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[AltogetherAndrews]

What a bunch of dorks.

 

[mckmas8808]

Is there any real correlation or is that more an issue for an extreme minority of players, albeit a very vocal minority? Spider-man 2 has sold 10m already.

When I look at their projects, I see some duds but I also see some big hits.

There's literaly NO correlation between Sweet Baby working on games and how the game sells. Anybody that says there is is lying and full of political BS and is a herb.

 

[00_Zer0]

Source (Niche Gamer)

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017-Sweet-Baby-Inc-detected/

A new Steam curator is making it their mission to warn gamers if Sweet Baby Inc. has been involved in a game’s development.

For those who don’t know, Sweet Baby Inc. is a narrative consultation company that offers a variety of services including:

• Writing: “Cinematics, Dialogue, UI/UX writing, Barks, Copywriting, Etc”
• Narrative: “Story pitches, World Building, Character Creation, Narrative Design, Story Feedback and Tweaks, and more”
• Representation: “Cultural Consultation, Sensitivity And Inclusivity Reading, Risk and Opportunities Assessment, and more”
• Development: “Full-scale Game Development and Interactive Fiction”

The curator uses proof of the company’s involvement retrieved either through credits uploaded to YouTube or from Sweet Baby’s website directly. You can check out the Sweet Baby Inc detected curator here.

The curator is by no means a comprehensive list, and Sweet Baby has claimed to be involved with dozens of companies, including:

• Xbox Game Studios
• Electronic Arts
• Valve
• Santa Monica Studios
• Tru Luv
• 2K
• Polytron
• Wizards of the Coast
• Square Enix
• Ubisoft
• Raw Fury
• Compulsion Games
• and more

While narrative consulting isn’t an unusual service to offer, critics of Sweet Baby are concerned that the company is more concerned with pushing their own ideological goals than with the quality of the product or its reception by fans.

Hopefully this doesn't get shutdown. I have hope that it won't be, but even Valve can be unpredictable at times. I will definitely sub to this thanks for the info OP.

 

[LazyParrot]

This is going to be about as effective as the SJW efforts to name and shame the creators of Ion Maiden or boycott the Harry Potter game.

 

[reinking]

Is this where I sign up for the anti-agenda agenda?

 

[darrylgorn]

We like free speech. Unless it's free speech we don't like.

 

[gaming_again]

Not really newsworthy. There's a Steam Curator for all kinds of shit. Search LGBT and there's several for that theme. Search for titties and find some more. There's legit curators and meme curators. This is just another one in the machine.

It's news because for the last decade there's only been one message allowed. In a normal reality this wouldn't be news.

 

[gaming_again]

We like free speech. Unless it's free speech we don't like.

Weak argument. It's a tag, not a request for deletion. As is seen from the other side.

 

[SF Kosmo]

They worked on this...

So you know what agenda they are pushing into games they are working on.

They're a consulting group, right? They get hired to help companies who want to portray diverse characters or whatever. They're not "pushing" anything they're literally just a service that companies hire with their own money because they want to do that.

I don't understand the amount of mental gymnastics you have to do to make it seem like these people are responsible for diversity initiatives rather than an outgrowth of them.

Like if you're mad that you think Sweet Baby is doing a bad job at portraying diversity and representing those stories wrong, then yeah, be mad at Sweet Baby. But that doesn't seem to be the case here, people are just mad that their business is a business.

 

[Švejk]

Question is, how was it possible that so many of these large companies all seem to agree to let this "LLC" just shoehorn into their marketing push??

 

[kyussman]

I don't understand, Why is this being done and why should I be informed?

Why don't you inform yourself about what this company does,there is plenty of discussion around them recently.......you took the time to make a post asking,it will take you a few seconds to find out why people are against their politically driven nonsense.

 

[Ozriel]

Valve is a private company, therefore not poisoned by concerns about ESG score bullshit, and therefore is more resistant to woke pandering BS.

That's not to say that the company itself is not full of pink-haired activist weirdos.

bloody hilarious response when you consider they’ve got the Valve logo up there as a client

 

[GymWolf]

 

[a multicultural team of v]

They're a consulting group, right? They get hired to help companies who want to portray diverse characters or whatever. They're not pushing anything they're literally just a service that companies hire with their own money because they want to do that.

I don't understand the amount of mental gymnastics you have to do to make it seem like these people are responsible for diversity initiatives rather than an outgrowth of them.

