The Co-Founder of Sweet Baby Inc. Kim Belair explains the use of fear, intimidation, and the threat of cancellation to get studios to make games carry their political narrative and that has caused an uproar as expected.
Kim Belair mentions in her GDC “Now You See Me: Representation As Innovation” talk that if you are not getting what you want then you should half a coffee with your marketing team and “terrify them with the possibility of what is going to happen if you don’t get what you want.”
You could argue that Belair sees the online cancel culture mob and the harassment they indulge in as genuinely virtuous and making the world a better place. This is why she is proudly saying what she is saying on a stage at GDC and not keeping it a secret, since the ends justify the means.
You could even argue that “And just terrify them” is blackmail and threatening a studio with cancel culture is a means of altering the vision of the game, censoring it and even injecting political narratives into it.
How one interprets this depends on which side of the political and human rights spectrum you’re on. But one thing we can all agree is saying something like this publicly was always going to cause a backlash.
The video is from GDC 2019 in San Fransico but was brought to my attention by GamesNosh. You can check out the full video below.
