Sweet Baby Inc's Forced DEI Impact on Gaming, WB Games, Mortal Kombat

the views expressed in this video are based on the sources listed in the video description they do not reflect the opinions of one Brothers media Mortal Kombat or any individuals associated with Mortal Kombat online including guest or host of the rcast unless explicitly stated as personal opinions based upon the listed sources this is merely discussion on the presented matters and viewers are encouraged to conduct independent research and formulate their own viewpoints Dei a term sparking debate

s within the gaming and multimedia Community has brought unwanted attention to Sweet Baby Inc what role does sweet baby Inc play and has its involvement affected the iconic Mortal Kombat franchise [Music] welcome to another Biz episode of the rcast I am your host the Mortal Kombat Phantom and I'm Yanni the video game industry has held a commitment toward environmental social and governance ESG policies which include diversity equity and inclusion Dei principles but recently these forced policies

have sparked backlash particularly against companies like sweet baby Inc where the accusations of creative interference in game development and forced IDE political message but could they have had an impact on Mortal Kombat 1 we'll talk about that in just a second but before we do I still have gfuel I I really do I have a lot of gfuel we're giving it away as fast as we can um but if you want to learn how you can win some gfuel stick around to the end of the credits and we'll tell you what you g

ot to do to enter our giveaway pretty simple the crisis in the video game industry stems from very factors but one in particular seems to be the forced integration of Dei principles while diversity equity and inclusion has the apparent aim of diversifying stories it often leads to increased production cost and polarizing or even divisive end products leaving some paying customers feeling alienated there is nothing wrong with diversity equity and inclusion all are encouraged especially by ourselv

es with our individual backgrounds it feels good to be represented and seen however Force Dei has been heavily under scrutiny lately and for good reason instead of genuinely representing marginalized groups these forced initiatives might end up just making surface level changes and treating people as tokens rather than individuals making an unfair basis on their backgrounds despite this major gaming Studios like WB Games seem to spare no expense on implementing these policies even going as far a

s to enlist third-party Consulting agencies like sweet baby Inc which has a dark history of being any anything other than inclusionary recently sweet baby Inc has been a big Topic in the Video Game World founded in 2018 and based in Montreal Canada the studio positions itself as a champion of Dei in gaming narratives however their methods and practices have come under intense scrutiny for their impact on creative freedom consumer satisfaction product quality and more their approach which has in

part raised concerns is highlighted on their own website we begin with an all hands review and discussion of the project material everyone at Sweet Baby sees your project and shares their thoughts feelings and ideas critics argue that when sweet baby Inc holds these sensitivity readings ideological agendas are possibly prioritized over storytelling and creative expression and can lead to lowered quality of the end product sweet baby Inc goes on to State themselves that they aren't afraid of brea

king something down to build it back up but forcing game developers to follow unnecessary restrictions might remove the authenticity and depth instead of helping it may make diverse characters seem like tokens or harmful stereotypes some people from diverse backgrounds say they don't like seeing characters from their culture used just to meet a diversity quota sweet baby Inc claims to advocate for diversity and and to bring joy to marginalized players but they don't have much proof that their wa

y works they often just rely on their own ideas and backgrounds rather than empirical datadriven advice by pushing their personal beliefs and backgrounds onto game developers and as a result players they could end up making games that don't appeal to the main audience this has led to an alienation of a core audience of paying Gamers who seem to feel sidelined or misrepresented in the final product with such effects being seen in many Steam Reviews and general comments regarding the company as we

ll as their Associated games but to further add fuel to the fire sweet baby Inc faces additional controversies primarily due to its CEO Kim Belair we still look at our core demographics and say okay they're white Siz hetero males and the problem is that we don't just cater to them like we cater them the way that we cater to like a picky baby they react as a picky baby would and we've actually done this so long that what we're doing is creating an entire nation of picky babies remarks by Belair s

uch as comparing white male Gamers to picky babies not only downplay the concerns of a significant demographic but also reveal a troubling mindset within the company that comes across as anti-white this is not very inclusionary for a company which is brought on as a diversity equity and inclusion consultant to further add to the controversy these statements come on the heels of Sweet Baby Inc employee Chris kindred's attempts to get a steam curator list of all games sweet baby Inc has worked on

