The Internet Versus Sweetbaby Inc (And The Journalists)

It's much deeper than Sweetbaby.
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/ kirayt
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#sweetbaby #2024 #documentary

[@AnyMEmdq]

22:30 It's not "pretty close to racism". It is racism

[@JohnSmith-op7ls]

The main people involved in Sweetbigot Inc and Black Girl Grifters have flat out said they hate white men and white people in general. Don’t know what he wants before calling racism, racism, a notarized affidavit affirming they’re racist?

[@nosferiazafora]

Whites have been brainwashed and indoctrinated into not caring for their own. It's painful to see.

[@Dartanis]

Came to write this very comment. Glad to see I didnt have to.

[@dominicyelin]

"There is no such thing as white people" and "you can't be racist to white people" are both genocidally racist statements, yes. They require a us centric worldview that is ignorant of the wider history of the world. The people that believe and say these things have a dualistic perspective of reality that forces everyone into one of two sides: ex slaves and ex slave owners. As a brit descended from a famous abolitionist with an Ethiopian great grandmother, its preposterous racism on its face. My country abolished slavery. Across the whole world to the best of our ability. Because it was the right thing to do. In my country it has been illegal to be a slave for a thousand years, you became free the moment your feet touched english soil. Irrespective of skin colour. You don't lecture me about racism. Not when everything you're saying is obviously racist to white people and completely ignorant of just about anything that's happened outside of the USA for the last two millennia.

[@esense9602]

the fck? that was straight up racism.

[@ibervang]

You forgot to add, that the CEO of sweet baby inc, told people to scare the shit out of HR, until they hired sweet baby inc

[@masamimuniz]

TL;DR "Pay us to be a consulting firm and we won't complain about you on the internet" is essentially harassment, and it also borders on legal definitions of "racketeering."

[@MTLion3]

Some of their employees are also heavily involved in the production of games like Unknown 9 kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqPGen-Ai7J1rdEsi=YhGh3FzT87bWWNbD

[@Zynet_Eseled]

I think the terminology is "Extortion" ​@@masamimuniz

[@user-kz6jp9kl4l]

I mean the screenshot of that IS in the video, so, "um actually"

[@HontounoShiramizu]

@@user-kz6jp9kl4lA large portion of viewer listen in the background (so technically not viewers, but whatever) so they wouldn't see it.

[@unstablesyn1306]

When game journalism was printed in magazine form (Nintendo Power, PlayStation Magazine, etc.) it was written to be as inoffensive as possible because you had the cost of printing, manufacturing, and delivery. Companies didn't take a stance on anything because if you alienated 50+% of your customers, you incurred a lot of cost for no compensation. Now that it's online, anyone can write anything, even people with dingus takes "The best part of the internet is everyone gets a voice. The worst part of the internet is everyone gets a voice"

[@JohnSmith-op7ls]

Companies weren’t hijacked by woke cultists back then. The cultists were still stuck in the shadows of Hollywood and academia, slowly but systematically indoctrinating more and more people, who in turn did the same to even more. Once they had enough zealots in key positions to hijack companies, political movements, change laws, and do wide scale social engineering, you saw this explosion of coordinated ideological warfare begin.

[@tylergeist1261]

Great take. And +1000 points for using the term 'dingus'.

[@charmyzard]

Aye, "dingus" is a word I constantly use. Club?

[@unstablesyn1306]

@@charmyzard dingus gang

[@kajamatousek247]

The problem with trying to be apolitical is that white guys will call anything they don't like political Black protagonist ? political A woman ? political Queer person ? (god forbid as a protagonist ?) ultra political and ultra bad Those same men will then turn around and call CoD or (as per asmongold's recent example) Metal Gear "apolitical" just because it has a white guy as a protagonist. Sweetbaby inc might be a disease but it's a disease that those guys created

[@Nehfarius]

The main issue, it seems, is as it was then: games journalists who refuse to do their jobs right suck, terrible games also suck, bigotry sucks and claiming to fight bigotry does not mean one cannot also be bigoted, which makes one suck.

[@StCrimson667]

I think the main problem with quote-unquote games journalism has always fundamentally been being too close to the industry and often even being controlled by the big game companies. Just look at what's happened at Kotaku where their management is basically saying that they need to focus more on terrible guides that no one uses rather than talking about the actual issues and stuff going on in the video games world. It's not that they're refusing to do their job, it's often that they literally can't without losing their jobs. Look at what happened to Zero Punctuation! The real shame I always feel when it comes to this cycle of "gating" in the games industry is that, if the gamergaters just looked at things objectively and stopped shilling for and defending the companies and literally the worse parts of said companies, they'd actually find they and journalists are on the same side, but, unfortunately, a lot of gamers also want their bigotry to go unreported on and so they go after the journalists and not the companies who are slowly and surely making all of their games worse. And gamers by and large fall for it literally every single time.

[@user-account-not-found]

Look up the paradox of tolerance my dude

[@ott1186]

@StCrimson667 most uninformed take on the issue I've seen in a while. Just looks like cope.

[@mayborneflower]

@@StCrimson667 The fuck? Part of why Gamergate was against the journos was because they were IN BED WITH THE BIG COMPANIES! Not to mention ever since the original Gamergate movement fizzled, the journalists went out of their way to antagonize and contradict gamers every time they had a bone to pick with a publisher for a bad release or anti-consumer practice.

[@rogerdodger1790]

I think the main problem is seeing bigotry so much you become exceptionally bigoted yourself even though it was hardly there in the first place

[@snart2195]

Getting community noted on X/Twitter about the fact that you can be racist toward white people is WILD

[@PunkrockNoir-ss2pq]

Why?

[@user-account-not-found]

@@PunkrockNoir-ss2pq because you could only make that statement here in the United States if you had no idea what the definition of racism actually is.

[@Nerobyrne]

I wonder if these people think that if I order a depth charge at a bar, I expect an anti-submarine mine to be dropped on my head.

[@raychapman1134]

​@@user-account-not-foundwhich definition. The original or the new one made by DEI pushers? Because the real definition of racism has nothing to do with what is happening now. You can be racist no matter who you are. End of story.

[@mr.magoo2238]

@@raychapman1134Nope, sorry. Can’t be racist towards white people. FamilyGuyDonkey.jpg

[@TerraWare]

That Alyssa girl is so out of touch coming up with her own definitions of what racism is and who can be racist. Its not surprising though. Thing is racism isn't just skin color based, it can expand to nationalities etc. Her view of a white person is that of someone in the US. White people like other races are not a monolith. I've experienced racism as a young teen because of my nationality by other white people and I'm white European. You see similar things happen with Asian people, how there's animosity between Koreans, Japanese and Chinese because of past history, I'm sure some black people experience racism from other black people because of nationality outside of the US. Anytime you remove the individuality from a person and view them based of features and traits they had no choice over that is bad.

[@TheCrimsonElite666]

If she's so bold to think that you can't be racist towards white people, then I dare her to say that right in the faces of Irish people.

[@luketfer]

@@TheCrimsonElite666 It's like people have forgotten their own history, as you said, for the longest time people of Irish descent were not considered "white" despite being exactly that, in both the US and the UK, the Irish got treated like shit. So saying you cannot be racists to white people is..well it's just not true. Fascists will always find a way to 'other' an enemy that isn't the 'ideal' of blond hair and blue eyed. In fact when old Oswald Mosley tried to march his British version of the Blackshirts through London, the Irish were one of the groups of people who rallied (along with people of Jewish descent, Communists, Anarchists, a couple of Musilm sailors) to stop the march because you can be damned sure that if Oswald got into power, he was going to do exactly the same to the Irish as the Nazis in Germany were doing to every other person that didn't meet their ideal, regardless of skin color.

[@thomashuizinga4618]

@@TheCrimsonElite666or polish, Italian, Greek, Ukrainian, really any white ethic group that wasn’t one of the Great European powers during the Age of Colonial Empire.

[@AnyMEmdq]

She has a tattoo that says "All men are the enemy", what did you expect? But when she was a cam-girl she was pretty happy about the money "the enemy" gave her. EDIT: As for black people experiencing racism from other black people, there were entire tribes in Africa that would enslave the neighbouring tribe, and sell them to the Europeans

[@chidori0117]

Its because racism and opression is basically treated as a ladder. There was a few years ago a pretty big video from an asian creator calling out racism against asians in the black community. He pointed out that the modern perception of this is basically that there is a ladder of opression and if you are higher on the ladder i.e. more opressed you cant be held acountable by people who are lower on the ladder. Thats why when asians called out the racism of black people the general response was not to talk about it or condem int publicly but instead insist on not getting divided against the true enemy (white people) and basically telling asians to shut up about it. (BTW I am not ígnoring that asians can be and are racist against black people and neither did the video I referenced.) There are many people today that think like this, that as long as you are "more opressed" then another group of people you can treat them however you want and that is justified and since white people are at the very bottom of the ladder of opression everything you do to them is fine, they are not people they are white people and thats not racist in their mind.

[@iank472]

Never forget Zoe Quinn pushed an innocent man to self deletion with false SA allegations.

