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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Morgan Park

'Joel is now a team of people working together': Helldivers 2's game master has evolved into a hivemind

Joel Johan Pilestedt Arrowhead
Helldivers 2 illuminids.

A few weeks after Helldivers 2 came out, Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt introduced the world to Joel, the official "game master" at Arrowhead pulling the strings on Super Earth's galactic war against the Terminids and Automatons. The community instantly embraced his faceless, invisible presence, creating memes and attributing any and all happenings in Helldivers to his great design. Some joke that he's a myth started by Arrowhead to create a common enemy for players, others think Joel is a machine controlling the flow of reinforcements in the galaxy.

Joel has become a symbol of Helldivers 2's innovative, participatory war metagame, and while talking to Pilestedt about Helldivers 2's new surprise update, Omens of Tyranny, we also got a somewhat surprising Joel update.

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