(Note: This is an excerpt from my eBook, The Art of Game Development: A Guide for Beginners)
Like Stealing Candy From A Baby? Sweet Baby Inc Throws A Tantrum!
In order to understand the recent Sweet Baby Inc controversy, it’s important to first understand who Sweet Baby Inc are. Founded in 2018 by former Ubisoft developers Kim Belair (the current CEO) and David Bédard (the current COO), Sweet Baby Inc is a company which offers services involving the consultation and development of stories within video games, often focused primarily on scripts for in-game dialogue as well as a game’s overarching narrative. Many associate the company with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), with claims that the company’s primary goal is to insert this into the games they work on. While Sweet Baby Inc themselves publicly deny this is the case, leaked footage of the CEO (Kim Belair) from her appearance at Games Developers Conference in 2019 strongly suggests otherwise. During the conference, Kim Belair talked about how part of the services she offered included ‘risk assessment and sensitivity reading.’ She also made it clear that her company strived to insert diversity into their writing, ‘Wouldn’t this be amazing if this wasn’t an accident, but was the intention!?’ Moreover, she called for the use of fear and intimidation tactics against developers to force their hand in making the types of creative choices that she felt they ought to be implementing, ‘Just terrify them with the possibility of what’s going to happen if they don’t give you what you want!’ Here, she was referring to the idea of “cancelling” a studio or individuals who worked for that studio if they failed to listen to her proposals.
Cancel Pigs Farming for Clout
“Cancelling” involves a targeted campaign to remove people from positions of power, as well as to remove their ability to interact with society at large, thus silencing their voice. This often leads to them losing their social media accounts, being fired from their jobs, and having their personal info such as their home address leaked, even going so far as to encourage others to engage in in-person, often illegal physical altercations. In essence they are ostracized from their community and the world at large. In some instances, individuals are harassed to a point where they end up taking their own lives.
Proponents of cancel culture argue that the ends justify the means, often targeting individuals who have committed some kind of heinous crime. In this way, “cancelling” someone is seen as a form of justice. However, in today’s unhinged political climate many individuals may find themselves being “cancelled” over something an innocuous as a difference of opinion over a piece of fictional entertainment. The act of “cancelling” someone has thus become synonymous with clout chasing, a continued trend among younger generations, ever since the creation of the internet. By virtue signaling (showcasing their own virtue by pointing out the sins of others), they can receive instant gratification, attention, and an increased sense of self-worth without actually having to accomplish anything themselves. Such trends have been further fueled by the increased adoption of social media by the general masses in recent years.
So sick of modern cancel culture have the general public become, that the term Cancel Pigs was created (first coined by Mark Millar in 2023) as a way of shaming those who call for the cancellation of others, particularly over trivial matters.
As I’ll explore momentarily, this playbook by Sweet Baby Inc employees of “cancelling” others who push back against their ideas is exactly what led to the current explosive backlash the company is now facing! Kim Belair certainly has a lot of hate in her heart for ‘white, cis, hetero males,’ who she referred to as ‘picky babies,’ blaming this demographic for the perceived failings of the gaming industry as a whole. It’s not hard to imagine that such disparaging comments hurled against any other group would be called out for exactly what it is, hate speech. Yet, in today’s current climate, the CEO of Sweet Baby Inc is not simply ignored by her peers for such hateful rhetoric, but is celebrated for it. Fortunately, individuals from all walks of life, regardless of sexual orientation or race have become sick of such double standards and ham-fisted attempts to pander to them with paper-thin virtue signaling, and are uniting to demand less politically motivated meddling in their beloved video games. Unsurprisingly, customers don’t like being condescended and talked down to, with many pointing out that such divisive language choices will only result in people voting with their wallets and inevitably walking away!
