Gamergate II - The Guardian comes out swinging for Sweet Baby Inc

submitted by xoenix from (theguardian.com)

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[–]Hematomato 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

So much has changed.

I was against GamerGate 1.0.

I played Depression Quest on the day it came out, before the whole brouhaha. I thought it provided a perfectly adequate amount of value for my $1.99.

I watched Anita Sarkeesian's series. I thought: yeah, she's being fair. She's saying she loves these games, she's not objecting to their right to exist, and she's pointing out tropes that definitely exist.

GamerGate 2.0 is different. You know why? Because AAA games have fucking sucked since GamerGate 1.0. They've been unplayably shitty. And the focus on "DEI first, story second, never be edgy" is exactly the reason why.

I haven't bought a AAA since Ghost of Tsushima four years ago, and even that was frankly pretty underwhelming. And that sucks! I used to love AAA titles. Now my excitement is just gone. A new Bethesda or Bioware or Valve or CD Projekt Red title used to be an event. Now it's just "Ah, more DEI shovelware that's gonna fucking suck."

If companies keep hiring consultants like SBI, the industry just has no future.

[–]xoenix[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The industry has a future. The companies that have allowed themselves to be overrun by SJWs will just go out of business.

[–]Hematomato 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Well, for the time being, I'm pretty much only playing games made by one to three people. Games like Undertale or Rimworld or Terraria or Slay the Princess or whatever.

Ayn Rand once observed that there is nothing uglier than a sentence written by eleven people, and I'm inclined to agree. As soon as you're hiring story consultants at all, it means your story sucks and now it's only going to suck more.

[–]xoenix[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Wokeness aside, there is probably some practical maximum amount of money that can be riding on an entertainment product before every line is written by no less than 11 people.

[–]Hematomato 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's another lesson that the moneymen need to relearn: you have to find someone brilliant, put your money behind them, and trust them to deliver.

It's not like we haven't learned it before. We were doing it constantly in the '90s. Japan still does it sometimes. "Wait, your game is about Norman Reedus throwing bags of his sweat and piss at ghosts? Well.... you're Kojima. Here's two hundred million dollars."

Try to please everyone with committee writing, and you'll just get bland, uninspired shit that pleases no one. "Woke" is not the sole industry problem here. It's that they refuse to take risks, to surprise, to challenge. All they can do is make sludge that vaguely reminds us of good games from fifteen years ago.

[–]LordoftheFlies 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Here is an entertaining Reddit thread where someone asks for an explanation about the whole SBI thing, and the comments are (unsurprisingly) full of "well the alt-right/conversatives are all anti-intellectual thugs, of course they hate blacks, gays, and women in games!"

[–]westway9 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Guardian is composed of political activists masquerading as a serious news organization. Fuck em.

[–]LordoftheFlies 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Great, now all we need is a new Zoe Quinn to come crawling out of a hole to take advantage of the mess for her own gain. Maybe we'll even get another poor bastard driven to suicide by a legion of simps and white knight dogpiling him over false assault allegations.

[–]WoodyWoodPecker 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Depressionquest was a bad game, written by a shitty programmer. Zoe Quinn assumes that depressed people are lazy and should be forced to get out of bed and do chores around the house and work. She committed ableism in her game.

[–]Jiminy 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

She sounds based

[–]jet199 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Why wasn't this woman given more money?

[–]WoodyWoodPecker 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

She gave the game away for free and asked for donations. http://www.depressionquest.com/ judge for yourself. It is like Zork meets Eliza.

[–]xoenix[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

For as long as there is ESG tipping the profitability scales, then there will be a demand for companies like this. But what they should be doing, like they do in most industries, is show you how to skate by the requirements with the bare minimum of effort. Then their service would actually provide value.

[–]LordoftheFlies 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Except that these companies are staffed, to the last, by true believers, grifters, or both. And the bare minimum doesn't satisfy either group. More feelz or more gibs, either is only possible if their goals are enacted to the maximum possible levels.

[–]xoenix[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Probably not the actual devs and animators doing the hard work. The people you're talking about are likely easily replaced. Or could simply be eliminated in a lot of cases. If it weren't for ESG or other artificial pressures, I think the market would flush them out eventually.

[–]LordoftheFlies 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Probably not the actual devs and animators doing the hard work.

But how many of those work at SBI, which is listed in their wiki as "narrative development and consultation studio?" In fact, reading between the lines of the company history as presented, they're a glorified DEI enforcement racket specific to the gaming industry. I find it unlikely that such a company wouldn't have everyone from top to bottom fully onboard with the stated goals.

[–]xoenix[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oops, I got confused, I was talking about the gamedev companies themselves. You're right - existing DEI consultants are likely staffed with woke cultists. But I'm saying it makes more business sense to run these companies in a way that lets their client skate by the requirements rather than doubling down on everything, causing more work and disruption in the company. The newness of the industry has probably kept it protected from commercial pressures, but I would think this will change over time, if it isn't changing already.

[–]Bitch-Im-a-cow 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Seems like this is not as much of a problem as online bullying. The games industry can try to address both problems.