Is Pirate_Software a Villain?
- Is Thor/Pirate Software the Villain of streaming? or just misunderstood?
- PUBLISHED: 17-July-2025
- PAGE VIEWS: 3
This post was written by:
Sorry, this could be a long one…
Who is Pirate Software
Pirate_Software, also known as Thor for the sake of this post I’ll refer to him as Thor. Thor became well known in the streaming world after breaking out a few years ago. He gained recognition through his YouTube shorts, which I feel like every Tom, Dick, and Harry has seen at least one of.
When I first discovered him, he was working on a game called Heartbound (we’ll get to that later). As he grew, I noticed he started branching into more gaming content, and he also became a kind of Q&A guy, answering all sorts of questions about getting a job, streaming, game development, and even some personal topics.
Like with the Nutty blog, this isn’t meant to be a hit piece, nor will it scream fanboy. My relationship with Thor and his streams is pretty limited. It mostly involves occasionally saying “Hello Thor and Chat” and then lurking. Outside of that, my interactions with him have been minimal, maybe one or two quick exchanges in the Streamer.bot Discord when he came in asking for help.
I’m openly a lurker, and I generally enjoy his content. He has however come under fire recently, and I feel like I want to address it.
Why I am addressing this
The first question to ask here is: why did I start this blog? The honest answer is that I wanted a place to get the thoughts that circle around in my head out. I wasn’t bothered if nobody read these. I write these posts as much for myself as I do for anyone else.
I went down the Thor rabbit hole because it felt bizarre that someone so respected in the streaming space could be considered a villain. The more I thought about it, the more it played on my mind. That’s why I’m writing this. Normally, I end blog posts with a “Final Thoughts” section, but because of the nature of this post, I might skip it. At the time of writing this sentence, I’m not sure if it will be there. I intend to address each controversy individually and give my thoughts after each one, so I don’t want the end to just repeat everything I’ve already said.
Pretext
Before diving into the controversies, I want to make it clear that I am not a lawyer. I’m learning game development, but I’m by no means an expert. I’m a very small streamer and content creator. I have no personal stake in this.
I just want to share my thoughts.
I also want to stress that at the end of the day, Thor is a human being with feelings. We need to keep that in mind when creating content that critiques him. I strongly condemn the swatting, death threats, or abuse Thor has received.
This isn’t an attack. It’s just my neutral view based on what I’ve read and seen. My understanding might be wrong, but I can only form opinions based on the information available and the way I interpret it.
The Controversies
Let’s take each controversy one by one, explain what happened, why it happened, and finish with my thoughts.
WOW
World of Warcraft, or WOW, is an MMO game. It’s not something I’ve played, so I can’t speak too deeply on it. To my understanding, Thor was playing in a guild called “Only Fangs,” which was made up of some well-known streamers. They were playing a mode called “Hardcore” meaning if you died, your character was gone and, you had to start over. Naturally, players did everything they could to avoid dying.
One day, during a dungeon or raid (basically a battle that requires teamwork), the raid leader called for a retreat. Thor retreated as ordered, but some players were left behind and died. The controversy stems from the idea that Thor could have done more to save them. Thor’s argument is that he followed the order to retreat.
Could he have done more? Probably. Should he have? I don’t know.
Yes, it sucks people died, but at the end of the day, it’s just a game. I don’t think this is a valid reason to hate on the guy.
Stop Killing Games
This is where it starts to get weird. From my limited knowledge, this seems like something Thor would normally support, especially considering his previous stance with Sony/PlayStation and what I recall from the Helldivers 2 situation.
If you don’t know, Stop Killing Games is an initiative asking game developers to stop shutting down support and services for games, effectively killing them.
Thor has taken a surprisingly negative view of it. He seems to believe it will do more harm than good, and he’s had some choice words for Ross Scott, the founder of the initiative. This has led to a lot of criticism.
I get both sides. While I strongly disagree with Thor’s stance, especially when it comes to larger publishers who I believe have a responsibility to keep their games playable, he’s entitled to a different view.
From out-of-context clips, it looks like Thor is actively trying to damage the cause. I suspect what people are seeing now is a shift from defensive to overly defensive after being constantly bombarded by criticism.
You can’t poke the bear and not expect a reaction. That said, reacting isn’t always the best course of action either, but one can only take so much.
Having a difference of opinion isn’t a reason to hate on the guy.
Covid Lies?
This one seems silly. The claim that Thor lied about having COVID is, in my opinion, a non-starter. Even if he did lie, it doesn’t change the fact that he was clearly unwell for a time. Whether it was COVID or something else, the result was the same, he wasn’t in a state to work on the game.
Move on, people.
Voice Changer
This one is just ridiculous. The accusation that Thor uses a voice changer is nonsense. I’ve heard him speak off-stream. He sounds exactly the same.
