Former Kotaku UK and IGN Editor Kate MacDonald called for video game publishers and developers to condemn gamers for opposing progressive themes.
Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), Rocksteady
MacDonald, who is now the Video Games Editor at The Guardian penned an article condemning gamers for opposing progressive themes present at many developers and publishers and called for these developers and publishers to do the same.
She begins her article by lying to her audience claiming that employees received a “tremendous amount of targeted harassment.”
Harley Quinn about to execute Batman in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), Rocksteady
READ: Sweet Baby Inc. Employee Chris Kindred Doubles Down On Call To Cancel Steam Curator List
This is simply not true. The targeted harassment was initiated by Sweet Baby Inc. employees Chris Kindred and Maya Kramer who encouraged their followers to get a Steam curator list documenting all games that Sweet Baby Inc. worked on shut down. On top of that Kindred attempted to get KabrutusRambo’s entire Steam account shut down. KabrutusRambo is the creator of the list.
Kindred wrote, “The Steam curator harassment group Sweet Baby Inc detected is lead by this person, kabrutusrambo. Here’s them trying to be slick so they don’t get reported. Even with the discriminatory language filed off, the group itself still fails the code of conduct.”
Chris Kindred on X
Kindred added, “anyway report the f**k out of this group.”
Chris Kindred on X
Finally, he detailed, “and report the creator since he loves his account so much.”
Chris Kindred on X
Kramer, operating the legobutts account, also posted on X, “sorry no one thing has changed: the number of people who understand that spreading misinformation just lets them be racist in public with no consequence has increased dramatically. that has changed. probably requires some fighting from those with authority! probably. :(”
Legobutts on X
She then made it clear she was talking about the Steam curator list, “for example, Steam doesn’t have guidelines for curators (as far as i can tell) that would prevent someone from starting a curation group that focuses on, say, SweetBabyInc and…warns people to not buy games they’re associated with? which could just list any game at all??”
Legobutts on X
MacDonald also bemoaned the fact that gamers opposed to progressive themes discovered that Sweet Baby Inc. “was somehow mandating the inclusion of more diverse characters in games.” She claims this discovery is untrue.
However, it is true. Sweet Baby Inc.’s website states, “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.”
Sweet Baby Inc. About Us section
The company’s CEO Kim Belair also made it abundantly clear he intention with the company is to change the entire industry.
She told InclusionFX back in 2021, “In 2018, one of my best friends and I, we teamed up and we founded a company. The original desire was just to write together. We wanted to write with the two of us and a friend of ours and we wanted to write games. But we realized that as a unit we realized we were capable of doing for others what had not been done to us, which was to support us, empower us, to lift us up, to value our talent, and to help build our skills.”
She continued, “And so, today, what we do is writing, narrative design, story building, story breaking as our first and foremost. But on a secondary level we work very hard to get marginalized talent into the industry, to protect them the way that we would want to have been protected, to lift them up, and to get them into an industry where they’re too often shut out.”
Belair then admitted, “And basically, I think, to take over in the hopes that some really dope people will be able to lead into a kind of a new era for an industry that’s been kind of been, you know, the same way too long.”
MacDonald attempted to twist complaints about the attractiveness of female video games characters, writing that “journalists gave the recent PS5 game Stellar Blade (pictured below) bad reviews because its female characters are too hot (note: they didn’t, the game has a Metacritic score of 81).”
Journalists did criticize the game for the attractiveness of Eve. One such article was published by IGN France and written by Ben Ossola. He wrote, “The design of the game, particularly its characters, highlights an obvious bias. We’re going to smash the alien, but if we can do it while pleasing these gentlemen, that’s a bonus. And the result is not really a success. It’s not new, and other games have chosen to highlight the strengths of their female characters, but where a Bayonetta stands out with an iconic character design, or a 2B from Nier Automata inspires an entire generation of cosplayers, Eve from Stellar Blade is just bland. A doll sexualized by someone you would think has never seen a woman.”
Eve in Stellar Blade (2024), Shift Up
The outlet eventually retracted the comments and issued an apology, “Recently, IGN France produced and published a preview of Stellar Blade containing an offensive passage that should never have been kept. The text has now been edited and here is our official apology to the Shift Up Corporation studio staff.”
“Also, please note that IGN France is an independent branch of IGN and that IGN’s editorial staff had nothing to do with this incident,” it continues.
Next, it reads, “The original text of the Stellar Blade preview contained comments that were out of place. While it was never our intention to disrespect Shift Up or any of its employees or their work, we recognize that the phrase taken in its literal sense was inappropriate and we regret it.”
“To anyone at Shift Up Corporation who felt personally targeted and insulted by this passage, we are truly sorry and sincerely apologize,” IGN concludes.
A screenshot of IGN France’s Stellar Blade preview article
From there, MacDonald moves to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, where she writes, “Ubisoft was somehow forced by the shadowy forces of wokery to make the main character of its upcoming Assassin’s Creed game (pictured above) a black samurai, contradicting historical evidence.
