List Of "Woke" Game Developers, Consultants And Associates

Breadbassket

Breadbassket

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There is a lot of discussion and talk going on now about "woke" things being pushed in game industry. Often this is done at the detriment of the story and the enjoyment of the player. Recent events have seen an employee of Sweet Baby Inc. call people pointing out the titles his company worked with Nazis while his employer decided she would back up her workers. This is just a couple people out of many but they aren't alone.

Journalist publications with connections to reporter-turned-developers will run defense and ignore or praise the actions of their peers who harass people for criticizing them. Those who complain about how "woke" things are as a game developer often run the risk of losing their jobs. Is this the ideal for a creative field?

Things right now may seem hopeless but something can be done. There are multiple bad actors in the industry and exposing their statements and actions to the world would reveal to all their intention and views to the world. Businesses are made up of individuals who decide what these financial entities and how they act, thus they are the most deserving of attention even if they try to shift responsibility or try to use faceless companies as a way to defend themselves.

This thread is to serve as an easily accessible and centralized resource to list and archive the deeds of "Woke" members of the gaming industry. Prominent Individuals and Developers, Consultants and Associates will be their own alphabetically-sorted lists. Provide descriptions of who they are and what they do as well as archived links to their acts, screenshots of such things are also encouraged. Each person can have a maximum of 10 articles of evidence showcasing how "woke " they are. Listed individuals will get a minor descriptor of their current occupation or job. A.lways remember to archive everything.. All discussion for who may be added or removed to the list can happen here.

1. Alyssa Mercante (Kotaku Senior Editor):

Proof 1 (General Profile)
Proof 2 (Tweet: You Can't Be Racist Against White People)
Proof 3 (CBC The Current With Matt Galloway Radio Interview Full Transcript)
Proof 4 (Article: Kotaku Editor Alyssa Mercantile Lies About Sweet Baby Inc. Backlash During CBC Radio Appearance, Claims Steam Curator List Was Made To “Prevent People From Buying And Playing These Games”)


1. Kim Belair (Sweet Baby Inc. CEO):

Proof 1 (Article: Sweet Baby Inc. CEO Kim Belair Admits She Wanted To Take Over The Video Game Industry)
Proof 2 (Video: Inclusion FX #5 - Kim Belair)
Proof 3 (Video: Now You See Me: Representation as Innovation)

1. Chris Kindred (Sweet Baby Inc. Writer):

Proof 1 (Tweet: Calling For The Takedown of the SBI Detected Steam Curator Group)
Proof 2 (Tweet: Asking For People To Report The SBI Detected Steam Curator Group)
Proof 3 (Tweet: Asking For People To Report The SBI Detected Steam Curator Group Group Owner)
Proof 4 (Article Link: Sweet Baby Inc. Employee Chris Kindred Doubles Down On Call To Cancel Steam Curator List And Labels Members As “Nazis”)

2. Danielle "Dani" Lalonders (Cliffhanger Games Associate Narrative Designer):

Proof 1 (General Profile)
Proof 2 (Article: Talking ValiDate, TikTok, Politics and More with Dani Lalonders)
Proof 3 (Video: One Year in the Industry - Entering the industry for the first time. #GDoCExpo 2021)
Proof 4 (Article: ‘Marvel’s Black Panther’ Developer Admits To Discriminating Against White People)
Proof 5 (Article: Ex-Sweet Baby Inc. Employee And Current EA’s ‘Marvel’s Black Panther’ Narrative Designer Seen Proudly Bragging That Previous Title ‘ValiDate’ Had “No White People” On Dev Team)
Proof 6 (Update Post)

3. Jay-Ann Lopez (Black Girl Gamers CEO/Founder):

Proof 1 (General Profile)
Proof 2 (Article: Black Girl Gamers Interview: Founder Expresses The Need For New Diverse Stories And Characters)
Proof 3 (Article 2: ‘Forspoken’ Consultant Black Girl Gamers Appears To Discriminate In Their Hiring Practices While Claiming They Are Being Harassed)

