Splash Damage

Five Nights at Freddy’s Scott Cawthon retired not long ago after Kotaku and others attacked him for daring to be a right-leaning Christian. Now, months later, Kotaku has taken another jab at him by calling him “weird” for his beliefs. We discuss the game industry’s intolerance to Christians and rightwingers along with the Grand Theft Auto remakes being censored, Kotaku getting mad at a new developer for having only male employees, PC Gamer getting upset at Call of Duty marketing that actually benefits real veterans, and why not every video game can be accessible to all people.

Military shooter Battlefield 2042 has a character named Emma who looks like a woman but goes by they/them pronouns. We talk about this pandering tokenism in a game that glorifies warfare, of all things, along with Riot’s decision to eliminate chatting with opponents in League of Legends, CSI pushing its anti-Gamergate narrative, Dave Chappelle landing in hot water for his trans jokes, Superman becoming bi, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series including black hobbits, and plenty more.

Waypoint writers are paid big bucks to cover video games and can’t even make it more than a few hours through the games they cover, including Far Cry 6. We talk about Waypoint’s moral qualms with the series along with Kotaku’s offense at Twitch streamers being predominantly men, the ridiculous levels of censorship seen in the upcoming virtual reality remake of Resident Evil 4, the ongoing moral purge in World of Warcraft, a hilarious change to how gender is handled in Halo: Reach, and the bad news that Brianna Wu is making a Gamergate TV show.

Happy Mag published an article asking if Grand Theft Auto V’s “harmful” depictions of trans people should be retroactively censored. We dive into why censorship is never permissible along with China’s endless quest to censor games, an actor complaining the Super Mario Bros. voice actors are too white, Bungie’s hilarious efforts at “diversity and inclusion,” and more.

Kotaku has a new black writer who believes Skater XL is too white. We discuss how Kotaku and its staff treat blackness like a personality trait, elevating race above all else, along with games media’s silence when it comes to abuse allegations against a woke female game developer, Diablo II: Resurrected’s hilariously ironic profanity filter, Daniel Craig’s views on a female James Bond, and a Marvel executive who thinks the term “X-Men” is outdated.

Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson resigned last week after he tweeted that he is pro-life. We discuss the groupthink pervasive in the video game industry that makes it impossible for anyone to tolerate anything but leftist worldviews, God of War: Ragnarok including a black character, activist Sam Maggs’ role in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, Kotaku complaining about Ubisoft hiring a white man, Evil Hat Productions saying only ideologues can play their game, and more.

Under a new law in China, those younger than 18 are limited to only three hours of gaming a week. Kotaku has, of course, defended the tyrannical country from accusations of government overreach. We discuss what this means for the industry along with the irony of Kotaku being upset that Call of Duty: Vanguard is rewriting history, Kotaku defending Boyfriend Dungeon from censorship as a thinly veiled attempt to bash men, Sony backtracking on its promise to allow players to freely upgrade their PS4 versions of Horizon: Forbidden West to the PS5, and more.

Volition’s upcoming reimagining of the Saints Row series will not feature the over-the-top humor and offensiveness that made the game stand out in a sea of generic third-person, open-world shooters. We discuss how today’s political landscape led to a watered-down version of a beloved franchise as well as Twitch socialist Hasan Piker’s hypocrisy in buying a multimillion-dollar mansion, the upcoming live action Cowboy Bebop butchering Faye Valentine’s look, Blizzard’s decision to rename Overwatch’s McCree to placate fans, why not every piece of media needs to cater to all identities at all times, and more.

Actress Geena Davis released a report blaming men and video games for violence and sexism. We go over its more ludicrous claims and debunk them and also discuss Rhianna Pratchett’s disappointment in Grand Theft Auto V not having female protagonists, a developer using her race and gender to express disappointment in Fortnite stealing Among Us’ game concept, the irony of hypersensitive weirdos sending death threats to a Boyfriend Dungeon voice actor because they’re triggered by his character, Wikipedia labeling GamerGate a harassment campaign, and more.

New studio Raccoon Logic got heat this week over the sin of being an all-white, all-male studio. We discuss the irony of Jason Schreier crying about a studio’s lack of diversity along with the fallout at Blizzard, a Respawn developer being fired for comments made 14 years ago, Kotaku reporting Back 4 Blood zombies are screaming racial slurs, Game Rant’s weird idea of how to protest sexual misconduct allegations at Ubisoft, how men who play as female characters are actually misogynists, and how the Dead Space remake might be censored.