Virtue Signaling in Gaming Megathread

[WhiteMousse]

Hard not to hear about this either directly or in passing if you're a gamer. Lots of people have lots to say about it but I'm trying to keep this OT framed in terms of what actually happened rather than what it means.

So what did happen?

The bottom line is that DEI-gaming consultants "Sweet Baby Inc" were exposed for harassment and coercion to insert certain social narratives and ideals into video games (example: CEO talk admitting to their coercion tactics: twitter.com/GamesNosh/status/1764802262017183761). When people exposed this in a manner that could reach large groups of people they zerged out and launched a harassment and discredit campaign, which ironically drew attention to the thing they didn't want people to see.


Now SBI has been in effect since 2018, lots of people have known this and lots of people know what they do. They are officially a narrative consultant entity focused on diversity (this is their own claim on their own website).

https://sweetbabyinc.com/

"Founded in 2018, Sweet Baby Inc. is a narrative development and consultation studio based in Montreal and working around the globe. Our mission is to tell better, more empathetic stories while diversifying and enriching the video games industry. We aim to make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful, and more inclusive, for everyone."
"We believe you need diverse voices to solve diverse problems. Sweet Baby Inc. provides narrative consultation at any stage of development, boasting a talented team with vetted industry experience to best bring your story to life."



A group on Steam, store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017/ formed with a list of games that employed Sweet Baby to consult on their creation, along with a discussion board and chat about the issue. The purpose of this group is to identify games that have been influenced by SBI, so those who do not want to support that kind of bullshit know what to look out for.
This issue was largely dismissed and ignored by video game journalism sites such as Kotaku--- at first.
But then this group grew to well over 100k users. Following this, Kotaku, Game Developer and other gaming news entities started posting articles claiming that this is targeted harassment. There's copious spamming of the terms "chud" and "nazi" so you know it's legit. The creator is latino, so the first prong of narrative control is bent to fuck. This doesn't prevent them from the usual victimhood tactics while they're actively doing the thing they claim to be suffering.

Chris Kindred of SBI, while certainly not the sole proponent of trying to dissolve this group, was the initial and possibly the most vocal:


The group has not failed the code of conduct by the way. Identifying games influenced by companies is not targeted harassment or any kind of harassment.


Kotaku journalist Alyssa Mercante has been most popular lately with her especially racist take. She claimed to have "infiltrated" the discord of the Steam Curator group in an attempt to find... whatever she thought she was going to find. When questioned about her own racist nuances in publishing (pretty common in Kotaku, so not limited to her), she made herself popular complete with a community note correcting her racist and objectively incorrect rhetoric:



Even though they're getting ratioed and smashed with community notes, the war rages on against a Steam Curator group whose purpose mind you is solely to identify games affected by SBI. That is the "harassment" of which they speak, the oppression for which they are calling both the Steam group and its creator to be banned or otherwise barred from online/gaming access.

The US government funded "Take This" charged the gaming industry to "Clearly and unequivocally denounce gamergate."



So... what the hell, right? I'm hoping I don't need to explain why that's fucked


Another fun note: Wikipedia has put in the heavily slanted narrative and has locked its entry for revision. Ironically Wikipedia does the exact same thing that the Steam Group did: identifies games worked on by Sweet Baby Inc.

"Journalists" insisting that SBI doesn't do what it does:

https://archive.is/1QwRY

https://archive.is/5bkGS

Most neutral take I can find:

This video talks about how overblown and visceral reactions to the blatant leftist agenda can give the appearance of credibility to their claims of being harassed. It's another bullshit tactic but if you really care about this you need to be level-headed and not say stupid shit online that could be misconstrued.

Runner Up: Asmondgold, I'm not a Critical Drinker fan. Asmond is as close as to the middle as a person in this community can get, and as far as I know he's far and away the most popular. He agrees with everything I've said here. In this first video you can see the CEO of SBI, flat out saying that they want to force diversity and marginalize white players in fact and through game narratives. This directly contradicts both twitter representatives of SBI and journalism sites such as Kotaku insisting that it is not being forced.

 

[Plissken]

I've really only followed this story on the periphery as I haven't really been interested in any of these games anyway as most of them aren't my thing so I don't really have much firsthand knowledge of the content of these games.

Seeing a bunch of articles and tweets from industry people come out at the same time defending SBI and attacking people for taking part in a mere Steam group that only lists the games this company has worked on without any commentary whatsoever really helps to put things into perspective of how buddy-buddy corporations and media are.

I mean first the company itself attacked the group and its' creator (a Brazilian dude mind you not part of the American political circlejerk) which then brought the curator page to public attention, then a bunch of people joined it and that's really it and a bunch of people lost their minds. It's just, "hey I don't want to buy any games this company is involved in to I'll join this tracker to make sure I don't". If there were some right wing equivalent to SBI and a curator wanted to track them then they have every right to do so as well and people should be able to buy what they will most likely enjoy. Crazy.

