By 2024, almost every game released will be followed by a small group of annoying scammers trying to stir up controversy for their social media followers. No matter what the title or who the developer is, every announcement is scrutinized for any faint hint of thoughtcrime, a factor that might be interpreted by these charlatans as evidence of “wokeness,” which they can decry as “DEI Initiative” and the speculative idea is then spread to followers as the latest attempt to take your game away! The latest target is public declarationbut in the process of provocation, those manipulating the scam have shown their hands.
Like any internet scam, it’s so blatant that it’s even more frustrating that it works so well. While it may irritate you that someone you know has been tricked by a stranger caller telling them they need to send a gift certificate to fix a problem with their Windows operating system, it’s equally unsettling to know that a large number of these people have also been tricked into doing the same. deceived by people. But with public declarationthe upcoming Obsidian role-playing game set in pillars of eternitythe scam was so blatantly exposed. Yes, of course it still works, but it’s easier to know how to do it.
Here’s how the trick works: A game is released, and since it’s 2024, that game probably won’t just focus on a white guy saving the world for a lady in a bikini (or a sexy lady wearing various bikini outfits while saving world). I mean, some people still do it, but it’s an industry that creates games with a wide range of characters. Scammers recognize this as a useful target for their deceptions and claim that the game has been artificially altered based on a desire to be seen as progress. They then use this to convince legions of disaffected young people that the world is trying to take away from them their last remnants of entertainment, which is the only place where they feel represented and prioritized. The only hope is to stand up and fight for what they deserve – and if they so choose, give the crooks some money for a project that will never see the light of day.
Except, with public declarationthose behind the scenes forgot several important stages. They forget to make false claims condemning the project, failing to identify artificial inclusions or elements that are censored in the name of wokeness. In doing so, they made it abundantly clear what the real root of it all is: bigotry.
Before and after Gamescom this year, people began to loudly condemn public declaration DEI as the next clear-headed person to be infected by the virus. Why? What crime did it commit? Was a mission leaked in which you were forced to help a gay polymorph adopt a cat-identifying trans child at an abortion clinic? No, it’s this picture:
Did you see that? See intolerable evil? No? OMG, don’t tell me the Awakening Virus has infected you too!
have no white people. Yes, this violently racist piece of marketing includes a black woman, a white elf-like woman, a blue man, and a racially ambiguous dwarf. How could the developer make it more clear that it wanted the game to be playable only during drag queen story times at your local library?
Honestly, it feels a little weird to even notice this fact. I’m a white man living in a country that’s 90% white, in a part of the country that’s 95% white, so I’m pretty used to seeing people who look like me everywhere I go. But the thought didn’t cross my inherently racist mind. I’m the last person who can say something as terrible as “I don’t even watch the game!” People like to talk nonsense rather than think. However, I saw…some people. People live in a fantasy world. Fantasy game people. I will tell them, though: I noticed that one of them had blue skin. This stands out. Typical fucking DEI inclusion initiative. If I saw a blue guy flying a plane I would get out of the car immediately! ETC.
That alone exposes the entire scam for what it truly is: unabashedly racist, homophobic, and misogynistic.
That’s it. It’s boring, but that’s all. Racism, homophobia and misogyny are all profitable, so they are the focus. But don’t worry, they’ll point to their ongoing (albeit largely forgotten) outrage campaign against Ubisoft for including a black man as proof of how unracist they are. Assassin’s Creed The game is set in Japan.
That first public declaration As the summer hustle and bustle rages on, the game is forever marked for condemnation. when i wrote Great time I had at the game my city In August, the responses on X were filled with angry complaints about how the game would further the awakening agenda. Based on, you know, that photo. Then everyone forgets they were so angry about it and moves on to the next topic.
But gosh, what greater gift can con artists receive when November rolls around? public declaration Preview coming? Because, when a group of reporters (boo! hiss!) were given access to the game’s first few hours, it was revealed that the game’s character creators will be able to choose “they/them” pronouns. Blow the trumpet!
I’m one of those SJW crappy streaming “journalists”. I spent six hours playing this game And had a really great time, even though none of the assignments required me to paint a rainbow flag on a church wall or help an immigrant with fuzzy hair get free medical care. Instead, I’m…I’m fighting spiders and stuff.
Because this is the third game of the season pillars of eternity canon, this world focuses primarily on the misuse of dark magic and the questionable nature of its gods. public declaration is a game about a disease called Dreamscourge, which causes people to grow mushrooms all over their bodies and fall into madness. If you wish, your character can be the whitest man you’ve ever met in your life, a wannabe envoy to a colonial power, and you can choose for or against this as you see fit. The game’s dialogue options are extensive. Although I tried many things, I couldn’t find one thing to do while awake! I even chose the boring old “she/her” pronouns in the character creator because my character is a woman with a wonderful fungus craziness growing on her face.
But oh boysare the scammers popular? Sworn. They saw a trailer about how to fight a spider with a sword, they saw a handful of references to pronouns (which didn’t seem particularly exciting to me, so I won’t mention it), and that was about it. Turns out they were right! That earlier photo didn’t show Jeff from the accounting department. was All the evidence they needed, and have been proven correct, was that they claimed the game would cause their DEI detectors to start screaming. They’ve been sending out absolutely crazy messages over the last week about how the game is “doomed” because one of the art directors tweeted something about Elon Musk. “public declaration In big trouble,” they posted to each other on X, brows furrowed in fear of the seriousness of the matter.
Because, yes, it’s scary that the world’s richest bigot has been posting about public declaration Likewise, condemning its use of pronouns and deliberately reinterpreting the artistic director’s jibe as a statement of “racist” intent against “white people.”
This is the exact same script as described above, taking something extremely trivial and completely out of context (this guy is mocking people who think games are bad for white people, because that’s not even vague content about the game) and reframing it into something serious (“No company in the gaming industry should accept racism and sexism against ‘white people,'” Musk wrote) and then acted entirely according to that redesigned, fictionalized version of the game, declaring that the game was already destined to be The failure is based on this huge fictional event.
Behind their success is a huge destroy Another role playing game, Dragon Age: Veiled Wardensa complete failure due to their efforts million sales In the first two weeks, they looked back at that remarkable victory to prove public declaration destined to meet the same terrible fate. “We’re winning,” is the message they continually send to their gullible followers, and it’s true.
Guys, this is just boring racism, homophobia, and misogyny. That’s it. That’s the whole scam. You exploit the venality of the disaffected, feed the underlying paranoia and resentment, and somehow give you money. Cha-ching. But quiet “cha-ching” because it’s just so Effectively, to the point where you have to fight tooth and nail to keep the cycle going until eventually someone with a louder voice usurps you.
public declaration Revealing its true face. The game doesn’t “replace” anyone with characters representing minorities, nor does it change the length of the schoolgirls’ clothes, or remove references to offensive content that appeared in the 1990s version. No one is ordinary mass crime. It just has some photos of people, a completely ignorable checkbox on the character creator screen, and a sarcastic art director who thinks Kit Musk is just a kit. But they’re also pursuing it because, most importantly, it doesn’t make any special effort to center straight white men in its marketing. Because, when it’s all stripped away, that’s what it’s all about. Pure paranoia.
.
