Times are tough in the video game industry. Unexpected flops and a downturn in the gaming industry due to the end of the pandemic has led to layoffs. Game developers complain of being overworked and underpaid.
But, most visibly, there’s a backlash due to DEI and wokeness seeping into every corner of the gaming industry.
So, at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco last week, dozens of game developers protested it in the most completely normal way possible: They screamed at the sky. Literally.
According to IGN, the event, dubbed GDScream, “took place in an open area in the middle of Yerba Buena Gardens, where event organizers assembled the crowd by holding up pieces of paper with ‘SCREAM’ scribbled on them.
“One of the organizers wore a shirt printed with [Edvard Munch’s painting] ‘The Scream;’ another participant wore a shirt printed with an ice cream cone. At exactly noon, the cluster of individuals from all corners of game development let loose a loud scream that lasted for several seconds. As it trailed off, the group broke into relieved laughter and applaused [sic] before slowly dispersing.”
While layoffs and working conditions were part of the reason behind the massive ad hoc primal scream therapy session, there was also discontent over “coordinated harassment campaigns against marginalized individuals,” IGN reported.
“[W]e talked about diversity in games and we were all marginalized people, and we’re all looking at each other going ‘Yeah it sucks, for some reason we have to do this, and we cannot not do this and I don’t know how to deal with the obligation of having to do this just because I’m the person that I am,’” one participant said.
While the language was fairly non-specific in the article, the subtext was clear: This was, in no small part, a protest against the boycott of games worked on by Sweet Baby Inc., a narrative consultancy firm known for its work on über-woke titles like “Spider Man 2” and “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.”
The boycott was mostly a low-key one, consisting merely of a Steam group dedicated to rooting out games that the consultancy had participated in. However, industry outlets quickly took up the cause of SBI — including a Kotaku reporter who may or may not have wanted to dox members of the group’s Discord server, judging by the tenor of her messages — and all hell proceeded to break loose.
Do you play video games?
This was naturally blamed on those white male misogynist bigot gamers who joined the Steam group and Discord server, and not at all game devs like this who literally spent last Thursday screaming at the sky:
You asked for videos of the handful of devs that had the scream fest.
Only 50 or so. These are likely the type of devs holding all other devs hostage for their agenda.
Tyranny of the woke in gaming. https://t.co/u2ItC25c9d
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 21, 2024
That’s one post by former “World of Warcraft” developer Mark Hern, who also provided plenty of documentation about the wokeness at the Game Developer’s Conference. For instance, one group that’s taken SBI’s side in its harassment campaign against virtually anyone who dared speak out against it was involved in several talks:
Take This, the organization with ties to government funding that defended SBI’s harassment campaign vs @kabrutusrambo is holding two talks at GDC.
While there are may good talks at GDC, this group is trying to spy on Gamers and we should be wary: @MadamSavvy pic.twitter.com/OXTdVuX533
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 20, 2024
And then there was this gem of a talk: “So You’ve Been Canceled. Now What?” The gist of it was walking cancelees through the process of rehabilitating themselves, which had more than a whiff of Mao about it when one looks at the language organizers used:
Cancel Pigs are running a class tomorrow at #GDC where you can learn to apologize better after they are done cancelling you.
Of course it’s run by Feminist Frequency. pic.twitter.com/TQvlURJNJr
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 19, 2024
Microsoft also got in on the action, too, announcing something called “Product Inclusion” for Xbox developers. It’s about as bad as it sounds:
(correction, website is https://t.co/ClGJBZBMuA)
Microsoft made a splash at GDC, announcing their Product Inclusion guidelines for all of their studios.
Such changes have been reported elsewhere as “woke”, including de-feminization of female characters and cite widely… pic.twitter.com/8ntVHLNlTJ
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 28, 2024
At press time, it was unclear whether screaming at the sky would be considered inclusive under the new framework.
Yes, the big scream was profoundly fatuous and yes, it was just over 50 developers who participated in it. However, the absurd spectacle was just part of a larger picture of how video gaming is going bonkers with leftism.
We, as gamers, are being simultaneously told that wokeness isn’t being inserted into titles and that it’s good for us, anyway. We push back — and suddenly, it’s a “coordinated harassment campaign.” Meanwhile, “problematic” devs are attending seminars at GDC telling them how to get uncanceled in language that would make Orwell proud.
If anyone should be screaming, it should be the gamers.
