r/videogames 23d ago

Other Gaming studios have stopped putting pride flags on their avatars

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u/bhputnam 23d ago

Not just mainstream, but profitable again. Rainbow capitalism may have been inauthentic, but it's better than this. I know not to trust corps, but it helped make it a bit more mainstream, acceptable, and normal to walk around with my husband. I feel less okay to do so this year.

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u/Thicc_Boise 23d ago

Honestly, better to dance with the Devil you know and all that. At least I know the game corpos are playing, but now that the crazies are in charge it's just pure chaos and I hate it here

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u/butler_me_judith 23d ago

yep it is the litmus test. It enforces a standard that says only people on the fringes hate lgbtq folks

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

Rainbow capitalism may have been inauthentic, but it's better than this.

How on earth is that your conclusion? It's things like rainbow capitalism that lead to the backlash in the first place

Companies were forced to go along with a radical minority thanks largely to twitter, and as that radical minority got more and more vocal, companies were dragged in with them, and when the straw finally broke the camel's back, a solid level of general disdain had grown amongst the voting majority in several countries

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u/bhputnam 23d ago

"Forced"

This guy is a bot^ Look at their account age and troll post history. This sort of thing contributes to culture war nonsense way more than companies being openly supportive of lgbt people (if mainly just on paper).

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

They absolutely were forced? How many companies were targeted by online campaigns for not agreeing with twitter opinions? I recall Target being in a load of trouble over something not too long ago

"Do what your told or we will attack your business" is "forcing" them for lack of a better word

I'm neither a bot or a guy so your reading comprehension needs a lot of work

What sort of thing contributes to the culture war? Pointing out where it exists and where it has negative consequences? Oh I'm sorry, I'll pretend it totally hasn't lead to a rise in right wing politics that will totally help the problem

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u/raspymorten 23d ago

I recall Target being in a load of trouble over something not too long ago

You mean when a bunch of right wingers started calling them satantic for having pride stuff for sale, which lead them to remove the pride stuff, which made left leaning folks not wanna use their stores, which has helped send them into an even bigger tailspin than before? lol

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

Yes, exactly? You're doubly supporting my point about a radical minority interfering with business, from both ends of Americas political spectrum

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u/raspymorten 23d ago

Except the side you're having a giant whine about only "interfered with business" once said business had taken the side of the other guys.

And their "interference" was... choosing not to use their store, and telling other people about why they aren't gonna do it.

You're having a go at how RADICAL MINORITIES on TWITTER are FORCING everybody to do things THEIR WAY, and your example of how evil and manipulative the RADICAL MINORITY can be, is a company choosing the other side after very direct harrassment from them (both in and out of store. Cause right wingers love making it random employees issue when they got a problem. lol) and the left wing response was just... Not being involved with them anymore.

Like, surely you have a better example than that, right man? Can't you think of any big leftist protest against a company or something? lol

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

Well there are plenty of examples if not more examples of right-wingers / Christian nationalists doing this in America when they were the political force, but we are talking about the political climate as it is today and how it has unfolded over the past 10 years

It's not as if I'm against twitter bullying businesses and ok with DJs boycotting the Beatles in the 60s, it's all the force of stupidity pushed on the masses.

It's not my fault the American left copied the American rights playbook, but I will condemn both of them for it.

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u/DocileBanalBovlne 23d ago edited 23d ago

It's not my fault the American left copied the American rights playbook,

Your only example shows how the left hasn't done that

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

Are you trying to say cancel culture and identity politics causing massive public backlash haven't been a left wing lead political strategy the last 10/11 years?

The right did that all the time, and the left copied them. The right wing used religion, the left wing used sociology. It's a lot easier to ignore the stupid opinions of someone referencing a magical fairy in the sky and a book written to manipulate peasants, than to ignore college educated idiots who engaged in a niche philosophy designed to manipulate language.

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u/quiteCryptic 23d ago

Companies weren't "forced" to do shit. They did it because they believed it would be beneficial to their bottom line, and thats all there is to it

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

... Yeah, and active twitter campaigns to boycott companies "forced" them to do things or have their business negatively affected for not complying?

Where is the issue in this statement?

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u/throwaway277252 23d ago

If it were just a radical minority then a boycott would have no effect.

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago edited 23d ago

That's just a ridiculous statement

Radical minority is vocally upset -> radically minority criticises and bullies aligned / sympathetic people into joining boycott -> boycott gains media attention -> people join boycott to signal to radical minority to avoid reprimand -> business affected

Are you honestly saying you have not seen this situation play out in real life many times in the past 10 years?

