As Helldivers 2 players died millions of times on planet Mort, D&D-style war master Joel was "watching it all go down" and called it a "thing of beauty"

gamesradar.com:

Helldivers 2 players died over 10 million times taking one planet, Mort, from the Automatons last week, and you'd better believe that galactic D&D game master Joel was watching the whole thing from the front row with a bucket of popcorn in one hand and a waving lighter in the other.

Community manager Baskinator of developer Arrowhead Game Studios shared some fresh Joel lore with the Helldivers 2 Discord last week. One player understandably asked why she was posting on what was apparently her day off, arguing that it "can't be healthy" to work so much. 

"Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't," Baskinator responded. "One of the reasons I love to talk about Game Master Joel with everyone in here is that he's as dedicated to the community as I am. We love this place and the players who spend their time here. Actually, I'll share with you this little tidbit... When MORT HAPPENED, Joel sent me a message about watching it all go down and he called it a 'thing of beauty.' I know people are struggling to get on board with the idea that a human is on the campaign instead of an unfeeling computer, but I'll take a human any day." (I'd like to point out that this message got a bunch of emoji reactions spelling out "M O R T J O E L" with a thumbs up, because it's very important.) 

In a separate comment, Baskinator weighed in on Joel's growing reputation as the man ostensibly behind literal inside jobs like the fall of Malevelon Creek. "I think it's unfair of some of the journalist pieces about the GM to say that he's working against players," she said. "That's not really the best way to think about it. It's more like he's trying to respond to the natural push/pull of players in certain areas and either raise the challenge or lower the challenge, depending on how he reads the data." In other words, not unlike a good author challenging their beloved protagonist, Joel only asks this of us because he cares and wants us to have fun. 

Helldivers 2 is only a few weeks old, and already