taken off steam as well as to get the list Creator cutus banned from the platform the bragging of the targeted harassment of cutus eventually led to Chris having their own account banned from Twitter Instead This targeted attack prompted Gamers to take a further look into sweet baby Inc where they discovered past tweet twet from 2016 where employee Maya Kramer seems to represent an intense disdain for white people with tweets such as pay me to shoot down your white male lead game ideas and other

controversial tweets it has become more clear what these sensitivity readings may result in this as well as CEO Blair's previously mentioned anti-white comments further demonstrate behavior that raises questions about the company's commitment to actual inclusivity and tolerance sweet baby Ink's involvement and projects like suicide squad kill the Justice League has shown how their meddling can harm the final product this was evident in wner Brothers recent earning calls where they admitted that

the game cells have quote fallen short of our expectations some believe this is because of Sweet Baby Ink's heavy-handed approach to storytelling although that is not to say Warner Brothers doesn't share some of the blame spoiler warning Here For Suicide Squad kill the Justice League the methods in which the suicide squad do end up killing the Justice League perhaps demonstrate these narrative choices the male Justice League members meet embarrassing and emasculating deaths like flash being uri

nated on Green Lantern stripped down to cartoonish boxers and Batman mocked before being shot in the head on a park bench and what is the legendary Kevin Conroy's final appearance as the iconic Cape Crusader meanwhile Wonder Woman's death is portrayed as tragic and she is even tearfully mourned by all the suicide squad members these narrative choices have been attributed to Dei mandates which could possibly be influenced by sweet baby Ink's creative interference the game's failure hurt developer

Rocket's reputation and led to backlash and boycotts of other games linked to Sweet Baby Inc these missteps damaged not only the Studio's reputation but also the credibility of diversity initiatives in gaming balancing diversity with creative freedom is crucial to respect both creators and players but what does this have to do with Mortal Kombat in light of these controversies many gamers have voiced their opposition to Sweet Baby in practices leading to organized boycotts of gamed associated w

ith the company Mortal Kombat 1 is one such game that may have fallen into these boycotts while sweet baby Inc is listed as a production company on IMDb for the game they're not actually mentioned in the game's credits this discrepancy has made some boycotters wary of the game the creator of a popular boycott list on Steam cutus removed Mortal Kombat 1 from their list due to doubts about information from IMDb which can of course be edited by anyone even though it's not clear what sweet baby inc'

s role was in making Mortal Kombat 1 both nether realm Studios and rock steady games which made Suicide Squad kill the Justice League are subsidiaries of Warner Bros games this leaves fans wondering if sweet baby Inc had an impact in decisions or direction for the game the idea that sweet baby Inc might have been involved in Mortal Kombat 1 worries some Gamers who fear their influence threatens to compromise the essence of the iconic franchise however it is important to note that while sweet bab

y inc's specific contributions to Mortal Kombat 1 remain unclear if wbd did choose to bring on another production team for Dei Consulting this could eventually lead to further production costs this also might suggest a lack of trust in their own studio and a disregard for Dei principles making it seem like just another requir IR M to fulfill to cover the costs of bringing on yet another production company to consult on the game War bro's Discovery might pass the financial burden onto consumers t

his is potentially evident in practices such as charging $10 for fatalities and incorporating microtransactions quite heavily within the game critics of these forced Dei tactics have come under Fire especially from Outlets like Kotaku and PC Gamer directly attacking them however these articles seem more like advertisements for sweet baby Inc than fair assessments they don't give objective analysis or Genuine defenses but instead seem to provide coverage that some perceive as biased and selective

in his presentation of information while blaming Gamers and Society for the backlash against forc Dei practices for example kotaku's article sweet baby Inc doesn't do what some Gamers think it does defends sweet baby Inc from Gamers concerns suggesting they're just unfounded conspiracy theories with this mere title alone the author seems to sympathize with sweet baby ink portraying them as victims of harassment this biased approach downplays and dismisses valid concerns raised by Gamers as well

as straight up ignores potential harassment by sweet baby inc's own employees as mentioned earlier with the issue with cutus furthermore the article Cherry picks quotes and examples to support its narrative while sidelining opposing viewpoints by mostly featuring sweet baby inide and minimizing criticism the article fails to offer any sort of comprehensive assessment of the controversy surrounding the company's practices similarly PC Gamer released an article titled a company called sweet baby

