This week, Total War community manager Michael "Wheels" Whelan ended his final stream and last day at Creative Assembly with a message for a YouTuber. "Arch Warhammer is a dickhead," he said. "Goodbye."
Creative Assembly released a statement on Twitter (opens in new tab) today apologising for Whelan's comment, saying it was not up the developer's professional or personal standards. "We apologise for any hurt or harm caused," it concluded.
pic.twitter.com/lwIVAiqy3yJuly 26, 2019
Arch Warhammer is a strategy YouTuber who also appears to go off on tangents about 'SJWs' ruining games and censorship in Total War. In his own video (opens in new tab)—which inaccurately portrays Whelan's insult as an official Creative Assembly statement—Arch Warhammer claims that he "triggered" Creative Assembly by criticising their curation of Total War mods.
Creative Assembly removes mods that are designed to "provoke, intimidate, or antagonise other groups, reference other IP, or create content of a sexual nature." The last one has upset modders wanting to sex-up Three Kingdoms and turn female warlords into waifus. Some players, like Arch Warhammer, reckon that's censorship.
While lamenting Whelan's lack of professionalism, Arch Warhammer's video partner calls him a "shill" trying to impress girls by "virtue signalling". Ah yes, the language of professionals.
I reached out to Sega and Creative Assembly but they had nothing to add to the statement.