Helldivers 2's Galactic War Is Actually Controlled By Only One Person

screenrant.com:

As players fight tooth and nail to reclaim planets overrun by Terminids and Automatons, developer Arrowhead reveals that the intergalactic war is managed by only a single person. While the core loop involves running around alien planets and gunning down various enemies, there's a much larger scale meta-game at play that sees the community fighting to take control of several endangered planets. Given that opposing factions seemingly respond to player-led pushes, many assumed it was simply an automatic difficulty setting to make the experience more challenging.

Per, that's actually not the case after Arrowhead revealed there is a single employee who works as the Game Master for . According to the studio, the Game Master, Joel, has a lot of control over what's happening across the galactic war front, and the developers are constantly looking to improve the way the Game Master interacts with the community. CEO Johan Pilestedt noted that has been a major influence, stating, ""

Joel's job may sound like a great deal of fun, but the role of Game Master is seemingly a lot more stressful than some fans may initially expect. Certain instances of players proving too efficient have resulted in the developer improvising some scenarios. According to Pilestedt:

There have been some sudden moments where maybe one planet was too easy or one was too hard and [Joel] had to get up in the middle of the night to give the Automatons a bit of reinforcements so the players don't take [the planet] too quickly.

was recently rocked when one of its most sought-after planets, Malevelon Creek, fell prey to the Automatons as Super Earth was pushed off the world during an aggressive campaign. In the hours that followed, the community came together to mourn the collective loss before mounting a major return to the swampy land. It remains one of the game's most contested planets, and the Automatons have shown no sign of slowing down their crusade.

Joel may be hard at work balancing ,but he'll soon