Fallout 76 player banned by Bethesda following homophobic attack

With a game where every human character is a real-life player, it was only a matter of time before some of the worst examples of humankind reared their ugly heads in Fallout 76. A group of players calling themselves "gay eliminators" have been banned from the game by Bethesda after a player documented his encounter with them on Twitter. You can the video clips in the three below.

In an interview with Eurogamer, the victim, AJ, broke down how the interaction started and evolved. It began with a player named NathanTheHicc approached Aj's group to trade. One of AJ's group complimented the character or the character's outfit, which drew an "I don't fuck with that homo shit" response from NathanTheHicc. NathanTheHicc then left, but returned with friends and started harassing Aj's group. "The game notified me that if I didn't fight back, they would do limited damage so I didn't fight back and hoped they would just get bored and leave," AJ said. "They stuck with it and even joked about how 'this is the strongest queer I've ever seen'."

Fallout 76 has mechanics in place that don't encourage unwanted PvP play. If one side is the aggressor while the victim doesn't respond with violence, the damage is minuscule and, if the aggressor eventually kills the player, they earn the Wanted Murderer status that makes them the target of the entire server. AJ didn't shoot back, was killed, and switched servers with his friends before sharing the events on Twitter.

If those banned players happen to be ones that purchased Fallout 76's Power Armor Edition of the game, they'll at least have a nice canvas bag to cherish or cry into. If you aren't caught up, Bethesda's Fallout 76 criticisms have extended from the game all the way to the marketing. The Power Armor Edtion of Fallout 76 was promoted in an ad and that ad showed a canvas style collector's bag. Instead, the team went away from that for cost's sake and supplied purchasers with a cheaper nylon bag. Bethesda responded poorly to the issue at first, but is fixing things by replacing the Fallout 76 nylon bags. Stay tuned to Shacknews for additional updates.