[@NicoTheCinderace]

Zoe Quinn needs to be branded as a criminal.

[@AnyMEmdq]

And her friend and PR person was Maya Felix Kramer, aka Legobutts, who now works on SBI, company funded by Baby Ghosts, co-owned by Eileen Holowka, sister of the aforementioned self-deleted, and besties with Zoë and Anita, same Eileen who blandly described what happened to him as him "passing away".

[@Rockthenashtah]

He was actually innocent?

[@iank472]

@@Rockthenashtah yup.

[@AnyMEmdq]

@@Rockthenashtah None of her allegations could ever be proved, and there are social media posts from her saying "I went here, I was there" at times when he allegedly had her confined, for example.

[@ErroTheCube]

Gaming journalism has always been utter shit. Guides filled with irrelevant nonsense, "leaks" that just echoes the same (incorrect) rumors and an ungodly amount of adds or "1,700+ vendors are interested in your cookies" while crying over adblockers. Just shut it all down already, please.

[@justaghostinthesea]

This drama is what pushed me to spend less time on sites like Reddit and Twitter, and it's been a genuine huge help on my mental health. Don't engage with the culture war, folks, it'll drain you like a vampire.

[@johannderjager4146]

Good on you, keep up the good work and remember to touch plenty of grass.🫡

[@Sniperbear13]

more like a horde of vampires. they wont stop till you are a husk.

[@Hatecrewdethrol]

Whats the saying? The culture war only exists to distract from the class war

[@ZontarDow]

My niche interests have been under assault by the culture war for a decade, I'm glad that it's at the point where it won't last much longer now.

[@xmobius0ne]

I seriously needed to read this. I realize that I have spent hours arguing with these people and have been slowly turning into a bitter bastard who is pissed off at everything. I let myself get so worked up when the best thing to do is get the hell off of social media and just walk away.

[@uWAVES]

That Alyssa girl is the true definition of someone being terminally online, she literally has a "all men are the enemy" tattooed on her

[@user-account-not-found]

Does that upset you as a free speech absolutist?

[@ZontarDow]

@@user-account-not-found she has the right to say it and we have the right to point out she's objectively a terrible person and to not buy games she worked on.

[@endlessstrata6988]

@@user-account-not-found Nothing upsets me. It does, however, entertains me to no end.

[@user-account-not-found]

@@ZontarDow I'm just asking if it upsets him, looks like it upsets you as well. Sounds like the tattoo is working. It wards off weirdos.

[@kelpi4362]

I cant find this at all, source? I think you may be making shit up.

[@dannybates7423]

I'm still trying to understand how people Literally use the word inclusion and in the same breath exclude people. Does anyone care to explain?

[@mayborneflower]

It’s a power trip laced in doublespeak, simple as

[@arkosilaura]

It's because they are disingenuous and dishonest state actors, potentially foreign agents, here to sow dissent and division. These people are RICH. They are situated in an industry full of creativity and artistic freedoms and yet, they use it to create shallow divisive characters and statements and spread hate. If they wanted to make relatable characters, they could. It has been done in the past plenty of times. But these people are clearly not interested in it, and i wish more people were aware of this. They don't care about minorities, they don't care about racism, they only care about the hatred they can fan by spewing bullshit.

[@Ash21]

most if not all of the over the top comments like the one kira showed, are jokes. Simply reversing the type of hate we/they get, the other way, to just really hit home how mean it is and put it in perspective. Of course there are some who do actually feel that way and I mean, I understand their view though I don't fully agree with it, us (white people) have historically excluded and discriminated other races for years in most parts of the world. straight/cis people constantly exclude and discriminate against LGBT people. of course it's not everyone, but it is a lot if not most. After years of having to deal with this, it makes sense that they wouldn't be all that accepting until the other side shows they actually want to be inclusive and put the past behind them. When they say they hate white cis men, they're specifically talking about the ones that are constantly making their lives harder, the ones that sit by and let hate spread. and honestly, I can't blame them. It's simply a "why should we trust you when you were hateful against us for years and are still allowing hate to grow and not speaking out against it" type deal.

[@m.poppins4843]

nobody can, they, themselves cant. These anti racism movements are the most racist thing i've withnessed my whole life lol

[@BuIIetBiII]

I think in their heads they think they're excluding people that are themselves trying to exclude others but so it's ok

[@Llyander]

I just want to play games, man.

[@sirc1446]

Best they can do ....More of The Message

[@FazeParticles]

it doesn't work like that.

[@JuleZz__z]

That attitude is the reason why this boycott will probably fail, that & people trying to ignore just how fucked in the head these devs & journos are

[@SolantisA]

How bigoted of you to even dare dream of such a thing...

[@squaeman_2644]

This is the beginning of a cultural revolution, just look at what happened to Russia or China when they had theirs...

[@BentusiProgenitors]

It makes me feel so good when someone says "no doubt you've heard of xxxx" and I legitimately have never heard. I love not being a part of any of it in any way.

[@thecornfieldiii2069]

You're a part of it by being subbed to this channel and watching it

[@user-account-not-found]

This is me with almost anything that is popular or in current discourse and it's like living in a paradise. A paradise where trains are constantly colliding head on and the worst people are on them and you get to see it all unfold.

[@JuicedOnKids]

@@user-account-not-found gamers are just opinionated and want to be angry at stuff, watching from the sidelines is the best course. It's only until I stumble across a random recommendation that I even realise something is aparently an issue. "game is woke." oh is it now? fasinating. "character should be gay." Is that so? fasinating.

[@johannderjager4146]

​@@JuicedOnKids, the irony is if you listen to Sweet Baby Inc and their ilk, they're 100% opinionated and want to be angry at stuff: always looking for "injustices" to "fix". The people only upset at the gamers are only looking at one side. Look at both sides to get the full picture.

[@metaliris6404]

​@@JuicedOnKids Humans** are just opinionated. Like yourself 🤷‍♂️

[@wanderingwaylander2018]

Again, just a reminder I've been a black gamer for over thirty years at this point. According to these people, I and those like me have never existed! Fucking tiring! 😮‍💨

[@hartantoanggoro]

Corporate rules and Ignorance always the real reason why they don't care for any kind of reality check as they feel they are the right one and us gamers are just the wrong one. I don't like some woke culture ruined my gaming experience but world are still revolving so it can't be helped. SBI doesn't care as long as money still rolling and their views of "normal" can stand against the norms in the past.

[@AL-lh2ht]

but thats not what they said.

[@wanderingwaylander2018]

@@AL-lh2ht The narrative is geek culture has 'never been a space' for people like me. Despite us always having been here! So yeah that's exactly what their saying!

[@arthurfaust3026]

I was initially hesitant when I saw the subject of the video, because as you say in the video all nuances are lost on internet conversation, but you did a well thought video on the subject. Nowadays, it is rare to hear someone pondered and level-headed. So, for that I say thank you

[@Punsmaster2]

sensationalism has gone so far that an actually level-headed take is a drop of water in the desert now.

[@FundamentallyFlawed]

It is so depressing that we seem to be losing any sense of nuance in public discourse. We divide into tribes and attack strawmen rather than actually listening to one another. The sad result is that this only creates greater polarization and more extreme views. It's a terrible downward spiral.

[@DiogeneJones]

17:36 "when you say you hate white men, why people should take you seriously when you speak about inclusivity?" You nailed the issue in a single sentence. Well done!

[@longislandicedtea6323]

With allies like these, who needs bigots?

[@theRealSlimGordon]

Because she wants to include everyone! ...everyone but them, lol

[@mrbork7218]

Maybe it's actually hyperbole and metaphorical for anger at the historic and persistent patriarchy?

[@spliffedtothegallows7337]

Almost like being a victim is another thing white men saw and thought they’d be the best at

[@lechant7991]

@@mrbork7218 history for which white men today didnt ask for or contribute to so its still rather problematic to hate them for something they had no say in, in any case if you're going to say that you hate any race or gender, expect the consequences of your words.

[@Randkaz]

I work at a DEI company and got two comments about the video. 1. You're totally right, DEI companies are not to blame, because they are usually contractors that provide a cultural input based on market metrics. 2. This person, the CEO of Kotaku, is the extreme end of the culture war. None of my coworkers think like this, not even our CEO. And also: most of these issues stem from not knowing demographic shifts. The U.S. is the main market for most mainstream media, and the reality is that the white only demographic is declining. Most demographic groups in the U.S. have low birth rate except MENA and Latino immigrants. Black demographics are doing better overall financially, so they are now getting included. Call out on companies like SBI and Kotaku for being the extreme end, call out on groups for being extremists and hating people for their skin color, regardless if white or black, brown, whatever.

[@RuthlessToothless88]

@@Randkaz can i ask the name of the company so i can happily avoid it💀

[@AL-lh2ht]

the thing is the controvery of SB is they think they literally control billion dollar companies and their games are bad, when the gmmes they worked on are all mostly critically and commercially successful. where claim they made that they never worked on.

