Helldivers 2 pulls trigger on ’emergency expansion’ for gamechanging GM team

Arrowhead Game Studios has decided to make an “emergency expansion” of their tailor-made Helldivers 2 game master team as the title approaches its one-month anniversary, with reinforcements for the enigmatic GM Joel on their way.

Arrowhead community lead Katherine Baskin said in the official Helldivers 2 Discord server this week that more personnel will be dedicated to Helldivers 2’s Dungeons & Dragons-like GM team in the near future, with their bold plan to run the campaign no longer feasible without more staff. “Unfortunately, our scope was much narrower at launcg,” Baskin said. “We expected fewer players and easier means and methods of communication.”

Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead have a designated “dungeon master” who we’ve come to know is simply referred to as “Joel,” instead of an automated schedule or series of events that control how players interact with the game. This human element, Arrowhead believes, makes for a more immersive Helldivers experience as someone can analyze and make more sensitive choices.

However, following the game’s amazing and momentous launch, the role can no longer be done by any one person anymore. “[Joel is] only one guy, and he was just not sleeping,” Baskin explained to Helldivers fans, adding Joel was often working incredibly late hours both over the launch weekend and throughout the game’s first week of live service.

Not all players were on board with the idea that a single person or team was responsible for the narrative direction of a game like Helldivers 2, but Baskin identified it as a “calculated decision” on Arrowhead’s part. “It’s really intended to keep the game exciting and keep the never-ending war engaging for players,” Baskin said. “Helldivers 2 is going to run for a long time, we’d love to see it go for many years, and that means we need something more than just a calendar with automated events tied to major holidays.”

It was not revealed exactly how many extra people would be brought in to join the GM team or any other specifics related to how Joel’s job will be made easier, but Baskin says a “deep dive” blog from the GM’s is very much on the Helldivers to-do list.

Helldivers 2 sits second only to Counter-Strike 2 in terms of Steam player count, according to SteamDB, clocking in at over 350,000 players today alone. With a bigger GM team helping tell the Helldivers story, we can only expect the game to get that much better.