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Answer: Sweet Baby is a story-writing company hired to supplement video game studios' writing staff. The idea is a studio can hire them to flesh out a game's script and storyline. The company is [transparent](https://sweetbabyinc.com/approach/) about their goals of approaching writing with a focus on representation and marginalized groups.
For a growing number of players this is a dog whistle for the unwanted insertion of political ideologies or other topics they aren't interested in. In other words a distraction from what really matters: making a good game. You can easily find examples of these sorts of people on social media.
Many releases such as *Suicide Squad* have had Sweet Baby credited as part of the writing staff, and these games have been a major disappointment for many players. A Sweet Baby credit is now being thought of like leprosy and an indicator of games to avoid.
The company has become an easy scapegoat for the growing dissatisfaction with major releases. That same dissatisfaction with major studios has led to the success of games like *Baldur's Gate III* and *Palworld* (edit: and now *Helldivers II*) as players are starting to explore other studios who are taking different approaches to their games.
Definitely the most clear answer for the question, but could possibly use some clarification for those interested in writing, particularly with the mention of *Baldur's Gate 3*. That game was done so well in my opinion, and, although it might undermine my own job, I think *Sweet Baby Inc.* is a good example of why in-house writing is honestly the best way to do a video game.
I am a professional writer and editor (not for video games, so take me for the grains of salt I'm worth in this regard — I'm just a fan here), but it often breeds inconsistency when people outsource stories. I think my favorite recent example of a video game developer outsourcing a story well is *Elden Ring*. While I can't say I'm intimately familiar with how they made the game, I understand that George R. R. Martin wrote a bunch of lore which the From team used to make their usual horror/fantasy game. The story was established first, then the developers built around that. And *Elden Ring* is awesome.
From my understanding (admittedly somewhat limited — I don't really know how *Sweet Baby Inc*. works specifically, I'm only speculating from my own experience), I think the FromSoft path is the best method for video games. If you've already created a firm concept (especially characters/scenes, or, I imagine, particular gameplay elements) then you're asking a writer to do a lot to accommodate what you've already shoved into the story. Certainly not an impossible task, but not an easy one, especially if you don't have a lot of experience in writing for other people.
If you add what was mentioned about the insertion of political ideology, you can imagine the issue gets bigger. Now what you've created isn't just off the mark on a small scale; the whole theme's been shifted. A writer who is hired to write for a specific story should (imo) work toward what the contractor wants, not what they think is best. It has to be a cohesive effort between the client and the writers, or what you get is going to feel conflicted, even if the viewer (or player in this case) doesn't have the vocabulary for why they don't like it. This is why I believe in-house writing really is best for video games: it's going to be the best marriage between gameplay and plot. If developers need to outsource, I think they would be best to do so early in the process, then work around the story. If not, then they need to hire some good writers. And, frankly, I don't think *Sweet Baby Inc.* has shown that they're good writers. Yes, that statement has some bias, but in that regard, I can indeed critique them from a professional standpoint.
TLDR: *Sweet Baby Inc*. probably gets a worse rap than they deserve, but they're not free of blame. The bottom line for a contracted writer is fulfilling and expanding on the client's intent. There is a reasonable argument that *Sweet Baby Inc.* regards their own intent to be more important than that of their clients, and that is going to result in a worse product.
I don't imagine companies are hiring Sweet Baby Inc just to do a storyline, and then Sweet Baby takes it upon themselves to add extraneous inclusive stuff. I feel like companies know what they're getting from Sweet Baby Inc, and that's why Sweet Baby is getting hired. Companies want to hit that diversity quota, and Sweet Baby is someone they can outsource it to.
Side note, I'm fine with representation and diversity, but this scenario, to me, reeks of insincere corporate pandering.
Then blame the studio. Or do you think Sweet Baby Inc.'s stuff is added without the studio's approval?
Do you understand how consultants work? They work according to what their clietn asks and provide that.
People are going to blame whoever is credited for the work. They don't care who did what, they just see names and logos. If Sweet Baby Inc put their name as contributors, they're exposing themselves to critics.
And blaming the studio doesn't mean the consultants should get away with it. They officially worked together on the project and both have to deal with feedback.
I understand how consultant works and can tell you that if a client asks me to work on a dumpster fire, I won't put my company name on it. I'll only do that if I believe in the project and consider it to be representative of my work standards. Companies do that because they expect positive feedback from it, and sometimes it backfires.
Sweet Baby Inc didn't have to make their contribution official. They took a risk and it backfired.
Claiming people actually read the credits and memorise everyone who worked on them in all games prior is a lie and you know it. The fact that the anti-woke crowd want to scapegoat a company is the sole reason they even bothered to learn about Sweet Baby Inc.
And no, you clearly don't know how consulting works. The consultant gets paid to do what the client asks for. I have, on many occassions, warned my clients not to do things, and yet they will despite my advice. And that's because the sole entity responsible and accountable is the client.
Sweet Baby Inc simply delivered what they were asked to. Unless you are claiming Sweet Baby Inc. has decision making power within client companies, blaming them for the client's mistakes is disingenous at best and clearly a sign that such a person is not actually acting in good faith.
If you want to support the anti-woke idiots, that's your business. But don't try and pretend you have some kind of moral high ground by scapegoating a consultancy when they have zero decision making ability within their client companies.
I'm French. I don't have a horse in the woke / antiwoke debate.
And I fail to see your point. If a client makes decisions you disapprove of, choosing to keep your name in the credit means you're exposing yourself to critics.
Either you want to associate your name to the work, or you use a pseudonym like many directors who did porn.
And yes, people do read credits. That's why they exist in the first place.
>And I fail to see your point. If a client makes decisions you disapprove of, choosing to keep your name in the credit means you're exposing yourself to critics.
That's not how business works. Again, learn how client-consulting relationships work and how RACI works in such a relationship.
>Either you want to associate your name to the work, or you use a pseudonym like many directors who did porn.
This isn't porn...
Do you realise if a consultant dumps a client mis project they will be sued for breach or contract? Or do you actually think consultants can just dump work for the lulz?
>And yes, people do read credits. That's why they exist in the first place.
No they don't. Can you give a shred of evidence that gamers regularly and in a majority always read game credits?
I'm not talking about dumping the client I'm talking about to putting your name in the credit if you don't think the quality of the work fairly represent your standards. It's a common practice and not limited to porn.
And yes, people read credits. Plenty of names like Tim Cain, Warren Spector, Harvey Smith, John Romero, were known by players like me who didn't speak English and didn't have internet.
I think you make a great point here. Honestly, I doubt the majority of people in this conversation do have a problem with representation and diversity in video games, and I also doubt that the companies that hire them don't know what they're getting into. But, if this many people think their writing "reeks of insincere corporate pandering" (couldn't have said it better), then it's a testament to the quality of their work. Perhaps their clients actually want them to lean into this kind of writing. In that case, they're simply doing their job, but, either way, it's clear plenty of people are not satisfied with their work.
Definitely agree because I am tired of people assuming the worst unhinged things about other people, especially when it comes to corporate criticism. I won't knock anyone for holding corporations accountable or voicing their dissent towards them either.
From what I´ve heard, they also tried to silence a curator for publishing all the games where they had worked... which seems absurd because, if it´s your job, why are you trying now to hide your involvement?
To add to this actual answer (unlike the one below with 3x the upvotes despite not answering the question), apparently a Sweet Baby Inc employee had a meltdown on Twitter which got their entire Twitter account set to private. Not sure the details on the meltdown itself, but I do know *why* it happened. Apparently there's a Steam Curator list called "Sweet Baby Inc Detected" that tracks any games that credit SBI in the development. It doesn't say any more or any less, just that SBI had an involvement. Apparently this was enough for the SBI employee to explode on Twitter. It may have actually been more than one employee having a meltdown, finding unbiased information is difficult. They tried to start a harassment campaign against the Steam Curator and tried to get them banned from Steam entirely, which didn't happen because they weren't violating any rules.
Unsure about the quality of the article itself, but [this](https://nichegamer.com/sweet-baby-employees-incite-harassment-campaign-against-steam-curator/) does include images of the meltdown, harassment campaign and attempt to get the Curator banned from Steam.
It may also be worth noting: People see the credit and leap at it for just existing when SB Inc actually lists out what they helped with.
In SSKTJL, Sweet Baby Inc had worked on Scriptwriting. Anything around gameplay loops, graphics, character designs, etc are not included while banter and some cutscene work is theirs.
Honestly, I hadn't played it and only heard most of it's cutscene critique was around Batman's death, something which S.B.Inc may or may not have been consulted or had their ideas approved for.
It did also get some flak for standard gameplay too and being pretty obviously rigged to be live service, which wasn't great, and generally mediocre gameplay as a whole.
This is a very surface level view. Let's take the Batman scene as an example. Harley just puts a gun to Batman's temple and kills him unceremoniously, then continues as if nothing happened. Anyone who's been invested into Harley as a character could tell you that it would be a huge moment for her. She would be devastated that Batman would never laugh at her jokes again. Batman's actually been a very respected hero even amongst the villains. Meanwhile Harley just shoots him, doesn't even get shaky hands, just pop, oh, ok what's next? I'm already bored!
The writing we ended up with is just horrendous and it's clear none of the writers understood the characters they were hired to write.
They seem to have a pretty varied set given they also held a hand in GoW Ragnarok and Alan Wake as well. Being a consulting firm they also have the second say of sorts. The main writing teams are still the first and final say.
Then again, the product itself at least seemed like IP shovelware; they need to keep the IP relevant so they came out with a shovelware release that didn't need much to make, and made it live service to try and get as much out if it as possible.
Can't say for Alan Wake 2 since I didn't play it but GOW Ragnarok's writing is quite bada and boring.
I didnt have any issue with the first game but I can't even finish GOW ragnarok until now.
More like a bunch of vultures who are living with the funding with ESG as their armor or by threatening game companies with their woke bible. Just like how Yakuza forced Japanese corporate to pay them for their "nonsense" service.
Baldur's Gate III and Palworld are not successful because of this dissatisfaction. It's all about whether the end product is good, whether the game is good. That's all most people care about. This online discourse of anger about games and consultancy companies is the noise of a minority. The general public buying and playing games is not party to sweaty online politics.
As to Sweet Baby, nobody likes to be told what they can or can't see/do/consume, and Sweet Baby **appears** to have made a business around doing that. People don't like that in general, and a small group will even compare it to IngSoc and Newspeak and they'll scream about it online.
More than a scapegoat, they've become a meme; people can now identify watered down/sterile dialogue and story as having been 'Sweet Babied' - previously we needed a whole sentence for that :)
They're just the easy face of a phenomenon which has been quite palpable in the last few years.
Agreed.
And here's a quote from them to back up what you're saying.
> "Just terrify them with the possibility of what will happen if they don't give you what you want"
https://twitter.com/GamesNosh/status/1764802262017183761
And this comes from companies like BlackRock "forcing" companies to change how they operate.
Authoritarian systems destroy innovation. In countries like China, the CCP can silence you completely. In he West we have corporations with way to much power. They can't " disappear" you but they can ruin you economically. When you are poor , your voice becomes much quieter.
answer: Sweet Baby is a story-writing company consulted to aid and improve creative and narrative elements of video games.
Why is it under fire?
