Subreddit mods ban user after tipping off police about stolen Starfield copies
The moderators of the subreddit r/GamingLeaksAndRumours banned one of its users for reporting another who had leaked Starfield gameplay to the police, Kotaku reports.
The moderators explained they weren’t “interested in having someone here who takes action against the community like that”.
The leaker — 29-year-old Darin Harris — allegedly stole copies of the game from a warehouse and started selling them online.
Harris also shared screenshots, footage of the game, and a review of Starfield, earning him folk hero status among the subreddit’s users.
Jasper Adkins spotted Harris’ work and immediately reported him to Bethesda — the game developer behind Starfield — and the Memphis police.
Adkins emailed Kotaku to inform it of the incident.
“It seems to me that the subreddit is running on ‘bread and circuses’ mode mixed with bystander syndrome,” Kotaku quoted Adkins as saying.
“They’re perfectly willing to ignore a crime that hurts a developer they claim to support, in exchange for a few minutes of shaky gameplay filmed from a phone.”
Adkins was banned from r/GamingLeaksAndRumours on August 24 after posting about how he tried to help get Harris arrested.
“If he just did it I wouldn’t think badly of him but to come on the sub and brag about calling the cops on the dude just rubbed me the wrong way,” Kotaku quoted one of the admins as saying.
“Might unban him at some point but for now he’s behind the bars of the internet.”
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