 

[GtehMVP]

I've really only followed this story on the periphery as I haven't really been interested in any of these games anyway as most of them aren't my thing so I don't really have much firsthand knowledge of the content of these games.

Seeing a bunch of articles and tweets from industry people come out at the same time defending SBI and attacking people for taking part in a mere Steam group that only lists the games this company has worked on without any commentary whatsoever really helps to put things into perspective of how buddy-buddy corporations and media are.

I mean first the company itself attacked the group and its' creator (a Brazilian dude mind you not part of the American political circlejerk) which then brought the curator page to public attention, then a bunch of people joined it and that's really it and a bunch of people lost their minds. It's just, "hey I don't want to buy any games this company is involved in to I'll join this tracker to make sure I don't". If there were some right wing equivalent to SBI and a curator wanted to track them then they have every right to do so as well and people should be able to buy what they will most likely enjoy. Crazy.

You'd think SBI would welcome people knowing what games they worked on.

They Streisanded themselves when they went after the group lol.

 

[KaNesDeath]

This is just two internet echo chambers having internet beef. Theyre just bouncing off one another trying to prove the opposites depravity.


I dont care about some initiative group getting a 10K DHS grant. Nor the triple A publicly traded game studio appeasing these initiative groups to secure outside funding for game development on shit games that wouldve still been shit regardless of their involvement.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I just wanna play games man.

 

[Zazen]

Honestly just buy the games that you want to play and ignore this stuff. Not worth it. I'm sure some of my favorite games had some jackasses working on them but the reality is that AAA games require hundreds of people nowadays. Some you'd get along with and some you wouldn't. I just don't see how refusing to buy a game you were interested in hurts anyone but yourself.

Fortunately I play 80-90% East Asian games anyway. This year alone there's FF Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Elden Ring Expansion, Visions of Mana, Wukong Black Myth. In fact the only Western games I play are the Sony exclusives like God of War, Last of Us, etc.

 

[Madmick]

A group on Steam, store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017/ formed with a list of games that employed Sweet Baby to consult on their creation, along with a discussion board and chat about the issue. The purpose of this group is to identify games that have been influenced by SBI, so those who do not want to support that kind of bullshit know what to look out for.

Followed.

 

[Madmick]

This is just two internet echo chambers having internet beef. Theyre just bouncing off one another trying to prove the opposites depravity.

Nonsense. You're always apologizing for or supporting the wokeists.

I dont care about some initiative group getting a 10K DHS grant. Nor the triple A publicly traded game studio appeasing these initiative groups to secure outside funding for game development on shit games that wouldve still been shit regardless of their involvement.

I do. I care. I don't want groups like these receiving grant money. And I want AAA studios to lose more money from consumers than the money the gain via securing outside funding by involving themselves with groups like this. That will disincentize it, and force useless, partisan outfits like "Sweet Baby Inc" to cease existing. I'd like that very much.

 

[GtehMVP]

This is just two internet echo chambers having internet beef. Theyre just bouncing off one another trying to prove the opposites depravity.


I dont care about some initiative group getting a 10K DHS grant. Nor the triple A publicly traded game studio appeasing these initiative groups to secure outside funding for game development on shit games that wouldve still been shit regardless of their involvement.

"Theyre just bouncing off one another trying to prove the opposites depravity"

Openly racist trashbags vs a curator list just pointing out the games they worked on, same depravity indeed lol

Here's a former SBI employee hired by EA studio to work on a Black Panther game.


I'm so glad the spotlight is getting shined on these parasites. They bring nothing of value to the table. If hiring these lunatics is all about securing ESG funding/better interest rates, surely publishers can do better.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

 

[method115]

"Theyre just bouncing off one another trying to prove the opposites depravity"

Openly racist trashbags vs a curator list just pointing out the games they worked on, same depravity indeed lol

Here's a former SBI employee hired by EA studio to work on a Black Panther game.


I'm so glad the spotlight is getting shined on these parasites. They bring nothing of value to the table. If hiring these lunatics is all about securing ESG funding/better interest rates, surely publishers can do better.

Yea I saw this incredibly racist. I saw a reporter from Kotaku say you can't be racist against white people and twitter community or whatever it's called correct her post.

 

[blaseblase]

I don't care about this shit. Either the game is good or it isn't.

 

[Krimzon]

non-white team members are also capable of 'micro' aggression, that team manager needs her brain examined. There's no justification for deliberately excluding white ppl from being hired for a job, it should be illegal. Judging someone by their skin pigmentation doesn't make any sense.

 

[KaNesDeath]

Nonsense. You're always apologizing for or supporting the wokeists.

The only game studio i have respect for refuses to appease these groups. In fact they provided the medium that initiated all this, lol.

Edit: 2am cobwebs.