[@deathmagneto-soy]

As an Irishman whenever I hear someone say 'you can't be racist against white people' it makes my a55ho1e twitch.

[@TheCrimsonElite666]

See also Slavic people, people like Alyssa really needs to be educated on where the word "slave" originated from.

[@squaeman_2644]

Yes and then they try to group all white people together or all black people together... I imagine an Irishman has quite a few differences with an englishman, just like i imagine an Ethiopian is quite different to a Haitian... People cant be individuals i guess...

[@Jorendo]

Know what's also funny, go to Africa, see who are the racists there. No, I'm not talking about South Africa, the black folks in Afrika are racist as Fudge out there towards other black people. You got a wide spectrum of black people there, from pitch black to light brown and they hate each other to the bone, much worse then white on black racism....but you never hear the afro Americans who never set foot in Africa about that.

[@Inveterate-introvert]

​@@TheCrimsonElite666She almost certainly lives in an echo chamber where she takes polarised positions.

[@LeonV777]

It's an extremely american take, one that is unfortunately being spread worldwide.

[@VetriVade]

Evil cannot create, only corrupt.

[@Yogsoggeth]

Black Metal is one of the most creative forms of music on earth.

[@StevenZephyc]

Black metal is not evil, mega churches are​@@Yogsoggeth

[@MAVAelitewolf-guys]

​@@StevenZephyc "Black metal is evil sweet baby" game the most creative forms your saw black man

[@MAVAelitewolf-guys]

​@@StevenZephyc bad black man, bad black Metal, bad Sweet baby

[@lingricen8077]

Zoomers in a nutshell

[@GabbieTheFox]

Just as some additional context... Alyssa Mercante is now actively seeking dirt on content creators that have criticised her recent reporting, calling out to anyone with rumours about said content creators that she can use as ammunition to contact her via DMs or email. Namely Melonie Mac, who Alyssa had also publicly challenged to a fight at Creator Clash 5 months and 11 days ago with the tweet "Once again asking Melonie to join me in creator clash next year" in response to Melonie mocking a Kotaku article by calling the site "Gay".

[@AnyMEmdq]

Poor deluded woman, she thinks she can cancel Asmongold, and I love it. You can love Asmon, you can hate Asmon, or anything in between, but if you've watched 10 YT videos about the gaming industry, you've at least heard of him. He is a staple name, and nothing the Merchant can say will affect him at all xD

[@AcornElectron]

0:05 nope, it’s because it’s a Kira vid that I clicked.

[@EmeraldMara85]

I think this would be the last time I will check into Kira's videos because Kira mentioned Brietbart as a reliable source, Brietbart is a fake news site which the founder is Steve Bannon who got charged with money laundering and conspiracy with schemes to defraud in the US. Google it. I'm so disappointed, now I have to question every single video of Kira's.

[@IvanKhryapov]

I am hearing about SBI and this whole drama for the first time in this video. I dunno, I guess I am living under a rock, but I also almost missed gamergate.

[@fgoogleinthea7475]

As did I... sadly I unsubbed after his neutral/neutered take. Grow a spine nancy boy.

[@warfish0r]

​@@fgoogleinthea7475 I disagree, it's not spineless to state your opinion and detail all the reasons you arrived at that opinion and publish it to KZbin, even though you know that people on both extremes are going to disagree with you - in fact I think it might be the opposite...

[@CrazyBrick30]

​@@fgoogleinthea7475 I'm sure you'll be sorely missed. And BTW, "growing a spine" on KZbin has been channel suicide for years now - he even had to censor "Nazi Germany" in his video so he could still hold on to the hope of making money off his hours of research, recording, and editing. Additionally, it's truly admirable and far more rare to see a nuanced and unbiased take on ANYTHING these days so I might stroll through your subscriptions to make sure I'm not subscribed to anyone feeding the divisiveness that's ruining every aspect of modern society.

[@Nothing2NV]

Except they’re not brought in. They’ve openly admitted they strong arm their way in

[@JohnnyMaverik]

Or just as likely brashly claim for clout.

[@AL-lh2ht]

why lie? you think they are bullying billion dollar companies into being hired?

[@helixier6629]

I feel so blessed that I grew out of getting ragebaited by the internet. I avoided this topic whenever it popped up on twitter, and i'm really happy. Pirate a movie, watch a video essay, play songs on spotify, take a walk with your dog and take a picture. Life is great when you ignore all these things.

[@jamestonjes8263]

someone with common sense, a rare site

[@heimomies]

I'm Happy I grew up without internet & smartphones.

[@DeadAndAliveCat]

Based as hell. Good advice to follow.

[@Silvermoon424]

FANTASTIC advice honestly. I don't think people (myself included) realize how effective ragebaiting is until you consciously start making the effort to not engage. It's always important to remember that social media sites thrive off engagement, and making people angry/starting arguments/etc is a very effective way of doing so.

[@dimsumboy22]

coward.

[@HullabaLulu_Art]

Thank you for a very nuanced and balanced take on the situation. Videos like yours are helping to bring some balance to the story

[@SeppelSquirrel]

It isn't balanced. He didn't cover the left-wing points at all. He only covered the conservative and centrist points.

[@HullabaLulu_Art]

@SeppelSquirrel what are the left wing points you feel weren't covered? I thought he covered multiple sides quite well.

[@SeppelSquirrel]

@@HullabaLulu_ArtThere's something really important that Kira's not understanding: straight cis white men are the most privileged group of people on the planet. They literally cannot punch up because nobody is higher on the privilege hierarchy than them. Punching down is bigotry, but punching the top is not. You can be racist towards them, but that's not the same as reducing their privilege. It has almost no effect on their daily lives, whereas minorities have reasons to be afraid for their lives practically every day. I won't get into too many details here, but here's one extreme example: straight cis white men commit 99.7% of all mass-shootings in America. The rate of injustice just doesn't compare. Here's another point that gets completely ignored: 16:35 "Games just like other media should be telling a story or experience without tailoring it to someone based on these traits. Make stories that make sense to have those people in it." -- This is EXACTLY why DEI is necessary, because without it, they won't do that. At best, they'll shoehorn a minority in and call it a day, instead of making an inclusive experience. The problem is that people are being deceived into believing that DEI creates shoehorning, when it's the exact opposite. Without DEI, all we get is shoehorning and contempt for minorities.

[@Riplee86]

@@SeppelSquirrel So, you going to chime in with those left-wing points or no?

[@SeppelSquirrel]

@@Riplee86 My reply got deleted. However, if you search through the comments, I made a post listing them too. It has 7 likes last I checked.

[@FlamingZombie626]

Games journalists heard the line "You are not immune to propaganda" and failed to do any introspection with that idea

[@fifthstooge]

Its all propaganda. Journalists SHOULD do propaganda. Preferably left wing propaganda because we live in a conservative hellscape.

[@manporo5865]

They survive on bad press for click revenue. It's how kotaku has somehow outlived and thrived as opposed to a lot of other outlets

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Games journalists are people who wanted to work as journalists but lack the qualification.

[@gekirobo8720]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo And would most likely be laughed out of that profession even if they DID have the qualifications.

[@AmirDarkOne]

13:06 less white doesn't mean diverse in indian movies you see 99% Indian people enjoy entertainment because "relatability" not diversity i can relate to a character that doesn't look like me if you can't, that's on you.

[@eddiii4030]

Watching Gamergate 2: Electric Boogaloo unfold in real time is so, so, so exhausting

[@bananapodre8820]

gamergate 2 it's just a buzzword at this point

[@ohav3893]

Over some absolutely irrelevant thing too. This "drama" is so mild but its everywhere for some reason

[@Kalimdor199Menegroth]

@@ohav3893 It is a serious drama though. It just shows the ideological garbage that is seeping into every form of entertainment in the most anti-consumer manner possible. I am glad that it is happening though, as we right-wingers never let a good crisis go to waste.

[@deathmagneto-soy]

@@Kalimdor199Menegroth- Sounds like you're drowning in culture war kool-aid 🤔

[@ohav3893]

@@Kalimdor199Menegroth more like "we right wingers never waste an opportunity to get angry over shit thats worth nothing". Get over it. Minorities exist and no bullshit Gamergate 2 will stop them from appearing in fiction

[@Mobri]

This is intelligent, nuanced, and thorough. It will be attacked or ignored, and nothing meaningful will change. I have zero faith in our society. The internet has turned our world into an angry mob. I never understood what gaming "journalism" was supposed to accomplish anyway. It strikes me as a completely superfluous industry.

[@Runk3lsmcdougal]

And it's only going to get worse 😅

[@mayborneflower]

It was but at least getting the behind the scenes on beloved or upcoming games or tips from someone Relatable(TM) was a chill time that built hype. Then they started openly attacking their core audience (ya’know, the gamers), brazenly took handouts from the big companies, and making every fucking thing into something pointlessly raunchy or about the modern political landscape. It’s tiring. And now, boring.

[@zeogold]

Our society was like that long before the Internet. Black and white thinking and forming and going into echo chambers have been a thing for as long as humanity has been around.