Inc has become the target of anti-woke Gamers because it offers consultancy work an industry standard service that's been normal for years now the title alone is extremely long and this article along with its title suggests that criticism might be unfounded implying that those who raise concerns are against inclusivity however this overlooks the detailed critiques of baby Inc methods both articles fail to address the concerns raised by Gamers instead portraying them as opposed to inclusivity the

y seem to be trying to damage control and divert attention from valid issues by painting critics as intolerant bigots who simply oppose inclusivity regardless of those critics backgrounds while consulting firms like sweet baby Inc provide suggestions rather than rules their impact on storytelling in games is significant it's unlikely that companies would pay their Hefty fees without considering their advice making the dismissal of criticism seem insincere this is especially true in situations wh

ere the companies are choosing to pay for these Services because they seem to lack the core values they believe they require in ensuring Dei principles within the company in this case paying for the service and accepting the provided advice and recommendations without asking questions would be the most efficient method particularly in the case where those involved from the company directly are not in a position to care about Dei aside from checking it off the list these recent articles from Kota

ku and PC Gamer show how vital it is to carefully and critically evaluate what the media says and to listen to fans thoughts and worries they also point out the need to see things from a Global Perspective not just one country's view instead of ignoring fan concerns by calling them names or saying that they're part of a conspiracy it's crucial to look at the real problems like the company's anti-diversity statements we need to address these serious issues instead of making fun of critics and def

lecting attention from legitimate concerns backlash against ESG and forced Dei practices is growing with Gamers rejecting games associated with sweet baby Inc and similar companies this rejection extends Beyond gaming as more people recognize the negative impact of these forced policies even major ESG proponents like Black Rock are acknowledging potential poal negative impacts on their businesses signaling a shift in attitudes towards corporate responsibility many diversity equity and inclusion

policies are not only controversial but may even break the law companies like CBS and Paramount are currently facing legal trouble because of exactly this as of the time of this episode's recording they are being sued by a writer who says he was denied employment opportunity based on his identity as a white heterosexual man the lawsuit claims that the company's prioritize meeting diversity quotas of women people of color and lgbtq AP plus over his own qualifications favoring candidates from unde

rrepresented groups even if they lacked the same qualifications while the writer individual skills remain uncertain Paramount and cbs's public commitments to maintaining a specific demographic with at least 50% of their talent falling into specific demographics may help his case significantly even Warner bro's Discovery has been struggling with their own repercussions of their choices an article from The Wall Street Journal in 2022 called can Warner Bros uncanceled JK Rowling talks about how War

ner Bros tried to include JK Rowling in the 2022 Max Harry Potter cast reunion despite boycotts to heard controversial transgender views instances like this highlight corporate decisions to make money despite what backlash they may endure real principles and integrity seem secondary to any potential profits as they ignore any backlash and find it more worth their time to risk such controversies instead when faced with criticism they often just say sorry Without Really changing anything relying o

n further distractions to hold consumers attention and that's if they even address the controversy during an aspen Institute event titled the future of Dei in Corporate America on February 20th Warner bro's Discovery Chief Dei officer Dr assif sadik made it clear that there is a solution to those who don't conform to their Dei efforts you know there's always those few people who you'll never change you'll never convince them you can try for your you know up until the end of Eternity and and it w

ill still not happen hopefully those people who don't want to come around will start saying that this place isn't the way it used to be and they'll leave themselves which is great there's always those few people who will never change you will never convince them you can try up until the end of Eternity and it will still not happen hopefully those people who don't want to come around will start saying that this place isn't the the way it used to be and they'll leave themselves which is great quot

ed despite corporations like sweet baby enforcing a seemingly false Dei effort in gaming The Gaming Community shows it's important to listen to what players want this is clear in how Gamers reject forced Dei for example Stellar blade a game some say objectifies characters is selling so well that it's even number two on Amazon pre-orders this rejection by Gamers shows that companies like War Bros need to start paying attention to Their audience if they want to remain profitable and have a positiv

e impact on the gaming industry Dei must be as organic as possible and genuine not a forced token inclusion to tick off a check box I think that the idea here in terms of you know inclusion Etc diversity I definitely personally agree with the idea of being able to involve more divers people of more diverse backgrounds you know such as ourselves I I think that this is a positive thing but only if it's done fairly and yeah not to the detriment of others you know and I don't mean that in you can al