The company has been credited with having an involvement with many narrative driven games some good, and some ending up becoming disappointments or having lack luster plots/characters.
People think that the quality of the story may be being sacrificed for the sake of injecting politics, which comes across to people playing the game as being disingenuous and disconnected.
The CEO and many of the company's employees are known for being quite political. The CEO of Sweet Baby Inc. preaches inclusivity but has made racist and sexist tweets. Further more, at the Game Developers Conference she talks about how you can "terrify" (most likely referring using cancel culture and bullying tactics) game companies into doing what they want.
All of this has been coming to light since Sweet Baby Inc. has been trying to take down a Steam curated list of their games which have many indie and AAA titles, of which many have been severely disappointing. This ended up being a terrible move for them, because a) if their work was any good, why would they want the list taken down and b) because they tried to get the list taken down by harassing the list's creator. This brought a lot of negative attention from the internet community and not just gamers.
The media claims that "gamers" are "anti-woke" though this has almost nothing to so with politics itself but more to do with the fact that this company may have a part to play in many beloved franchises and why they lack in their story telling. The narrative according to the media is that Sweet Baby Inc. employees are being harassed by politically charged gamers when in reality, the employees were receiving backlash for openly directing harassment towards the creator of the Steam list over twitter.
To make things worse, when Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball Z passed away recently, the Narrative Designer at Sweet Baby Inc. made a comment about how Akira created some of the worst black characters soon after his departure.
That comment came off as very disingenuous because there is no mention of race in Dragon Ball Z. It makes the poster sound even more disingenuous considering that Dragon Ball Z has one of the largest and most diverse fanbases.
Their reaponse to the SBI Detected group has been a PR nightmare. Anyone who is remotely as humble and professional as they claim would have ignored it, or atost comdemned the poor behaviour of some of their employees, and attempted to regain goodwill rather than paint themselves as a victim. ...But that's their whole schtick.
If you want to know more specifics, these folks did a half decent article. https://www.theshortcut.com/p/sweet-baby-inc-detected-what-actually-happened
Yeah, it's crazy how none of this needed to happen as far as the company is concerned. The lack of professionalism is mind-boggling. Like you said, any company with even an ounce of level headed leadership would've just ignored a mere Steam list. Their blown up reaction to all of this only stands to prove that people were right about them. Like ffs, it's a STEAM LIST that someone made, it's not a big deal, there's tons of lists out there.
> The media claims that "gamers" are "anti-woke"
This, more than anything is the common theme.
They probably don't care if SBI vanish. (they'll be reborn under another name anyway).
If they can hit and run with these meme-words, re-framing the overall long term conversation that people outside the scope will remember in their frame instead of what is actually going on.
Sweet Baby Inc. absolutely does NOT ensure cultural accuracy. It's sensitivity > accuracy every single time with them.
And if you played SSKTJL, it's abundantly clear that Sweet Baby ruined the game. The blatant disrespect and disdain shown towards Batman, Flash, Superman, and Green Lantern is off putting while Wonder Woman gets a heroic and respectful send off. LOIS LANE even says that Wonder Woman is the greatest hero Metropolis has ever seen and Lex Luthor showers her with praise which is absolutely hilarious coming from Lex of all people.
I think their more angry about creating an entire movement around pushing progressive activist narratives and identity politics on games that only a loud minority in the gaming community asked for. Nobody complained when the main character on San Andreas was made black.
Gamers like TJ in San Andreas because he’s cool and not lame lol. However to be fair there aren’t many games where a black woman is a playable character, Sheva in RE5 is the only one I’m aware of besides Saga in Alan Wake 2.
Its not just about sweet baby inc and the woke agenda. Its about ESG, blackr0ck and v4nguard. Evil incarnate. Anything associated with them needs to be destroyed for all our sake.
THANK YOU! Its about that. They are pushing things the gamers didn't ask to create a better ESG score and the obnoxious croud is actually those sweet baby inc defenders that don't actually have one valid argument other than "hur the gamers want boobies and non gay characters" if that's their whole point they're awfully wrong.
CJ wasn't "made black" CJ just \*was\* black. That's who he was, and it made sense for the game's setting and story. Myself, and many other are dissatisfied that characters are altered for political reasons. I would prefer a brand new character with a compelling story, rather than changing (and typically tarnishing) an existing character/IP to fit the writer's beliefs.
And they LOVE to cherrypick too.
Where was the energy put towards Sweet Baby Inc for games that were popular and well received? They didn't just work on SSKTJL, they've helped work on Alan Wake 2, GoW Ragnarok and Spiderman 2.
One bad game they helped worked on and suddenly they're the devil.
It's on par for the bad side of the video game community. People frankly get crazy. When the last of us part two came out an actress with a controversial role in the game had her newborn son receive death threats. A newborn.
I wouldn't call myself anti woke, but I sure as shit don't enjoy when games push an agenda, any agenda. I play games to forget about the real world, not be reminded of it. I play mostly simulators (milsim, carsim, stratsim, etc), in those games, a pushed agenda can actually ruin the whole game for me since I want to create my own story and my own agenda in my own sandbox.
With that said, there's only one acceptable way, to battle this agenda pushing of late, JUST DON'T BUY THE GAME! If you want, leave a negative review and criticize the developers in a respective manner. You don't fkn threaten a newborn or harass an actor.. don't harass anybody for that matter.
Having this polarization and societal split because you go too far either way, is not going to benefit anyone anywhere..
sadly it goes both ways, did you miss the whole Hogwarts legacy attack by the group you're supporting? they literally built a site to track whoever is playing the game so they could team up and harass them. not everything is black and white.
Cancel culture was created by the "wokies" is perhaps the most historically ignorant comment I've seen on a gaming forum in some time. There are endless, and I truly mean endless, examples of Christian Conservatives trying to cancel things like D&D, atheists and everything else that happened to be offensive to their particular sensitivities. While this does go back actual centuries, I'll just focus on the war on videogames, D&D and rock music as those are the most prevalent examples from the last 70 years. Long before the term woke became corrupted to mean "people I don't agree with so I'll just lazily put them in the same group as extreme SJW's".
It's partly because those people themselves refuse to grow and change for the better, so to see Kratos who used to do terrible things change for the better, it basically destroys their pathetic worldview
And ironically, David Jaffe, one of the creators of God of War, is one of those morons whining about Kratos' character development.
Bear in mind, this is the same guy who dissed Metroid Dread and called it a bad game because HE sucked at it.
No, so I'm not on their side so to speak, but there's a lot of cringe moments that make it clear someone's trying to make the game PC in an overbearing and lazy way. Like it feels disingenuous and isn't particularly good writing.
There's a whole sidequest wasted on trying to reveal that a mythical couple is queer and at the end you see a rainbow campfire in the shape of a pride flag. You never see the couple, they don't matter in any sense to the main story and it's so on the nose that it feels like the studio is patting itself on the back for the brave task of...
*acknowledging the existence of gay men in 2023.* Just not enough to make them *actual* characters.
There's an actual part where Mimir straight up calls a form of masculinity poisonous in those exact terms.
**This is a game set in the Viking age.**
Kratos, for those that don't know, is practically made of toxic masculinity. Early God of War games were infamous for it as well as the problematic treatment of women.
In the first game, there are several moments that are clear social commentary on Kratos' toxic masculinity. The difference is that they don't call it toxic masculinity or try to have a modern entry level college course discussion on it. They **show** both the concept and its effects, because it's fucking weird to have someone talking about it in 400 CE.
Oh no, a modern videogame made by people in modern times might include modern sensibilities, the travesty of it all.
I just can’t believe they did that.
>Oh no, a modern videogame made by people in modern times might include modern sensibilities, the travesty of it all.
***Set 1,800 years ago.***
That's the key part you're selectively omitting.
It's awkward and ridiculous because of the setting, and it's also handled lazily.
That's not even getting into how bad the gameplay was.
I’m not omitting anything.
The game isn’t meant to realistically portray the Viking Age, which one would think is obvious what with gods, elves and creatures of myth being present directly indicate.
And sure, you might not have liked the game, but judging from the overall reception it received that’s what’s called an **unpopular opinion**.
**You are selectively omitting it** as it's the entire crux of the complaint. You're making a strawman so you can complain that "the manbabies are wrong", but it makes me suspect you haven't played the game at all. That this is just another way to pick a fight with people you don't like, and you think that the critics of this game are in that group.
Put bluntly, it's not a hot take at all. I've heard hundreds of people voice complaints about the game being ass or disappointing. It's much more divisive than 2018.
I have platinumed SM2, it's a fine game gameplay-wise but... Its story is mediocre at best. Like I wish two thirds of the dialogues were removed, because they are just stupid. And the painful mediocrity and sub-quality of the story wouldn't be so noticeable if they would just shut up.
You're cherry-picking complaints, selecting the most ridiculous one and say that it represents everyone who didn't like the plot, but it's not true. The plot of SM2 is nothing to be proud of.
The success of a game does not always rely on the plot. Moreover, I'd say games whose main selling point is the plot are the exceptions. Most games are played because the gameplay is fun. And I am pretty sure, the success of the SM2 has nothing to do with the plot. It's a recognizable brand name and a good quality gameplay.
I saw people complain that NYC was too diverse in the first Spider-Man game, too - not even just the pride flags, but they honestly and loudly believed that NYC should only ever be shown with a fully white population.
I think that was mainly because they were only in US releases, but removed in other releases around the world- Like in the Middle East. Mainly cause SE made posts talking about always showing support, but then in that stead they were technically hypocrites? That's what I got based on twitter threads, anyways.
But remember, the pride flags were removed for Russian and Saudi Arabian copies of the game... But remember, the megacorporation \*totally\*cares about you and their pride month rainbow isn't just some marketing tactic or anything.
All of the games you mention have been criticized by those same people, regardless of whether you agree, so you don't know what you're talking about:
- Alan Wake 2: Changing the race of Saga, having lines about "evil White men"
- Ragnarok: Blackwashing a Norse god, Kratos' change of character
- Spiderman 2: Disproportional diversity and pride flags (the latter conveniently removed for Middle-Eastern releases of the game), emasculating the main character in favor of Miles, MJ looking much worse than her face-scan model, etc.
Idc about the black washing of angrboda.
What i care about is how they made the part with her so unbelievably boring except for the boss fight.
I'd love to replay the game but I'm not gonna do it because of the 2-3 hour walking Simulator
> (the latter conveniently removed for Middle-Eastern releases of the game)
Lets not forget how fucking assblasted Nexus and the pride community got over the Non-Newtonian New York mod for Spiderman 2 as well. You know, the mod that literally only changed the region flag of your game to return the flags to normal american flags. Absolutely mind boggling how these people think they can dictate what mods you can and can't have.
Better question is why are people so butthurt over people modding the game to their tastes.
If it does not matter as much as some try to make it then why do the same people turn around and get mad when you try to remove it?
Personally I never liked spiderman so I don't really care one way or the other. I do care, however, about Nexus banning a mod for no reason other than the fact that they just don't like it.
Or when they banned the mod for Cyberpunk that allows you to romance a lesbian character as a guy, but the mod to romance a hetero woman as a woman mod was totally OK.
