Boyfriend Dungeon voice actor faces harassment over villain role

Boyfriend Dungeon is a dungeon crawler "shack and slash" indie roguelike game developed and published by Kitfox Games. The game is based in an urban fantasy setting and sees players battle through the world alongside their partner, who coincidentally can also transform into a kind of sentient weapon. The game allows players to date these weapons with a rather inclusive, tasteful approach to gender and sexuality. 

Boyfriend Dungeon's main plot includes rather sensitive content, which sees an antagonist character practically stalk players throughout the game. Fans were upset about the plot not being made clear and later hit back at the actor portraying the villain by harassing him with hate mail and death threats.

Boyfriend Dungeon voice actor target of harassment

According to a report by Kotaku, fans were upset when they learned about the plot and claimed that the game did not provide sufficient warning about the game's sensitive content. The developers later added a content warning to the game but some fans still were not happy.

The content warning for Boyfriend Dungeon inadequately describes the events of stalking and emotional manipulation that exist in the story. We'll update the game next week with a more accurate CW. We apologize for any hurt inflicted by our mistake. Thank you for playing!

— Kitfox Games 🦊 BOYFRIEND DUNGEON OUT NOW (@KitfoxGames) August 14, 2021

Alexander Gross, who portrays the antagonist "Eric", was at the receiving end of the hate despite merely voicing the character in the game.

On Twitter, Gross wrote: "I can't believe I have to address this, but please don't send me hate messages about my character in Boyfriend Dungeon. I know he sucks, but I'm just his voice actor. Please be respectful."

"Saying [that] it reflects poorly on me to play a character like this is so confusing. There [are] bad people out there, I don't support what these [kinds] of people are doing, saying or thinking at all. It's just acting, y'all," he added.

We agree that it's kind of insane that some fans would go so far as to target the game's voice actor. While it does demonstrate the die-hard nature of Boyfriend Dungeon's fanbase, this sort of backlash is definitely not warranted.

Some fans have called for Gross's character to be removed from the game, despite it being a major character in the Boyfriend Dungeon storyline. 

We'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not you agree with the stalking subplot. Be sure to shoot us a comment on Twitter to let us know what you think.

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Header image via Kitfox Games.