[@johannderjager4146]

@@zeogold , yep, and the Internet is what's allowed it to completely proliferate to this point. It's always been there, it's just impossible not to notice it anymore.

[@xxkillbotxx7553]

If you touched grass every once and a while you'd realize that it's not this bad outside of the internet

[@MarcioSilva-vf5wk]

They aways sad "If you dont like my product, dont buy it!" and when people organized to do that, they get pissed.

[@JohnnyMaverik]

If only that's all that happened.

[@bkatbamna]

And the other thing they said: "This product isn't made for you." and then when it fails, they call the person who they directed the first statement to a "bigot".

[@gekirobo8720]

@@bkatbamna You're pretty much setting yourself up for failure and don't even realize it until its far too late.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Most of there games are critcally and commercially successful. Why lie?

[@512TheWolf512]

i find it revolting that ANYONE among the general public could be on the side of SBI and the journos this time around.

[@kavinh10]

they're the conditioned extremist, they've been trained like pathetic little attack hounds to bite at whatever their masters say. The fact that you have losers defending sbi despite them literally blackmailing clients that don't work with them says it all.

[@sumotony]

I agree but this time its ANYTHING as well. Government departments (DoHS) Gaming Infrastructure (Xbox) as well.

[@charlisebar-shai2613]

Hard agree. I'm pretty fucking far left but this whole situation is obnoxious to me, and hurts to the fight for more diverse gaming

[@XBluDiamondX]

Some of their comments that Kira highlighted (and from others) made it impossible for me to side with them. That's just some batshit crazy right there.

[@kevinb9830]

@@charlisebar-shai2613In 10-15 years you will be deemed a bigot. And around and around we go. It never stops. And I hate to tell you this, but it's because of people like you.

[@EneTheGene]

I'm glad the majority of people seem to be realizing just how full of bullshit the gaming journalism scene is.

[@user-account-not-found]

Almost as bad as toy and candy journalism. Can you believe how far its fallen. I need to know why is Mario actually a plumber this is very serious business that needs deep investigation or I will become emotional.

[@FireGlitch]

​@@user-account-not-found???

[@EneTheGene]

@@user-account-not-found Right...

[@endlessstrata6988]

Since print went out of business and they started relying completely on ads, it's been nothing but advertisement.

[@user-account-not-found]

@@EneTheGene My candy journalism is making me cry they aren't reviewing mars bars the way I want them too. Integrity in candy journalism!!!

[@dougray30]

Long-form Kira is ALWAYS great stuff.

[@JOZiable]

This is true

[@ZontarDow]

Too bad bots are spamming the comments section defending SBI

[@keenanmolver9689]

Agreed. It's one of the very few channels where I watch from start to finish

[@clvrswine]

It's not long-form. It's normal length anything. Get an attention span. Read a book. Take a walk. This isn't Tick Talk.

[@EmeraldMara85]

I wanted to hear both sides from Kira (as he says) but to my shock Kira mentioned Breitbart a fake news site which the founder (Steve Bannon) got charged with money laundering, conspiracy and schemes to defraud, in the US. You can google that yourself. Brietbart was also so unreliable in trying to make the Covid a joke as if the pandemic wasn't serious. That's how Breitbart's reputation is.

[@paneth8466]

I tend to largely ignore gaming journalists, they are not worth the trouble. Most of them will jump on whatever will get them the most views regardless of what the truth actually is.

[@PuellaMagiHomuraAkemi]

I mean look at Dragons Dogma 2, all the gaming journalists are bought and fake. That game runs like garbage even if you got a 7800X3D and a 4090 yet it got praised for being soooo good while it looks like a PS4 game needing hardware from 2030 - NEVER trust any gaming "journalists" or magazines. They are ALL liars trying to make you empty your wallet

[@NakkiNyan]

Unfortunately they have an effect on games. They worry more about being in 100 hit pieces because they didn't adhere to what they want despite it being a good game.

[@JosephEllis-ep7sg]

No such thing as professional journalists anymore. They're all activists with one bias or another.

[@justaghostinthesea]

Feels like that can be said about a lot of news nowadays. It's all about what will get the most engagement

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Most gaming journalists are people who wanted to work as journalists but lack the skills to do so. Their reviews aren't trustworthy, because they're normally not even able to play a game without a baby level and they're bought by the gaming companies most of the times anyways, so why should I care about them.

[@quietdignityandgrace]

This is what happens when you yell "Fire" in an empty theater. No one heard it, no one cared... until the media heard about it, then all hell breaks lose??? riiiiiight

[@Scruffynerfherder10]

This is why journalism is dead, they are all useless and they know it, so they make themselves relevant by fabricating nonsense to justify their existence

[@manporo5865]

Hell, I didn't even know such firms even existed until this video came out. Like if anything breaks out Kira would be in the same level of Kotaku for starting some shitty controversy

[@renediffie]

I honestly had no idea what all of this was about up until now. Thanks for making a video on it.

[@nathansuss]

"I need a weapon" with the chief emoji goes so hard

[@peanutbutter2586]

Master chef

[@nathansuss]

@@peanutbutter2586 it's Chief

[@GrimnirsGrudge]

@@nathansuss it's cheeks now

[@nathansuss]

@@GrimnirsGrudge ...🫠🙄

[@plutoniumzeppelin8164]

Thank you for summarizing this whole situation with a logical and honest take

[@micheleosullivan4430]

I'm fine with proportional diversity. Making identity politics the sole focus of a story doesn't make for good storytelling, especially when it's all it's about. Quit taking beloved franchises and using them as your (DEI) and (ESG) playground. Create fresh stuff instead! If you're not skilled enough to come up with your own story, reconsider your career path. We just want well-written narratives, enjoyable games that actually work, and leave the heavy-handed ideologies out of our escapist fantasies.

[@lordmolag45000]

I disagree with your take on heavy-handed ideologies, mainly because since games are art, I believe that they have the right to be whatever they want to be. That said, I do think you made good points on how games should be well-written, enjoyable and functional.

[@micheleosullivan4430]

@@lordmolag45000 It's cool that you only agree on some points. :)

[@vorea]

The whole "you can't be racist against white people" is also something that damages the racism conversation. When it was originally said, it was in the context of systemic racism (essentially, systems designed to oppress non-majority groups) against the ones who control the system. Racism on an individual level is always possible.

[@endlessstrata6988]

Even through that definition, which was of course built by racist people trying to justify it, you can indeed be racist against whites.

[@Chordata7]

my non white ass has been rubbed the wrong way by the statement of white people cant face racism. Racism can become aystemic due to individual choices overtime.

[@kevinb9830]

There absolutely is systemic racism against white people now as well. Jobs specifically for non whites, for example.

[@minidusa]

Yeah I agree. We need to establish the difference between systemic and social racism. Social racism can occur with literally any group of people, but system racism requires both social racism with the distinct adage of a power dynamic and associated social hierarchy’s in a culture.

[@mickieg1994]

The fact that the definition of racism was changed to reflect this is very telling. The idea that racism requires power and privilege is absolutely ridiculous and just helps promote this same idea that it's ok to demonise people you just decided had the power and privilege because of their skin colour and it's not racist when you do it for this same reason.

[@MalloryHasCats]

I'm a white woman and my husband is Indian. I experience a similar level of racism when we go to India that he receives in the Ozarks - it's not a lot but it's there - mostly its just awkward and comes from a place of ignorance, or an assumption of what a brown/white person must like, not based on one's person experiences, but rather what they've heard from others etc. There were people who didn't want to sit by me on the train which was so weird because the train was PACKED. There were some shops that would super-raise the prices when I came in. Having lived in a very white world (the Ozarks) my whole life, it was an interesting learning experience to be the minority. And the people who love you who aren't white get so sad by it, just like when us white people see people we love get hurt by racism. Racism is racism. wow that was long sorry

[@JohnnyMaverik]

Interesting story though. Thanks for sharing it.

[@shinobicl]

Anita Sarkeesian’s video on the game HITMAN is all that you need to understand how intellectually dishonest these people are. Long live Gamergate and Comicsgate.

[@noless]

Oh, she lied lots of times in her Tropes vs Women series. Usually by omission. She would constantly leave out important information. And lots of journalists defended her.

[@danielholowitski3855]

We should go back to just having Watergate and that's it, no more gates

[@Redwolf6056]

@@danielholowitski3855 Feel like a lot of these culture warriors don't even know that there was no gate in the Watergate scandal.

[@zephyr8072]

“Long live Gamergate and Comicsgate.“ And this is all I need to understand how intellectually dishonest people like you are.

[@josephjones4293]

He dances so hard around calling them racists it’s kinda funny…

[@ariannamyrie9520]

Genuinely curious.... which one? I have an inkling, but what are you trying to get at?

[@JohnnyMaverik]

I'm pretty sure he fairly directly says their views are pretty racist and anti diversity. By pretty sure I mean he definitely did say that. Did you watch the same video? I'm confused.

[@dfghgg6167]

For me, I care about these bad actors saying the most toxic things and journalists are going to bat for them and even lying ( and lying by omission) to help them. These people don't care about us. Also, great video!

