We reported about a week ago on something that was building up in the world of gaming. Now it seems that just like Barbara Streisand, who unfortunately (for her) gave her name to the Streisand Effect by making things hilariously worse while trying to clean up a mess, Sweet Baby Inc. is digging itself deeper. Inadvertently, it seems to be on the cusp of creating Gamergate 2.0.
So what happened? Sweet Baby Inc. is a consultation company that provides services to video game companies to build progressive narratives in their games, including Kill The Justice League.
A gamer on Steam curated a list of titles that gamers could choose to avoid if they were not on board with this messaging. This led to a complete meltdown at Sweet Baby Inc. with team members taking to Twitter to declare this as unfair. Things then got worse for them. Video emerged of their CEO openly talking about how companies were threatened if they weren’t on board with their message and approach.
Another staff member had their Twitter account removed after they tried to mobilize a digital cancellation hit on the Steam curator who treated the list. The list jumped from less than 9k followers to over 140k and rising. Talk about Sweet Baby Inc. exploded across the internet and they trended globally. Most feedback was negative.
Things continued to get worse for them last week. A senior editor at Kotaku, Alyssa Mercante, published an article titled:
“Sweet Baby Inc. Doesn’t Do What Some Gamers Think It Does”
The article went on:
“The conversation around SBI has ignited a fundamentally misinformed, GamerGate-esque firestorm. Its employees have faced rampant harassment as a direct result.”
This was immediately seized upon by gamers, pointing out that it was a Sweet Baby Inc. employee who was attempting to encourage the online hit. They also point out that Sweet Baby Inc. CEO Kim Belair is on record as advising senior leaders at games publishers to:
“…go have a coffee with your marketing team and just terrify them with the possibility of what’s going to happen if they don’t give you what you want.”
In another video, she said:
“Your client doesn’t want to introduce our doctrines? Threaten them about the consequences!”
All across the internet, gamers are referring to the article by Kotaku’s Alyssa Mercante as ill-informed at best, or at worst epic gaslighting and an attempt to run cover for Sweet Baby Inc. based on her own views.
The Streisand Effect grows and grows around Sweet Baby Inc. as attempts to minimize damage just make things even worse and annoy gamers even more.
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