Helldivers 2 situation where there aren't enough server slots. Mostly negative on Steam.

Also

>64 gigabytes for a remaster of a 20 year old game

Thanks for the women's day g*mer foid crying thread lol

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is reportedly interested in buying TikTok if ByteDance agrees to sell the social media platform.

TikTok is currently under scrutiny amid a potential ban in the U.S. or the forced sale by current owner ByteDance. Some politicians have expressed concern that ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, China, would share data about its users with the Chinese government. A new bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. or force its sale recently passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee 50-0, and is now heading toward a vote in the House.

According to the Wall Street Journal, one surprising interested potential buyer is Bobby Kotick, who left Activision Blizzard late last year following Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of the company behind Call of Duty.

The WSJ said Kotick "expressed interest" to ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming, with the price tag estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Kotick, the WSJ continued, is looking for partners, one of which is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

"OpenAI could use TikTok to help train its AI models if a partner such as Kotick could raise the capital for such an acquisition," the WSJ said. In any case, there are questions over the likelihood that the bill will pass both the House and the Senate, although President Biden has said he would sign the legislation if Congress passed it.

Kotick was the controversial CEO of Activision Blizzard for 32 years before he stepped down on December 29 as part of a reorganization following the acquisition of the company by Microsoft. Kotick oversaw Activision for over half of its lifespan, and was in charge during the Call of Duty franchise's explosive success, as well as the Guitar Hero era. Kotick remained in charge following the Blizzard Entertainment owner Vivendi's merger with Activision, and, more recently, Activision Blizzard's takeover of Candy Crush maker King.

Kotick also oversaw the company through a period of time called out by the state of California in a 2021 lawsuit as encompassing widespread gender discrimination and gender-based pay inequality. Among the numerous accusations levied against the company regarding its treatment of women include claims that Kotick knew about the accusations "for years" but did not actively address them.

In December, the California Civil Rights Department reached a $54 million settlement with Activision Blizzard over these claims, finding that "no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that: there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard," or that Activision Blizzard's board of directors including Kotick "acted improperly with regard to the handling of any instances of workplace misconduct."

The year is 2020, and a certain group of young German upstarts just released a game called Heimat Defender: Rebellion*.

*Heimat = Homeland

"What's so special about this game" you might ask. Well, I'm glad you asked young whippersnapper. You see the game is made by a German group called "Ein Prozent", or, translated to English, "One Percent". This group, classified as "extremist" by the German government (which doesn't really mean all that much coming from the krauts), is a network of right-wing German figures from various parties and movements, ranging from AfD to NPD and the Identitarian Movement.

What is the game about? Well, from German Wikipedia translated to English and with some errors fixed with Grammarly:

Heimat Defender takes place in a dystopia in the year 2084. The action takes place primarily in large cities full of Antifa zones. The whole of Europe is controlled by the so-called Globohomo Corp. controlled. Globohomo is referred to in the computer game as a "global homogenization corporation" run by a group of cyber-globalists. The company, run by shady technocrats, controls almost every resident of Europe as a mindless NPC ( non-player character).

In the game, real representatives of the new right and right-wing extremist political movements are presented as heroes and celebrated resistance fighters. These are, for example, Martin Sellner, head of the Identitarian Movement in Austria, the political activist Alex Malenki, the AfD politician Björn Höcke, the new-right activist Götz Kubitschek (also referred to as The Black Knight in the game ), the YouTuber and activist Outdoor Illner, the head of One Percent e. V. Philip Stein and the new right-wing journ*list Martin Lichtmesz. They are resisting in the metropolitan cities of the former Germany and trying to defeat the NPCs and the Globohomo Corp. The right-wingers have discovered an intermediate dimension and found a place of refuge there that they call the forest walk. When the resistance fighters discussed what to do next in the forest, they were attacked and surrounded by police. Shortly afterward, Kubitschek decides to hold off the police, allowing the rest of the group to escape using a portal.

As is typical of the genre, the player moves through different levels in a hopping and running manner. He takes control of one of the right-wing activists. The player must defeat various opponents and bosses using various special abilities.

The developers have openly said that they want to recruit kids with this video game, so they did very much play into the controversy, and there was a controversy, to say the least:

We had Vice reporting on it, where apparently, the developers told them that the game was downloaded over 20.000 times, which isn't all that bad for a no-name studio. Furthermore, apparently, a bunch of """""experts""""" have told Vice how this game is heckin' problematic and how it poses a risk to German society, which is why the German government put it on a list of media harmful to minors.