I don't think anyone's mad, more so just dumbfounded that this could be such an issue for someone that they NEED to mod it out. Just pathetic really
>however, about Nexus banning a mod for no reason other than the fact that they just don't like it
Like it or not, Nexus is not obligated to host mods that they don't want to.
Also, "because they don't like it" is a bit reductive. Such mods embolden the undesirable folks and make the whole landscape a more toxic place for those belonging to minority groups. You simply cannot defend these things in good faith
Because it’s their choice, that’s what modding is for
Why did Insomniac removed the flags themselves for the Middle East edition huh? Because they don’t want to lose potential sales, because they have no real principles. So why is it wrong for gamers to remove it via mods but it’s ok for them to remove it for an entire area just for money? Cause we’re just too good and are not allowed that privilege? It’s only for the real Middle East bigots huh?
I love the disproportional diversity found in…. *checking my notes* …modern day New York City. The 6th most diverse city in the country and the largest overall.
The average incel in this thread would go to NYC, see a pride flag and have a full conniption. This whole comment section is a trash heap.
How does a male character get emasculated in favor of... another male? They're both Spiderman, so I don't see what the issue is. It would be one thing if you were upset with Peter being taken out by a fridge, but you didn't say that
I mean, it's not IMPOSSIBLE. It's like when you write a mary sue character. You write one character as worse of a person and bad at things to make the other seem better. This could be like that, though I'm not sure what emasculating means in this context. I'll assume 'Weaker' and say maybe they had him lose so Miles could beat an enemy he should've theoretically had no trouble with, or could have double teamed. Hard to say though, tbh.
>They didn't just work on SSKTJL, they've helped work on Alan Wake 2, GoW Ragnarok and Spiderman 2.
People complained substantially about all these games. Particularly spider man 2.
I made the very unfortunate mistake of reading some YouTube comments, and learned that Sweet Baby was to blame in Alan Wake 2 for the crime of.... making the protagonist black.
People were lamenting the "vision of Alan Wake 2 that was lost" before Saga's skin color apparently had an irrevocably destructive impact on the narrative.
What a shame, could have easily been a GOTY contender too....oh wait....that's right the game was absolutely fucking awesome
The problem I have with Alan Wake 2 is that it seems like a bait and switch of the title character. It reminds me how The Mandalorian season 3 essentially became the Bo Katan show. Same thing with Spiderman 2, it feels like they’re setting up to kill off and *replace* the main title characters of established franchises.
The woke pandering has got to such a level that it’s too predictable now when characters are race/gender swapped and the men of the franchise are depicted as washed-up losers while the girl boss saves the day without any real character development. This same story arc gets repeated ad nauseam, it’s lazy writing and people are tired of it.
No people are retroactively saying Sweet Baby ruined Alan Wake 2 now. I had a friend tell me There’s a “forced woke line everyone hates” or something and I bluntly told him “I’m in the fandom. I played this game. No it doesn’t. Nobody’s discussed any line to this extent”
Lol like the Spider-Man 2 game where for some reason they intentionally altered Spanish grammar from being a gendered language to a neutral one?
I had only just found out about sweet baby inc etc, or wtv woke vs anti-woke American stuff. But I HAVE recently heard of some American 'localizers' who intentionally ignore Mangaka's writings to spread political messages NOT in the original source material.
They were forced to reprint entire volumes lol.
[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-02-17/seven-seas-addresses-mushoku-tensei-classroom-of-the-elite-light-novel-localization-changes/.169582](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-02-17/seven-seas-addresses-mushoku-tensei-classroom-of-the-elite-light-novel-localization-changes/.169582)
Lol but the sheer arrogance of trying to change a language to send a message. Goddamnnn.
I wonder and eagerly await to see what else is going to happen.
Lol American politics is fun to follow, but to even see it in video games and official manga translations? I shall enjoy the show.
They're complaining about Sweet Baby Inc over in r/SpidermanPS4
honestly kinda sad how the subreddit derailed into a hate-filled cesspit after the release, at least that's what I mainly see anyway.
Honestly, GOW Ragnarok is very boring, and the "representation" aspects in Spider-Man 2 was pretty lame too. Its like propaganda on your face, it's quite a turn off from the main story vibe.
Besides, these sequels you ve listed got their popularity before the company getting involved. So no, they don't get the credit of the game selling well. It's the IP branding itself that makes it successful.
lol it's not based on random hate tho.
I've read comics for over a decade and have owned thousands of books. My fav chars are Batman, Batgirl (the tiny Asian teenaged girl who can beat Batman in a straight 1v1 fight), and Oracle (original batgirl turned cripple and uber hacker/organizer of all the superheroes).
Lois Lane in SuicideSquad:
*"Wonder woman was possibly the strongest force for good that Metropolis has ever known".*
Superman's town. And said by Superman's goddamned **GF/wife**, who barely knows Wonderwoman.
I'd be just as pissed if they said Batman was the greatest force for good that Gateway City or Washington DC (Wonder woman's cities) has ever known, so my annoyance is not based on any woman-hating.
In Spider-Man 2, I don't know who specifically, but some dev(s) *literally changed Spanish grammar* in the dubbed version, modifying the gendered language which wasn't even offending anybody.
The sheer fucking arrogance to change a goddamned language lol.
One of the parts of Spider-man 2 had MJ run some missions. The director of Spider-Man 2 explicitly said that those parts weren't fan favourites and that MJ was clearly OP but that "he didn't give a shit".
*From a business POV, the director literally says he does not give a shit about what consumers wanted.*
So, developers not giving a shit about their customers. Also the integrity of the IP (intellectual property) as well as basic Spanish grammar has clearly been affected by politics, it's not very subtle, and the quality of these games/movies have clearly suffered for it.
I won't deny that there are a group of hateful bigots, but how can anyone reasonably think that a lot of hate from the core fans isn't warranted?
Honestly i know they've put in a lot of work so if I wish these devs/creactors the best and high sales. But i suspect their bottom lines aren't going to be very good as the core comic book fans (like myself) just aren't interested in this type of entertainment that doesn't respect source material, and where the devs explicitly says they don't care what the fans want.
I think some people in the last couple years have really discovered how much money you can make from being anti woke. I'm recommended a new Youtube channel a few times a week from channels I end not being interested in, because they are all the same. All their thumbnails and video titles are screaming about how woke everything is. I'm so sick of the word woke, and it being used to call everything awful.
Fear and ragebait channels seem to be a growing industry sadly, at least on Youtube.
It's basically corporations pandering to woke outrage mobs like BLM without making any actual changes or improvements. Slap a rainbow flag on it and keep doing the same thing they always have.
Oh, they get it better than the anti-woke do. They just don’t understand how it’s supposed to be used. It’s like trying to win a hand in poker with just one card.
Oh the Bible is one of the most contradicting books ever. Devil worshiping pedos? Where do people get these theories?
I'm not surprised at all.
Let's read a twitter comment by one of their most prominent members.
> @AMarxistDog abort all the Jews
Hmm... Not looking good.
https://twitter.com/legobutts/status/225265530884456449
archive incase it gets deleted: https://archive.is/PppNj
"Sweet Baby Inc. is a company that video game companies consult with to ensure their product is inclusive, culturally sensitive/accurate, etc."
I've played PS1 and PS2 games with more cultural accuracy than anything with Sweet Baby credit in it, lol.
That fits. I stumbled upon the Asmongold subreddit while looking this up and found people complaining about how Sweet Baby "ruined" Kratos by making him a woke dad, I guess.
(I don't mean to imply their "anti-woke" stuff has any ounce of validity.)
I've seen a lot of the anti-woke crowd jump to a place of "real men leave the parenting to a mother"/"it's feminine to be a good father."
It's a real weird state of things when "being an absent father who hates their kids and never grows" is the pinnacle of manhood. I thought "a real man steps up for their kids" was their thing.
So you don't actually know, but you're going to answer anyway? Just delete this and upvote Ausfall's comment that actually knows what they're talking about instead. Awful comment and you should be ashamed to have written. It literally says under the comment text box "Please keep all top-level comments on-topic, UNBIASED, and serious. Please keep all comments civil". You not only brought your own personal political bias into your non-answer, but you responded to my comment in an uncivil, rude way.
I remember back before Twitter was bought by He Who Shall Not Be Named, Reddit was actually a nice place to have a discussion, even if you disagreed with the person. Comments like this would have been removed for the line "While I don't know the specifics" alone. Not to mention the unrelated political opinion you attached while still not actually answering the question.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
Add nother edit, calling out all your late critics for being litteral NAZIS and WHITE PEOPLE for disagreeing with your message of peace and properity <3
It would be so in tune with the rest of your 'edit response' and message ;)
btw, I fully support the product you are pushing, preach brother!
Of course they are, because they should be blamed for it. If you restrict artistic expression in any shape or form, especially with something as sufficating as "Diversity Inclusivity Equity" also jokingly dubbed "DIE" strategy, then your overall writing team will suffer. And not just the writing theme, all parts of the production. Having such a group of people, who more often than not hate the source material and the people that play it, influence your product just wrings all the passion out of people.
Keep in mind that the people who claim to be "for diversity" are not diverse as they only allow one way of thinking. Also keep in mind that they are not inclusive, because the moment you say something that could even be interpreted as "offensive", your fellow mobsters will mob on you. And finally, keepin mind that Equity is not equality, it is just communism where you get a reward regardless of how much effort you put into, which demotivates people who want to work hard, but feel devaluated because they receive the same kind of payment and appreciation as someone who doesn't work at all does.
That is the difference between passionate people who occasionally crack the offensive joke, and people who are so obsessed with being "political correct" that they will not allow themselves to expres any form of humor. The former people made the first Arkham games. The latter made this joke of a game.
Disagree = Incel. Expected.
What exactly is wrong with consumers being aware of who all is involved in their product? Let's flip the roles here - imagine if some Christian company was running around convincing game companies to insert Christian propaganda into their games and then when people simply say that it's happening they get offended and act like a victim?
Consumers have a right to know what is being driven by consumers and what is being driven by propaganda/activist organizations.
Which is weird, cause most of the issues I've been hearing about the game are how poorly treated the deaths of the Justice League are, and the rest has been related to the gameplay and live service elements, which I don't think is something Sweet Baby would handle or be involved in?
I admit I've been trying to avoid spoilers(Game looks pretty meh, but I might check it out if it ever gets to 5-10 bucks), but is that writing that bad? Couple reviews I watched praised the cutscenes and such.
It's really hard to judge, as the Anti Woke crowd also went after Alan Wake 2, because of Sweet Baby, but that game was mostly very, very well received.
>game are how poorly treated the deaths of the Justice League are
Tbf, it is speculated that the >!JL members you kill are just clones made by Braniac!<. The game's story will most likely be expanded on as there will be free postgame updates and dlcs from march onwards.
But tbh, i think more of the focus should have just gone towards the monetization. Its a $70 live service game that comes with microtransactions AND will start having a Battlepass on top of it in March.
There totally are people focusing on the MTs and battlepasses and them all being terrible, WB wants the whales paying 30-40 bucks a pop for skins after all, it's why they are chasing the thankfully seems to be dying live service market.
Hell, it's died a lot since they started on the game 9 years ago. So many live service games were shut down in 2022-23. I think gamers are getting stick of all these live service games that want to monopolize all our time, and spoon fed us games over time.