ways argue oh well if these people are being affected by it then it's to their detriment I don't mean it in that way I mean in a sense that it's not done in such a way where it's sort of discriminatory and I know that in the this whole idea of let's just say white people being discriminated against is not a thing apparently because you have to be the minority and I'm sorry but that's systemic racism for example that's not the actual definition here in this case if you're going to be arguing that

then I mean I could I could argue that if we're in a different country that the white people are going to be minorities there so it's not exactly the correct argument to make here in this case what's actually active happening as far as we can tell and I think you agree with me here is that there are people who seem to have extreme prejudices against white heterosexual people specifically males in many instances and they are really sort of taking it out on them by pushing them completely out of

the picture and forcing others of background such as our own backgrounds uh which which you know I would normally be very happy to see but not in the this man what do you think yeah I this is such a sensitive topic you know but the fact of the matter is you should be rewarded on your merits like if you're good at something that should determine regardless of your race or sexuality whatever you're good at like that should be recognized and if somebody is better at something than you are then of c

ourse they should get that position and this this all stems from discrimination like that's basically what it is and what it it seems to be especially in instances like hiring a consulting firm who has very obviously shown bias and discrimination to head up your anti-discrimination policies that's just crazy to me um and the media spins like we mentioned with Kotaku and stuff they're basically passing it off as gamergate 2.0 and that's not really what this is no not at all and I mean another ano

ther big issue here is that the the companies hiring companies like sweet baby Inc let's just say in this case Warner Bros the people handling this hiring I would argue do not give a damn about any of the diversity equality inclusion principles here they do not this to to them is a checklist it's not done in an organic way and if anything it's also done in multiple instances as we've seen throughout the this video uh through the sources that we've mentioned it's actually done to the detriment of

the quality of the games that they have been involved in it's how can you go to say the developers and tell them okay you know this part of your script needs to change because it doesn't include somebody of this background or whatever I'm sorry but that's not how it should be done and that's how it seemingly comes across when in reality it should be a consultation saying look this part this works however you know you could fit somebody of this background here and make this fit with this this yo

u know like it's too forced it's way too forced and it it comes at the cost of the quality of the games and potentially at the cost of the artistic vision of the developers as well Yanni just a quick correction you said equality instead of equity a few times by mistake and I just want to make it clear to our listeners that they are different Websters actually says that Equity is the equality of being fair and impartial while equality is defined as the state of being equal especially in status ri

ghts and opportunities so they aren't exactly the same thing cuz the whole goal of equity is to raise up those who aren't equal into the position where they have an equal opportunity I I think the suicide squad stuff uh was very interesting in doing aot research for everything that we discussed today you basically took all of your white CIS male characters and uh made them into the butt of jokes but took the only female character that was on the opposing side and made her an iconic death and wha

t is Kevin Conroy's apparent last appearance in a video game yes the legendary Kevin Conroy made so many people upset and angry about like it was a slap in the face to everybody who growing up with Batman the anime series like yeah he Batman and this is apparently also Canon to the Arkham games which no fans agree to you know no fans accept yeah just it's it's such a disrespectful way of going about it mhm but you know as as we talked about before we're not a a Justice League podcast we are a Mo

rtal Kombat podcast and I guess the question is do you think that they had any hand in Mortal Kombat 1 uh because they are listed on IMDb as one of the production companies what do you think here see on the one hand it wouldn't surprise me seeing as they have worked with Warner Bros on Warner Bros uh intellectual property already as we've already seen um but on the other hand is there anything that really sticks out to you in let's just say Mortal Kombat 1 that you could say oh this looks like s

omething that would have been forced by sweet baby Inc does anything really stand out to you the only thing I can think of and this is something there was a lot of backlash was was uh Tanya's design she seemed to have more of an Egyptian look in past games um the they completely took her and used kind of like um black panther style influence in her current rendition and there's a lot of people that didn't like that that's the only real thing as far as in the story I myself can't think of anythin

g off the top of my head that is out of place for how Mortal Kombat has been written since one of Brothers took place you know we've seen stuff in the last couple games um that do see very Pro Dei there was even like a anti-trump section in Mortal Kombat 11 I think it was uh the Make Out World great again you know comparing Donald Trump to shiao khah is a very heavy-handed politic iCal statement aop political statement in the games but Mortal Kombat 1 I don't see a lot of that messaging just at

