PlayerUnknown, also known as Brendan Greene, and a popular Twitch streamer have been at odds over the past days due to a temporary ban from the wildly popular Battlegrounds.

The streamer, DrDisRespect, shot a squad member in order to fit the entire squad on a vehicle.

Not only was the Doc playing up his character: a smooth-talking, tough-acting synthpunk action hero, but the roleplay carried over to Twitter, as well.

I’ll break the rules anytime, anywhere I go…. and look good doing it.

— Dr DisRespect (@DrDisRespect) July 18, 2017

If I could do the splits I’d roundhouse kick you in the neck.

But since I can’t, I’ll just front kick you in the chest instead.

Lightning.

— Dr DisRespect (@DrDisRespect) July 18, 2017

Now, there’s a line when it comes to playing a character, especially when your streaming livelihood depends on mercy from your main game’s creator. The ban was entirely temporary, which makes the response from the Doc a little extreme.

Brendan Greene also elaborated on the situation further in a TwitLonger, quoted below in its entirety:

So today I created a little bit of a shitstorm on Twitter.

Before I begin, I have to say that I do enjoy the character Guy has created with DrDisrespect. Hell, I am even part of the Slick Daddy Club! I understand that he likes to talk shit, and I was right there with him until that one tweet.

I was told that I should have taken The Docs threat of violence as a joke. So now I will try explaining why I took this tweet seriously and tweeted out the response I did.

Story time!

When I was in college, many years ago, I had a disagreement with my flat mate. Instead of talking it out like men, he decided to get aggressive and while I was backing away from him, he kicked me in the chest and put my head through a plate glass door. Thankfully, I don’t suffer from any ill effects due to this experience.

The point of that story is to attempt to explain why I think even the threat of violence is not something that should be joked about. Given my experience in college, and the fact that The Doc’s threat, even as a joke, synced up closely to a bad experience I endured, it could have brought up bad memories, triggered a panic attack or had other consequences The Doc might not have intended when composing the tweet.

All I ask from anyone that reads this is to consider that your words, however flippant they may be, could have unintended effects on those reading them.

Using the controversy as a platform to advocate against solving problems with violence is something I can say I never expected from Greene, nor did I expect him to open up with a deeply personal story. It’s unfortunate that the issue intersected with that experience, though it’s an important lesson for anyone with influence. Idle threats aren’t going to solve anything, and could very well bring up traumatic memories for some.

For now, The Doc is back to Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, and Playerunknown is back to working on the game. For the most part, nothing’s changed. Instead of lasting drama, we’ve come out the other end with a humble message from a humble dev.

Cover image via Humble Bundle.