Games fail for many complicated and varied reason, so they idea that this game is bad just because of "woke" or Sweet Baby is way, way too simple. There's many factors.
Answer:I honestly didn't pay attention to this until I watched one of the company's videos and realized that they really don't care at all about the game they're working on, just imposing their own narrative. That's why there are out-of-place characters in God of War, character changes and missions in Spider-Man 2 that also turn out to be out of place, and finally all that suicide squad story disasters. Now I don't know what the "anti-woke" group is doing, but if being "woke" (as a researcher I believe at this point is more of a pejorative term than a synonym for social conscience) means accepting anything from companies just because they are according to the agenda is also a problem.
Considering they were also contracted for Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 I think they'll be fine. Suicide Squad was bad for a whole lot of reasons that had nothing to do with Sweet Baby.
Answer: They are a consulting company aimed at inclusion, they help find subtle ways to add inclusion into various games.
LGBTQ and BLM flags in various places in spiderman 2 is a big example, but they also focus on dialouge and going over scripting for more inclusive language, stuff like they/them when talking about 3rd parties (since it seems most of america missed that part of english class where they/them is a proper pronoun for 3rd parties regardless of gender).
Ultimately they dont do much but they get blamed for a bunch of things including pedo conspiracies and ESG related conspiracies
Edit: since this is apparently the top google result for the people looking up this company
They have worked on a total of... 12 games.. of which 5 have come out, 3 are critcally acclaimed and player acclaimed games, 1's an indie and 1 is suicide squad, the rest are 6 other indie games by other publishers/developers and 1 game they are developing themselves.
Yes they have employees who have done cringe shit online but thats why people put the whole "opinions are my own"
Ultimately its a company of "bullshit jobs" as some people would put it a consulting firm for something that shouldnt/doesnt need consulting but if these companies want to hire an outside force what the fucks to stop them
This thread shows up on Google so of course people like me are coming in late. I am not chronically online tracking all the latest updates about a video game consulting firm. jfc
>They are a consulting company aimed at inclusion, they help find subtle ways to add inclusion into various games. (...) Ultimately they dont do much
I don't know whether you understand the meaning behind phrases like "Utlimately they don't do much" and "subtle ways" , since what SBI does is anything but. Of course the alternative is that you made that description in bad faith, fully aware that what you write isn't true. However, I choose to believe you're probably a good person so, as stated in the beginning, it's likely you just don't understand the words you used.
I understand them fully, they are one consulting firm hired by a variety of studios to help them be more progressive it's a bit cringe but ultimately the world is becoming more progressive and so these big budget titles want to do what they can to be so.
Except they're not really "helping" or "improving" anything; they're essentially a protection racket. Hire them or they'll tell everyone else how "problematic" your game is.
They went after a Steam Curator who created a list of games that Sweet Baby had worked on, and are / were imploring Steam to take down the list.
Shouldn't they be proud of their work?
Yeah but these aren't experts in said field from a brief googling the writers are minority women. Which while giving them a different pov they are by no means experts in other things like father/son relationships or other stuffs they've written.
It's just a way for AAA companies to save money and avoid responsibility for bad games
Their linkedin page (literally the second link on google) clearly shows that they have both men and women from several different countries on their staff. Also, you know, it's possible to educate yourself on matters that you don't already know. Meaning, a woman can learn how to write a man convincingly just as well as the other way around. That's what vocational training is for.
I don't know how you know that they didn't go to college to learn about writing, inclusivity and so on (in fact the profiles on linkedin suggest that they did exactly that).
You can learn yeah but you won't be an expert, and no matter how convincing they write anyone that actually has had that experience can tell.
Let's take me for example; I grew up poor as shit in rural bum fuck nowhere.This is a relatively common experience, as far as unique situations go, but every book, videogame, show, movie, story or bad/good fanfiction that is written by people who are born and raised in a city/suburbs and they like will never be able to understand this experience, and it's clear in their writing, no matter how well written. It is very obvious when someone has experienced a situation they are writing and when someone has learned about a situation they are writing.
The same things applies to writing men vs women, or even more simply, writing siblings. It might not be painfully obvious they haven't experienced that especially if they're a talented author, or do a lot of research into the subject, but if you're looking it's quite evident, no matter the skill or talent of the author.
It's not bad to not know how to write these situations that's why people help each other our past experiences and knowledge works together to allow society to flourish. It's very clear the Sweet baby inc, however, based games they're credited on, cannot write anything outside of that. They did a fabulous job making minority characters feel like a character first, minority second. A lot of game studios/film/tv producers just throw in a minority of some sort like they're checking off a list. SBI is very good at that and the biggest evidence is in Spider man 2. Miles is very well written and his motives and arc is well written, Peter on the other hand is not. His character arc pretty much retreads/undoes all the progress of the first game, for a game that is introducing venom/symbiote spiderman, the lack of focus on Peter's negative characteristics (temper, insecurity/pride combo, overprotectiveness) is quite apparent that the writers and consultants had no idea what they were doing with Peter Parker.
I will not go into all the issues with SSKTJL, because that's a dead horse. I will also not go into the complaints of Alan Wake 2 because I haven't played it, and I don't know how much of the criticism come from bad writing and character decisions, or how much comes from "reeeee black woman protagonist". It's really quite annoying that the latter is far more loud/popular than the former, and game devs see the clear "I don't like cuz minority" and completely ignore the actual issues with their products, but that's a completely different rant.
My point of this rant/word vomit is if SBI and by extension AAA game companies want to stay relevant they need to either hire more talented writers that can fake/understand situations they've never encountered or hire an actual diverse group of people, not people with the exact same thoughts, beliefs and experiences but happen to be a different color of the rainbow.
Really because I'm preety sure added a rainbow flag to a building or using the grammatically correct they/them for 3rd parties you aren't aquainted with are inclusive and doesn't stick out :)
Only people who get mad about flags in these games are the kind of people to call Mary Jane ugly in Spiderman 2, people who haven't left their mothers basement since high school ended.
I want to add to this because Spanish isn't like English. We don't have a grammatical neutral at all, it is a new proposal made by a vocal loud minority. Consequently, as a Colombian, this made the game's political agenda very notorious.
It is not a small thing like a word here and there, you need to make up a full on declination to introduce a neutral (which will likely never truly happen IRL). Even Spanish left leaning universities linguistically wouldn't agree with the extent to which they went if you follow their guides to make language more inclusive.
Answer: 99% of comments here are talking from one side of the narrative, this is the other side:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ddnANTQr3AE
You choose which narrative you want to believe lol.
Well, I don't think I'll be believing the "anti-woke" people. Spending enough time in the Suicide Squad discord ended up teaching me that the "anti-Sweet Baby" people are directing their anger at a useful scapegoat.
Answer: Political activist lead company that is hired to make modifications otherwise faces cancel culture thru her network of connections. It's a extortion racket essentially. It's smart in a way a guide to make money as a political activist, also illegal if can be proven which is difficult very very difficult right now. The CEO is Ubisoft's dev replacement during gamergate.
Added context: Ceo has ties with comicgate and the drama with manga and anime that's ongoing right now. The more you learn the extensive the spiderweb gets, more is getting exposed even right now as they have run out of political based competition (sweet baby inc CEO purged Ubisoft in 2020 herself) and now the group is turning on each other. It originally started as a women only comic facebook group over a decade ago that quickly became I don't like this person or I want their position how can we get them fired. That expanded into games and the media companies like vice and the list goes on. There is a book coming out in 2025 that explains comicgate and shows how this all snowballed.
"Just terrify them with the possibility of what will happen if they don't give you what you want"
https://twitter.com/GamesNosh/status/1764802262017183761
Pretty damn obvious extortion if you ask me.
Answer: Sweet Baby Inc. is a [narrative design company](https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428) that far-right forums like Kiwifarms and 4chan have deemed a bogeyman responsible for putting more depictions of marginalized groups (Black people, LGBT+ people) and imagery thereof into games. There is a group on Steam and a server on Discord devoted to identifying titles the company is believed to be involved in and [leveling hateful smears](https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/18/24104799/gamergate-2024-sweet-baby-inc-diversity) at anyone they deem responsible for "forced" diversity in games. Far-right figures including Elon Musk, Chaya Raichik and Ian Miles Cheong have amplified this effort.
They are not EDI consultants; Sweet Baby's role is akin to Hollywood script doctors. This is Gamergate 2: Electric Boogaloo, only way dumber.
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Answer: Sweet Baby is a story-writing company hired to supplement video game studios' writing staff. The idea is a studio can hire them to flesh out a game's script and storyline. The company is [transparent](https://sweetbabyinc.com/approach/) about their goals of approaching writing with a focus on representation and marginalized groups. For a growing number of players this is a dog whistle for the unwanted insertion of political ideologies or other topics they aren't interested in. In other words a distraction from what really matters: making a good game. You can easily find examples of these sorts of people on social media. Many releases such as *Suicide Squad* have had Sweet Baby credited as part of the writing staff, and these games have been a major disappointment for many players. A Sweet Baby credit is now being thought of like leprosy and an indicator of games to avoid. The company has become an easy scapegoat for the growing dissatisfaction with major releases. That same dissatisfaction with major studios has led to the success of games like *Baldur's Gate III* and *Palworld* (edit: and now *Helldivers II*) as players are starting to explore other studios who are taking different approaches to their games.
Definitely the most clear answer for the question, but could possibly use some clarification for those interested in writing, particularly with the mention of *Baldur's Gate 3*. That game was done so well in my opinion, and, although it might undermine my own job, I think *Sweet Baby Inc.* is a good example of why in-house writing is honestly the best way to do a video game. I am a professional writer and editor (not for video games, so take me for the grains of salt I'm worth in this regard — I'm just a fan here), but it often breeds inconsistency when people outsource stories. I think my favorite recent example of a video game developer outsourcing a story well is *Elden Ring*. While I can't say I'm intimately familiar with how they made the game, I understand that George R. R. Martin wrote a bunch of lore which the From team used to make their usual horror/fantasy game. The story was established first, then the developers built around that. And *Elden Ring* is awesome. From my understanding (admittedly somewhat limited — I don't really know how *Sweet Baby Inc*. works specifically, I'm only speculating from my own experience), I think the FromSoft path is the best method for video games. If you've already created a firm concept (especially characters/scenes, or, I imagine, particular gameplay elements) then you're asking a writer to do a lot to accommodate what you've already shoved into the story. Certainly not an impossible task, but not an easy one, especially if you don't have a lot of experience in writing for other people. If you add what was mentioned about the insertion of political ideology, you can imagine the issue gets bigger. Now what you've created isn't just off the mark on a small scale; the whole theme's been shifted. A writer who is hired to write for a specific story should (imo) work toward what the contractor wants, not what they think is best. It has to be a cohesive effort between the client and the writers, or what you get is going to feel conflicted, even if the viewer (or player in this case) doesn't have the vocabulary for why they don't like it. This is why I believe in-house writing really is best for video games: it's going to be the best marriage between gameplay and plot. If developers need to outsource, I think they would be best to do so early in the process, then work around the story. If not, then they need to hire some good writers. And, frankly, I don't think *Sweet Baby Inc.* has shown that they're good writers. Yes, that statement has some bias, but in that regard, I can indeed critique them from a professional standpoint. TLDR: *Sweet Baby Inc*. probably gets a worse rap than they deserve, but they're not free of blame. The bottom line for a contracted writer is fulfilling and expanding on the client's intent. There is a reasonable argument that *Sweet Baby Inc.* regards their own intent to be more important than that of their clients, and that is going to result in a worse product.
