Sacred Symbols+, Episode 375 | Gaming's New Culture War: A Dissection (Patreon)

Since the Fall of '23, we've gotten tons of inquiries about a Canadian consultancy firm called Sweet Baby Inc., and as you may know from your own travels through our industry, they've become the lightning rod (and some might even say scapegoat) of a wider amorphous movement against progressive politics in games and gaming. While the topic has come up in passing on Sacred Symbols itself, we honestly collectively felt like the conversation was too grand in scale and required far too much nuance, thus necessitating an episode of Sacred+ about this new, brewing culture war that centers on diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender and sexuality, and so much more. To bring balance, perspective, and knowledge to the conversation, I (Colin) sought three distinct voices from three unique perches. Representing a publisher's and developer's perspective is Atari producer Jason Polansky, making his third Sacred+ appearance. For legal, business, and economic analysis is long-time LSM collaborator Rick Hoeg. And finally, representing a journalist's angle is another long-time LSM ally, Punching Up's and The Washington Post's Gene Park. What you make of our conversation, of course, we'll leave to you, but bear in mind: It's long, it's political, and you probably won't agree with some of it. Armor on; minds open!