So with this background info in mind, I’ll now dive into the events that led Sweet Baby Inc to become a household name…
The Club No One Wanted To Be A Part Of
After a string of recent gaming flops, including Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League, many started to see a pattern emerging. Sweet Baby Inc had been hired as consultants and credited for scripts on nearly all of these recent commercial disasters. Arguably a large part of why these games had failed was their writing and creative decisions, which were visibly fueled by hitting DEI quotas. As such, Sweet Baby Inc, who are well renowned for pushing DEI (as covered previously), were lambasted as being the main culprits.
In a number of cases, before Sweet Baby Inc had become attached to a project there had been an air of optimism surrounding the general direction that the developers were initially taking. However, upon Sweet Baby Inc being brought in this would drastically shift to one of pessimism and frustration from a consumer base that had come to highly distrust such DEI driven companies, fearing that agendas would ultimately take priority over creativity. This feeling of unease and uncertainty regarding the lack of quality assurance from such titles, resulted in customers refusing to purchase any further products linked with Sweet Baby Inc, or companies like them. And so, a Steam watchlist was created called Sweet Baby Inc Detected by one such individual (known as KABRUTUS), to keep track of any games which Sweet Baby Inc had worked on.
Though the intention of the list was later confirmed (by the creator themselves) to be used as a blacklist of games to avoid for those who wished to do so, no derogatory comments were made about the company nor the individuals that worked for them on the list itself, and the title of the watchlist (Sweet Baby Inc Detected) was kept neutral. In fact, under the About tab for the watchlist all that was stated was the following: ‘A tracker for games involved with Sweet Baby Inc.’ One could even make the case that the list itself could be just as useful of a tool to those who loved the work of Sweet Baby Inc and were actively seeking to play more of their titles. However, even to Sweet Baby Inc themselves, the idea of people championing their work was simply unfathomable. So, when Sweet Baby Inc employees became aware of this Steam watchlist, feeling slighted they decided to go to war! A decision that would propel the company, for better or for worse, into the cultural zeitgeist. Now, many individuals who had never heard of the company before, have since developed strong feelings as a result.
An Overreaction of Epic Proportions
Chief among the Sweet Baby Inc employees who reacted strongly to the existence of the watchlist was Chris Kindred (a writer for Sweet Baby Inc). Chris is largely credited as one of the main staff members who initially began the online crusade against KABRUTUS and his Steam watchlist. He called for the mass flagging of both the Steam watchlist and KABRUTUS themselves, ironically finding himself being temporarily banned on Twitter where he’d initially started the cancellation campaign. When he did return, he continued to double, and later quadruple down on his efforts, chastising those who followed the group as well as the leader as a ‘Nazi,’ while desperately trying to draw a connection between the watchlist, its creator, and white supremacists. Ironic, given that the creator of this Steam watchlist is actually Brazilian! But then folks like Chris Kindred aren’t about to let a little thing like facts deter their divisive rhetoric. To be clear, individuals like Chris Kindred were never merely going to be satisfied with just the watchlist being removed from Steam. They wanted KABRUTUS to be banned from the platform altogether. This would have meant they’d lose access to thousands of dollars’ worth of games they’d bought, including titles that Sweet Baby Inc had previously worked on. In essence, despite being a paying customer, Sweet Baby Inc employees were determined to take everything that KABRUTUS valued away from him, even though they’d previously profited from his financial support. Simply because he was tracking their involvement in the industry, so that he and others like himself could make informed purchasing decisions in the future. They decided this warranted cancelling him…. Hardly the actions of a company who is genuinely proud of their work is it?
