Ghazi
"History does not repeat itself but it often rhymes." If you're not aware of what's going on Aftermath have an excellent write-up: [https://aftermath.site/sweet-baby-detected-conspiracy-theory-steam](https://aftermath.site/sweet-baby-detected-conspiracy-theory-steam) Currently another right-wing harassment campaign is raging and it keeps escalating, drawing wider circles every day. At the heart is a small consultancy company, called Sweet Baby Inc. They are accused of "destroying games with diversity and inclusivity". It is - of course - conspiratorial nonsense, [the company isn't even doing what the chuds accuse them of](https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428). The fake outrage is yet again a pretext to spout hate and revel in sexism, racism, homo- and transphobia. If all of this feels familiar to those who have been around the last time, that's because it is: 2024's Gators have fully the moniker of "GamerGate 2.0" In the tenth year since GamerGate, we're seeing a repeat of it in the harassment campaign against narrative design studio Sweet Baby Inc. The same forces that set off the initial one have changed their language and targets, but the reactionary current is back, only strengthened in the intervening years, and still enabled by a corporate class that cares more about profit margins than worker well being. This campaign - like in 2014 - is a part of the larger right-wing attack against anything that their fascist ideology disapproves of. Like the last time, they choose a small group to punish and harass in order to send a wider message. This needs to be stopped. But what we get instead is yet another failure of management class: Valve and Discord who own the platforms where (currently) the majority of the harassment is organized, [have yet to take any measure](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/why-are-valve-and-discord-permitting-harassment-against-sweet-baby-inc-). All we can do at the moment is to support each other and oppose the fascists. So to SBI and its workers, solidarity, always. *~ The Ghazi mod team* PPS: Free Palestine
kotaku.com
> Sony's Concord might be the biggest entertainment failure of all time, so why wasn't it news?
time.com
[Archived version](https://archive.is/HEYXk)
aftermath.site
> "We will not pay for our bosses' mistakes"
www.theverge.com
> When the Supreme Court decided against Grokster, it changed the internet forever.
www.euronews.com
cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/18884071
www.polygon.com
> The former Persona team’s new RPG is rooted in the real world but unbounded by reality
www.eurogamer.net
> Frostpunk 2, 11 Bit Studios' magnum opus, is proof that video games are at their most interesting when they engage with politics and ideology head on.
Godot got a spite fork by the name "Redot" after their community managers quote-retweeted a chud calling the use of licensed game engines woke. Some people jumped onto the bandwagon, but it seems the engine is still too woke for some YouTube commentators.
www.pcgamer.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20760179 >[CD Projekt](https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/tag/cd-projekt/) joint CEO Michał Nowakowski has issued a strongly worded response to accusations that the studio "is in a lot of trouble right now" because of "diversity hires," saying the people peddling such nonsense need to "stop looking for conspiracy theories." > > "Seems we live in times where anyone can record complete nonsense and make a story out of it," Nowakowski said in response to a post on [X](https://x.com/michalnowakow/status/1844689086809805135) by YouTuber Endymion, who has a long history of stridently complaining about diversity and "wokeness" in videogames. > > "CDPR talent leaving? We have the lowest rotation of people in recent years. DEI-driven recruitment? We hire based on merit and talent alone, just as we make games driven by artistic vision alone. Why did we choose \[Unreal Engine]? Because it enables us to work on our games more efficiently and we remain cutting edge tech-wise. The Witcher 3’s director left? Well, yeah, more than 2 years ago… Now, can we stop looking for conspiracy theories and go back to making cool stuff?"
> This November, Florida residents will decide whether to amend their state constitution to protect reproductive rights, overturning the state's near-total abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy.
The deep dive into the history, gatekeeping and exclusion, racism and colorism, uplifting of pallor, flirting with fascism, fetishisation and appropriation, conflicting ideologies and reality, and all-round white supremacist tendencies of the alternative/goth subculture that absolutely no-one asked for.
www.animefeminist.com
> Tezuka Osamu's gekiga show some artistic experimentation, but also dig further into his conservative ideas about gender and sexuality, which were more ignorable in titles aimed at wider audiences. Two stories in particular, Apollo’s Song and MW, hammer in how much of his work was steeped in heteronormativity and homophobia.
www.rollingstone.com
> Several bands have dropped out of an upcoming metal festival in Orlando after Kyle Rittenhouse was announced as a special guest.
> The chief of the Shawnee Tribe grew up playing video games, including hundreds of hours colonizing a distant planet in the 1999 title Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.
www.theverge.com
> It’s going to be a lot harder to pull off massive protests.
www.ign.com
> Earlier this month, the entire staff of Annapurna Interactive walked out the door in a group resignation. But while some of the circumstances around their departure emerged in the reporting, one pressing question was left unanswered: why? IGN has pieced together a somewhat complex answer.
www.ign.com
> A union has called for staff at Ubisoft’s French operation to strike over a return to office order and pay dispute.
www.animefeminist.com
> We sat down with Tatum to talk about radical recent changes in the dubbing industry, what it’s like being a highly visible gay voice actor, and Ouran’s enduring appeal.
www.ign.com
> Inside Out 2 is the highest-grossed animated film ever. But behind the scenes, Pixar workers grappled with crunch, layoffs, and an avoidance of LGBTQ+ themes. Our report of the tumultuous making of the sequel to one of the most beloved Pixar films ever.
www.ign.com
IGN interviews ex-employees of pixar who worked on "Inside Out 2". The article discusses crunch, layoffs, the company culture of pixar, and how the failure of "Lightyear" led to executive notes that "Inside Out 2" be "less gay"
www.eurogamer.net
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19624343 > Ex-[Sony Computer Entertainment Europe](https://www.eurogamer.net/companies/scee) president Chris Deering does not believe recent layoffs across the games industry have been a result of corporate greed. Instead, workers who have lost their jobs should "drive an Uber" or "go to the beach for a year" until employment settles. > > Deering was a guest on games writer [Simon Parkin's podcast My Perfect Console](https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole), where the pair discussed games industry layoffs. > > "I don't think it's fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed," said Deering. "I always tried to minimise the speed with which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle and I didn't want to end up having the same problems that Sony did in Electronics."
> Here, at the connection between technology and queerness–in the liminality between desire and technology–there is room for new imaginings. It is no surprise then that technology, which had always been promised as the horizon of the future, had placed into it the dreams of those who hoped for a new future beyond the limitations we had today. As the queer and trans community found new connections and language to express our imaginations on this new digital frontier, we expanded beyond the boundaries of others' expectations for our bodies. Our lives began to push and break the limits of what others said we could become. Is it surprising, then, that the internet has become a space for our collective queer imagination of a future horizon?
spectrejournal.com
> Robert T. Tally Jr. reads Tolkien's corpus with the tools of Marxist literary criticism, delivering a devastating blow to the fantasy writer's rightist fans.
www.polygon.com
> Osmotic Studios’ Closer the Distance is a melancholy Sims-like where you play as several community members grieving one of their own.
Another lighthearted documentary from your friends at People Make Games! This time Quinns explores the disconcertingly-familiar world of government-funded, military wargaming and its relationship with the commercial games industry.
www.theverge.com
> It said opposing the tech ignores “classist and ableist” issues.
remapradio.com
> The Game of Sisyphus is about moving a boulder up a hill, but for its developers—and by extension, its players—it's about so much more.
> We’re gonna look at a TikTok account that uses Math to explain (Hate) women. While it’s tempting to dismiss this account as just another routine TikTok Mysoganist - because he’s so committed to charts, math and something that looks like science… he almost figures out why young men are struggling with women.