4. Lisy Kane (Kepler Interactive Senior Operations & Growth Manager, Girl Geek Academy Co-Founder):

Proof 1 (General Profile)
Proof 2 (Personal Website)
Proof 3 (Girl Geek Academy Website)
Proof 4 (Girl Geek Academy Website About Us Page)
Proof 5 (Article: Kepler Interactive Senior Operations & Growth Manager Lisy Kane Rages After ‘Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn’ Added To Sweet Baby Inc. Boycott List)

5. Sam Winkler (Gearbox Entertainment Narrative Director):

Proof 1 (General Profile)
Proof 2 (Tweet 1)
Proof 3 (Tweet 2)
Proof 4 (Tweet 3)

6. Scott Anderson (Unity Technologies Senior Graphics Engineer):

Proof 1 (General Profile)
Proof 2 (Tweet: People calling a Black woman building a studio with all POC a racist and equating it to a white man starting an all white studio is wild. If the power imbalances that actually exist in reality were different, sure, but there is no way these things are equivalent.)
Proof 3 (Tweet: This is, of course ignoring that white men start studios that are all or mostly white men all of the time and no one cares)
Proof 4 (Tweet: Worst case scenario this is a result of trauma, not a desire for exclusion and definitely not supremacy. Context is completely ignored in all of these discussions. This is a valid self preservation tactic for Black people, not a way to gain power over others)
Proof 5 (Article: Unity Game Developer Scott Anderson Defends ‘Marvel’s Black Panther’ Developer’s Race-Based Hiring Discrimination)
 
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Breadbassket said:
1. Kim Belair (Sweet Baby Inc. CEO):
Proof 1 (Article: Sweet Baby Inc. CEO Kim Belair Admits She Wanted To Take Over The Video Game Industry)
Proof 2 (Video: Inclusion FX #5 - Kim Belair)
Proof 3 (Video: Now You See Me: Representation as Innovation)
Click to expand...
Archives of the videos included as proof:

Inclusion FX #5 - Kim Belair​



Now You See Me: Representation as Innovation​

 
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Putting Jay-Ann Lopez into Developers, Consultants and Associates. She is the CEO/Founder of Black Girl Gamers, a Facebook group that later became a company that offers consulting services.

Here is her LinkedIn.

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Her company was consulted for the title "Forspoken" and appears to discriminate in their hiring practices while claiming to be harassed.

Here are some excerpts from an interview she had with the site Game Rant:
Q: Did you know any other girls who played video games too?

Lopez: No, not really. I'm trying to think. Nope… If I did, I don't remember who they are.

Q: You mentioned how there were hardly any Black women characters in video games. Were there any video games that made you wish that their character was a woman of color or a Black woman?

Lopez: I would flip the whole premise of a number of games, especially the ones that go into countries and get their relics. I would flip that on their head – that's always been a dream of mine in general. But to be honest, no. I'm not averse to having White characters. I'm just annoyed at how prevalent they are.

I wouldn't want to change an existing character that I can think of at the moment. One of my favorite games, The Witcher 3, is predominantly based on a Polish novel. I have seen no need for me to change that main character. What I want is more stories that are authentic to Black, Brown, and Non-White people of color to be reflected in. I don't want to necessarily have to “racebend” an existing character for me. That's not the epitome of representation. It works in some ways and other ways. I want some original content.
Click to expand...
Q: Has there been any video games that you've seen that have gone in the right direction in terms of diversity?

Lopez: Apex is definitely one that's done quite well. The intention is there, and the same with Overwatch.Overwatch didn't have a Black female character for so long, and they had six White characters that were male, seven White characters that were female And I was like, “Where's the Black women?” Out of the two, I would pick Apex because obviously, they represent me and that's what I'm here for really and truly. Deathloop was also great and Ghost of Tshushima. I'm not Japanese, so I cannot speak to the cultural accuracy, but I really enjoyed that game. Again, Raji is another one as well.
Click to expand...
 