But that's not all, we also had a bunch of """""scholars"""" paid by various """""counter-extremist""""" networks writing about how heckin' harmful this game is. [1] [2] [3]

One thing they mentioned is how this game is a response to an anti-racist game called Leons Identität (Leon's Identity), a game released on Steam where you have to save your brother who joined a far-right group. The game is less than an hour long and most negative reviews say that's typical leftoid propaganda (as you might have guessed). The game looks like your typical, boring as frick, art slop and I can't imagine anyone enjoying it who's not a complete pretentious hipster. Apparently, though, some kids in German schools are forced to play this game, which makes me think that Germany should be reported to UNICEF for child abuse.

Naturally, some people didn't take too kindly to heckin' nazis being on Steam.

The only response to this Steam discussion, which was selected as the best response by the Steam global moderators (official Steam representatives) is the following:

If it offends you, click the ignore button and move on.

Don't ask us to mass report something.

Redditors had their usual reaction to this game, except that it was, surprisingly, milder than their usual unhinged screeching.

Eventually, of course, Valve did remove the game. Apparently, there was a problem with an age rating, and the studio is also located in Germany, which probably means that Valve must act in accordance with the German government.

And that was that... until February of this year, when a totally not soycucked blogger reported that a new game is being made by the same team, which is basically a remake of their previous work. A game called The Great Rebellion.

They even got Paul Joesph Watson (of all people) to do an ad for their game:

And so, here we are. The game is on Steam, and it's getting positive reviews, which will of course cause a lot of soycucks and s to seethe, which will, in turn, cause drama, and drama is good for this website. Therefore, this game's success is good for this website and that's why you should buy this game.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1767644345547547113?ref_url

https://x.com/MagitekDad/status/1767678164606619705?ref_url

Not related but I hates this foids voice.

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1767643816339910991?ref_url

Development respond:

Reminder that Troy Baker etc still get plenty of work. It's people like this who are struggling:

_{This is an actual voice actor. Look at him- he deserves every bad thing that happens to him. Frick this guy.}

For the record, I like this game. It combines flying a biplane with running a microbrewery, allowing you to import your own bottle labels for beers, wines and spirits you then deliver all over the islands while avoiding air pirates. For twenty bucks it's great. The visuals are very pleasant and it has lovely music. The AI voice work sounds fine and is a clear indication that using it works very well on small titles like this.

Bonus thread about another indie game I like allegedly having AI art. OP gets big mad that this publicly posted thread on a public forum gets comments from members of the public (who don't agree with him)...

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1597310/discussions/0/3886099862947425508/

Reminder that this is all because a Brazilian chuddie made a steam group to highlight videogames involved with sweet baby inc

Article:

So, who had ‘A US government funded nonprofit enters the fray around Sweet Baby Inc.' on their bingo cards?

In response to the recent discourse surrounding the work of the aforementioned narrative consultation company, the ‘mental health in video games'-centric nonprofit organization Take This has called on both players and the industry at large to clearly and unequivocally denounce G*mergate.”

A 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2014, Take This describes itself as a “mental health organization providing comprehensive resources, support, and consultation tailored for the unique needs of the game development community.”

Far from a ‘minor entity' within the industry, a number of noted figures are counted among the company's governing board members and officers, including Bethesda Marketing VP Pete Hines, Ubisoft VP of Global Diversity & Inclusion Raashi Sikka, and PlayStation's Head of Global Portfolio and Acquisitions Christian Svensson.

The official logo of the Take This non-profit organizationThe official logo of the Take This non-profit organization

In terms of its ties to the United States government, per a public disclaimer on their various whitepapers, their work is funded as part of an official Department of Homeland Security research project known as ‘Disrupting Video Games-Based Radicalization Through Collaborative Cross-Sector Networks' (DHS # EMW-2022-GR-00036).

“This joint project from the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Take This, and [‘anti-disinformation' AI developer] Logically seeks to develop a shared framework for understanding extremism in games,” reads the project's official proposal abstract, as seen on its official funding application. “This includes the development of a set of best practices and centralized resources for monitoring and evaluation of extremist activities as well as a series of training workshops for the monitoring, detection, and prevention of extremist exploitation in gaming spaces for community managers, multiplayer designers, lore developers, mechanics designers, and trust and safety professionals.”

“In addition, this project will provide a first-of-its-kind collaborative structure for public-private partnerships on preventing and mitigating games-based extremism,” it adds. “Taken together, this project will simultaneously improve counter-extremism collaboration in the video game industry while also providing substantial capacity building within and across developers.”

Running to defend Sweet Baby Inc. amidst the ongoing sunlight being shone on their operations, Take This published a blog post on March 11th asserting, “If you're reading this, you've probably been hearing about what's now being called ‘G*mergate2.'”

“It's the latest targeted harassment campaign within the game industry and it's aimed at Sweet Baby Inc, a Montreal-based narrative development studio,” said the company. “The campaign also has been impacting entities and games associated with Sweet Baby, journ*lists covering the issue, and others associated in various ways with the targets. You also may be at a loss to know how to talk about this issue, and what, if anything, you can do about it. That's where we come in.”

