The Internet Is Torturing Discord’s Mascot Wumpus Over Buggy Age Verification

Fed-up users turned Discord’s age-assurance rollout into a meme, especially after the company’s sarcastic tweet about the bugs.

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The Lowdown

Joking about your own bugs only works when users aren’t locked out of their servers. Wumpus is paying for a social media manager’s punchline.

Key Takeaways

  • Discord activated age verification for all users in September (Kotaku).
  • Some users were sorted into the wrong age group or not sorted at all, and Discord acknowledged the bugs (Kotaku).
  • The “Wumpus Torture” meme spread as users depicted the mascot being harmed in protest (Know Your Meme).

The Story

On September 23, Discord posted, “When you launch an extremely popular age assurance update that everyone on Discord was really looking forward to and it has bugs.” Many users found it tone-deaf, and some responded with images of Wumpus being beaten up (Kotaku).

Know Your Meme said the format became a way to vent about age verification, with many examples referencing other popular memes (Know Your Meme).

Discord says it estimates age from signals like account age and server activity, not messages, and expects more than 90% of users to avoid verification. It also added options like credit card checks (TechCrunch) (Kotaku).