Drug companies definitely don't get people to do more drugs and weapons companies definitely don't get people to go to war and food companies definitely don't get more people hooked on sugar and oil companies definitely don't get more people to use fossil fuels and tobacco companies definitely don't get more people to smoke and gambling companies definitely don't get more people addicted to gambling and

They all just provide a service! Its what the people want!

 

[nush]

They're a consulting group, right? They get hired to help companies who want to portray diverse characters or whatever. They're not "pushing" anything they're literally just a service that companies hire with their own money because they want to do that.

They're grifters, just like the ones they replaced but they've added race and sexual identification to the mix.

 

[nial]

It will just self-destruct considering Valve is on the list, lmao.

Steam itself is involved with Sweet Baby Inc, he will need to tag the whole store.

fuck.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Drug companies definitely don't get people to do more drugs and weapons companies definitely don't get people to go to war and food companies definitely don't get more people hooked on sugar and oil companies definitely don't get more people to use fossil fuels and tobacco companies definitely don't get more people to smoke and gambling companies definitely don't get more people addicted to gambling and

They all just provide a service! Its what the people want!

But again, is the issue here that they are doing a bad job with how they portray diverse stories, or are people simply mad that a company exists to facilitate telling diverse stories? Or are people just mad that companies are portraying diverse stories at all?

Like what if Sweet Baby didn't exist? Does that make these companies less likely to have diversity initiatives? Or does it just mean they execute on them a bit worse, and we get awkward Life is Strange dialog? Like how do people think Sweet Baby is making things worse exactly?

 

[rofif]

I just don’t it. If you are making a game why hire someone else to write it

 

[RagnarokIV]

I followed them, handy to know!

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I knew this would be coming. There should be a site that does woke/DEI ratings with listing the types of things in the game.
So you can decide if you care about it or not. Kind of like howlongtobeat, just purely informational. Not picking sides.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Sounds like a lot of mob mentality stuff that went down with people going after Hogwarts Legacy that winds up hurting companies because someone had their feelings hurt. No thanks.

 

[MDSLKTR]

What do they do for Valve?

I guess the female skins in cs2

 

[Trilobit]

They are the reason I haven't gotten through to playing Spider-Man 2 yet. I had enough of that weirdly saccharine depiction of minorities in Miles Morales, and I also heard they went overboard with MJ in S-M 2. It just has this unnatural and forced taste to it. It's like an overcorrection. I didn't feel the same with' Into the Spider-verse'. It had a natural depiction of people from different backgrounds.

I can't really put my finger to what makes me irk, but I feel like there is this hint of unintended condescension to it. "Look at these proud black people, aren't they just gorgeous, and look at these gay people too, wooooow!" It's like when a mother plays super impressed seeing their child's poor drawings. The creators of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air didn't have the need to pour unhealthy amount of sugar over the characters to get us to like them. They were just interesting and funny human beings. And this was in the 90s! Where has this regression come from?

 

[a multicultural team of v]

But again, is the issue here that they are doing a bad job with how they portray diverse stories, or are people simply mad that a company exists to facilitate telling diverse stories? Or are they simply mad that companies are portraying diverse stories at all?

Like what if Sweet Baby didn't exist? Does that make these companies less likely to have diversity initiatives? Or does it just mean they execute on them a bit worse, and we get awkward Life is Strange dialog? Like how do people think Sweet Baby is making things worse exactly?

Sweet Baby isn't the root, but they exist because of it. The question isn't if Sweet Baby didn't exist would companies be less likely to do those things, the question is if the political and social climate, the power of which is concentrated within a very small group of people whose views do not actually represent the majority, didn't severely punish anyone for not doing those things, would companies still do them?

I mean just look at how many companies are suddenly dissolving their DEI departments now that it is becoming socially acceptable to do so. Look how many states are dissolving their DEI departments in schools and government after October 7 showed everybody what they really are. The entire DEI machine was built on forced compliance the same way that McCarthyism was built on forced compliance. Once the forced part of that goes away, the market goes to equilibrium so to speak and we find out the natural demand for these services. Sweet Baby would absolutely still exist because there would still be a market for their services, it just wouldn't be the entire fucking industry.

 

[Tajaz2426]

By the way I wouldn't physically follow them if I was any of you. The era crowd are mentally unwell and they will use any bit of evidence they can to ruin your life. Even following a curator on steam informing about woke shit.