[@Valyoyoable]

Yes, they swapped "ex" with "In" when talking about how "inclusive" they are.

[@cyrilm.k.9180]

Thank you for voicing the opinion of the most attacked minority these days: reasonable people!

[@insensitive919]

Nah, now we all gotta pick a side between the giant douches and the turd sandwiches or the winner will "cancel" or "gatekeep" us, depending on their own glossary.

[@CelticGuardian7]

That got me, thank you. XD

[@charmyzard]

And that "it doesn't matter if they change or add a few things" attitude is exactly how they push the window to "it's nothing" to "you're evil for not wanting it."

[@jonnywilson4408]

Newcastle University should revoke Alyssa Mercante’s degree, since she didn’t learn anything when she was studying for her journalism degree since she violated journalistic ethics

[@StaceAyyy]

Alyssa looks like trans Jerry Seinfeld lol

[@ShidaPenns]

Why would they do that? She's exactly what they brainwashed her to be.

[@jonnywilson4408]

Because they are serious and respected school for journalism

[@ShidaPenns]

@@jonnywilson4408 Hilarious to think any of these universities deserve any respect for brainwashing generations of young people.

[@JohnnyMaverik]

@@jonnywilson4408 Are any British universities really respected these days, out of a very select few? I mean shit, only uni i respect is Manchester for science and even then, it's specifically for science.

[@leonhart7306]

Great video, the most dispassionate and comprehensive take on the situation I've seen yet.

[@joema48]

Game journalists have to create a new boogyman if they want to stay in business. Lets not forget sbi is funded by blackrock, whose ceo openly and feely admitted he wants to force behaviroal changea in ppl through controllsd investments.

[@nemonatussum7040]

Dont often post, just wanna say thanks for what is the most down the middle and most appropriate video on the situation yet!

[@AFarCryGames]

Having diversity in a game isn't bad. Having representation in a game isn't bad. What is bad is when it's forced in and the character they force in there has their diversity as their entire personality or character. We don't care about LGBTQ+ characters when they're well written and full characters, not just Tokens. We don't care about 'non-white' characters in games when they're not just stereotypes and there to 'own the whites.' It's ridiculous.

[@shinjojin]

^ This!

[@Superluigi881]

Exactly. If you want your protag to be a gay black person then just do that and don't make a big deal out of it for clout. But if that's all they've got then your character probably isn't very well written. But this is all going to fall on death ears. Because narcissists can only write narcissists.

[@TravisFawver]

The culture war stuff is super weird, I feel like it fundamentally changes the points we're even arguing about with stuff like this. I feel like the entire topic could be summarized as "the games this company get involved in dont perform well and arent well received by fans". Its as simple as the product being bad.

[@johannderjager4146]

It is at its core, absolutely. The companies are just as much to blame as SBI because they brought them in and continue to make the wrong decision. Ultimately, working with SBI is itself a bad business decision.

[@borkguy]

Ok, and WHY are they not received well by fans? You’re so close to understanding, just ask one more question.

[@inny74]

@@borkguyIt doesnt matter, SBI's association is NEVER a main determining factor of a game's failure. SBI likely was part of the Spiderman games, and those became a huge success. The games SBI is part of often fail mainly because of how bad the product is in general. SS:KJL was fucking abysmal and mostly unplayable. Its failure had nothing to do with Sweet Baby Inc., it was simply just a shit product with even more shit of a DRM bundled in. Anybody thinking all these games fail solely because SBI had their hands on it needs a real serious reality check. A vast majority of people simply just dont give a shit about SBI and bullshit political culture wars (which mind you, are only used as a distraction in attempt to turn people away from real issues), and only care about how good the game is. If the game is shit, it will fail. If the game is good, it will succeed. Thats it.

[@kesamek8537]

That's because it is called brainwashing.

[@kevinb9830]

@@borkguyBecause they push agendas we don't agree with, generally.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Never heard any of this. Despite enjoying games, THIS is the reason I avoid game journalism on the Internet. Can't be arsed with the drama so just avoid it.

[@aninverse]

Part of growing away from division and prejudice is letting go of that 'other opinion is bad' mentality behind. It blocks dialogue, growth, and understanding. Brilliant video and closing thoughts Kira.

[@Ash21]

agreed and disagreed. Sometimes opinions are bad (like in a case of some saying a hateful opinion,) but yea. People need to be more accepting and understanding,... just kinda hard to do that when a large portion of the other side is constantly spewing tons of hate against you and calling you pedos and trying to make your life a living hell for literally no reason other than being yourself... but yea.

[@finalcipher457]

The irony of this position is that you're basically creating a third opinion and saying everyone else's opinions on both sides are bad

[@Tessala1306]

​@@finalcipher457Tbh, considering how heated and sometimes disrespectful both sides are, it's better to have third opinion

[@incomprehensible3945]

​@@finalcipher457 it's not just "two sides", there's lots of different takes and opinions on the subject and you're not required to adhere to the left/right side of the argument. a more reasonable thing to do would be to simply look at other people's opinions, and pick away the parts that you personally agree with, and then the parts which you don't agree with, you know, form your own opinions and don't jump into the hivemind circlejerk of "we're the good guys and theyre the bad guys"

[@michalotto5444]

Why is it that "Diversity Equity and Inclusion" is one of the most social divisive factor the last few decades? Is it not suppose to unite society? It seems to have exactly to opposite effect. I think its because this is "forced" diversity equity and inclusion and not organic diversity equity and inclusion. Take a look at Helldivers 2. People from all over the world from all nations, races, sexes, gay and straight played a game together, working together to try and stick it to Joel. No one is being racist, sexist or any of the other ists/phobias towards each other, they are working together to just killing bugs and robots and free up planets to the best of their abilities. This is organic or natural diversity equity and inclusion and it thrived because everyone united out of their own free will for one cause, stick it to Joel. I will bet money there are people playing Helldivers 2 together that in the real world have completely opposite and incompatible perspectives and viewpoints, yet in the fantasy world of Super Earth they unite into a single team without discrimination. Is that not DEI?

[@lotus_flower2001]

Because companies are trying to appeal to investors by making their employees diverse in all positions in a short amount of time. You cant have a PREFERENCE for one race over the other in hiring. You can in higher education tho.

[@lawrencelopez9839]

for some people it's not about pulling each other up, it's about changing who's on top.

[@michalotto5444]

@@lotus_flower2001the only preference you can have as an employer is to get the best person for a position regardless of race, color or gender. What I am seeing is that DEI is extremely divisive and is not having good overall effect on the products of the game companies because most of the current games are trash. Gamers won't buy trash and I am sure investors won't continue to back failing games.

[@mrbork7218]

The only reason it's 'forced' is because it's already so heavily skewed against diversity. After there is enough inclusion they just stop.

[@mrbork7218]

@@thebobo1229 we've been doing it for millenia. And always in one directions favour.

[@hattersmadness4701]

The "Sweet Baby Inc Detected" group helps people avoid games companies that hire companies like SBI so that they can better speak with their wallets.

[@GarrulousHerald]

It's why I dislike when Steam or any company hides "unrelated" reviews. Don't include them in the review score? Fine I guess, but I want to know what the company gets up to. And even if I agree with that company, I want others to have the same opportunity to view that knowledge even if they may disagree. Make an "unrelated to game" review section to sort them. Not to mention it's USUALLY also used as a cover to delete or hide huge swaths of legitimate reviews too. They provide the excuse they're just going after unrelated reviews, then they delete a bunch of related ones, but your average redditor-iq type person will take their word for it despite all the evidence to the contrary.

[@JohnnyMaverik]

Yea and I support their right to do so. However it pisses me off that they also seek out communities formed around any game SBI has been involved with and go at them constantly.

[@JohnnyMaverik]

@@GarrulousHerald Can't agree. If a bunch of idiots have decided to buy a game, boot it up for 10 minutes then review it before refunding to say "SBI included" I want a button to be able to make all those reviews disappear and I don't want their... "opinion" to be included in the user score because I just want to know what the game is actually like.

[@HitemAriania]

I use them to actually find some decent games.

[@pagatryx5451]

​@@JohnnyMaverikand if SBI is included it probably sucks for a lot of people. Hence why we want it included in reviews.... This is like saying you don't want negative reviews about bad graphics. Just because you don't mind something, doesn't mean it doesn't have a right to be included in reviews. That's dumb as hell.

[@alewis514]

You can be diverse, progressive and inclusive in a good way, where this is well integrated into the narrative. Remember "24"? That TV show from early to late 2000's? There was a black President of the US in there, in 2003. Then a woman was a president in season 7 which aired in 2009. Nobody gave a shit about this role not being fulfilled by a white male (often pretty darn old too). This predates Barack Obama by a few years and a woman president is still something from the future. All this forced diversity today is just that - empty props, checkboxes in the excel datasheet. These gender and race swaps don't help the story, the story is shit to begin with.

