Many gamers as of late have felt the presence of a force far beyond the usual anticipated game releases. That presence is an ongoing “culture war” that has become pervasive in both politics and entertainment. Now, with developers and reactionaries at odds, things can get heated to say the least.
But what exactly is happening here? Has this issue always existed, and if so, has it escalated? Is it better for game developers and publishers to play into the culture war, or to avoid it altogether?
This current and ongoing controversy sweeping across the games industry has many moving parts to it. Understanding at least some of these parts is key to seeing this culture war and the impacts it has on gaming.
Gaming’s First Modern Culture War
It is probably near-impossible to pinpoint when exactly the culture war emerged as a prevalent talking point in the games industry. The mid to late 2010s saw the rise of movements known colloquially as “Gamergate” by those in the know.
During this movement, many gamers were disgruntled with the state of game journalism for a variety of reasons. Not all of them were political in nature. But quite a few grievances were due to specific politicized coverage. Especially towards those applying a more gender-critical or race-critical lens in their coverage of gaming. Some saw this coverage as too political or needlessly injecting politics into escapist entertainment.
Despite many attempting to distance themselves from harassment, some extreme reactionaries would go on to harass specific journalists and people under the guise of “protecting” games from nebulous forces such as “political correctness” or “social justice” and more. Forums and platforms like 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit were those most used by these movements, and many debates around the issue congregated around Twitter, now known as X.
Though like all demographics of people, gamers are not a monolith. While some gamers were content with just ignoring coverage they didn’t care for, others became heavily reactionary and stood their ground in support of the “Gamergate” campaign.
Now, in 2024, we are seeing a potential second wave of Gamergate. Except this time, as opposed to just the journalists clashing with gamers, its the developers themselves also seeing the brunt of the impact.
This is in no small part due to some developers opting to work with consultancy firms for services such as narrative assistance, sensitivity readings, and more. Some of these firms work with the goal of promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
What Is Sweet Baby Inc?
Arguably the most relevant of these consultancy firms is the now infamous Sweet Baby Inc. (SBI). Sweet Baby Inc. is a Canadian company, which works alongside game developers in various creative departments. These include writing, narrative consultancy, and more.
Some of the games they have worked on include, God of War 2 Ragnarök, Alan Wake 2, Spider-Man 2, and others. In fact, some groups have compiled exhaustive lists of which games Sweet Baby Inc has been consulted for. But to understand why some gamers are so fixated on this company’s work, we must know why this firm is even seen as controversial in the first place.
Kim Belair is currently the CEO of SBI, and one talking point around the company is about some of her statements during a 2019 GDC session. The session has been uploaded to YouTube as of October of 2021. It offers a look at what Belair thinks about issues such as representation and inclusion in the gaming industry.
One grievance that some hardcore gamers had with Belair’s approach is a perceived condescension on her part. In her Game Developers Conference presentation, Belair mentions a “core” gaming demographic. According to her, this demographic consists of predominately white, cisgender, heterosexual males.
She then likens this demographic to a “picky baby” being exclusively catered to. And Belair claims that like a picky baby, this demographic is likely to get upset when given something that doesn’t match up to their pre-existing tastes.
Such statements would have sown some seeds of dislike towards the company for many. Some gamers, especially those within this “core” demographic felt condescended to. And it is all too easy for attentive gamers to connect the dots between this analogy, and the company’s name.
The Reactions
Many gamers felt personally challenged or called out by companies such as Sweet Baby Inc.
This combined with an ever-growing resentment towards DEI practices among groups of people and reactionaries, has led to many decrying SBI’s inclusion in game development. In some cases, DEI practices as a whole.
Some groups have even risen to boycott games and studios that have consulted with Sweet Baby Inc. on games. The most well-known of these groups was a Steam group under the name of Sweet Baby Inc Detected. This group’s primary goal was to catalogue games that have been worked on or with by Sweet Baby Inc.
The group held a primarily negative view towards the company due to views on issues such as “forced” DEI, censorship, and more. The group was controversial and people working for Sweet Baby Inc eventually caught wind. One employee would post their grievances with the group and the person running it.
In their posts, the employee would advocate for a mass reporting campaign against the Steam Group in question. This angered many gamers as they saw this as an attack on free speech and an attempt at censorship.
Yet despite the outcry, it seems to have worked to at least some extent. The initial Steam group does not seem to remain. However, despite this, backup groups with a similar purpose have inevitably cropped up to continue their boycott and debates.
Though some players might be voting with their wallets. Some games seen as diverse have been flopping in recent times. A notable example comes to mind, that being…
Dustborn: Dead On Arrival
This ongoing controversy in gaming from an outsider perspective may look like a lot of fluff without much tangible impact.
But despite this, quite a few games in 2024 find themselves embroiled in the culture-war. For some games, the results are quite poor. A recent example that comes to mind is Dustborn. Quantic Dream’s official site for Dustborn describes the game as a story-driven adventure game in which a found family goes on a road trip through an alternate history America to deliver an important stolen package.
In terms of gameplay and genre it appears to take some notes from Telltale’s The Walking Dead series, with a focus on character interaction and story-altering dialogue. It also has a word/dialogue-based combat system and rhythm game portions as your crew is disguised as a travelling punk band.
