Helldivers 2 is ostensibly a co-op game about (managed) democracy-loving humans versus robots and bug monsters, but that’s a surface-level reading of drama that’s growing more multifaceted by the day. Easily the biggest plot development since the game’s launch was last week’s revelation that its metagame – which sees players collectively, over the course of countless missions, attempt to push back enemy incursions across a variety of planets that can be fully taken over and temporarily shut down – is being DM-ed by a lone individual named Joel. This rules. But ever since, players have tried to psychologize the intergalactic mystery man with a pedestrian name, to a degree that seems a little unhealthy for all involved.
Citing Dungeons & Dragons as a big influence, Johan Pilestedt, CEO of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead, explained Joel’s role to PC Gamer: “We have a lot of systems built into the game where the Game Master has a lot of control over the play experience. It's something that we're continuously evolving based on what's happening in the game. … There have been some sudden moments where maybe one planet was too easy or one was too hard and [Joel] had to get up in the middle of the night to give the Automatons a bit of reinforcements so the players don't take [the planet] too quickly.”
This means unexpected events like Automatons (robots) mounting their own invasion while humans were preoccupied with a battle against the Terminids (bugs) that, in hindsight, was going a little too swimmingly. Most famously, this dynamic played a role in the fall of what players call Robot Vietnam, a jungle planet named Malevelon Creek on which players mounted a series of doomed last stands until the Automatons fully took over, temporarily blocking access to the planet. Players mourned, naturally, with memes.
The important thing to understand about Helldivers 2’s community is that nearly everybody is roleplaying. The game’s satirical Starship Troopers-evoking opening and dialogue have given rise to a community that loves shouting slogans like “For Democracy!” and staying in character even while discussing features and items. On TikTok, there’s a fan-made propaganda account dedicated to providing updates from the warfront. It’s all very amusing, adding to and riffing on the intrinsic comedy of the game. But of course, some players take their goofy fun very seriously, watching third-party planetary progress trackers like hawks and applying careful rigor to their plans to spread Super Earth’s definitely-benevolent influence.
Now, thanks to Joel, the harsh light of reality has started to stream through cracks in the fourth wall. Helldivers 2’s subreddit is a sea of threads with titles like “Damn Joel,” “Thank you, Joel,” and “This war is going too well. Joel must be preparing for something.” Some enjoy the idea of an all-seeing conductor orchestrating the most entertaining war possible and have incorporated him into their roleplay. Yeah, he might send a War of the Worlds-esque stampede of gigantic reinforcements to stomp them, but Helldivers is at its most fun when players are scrambling and screaming. Others resent Joel for what they perceive as slow or sudden tweaks to planets that seem to render hours of hard liberation meaningless. Many arguments center around Joel: Is he amping up tension and making the metagame more fun? Is he making the warfront feel alive and reactive? Or is he being a killjoy for the sake of cheap shock value?
Some Helldivers 2 players wish they never learned about Joel.
“Knowing that someone is behind the scenes directly influencing the war destroys any type of immersion I had,” wrote one player. “Joel can wake up, see that we are succeeding too fast, and turn the dial one way or the other to make the war look how it should. We won’t win or lose any war we aren’t meant to. There’s no reason to fight where we are told or contribute to the war in any way. The story will be told however they want to tell it.”
"I joined this community for the chill and stupid roleplay,” wrote another player, “not for some cries over the game's liberation progress. I am expecting awesome things from the people managing this game, but you guys are a burden sometimes. Joel this, Joel that. Leave him alone, man."
This, in turn, has caused Helldivers 2’s developers to talk even more about Joel – though crucially not to have him speak in a public forum or grant anybody an interview with him (Aftermath has made several requests for interviews with Joel and other members of the Helldivers 2 dev team, to no avail). As part of a recent Discord exchange, Arrowhead community manager Katherine Baskin validated players’ concerns that Joel might be pushing himself a little too hard and explained how the studio is supporting him.
"We have done an emergency expansion to the GM's team,” Baskin said. “He's only one guy, and he was just not sleeping. I remember over the launch weekend, he was sending me messages at 4am because we were the only ones still awake."
Baskin went on to say that Joel has “a lot of advisors.”
Over the weekend, Pilestedt took to Twitter in an effort to clarify a phenomenon many have attributed to Joel: planetary progress falling off precipitously overnight. Players believed this to be a result of interference from a desperate DM, when in reality it’s just how the game is designed to ebb and flow.
“I've seen many Helldivers 2 posts about a planet's liberation amount: At peak [player count] the community is able to liberate high amounts, but as soon as peak passes, the enemies manage to take the planet back,” he wrote. “Each planet is [seized] constantly (think HP regen). This means that at low [player count] planets lose liberation %. It's a push and pull!”
Many players seemed to pick up what Pilestedt was putting down. But Joel’s influence continues to be felt, even when he’s not directly steering the ship.
“Joel out here causing mad trauma,” one fan replied to Pilestedt.