[@StephenMcGregor1986]

Black lead actor in Stargate SG1. Black/women lead actors in Star Trek series' I don't understand all the screaming when we've had the diversity for milleniums. Picard was stupid... in Voyager, 7 of 9 hooked up with Chikotay and in Picard she's suddenly switched preferences. The switch to another relationship preference for no explainable reason what so ever; pandering to woke crowds for the sake of virtue signalling; absolutely pathetic. It doesn't fit the narrative of the story, and ruins the immersion. Is like people who are fine with all of this have no passion for any franchise. Slippery slope and all that. Look at how many microtransactions are in games these days. It was gradual and we all let it happen and now we have rubbish like Dragon's Dogma 2.

[@shifty7629]

Omar Little from The Wire was black AND gay. So theoretically we should all hate him, yet he is one of the most beloved TV characters of all time. That's weird. It's almost as if good writing and character development trumps shallow characters based solely on their race, gender and sexual orientation. You would think that these "professional writers" would understand that, but I guess that can be hard to do when you live your entire life treating people as check boxes.

[@finalcipher457]

The difference is that if 24 was made today, people would point at the black President and say he was forced diversity. The media is the same, but conspiracy theories have made people feel like something changed

[@Nostradankus]

It's funny you should mention gender swapping. Back on 2003 there were complains abound about female Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica too, but today it's rarely if ever brought up. Almost as if all the outrage merchants moved on, so the show succeeded on its own merits. And let's not pretend that shows like Star Trek didn't get their fair share of outrage for having black main characters or *gasp* a black woman kissing a white man. These shows were inclusive despite, not because of the times they were made in.

[@alewis514]

@@NostradankusToday you see the same kind of "outrage" if a show isn't "diverse" enough. These are the same racist assholes as back then, it's just the direction of racism that changed.

[@draxrdax7321]

Half an hour of fence sitting, afraid to be incisive and thinking the audience is "split" on the issue. No, the audience isn't split. Your audience is against DEI and SBI, yet you're desperately trying to be "objective", even if all the evidence proves that SBI is on the wrong side.

[@KiraTV1]

Source?

[@jeffreymorris1752]

shorter draxrdax: god dammit somebody almost disagrees with me!

[@hulkkrogan420]

Hes.right, im.against SBI and DEI

[@SpardaDVLKing3]

It's pretty hilarious that people actually take gaming journalism seriously like actual news. lol

[@robertcastanpn288]

Depends on the source but most like it about overworking devs and such

[@Nerobyrne]

Yeah when GG first started I was like: "What? You mean the guys that are getting prime seats at gaming company events and whose entire jobs depend on early access, which is also granted by those companies, are NOT HONEST!? NOOOOOO!"

[@bobthetitanic]

​​@@Nerobyrne no it was about a game developer sleeping with several journalists who wrote articles about her and voted to give her awards for her game .

[@Nerobyrne]

@@bobthetitanic Ah so you're saying that ya'll were totally fine with corruption as long as only $ was exchanged, but as soon as it was D, that's where you draw the line? I mean, whatever, doesn't change what I said. I never took that crap seriously beyond looking up guides or release dates.

[@gr33dl0cknein3]

@@Nerobyrne nobody said that you goober.

[@stanettiels7367]

Superb. Probably the best video I’ve seen on the issue. I’ll agree that ultimately the publisher decides and signs off on what is in the game or not, I still think SBI - and others - have a power over these publishers. Like it’s already established in this video, the SBI and the gaming journalist sites can and will unite and mobilise against a perceived enemy - and they can and will dog pile and strong-arm a studio to hire them for consulting. It’s not organic and is a relatively recent practice because of that threat of a campaign against a studio for not having minorities, etc. I know you disagree with that. Nonetheless, what an excellent video. Top notch.

[@jaysmudger]

This, SBI and other similar companies know exactly what they are doing and I would bet they don't come cheap either.

[@stanettiels7367]

@@jaysmudger Comes across to me like a protection racket - a shakedown. They admitted it when saying “...terrify them if they don’t give you what you want...” Like they tried to dog pile CD Projekt for a poster in their game. Or Kingdom Come:Deliverance for having no minorities. Or Days Gone for having a white male protagonist. Those studios resisted at the time but, like KC:D studio War Horse, they’ve now signed up to all the ESG stuff. Some studios resist but you can imagine some saying “Just hire these consultants to avoid the hit pieces and negative press from a complicit media apparatus. They can’t accuse us of anything then.” In other words “...terrify them if they don’t give you what you want...”

[@vincelang3779]

. . . with the most *important* data point completely ignored : the money. Always follow the money. The sums involved explain every single decision made by publishers, studios, individual developers, media, etc - down to why these actors are the ones who first started referring to this "movement" as GG2.0. Follow the money.

[@stanettiels7367]

@@vincelang3779 Yeah, fair point. It’s still the best breakdown of the series of events that I’ve seen. Nothing emotional or overtly political, just the timeline of events and the gist of what is happening.

[@IIIIIIllIlllllIlI]

The only thing about that suicide squad game was that the entire writing team worked in SBI even though they tried to say they didn’t do much to the story.

[@JohnnyMaverik]

Also barely anybody bought it... even before this shit kicked off, so I guess maybe people are learning? I did notice it creep up the top sellers on steam the week or so before it came out though, so the don't preorder anything you morons message still needs to be repeated.

[@Solsbeary]

There are no winners here. I am a white middle aged male who is on the liberal/progressive side of the fence. We can all agree there is a section of the 'white male' gaming community who screams "woke" every opportunity they get and are rightly labelled toxic. However you have people like the employees at Superbaby who also propagates aggression towards the "toxic" white male audience. In my opinion both sides are as pathetic and short sighted as the other. Then you have the Journalists, who are frankly terrible at their jobs for not portraying events with equal measure of both sides. Quite frankly I cannot be arsed with any of those involved, and they all need to look at themselves because they haven't a clue about real issues in the world if they put that much emphasis into this nonsense.

[@Chasm9]

Exactly. I cringe at every one of those extreme viewpoints (straight white male)

[@cinderheart2720]

I feel like one important detail that was missing is that DEI services are provided because they result in tax credits and outside investment in a game company, as long as the company qualifies. We can say that SBI is "only hired to consult" and that the company always has the final decision, but what's actually happening is that SBI is holding the company's funding hostage. Use what they write or you don't get funding. Before anyone cries conspiracy, they said that they do this in their GDC talk. "Go scare your marketing department into using us."

[@johannderjager4146]

Thank you! I swear there are so many who try to gaslight us like we don't have a recording of them proudly admitting to what they do.

[@kelpi4362]

Yeah, you're gonna need to provide some sources on that "but what's actually happening is that SBI is holding the company's funding hostage". Isn't it far more likely that they just use the path of least resistance; you know lazy effort representation? Also you'd have to be talking about AAA(A) studios for the most part. Oh no the poor companies with millions upon millions to spend, cant get a little tax break... That being said if they get a tax credit it needs to stop, its so artificial. Give them tax credits for hiring more employees and paying them a living wage. Smaller studio's don't operate on the scale that a tax credit is something they go after. If their game is about a minority. They are making something like that because they are part of that minority... You know passion projects. Maybe that kind of thing should get some extra funding...

[@keonkla]

​@@Not_Recommended Centrists who are actually for one side but want to play pretend are ruining the word. Folks sometimes, one side is just wrong. Tho not surprised considering kiras other politic theme videos. Hope some of his other fans are not as brain dead and default lefties.

[@user-account-not-found]

Who is providing that funding - you are full of ish here. This is not how games get funded lol.

[@keonkla]

@@Not_Recommended So many youtubers are left wing by default so its not surprising lol. Hopefully their favorite games become corrupted by Sweet baby so they see the light.

[@leeroynewman]

this video is a classic case of "yeah this side bad, but other side is bad too cuz they complain"

[@DDRWakaLaka]

lolwat

[@lukebytes5366]

The real kicker is you could apply that idea to both sides.

[@quasinfinity]

14:06 made me literally lol: this is an obviously sarcastic statement satirizing homophobes. Every queer person has had some variation of this said to them. For me, it was a house party at my (then) bf's best friend's. Everyone was horny teenagers all over eachother, we were no different. A rando came up to us and said words to the effect of "I know gays are gross, but actually you two are adorable." Like, wut? You're right that it's not very inclusive, that's the joke.

[@Ash21]

exactly this. Sure some people do have those options and distrust, but most if not all of the overly hateful comments against white cis people are jokes, simply poking fun at all the hate we receive from the other side, which is more often than not is real genuine hate.

[@lukebytes5366]

Sounds like a joke that can easily be taken out of context if spoken on the internet.

[@Plutonia001]

I wonder if "GG 2.0" will also employ a squad of ludicrously obsessed Wikipedia editors to maintain a specific narrative against the verifiable evidence for a decade plus. And I wonder if this time they'll pay someone to do that in Chinese as well so that they won't accidentally have the facts and sources visible on a language they happen to not understand.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

It's kinda wild that you have to go to a Chinese website for the real facts.

