The gaming industry, once a hub of innovation and creativity driven by passionate developers experimenting and refining their craft, has long been overtaken by ideological forces more interested in pushing sociopolitical narratives than making great games.
Many of these individuals have little to no genuine love for gaming but have embedded themselves within studios, shifting hiring priorities from talent and merit to identity and ideology. This has led to the enforcement of rigid ideological standards that have stifled creativity, diminished quality, and drained the industry of its essence.
Games are no longer made with “gamers” in mind. Instead, they are churned out as formulaic products designed to cater to ideological quotas rather than artistic vision. Character design now prioritizes representation over creativity, often condemning traditional portrayals of femininity while favoring forced inclusivity.
The result is a homogenized landscape where “diversity” is treated as a checklist, and longstanding creative freedoms have taken a backseat to ideological conformity.
From the censorship of the female form to the aggressive push for “authentic” diversity through third-party consultants which likely serve as one big embezzlement scheme to ideological allies, the core values of gaming have been systematically dismantled.
Once-beloved IPs and franchises, known for their deep lore and engaging gameplay, have been sacrificed in favor of meeting ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) mandates.
We now live in an era where androgynous, unappealing “female” characters have become the default representation of women in gaming, while hiring practices in major studios like Ubisoft and CDPR prioritize female, and non-binary candidates through scholarships and internship programs. Rather than catering to the expectations of their paying customers, these studios instead adhere to the demands of activists, because they employ activists.
However, these activist-driven developers are now on edge. The control they once believed to be absolute is facing resistance due to shifts in the political landscape. Donald Trump’s decision to halt foreign spending (besides Ukraine and Israel) has sent shockwaves through ideological activism networks, disrupting the flow of resources that many of these initiatives rely on.
With USAID no longer acting as a financial lifeline for social engineering projects, cracks are starting to appear. The recent shutdown of India’s first transgender clinics due to this funding freeze underscores just how reliant these activist initiatives have become on external financial support.
And it’s not just healthcare, USAID was also found to have been channeling money into gaming circles, embedding activist narratives and promoting transgender ideology within the industry.
This revelation highlights the radical shift gaming has undergone over the years. There was a time when games were created by passionate developers for an audience that shared their enthusiasm. Storytelling and character design was driven by compelling narratives and creative freedom rather than ideological mandates.
Now, however, the industry is led by those who are more interested in reshaping gaming to fit their worldview than in preserving what made it great. Companies have adjusted their hiring practices to prioritize women and non-binary individuals for ESG-driven investment, even as the industry faces financial struggles, commercial failures, and mass layoffs.
The latest GDC report boasts that over a third of game developers today fall into these categories, but what has been the outcome? A wave of uninspired, regressive, and commercially disastrous releases that fail to resonate with audiences and bleed money upon release.
The activists in the gaming industry aren’t concerned about losing their grip for noble reasons, they’re afraid of losing their ideological stronghold and financial backing. With Trump’s America First policy putting a halt to many USAID payments, media outlets like the BBC, which have long pushed anti-gamer narratives and framed diversity and inclusivity as the industry’s central issue, are feeling the pressure.
These individuals fear that their control over the industry may be slipping. Without a steady influx of funding to sustain their agenda, the carefully constructed ideological echo chambers they’ve built within gaming could come crashing down.
The sense of panic is undeniable. Activist-aligned outlets like WIRED are scrambling to control the narrative, portraying these developers as victims of an unjust system rather than confronting the real issue: the gaming industry’s prioritization of ideology over quality has resulted in repeated financial failures and growing consumer backlash.
Given that modern game developers have spent years insulting, gaslighting, and attacking their own audience over ideological disputes, about how the industry is rife with “White privilege” the frustration from consumers is more than justified, in fact you don’t hate these fuckers enough.
Take the case of Ashley Poprik, a writing intern on Spider-Man 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Poprik became the center of attention following fan outrage over Mary Jane’s redesign in Spider-Man 2, which featured a more masculine look compared to the previous game.
Interestingly, Mary Jane’s new facial structure seemed to resemble Poprik’s quite closely, one would dare suggest that it was a self-insert, a common theme amongst modern media.
Despite Poprik’s minimal involvement in the project, the gaming press seized the opportunity to turn the situation into part of a broader narrative, framing female, trans, and non-binary developers as victims of persistent harassment. Sound familiar? That’s because a similar media push was launched in defense of Sweet Baby Inc, a consultancy agency directly linked to multiple high-budget game flops due to their inclusion of woke themes that failed to resonate with audiences.
What started as a harassment campaign by a Sweet Baby Inc employee against a gamer simply sharing public information about the company’s involvement in certain games quickly turned into a full-blown media spin.
Several journalists, including former Kotaku writer Alyssa Mercante, sided with Sweet Baby Inc, dismissing any critique and even claiming it’s impossible to be racist toward White people.
This whole situation underscores how ideological forces have thoroughly infiltrated the gaming industry, not only in development but also within gaming media, which continues to push certain agendas while criticizing games that deviate from them.
Games like Hades 2 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard are praised for their racial and sexual inclusivity, while titles that depict women traditionally are labeled as sexist while those who don’t facilitate necessary diversity criteria’s are slandered.
WIRED, as expected, deflected from the core issue, the consumer backlash against regressive character designs and ideological overreach as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the most inclusive games ever made, thanks to its overwhelming LGBT representation and inclusive Spanish dialogue no doubt thanks to Sweet Baby Inc.
WIRED’s coverage of Poprik reads like a textbook example of ideological fearmongering. The article portrays LGBT developers as being under unprecedented threat, lamenting that companies aren’t providing enough security for employees involved in online discussions. Instead of acknowledging that consumer criticism of poor products and unattractive designs might be a reasonable response, which are instead framed as targeted harassment.
