Assassination Of Charlie Kirk Brings Out The Worst Of The Gaming Industry

OPINION – The morning of Sept. 10, 2025 Charlie Kirk had breakfast with his three-year-old daughter, one-year-old-son, and his wife Erika. They said their prayers, as they did before every meal, and while they were eating, Kirk was preparing for his upcoming appearance a few hours later at Utah Valley University as part of The American Comeback Tour organized by Turning Point USA. He didn’t know it was going to be his last breakfast with his family.

Thousands of students clad in red, white, and blue showed up for the event, many eagerly awaiting their chance to debate Kirk on pressing issues. Anything from trans rights to gun control was on the table. Kirk was already famous for allowing anyone to get a chance to prove him wrong. There are hundreds of videos with Kirk calmly and methodically walking people through their arguments while articulating his own. He didn’t know that the event in Utah was going to be his last.

During an exchange with a student who wanted to debate gun violence at around 12.20-12.23 PM, the sound of a single shot echoed across the campus area. The bullet struck Kirk in the neck, hitting a main artery. He slumped off his chair and fell down as security staff covered his body. Perhaps somehow, while struggling to survive, Kirk glimpsed his wife and children for the last time.

Kirk was rushed to Timpanogos Regional Hospital less than 2 miles away from the event. He was declared dead at the hospital later that afternoon. Charlie Kirk was 31 years old.

Celebrating The Murder Of Charlie Kirk

News of the shooting at the university spread across the US and the rest of the world like wildfire. Mainstream and social media was flooded with reports of the shooting. Within minutes, people were celebrating in the most vile ways possible, especially on X (Twitter), Bluesky, and Twitch. 

And this is where people working for games studios and publishers decided to not only mock the murder of a human being they disagreed with, they started asking for more blood. X and Bluesky saw numerous threads with people calling for the murder of Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and President Donald Trump.

Microsoft came out with an open statement on X regarding what some of its employees posted on social media about Kirk’s assassination.

“We’re aware of the views expressed by a small subset of our employees regarding recent events. We take matters like this very seriously and we are currently reviewing each individual situation. Comments celebrating violence against anyone are unacceptable and do not align with our values.”

Devs at Blizzard have also been called out on X for celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk, and the same goes for Bungie and Bethesda

Ironically, for those who actually heard Charlie Kirk, and didn’t just listen, you would know that he would defend anyone’s freedom of speech, which would have included the right to celebrate his assassination. Kirk also supported the second amendment, giving all US citizens the right to bear arms, but he was never an advocate for gun violence.

It is not conflicting to understand that holding a certain opinion which can be boiled down to not being able to make an omelette without cracking some eggs, doesn’t mean that you advocate for regular omelettes or want to see eggs cracked. It’s observing a consequence of an opinion without endorsing it.

Careers Going Down The Drain

I agree that no one should be fired for a political opinion, religious belief, or sexual orientation. But I’m not naive. In today’s world our social media posts get lumped in with those of our employers as if the companies we work for endorse what its staffers share privately. That is not how it works. People are responsible for their own words and actions.

However, companies have codes of conduct and expect their employees to adhere to them, including outside of office hours. And companies firing people for publicly stating that political assassinations are justified, or even liking such posts, shouldn’t be a concept that’s difficult to grasp. Understanding that actions have consequences is something we all learn from our parents when we’re kids. Facing those consequences as adults shouldn’t come as a shock.

Youtuber Asmongold asked his followers to compile lists of people who work in the video game industry so they could be reported and lose their jobs for making posts that celebrated or endorsed the killing of Kirk. In a recent video titled “These people are f*cking evil” he goes through several comment threads on X and Bluesky and tells his viewers to repeatedly destroy people’s careers.

“Never let up the pressure. Keep this pressure up until these people lose their jobs. And then after they lose their jobs, then take a break, relax, pat yourself on the back, wait for them to get another one, and then do it again,” the Youtuber said.

“And that’s the only way that you should treat these animals. You shouldn’t view them as people. You shouldn’t view them as a person with a political disagreement from you. These are violent animals who are trying to destroy the last good thing that we have, which is the open ideas of political discourse.”

Drew Harrison worked for Sucker Punch Productions for about a decade. Her most recent position was Senior Staff Character Texture & Look Dev Artist, working on the upcoming title Ghost of Yōtei. She confirmed on Bluesky that she has been fired, presumably for her posts following Kirk’s murder.

“If standing up against fascism is what cost me my dream job I held for 10 years, I would do it again 100x stronger,” she posted on Bluesky.

More Polarized Than Ever

I’m old enough to remember the initial slogans for the internet. They were very much in the same vein as the old Nokia mobile phone – “Nokia, connecting people.” And this is what we thought the internet would do. In many ways it has, but not like we expected.

The internet creates echo chambers which causes polarization that leads to a world of “us and them.” Each side is convincing itself that they are the good guys and any opposing views are the bad guys. To remain in either group, its “members” must learn to tolerate thoughts and opinions they may not hold as individuals, but speaking up from within leads to being ostracized, excommunicated, and labeled enemy of the cause. It’s this fear that keeps people stuck.

The greatest lie perpetuated is that we live in a political world of left and right. Believe me, we don’t. We have much more in common than what separates us. We worry about the same things. We care about our children, that we have a roof over our heads, and food on our table.

Only if you extrapolate to the point of absurdity, without questioning why, will you get to a point where you end up in a world of us and them. Have you ever noticed that whenever there’s a natural disaster, no one stops to argue whatever differences they may have? We band together without question to help each other.

I disagreed with Charlie Kirk on many issues. I disagree with the idea that he deserved to lose his life for what he stood for. I disagree with anyone who celebrates the murder of anyone because of a difference of opinion.

I fear what’s coming next… Hopefully we can take a page out of Charlie’s playbook and come together in civilized discourse. If we don’t… then he died in vain. It’s up to us now.