, the event has received some attention from the broader community, with more players also participating in games disguised as pranksters. The Discord is now also full of photos of people participating in the “protest”, some as clowns and others who fulfill the more general theme of the circus.
“We have seen many times that people who are not satisfied express their frustrations in a really negative way,” said Magnar. “But with the Red Dead community, a lot of people still love the game, they’re just disappointed that Rockstar takes them for granted, so yes, we still play, but we’ll vent any frustration on a more fun and clown game.” road.”
You can join the Discord with the clown contest here.