When In Doubt, Quadruple Down
But Chris Kindred is just one writer. His views can’t possibly be reflective of an entire company, can they? I hear you decry! Well, as mentioned previously he wasn’t the only Sweet Baby Inc employee to take such a drastic stance on what should clearly have remained a non-issue. CEO of Sweet Baby Inc, Kim Belair, would later defend his actions and launch her own campaign similarly devoted to cancelling both KABRUTUS and his watchlist. In fact, she went one further, roping in journalist friend Bryant Francis to run an exposé on the situation. In an attempt to spin events, Game Developer (the site which Bryant Francis wrote for at the time) attempted to create a false narrative, whereby it was in fact Sweet Baby Inc who were the victims of harassment, rather than the aggressors they in reality were. At this point in time they were facing extreme pushback from most in the gaming community, and the Sweet Baby Inc Detected watchlist which had originally only had a relatively small following, ballooned with new followers as a direct result of Sweet Baby Inc’s actions.
Other media outlets were also running damage control for the company, including Kotaku, where Alyssa Mercante wrote a scathing article disavowing the group after attempting to infiltrate the Discord server for Sweet Baby Inc Detected. Fortunately, this attempt to spy and sow dissent among its members came to an abrupt end when she was ejected from the server by moderators after approx. only one hour. This isn’t the first time journalists such as herself have attempted such underhanded tactics, nor will it likely be the last, though the patience for them has worn thin among the gaming community. No matter how much they tried, Sweet Baby Inc could not successfully spin these recent events with the general public, who were able to simply use the company’s representative’s own words against them. Having been recorded on several occasions using inflammatory, arguably racist, sexist, and discriminatory language (see previously quoted examples), Sweet Baby Inc had, to put it succinctly, been well and truly hoisted by their own petard!
Diversity Done the Right Way
So, what lessons should be learnt from these events? Should you be weary of utilizing outside writers for your projects? Is DEI in and of itself a bad thing? I’d like to wrap this chapter up by taking a moment to explore these things.
When it comes to DEI quotas, I’d highly advise against their usage. It is an undeniable fact that when creating such quotas that must be met within your company, or for a particular project, you’re setting a limit on creativity, as fundamental priorities begin to shift. That being said, while DEI in its modern restrictive form may not be a good thing, however well intentioned, diversity in and of itself is never a bad thing.
As creators we want to explore new ideas, new ways of thinking, cultures that are different from our own. A key part of being able to write works of fiction is being able to place ourselves in the shoes of others who may be very different from ourselves, living in worlds that may operate under very different rules to our own. Whereas modern DEI is about hiring writers with particular personal experiences and encouraging them to write what they know, transferring their real-life experiences into works of fiction, it is my belief that anyone should be able to write any type of character they wish, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. As writers, and this may sound somewhat hubristic, but I’d argue is nonetheless true, we become the Gods of the worlds and characters we create. There is an opportunity to create something much more than merely a mirror image of what already currently exists. There’s no limitations to a person’s imagination, so why set such limitations on ourselves?!
It’s important to have respect for and trust in your audience to understand the difference between works of fiction and reality. Works of fiction aren’t meant to represent reality, that’s why its fictional. Additionally, modern DEI initiatives are based on the falsehood that people can only identify with characters who perfectly emulate themselves. This is simply not true. The great thing about human empathy is the ability to understand another’s experiences, even if they do not represent our own. You may come to idolize a fictional character that couldn’t be more physically, intellectually, or emotionally different to yourself. That my friend, is the power of good writing.
So, never be afraid to write outside of your own personal experiences and never be hesitant to include diversity wherever it naturally fits the story you’re trying to tell. The key difference here is that it needs to feel natural, not be something shoe-horned in at the 11th hour, simply to tick a box. Because that only offers paper-thin, surface level representation, and such things will never truly be able to win over hearts and minds, thus bringing about any real change! Should you wish to bring in others outside of your own inner circle to write for your project, I’d certainly suggest feeling free to do so, but make sure that they’re working with you for the right reasons. That they’re interested and passionate about your specific project, and that their carefully honed skills have earned them a seat at the table. There are thousands of hungry individuals from all walks of life who are desperate for a chance to create something truly inspiring, engaging, and innovative, that will endure the test of time. Ultimately though, the decision of which creative direction to take is yours, as it should always be!