The Frankfurt game studio hides the Drachenlord's house in the Steam game Enshrouded

Survival RPG Enshrouded is a surprise hit on Steam right now. The game comes from development studio Keen Games from Frankfurt. As has now become known, there is a controversial Easter egg hidden in the game: the former home of influencer Reiner “Drachenlord” Winkler, “Drachenschanze”, has been recreated in the game in great detail. Some people find this funny, others dismiss it as bullying.

What kind of game is this?

• The survival game Enshrouded was released in Early Access for PC on January 24, 2024. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series
• At its peak, the game had an impressive 160,405 concurrent players on Steam. It also received a good rating with 85% of positive reviews.
• Along with Palworld, Enshrouded is currently the “survival game” of the moment that you should actually take a look at. We often referred to it on MeinMMO as “Minecraft for adults.”

House of the Dragon Lord, “Drachenschanze”, in a steam stroke

Some users noticed this: In one part of the Enshrouded game world, the former home of influencer Rainer Winkler has been recreated in detail.

This was not made by any player, but is part of the Enshrouded world and came from the developers themselves.

Why is this a problem? Influencer Rainer Winkler is a prime example of a form of online controversy that has now lost all center and measure and has become a case of bullying and stalking.

A group of people online, called “Drachenhaiders,” find it entertaining or cultural to monitor, visit, and comment on an influencer's work in a sarcastic, satirical, or insulting way.

The “Dragon Game” consists of driving to Winkler's house at the time (“Drachenschanze”), whose address has long been known, teasing him and having fun when Winkler panics and screams.

The “haters” feel morally right because Winkler is a bad person who has actually done a lot of mistakes. People often make fun of some of his sayings, or linguistic errors or dialect.

Internet journalists such as Sasha Lobo (trans Mirror) I dealt extensively with Rainer Winkler. Lobo wrote in 2021 that Winkler had been tortured, threatened, and harassed by the mob for years.

When Winkler resisted and became violent, the court found him guilty. Lobo described dealing with him as a complete failure of the judiciary, the media and society.

A MeinMMO staff member and friend took these screenshots of the house in Enshrouded and its location on an in-game map for us:

What is the reaction to the house in Surrounded? The community of “haters” finds the house in “Enshrouded” incredibly funny and entertains itself in videos about photographing the house, explaining individual rooms and imagining what other sound effects could be present on the photos. We describe in detail the words that can be used to send Winkler off the property in this or that room.

One enjoys the fact that there are also obvious “haters” at the Keen Games studio in Frankfurt.

But there are also isolated voices that look at it critically. The negative review of “Enshrouded” on Steam states that this Easter egg would fuel untold bullying against the Drachenlord. Winkler should also be prosecuted for a number of things, but that should be done by the rule of law, not by a bunch of bullies. “No one deserves to be bullied. No one ever.”

17 people found the review helpful, and 55 people found it funny, which illustrates the problem with the whole situation.

MeinMMO asked the developers of Enshrouded for a statement. We will submit it as soon as we have it.

The developers will remove the Dragon Lord's home

Updated February 1, 2024 at 8:30 am: We have received the following statement from the developers:

It has been brought to our attention that there is a building in the game that resembles a real building linked to real events. This building was not intended to be in the game. We are currently working on removing this building from the game. It will take a few hours for our team to roll out the update to everyone. We will take appropriate action to ensure this does not happen again. We apologize for this incident and expressly distance ourselves from it.

Jan Jockel, CEO of Keen Games

You can read our review of Enshrouded here: The new survival game from Germany may be the next big hit on Steam, but it has just one big problem

Updated February 1, 2024: In an earlier version of the article, we linked the Steam review we quote in the article and shared it with a screenshot. The Steam review author asked us to remove both. He says he was profiled and received threatening emails. We were asked to take screenshots and a link from the article. He deleted his Steam review.