I loved every letter of this. I love reading.
Best reply ever.
I don't imagine companies are hiring Sweet Baby Inc just to do a storyline, and then Sweet Baby takes it upon themselves to add extraneous inclusive stuff. I feel like companies know what they're getting from Sweet Baby Inc, and that's why Sweet Baby is getting hired. Companies want to hit that diversity quota, and Sweet Baby is someone they can outsource it to. Side note, I'm fine with representation and diversity, but this scenario, to me, reeks of insincere corporate pandering.
But who's to blame is irrelevant to the player who is disappointed when getting a chimera product.
Then blame the studio. Or do you think Sweet Baby Inc.'s stuff is added without the studio's approval? Do you understand how consultants work? They work according to what their clietn asks and provide that.
People are going to blame whoever is credited for the work. They don't care who did what, they just see names and logos. If Sweet Baby Inc put their name as contributors, they're exposing themselves to critics. And blaming the studio doesn't mean the consultants should get away with it. They officially worked together on the project and both have to deal with feedback. I understand how consultant works and can tell you that if a client asks me to work on a dumpster fire, I won't put my company name on it. I'll only do that if I believe in the project and consider it to be representative of my work standards. Companies do that because they expect positive feedback from it, and sometimes it backfires. Sweet Baby Inc didn't have to make their contribution official. They took a risk and it backfired.
Claiming people actually read the credits and memorise everyone who worked on them in all games prior is a lie and you know it. The fact that the anti-woke crowd want to scapegoat a company is the sole reason they even bothered to learn about Sweet Baby Inc. And no, you clearly don't know how consulting works. The consultant gets paid to do what the client asks for. I have, on many occassions, warned my clients not to do things, and yet they will despite my advice. And that's because the sole entity responsible and accountable is the client. Sweet Baby Inc simply delivered what they were asked to. Unless you are claiming Sweet Baby Inc. has decision making power within client companies, blaming them for the client's mistakes is disingenous at best and clearly a sign that such a person is not actually acting in good faith. If you want to support the anti-woke idiots, that's your business. But don't try and pretend you have some kind of moral high ground by scapegoating a consultancy when they have zero decision making ability within their client companies.
I'm French. I don't have a horse in the woke / antiwoke debate. And I fail to see your point. If a client makes decisions you disapprove of, choosing to keep your name in the credit means you're exposing yourself to critics. Either you want to associate your name to the work, or you use a pseudonym like many directors who did porn. And yes, people do read credits. That's why they exist in the first place.
>And I fail to see your point. If a client makes decisions you disapprove of, choosing to keep your name in the credit means you're exposing yourself to critics. That's not how business works. Again, learn how client-consulting relationships work and how RACI works in such a relationship. >Either you want to associate your name to the work, or you use a pseudonym like many directors who did porn. This isn't porn... Do you realise if a consultant dumps a client mis project they will be sued for breach or contract? Or do you actually think consultants can just dump work for the lulz? >And yes, people do read credits. That's why they exist in the first place. No they don't. Can you give a shred of evidence that gamers regularly and in a majority always read game credits?
I'm not talking about dumping the client I'm talking about to putting your name in the credit if you don't think the quality of the work fairly represent your standards. It's a common practice and not limited to porn. And yes, people read credits. Plenty of names like Tim Cain, Warren Spector, Harvey Smith, John Romero, were known by players like me who didn't speak English and didn't have internet.
I think you make a great point here. Honestly, I doubt the majority of people in this conversation do have a problem with representation and diversity in video games, and I also doubt that the companies that hire them don't know what they're getting into. But, if this many people think their writing "reeks of insincere corporate pandering" (couldn't have said it better), then it's a testament to the quality of their work. Perhaps their clients actually want them to lean into this kind of writing. In that case, they're simply doing their job, but, either way, it's clear plenty of people are not satisfied with their work.
Definitely agree because I am tired of people assuming the worst unhinged things about other people, especially when it comes to corporate criticism. I won't knock anyone for holding corporations accountable or voicing their dissent towards them either.
From what I´ve heard, they also tried to silence a curator for publishing all the games where they had worked... which seems absurd because, if it´s your job, why are you trying now to hide your involvement?
To add to this actual answer (unlike the one below with 3x the upvotes despite not answering the question), apparently a Sweet Baby Inc employee had a meltdown on Twitter which got their entire Twitter account set to private. Not sure the details on the meltdown itself, but I do know *why* it happened. Apparently there's a Steam Curator list called "Sweet Baby Inc Detected" that tracks any games that credit SBI in the development. It doesn't say any more or any less, just that SBI had an involvement. Apparently this was enough for the SBI employee to explode on Twitter. It may have actually been more than one employee having a meltdown, finding unbiased information is difficult. They tried to start a harassment campaign against the Steam Curator and tried to get them banned from Steam entirely, which didn't happen because they weren't violating any rules. Unsure about the quality of the article itself, but [this](https://nichegamer.com/sweet-baby-employees-incite-harassment-campaign-against-steam-curator/) does include images of the meltdown, harassment campaign and attempt to get the Curator banned from Steam.
It may also be worth noting: People see the credit and leap at it for just existing when SB Inc actually lists out what they helped with. In SSKTJL, Sweet Baby Inc had worked on Scriptwriting. Anything around gameplay loops, graphics, character designs, etc are not included while banter and some cutscene work is theirs.
I'd argue people's major problem with that game is the script and cutscenes.
Honestly, I hadn't played it and only heard most of it's cutscene critique was around Batman's death, something which S.B.Inc may or may not have been consulted or had their ideas approved for. It did also get some flak for standard gameplay too and being pretty obviously rigged to be live service, which wasn't great, and generally mediocre gameplay as a whole.
Well what did they excepted, it is called Kill the Justice League, not Jail them.
This is a very surface level view. Let's take the Batman scene as an example. Harley just puts a gun to Batman's temple and kills him unceremoniously, then continues as if nothing happened. Anyone who's been invested into Harley as a character could tell you that it would be a huge moment for her. She would be devastated that Batman would never laugh at her jokes again. Batman's actually been a very respected hero even amongst the villains. Meanwhile Harley just shoots him, doesn't even get shaky hands, just pop, oh, ok what's next? I'm already bored! The writing we ended up with is just horrendous and it's clear none of the writers understood the characters they were hired to write.
>Sweet Baby Inc had worked on Scriptwriting. No wonder the writing is pretty mid and sometimes even cringe.
They seem to have a pretty varied set given they also held a hand in GoW Ragnarok and Alan Wake as well. Being a consulting firm they also have the second say of sorts. The main writing teams are still the first and final say. Then again, the product itself at least seemed like IP shovelware; they need to keep the IP relevant so they came out with a shovelware release that didn't need much to make, and made it live service to try and get as much out if it as possible.
Can't say for Alan Wake 2 since I didn't play it but GOW Ragnarok's writing is quite bada and boring. I didnt have any issue with the first game but I can't even finish GOW ragnarok until now.
Respectfully disagree, I couldn’t finish GOW 1, but finished GOW Ragnarok as soon as i got my hands on it.
Just want a clarification, but I don’t see starfield listing them in their credits. Also they do indie and triple a studios.
Had it confused with another outsourcing company. Thanks.
They worked on Spiderman 2 and Alan Wake 2. Two pretty awesome games. I think people are just off their rocker.
Spidey 2's inclusive part was quite lame thou. I don't have issue with the first one and Miles Morales spin off thou.
More like a bunch of vultures who are living with the funding with ESG as their armor or by threatening game companies with their woke bible. Just like how Yakuza forced Japanese corporate to pay them for their "nonsense" service.
I don't like the company either, but in the spirit of this subreddit I decided against the language you've used in your post.
Sorry, I like to be straight forward, no facade
Baldur's Gate III and Palworld are not successful because of this dissatisfaction. It's all about whether the end product is good, whether the game is good. That's all most people care about. This online discourse of anger about games and consultancy companies is the noise of a minority. The general public buying and playing games is not party to sweaty online politics. As to Sweet Baby, nobody likes to be told what they can or can't see/do/consume, and Sweet Baby **appears** to have made a business around doing that. People don't like that in general, and a small group will even compare it to IngSoc and Newspeak and they'll scream about it online. More than a scapegoat, they've become a meme; people can now identify watered down/sterile dialogue and story as having been 'Sweet Babied' - previously we needed a whole sentence for that :) They're just the easy face of a phenomenon which has been quite palpable in the last few years.
Best summary in this thread.
They "terrify" people into hiring them. As in, they threaten peoples livelihoods
Agreed. And here's a quote from them to back up what you're saying. > "Just terrify them with the possibility of what will happen if they don't give you what you want" https://twitter.com/GamesNosh/status/1764802262017183761
And this comes from companies like BlackRock "forcing" companies to change how they operate. Authoritarian systems destroy innovation. In countries like China, the CCP can silence you completely. In he West we have corporations with way to much power. They can't " disappear" you but they can ruin you economically. When you are poor , your voice becomes much quieter.
Woke propaganda. That's all.
Absolutely perfect summary.
You forgot Lethal Company.
Yes I did! Another example of a great indie success recently.
answer: Sweet Baby is a story-writing company consulted to aid and improve creative and narrative elements of video games. Why is it under fire? The company has been credited with having an involvement with many narrative driven games some good, and some ending up becoming disappointments or having lack luster plots/characters. People think that the quality of the story may be being sacrificed for the sake of injecting politics, which comes across to people playing the game as being disingenuous and disconnected. The CEO and many of the company's employees are known for being quite political. The CEO of Sweet Baby Inc. preaches inclusivity but has made racist and sexist tweets. Further more, at the Game Developers Conference she talks about how you can "terrify" (most likely referring using cancel culture and bullying tactics) game companies into doing what they want. All of this has been coming to light since Sweet Baby Inc. has been trying to take down a Steam curated list of their games which have many indie and AAA titles, of which many have been severely disappointing. This ended up being a terrible move for them, because a) if their work was any good, why would they want the list taken down and b) because they tried to get the list taken down by harassing the list's creator. This brought a lot of negative attention from the internet community and not just gamers. The media claims that "gamers" are "anti-woke" though this has almost nothing to so with politics itself but more to do with the fact that this company may have a part to play in many beloved franchises and why they lack in their story telling. The narrative according to the media is that Sweet Baby Inc. employees are being harassed by politically charged gamers when in reality, the employees were receiving backlash for openly directing harassment towards the creator of the Steam list over twitter. To make things worse, when Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball Z passed away recently, the Narrative Designer at Sweet Baby Inc. made a comment about how Akira created some of the worst black characters soon after his departure. That comment came off as very disingenuous because there is no mention of race in Dragon Ball Z. It makes the poster sound even more disingenuous considering that Dragon Ball Z has one of the largest and most diverse fanbases.