Let your jealousy of his voice go.
Blizzard Lies
This one is more interesting. Some people claim Thor exaggerated his role at Blizzard. He admitted he got the job through nepotism but maintains he did real work.
Critics have pointed to his LinkedIn page and suggested that his job wasn’t as technical as he claimed. I would argue though job titles don’t always reflect job duties. Unless there’s concrete proof he lied, this feels like another non-issue. He clearly has knowledge and experience to share.
DMCA Takedown
This one, I’ll admit, was a bad call on Thor’s part. Here’s the short version: someone made a meme game and posted a clip on Reddit featuring a roach in a wizard’s hat with Thor’s voice. It was a reference to the World of Warcraft incident. Thor took it personally and filed a DMCA strike, temporarily taking the game down.
The clip wasn’t even in the game, it was just a meme posted online. Despite that, Thor went after the developer. While I understand it may have felt insulting, Thor came off as the bully here. He’s a guy with legal resources going after a solo developer. That just doesn’t feel right.
In this case, it’s better to control the narrative. Laughing it off would have been the smarter move. Instead, he looked petty, and that’s how the internet sees it.
He has now dropped the claim, but it should never have been done in the first place, I think Thor just has to take the L here and move on.
Heartbound
Heartbound is the game Thor is currently developing. According to Steam, development began in 2017. There are several layers to this controversy, so I’ll address each one individually.
Poor Code
Some developers have reviewed Heartbound’s code and criticized it. I’m no expert in Game Maker, so I won’t weigh in heavily. What I will say is that bad code that works is still working code. People love to talk about technical debt, but if it runs, it runs. You can’t really attack someone for choosing a less elegant method if the result is the same.
No Updates
Thor claims he posts updates in the first week of every month. From what I can see on Steam, this is mostly true, with the occasional missed month. There was a 13-month period between December 2023 and January 2025 where the only update was an April Fools’ joke.
That’s also the time Thor says he was ill. Stream stats suggest he was still active in some way, but we don’t know the full context. Did he have the capacity to code? Hard to say. I think we can give him the benefit of the doubt.
Long Time
I think 8 years to make a game is a long time, but who am I to really judge? Yes, I would expect someone of Thor’s expertise to complete the game sooner, but look at Rockstar and GTA.
No Time Claim
Okay, okay, this one’s another own goal. The claim that Thor hasn’t had time to work on the game because the channel blew up and he’s been setting himself up as a business so he can pay the mods and provide benefits, which he should actually be applauded for, doesn’t quite add up.
You can say you don’t have time, but what you can’t then do is stream for 12+ hours playing World of Warcraft or Ashes of Creation. The truth is, you’ve just prioritized your time differently and that’s okay. What’s not okay is trying to claim otherwise. It just comes across as disingenuous and frankly, it feels like a lie.
Final Thoughts
Okay, I know I said I wasn’t sure if I was going to do this section, but by the time I’d finished writing, I still had some things to say. I wanted to summarize my personal feelings.
Honestly, I used to love lurking and listening to Thor’s streams, and I really respected the spotlight he put on Streamer.bot. At the time of writing, I have just under 400K channel points, so it’s fair to say I’ve done a lot of lurking.
We started this post asking if Thor is the villain of streaming and the honest answer is no.
He’s just a guy with an opinion, and I think we have to remember that, he’s a person, with feelings. This online tirade against him isn’t healthy for anyone. So my advice? If you don’t like what Thor has done, said, or thinks just stop watching. What you shouldn’t do is go into his stream and attack him. The guy shouldn’t have to ban 500+ people every stream just because y’all have no self-restraint.
Advice to Thor
With all that said, my advice to Thor would be: take 1 or 2 months and work full-time on Heartbound. Stop streaming for a while and just focus. This will accomplish two things:
- It’ll probably remove you from the news cycle, and let’s be honest, it won’t be long before the next drama comes around.
- It’ll give Heartbound some meaningful attention, something it clearly needs.
You say you don’t have time, well, make time. Manage your time better. Just working on the game will at least show people that you are doing something, because the feeling I get from the community is that they think you don’t really care. Once all the drama bits are stacked together, it certainly can look that way or it looks like you just don’t know what you’re doing and honestly, I don’t believe either are true.
I don’t think I have much more to say. I’ll still lurk and occasionally chat in Thor’s stream because I still enjoy the vibe. Yeah, he’s done things and said things I disagree with, but that’s all it is. My point of view is different from his, but that doesn’t entitle me (or anyone) to go into his stream and say unsavoury stuff.
We, and I really can’t stress this enough, need to remember Thor is a human being with feelings and doesn’t deserve this level of hate.
So, is Thor a villain?
No. Not even close. He’s not a hero either.
He’s just a guy who makes games and has opinions on making games.