It even goes so far as to blame Trump’s policies for putting trans developers in jeopardy, claiming they could face difficulties working, traveling, or renewing passports. This is used to push the narrative that the gaming industry is on the verge of collapse, which it most certainly is but not because of a lack of ideological reinforcement.
But the truth is this: the gaming industry isn’t struggling because of external threats; it’s struggling because the activists who took control were never focused on making great games. They saw gaming as a platform for promoting their ideology, placing token representation above compelling stories and refined gameplay.
Major studios have deliberately adjusted their hiring practices to prioritize women and non-binary candidates, a move that only coincides with record layoffs, commercial failures, and a noticeable decline in overall industry quality. The industry has become bloated with activists rather than passionate designers who are eager to ignite fans’ excitement.
Instead, these studios are fixated on pushing diversity and inclusivity onto the mainstream, and they’re failing miserably at it.
The latest GDC report proudly claims that over a third of developers are women or identify as LGBT, but what have such people really accomplished? Games that fail to connect with audiences, lose money while sinking whole entire studios and tainting IPs.
Simply put, these people leave the industry in a worse state than ever before.
WIRED’s article acknowledges the widespread layoffs affecting the gaming industry but conveniently ignores the underlying cause: the prioritization of activist-driven hires over actual talent.
This has led to subpar, uninspired products filled with identity politics, such as Sony’s live service failure, Concord. The game likely cost the company between $200-400 million. It was a product of “toxic positivity” within SIE, with Hermen Hulst touting it as the future of the PlayStation brand.
However, after eight years of development and extensive outsourcing, the game and its hour-long credit sequence bombed upon release. Its $40 price tag as an online-only hero shooter, combined with its incredibly unappealing character designs and focus on neopronouns failed to entice consumers.
The game was clearly aimed at a nonexistent audience obsessed with racially ambiguous, unattractive designs. In its space-themed setting, there was only one White character out of 16.
Meanwhile, activist developers continue to cry foul, arguing that scaling back DEI initiatives would harm gaming culture, when in reality it would simply erase their stronghold upon the medium as an over-represented protected class of society. However, the numbers tell a different story, over the past year, the industry has faced significant layoffs, but these developers continue to ignore the fact that hiring based on ideological quotas, rather than actual talent, is a major contributor to this decline.
Gaming’s ideologues, like “Dax,” a transgender individual working at an undisclosed AAA studio according to WIRED, lament that companies won’t “take bold choices and stand with us.” They remain oblivious to the fact that these same companies are hemorrhaging money by trying to cater to an audience that doesn’t exist.
The gaming world doesn’t belong to these activists. As financial support dwindles and consumer patience wears thin, they’re being forced to face the consequences of pushing their twisted worldview upon the general population as the forefront of their products, and they’re taking down entire studios with them as a result.
When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. By constantly sanitizing your stories and designs to avoid upsetting any group, you end up losing your core audience. In the end, you’ve got a soapbox. Consumers have made their stance clear: they’re tired of games that prioritize activism over creativity and are increasingly refusing to purchase subpar products riddled with censorship and identity politics.
This marks a clear shift in the gaming industry over the past decades. Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one of many financial failures, stands as the first mainstream video game to go so far in pandering to transgenderism by allowing players to customize their character with “top surgery scars.”
All while the games cringeworthy narrative contained the option for your character to assert their transgender identity while one of your companions, Taash describes herself as non-binary and even has scenes in-game where she comes out to her parents regarding her identity while others punish themselves with pushups for misgendering her.
This shallow obsession with diversity and inclusivity, coupled with the narcissistic needs of today’s developers to force consumers to accept their deranged ideologies, has led to the destruction of once-established franchises.
These IPs are resurrected, only to be desecrated and killed off, costing studios hundreds of millions due to bloated budgets and consultancy embezzlement. Despite these expenditures, they fail to attract the consumer audience, which only continues to grow more disenfranchised over time.
Eventually, companies like EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and even Sony will realize that the gaming industry will no longer be economically sustainable if they continue to ignore consumer demands and keep producing over-budgeted titles filled with unnecessary mocap designed by hundreds if not thousands of incompetent diversity hires, all pushing ideological narratives that don’t resonate with their audience.
Publications like WIRED desperately attempt to garner sympathy, pushing the narrative that consumers rejecting “woke” themes and uninspired DEI-driven character designs are part of a discriminatory movement when the largest criteria is about authenticity, enjoyment and quality.
The backlash isn’t rooted in sheer hatred alone but in exhaustion. Gamers are tired of being force-fed political messaging at the expense of engaging gameplay. They want to immerse themselves in compelling worlds, not be lectured at every turn.
As financial backing diminishes and consumer patience wanes, these activists are beginning to recognize that their ideological control over the industry is not as firm as they once assumed. The decline of the industry is not the result of an external attack on progressive values; rather, it is due to the fact that those who seized control were never true game developers.
They used gaming as a vehicle for their own beliefs, but now, as the financial pressures mount, they must come to terms with the reality: their dystopian vision was not sustainable, and ultimately, the gaming industry belongs to the players who prioritize quality over ideological messaging.
They treated gaming as a platform for their personal agenda, but now, as the financial realities set in, they’re being forced to confront the truth: their idealistic vision was never sustainable.
At its core, the gaming industry belongs to the players who demand quality, not political propaganda. Consumers are making their voices heard by keeping their wallets closed, regardless of how the media tries to spin it, labeling those who refuse to buy products made by people who clearly despise them as bigoted or racist.