[@Gravity_cat]

I think you hit the nail on the head. The real crux of the issue isn't that people dislike inclusion and diversity - people have widely accepted media from other countries and cultures, and some of that media is cherished by people in western countries. Anime is a prime example of this, but it extends to films and games too. Some of my favourite media of all time was produced in eastern countries. The problem is that western corporate implementation of inclusion and diversity tends to retroactively change races of already-established characters for shows, or take existing media down a new path that doesn't feel genuine - it feels cynical and forced, and it seems clear the company did it to hit a quota. Race-washing in media has historically always been seen as bad specifically because of white-washing, but now companies seem to think the *other way around* is acceptable in favour of following a trend, which I find both strange and hypocritical. And it's made worse when third party contractors like those in Sweet Baby Inc display some of the most unhinged behaviours when challenged, and their disgusting bigoted opinions towards straight white people on social media and - as we've also seen in public at GDC - and they don't see they're part of the problem they claim to be against. You don't fight racism and bigotry with more racism and bigotry, it's a vicious cycle that you don't perpetuate. And what's worse is media outlets don't punish their behaviours by calling them out, instead they *reward* it by defending them which means they condone their actions - this is what people should be pissed about, and thankfully most are. Of course as you said there are the two vocal extremes butting heads which muddies the waters.

[@Nalumah]

Except this isn't the case like, at all. Even when minority characters get created/have their own stories from the getgo people STILL get mad. Transwomen, for example, get incomprehensible amounts of hate if they're represented in any way shape or form whatsoever in any way. I'd have to look it up, but there was a vampire movie that included a stealth transgirl as one of the actors and there was backlash simply because she was employed. Same shit as with the Budweiser thing.

[@clvrswine]

@@NalumahShaddup. Dork.

[@Teo_live]

@@Nalumah Nah you are gaslighting. Budweiser literally had a marketing VP who openly dissed their customer base in the name of woke ideology. Also, there have been plenty of OG "minority" characters since the 90's that have been widely loved by all. Now I believe you are talking about 'Bit', which at best looked like some mediocre teen slop and at worst looks like woke garbage. Did an actress/actor unfairly receive 'hate'? I don't know, but I would need hard receipts to believe it (and not false red flags) since 'hate' is just a buzzword to dismiss criticism nowadays.

[@lukebytes5366]

@@Nalumah "people" as in niche far-right channels that ragebait for clicks. Those people your describing exist but they aren't nearly as prominent as the internet would make them out to be. Everyone, aside from those i just mentioned, loved nemona, the owl house, countless race-centric movies and shows, etc. Those extremists only become anything more than jokes when they find instances of representation (or just media in general) that are genuinely bad. The general internet only cared about SBI when suicide squad shat the bed. Most people only cared about "forced diversity" when certain pieces of media put progressive lipservice over a movie that's legitimately inclusive. Most people don't follow such blatantly bigoted ideologies as much as they parrot them to simplify what they actually take issue with.

[@seaglass3034]

A reminder that Gamergate came about, because people started calling out game industry professionals for sleeping with other industry professionals for favors. Also, let's forget that the leadership of SBI raised "...you need to terrorize your targeted company's marketing department about how they'll be viewed as racist, if they don't accept SBI's services..." Paraphrased, but nearly identical verbiage.

[@randm4246]

It's not complex, or complicated at all. They invent a problem, and sell you the solution. It's a grift as old as time. It is no different than if I knocked on the door of a homeowner's house, convinced him that the sun was about to explode, and then sold him sun exploding insurance.

[@christhechilled]

Sweat Baby Inc is a spineless company! Screw em! 👊

[@Eviscerator03]

As a moderate it's nice to see my opinions actually reflected somewhere. The only thing I would point out is that if it's true SBI is intimidating clients to get hired- then they certainly deserve some of the direct backlash. Threatening people and companies to get your way is deplorable.

[@toddtaylor6506]

Company X works with games. Someone makes a list of all the games Company X has worked with. Idiots at Company X think this is harassment. Is a Wiki page harassing some actor if they list every movie/show they've been in?

[@StephenMcGregor1986]

Don't give them ideas, they'll start writing hit pieces about Wikipedia soon enough hahahahaha

[@franfrommn]

I agree Alyssa Mercante should probably read up on historical racism against white people in the world. But I think there’s like a whole paragraph missing from your script. Where you explain the context of racism in western society today. It’s kind of weird to talk about white racism so much and then not the other kind at all. The kind that is happening now and not in 1945.

[@heroesofthescape]

Kira hit it on the head when he brought up sharing their own stories. Their drive for DEI wouldn't be as criticized if they they didn't race/gender/orientation change for the literal purpose of simply swapping them. This is happening all over media and we're reaching our breaking point. Another issue with the push is often times the rising up of their "marginalized" characters comes by tearing down the straight white male characters, or by making them severely over powered in universe for no reason. Look at Rey. Came out of nowhere and is already as powerful as a jedi master with exactly 0 training. Look at Thor in Endgame, lost his home, half his people (twice), his brother, and had the chance to stop Thanos but failed and instead of exploring that they turned him into a joke. Basically, and I hate using this term because it's simply used to divide, DEI as a concept isn't the issue, it's the implementation. It's only being used to raise specific groups at the expense and destruction of one specific group.

[@MorbidEel]

"DEI as a concept isn't the issue, it's the implementation" it does make you wonder if that wasn't the intent all along but maybe my tinfoil hat is strapped on too tightly. Convincing people to participate their own oppression is a clever trick.

[@JohnnyMaverik]

Ok but hot take. Like when I hear people say this is "breaking them"... and then you look and they are mad cuz they made Snow White and Ariel black... I mean? Did you really give a shit? Like honestly, not judging but were you really, really looking forward to watching those films and then bang, then "woked" up the lead roles and shattered your childhood? Honestly?

[@junyaiwase]

“This is happening all over” but it’s really not

[@filthycasual6118]

Let's not forget that DEI is a very corporate concern, and that the purpose of modern games journalism is to _advertise_ not to _criticize._ The decisions about what to include and why are being funneled through a few very influential and very out-of-touch people at the top of a big pyramid. Games journalism being a reflection of corporate culture isn't surprising, since publishers and developers have a vested interest in their product's success. It's also unsurprising that these interests are willing to play dirty by slandering the opposition. The conjunction of these elements is where the "everyone who disagrees with me is a racist" narrative comes from: out-of-touch suits need a checklist to help them develop a diverse product, because they're incapable of doing so in a genuine way; they throw money at the problem and now expect dividends, because that's the promise of hiring someone to provide a service in this context; therefore any criticism of their product will hurt revenue, so they cannot accept any criticism as valid. It's always the suits, man.

[@mathieuleader8601]

the logo of Sweet Baby Inc. looks like a teletubby

[@WallNutBreaker524]

I see alot of people here saying "Im glad ignore this" I have one thing to say to you all. "You can Ignore war, but War will never ignore you".

[@lordmolag45000]

Well guess what, I don't give a shit on what you have to say to me. The culture war is utterly pointless and has no reason to exist whatsoever. Games are art, and therefore, have the right to be whatever they want to be, regardless of whether or not you agree with the game's overall message.

[@casualcausalityy]

It's crazy how racyst this inclusivity movement turned out to be

[@bladeswatches201]

Same thing with politics, you are either on the right or left there is no middle. Instead of people having a rational discussion and hearing each side, they want to tear each other apart over ideology.

[@mrbork7218]

Oftentimes there is no middle because the average has shifted further in one direction or the policies of one side are considered unacceptable violations of one's rights.

[@spectre9340]

Game Journalists and Game Devs that hate on gamers feels awfully like American anime localizers that hate on anime fans.

[@StephenMcGregor1986]

Great video as always Kira 🙂 Just looked into some old websites. Would be cool to see a little doco on things like Lycos who used to own Wired now known as Wired magazine. I find that stuff interesting, not sure if anyone else might.

[@gipgap4]

You’ve missed a large part of why these big established companies employ consultants such as SBI. The diversity ideology is financially incentivised by ESG funding hence companies are encouraged to employ such consultants in the first place.

[@RodsFromGod_26]

Yep. As he stated, the gaming executives do ultimately decide exactly what's in their games. These large corporations get forced to practice DEI from within, so no wonder they go to pro-DEI developers and consultants. It's all directly related to ESG bullshit. Just connect the dots.

[@Nick-zm2vm]

Red Dead 2 is a great example of writing a diverse cast of characters and making it feel natural. Some of the best characters are not white men and RD2 dives into the struggles they might actually face during that time period. The problem is, you have to be a good writer in the first place. Otherwise, you're just a hack hiding from criticism behind your diverse characters.

[@dustinabigan2776]

The problem with calls for diversity, inclusion, etc. like this is that a lot of people think that this means directly attacking and degrading the dominant demographic which is claimed to be the white male heterosexual. What's ironic is that trying to degrade this demographic is exactly why diversity, inclusion, and anti-discrimination ideas are even a thing. If you're a feminist, you do not become more of a female by waging a war against every straight male you meet. It just shows hypocrisy. In this case if you're someone that wants diversity and inclusion, you can not be more inclusive and supportive to diversity if you actively try to wage a war against one group. Honestly it's things like this that make me distance myself from anything related to things like this because both sides just want to throw nukes at each other instead of trying to talk. It's two sides wanting 100% of things to go their way without realizing that life if full of compromises and agreements and middle grounds you need to make about things.