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That Park Place kinda looks like GamerGate 2.0 autism central to me. I looked at the webmaster's Youtube channel, The Trent Report. It's an annoying guy with a severe case of 'tism voice who just rants about woke media. I'm sorry. This whole thing is just way too autistic for me. I appreciate the Steam curator list and I'm very much concerned about woke translations and wannabe "novelists" ruining the original story.

I wouldn't be surprised if this Trent is just getting into this to cash in on the incoming GamerGate 2.0 drama. Sweet Baby is very concerning. But so are guys like this.
 
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Omori Boy said:
I'm sorry but like 90% of the industry is liberal, and probably 60% is extremely liberal. It would be much much easier to list non-woke companies and developers than to do what you're doing.
Click to expand...
I was just about to say it. It's not that necessarily everyone is pozzed, but it's enough one of the team is a trannie/feminist to basically force everyone else toe the line else they'd be sabotaged from within
 
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Adding Alyssa Mercante to Prominent Individuals. She is the Senior Editor for the site Kotaku, a video game website.

Here is her LinkedIn.

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During the general talk around Sweet Baby Inc. she would make an article in defense of the company. Later when pressed on Twitter/X about the alleged racism of SBI's CEO she responded with "hi! you can't be racist against white people! thanks for tuning in!" to the user asking her about it. Her Twitter/X account as of this time has been set to protected so that only approved followers can see her posts.

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She later made an appearance on a Canadian Broadcast Radio (CBC) radio show where she would lie about the Sweet Baby Inc. backlash.

Quotes from the CBC radio interview with Alyssa Mercante (MG refers to the interviewer for context):
MG: We heard a little clip earlier of one of these people on YouTube talking about this woke game company that's trying to eliminate white, straight, male gamers. What exactly are the campaigners saying that Sweet Baby is doing to video games?

ALYSSA MERCANTE: They believe that they have some sort of leverage against all these major gaming companies and that they kind of come in and demand that characters be race swapped or gender swapped, or women characters are made more masculine or masculine characters are made weaker. But in reality, Sweet Baby is a development company that's a contractor, so they don't really have any leverage against any of these large video game companies.
Click to expand...
MG: If that's not the case, then why are people focused on this tiny Canadian company? I mean, there are a number of, as I understand it, a number of companies that do that kind of narrative design work. Why? Why is Sweet Baby in the crosshairs here?

ALYSSA MERCANTE: I think it's a perfect storm of a lot of things. Someone at Sweet Baby noticed that this account was made on steam and noticed how it was gaining traction and noticed that it was intended to prevent people from buying and playing these games and requested that it be taken down for organized harassment. And that kicked off even more organization from them, the people who made the steam group. And then it just kind of leans into the conspiracy theories that plague the internet, that plagued the first iteration of this movement against wokeness or women or people of colour in games. And, you know, ultimately led to the playbook of the Trump White House. So, I think it is a perfect storm of the easy people to use as scapegoats. And what happens when the dark corners of the internet sort of organize around something they believe is a conspiracy happening in the industry.
Click to expand...
 
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This is a good start, few things:
1) Archives the videos, make sure to keep a copy on your hard drive and make sure to reupload them here or somewhere else
2) Start putting names in alphabetical order. Assume there will be a lot of them, organization is key
3) A thread is not a good way to keep this list up to date. Make sure to make find an appropriate site where you can keep everything updated, up to date and link the post in OP.
 
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Putting Danielle "Dani" Lalonders into Developers, Consultants and Associates. She is an Associate Narrative Designer at Cliffhanger Games and is currently working on Marvel's Black Panther. Cliffhanger Games is a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest video game publishers and developer. Lalonders is also the Social Media Manager and Lead Producer for Veritable Joy Studios who developed the visual novel ValiDate: Struggling Singles in your Area.