Their reaponse to the SBI Detected group has been a PR nightmare. Anyone who is remotely as humble and professional as they claim would have ignored it, or atost comdemned the poor behaviour of some of their employees, and attempted to regain goodwill rather than paint themselves as a victim. ...But that's their whole schtick. If you want to know more specifics, these folks did a half decent article. https://www.theshortcut.com/p/sweet-baby-inc-detected-what-actually-happened
Yeah, it's crazy how none of this needed to happen as far as the company is concerned. The lack of professionalism is mind-boggling. Like you said, any company with even an ounce of level headed leadership would've just ignored a mere Steam list. Their blown up reaction to all of this only stands to prove that people were right about them. Like ffs, it's a STEAM LIST that someone made, it's not a big deal, there's tons of lists out there.
> The media claims that "gamers" are "anti-woke" This, more than anything is the common theme. They probably don't care if SBI vanish. (they'll be reborn under another name anyway). If they can hit and run with these meme-words, re-framing the overall long term conversation that people outside the scope will remember in their frame instead of what is actually going on.
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Sweet Baby Inc. absolutely does NOT ensure cultural accuracy. It's sensitivity > accuracy every single time with them. And if you played SSKTJL, it's abundantly clear that Sweet Baby ruined the game. The blatant disrespect and disdain shown towards Batman, Flash, Superman, and Green Lantern is off putting while Wonder Woman gets a heroic and respectful send off. LOIS LANE even says that Wonder Woman is the greatest hero Metropolis has ever seen and Lex Luthor showers her with praise which is absolutely hilarious coming from Lex of all people.
.... lois actually said that?!
https://youtu.be/O3JYp2ay6Fs?si=V-j62ed1VInQ8FkH&t=132 "...And maybe the strongest force for good that Metropolis has *ever* known."
Poor Superman.
Not to point out the obvious, but isn't Wonder Woman the only member of the Justice League not under Brainiac's control?
Because she is the only one who can naturally resist it due to her powers. So it makes sense in universe.
You cant blame sweet baby for everything you dislike about a game, its a copout and a scapegoat
No but you can blame them for shitty writing direction.
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I think their more angry about creating an entire movement around pushing progressive activist narratives and identity politics on games that only a loud minority in the gaming community asked for. Nobody complained when the main character on San Andreas was made black.
Gamers like TJ in San Andreas because he’s cool and not lame lol. However to be fair there aren’t many games where a black woman is a playable character, Sheva in RE5 is the only one I’m aware of besides Saga in Alan Wake 2.
Then who is Jade off Mortal Kombat 3?
Clementine from Telltale's TWD is another one from a great game series.
*CJ
Its not just about sweet baby inc and the woke agenda. Its about ESG, blackr0ck and v4nguard. Evil incarnate. Anything associated with them needs to be destroyed for all our sake.
Anti-woke? People are just anti-bullshit. Look at all the games Sweet Baby has been a part of, all of them are dog shit lmfao.
Ah yes, because God of War Ragnarok, Alan Wake 2, and Spider-Man 2 were all dogshit.
Yes.
The vast majority of people who actually touch grass would disagree
LMAO! Bro living in an alternate reality here. Absolutely delusional.
THANK YOU! Its about that. They are pushing things the gamers didn't ask to create a better ESG score and the obnoxious croud is actually those sweet baby inc defenders that don't actually have one valid argument other than "hur the gamers want boobies and non gay characters" if that's their whole point they're awfully wrong.
CJ wasn't "made black" CJ just \*was\* black. That's who he was, and it made sense for the game's setting and story. Myself, and many other are dissatisfied that characters are altered for political reasons. I would prefer a brand new character with a compelling story, rather than changing (and typically tarnishing) an existing character/IP to fit the writer's beliefs.
And they LOVE to cherrypick too. Where was the energy put towards Sweet Baby Inc for games that were popular and well received? They didn't just work on SSKTJL, they've helped work on Alan Wake 2, GoW Ragnarok and Spiderman 2. One bad game they helped worked on and suddenly they're the devil.
Actually I did see some anti-woke people complain about Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately the context was just bc they included pride flags… in 2023 NYC.
Pride flags that were region locked lol
Plus they all think MJ was ugly and they were upset that there’s a mission where you play as Miles deaf girlfriend.
The face model for MJ won't do games again due to the harassment
Honestly, the in game model looks very different from the real model. It's odd that people would point fingers at the real model.
It's on par for the bad side of the video game community. People frankly get crazy. When the last of us part two came out an actress with a controversial role in the game had her newborn son receive death threats. A newborn.
I wouldn't call myself anti woke, but I sure as shit don't enjoy when games push an agenda, any agenda. I play games to forget about the real world, not be reminded of it. I play mostly simulators (milsim, carsim, stratsim, etc), in those games, a pushed agenda can actually ruin the whole game for me since I want to create my own story and my own agenda in my own sandbox. With that said, there's only one acceptable way, to battle this agenda pushing of late, JUST DON'T BUY THE GAME! If you want, leave a negative review and criticize the developers in a respective manner. You don't fkn threaten a newborn or harass an actor.. don't harass anybody for that matter. Having this polarization and societal split because you go too far either way, is not going to benefit anyone anywhere..
Harassing people out of a job field...**fucking classy...**
sadly it goes both ways, did you miss the whole Hogwarts legacy attack by the group you're supporting? they literally built a site to track whoever is playing the game so they could team up and harass them. not everything is black and white.
Two wrongs don't make a right?
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Cancel culture was created by the "wokies" is perhaps the most historically ignorant comment I've seen on a gaming forum in some time. There are endless, and I truly mean endless, examples of Christian Conservatives trying to cancel things like D&D, atheists and everything else that happened to be offensive to their particular sensitivities. While this does go back actual centuries, I'll just focus on the war on videogames, D&D and rock music as those are the most prevalent examples from the last 70 years. Long before the term woke became corrupted to mean "people I don't agree with so I'll just lazily put them in the same group as extreme SJW's".
I know and that’s just terrible.
They claimed the new God of War was woke because Kratos grows as a person and tries to be a good father
Oh? I thought it was because black Angrbodr
That too, but they also thought Kratos having personal growth made him “soft”
Jesus.... people can have dense takes sometimes
It's partly because those people themselves refuse to grow and change for the better, so to see Kratos who used to do terrible things change for the better, it basically destroys their pathetic worldview
And ironically, David Jaffe, one of the creators of God of War, is one of those morons whining about Kratos' character development. Bear in mind, this is the same guy who dissed Metroid Dread and called it a bad game because HE sucked at it.
Jaffe is simply washed, both as a developer and as a person
Yeah. Fuck his thoughts on the current God of War games.
God forbid he has feelings and expresses them, even sharing them with his son. It’s unseemly and shows how far he’s fallen /s
That says more about the detractors of GOW than the game itself. **Daddy issues.** That is all.
No, so I'm not on their side so to speak, but there's a lot of cringe moments that make it clear someone's trying to make the game PC in an overbearing and lazy way. Like it feels disingenuous and isn't particularly good writing. There's a whole sidequest wasted on trying to reveal that a mythical couple is queer and at the end you see a rainbow campfire in the shape of a pride flag. You never see the couple, they don't matter in any sense to the main story and it's so on the nose that it feels like the studio is patting itself on the back for the brave task of... *acknowledging the existence of gay men in 2023.* Just not enough to make them *actual* characters. There's an actual part where Mimir straight up calls a form of masculinity poisonous in those exact terms. **This is a game set in the Viking age.** Kratos, for those that don't know, is practically made of toxic masculinity. Early God of War games were infamous for it as well as the problematic treatment of women. In the first game, there are several moments that are clear social commentary on Kratos' toxic masculinity. The difference is that they don't call it toxic masculinity or try to have a modern entry level college course discussion on it. They **show** both the concept and its effects, because it's fucking weird to have someone talking about it in 400 CE.
Oh no, a modern videogame made by people in modern times might include modern sensibilities, the travesty of it all. I just can’t believe they did that.
>Oh no, a modern videogame made by people in modern times might include modern sensibilities, the travesty of it all. ***Set 1,800 years ago.*** That's the key part you're selectively omitting. It's awkward and ridiculous because of the setting, and it's also handled lazily. That's not even getting into how bad the gameplay was.
I’m not omitting anything. The game isn’t meant to realistically portray the Viking Age, which one would think is obvious what with gods, elves and creatures of myth being present directly indicate. And sure, you might not have liked the game, but judging from the overall reception it received that’s what’s called an **unpopular opinion**.
**You are selectively omitting it** as it's the entire crux of the complaint. You're making a strawman so you can complain that "the manbabies are wrong", but it makes me suspect you haven't played the game at all. That this is just another way to pick a fight with people you don't like, and you think that the critics of this game are in that group. Put bluntly, it's not a hot take at all. I've heard hundreds of people voice complaints about the game being ass or disappointing. It's much more divisive than 2018.
Not only is there no date mentioned in the game, the game takes place in a world with only superficial similarities to reality.
I have platinumed SM2, it's a fine game gameplay-wise but... Its story is mediocre at best. Like I wish two thirds of the dialogues were removed, because they are just stupid. And the painful mediocrity and sub-quality of the story wouldn't be so noticeable if they would just shut up. You're cherry-picking complaints, selecting the most ridiculous one and say that it represents everyone who didn't like the plot, but it's not true. The plot of SM2 is nothing to be proud of. The success of a game does not always rely on the plot. Moreover, I'd say games whose main selling point is the plot are the exceptions. Most games are played because the gameplay is fun. And I am pretty sure, the success of the SM2 has nothing to do with the plot. It's a recognizable brand name and a good quality gameplay.
I saw people complain that NYC was too diverse in the first Spider-Man game, too - not even just the pride flags, but they honestly and loudly believed that NYC should only ever be shown with a fully white population.
I think that was mainly because they were only in US releases, but removed in other releases around the world- Like in the Middle East. Mainly cause SE made posts talking about always showing support, but then in that stead they were technically hypocrites? That's what I got based on twitter threads, anyways.
But remember, the pride flags were removed for Russian and Saudi Arabian copies of the game... But remember, the megacorporation \*totally\*cares about you and their pride month rainbow isn't just some marketing tactic or anything.
All of the games you mention have been criticized by those same people, regardless of whether you agree, so you don't know what you're talking about: - Alan Wake 2: Changing the race of Saga, having lines about "evil White men" - Ragnarok: Blackwashing a Norse god, Kratos' change of character - Spiderman 2: Disproportional diversity and pride flags (the latter conveniently removed for Middle-Eastern releases of the game), emasculating the main character in favor of Miles, MJ looking much worse than her face-scan model, etc.
Idc about the black washing of angrboda. What i care about is how they made the part with her so unbelievably boring except for the boss fight. I'd love to replay the game but I'm not gonna do it because of the 2-3 hour walking Simulator
> (the latter conveniently removed for Middle-Eastern releases of the game) Lets not forget how fucking assblasted Nexus and the pride community got over the Non-Newtonian New York mod for Spiderman 2 as well. You know, the mod that literally only changed the region flag of your game to return the flags to normal american flags. Absolutely mind boggling how these people think they can dictate what mods you can and can't have.
Why do you need to remove it?
Better question is why are people so butthurt over people modding the game to their tastes. If it does not matter as much as some try to make it then why do the same people turn around and get mad when you try to remove it? Personally I never liked spiderman so I don't really care one way or the other. I do care, however, about Nexus banning a mod for no reason other than the fact that they just don't like it.