first glance another thing that could be considered Dei and you know a lot of people have mentioned this is the changing of Johnny Cage for Janet cage and we actually have a Biz episode going deeper into that and I don't think that is actually related to this at all I think there's a completely different reason for it and we go into a lot of spefic specifics on that particular Topic in that bze episode so if you want to check it out the link is in the description below firstly just to comment on

the whole Tanya thing now while you already know my thoughts on Tanya's uh modified appearance I I preferred when she looked more sort of ancient Egyptian uh inspired theme you know that that for me was uh was a huge part of the alert to the character I've mentioned before and ironically I'm using the exact keyboard right now I really like ancient Egypt the mythology and everything you know these are all hieroglyphs and everything and I I love that but I didn't like the change to the character

in terms of appearance not because I think she's ugly or whatever although I I must admit that that screen capture that everybody has from the story is not exactly the most flattering but the face scan model was absolutely gorgeous oh yeah she's beautiful but it's less about the the attractiveness of the character and just more about the the the inspired sort of origins of the character and now you say here that it could be something that might have been affected by let's just say sweet baby ink

but we also do have to remember we did have this discussion in the past about the umadi and the umadi as in in Zulu means Cent or guard so this was clearly a part of the story and we've just talked about how swe baby in can sort of force themselves into the story and such but I don't know like if we're looking back at say Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat one and we compare them we've already seen certain political mentions and such and so I don't know this just feels like it's part of mortal

combat's last couple of entries as we've already seen it it's consistent you know between MK1 which I don't believe has any mention of sweet Inc ever uh in comparon to the reports exactly so this to me seems consistent with Mortal Kombat 11 and even if anything toned down to an extent I would argue that if anything really does stand out more in terms of hate to use this word for this political then it would be the tarot covid comparison and Co should not be political but here we are uh so it's j

ust I don't know looking at it from a more International lens it's it's very weird for me to sort of just see this this very I say American I know that they're based in Canada but I'm just going to say ironically or hypocritically maybe you know this American sort of viewpoint in that this is how you go about diversity equality inclusion that it has to be this American Viewpoint in terms of this inclusion whereas I would say the rest of the world is not Canada is part of America yeah yeah I know

but I'm just saying I know but people are going to people are going to differentiate between them saying Oh the countries are different yes however you're on the same continent so uh but you get what I'm saying in the sense that let's just say European mindsets Middle Eastern mindsets Far Eastern mindsets they are not going to have a similar take on Dei that is going to be the case in say America especially by those who are extremely um vocal in their in their alignment as to these sort of topi

cs there there is another option here too which we didn't really discuss uh as we were going through presenting all this information it is possible that wner Brothers Discovery is somehow pushing this negative attention towards sweet baby Inc to kind of take attention off of itself uh we've discussed in our last Soul stream how there doesn't seem to be a lot of accountability with one of Brothers leadership and yeah and you know everything going on right now uh with their monetization models lik

e they just made an announcement how they're going to be leaning really heavy into monetization even more than we've discussed in our past B siiz episodes this issue with sweet baby Inc uh has been documented for over 10 years and they're just now coming out right after we find out what the what the plan is for Warner Brothers games so the timing seems a little suspect um by keeping your attention on sweet baby ink you're taking all the criticisms away from what we were talking about previously

which was that Wonder Brothers is going to be monetizing everything from now on so extremely intensely yeah and yeah you could be you could be completely right I mean one one important thing to note as well is that they don't seem to be very conscious of the negative response or fan reception they or if even if they are they just do not care but at the same time distraction is probably the easiest way for them to just be like in the boardroom like eh they're all complaining about this let's give

them something else to talk about and yeah as you said that's exactly what we've done with this video so that could definitely be be an approach that they would take I would not be surprised uh the important thing in my opinion is to make sure that both conversations are continued uh to be followed up on by all fans and all Gamers and everybody who is related in the entertainment industry and even if you're not you know because it all does come together at some point so we're curious what you t

hink the audience do you think this is some conspiracy theory to for one to to throw sweet baby Inc under the bus or do you think uh sweet baby Inc is the company that is forcing these Dei policies do you think they should be part of the video game industry at all or maybe they don't really have any say in this and they're just giving recommendations let us know your thoughts post it down in the comments we want to hear what you guys think and if you are enjoying this content please be sure to s

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