What if a major publisher was controlled by SJWs?

[Pogilrup]

Ugh I hate having to type those three letters, S-J-W.

Anyways it is an unlikely scenario, but what if the same minds that currently dominate the gaming press finally managed to succeed in taking control of AAA game publisher?

IMO it would certainly produce some interesting AAA games.

 

[Vault101]

it would be awsome

also

Anyways it is an unlikely scenario, but what if the [b/]same minds that currently dominate the gaming press[/b] finally managed to succeed in taking control of AAA game publisher?
.

I belive this is an exageration

like I said....people liek to create bogeywomen

 

[PsychicTaco115]

They'd make a game, you wouldn't buy it because of their supposed beliefs and the world will continue on as it has for the past 4.5 billion years

Trust me, in the grand scheme of things, nothing really matters so why get all bent out of shape about it?

 

[Pogilrup]

Anyways it is an unlikely scenario, but what if the [b/]same minds that currently dominate the gaming press[/b] finally managed to succeed in taking control of AAA game publisher?
.

I belive this is an exageration

like I said....people liek to create bogeywomen

Real or not, those journalists obviously want to change the industry.

Now I want to know what the industry and medium would be like if they wielded the power of a publisher.

They'd make a game, you wouldn't buy it because of their supposed beliefs and the world will continue on as it has for the past 4.5 billion years

Trust me, in the grand scheme of things, nothing really matters so why get all bent out of shape about it?

Yes, I know Earth will exists if this happens but the industry would certain be changed.

 

[lacktheknack]

How can people tell me "we're not conspiracy theorists" with a straight face when threads like THIS pop up?

Also, could you give a more milquetoast opinion? I couldn't! Unless you find overfocussing on single topics to be "interesting", I wouldn't even agree.

 

[Skatologist]

Yeah, i agree with the delicious taco head man that would probably give me nightmares if i ate him.

Joke answer: They would make an RPG series with the customizable options of the character to exclude white, straight, cisgendered, male, rich, and able and you are tasked with the mission of overthrowing the patriarchy with your purple feminist gloves of destruction. The game would deal with the issues of depression, suicide attempts, date rape, and what's the best way to castrate men to be loyal manginas/white knight slave summons. Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian would make cameo appearances as easter eggs and one of the first things you do is kick Duke Nukem, Master Chief, Nathan Drake, and Mario in their respective crotches. The ending will congratulate you for playing the game, but if you dare not buy it, a "you're privileged" sticker will arrive at your house with an inactive grenade shaped like a heart.

I'm sorry if none of that was funny, but I'm really not seeing the purpose of this thread other than speculation and jokes about something that probably won't really matter in the long run.

 

[Pogilrup]

I think it would be like Tumblr in video game form. You begin the game by setting your personal pronouns and if you're an otherkin or not.

Then comes the minigame where you troll on twitter then run back to your tumblr blog to talk about how mean twitter people are. Bonus points if you steal artwork and get your posts screen capped and posted reddit.

At the the end of the game, you get a score on how many reblogs you got and how much drama you caused. But you always win because at Tumblr everyone is a winner.

if you do really well, you win a few more hours in the ball pit.

Ok maybe I should offer what I think might happen.

Once such minds are in control of the company, maybe they would finally release a line of annual AAA games that star a protagonist that isn't male, white, or heterosexual.

Once such games are released, then perhaps there be less articles about sexism, racism, or homophobia in the medium seeing how actual games speak louder than articles about games.

How can people tell me "we're not conspiracy theorists" with a straight face when threads like THIS pop up?

Also, could you give a more milquetoast opinion? I couldn't! Unless you find overfocussing on single topics to be "interesting", I wouldn't even agree.

Snip

Ok fine maybe this is a poor question to ask, but I just wanted to get it off my chest.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I can see it now... Equality Simulator: 2015

It would be an MMO where your avatar is on a quest rise above all the rest, and become the moral arbiter of a vast and diverse fantasy land. You do this be accruing PP (Progressive Points) through various activities such as PvP 'Privilege Battles', and literally being a White Knight for minority NPC's (Ironically, all PC's must be white, male, straight, have generic accents and be college educated) who will all in their various side-quests have 'earned' their peril through some sort of moral indiscretion, but whom you must save from decent, ordinary folk so that their brains may be incorporated into the vaguely centre-left hive mind know as 'tAgendar'.

...

Oh, is this a serious question? I'unno... I honestly don't think most people would notice anything different had happened unless they were specifically told about it.

 

[Skatologist]

Ok maybe I should offer what I think might happen.

Once such minds are in control of the company, maybe they would finally release a line of annual AAA games that star a protagonist that isn't male, white, or heterosexual.

Once such games are released, then perhaps there be less articles about sexism, racism, or homophobia in the medium seeing how actual games speak louder than articles about games.