Here is her LinkedIn.

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In a 2020 interview with the Gayming Magazine she said this:
"Black gamers are a very rare category because the gaming industry is so racist,” says Dani. “It’s really important for black gamers to get together and show support for one another because it’s hard out here when you want to enjoy things but people are being blatantly super fucking anti-black towards you. It’s just hard to have fun when everything around you is hate.”
Click to expand...

During a presentation for the Game Devs of Color Expo 2021, Lalonders had this to say:
"ValiDate has a team of all people of color. We have no white people on our team. I did that because I wanted to create a safe environment. And I know the best way for the environment to be safe is to be around people who are just like me."

"And I’m not saying that white people in the industry are creating unsafe environments. I’m not saying that. That is not what I’m saying,” she said. “I’m saying sometimes it is hard to work with white people because they think that something may be okay, but it was really a microaggression, and no one wants to deal with that while you’re trying to make a game that they love.
Click to expand...


Video Archive:


In March 2023 while the Sweet Baby Inc. controversy was occurring, Lalonders sent out a few Tweets. Her Twitter/X account as of this time has been set to protected so that only approved followers can see her posts.

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She's probably conflating black gamers with black gamers that are terminally online, like she is. The reason that there aren't as many black gamers in online discussion spaces for games is because those spaces tend to skew towards people that are a bit brighter than the average person (compare the clarity of the average post on the Farms or even fucking ResetEra to some of the gibberish that gets posted on Facebook). The mean IQ of black Americans is in the low 90s at best, which is right at the threshold for being able to read and follow instructions. Young black men are undoubtedly playing games, but more of the casual crap, like sports games and they aren't going to post some complex, deep analysis of it online unless they are an outlier in their cognitive ability.
 
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30+GameOvers said:
This is a good start, few things:
1) Archives the videos, make sure to keep a copy on your hard drive and make sure to reupload them here or somewhere else
2) Start putting names in alphabetical order. Assume there will be a lot of them, organization is key
3) A thread is not a good way to keep this list up to date. Make sure to make find an appropriate site where you can keep everything updated, up to date and link the post in OP.
Click to expand...

This seems to be the easiest option for YouTube archiving.
 
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Putting Lisy Kane into Developers, Consultants and Associates. She is currently the Senior Operations & Growth Manager of video game publisher Kepler Interactive and co-founder of Girl Geek Academy.

Here is her LinkedIn.

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In 2024, during the Sweet Baby Inc. controversy, a game Kane's employer was publishing came under scrutiny for having Sweet Baby Inc. involvement. This game was Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. A developer from the game team reached out to the owner of the Steam curator group Sweet Baby Inc. detected and said they completely removed SBI part and remade it completely. When the Steam curator group owner asked to have access to the game pre-release and to speak with the developer's manager for proof of this change, they were refused on both points. Left without a way to truly confirm anything, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn would stay on the Sweet Baby Inc. detected list.

Later after this occurred, former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern under the alias Grummz on X/Twitter would make a thread about the efforts of Sweet Baby Inc. in the development of Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn. Do be aware this as of now, a lot of information in particular for this happening seems to stem from an anonymous source with "that seems very knowledgeable about the studios inner workings", the studio in this case referring to A44, the developers behind Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn.

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Following Kern's thread, Kane took to X and made this and declared:
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Her Twitter/X account as of this time has been set to protected so that only approved followers can see her posts.

She has a personal website where this was publicly posted:
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This what the aforementioned personal website looks like now.

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Screenshots of the Girl Geek Academy, which Kane co-founded.

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The mean IQ of black Americans is in the low 90s at best, which is right at the threshold for being able to read and follow instructions.
Click to expand...
Yea but this would not have happened if they embraced that self destructive ideology of "Hustling for the Score".

As someone once told me. "If there is no father in the family, the streets will be the father in the family".

Cultural Ideology will impact the growth of a person regardless of what race they are from.
 
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