"The world is really screwed up right now. Right now our political orientations determine which fast-food chicken restaurant you go to [alluding to Chik Fil-A's political affiliations and the cultural response to it]? And that's really dumb," said Sweeney.
Chick-Fil-A positioned
itself as a political actor.
They made that move. On purpose. Don't you shame consumers for paying attention to it.
"There's no reason to drag divisive topics like that into gaming at all."
"Topics like that" referring to... what, exactly? Topics that Chick-Fil-A is known for having public opinions about, maybe? Like same-sex relationships and marriage rights? There's no reason for games to portray same-sex relationships? Jesus,
there's a fucking political statement.
Or maybe he means that his company shouldn't take a public position on "topics like that?" Quick, Tim - does your company's benefits package include trans-inclusive and same-sex-partner-inclusive health care? What about your harassment and discrimination policies - do they include any groups not explicitly protected by state or federal law? Be careful, Tim - make sure your answers don't have any political implications!
"If a game tackles politics, as To Kill a Mockingbird did as a novel, it should come from the heart of creatives and not from marketing departments seeking to capitalize on division."
This is the capstone, really. This is 100% Gamergate bullshit being mindlessly repeated by an influential industry figure (didn't we just have one of those the other day?). Every time there's a game that doesn't star enough white steroid men or sex dolls, the GG trash crawls out of their hole to scream and howl about the
pandering and the
forced diversity and how the creative team's pristine vision was strongarmed by their PC overlords. To them, this is the only explanation, because they cannot imagine that anyone in the industry would create a diverse game just because they
wanted to, or because that diversity reflected the actual team and their experiences
. Then someone pulls out the "black trans lesbian" punching bag to illustrate what they think is the irrational endpoint of the slippery diversity slope, because they think diversity is a point-buy system that starts at "cishet white man", rather than a representation of real peoples' lives. Then they start talking about attack helicopters. Because none of this stems from malice and bigotry, it's all just sincere concern for the integrity of art.
It's interesting that gators
never find fault with white men being "shoehorned" into a game (or onto the box art or advertisements - you know, marketing materials) for political or marketing reasons. Not even if
every single character in the game is one. That's just the creators expressing their honest vision or reflecting the real world or historical accuracy or whatever the fuck.
It's interesting, too, how gators simultaneously believe that a) diversity doesn't sell, GG represents the 99%, get woke go broke, and b) diversity in games is a cynical and calculated move to maximize profit at the expense of art. Bonus points for the ones who also defend unscrupulous MTX / DLC practices because "companies exist to make money." Because apparently, making as much money as possible by any means possible regardless of any detriment to the game or the audience is a self-justifying moral imperative, but not if it means adding
more diversity! That's the one marketing transgression that CANNOT STAND.