In service of providing such guidance, the non-profit then declared, “Groomercord, Steam, and X have been the predominant platforms where the abuse and harassment has been taking place.”

“In these spaces, lists of game studios, companies, and associated organizations are being circulated for targeting by members of the mob,” they histrionically informed their readers. “Large-scale harassment campaigns like this fuel – and are fueled by – political events. As political rhetoric heats up ahead of the US presidential election later this year, this kind of online activity is going to ramp up and it's important to understand that these phenomena are interrelated.”

To this end, Take This proceeded to offer the industry advice as to “things we can do to mitigate the harm” of the harassment campaign.

In terms of individual action, the company suggested, “It's extremely important to speak out and step up for folks who are being harmed. This kind of support can take on many different forms. This could be an email or quick check-in with the people in your orbit who are targets of the harassment, or are close to those targets (family members, colleagues, and friends of those targeted also experience different types of harm in these situations).

Turning to address “industry leaders”, Take This warned, “You may be inclined to be quiet or cautious, but that's actually not helpful.”

“At the time, many studios were hesitant to address the hate and abuse from G*mergate in any meaningful way,” they argued. “The reasons varied, but usually this hesitation was born out of fear of losing profits or concern that taking a stance would attract the attention of the G*mergate mob.”

“However, the failure to take a stand and clearly communicate with the community backfired,” the company continued. “In other words, failure to clearly and unequivocally denounce G*mergate and the harassment and abuse done in its name created a space for that hate and abuse to flourish, spread, and become normalized.”

Drawing their warning to a close, Take This ultimately declared, “Hate, harassment, and toxic behavior have no place in games. By taking direct, targeted action in a timely manner, we can mitigate further harm to talented, dedicated folks in games, and help prevent additional recurrences of these harmful events.”

It should be noted that despite the current ‘popular narrative' framing the backlash to Sweet Baby Inc. as a “large-scale harassment campaign”, this could not be a more disingenuous read of the situation

At present, the so-called ‘harassment' leveled against them amounts to nothing more than a Steam Curator List made to track their publicly credited works, a Groomercord server related to the list's administration, and a generally negative sentiment towards their operations brewing amongst players of all stripes.

Meanwhile, the only person to have called for any ‘direct action' against any individual or entity was Sweet Baby Inc.'s own Chris Kindred, who in response to the creation of said Steam Curator List asked his followers and supporters to try and get both it and its creator's Steam account shut down by way of a mass false reporting campaign.

Narrative consultancy group Sweet Baby Inc. has become the target of an online harassment campaign for its consulting work on games like Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Why? The answer is frustratingly hard to put down into words. Users on websites like Twitter and Kiwi Farms (a site known for organizing sometimes violent harassment campaigns) operating under the name "Sweet Baby Inc. Detected" have singled out the agency for allegedly having overarching influence on these games, and accused it of forcibly injecting a "political agenda" into them by advocating for diversity.

While the studio's contributions happen mostly on a microlevel (contributing story feedback, helping workshop narrative beats, and writing flavor text and barks with the lens of inclusivity in mind) their work has been reframed as shoehorning Black or LGBTQ characters into games for which they were not originally designed---sometimes through intimidation. It's a grim conspiracy theory built on out-of-context comments and a deliberate misreading of their mission statement, as well as racism, homophobia, and other layers of bigotry.

In an interview with Game Developer Sweet Baby Inc. CEO Kim Belair said the harassment they've been experiencing started bubbling in October 2023, around the release of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2, with the worst hate coming from users on 4chan, Kiwifarms, and Twitter (Twitter was "the worst" until recently, she noted). In the last few weeks however, the harassment grew stronger after the groups spun up a Steam Curation Page and Groomercord server to organize and spread their conspiracy theories.

Despite that increased spike, Valve and Groomercord have allowed the Curation Page and server to remain online. Posts from the groups' moderators indicate the companies have warned them that content on their platforms may result in their being removed, forcing them to take some additional moderation steps, but still leaving them online.

Why? Both platforms have made it clear they don't want to be used as vectors for harassment. But slippery language in their terms of service has enabled bad actors to turn their platforms from ones where developers do business to ones where developers can be targeted for abuse.

That hole needs to be closed---fast.

Community and discovery cowtools gone awry

When word of the curation group "Sweet Baby Inc. Detected" first surfaced on social media, it seemed like a joke. What was the point of making a curation page "detecting" games that a consulting company worked on? Especially when the games are listed on their site?

The answer unfortunately goes back to how conspiracy theories spread rapidly in the age of the internet. In order to act like Sweet Baby is the center of some conspiracy theory, there has to be "evidence" that can be dug up. The bulk of that evidence has been in taking clips from GDC talks and interviews out of context to highlight only comments that support their narrative. Curating games in this fashion on Steam also allows the moderation group to use Steam's curation cowtools to claim they've "revealed" what games the agency has been working on.

