World of Warcraft: Who is Pirate Software?

World of Warcraft players and fans might have heard the name Pirate Software for the first time after he got caught in the middle of a WoW controversy. The community is going after him after a run in Dire Maul that went badly and two level 60 characters died in WoW Hardcore.

Who is Pirate Software?

Jason Thor Hall is a Twitch streamer who goes by “Pirate Software,” which is also the name of the independent games studio he owns, and works as the Game Director alongside two other members. He has 1.3M followers on Twitch, where he streams gameplay and talks about the gaming industry since he has also worked at Blizzard Entertainment and Amazon Games Studios.

What is the WoW controversy involving Pirate Software?

The controversy lies in the involvement of Pirate Software in the permadeath of two level 60 characters in WoW Classic Hardcore and what many community members perceive as his lack of accountability for it. He was playing with OnlyFangs guild members Sara, Snupy, Ozyfell, and Yamato, but while in Dire Maul North dungeon, the group was overwhelmed by mobs and decided to run back to avoid permadeath.

You can watch them struggling to deal with Gordok Mage-Lord and several mobs by the eighth hour of Pirate Software’s Jan. 12 stream. They ran, but while other players stopped running, Pirate Software never stopped, abandoning them.

The group asked for his help, but he said he didn’t have any mana. “Do you see my mana? What am I supposed to do for you,” said Pirate. When the group fled towards Pirate, he cast Ice Barrier on himself, which further drained his mana. That’s when Sara died. Pirate left the dungeon without the others, and Snupy ended up dying shortly after, both players who died losing their 60-level characters.

When Ozyfell and Yamato went to Pirate, he said “They called run, I ran, and I was out of mana. I don’t know what the hell they were expecting, dude, that does not make any sense.” The group debated what they could have done and threw the blame onto Pirate for running away.

“You weren’t paying attention to party resources, you overpulled, you weren’t paying attention to where the boss was. That’s not on me,” said Pirate. Yamato kept arguing about what he could have done, but Pirate cut him short.

The repercussions

Sara and Snupy’s communities went to Pirate’s stream to attack him for the outcome leading to thousands of bans. “Like, I think we banned about 2,500 people so far,” he said. Sometime later, Pirate said the group wanted to talk and Yamato got on a call, but as soon as Yamato started pointing out that what made them angry was Pirate’s “zero accountability,” Pirate left the conversation.

Some in the community are angry about his choice of not helping, while others agree there was nothing he could have done that wouldn’t risk his death as well. Generally, most agree that Pirate’s response wasn’t good considering Sara and Snupy lost hundreds of hours of gameplay. Some members of the guild even went as far as calling him a “roach.”

Sodapoppin critiqued Pirate saying “Those two people did not need to die” and that Pirate could have saved them if “he played his class to a basic level.” Ahmpy pointed out how Pirate is supposed to be someone who knows everything about WoW but “he panicked like a roach and did nothing for his group.”