By Nelson Schneider - 04/07/24 at 02:22 PM CT
Alack and alas, E3 has gone the way of the dodo, and in lieu of that week-long orgy of advertisements, announcements, and Industrial Gaming propaganda, it seems that Gaming as a whole has decided to make do with the Games Developer Conference instead. Previously a much more internalized networking activity for Industrial Gaming insiders than the public-facing display that was E3, closer scrutiny of the GDC was destined to reveal closely-held cards and out skeletons from their closets.
At GDC 2024, Microsoft revealed perhaps the most loathsome thing it could have. Far from Microsoft cleaning up Activision’s act after acquisition, it appears that the Diversity Space Tool that made headlines a couple years ago has metastasized after coming into contact with a set of ‘actionable resources’ Microsoft had kept under its hat since 2019.
The Product Inclusion Framework for Game Developers may sound friendly with its safe spaces, accessibility, and global representation. But we should all know by now that all of those phrases come straight from the DEI Manual of Marching through the Institutions, and have their own dark sides.
Bounding into Comics has a much more in-depth breakdown of what Microsoft actually means in the Inclusion Framework vs. what the corporation says, and it’s pretty depressing. Microsoft seems to be going all-in with the self-loathing coming from the Left regarding America’s unique position of cultural hegemony, lamenting that 80% of the media consumed globally is made in the U.S.A. We should be PROUD of that, and we should be exporting our ideals of Liberty, skepticism, and democratic government to build a better world. But that’s apparently not acceptable.
Even worse, apparently even the previously-inclusive activity of giving Gamers a choice to play as a male lead or a female lead character – such as the choice to play as Kassandra or Alexios in “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey” – is now considered ‘bad,’ as it introduces gender where it’s ‘unnecessary.’ And, of course, there are demands for ugly women with unappealing body types as well as overly-emotional men in gaming, since, apparently, that’s the new culture that MS and its allies want to spread… though they’re going to have a hard time exporting it, considering they’ll have to start at home by shoving it down the throats of Gamers who aren’t having any of it.
It’s ironic that the least relevant Corporation in console gaming thinks it has the clout to force these changes upon its audience, who – let’s face it – actually do predominantly fall on the wrong side of any definition of ‘toxic.’ Woke pandering – which is the entirety of the Framework – will not go over well with beer-swilling Frat Bros, and if Microsoft thinks they can cultivate a bigger, better ‘modern audience’ of Snowflakes… well, I hope Phil Spencer wasn’t exaggerating when he said Xbox would exit gaming when they fail.