[@StephenMcGregor1986]

People should watch the South Park: Joining the Panderverse special. Matt and Tray get it.

[@user-fj3wk7mi2n]

Make sure to watch it all the way through though.

[@ItsOver9000Productions]

Matt and Tray do but most of their audience don't

[@Barzarel]

Think been many diverse game where it ia proven many if not majority of players don't care if there is diversity in games long as its not forced or obstructing rest of enjoyment of the game. Sims 4 is a good example the first of Saints Row games another example of it, but when diversity comes before story or gameplay and strongly learn into forcing messaging propaganda to you, then I think that is what upsets most. But then again it wouldn't be activism if its not triggering or causing a reaction that suppose to highlight the activism or talking points. Which is probably in essence the main issue with wokeness in gaming. Also kinda suspect some the first actual lesbian romance options were heavily asked by not only gay community, but also heterosexual males that liked playing female characters but still wanted to experience the romances with female NPCs they liked. Think some evidence to that is also while were some who complained about Judy in Cyberpunk 2077 being female exclusive romance option, it wasn't as huge and as strong like you would imagined if it was every heterosexual gamer being upset about it. So really think ever since the 90s many have been okay with Diversity and gay relationships in gaming for most parts, long is it wasn't forced as messaging or deliberately sough to ruin the rest the gaming experience for them.

[@slayer4932]

One thing people need to realize is terms like "woke" and "overrated" have been used so commonly now by people for any new media release just to stir up drama with no actual criticism that those terms themselvves lost their meaning and people using them cannot be taken seriously any longer. 27:08 sums up my exact thoughts on all drama related to media drama these days and as you said "a good game is good, a bad game is bad" simple. Political bs like this is why we play games or watch movies. To escape the real world problems. But both sides are bringing it into it 1 side being a bad company that sometimes happens, and 1 being people just wanting to stir up drama.

[@FawakaFrank]

It seems justified to go after SBI simply because multiple employees have been flat out racists publicly.

[@teawitched]

I am white, but I am also LGBTQ+ and female. Even I do not like the way this whole situation has happened. The attack on white straight males is not going to improve anything. Inciting harassment against that Steam group was hypocritical and uncalled for, even though I likely disagree with a lot of the members' views. Those tweets from employees were gross, and the Kotaku journalist saying people can't be racist towards white people is just dumb. Game journalism is just bottom of the barrel, which is a shame because I bet there's many gamers out there who would write wonderful, worthwhile articles... Diversity & inclusivity is important, but it shouldn't be used to tick boxes, as that is counterintuitive. We want interesting characters and rich stories in games, from all kinds of people. I absolutely loath tokenism. I want real representation, not a shoehorned character with no personality other than their diverse characteristic.

[@robinnewhouse1563]

Who's attacking white males and tell me exactly in which games this is happening, you'll come up with none.

[@lk5388]

See, you are not representative of the game journos. The fact that you believe the consumer have a right to how they spend their money makes you an enemy to them. Game devs (the crazy ones) and game journos think they have the right to make whatever they want and find acceptable and the consumers are expected to just consume them.

[@ReprobateMind]

There is no attack on straight white male gamers. There is misunderstanding and sometimes outright misrepresentation. I used to be part of the whole Gamergate, anti sjw bollocks as a teenager (when i was straight.... and stupid) and now I'm a grown man looking back it's actually crazy to see what actually happened. The "Ethics in games journalism" is a red herring. I came from anti Christian/ religious videos and once all those arguments were all ran dry for 10 years the creators had to find a new boogie man who was easy to take down with sarcasm. In steps the SJWs. Now a lot of what these people were talking about is right. Patriarchy is real. Men are just better off in society than women. In the west its a lot closer these days but just being seen as a human by most people isn't a given. Institutional racism is real. Black people were pushed out of certain areas, they get stopped by police and disproportionately get killed far more than white folk. All the SJWs are doing is acknowledging these facts of reality. They can only really do this. Now instead of seeing these injustices and going "Yeah that sucks. Things suck for me as well as a poor white person, we should band together on class and think of ways to fix these systemic issues that keep all of us poor and angry" They go, "Yeah things are shit for me as well and I fucking like that way cause it's slightly better for me and I think I might lose my slight leg up" SO now the content creators looking for easy dunks turn on high school/ college kids with the right ideas but no idea who to present them. They then twist what they're saying into "Oh what you mean there's a magical demon called patriarchy that keeps you down and doesn't let you leave the house!? You think just cause Im straight and I'm white and I'm male everything is just handed to me!? NO!! The world is hard! Life is hard! Stop whining and get good kid! Don't you know if you was on my side you could just sarcastically quip your way out of poverty?" Then they move to "There's no institutional racism... just racists the country isn't racist" bl;ah blah blah and before you know it you're making a few edgy jokes because you're not a snowflake you don't gget easily offended and then you're literally in the alt-right. Watch for the tactics all the people i used to watch were "centrists" "Oh i used to be liberal but then these blue haired cry babies came along and started being nice to gay people and coloureds and I dipped" There's a video called "The pewdie-pipeline" that explains the whole edgy joke to literal Nazi path I was on and escaped; we can't be giving credence to this shit because people slip down it thinking. "Oh I'm not a racist, so these guys aren't" and it all starts with creepy 30-40 year old right wing basement dwellers grooming literal children into the idea that "You're under attack for being straight and white and male!! Everyone is coming for everything you love what will you do if they make Cratos gay and black , think of muh vidya games!" say all of this as a white, male, 28 year old (used to think he was but is now bi/pansexual. straight) Man who fell for all of this a long time ago. Hopefully some young lads se this and know there's positivity out there this much hatred over nothing with steal your soul!

[@Tayturs]

I think when people complain about "forced" diversity they are ignoring the long history of games that were "forced" homogeneity. For a long time we had the default "shaved headed straight white guy" protagonists, which were still just as much to tick a marketing box as anything modern. Pretending that white dude protags are not ALSO chosen to appeal to specific demographics, and are somehow the 'neutral default' is flawed reasoning. The gaming audience demographic is wider now, that's all.

[@teawitched]

@@Tayturs oh no, I completely agree. No character regardless should be shoehorned into a game. I know that white male protagonists are made to appeal to the large majority of gamers who fit those characteristics.

[@JustMonikaOk]

I don't always like you, I don't always agree with you, but videos like this are why I respect you.

[@tobymarshall8142]

Quick context: folks who say 'white people can't experience racism' don't consider 'racism' and 'racial prejudice' to be the same thing. If you find the statement ridiculous you likely see the two terms as completely interchangeable and that's okay, probably. This whole thing is an annoying slapping match over semantics.

[@NoshikiYT]

I’m glad Kira is talking about it because I’m sick of it myself tbh

[@robinnewhouse1563]

How many times have you cried yourself to sleep over this irrelevant "drama"? 😂

[@calhowell6798]

One less white main character in a ocean full of them. Such a tragedy on the human species… Gosh how ever shall we recover.

[@maskettaman1488]

@@robinnewhouse1563 Normal people don't cry themselves to sleep

[@endlessstrata6988]

@@robinnewhouse1563 Zero.

[@foxt.5043]

@@maskettaman1488 Lmao, that's why its an insult. Why do you have 7 likes for breaking down a common insult?

[@nyutrig]

you failed to mention SBI using extortion tactics to get their foot in the door in the first place. it's pretty hard to say that the devs have the last word, when you have the SBI CEO stateing publicly that they use terroristic tactics to get their way.

[@MANTARD]

Congrats on straddling the fence for half an hour, I guess?

[@KiraTV1]

Thanks!

[@samuels.2411]

10:04 damn did you really include the article about cleopatra not being black for your arguments? it IS an documentary and not any kind of fantasy/whatever series that is historical wrong, egypt themself sued the series. xD

[@ProudOgreDad]

Amen, Kira. Thank you for your honesty. Good game = Good. / Bad game = Bad. A good character = Good. / A bad character = Bad. Doesn't need to be so complicated. Cheers and keep up the great work. 🍵

[@MajorOutage]

DEI. Divisiveness, Entitlement, and Intimidation.

[@jessicaferguson4484]

Kira! You are spot-on as always. I had seen things flying across my KZbin feed on Sweet Baby, but did not really pay attention, once I saw you had covered it, I knew at least I would get a balanced view. Thank you!

[@LiveFreeOrDie2A]

What’s funny is that I GUARANTEE if she had a DNA ancestry test done it would come back showing she’s 80%+ white european. She leans fully into larping as a “person of color” for the victim points and power it gives her.

[@darkjudge8786]

Remember when Tim Pool decided to corporatise and nearly went broke because he sat on the fence and finally picked a side and is now making bank? Kira is in the milquetoast fence sitter phase and living of legacy views. Mate, you need to stop both siding and just take a position because this vid was shit.