So, who had ‘A US government funded nonprofit enters the fray around Sweet Baby Inc.’ on their bingo cards?
In response to the recent discourse surrounding the work of the aforementioned narrative consultation company, the ‘mental health in video games’-centric nonprofit organization Take This has called on both players and the industry at large to clearly and unequivocally denounce Gamergate.”
A 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2014, Take This describes itself as a “mental health organization providing comprehensive resources, support, and consultation tailored for the unique needs of the game development community.”
Far from a ‘minor entity’ within the industry, a number of noted figures are counted among the company’s governing board members and officers, including Bethesda Marketing VP Pete Hines, Ubisoft VP of Global Diversity & Inclusion Raashi Sikka, and PlayStation’s Head of Global Portfolio and Acquisitions Christian Svensson.
In terms of its ties to the United States government, per a public disclaimer on their various whitepapers, their work is funded as part of an official Department of Homeland Security research project known as ‘Disrupting Video Games-Based Radicalization Through Collaborative Cross-Sector Networks’ (DHS # EMW-2022-GR-00036).
“This joint project from the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Take This, and [‘anti-disinformation’ AI developer] Logically seeks to develop a shared framework for understanding extremism in games,” reads the project’s official proposal abstract, as seen on its official funding application. “This includes the development of a set of best practices and centralized resources for monitoring and evaluation of extremist activities as well as a series of training workshops for the monitoring, detection, and prevention of extremist exploitation in gaming spaces for community managers, multiplayer designers, lore developers, mechanics designers, and trust and safety professionals.”
“In addition, this project will provide a first-of-its-kind collaborative structure for public-private partnerships on preventing and mitigating games-based extremism,” it adds. “Taken together, this project will simultaneously improve counter-extremism collaboration in the video game industry while also providing substantial capacity building within and across developers.”
Running to defend Sweet Baby Inc. amidst the ongoing sunlight being shone on their operations, Take This published a blog post on March 11th asserting, “If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been hearing about what’s now being called ‘Gamergate2.'”
“It’s the latest targeted harassment campaign within the game industry and it’s aimed at Sweet Baby Inc, a Montreal-based narrative development studio,” said the company. “The campaign also has been impacting entities and games associated with Sweet Baby, journalists covering the issue, and others associated in various ways with the targets. You also may be at a loss to know how to talk about this issue, and what, if anything, you can do about it. That’s where we come in.”
In service of providing such guidance, the non-profit then declared, “Discord, Steam, and X have been the predominant platforms where the abuse and harassment has been taking place.”
“In these spaces, lists of game studios, companies, and associated organizations are being circulated for targeting by members of the mob,” they histrionically informed their readers. “Large-scale harassment campaigns like this fuel – and are fueled by – political events. As political rhetoric heats up ahead of the US presidential election later this year, this kind of online activity is going to ramp up and it’s important to understand that these phenomena are interrelated.”
RELATED: Mainstream Press, Video Game Devs Come Out In Full Force To Run Defense For Sweet Baby Inc.
To this end, Take This proceeded to offer the industry advice as to “things we can do to mitigate the harm” of the harassment campaign.
In terms of individual action, the company suggested, “It’s extremely important to speak out and step up for folks who are being harmed. This kind of support can take on many different forms. This could be an email or quick check-in with the people in your orbit who are targets of the harassment, or are close to those targets (family members, colleagues, and friends of those targeted also experience different types of harm in these situations).
Turning to address “industry leaders”, Take This warned, “You may be inclined to be quiet or cautious, but that’s actually not helpful.”
“At the time, many studios were hesitant to address the hate and abuse from Gamergate in any meaningful way,” they argued. “The reasons varied, but usually this hesitation was born out of fear of losing profits or concern that taking a stance would attract the attention of the Gamergate mob.”
“However, the failure to take a stand and clearly communicate with the community backfired,” the company continued. “In other words, failure to clearly and unequivocally denounce Gamergate and the harassment and abuse done in its name created a space for that hate and abuse to flourish, spread, and become normalized.”
Drawing their warning to a close, Take This ultimately declared, “Hate, harassment, and toxic behavior have no place in games. By taking direct, targeted action in a timely manner, we can mitigate further harm to talented, dedicated folks in games, and help prevent additional recurrences of these harmful events.”
It should be noted that despite the current ‘popular narrative’ framing the backlash to Sweet Baby Inc. as a “large-scale harassment campaign”, this could not be a more disingenuous read of the situation
At present, the so-called ‘harassment’ leveled against them amounts to nothing more than a Steam Curator List made to track their publicly credited works, a Discord server related to the list’s administration, and a generally negative sentiment towards their operations brewing amongst players of all stripes.
Meanwhile, the only person to have called for any ‘direct action’ against any individual or entity was Sweet Baby Inc.’s own Chris Kindred, who in response to the creation of said Steam Curator List asked his followers and supporters to try and get both it and its creator’s Steam account shut down by way of a mass false reporting campaign.