Ubisoft has embraced these themes though. The company has an entire section of their website titled “Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility.” Underneath this section the company’s VP of Global Diversity and Inclusion Raashi Sikka writes, “To create a video game, Ubisoft’s teams around the world work together to push the boundaries of what’s been done before and build an unforgettable experience for players. The journey from concept to launch requires collaboration, passion and commitment. We learn as we go, trying and failing and trying again before we get it right.”
It continues, “That same creativity, growth mindset and dedication form the foundation of our approach to diversity and inclusion. To truly have an impact, we must leverage innovative ideas and diverse perspectives to continue building a company – and an industry – that is welcoming to all. Our vision of diversity and inclusion is multidimensional. That’s why we’ve designed a strategy centered around four pillars: colleagues, culture, content, and community.”
“For Ubisoft, putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do means providing an environment where employees can thrive, building open-minded communities where players can connect, and creating games that reflect the diversity of the world we live in. We will not accomplish all these goals overnight. Just as it takes years of iteration to develop a AAA title, we will only become a more diverse and inclusive company by continuously improving, trying new ideas and learning from the results. It’s a long-term commitment, one that we will tackle with the same passion and dedication that we bring to our games,” Sikka concludes.
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
The “Colleagues” section would indicate that tUbisoft hires people based on race. It reads, “We want to build the most creative, inclusive, and diverse teams across all fields. We will continue to increase representation in our company by building more inclusion across our systems and ensuring equal access to opportunities for everyone.”
Yasuke executes an innocent man pressed into a fight in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
An internal document leaked to X by TheQuartering also reads, “First, we want to make it very clear that we do not accept hate, harassment and other forms of abuse in any way, and we are deeply saddened to see the negativity and hatred currently spreading on our co-workers’ personal profiles, and on our and our partners’ social media platforms.”
It continues, “We are proud to represent the diversity and inclusion that exists in society as part of our everyday work. Representation is part of our DNA and will remain that way regardless of external pressure or influences.”
The document concludes stating, “Ubisoft firmly stands for diversity and inclusion in our workplace and our games, and we believe there is no room for hate in gaming.”
Ubisoft has been melting down internally over criticism of their DEI efforts. Quadruples down internally. pic.twitter.com/j9GGmDKsCw
— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) April 21, 2024
Nevertheless, MacDonald goes on to claim, “For the record, there is plenty of historical basis for the depiction of black samurai Yasuke in the game” but did not provide any evidence for that controversial claim. She then defended her former employer IGN and its report claiming that Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science, which is based out of China, promotes sexism and misogyny. MacDonald wrote, “Just after Summer Game Fest finished, the anti-woke gamers found a new target: a report at IGN, which credibly and comprehensively lays out a history of sexism at the developer of upcoming Planet-of-the-Apes-meets-Sekiro action game Black Myth: Wukong. The response – surprise! – was to go after the woman who wrote it, while also spinning up a ludicrous conspiracy theory that IGN was blackmailing the developer.”
A screenshot from Black Myth: Wukong (2024), Game Science
IGN’s report has been questioned for the way numerous Chinese social media posts were translated. A clip from Asmongold Clips notes that Feng Ji’s comment “is a used idiom in the Chinese language. As a colloquial expression used humorously or sarcastically to describe a situation where excessive flattery or sycophancy has an overwhelming and paralyzing effect on someone. The use of such metaphors can be found in informal speech on social media.”
The video also alleges that the other posts were translated “in the most uncharitable way possible.”
As far as the idea that Game Science was being blackmailed, Niche Gamer notes this is a rumor from a Chinese journalist on social media platform Weibo. The outlet notes that the game “is experiencing a harassment campaign from western critics and journalists after rejecting offers from DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) consultants.”
>Chinese media: ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ refused to be extorted $7 million by SweetBaby.
English:
The reason why the team behind “Black Myth: Wukong” has been subjected to persistent sexist attacks and slander since their first promotional video is because they have consistently… pic.twitter.com/P94rUpVnuI
— Pirat_Nation 🔴 (@Pirat_Nation) June 14, 2024
From there, MacDonald claims that gamers do not have “the slightest impact on how games are made.” One might need to ask former employees at Volition and Luminous Productions if their companies are still making games after they were shut down after Saints Row and Forspoken.
Next, MacDonald paints herself as a victim before making her claim that developers and publishers should condemn gamers opposed to progressive themes. She writes, ” I still don’t think there’s been enough public pushback against this flavour of online abuse from the biggest publishers in games over the past few months, when the consultancies they work with, the journalists and critics who cover them, and even some of their own developers have been caught in an online sh*tstorm. Take it from me: vocal support means a lot.”
Publishers and developers should definitely take her advice so gamers will know which developers and publishers do indeed hate them and can choose to spend their money elsewhere. And if the games are being purchased, one can only imagine that the studios will go the way of Volition and Luminous Productions.
A screenshot from South of Midnight (TBA), Compulsion Games
What do you make of MacDonald’s attack on gamers opposed to progressive themes and her advice to publishers and developers?