Who? Why would I care if someone knows I do not like idiocy injected into my kids games or mine? What evidence? I’m not sure I understand why anyone would worry about what they believe in.

 

[Laptop1991]

Good on him, informing players so they don't waste their time and money is always a good thing, well done.

 

[Kings Field]

Good. I like the idea

 

[Magic Carpet]

I knew this would be coming. There should be a site that does woke/DEI ratings with listing the types of things in the game.
So you can decide if you care about it or not. Kind of like howlongtobeat, just purely informational. Not picking sides.

I use the popular Time to Crate to judge the quality of my video games.

Urban Dictionary: Time To Crate

Time To Crate is a metric used to assess the quality of video games. It is expressed in terms of the time between the start of a level (t == 0), and the point where the level designer gave up, ran out of ideas and just started putting in crates. A lower TTC is considered desirable.

www.urbandictionary.com

 

[Kacho]

I guess the female skins in cs2

They seem to focus on story writing specifically. I checked their website and didn't see any Valve games listed. I'm guessing they helped with the story in Half-Life Alyx since that's the only recent Valve game with a story, but you'd think they'd list it if that was the case. It's a total mystery.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Anyone can be a curator, this might as well be saying "gafer makes thread to list games that sweet baby was involved with". Basically even lower than "forbes contributor writes..." etc. The reason it's posted is because folks hope the curator gets enough followers or whatever for the industry to #care.

Basically, cancel culture.

Would be funny if it does get many followers but the uptick of wishlists for games added increases.

More like awareness culture.

Nobody asking for these games to be delisted.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I use the popular Time to Crate to judge the quality of my video games.

Urban Dictionary: Time To Crate

Time To Crate is a metric used to assess the quality of video games. It is expressed in terms of the time between the start of a level (t == 0), and the point where the level designer gave up, ran out of ideas and just started putting in crates. A lower TTC is considered desirable.

www.urbandictionary.com

Why would a lower TTC be desirable? I don't get it.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Why would a lower TTC be desirable? I don't get it.

Dude this was the first time I heard of this metric, which is hilarious in concept, but that was instantly what I thought too. Shouldn't it be higher is better?

 

[ssringo]

They seem to focus on story writing specifically. I checked their website and didn't see any Valve games listed. I'm guessing they helped with the story in Half-Life Alyx since that's the only recent Valve game with a story, but you'd think they'd list it if that was the case. It's a total mystery.

Could also be that they were consulted, Valve thanked them for their input and then didn't use it. So they can say Valve is a client but can't claim their work was used in a game.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Why would a lower TTC be desirable? I don't get it.

I think it's like how Rule 34 is not so much a rule as it is a challenge.

 

[rofif]

Ruined gow ragnarok and Alan wake 2

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Dude this was the first time I heard of this metric, which is hilarious in concept, but that was instantly what I thought too. Shouldn't it be higher is better?

Starting to think it's a sarcasm thing. The best games have crates immediately.

 

[StueyDuck]

Who? Why would I care if someone knows I do not like idiocy injected into my kids games or mine? What evidence? I’m not sure I understand why anyone would worry about what they believe in.

Everyone's tough till they lose their jobs and livelihood.

No one says you have to take advice. Just don't be captain hindsight when the tough guy act bites you in the ass

 

[iorek21]

Sweet Baby is getting so much heat that devs will start avoiding it.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Sweet Baby is getting so much heat that devs will start avoiding it.

If you're a publisher do you want to cut a check for a few hundred thousand bucks just to win some ESG points, or save that money for your development and/or marketing budgets?

Easy choice in my mind...

 

[SF Kosmo]

Sweet Baby isn't the root, but they exist because of it. The question isn't if Sweet Baby didn't exist would companies be less likely to do those things, the question is if the political and social climate, the power of which is concentrated within a very small group of people whose views do not actually represent the majority, didn't severely punish anyone for not doing those things, would companies still do them?

The question, at least with regard to Sweet Baby themselves, should really just be "Are they doing their job badly?"

Like, if they get brought on to help portray the way a disabled character would handle certain situations, or make sure the Spanglish dialog sounds correct, then the only question should be "Did they do that right?" Because that's literally what their company does.

Making them the scapegoats of diversity initiatives makes absolutely no sense.