The writing and dialogue of this game has been one of its most contentious parts for many. One image shared around social media shows one of the playable characters discovering the usefulness of “cancelling” enemies. This among other scenes shared online showcases a blatant willingness to play into the culture-war and fully own even aspects of it that some onlookers see as distasteful.
Yet, despite the publicity, the game is struggling to maintain a player-base of any kind. Even at the game’s highest player-count, it could not even climb out of the double-digits. The game’s peak was a paltry 76 players according to steamcharts.com’s page. But that leaves a question, not just for Dustborn, but for other games within this discussion.
Is The Culture War Even To Blame?
Dustborn isn’t the only game vocal about diversity and cultural issues that has flopped with abysmal player-counts. Concord, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, and others all come to mind with catastrophically low player-counts.
But is gaming’s culture war fully to blame? A lot of gamers may argue it is at least in-part responsible. Yet not all cases are the same.
Take Concord for instance. It is a multiplayer live-service hero-shooter complete with a diverse and colorful cast of characters. It is all too easy to wholly blame Concord‘s failure on cultural hot-button topics alone. Concord‘s failure may also be attributed to factors in its genre’s market.
The hero-shooter genre is already oversaturated and dominated by juggernauts such as Team Fortress 2, Rainbow 6 Siege, the Overwatch franchise and more. Heck, some of these games like Overwatch already boasts a very diverse and inclusive cast of characters.
And with Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, the failure could more easily be blamed on the game’s lack of rewarding content, deviation from the franchise’s roots, and the massive shift in the series from single-player to live-service.
But for games like Dustborn, it seems the culture war is the prevailing factor in its failure. Bad publicity, hundreds of people poking fun at the game online, and volatile backlash all seem to have stemmed from the game’s overt political stances.
The culture war, or Sweet Baby Inc’s involvement with games is a prevailing topic right now. It demonstrates that the culture war in gaming is nearly inescapable as of now. But what if a game chooses to ignore these issues?
Games That Sidestep The Culture War
In recent times, some games that have seen massive critical acclaim have completely sidestepped the issue of gaming’s culture war. In doing so, they have served as interesting talking points around whether or not gamers even care about issues such as diversity, equity, and representation in games.
I think the most well-known recent example is the smash-hit Black Myth: Wukong. This game is a single-player action RPG based on Journey to the West, a very influential and respected work of Chinese literature.
It is easy to write off the game as just another souls-like but it does enough differently and well to have taken the internet by storm. On Steam, the game sits with many positive reviews.
On the Steam Charts page for the game, one can see a whopping peak-player count of almost 2.5 million concurrent players. Magnitudes higher than Dustborn‘s pathetic double digits or even Suicide Squad‘s peak of almost 14 thousand.
Though not everyone is happy to see Black Myth: Wukong gain mainstream popularity. One article on IGN covered issues of alleged workplace sexism within Game Science. This was seen as a smear campaign against the newly popular game and development studio. One of the writers would also take to X, encouraging players to boycott the game, or even pirate it.
This and past statements have been covered by other outlets. And because of the harshness of certain statements made by journalists, some gamers are relishing in the financial success of Black Myth: Wukong alongside the abject failure of games like Dustborn, Concord, and more.
But will this culture war impact anticipated games? If so, how? Well, there is one game that makes for a potentially interesting case study.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Sneaking Into The Crossfire
One game that has seen lots of debate, discussion, and backlash is the anticipated Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
At a first glance the game seems no different than previous installments of the popular series. This installment has two playable characters. One is a shinobi specializing in stealth mechanics, and the other is a samurai adapted more for head-on combat.
It is with one of these characters that we see the roots of the controversy. The playable samurai character is based on a real historical figure, a first for the Assassin’s Creed Franchise. The figure chosen was Yasuke, an African man who was in good favor with historical Japanese figures such as Oda Nobunaga.
But the portrayal of this obscure figure as a fully-fledged samurai on the front-lines threw some audiences into a frenzy. This included many Japanese gamers, concerned with issues such as historical revisionism, cultural appropriation, and more. This was due to both this character’s portrayal, and Ubisoft’s fumbles with incorrect language usage, unfitting assets, and other factors.
Backlash from Japanese players got so overwhelming that Ubisoft went out of their way to address the backlash and respond on social media.
It goes to show that issues and debates involving cultural topics are here to stay in gaming for the foreseeable future. So where do we stand after all of this?
Concluding Statements And Takes
The issue of the “culture war” is very complicated and there was no good way to cover absolutely everything in this singular article. I could have written several entire articles covering individual events.
Gamergate’s resurgence, Sweet Baby Inc’s motives and actions, Concord‘s impending shutdown, the controversy whirling around Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, or even the success of Black Myth: Wukong. These all would have made for good standalone stories, but they share this common thread of the “culture war” as a backdrop, which led to me bundling them all here.
Personally, I think gaming as a hobby should be open to anyone and isn’t something that needs to be gatekept so staunchly. If you happen to like Dustborn‘s character designs and politically blunt writing style, fine, more power to you. Or if you’d rather play the popular hits like Black Myth: Wukong, then that’s great too.
Regardless of where you stand on issues like representation, DEI, and more, I think gaming as a medium can have something enjoyable for everyone. And that’s part of the beauty of it. I believe that no amount of politics or culture war controversies can truly take that away from us.