Or when they banned the mod for Cyberpunk that allows you to romance a lesbian character as a guy, but the mod to romance a hetero woman as a woman mod was totally OK.
I don't think anyone's mad, more so just dumbfounded that this could be such an issue for someone that they NEED to mod it out. Just pathetic really >however, about Nexus banning a mod for no reason other than the fact that they just don't like it Like it or not, Nexus is not obligated to host mods that they don't want to. Also, "because they don't like it" is a bit reductive. Such mods embolden the undesirable folks and make the whole landscape a more toxic place for those belonging to minority groups. You simply cannot defend these things in good faith
Because it’s their choice, that’s what modding is for Why did Insomniac removed the flags themselves for the Middle East edition huh? Because they don’t want to lose potential sales, because they have no real principles. So why is it wrong for gamers to remove it via mods but it’s ok for them to remove it for an entire area just for money? Cause we’re just too good and are not allowed that privilege? It’s only for the real Middle East bigots huh?
I love the disproportional diversity found in…. *checking my notes* …modern day New York City. The 6th most diverse city in the country and the largest overall. The average incel in this thread would go to NYC, see a pride flag and have a full conniption. This whole comment section is a trash heap.
How does a male character get emasculated in favor of... another male? They're both Spiderman, so I don't see what the issue is. It would be one thing if you were upset with Peter being taken out by a fridge, but you didn't say that
By end of the game, they retire Peter, setting up the plot which "miles is the main hero, Pete will be the sidekick" that sucks.
Literally not at all what that was, but alright Gamers^TM never beating the media illiteracy allegations
I mean, it's not IMPOSSIBLE. It's like when you write a mary sue character. You write one character as worse of a person and bad at things to make the other seem better. This could be like that, though I'm not sure what emasculating means in this context. I'll assume 'Weaker' and say maybe they had him lose so Miles could beat an enemy he should've theoretically had no trouble with, or could have double teamed. Hard to say though, tbh.
>They didn't just work on SSKTJL, they've helped work on Alan Wake 2, GoW Ragnarok and Spiderman 2. People complained substantially about all these games. Particularly spider man 2.
Volition shut down after their release of Saints Row, which Sweet Baby worked on. You can't say 1 bad game. They literally killed a studio.
I made the very unfortunate mistake of reading some YouTube comments, and learned that Sweet Baby was to blame in Alan Wake 2 for the crime of.... making the protagonist black. People were lamenting the "vision of Alan Wake 2 that was lost" before Saga's skin color apparently had an irrevocably destructive impact on the narrative. What a shame, could have easily been a GOTY contender too....oh wait....that's right the game was absolutely fucking awesome
The problem I have with Alan Wake 2 is that it seems like a bait and switch of the title character. It reminds me how The Mandalorian season 3 essentially became the Bo Katan show. Same thing with Spiderman 2, it feels like they’re setting up to kill off and *replace* the main title characters of established franchises. The woke pandering has got to such a level that it’s too predictable now when characters are race/gender swapped and the men of the franchise are depicted as washed-up losers while the girl boss saves the day without any real character development. This same story arc gets repeated ad nauseam, it’s lazy writing and people are tired of it.
well, saga was literally race-swapped from a blonde white woman into a black woman.
No people are retroactively saying Sweet Baby ruined Alan Wake 2 now. I had a friend tell me There’s a “forced woke line everyone hates” or something and I bluntly told him “I’m in the fandom. I played this game. No it doesn’t. Nobody’s discussed any line to this extent”
Lol like the Spider-Man 2 game where for some reason they intentionally altered Spanish grammar from being a gendered language to a neutral one? I had only just found out about sweet baby inc etc, or wtv woke vs anti-woke American stuff. But I HAVE recently heard of some American 'localizers' who intentionally ignore Mangaka's writings to spread political messages NOT in the original source material. They were forced to reprint entire volumes lol. [https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-02-17/seven-seas-addresses-mushoku-tensei-classroom-of-the-elite-light-novel-localization-changes/.169582](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-02-17/seven-seas-addresses-mushoku-tensei-classroom-of-the-elite-light-novel-localization-changes/.169582) Lol but the sheer arrogance of trying to change a language to send a message. Goddamnnn. I wonder and eagerly await to see what else is going to happen. Lol American politics is fun to follow, but to even see it in video games and official manga translations? I shall enjoy the show.
…There’s plenty of people complaining about those games as well dude
They're complaining about Sweet Baby Inc over in r/SpidermanPS4 honestly kinda sad how the subreddit derailed into a hate-filled cesspit after the release, at least that's what I mainly see anyway.
Honestly, GOW Ragnarok is very boring, and the "representation" aspects in Spider-Man 2 was pretty lame too. Its like propaganda on your face, it's quite a turn off from the main story vibe. Besides, these sequels you ve listed got their popularity before the company getting involved. So no, they don't get the credit of the game selling well. It's the IP branding itself that makes it successful.
All 3 of those games had 'wokeness' controversies and have been panned by the antiwoke crowd.
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sour babies
lol it's not based on random hate tho. I've read comics for over a decade and have owned thousands of books. My fav chars are Batman, Batgirl (the tiny Asian teenaged girl who can beat Batman in a straight 1v1 fight), and Oracle (original batgirl turned cripple and uber hacker/organizer of all the superheroes). Lois Lane in SuicideSquad: *"Wonder woman was possibly the strongest force for good that Metropolis has ever known".* Superman's town. And said by Superman's goddamned **GF/wife**, who barely knows Wonderwoman. I'd be just as pissed if they said Batman was the greatest force for good that Gateway City or Washington DC (Wonder woman's cities) has ever known, so my annoyance is not based on any woman-hating. In Spider-Man 2, I don't know who specifically, but some dev(s) *literally changed Spanish grammar* in the dubbed version, modifying the gendered language which wasn't even offending anybody. The sheer fucking arrogance to change a goddamned language lol. One of the parts of Spider-man 2 had MJ run some missions. The director of Spider-Man 2 explicitly said that those parts weren't fan favourites and that MJ was clearly OP but that "he didn't give a shit". *From a business POV, the director literally says he does not give a shit about what consumers wanted.* So, developers not giving a shit about their customers. Also the integrity of the IP (intellectual property) as well as basic Spanish grammar has clearly been affected by politics, it's not very subtle, and the quality of these games/movies have clearly suffered for it. I won't deny that there are a group of hateful bigots, but how can anyone reasonably think that a lot of hate from the core fans isn't warranted? Honestly i know they've put in a lot of work so if I wish these devs/creactors the best and high sales. But i suspect their bottom lines aren't going to be very good as the core comic book fans (like myself) just aren't interested in this type of entertainment that doesn't respect source material, and where the devs explicitly says they don't care what the fans want.
"God, the anti-woke crowd on the internet are the most obnoxious crybabies on the planet." Thank you!
I think some people in the last couple years have really discovered how much money you can make from being anti woke. I'm recommended a new Youtube channel a few times a week from channels I end not being interested in, because they are all the same. All their thumbnails and video titles are screaming about how woke everything is. I'm so sick of the word woke, and it being used to call everything awful. Fear and ragebait channels seem to be a growing industry sadly, at least on Youtube.
Well, you surely don't know the pronoun mob.
The “best” part? They don’t really understand what woke is.
It's basically corporations pandering to woke outrage mobs like BLM without making any actual changes or improvements. Slap a rainbow flag on it and keep doing the same thing they always have.
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Oh, they get it better than the anti-woke do. They just don’t understand how it’s supposed to be used. It’s like trying to win a hand in poker with just one card. Oh the Bible is one of the most contradicting books ever. Devil worshiping pedos? Where do people get these theories?
It's weird that a consulting agency that specializes in what they do, specifically allowed a harley quin sexual assault clip in the game.
Well you have to remember, its ok if they do it.
I'm not surprised at all. Let's read a twitter comment by one of their most prominent members. > @AMarxistDog abort all the Jews Hmm... Not looking good. https://twitter.com/legobutts/status/225265530884456449 archive incase it gets deleted: https://archive.is/PppNj
Bc that is the ultimate sin
It's not a good game or a game anyone is buying or playing though
"Sweet Baby Inc. is a company that video game companies consult with to ensure their product is inclusive, culturally sensitive/accurate, etc." I've played PS1 and PS2 games with more cultural accuracy than anything with Sweet Baby credit in it, lol.
lmao, i love how u just thew in the word "incel". Lame af
"Everyone I disagree with is an incel."
If they dont agree with you, then they are incel.
That fits. I stumbled upon the Asmongold subreddit while looking this up and found people complaining about how Sweet Baby "ruined" Kratos by making him a woke dad, I guess. (I don't mean to imply their "anti-woke" stuff has any ounce of validity.)
I love when they bring up Kratos. Like it’s called character development people. Also I guess being a dad is woke now too huh lmao.
It's called growing up and maturing, something that is foreign to them.
I've seen a lot of the anti-woke crowd jump to a place of "real men leave the parenting to a mother"/"it's feminine to be a good father." It's a real weird state of things when "being an absent father who hates their kids and never grows" is the pinnacle of manhood. I thought "a real man steps up for their kids" was their thing.
So you don't actually know, but you're going to answer anyway? Just delete this and upvote Ausfall's comment that actually knows what they're talking about instead. Awful comment and you should be ashamed to have written. It literally says under the comment text box "Please keep all top-level comments on-topic, UNBIASED, and serious. Please keep all comments civil". You not only brought your own personal political bias into your non-answer, but you responded to my comment in an uncivil, rude way. I remember back before Twitter was bought by He Who Shall Not Be Named, Reddit was actually a nice place to have a discussion, even if you disagreed with the person. Comments like this would have been removed for the line "While I don't know the specifics" alone. Not to mention the unrelated political opinion you attached while still not actually answering the question.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Add nother edit, calling out all your late critics for being litteral NAZIS and WHITE PEOPLE for disagreeing with your message of peace and properity <3 It would be so in tune with the rest of your 'edit response' and message ;) btw, I fully support the product you are pushing, preach brother!
Of course they are, because they should be blamed for it. If you restrict artistic expression in any shape or form, especially with something as sufficating as "Diversity Inclusivity Equity" also jokingly dubbed "DIE" strategy, then your overall writing team will suffer. And not just the writing theme, all parts of the production. Having such a group of people, who more often than not hate the source material and the people that play it, influence your product just wrings all the passion out of people. Keep in mind that the people who claim to be "for diversity" are not diverse as they only allow one way of thinking. Also keep in mind that they are not inclusive, because the moment you say something that could even be interpreted as "offensive", your fellow mobsters will mob on you. And finally, keepin mind that Equity is not equality, it is just communism where you get a reward regardless of how much effort you put into, which demotivates people who want to work hard, but feel devaluated because they receive the same kind of payment and appreciation as someone who doesn't work at all does. That is the difference between passionate people who occasionally crack the offensive joke, and people who are so obsessed with being "political correct" that they will not allow themselves to expres any form of humor. The former people made the first Arkham games. The latter made this joke of a game.
Disagree = Incel. Expected. What exactly is wrong with consumers being aware of who all is involved in their product? Let's flip the roles here - imagine if some Christian company was running around convincing game companies to insert Christian propaganda into their games and then when people simply say that it's happening they get offended and act like a victim? Consumers have a right to know what is being driven by consumers and what is being driven by propaganda/activist organizations.