I mean just look at how many companies are suddenly dissolving their DEI departments now that it is becoming socially acceptable to do so. Look how many states are dissolving their DEI departments in schools and government after October 7 showed everybody what they really are. The entire DEI machine was built on forced compliance the same way that McCarthyism was built on forced compliance. Once the forced part of that goes away, the market goes to equilibrium so to speak and we find out the natural demand for these services. Sweet Baby would absolutely still exist because there would still be a market for their services, it just wouldn't be the entire fucking industry.

This is a terrible frame of reference, which totally misunderstands the entire business.

Efforts to portray diversity in media and games are already market based. Whether or not they're correctly assessing the market is another question, but they're not an outgrowth of "forced compliance" or fear of discrimination lawsuits. They're just companies trying to make games for a broad international audience and have them sell, and Sweet Baby gets brought on to make those efforts feel credible.

 

[Ogbert]

I suspect a lot of companies use these pricks to meet their DEI requirements, but ignore all their suggestions.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Everyone's tough till they lose their jobs and livelihood.

No one says you have to take advice. Just don't be captain hindsight when the tough guy act bites you in the ass

Yeah, I don’t put money ahead of my values. That’s not how it works. If you are ok bending your knee for a paycheck that is on you. Some folks will and some folks won’t.

I’m more interested in those who won’t debase their own values for their perceived livelihood. I’m not mad at those that do, everyone makes a decision of who they are as a person and what they truly believe in.

Edit: I cannot look at my children in the face and tell them to stand up while cowering to those around me.

 

[Pharaoh 117]

I just find the way Sweet Baby talk about representation, inclusion and sensibility stuff really phony and gross...
My opposition is not even due to "woke", is just gross.

It's much more beautiful to me, diversity born out of pure artistic intention (Final Fantasy 9, for example) from the developers themselves.

Then a external hand, just doing it to check boxes on a notepad.

Also, arts capacity of shocking you, of making you squirm, has value.
And is something that is lost with all of this.

Remember when Final Fantasy 16 mention of sexual abuse towards (If I'm not mistaken) children was removed by localization?
It wasn't portrayed in a good light, a VILLAIN did that.

There was an artistic intention with that, for the writer, that was lost in localization, because it's insensitive.

Sweet Baby is very much anti-art and creativity.

Diversity and inclusion has to born out of pure artistic intention. Not external hands.

This. All they do is check some quotas and you can clearly see their imprint in all the games they are involved. It feels so artificial.

 

[StueyDuck]

Yeah, I don’t put money ahead of my values. That’s not how it works. If you are ok bending your knee for a paycheck that is on you. Some folks will and some folks won’t.

I’m more interested in those who won’t debase their own values for their perceived livelihood. I’m not mad at those that do, everyone makes a decision of who they are as a person and what they truly believe in.

Edit: I cannot look at my children in the face and tell them to stand up while cowering to those around me.

Lol yeah sure...

Everyone totally believes you.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Lol yeah sure...

Everyone totally believes you.

Yes, I realize it is unheard of for people putting their beliefs ahead of money, but it happens. I’ve never held back what I believe in the military, or anywhere else and I live just fine.

You just want to believe everyone thinks like you, so you can justify being on your knees. Not everyone is like that. You have to live with yourself, not me or anyone else.

 

[March Climber]

The question, at least with regard to Sweet Baby themselves, should really just be "Are they doing their job badly?"

Like, if they get brought on to help portray the way a disabled character would handle certain situations, or make sure the Spanglish dialog sounds correct, then the only question should be "Did they do that right?" Because that's literally what their company does.

Making them the scapegoats of diversity initiatives makes absolutely no sense.

This point is lost on too many people, and instead they're being treated like a third pillar next to Blackrock and Tencent.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Excellent. How quick before they're banned though?

 

[Faust]

Excellent. How quick before they're banned though?

Depends on how many mentally challenged folks abuse the report button.

 

[mitch1971]

Let us know if they're any good, before we don't buy them

If they all turn out shit, then at least (s)he knows where (s)he can find the add on.

 

[nikolino840]

Trouble is if you boycott every game which has an element of this agenda, there isn't much left. I assume most of us just hold our nose and tolerate it, and play the games anyway.

The problem is that they never boycott..who write here that is a cool curator list , you see them with platinum trophies on spiderman and god of war ..some people don't have the balls to boycott