A Finnish indie developer has apologized for wanting to “murder” immigrants in an alcohol-fueled Twitter rant.
Panic Art Studios is a Finnish indie developer best known for Hero Siege, a hack-and-slash RPG with roguelike elements and pixel graphics. The game was made by a team of just three people, including Panic Arts Studios CEO Elias Viglione.
Last Friday, Viglione posted a horrendous Twitter rant where he said he wanted to "murder all these pieces of s--- who try to invade our countries to bring violence to innocent people's lives."
In a series of posts, Viglione explained that he was "approached by a Somalian and Middle Eastern guy about 'drugging a girl' in a nightclub." After accusing Viglione of this predatory behavior, they demanded that they go outside the establishment to fight it out.
Instead, Viglione approached the bouncer who called him a cab home. He agreed with his Vietnamese taxi driver that all "n------ and Middle Easterners were animals" and that "every investment" he makes from now on "kills as many of these animals as possible."
Viglione's Twitter account has since been deleted, but according to Game Revolution, Viglione called it a "bad moment." He later posted an apology on the official Panic Art Studios Twitter account, explaining that he was extremely upset after being accused of drugging and raping women and then being approached by 5 men who seemed intent on doing him harm. After he got home, "something just snapped inside me" which resulted in the racist Twitter rant.
He then slept for "48 hours str8" and woke up with "suicidal thoughts."
"What I said was wrong, people should respect each other and live along with no fear of getting mugged or killed by anyone. I am deeply sorry to every person this personally offended," wrote Viglione, before adding "not the people who are just trying to s--- on a person for having a bad moment."
Viglione also said in the Hero Siege public Discord server that he has "racist tendencies flr all the s--- I've seen through my life, but normally I just try to fight it and think more positively."
As pointed out in Nasim Haque’s tweets, this isn’t the first time Viglione has posted controversial remarks. In 2018, he went on another Twitter rampage saying that "women don't have the nerves to be CEO” of a game development studio.
Source: Twitter, Game Revolution