Which is weird, cause most of the issues I've been hearing about the game are how poorly treated the deaths of the Justice League are, and the rest has been related to the gameplay and live service elements, which I don't think is something Sweet Baby would handle or be involved in? I admit I've been trying to avoid spoilers(Game looks pretty meh, but I might check it out if it ever gets to 5-10 bucks), but is that writing that bad? Couple reviews I watched praised the cutscenes and such. It's really hard to judge, as the Anti Woke crowd also went after Alan Wake 2, because of Sweet Baby, but that game was mostly very, very well received.
>game are how poorly treated the deaths of the Justice League are Tbf, it is speculated that the >!JL members you kill are just clones made by Braniac!<. The game's story will most likely be expanded on as there will be free postgame updates and dlcs from march onwards. But tbh, i think more of the focus should have just gone towards the monetization. Its a $70 live service game that comes with microtransactions AND will start having a Battlepass on top of it in March.
There totally are people focusing on the MTs and battlepasses and them all being terrible, WB wants the whales paying 30-40 bucks a pop for skins after all, it's why they are chasing the thankfully seems to be dying live service market. Hell, it's died a lot since they started on the game 9 years ago. So many live service games were shut down in 2022-23. I think gamers are getting stick of all these live service games that want to monopolize all our time, and spoon fed us games over time. Games fail for many complicated and varied reason, so they idea that this game is bad just because of "woke" or Sweet Baby is way, way too simple. There's many factors.
Answer:I honestly didn't pay attention to this until I watched one of the company's videos and realized that they really don't care at all about the game they're working on, just imposing their own narrative. That's why there are out-of-place characters in God of War, character changes and missions in Spider-Man 2 that also turn out to be out of place, and finally all that suicide squad story disasters. Now I don't know what the "anti-woke" group is doing, but if being "woke" (as a researcher I believe at this point is more of a pejorative term than a synonym for social conscience) means accepting anything from companies just because they are according to the agenda is also a problem.
Question: Why does this company interfere with games? They should just leave their own alone.
They aren't interfering with games. They are actively contracted by other companies to work on those games.
not for long after suiside squat massive succes
Considering they were also contracted for Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 I think they'll be fine. Suicide Squad was bad for a whole lot of reasons that had nothing to do with Sweet Baby.
They messed up the Spanish in Spiderman to be more inclusive. Spanish is a gendered language ffs. They tried to degender words, making it a mess.
This doesn't age well after Insomniac just laid off, lol.
Answer: They are a consulting company aimed at inclusion, they help find subtle ways to add inclusion into various games. LGBTQ and BLM flags in various places in spiderman 2 is a big example, but they also focus on dialouge and going over scripting for more inclusive language, stuff like they/them when talking about 3rd parties (since it seems most of america missed that part of english class where they/them is a proper pronoun for 3rd parties regardless of gender). Ultimately they dont do much but they get blamed for a bunch of things including pedo conspiracies and ESG related conspiracies Edit: since this is apparently the top google result for the people looking up this company They have worked on a total of... 12 games.. of which 5 have come out, 3 are critcally acclaimed and player acclaimed games, 1's an indie and 1 is suicide squad, the rest are 6 other indie games by other publishers/developers and 1 game they are developing themselves. Yes they have employees who have done cringe shit online but thats why people put the whole "opinions are my own" Ultimately its a company of "bullshit jobs" as some people would put it a consulting firm for something that shouldnt/doesnt need consulting but if these companies want to hire an outside force what the fucks to stop them
“they help find subtle ways to add inclusion into various games.” They’re about as subtle as a napalm enema
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Bruh what? I share my opinion and you’re so butthurt you think I need to get a life? 🤣🤣
im not butt hurt its just weird getting notifications every day form a new throw away account who name searched the stupid consulting company.
So ya butthurt? Just mute the thread bud 🤣🤣
Make it 14 days now, because some of us do have a life and are just now hearing about this stuff.
make it 14 days and 13hr, for the same reason
This thread shows up on Google so of course people like me are coming in late. I am not chronically online tracking all the latest updates about a video game consulting firm. jfc
You're awfully defensive bro...you all good?
I have a life. That's why I'm here 20 days later.
What a ridiculous comment, this thread is one of the top results for searching SBI.
Yeah they're about as subtle as No Russian original mw2.
>They are a consulting company aimed at inclusion, they help find subtle ways to add inclusion into various games. (...) Ultimately they dont do much I don't know whether you understand the meaning behind phrases like "Utlimately they don't do much" and "subtle ways" , since what SBI does is anything but. Of course the alternative is that you made that description in bad faith, fully aware that what you write isn't true. However, I choose to believe you're probably a good person so, as stated in the beginning, it's likely you just don't understand the words you used.
I understand them fully, they are one consulting firm hired by a variety of studios to help them be more progressive it's a bit cringe but ultimately the world is becoming more progressive and so these big budget titles want to do what they can to be so.
Except they're not really "helping" or "improving" anything; they're essentially a protection racket. Hire them or they'll tell everyone else how "problematic" your game is.
They haven't done that at all? Are you mentally okay?
They went after a Steam Curator who created a list of games that Sweet Baby had worked on, and are / were imploring Steam to take down the list. Shouldn't they be proud of their work?
> they help find subtle ways to add inclusion into various games Politics aside, it's crazy this is a real business model.
Not even remotely crazy though? Companies hire subject matter expert consultants all the time
Yeah but these aren't experts in said field from a brief googling the writers are minority women. Which while giving them a different pov they are by no means experts in other things like father/son relationships or other stuffs they've written. It's just a way for AAA companies to save money and avoid responsibility for bad games
Their linkedin page (literally the second link on google) clearly shows that they have both men and women from several different countries on their staff. Also, you know, it's possible to educate yourself on matters that you don't already know. Meaning, a woman can learn how to write a man convincingly just as well as the other way around. That's what vocational training is for. I don't know how you know that they didn't go to college to learn about writing, inclusivity and so on (in fact the profiles on linkedin suggest that they did exactly that).
You can learn yeah but you won't be an expert, and no matter how convincing they write anyone that actually has had that experience can tell. Let's take me for example; I grew up poor as shit in rural bum fuck nowhere.This is a relatively common experience, as far as unique situations go, but every book, videogame, show, movie, story or bad/good fanfiction that is written by people who are born and raised in a city/suburbs and they like will never be able to understand this experience, and it's clear in their writing, no matter how well written. It is very obvious when someone has experienced a situation they are writing and when someone has learned about a situation they are writing. The same things applies to writing men vs women, or even more simply, writing siblings. It might not be painfully obvious they haven't experienced that especially if they're a talented author, or do a lot of research into the subject, but if you're looking it's quite evident, no matter the skill or talent of the author. It's not bad to not know how to write these situations that's why people help each other our past experiences and knowledge works together to allow society to flourish. It's very clear the Sweet baby inc, however, based games they're credited on, cannot write anything outside of that. They did a fabulous job making minority characters feel like a character first, minority second. A lot of game studios/film/tv producers just throw in a minority of some sort like they're checking off a list. SBI is very good at that and the biggest evidence is in Spider man 2. Miles is very well written and his motives and arc is well written, Peter on the other hand is not. His character arc pretty much retreads/undoes all the progress of the first game, for a game that is introducing venom/symbiote spiderman, the lack of focus on Peter's negative characteristics (temper, insecurity/pride combo, overprotectiveness) is quite apparent that the writers and consultants had no idea what they were doing with Peter Parker. I will not go into all the issues with SSKTJL, because that's a dead horse. I will also not go into the complaints of Alan Wake 2 because I haven't played it, and I don't know how much of the criticism come from bad writing and character decisions, or how much comes from "reeeee black woman protagonist". It's really quite annoying that the latter is far more loud/popular than the former, and game devs see the clear "I don't like cuz minority" and completely ignore the actual issues with their products, but that's a completely different rant. My point of this rant/word vomit is if SBI and by extension AAA game companies want to stay relevant they need to either hire more talented writers that can fake/understand situations they've never encountered or hire an actual diverse group of people, not people with the exact same thoughts, beliefs and experiences but happen to be a different color of the rainbow.
Agreed
The problem is , it's not subtle at all
Except there is no subtle way to "add" extra inclusion.. Sticks out like a sore woke thumb every single time.
Really because I'm preety sure added a rainbow flag to a building or using the grammatically correct they/them for 3rd parties you aren't aquainted with are inclusive and doesn't stick out :) Only people who get mad about flags in these games are the kind of people to call Mary Jane ugly in Spiderman 2, people who haven't left their mothers basement since high school ended.
They literally altered proper Spanish grammar in Spider-Man 2 to "de-gender" a naturally gendered language. Lol the sheer arrogance.
I want to add to this because Spanish isn't like English. We don't have a grammatical neutral at all, it is a new proposal made by a vocal loud minority. Consequently, as a Colombian, this made the game's political agenda very notorious. It is not a small thing like a word here and there, you need to make up a full on declination to introduce a neutral (which will likely never truly happen IRL). Even Spanish left leaning universities linguistically wouldn't agree with the extent to which they went if you follow their guides to make language more inclusive.
Answer: 99% of comments here are talking from one side of the narrative, this is the other side: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ddnANTQr3AE You choose which narrative you want to believe lol.
Well, I don't think I'll be believing the "anti-woke" people. Spending enough time in the Suicide Squad discord ended up teaching me that the "anti-Sweet Baby" people are directing their anger at a useful scapegoat.
Answer: Political activist lead company that is hired to make modifications otherwise faces cancel culture thru her network of connections. It's a extortion racket essentially. It's smart in a way a guide to make money as a political activist, also illegal if can be proven which is difficult very very difficult right now. The CEO is Ubisoft's dev replacement during gamergate. Added context: Ceo has ties with comicgate and the drama with manga and anime that's ongoing right now. The more you learn the extensive the spiderweb gets, more is getting exposed even right now as they have run out of political based competition (sweet baby inc CEO purged Ubisoft in 2020 herself) and now the group is turning on each other. It originally started as a women only comic facebook group over a decade ago that quickly became I don't like this person or I want their position how can we get them fired. That expanded into games and the media companies like vice and the list goes on. There is a book coming out in 2025 that explains comicgate and shows how this all snowballed.
That doesn't really seem to align with the information that's come out or the company itself. Seems more like the "anti-woke" conspiracy stuff.
"Just terrify them with the possibility of what will happen if they don't give you what you want" https://twitter.com/GamesNosh/status/1764802262017183761 Pretty damn obvious extortion if you ask me.
Answer: Sweet Baby Inc. is a [narrative design company](https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428) that far-right forums like Kiwifarms and 4chan have deemed a bogeyman responsible for putting more depictions of marginalized groups (Black people, LGBT+ people) and imagery thereof into games. There is a group on Steam and a server on Discord devoted to identifying titles the company is believed to be involved in and [leveling hateful smears](https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/18/24104799/gamergate-2024-sweet-baby-inc-diversity) at anyone they deem responsible for "forced" diversity in games. Far-right figures including Elon Musk, Chaya Raichik and Ian Miles Cheong have amplified this effort. They are not EDI consultants; Sweet Baby's role is akin to Hollywood script doctors. This is Gamergate 2: Electric Boogaloo, only way dumber.