Operation: Harsh Doorstop CEO Doubles Down On Legal Threats

Content creator and CEO of Drakeling Labs, the development studio behind tactical FPS Operation: Harsh Doorstop, has doubled down on his previous statements in a twelve-minute video posted to social media. On February 8th, 2025, Bluedrake42 posted a statement on social media “warning” content creators to disclose if they have taken money from competitors, or they “will have legal problems.” This new video provides some clarification, invokes the Federal Trade Commission’s new rulings, and doubles down on the threat.

Operation: Harsh Doorstop CEO doubles down on legal threats for content creators not disclosing payments

Sponsorships and paid advertisements of any kind should be disclosed to the audience. Not only is this the ethically right thing to do, but it is also required by federal law. In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its rules about disclosures for social media influencers. According to the FTC website, influencers need to “disclose when [they] have any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand.” Financial relationships include not only money, but anything of value, such as flights or hotel stays. The FTC guidelines also say that influencers should not “assume [their] followers already know about [their] brand relationships” and should “make disclosures even if [they] think [their] evaluations are unbiased.”

Related:Thieves Who Stole Footage From Shooter Operation: Harsh Doorstop Exposed

Bluedrake42 is right that anyone failing to mention their financial relationship with a game is in the wrong. In fact, they could be in serious legal trouble not just with Drakeling Labs, but with the FTC. In this new video, Bluedrake42 calls out a specific content creator, The Act Man, who posted a video titled “Making Things Right” where he admitted to accepting a paid sponsorship from new FPS game Delta Force, and did not disclose the financial relationship in the video.

In this new video, Bluedrake42 claimed that based on this video confession: “Delta Force paying off content creators to positively review the game who did not adequately disclose that, that’s already been proven to be true, that’s already been confessed by at least one major content creator…” On one hand, The Act Man’s failure to disclose the sponsorship for that video is certainly questionable legally, but upon watching the full video, one statement from The Act Man caught my attention. Just under five minutes into the video, The Act Man says “I was not paid for my opinions to make that video. I was paid to make a video and I’m the one who had full creative control and decided to make that.”

Unless The Act Man lied about his creative control over the video, the very evidence that Bluedrake42 sets forward about content creators being paid to give good reviews, seems to prove the opposite. The Act Man says that he was not paid to give a good review, so at least the review of Delta Force was honest, even if he still should have made the paid sponsorship apparent. So is there any hard evidence of content creators being paid to give good reviews? Or are they just being paid to make reviews? That’s a big difference, especially in this situation.

Bluedrake42 references an older social media post where he says: “Just so everyone understands this, the majority of content creators posting about Delta Force right now are being paid and not telling you. I know this because I see the contract offers come through…” If the team behind Delta Force, a huge FPS on the market right now, is sending contracts to content creators asking them to accept payment for positive reviews, that is also illegal. Per the FTC’s guidelines: “Businesses are prohibited from providing compensation or other incentives contingent on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative. Violations here include situations in which such a contingency is express or implied.” If Bluedrake42 has seen contracts offering to pay for good reviews, that should be reported to the FTC, especially if such a large developer is taking part in it.

This is why the threat rings hollow. If any content creator or video game company is engaged in these practices, they are not just acting immorally, they are acting illegally. Bluedrake42 shared another content creator’s YouTube video confession that he claimed was evidence, when the real smoking gun might be the offered contracts that he admits he has received. Currently, Bluedrake42’s moral stance feels still feels more like posturing in a way that will allow him to easily write off bad reviews as “paid off” rather than addressing any actual criticism of the game. If that’s not the case, why not share the contract offers? Prove that Delta Force sent out contracts to pay people for good reviews by showing us what you say you have seen. Just one of those contracts would prove that a major gaming company was doing something illegal, or at the very least immoral and harmful to consumers.

To be clear: Bluedrake42 is right that content creators should disclose any kind of sponsorship contracts they have with a game. Companies should also not be sending out these kinds of contracts. But so far, no evidence has been presented that points to the fact that content creators are being paid to write good or bad reviews of any games. But, of course, if there are any updates in this developing situation, I will make sure to keep you posted.

Operation: Harsh Doorstop

February 15, 2023

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• Overview

• free-to-play
• tactical shooters
• FPP shooters (FPS)
• PC