 

[Zazen]

I don't care about this shit. Either the game is good or it isn't.

This is how I feel. The entire entertainment industry leans left because creative people in general tend to have more liberal views. Chances are that everyone here has bought a video game that had someone like these people on their dev team. You might as well just give up all video games, movies, tv shows, etc if you feel so strongly about this. I can think of one exception of a creative type not being a lefty. The guy who created Earthworm Jim is a massive Trump supporter and has his own YouTube channel discussing politics. I hate Trump and think he's an awful person but if that guy decided to make another Earthworm Jim I'd be there day one. At the end of the day I just want a good video game, it doesn't take just one person to make a game afterall.

 

[WhiteMousse]

The only game studio i have respect for refuses to appease these groups. In fact they provided the median that initiated all this, lol.

Just out of curiosity what studio?

I'm glad that there are devs and studios that won't buckle to this kind of nonsense. I understand the sentiment of "who cares, I just want to play games" but the fact is that there are people in the industry and especially in gaming journalism who don't want to let people do that. They're not content to let you make a game you want, and make a game that they want. Think about how they lost their minds when Kingdom Come was made.

They don't want to allow people to make games that they don't like. Lots of these people don't even love or play games, or really care about making good games. They want to USE games as a means of extending a very specific political ideology. You mentioned before that you don't care that they're getting government funding to do this kind of thing and I have to say that utterly baffles me. I'm not going to pretend I'm smarter than you because I'm not, so my challenge is more out of genuine curiosity.

 

[WhiteMousse]

"Theyre just bouncing off one another trying to prove the opposites depravity"

Openly racist trashbags vs a curator list just pointing out the games they worked on, same depravity indeed lol

Here's a former SBI employee hired by EA studio to work on a Black Panther game.


I'm so glad the spotlight is getting shined on these parasites. They bring nothing of value to the table. If hiring these lunatics is all about securing ESG funding/better interest rates, surely publishers can do better.

Yeah this is the point of the thread, and there's simply no way around it. I understand if someone wants to say I'm paranoid about a company wanting to insert leftist ideology into video games. We can put that conversation to the side, the fact of the matter is they started a campaign against a Steam Curator group that does nothing but identify games associated with Sweet Baby Inc. That's not a breech of TOS, it's not harassment, it's not hate speech, etc. The campaign launched in response IS harassment. Trying to get the group shut down and the group creator banned. That's the genesis of this recent occurrence and as other have pointed out a very sturdy example of the Streisand Effect.

 

[method115]

non-white team members are also capable of 'micro' aggression, that team manager needs her brain examined. There's no justification for deliberately excluding white ppl from being hired for a job, it should be illegal. Judging someone by their skin pigmentation doesn't make any sense.

It is illegal and technically any white person who applied to her company and wasn't hired could file a law suit.

 

[blaseblase]

Just out of curiosity what studio?

Valve, assuming they meant to say medium.

 

[GtehMVP]

This is how I feel. The entire entertainment industry leans left because creative people in general tend to have more liberal views. Chances are that everyone here has bought a video game that had someone like these people on their dev team. You might as well just give up all video games, movies, tv shows, etc if you feel so strongly about this. I can think of one exception of a creative type not being a lefty. The guy who created Earthworm Jim is a massive Trump supporter and has his own YouTube channel discussing politics. I hate Trump and think he's an awful person but if that guy decided to make another Earthworm Jim I'd be there day one. At the end of the day I just want a good video game, it doesn't take just one person to make a game afterall.

Entertainment has been predominantly left leaning in the west for a long time. However, there's a big difference between liberals and people unable/unwilling to define what a woman is lol. These types of lunatics have always existed and worked on countless games, movies, shows etc... but they've never been as influential as they are today and in recent history.

That appears to be thanks to ESG funding requiring a certain amount of DEI, where consultant teams like SBI come in. It helps explain why so much western entertainment since the late 2010's have been littered with lazy/forced identity politics over storytelling/character development. Companies like SBI are just a symptom, but I'm glad they are getting called out. The market is speaking loudly anyway, Hollywood/gaming flops galore, no one wants that shit.

This is why I love CDPR's writing team in Cyberpunk, and the team at Larian. Both have plenty of diversity/inclusion but it's never at the expense of their vision. They take me back to the late 2000's/early 2010's, with RPG's like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and New Vegas.

Just out of curiosity what studio?

I'm glad that there are devs and studios that won't buckle to this kind of nonsense. I understand the sentiment of "who cares, I just want to play games" but the fact is that there are people in the industry and especially in gaming journalism who don't want to let people do that. They're not content to let you make a game you want, and make a game that they want. Think about how they lost their minds when Kingdom Come was made.

That Kingdom Come debacle is the perfect example of unwell people. It's like complaining that there are no black people in the Shogun series.

I loved KC, can't wait for the sequel!