Full article: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...-is-no-propaganda-in-kingdom-come-deliveranceEven after the launch of his studio's debut title, Dan Vavra remains on the defensive following criticisms over the lack of diversty in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Speaking at Reboot Develop today, co-founder and creative director Vavra disputed the notion that the game might be vehicle for his own political views. The developer has been associated with the GamerGate movement, often described as a hate group, and has been known to oppose 'social justice warriors' and feminists via social media.
"I wrote ten per cent of the game," he clarified. "Six other people wrote it with me. There's an anarchist sitting with me in the office, there are liberal guys sitting with me in the office. So it has no propaganda because there are more people with the opposite political views to what I have in the same office. We didn't kill each other, we're able to cooperate so it's ridiculous.
"They wrote the game, like 90 per cent of it - yeah, I wrote the heart of the main story, but 90 per cent of the actual writing is done by someone else. So even if I wanted, it would be quite tough to force all those people to do something against their will. It doesn't work like that. We have an open, flat-like structure to company so anybody can tell me to fuck off, basically."
"It all started without anyone asking us for an opinion," he said.
"They even went to Twitter and looked at things I liked," he said. "It's not what you say, but even stuff you like. So I liked something by Eric Trump, it was non-political stuff but I liked something and Trump is a terrible person so I am a terrible person as well. It was absolutely ridiculous."
It's worth noting that the media has previously reported on attitudes he has expressed via Twitter, including comparing Apple boss Tim Cook to ISIS and feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian to book-burning Nazis.
When a member of the audience asked if he believed the controversy could have led to a more reasoable discussion, he said: "I would be always willing to discuss it, if anyone was willing to discuss it [with me]. But never, ever anyone was - except Germany's Gamestar, and that was after the biggest shitstorm happened. Stephen Totilo at Kotaku did an interview with me that was quite okay, not very biased, but those were the only two publications that were willing to have any discussion.
"No one came to us and asked me properly. If anyone would seriously ask 'why did you do this?', I would be perfectly willing to answer, and I believe that my answer would be perfectly satisfying to most people, because there were no conspiracy theories behind it."
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