No Man's Sky subreddit shut down, community erupts

UPDATE: The main No Man's Sky subreddit has reopened.

Mod Sporkicide said r0ugew0lf, who has shut the 150,000 subscriber-strong /r/NoMansSkyTheGame after claiming it had become "a hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion", would "take a break" and had passed control over.

Here's the latest announcement:

/r/NoMansSkyTheGame lives again, then. But it seems its community is still upset over r0ugew0lf's actions.

Looking to the future, Sporkicide said /r/NoMansSkyTheGame would do more in terms of moderation support, which r0ugew0lf had singled out before setting the subreddit private.

ORIGINAL STORY: The No Man's Sky subreddit has been shut down, with the mod responsible expressing his distaste at what it has become.

/r/NoMansSkyTheGame, which had over 150,000 subscribers, was closed with an announcement post from moderator "r0ugew0lf":

We've kept an eye on the No Man's Sky subreddit in a bit to stay up to date with Hello Games' controversial space game.

Using WayBackMachine, which archives the internet, we can see a number of posts from disgruntled No Man's Sky players who are upset at the lack of updates from Hello Games and its development chief Sean Murray.

However, these kinds of complaints are familiar. In fact, they've defined discussion about No Man's Sky ever since it came out in August.

Users of the subreddit are understandably upset that it's been shut down, with many questioning r0ugew0lf's decision. There's also surprise at how easy it is for one person to close a large subreddit.

The No Man's Sky subreddit was popular enough for its closure to draw the interest of Reddit's community team. A post by a Reddit admin suggests a bid to reinstate the subreddit.

Following up on his announcement post, r0ugew0lf commented to complain about the lack of moderator support, which may help explain his exasperation.

Recent mod comments on chat program Discord were made public and archived on Imgur. The Discord posts reveal r0ugew0lf notifying the other mods of his decision to shut down the NMS subreddit. The mods seem nonplussed, with just a couple of dissenting comments.

Some have accused r0ugew0lf of trolling the No Man's Sky community, and remain unconvinced by the explanation for his actions.

This isn't the first time the No Man's Sky subreddit has hit the headlines. After Kotaku reported a delay to the game, the subreddit exploded with anger, and death threats were issued.

After No Man's Sky came out and disappointed some, Hello Games has worked to improve technical aspects of the game with patches, but the Guildford developer has been criticised for a lack of communication.

Just hours after the No Man's Sky subreddit was closed, an alternative, simply titled r/no_mans_sky, was set up. It already has nearly 7000 subscribers, and is packed with comments about the end of the main thread. Some are calling it a fresh start for online discussion of the game.

Meanwhile, /r/NoMansSkyTheGame remains offline.