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Gamergate was always a shakedown. So too is GamerGate2.
What's being plainly exposed with GamerGate2 is just how much of a blatant shakedown 'representation' as it was, 'diversity, inclusion and equity' as it is now, actually was and still is.
The same people, the same entities, the same rhetoric safely framed within the confines of an emotive, and to use the word, 'triggering', victim and abuser narrative, they, million dollar, and multimillion dollar entities, being the victims of gamers abuse.
It's such an easy sell, no one likes abuse, abusers or bullies, most people reflexively turn on anyone accused of it without thinking to ask any questions. The activists know this, so can't necessarily do anything that would expose themselves or what they do, so they obfuscate.
But there is always a pattern, an underlying threat narrative, the never-quite-obviously-stated negative consequences game developers, game studio and game publishers will experience for not doing what 'DIE' activists tell them to do ('to get that sweet, sweet, cheap money'), the whole "nice game you have there, shame it might break if you don't do what we tell you to".
Seems a bit too rhetorically and divisively provocative?
Surely they're not actually saying that?
Perhaps not in so few words, no. But otherwise most definitely yes, as evidenced with a talk scheduled for GDC2024 titled "So You've Been Canceled. Now What?". The summery frankly reads like a serial abuser snidely remarking to their victim after a good beating "what are you crying for, you made me do it" or "this is what you can do to make sure I don't hit you again".
Can someone who has hurt others, even repeatedly, actually change? What comes after the call out? What can someone do if they've been called problematic, but aren't totally sure why? Or, after losing friends, jobs, and networks, how does a person move forward if they want to become someone who won't cause that type of harm, even unintentionally, again?
These are the very same vociferous activists that constantly claim to be victims of abuse from the broader gaming community, edited screenshots of social media posts in hand, and for GamerGate2, these claims come as a consequence of being noticed in relation to their input and influence over, what gamers have been finding, are demonstrably bad games (notwithstanding causation, correlation and all that). And of course when this behaviour is identified, out come the enablers, the apologists, fellow abusers, to pile on their victims from ivory towers and distant corporate shores.
But that's all beside the point; their language, their rhetoric, how they confidently but carefully curate and couch what they say, is every bit the carefully curated and couched language of an abuser. Their victims need to realise this and reject it as they would under any other circumstance.
Footnotes
1. Archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20240320092451/https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/so-youve-been-canceled-now-what/902670. Archive.is https://archive.is/4MwHE.
USAID Disinformation Primer... by FoundationForFreedomOnline
Former game executive and develop at Blizzard Mark Kern
@Grummz: "The way games are funded you don't use your own money. Even EA, it's games are hugely expensive to make they're they're upwards of you know 250 sometimes 600 million dollars it's for certain live games it's incredibly how expensive they are and to do that uh your CFO is your best friend.
"You're counting on your CFO to get you tax breaks to get you in to put studios in regions which are financially favorable and you will borrow the cheap money you will get a cheap money to do it. Even EA does this. I worked with EA; we were putting together a deal where they were taking bailout money from the banks in the last financial crisis that we had, and they were applying that cheap money towards games same thing with Covid money. They're applying that cheap money towards games, and what has been the cheapest money while interest rates were still low, you know a couple of years ago it was ESG financing, and so they're going to take this money."
"Because the returns on investment have been so poor on Wall Street for ESG funds, that source of Revenue is drying it up. This Woke machine cannot continue in the way that it is now for AAA gaming, and I think unfortunately, it's so entrenched that you're not going to see - you're not going to see much of an ability to course correct because the studios are - they're just gonna shut down." [source]
Mark Kern explains how ESG money comes with strings attached inside corporations and is used to make companies partner with DEI consulting companies like Sweet Baby Inc:
"Everyone needs to realize is that it's not that these Studios are funding the games out of their own pocket; that would be very expensive for them. Cash is king. They will preferably go out and get money from other sources if it's cheap enough to help spread the risk of these massive titles, and so you have a lot of quid pro quo happening, and I can tell you that developers have been approaching me and giving me some inside baseball on what's been happening, and there are deals funding deals out there for studios - and I can't get too specific; I don't want to out sources - that have certain strings attached like a company will suddenly sign with a developer and now that developer needs to hire a DEI director and needs to go out and hire consultancy firms to gender balance."
"Their staff quite specifically go out and hire companies like SBI to consult on their writing and do sensitivity reading and changes for that, and what does, all this does, it boosts their ESG score. It allows them access that funding so ESG is not going away entirely."
"It's [ESG] become an evil brand. People are waking up to this... You have you have a rebranding going on right now. They're not calling it ESG, but it's still out there." [source]
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (published Feb 2024)
The world faces an inflection point on AI. Large language models (LLMs) will introduce epoch‑defining changes comparable to the invention of the internet. A multi‑billion pound race is underway to dominate this market. The victors will wield unprecedented power to shape commercial practices and access to information across the world. Our inquiry examined trends over the next three years and identified priority actions to ensure this new technology benefits people, our economy and society.