There's a bitter irony for Belair and her colleagues, who structured their website and social media feeds to try and make their work as transparent as possible. "We care very deeply about getting more people into this industry, and increasing transparency in the ways that we work," she noted. "The reason that we had public spaces at all was to talk more about it and to invite people to to come talk to us so they can learn we can help them find their way in the industry."

When we first viewed the "Sweet Baby Inc. Detected" group's Steam Discussion page, the array of conspiracy-laden rants about the company were accompanied by messages from the organizers exhorting new members not to violate Valve's terms of service. The forums on that page have since been removed, with the organizers stating that "a influx of severe bad actors" led Steam Support to reach out to the group in some fashion.

On late Friday, the page owner added a note confirming they were now "on good terms" with Steam, and would be keeping threads locked to "prevent the worst."

The correlating Groomercord server has undergone a similar, but not all-encompassing purge. Initially, rants about Sweet Baby Inc. and its work were accompanied by a bevy of slurs, hate speech, and broader far-right conspiracies about "wokeism" and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. And while all this was bandied about, moderators and prominent group members repeatedly warned each other not to violate Groomercord's terms of service.

Some time on Sunday March 10, the Groomercord server's moderators were informed that content on their channel risked violating the platform's terms of service, and that they needed to take extra steps to prevent the group from being banned. Group members posting on social media indicated that the moderators had taken such action.

On both platforms, group members spoke about how important it was to be on places like Steam and Groomercord to try and attract the attention of users with preexisting knowledge about Sweet Baby or why they are angry at its work. "A major issue comes down to this: we don't have enough platform [sic] to influence normies from," one user wrote, before invoking the 2014 online harassment movement G*mergate. "Normies have no f**king idea what's going on rn with any of this or any of what g*mergate was."

It's dangerously close to self-awareness---an acknowledgement that these groups need to be on these platforms but their reason for being so would normally be what gets them kicked off. So obfuscation and banning the worst-behaving members of the group is the name of the game.

"They're trying to remain unpinnable," observed Sweet Baby Inc. chief operating officer David Beddard. "If you accuse them of doing something, they go 'no, no, no, we're doing this other thing.' And if you move to the other thing, it's like, 'no, no, we're doing this third thing.'"

He guessed that consciously or unconsciously, this is being done "by design."

Many members of this group must feel caught in between realities. They joined these groups to talk about their hatred for Sweet Baby Inc. and why they think it's ruining games. But they're being told they can't get too specific about why they feel that way, or they'll risk getting banned. And they need to not be banned, so they can recruit more "normies," so they can further their campaign against Sweet Baby and inclusivity at large.

It speaks to how emotionally abusive this process can be. If you've been riled up and convinced of a grand conspiracy theory through out-of-context clips, being lectured how you can and can't be angry while random bursts of bigotry go through the chat can unmoor you from reality and leave you with little more than anger to communicate to the world with.

Moderating speech is challenging, moderating harassment be hard

Belair admitted she isn't entirely sure how Valve or Groomercord should remedy the situation. She and her colleagues at Sweet Baby Inc aren't experts in online moderation---they're writers. Their job is to create fictional problems in video games, not solve real ones.

She urged Valve and Groomercord to recognize that harassment campaigns are continuously evolving, and that communications platforms need to keep pace with how they're being used to spread hate. "It's clear that some kind of evolution is needed, because this will only get bigger, and I don't mean for us," she said. "If this playbook can work as well now as it did 10 years ago [with G*mergate], it's going to keep working in certain ways, and they will find something bigger and worse to do than this."

Steam and Groomercord are two powerful cowtools that connect players and developers on a daily basis. Their policies should be engineered toward fostering better connections and even giving players space to voice their dislikes about a game or the video game industry as a whole.

But that's not what's happening here. Bad actors have exploited loopholes in their policies, and a small consulting studio with little say in the grand scheme of game production is paying the price.

The steps both companies have taken to moderate these groups appear to have had some effect, but allowing them to remain online serves the organizers' overarching purpose: recruiting "normies" with little knowledge of game development to capitalize on their anger and channel them into directing hate speech toward Sweet Baby Inc. and anyone else pressing for inclusivity in video games and beyond.

If those loopholes aren't closed, those bad actors will have learned they can target other developers, and this will be the beginning of another massive hate campaign that will leave our industry and its people worse for wear.

Game Developer has reached out to Valve and Groomercord multiple times for comment, and will update this story when they respond.

!anime !g*mers

2D trailer:

Concept art:

!coomers it makes so much sense that Ashe is the one who got the Faye skin tbh, considering that both of them are certified BBC snowbunnies

Gaymers are r-slurs imagine paying 50 buxx for 2017 game but its whatever