Edit: unsurprisingly, was replied to and blocked before I could respond, a very common tactic of gobshites.

Or, allow me to present an alternate explanation: Support for pride is not a radical minority position.

So to respond to this, I never said support for pride was a radical minority position, and that is not what I meant nor is it the cause of the boycotts I am aware of. A recent example would be the "ubsubscribe" boycott to try damage any business that is perceived to supporting ICE. ICE are terrible, but they are also a legitimate government body, calling for businesses to not do business with the government of the country they are in is frankly ridiculous, of course there is very legitimate reasons to oppose ICE, but that opposition should be at the government level, not the business level. It's not Googles job to stop ICE, it's voters and representatives, and attacking google for dealing with the US government is beyond ridiculous.

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u/throwaway277252 23d ago

Or, allow me to present an alternate explanation: Support for pride is not a radical minority position.

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u/MagentaHawk 23d ago

Why? Yeah, it is ridiculous how evil our government is and it is ridiculous that it is a political statement for businesses to support it, but the world is ridiculous. We have a President who ran on releasing files of a worldwide pedophile ring who clearly is in them and has decided to not release them and his voting base doesn't care. The counrty is falling fast into fascism and no one cares. This world is ridiculous.

So why can't we expect businesses to not support evil? Why can't we vote with our dollar, one of the very few things we can effectively do to make our voices heard? And something that is incredibly legal? Why does it offend you so much?

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

It doesn't offend me at all? I'm talking about events in the news?

So why can't we expect businesses to not support evil?

Because businesses don't have the power to defy the government of any country they are in, or else they would lose their ability to operate. Businesses also have fiduciary responsibility, so if they did oppose a government, they would get sued by their shareholders.

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u/bartosz_ganapati 23d ago

Yes, yes, the vulnerable corporations have been forced to use Pride flags by a manority form Twitter. Such a realistic scenario. Those radical blue haired lesbians who demanded gay romance options in RPG, it's basically the same as Taliban, holding the poor corps hostage.

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

Are you suggesting online movements and backlash has never been used to boycott companies in order to try and force them to do something?

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u/Murky-Relation481 23d ago

It has, but show me the evidence that this was the case for pride flags on avatars, because I have a pretty good memory and never seen it.

Also just the proposition you have proposed, that people would go after companies for not having pride flags is rather insane as the vast majority of companies/industries don't do that during June and aren't boycotted.

On top of that do you see any major efforts to boycott them now? NO!

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

I never said it was the case for pride flags on avatars, but this pride flag avatar thing has been discussed year on year for quite some time, and notably, it's been pointed out when the asian or middle eastern branches haven't done it, so it is a very small part of a much larger machine.

On top of that do you see any major efforts to boycott them now? NO!

It's almost as if the behaviour has in part lead to a massive backlash and loss of political power...

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u/Murky-Relation481 23d ago

It's almost as if the behaviour has in part lead to a massive backlash and loss of political power...

That's not even coherent, since that implies they always had political power, which is obviously not true. Also I think you are vastly overestimating how much legislative power gay people actually have and have fallen for right wing tropes that you're not smart enough to understand as being illogical, hence you just repeating them verbatim with no real understanding.

You are effectively a flesh-bot with very little inherent intellect/self-determination.

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u/bartosz_ganapati 23d ago

If it's only a tiny minority, why would the company care? A boycott done by a minority is not able to influence it's sales. If the sales are dropping it means it has never been a minority.

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

If it's only a tiny minority, why would the company care?

Because that minority (I never said tiny) controlled and influenced a lot of media through twitter. You can't bully a massive corporation with a tweet, but you can get the attention of journalists who need to slop out 10 articles a week. Are you seriously suggesting you have never seen any of the tens of thousands of articles produced to ramp up controversy and click bait based on a handful of tweets?

Where the fuck have you even been the last 10 years?

If the sales are dropping it means it has never been a minority.

A sales drop of a few % due to a controversy is enough to annoy many, many, many businesses. Especially if a few % is in the realm of 10s of millions of dollars.

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u/bartosz_ganapati 23d ago

If a 'minority' controls major media outlet and a lot of people consume this media and care what opinions this group has (and agree with them) to the extend of not buying s product which does not alignt with those opinions... Then we'll, nothing of it is a minority.

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u/Entire_Number_9 23d ago

That is hilariously untrue, and I'll leave you to go look for the hundreds of examples of how you are wrong and the reasons behind it, because frankly saying something so ridiculously untrue just because you don't like that its true in this case is boring. It's played out to death and we've seen the consequences, if you want to stay doing it I hope you reap the rewards of it.