I would think if such a studio were to exist for real as a representation of (the perceptions of) SJWs, they would probably make a statement that a white, straight male character will never be the protagonists to any of their games due to the lack of all other groups seen in games and instead will only be side characters and antagonists. I'm guessing they might also throw insults at other studios as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableistic, etc. either in game or with the press and maybe make that claim that they are tackling big issues such as depression in their games.

 

[Pogilrup]

Ok now I really regret asking this.

To be honest, I still have a faint, and perhaps guilty, feeling that "maybe they should be in charge of a publisher".

 

[Skatologist]

Ok now I really regret asking this.

To be honest, I still have a faint, and perhaps guilty, feeling that "maybe they should be in charge of a publisher".

Not your fault man, you were curious, it just kind of looked like you were further adding to problems with this site when a lot of people think it's at its worst now. Who's to say it actually isn't a possibility Anita or Zoe or their followers start a small developer or publisher studio for minority indie devs or something else? It's a decent question, but perhaps one we should wait to ask a bit later when hostilities minimize.

 

[Jason Rayes]

Her Interactive have been around for years trying to give women a better representation. Uh, except its ALL Nancy Drew
Still, at least someone's trying I guess:

http://www.herinteractive.com/

Edit:
Some of the proper adventure games aren't to bad.
I got Ghosts of Moondog Lake in a bundle and it was pretty good.

 

[shrekfan246]

Ok now I really regret asking this.

To be honest, I still have a faint, and perhaps guilty, feeling that "maybe they should be in charge of a publisher".

People are feeling exasperated by all of the talk of "SJWs" on this website these days.

Timing is everything, unfortunately.

All snark aside, I really doubt that a publisher being headed by an "SJW" would really have any significant impact whatsoever, not least of all because it would be pretty odd for an entire publishing company to be staffed exclusively by "SJWs". But hypothetically assuming that one was, not all "SJWs" are the extremists that the internet constantly sees on Twitter or Tumblr or wherever else, and most are likely just as tired of those guys as the "anti-SJW" people are.

And if a social agenda did happen to tinge a publisher's titles? Then, to be perfectly honest, all I think would come from it are a few more games where women aren't treated like prizes or sex objects.

 

[Pogilrup]

And if a social agenda did happen to tinge a publisher's titles? Then, to be perfectly honest, all I think would come from it are a few more games where women aren't treated like prizes or sex objects.

And that why I am largely saddened by this schism.

I think now they will never achieve that dream of Activision headed by someone with similar beliefs.

"They" referring to the individuals who sought to bring about change using game journalism.

 

[Inglorious891]

That all depends.
Are you defining SJWs as people who are fanatical about their beliefs or people or are reasonable about them?

If they're fanatical, they won't be in business for long.
If they're reasonable, I can see them making Payday 2 sized games and doing decently well as long as they make good business decisions.

 

[Jason Rayes]

That all depends.
Are you defining SJWs as people who are fanatical about their beliefs or people or are reasonable about them?

If they're fanatical, they won't be in business for long.
If they're reasonable, I can see them making Payday 2 sized games and doing decently well as long as they make good business decisions.

Yeah I think if they were fanatical they probably couldn't even agree as to the definition of "right".

 

[Avalanche91]

Best case scenario? They would find their niche audience and do reasonably well all things considered.

Not many publishers give the option to play as transgender characters. The growing group of female gamers might find a female protagonist that really strikes home with them and the other publishers, always putting their mouth where the money is, try and latch on to the idea of stronger, more diverse characters.

Worst case scenario? Social Media Backlash and online harrasment cause huge tension. Poor prioritization causes downfall.

Employees get threatened over that one FTM protagonist they were proudly showing at that con you went to and people become more reluctant to pick up their games due to all the online mudslinging. After focussing too much on story and characters while neglecting the recources for graphics and gameplay, the publisher falls into obscurity before filing bankruptcy.

Or something among those lines? I'm not a professional analyst.

 

[Caostotale]

These kinds of questions remind me of that *brilliant* line from the first X-Men film...

'Do you know what happens to a SJW when it's struck by lightning?'...etc...

I'm pretty sure that, for quite some time going forward, we can continue relying on the simple idea that the products created by a publisher, whether they're major, minor, controlled by SJWs, controlled by neo-Nazis, controlled by the Illuminati, etc... are influenced by patterns of consumer demand.

Lest anybody forget, most older American gamers managed to survive decades worth of gaming being an almost-100% non-democratic onslaught of consoles, arcade cabinets, and games from a foreign country. I'm pretty sure things will be just fine now that gamers have a lot more influence on gaming's development process (at least if they're willing to stop being nannied by the larger companies out there).

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Could they possibly be any worse than EA's current management? That's a rhetorical question, BTW.