You reap what you sow.
In a surprising twist that nobody saw coming, a Black video game developer has spoken out about how the modern gaming industry tokenizes representation by refusing to portray characters of color as attractive.
Remember Del Walker? He previously worked at Naughty Dog under Neil Druckmann, contributing to The Last of Us 2 Remastered as well as being on the books for games such as Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League alongside Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Several months ago, Walker expressed his frustration with the indie sensation Palworld. Combining elements of popular game genres (open world, survival crafting) with the creature capture concept reminiscent of Pokémon, Palworld gained significant attention.
Aside from Del’s retarded blunders, he has vehemently expressed his disdain for those voicing the current agenda in the video gaming industry. He has openly criticized consumers noticing and recognizing patterns in modern game designs that focus on making women appear more masculine and androgynous.
He especially dislikes anyone who protests against DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) or ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) agendas, particularly those targeting consultancy firms like Sweet Baby Inc.
Despite his apparent ignorance of the broader issues affecting gaming, Del Walker has spoken out against the bias against beautiful and attractive female characters during the development process.
Walker revealed that he had pitched designs for Black female characters in video games multiple times, using a picture of Tolami Benson as a reference point of an attractive women of color. However, he expressed frustration that after several design revisions from his coworkers, his initial concept returned devoid of the original beauty he had envisioned.
We’ve previously covered how modern video game design often aligns with BlackRock’s ESG agenda, which emphasizes sustainability, diversity, and inclusion.
This typically means altering hiring practices to favor individuals from marginalized backgrounds over more experienced workers, and ensuring that marketing and products are inclusive, featuring characters of varied ethnic backgrounds and sexualities. Game developers outside the West often censor their games and alter dialogue to be more inclusive and less “problematic” when sold globally.
There is a clear connection between modern game design and an aversion to heteronormative character designs, attractive women, women wearing revealing outfits and especially those who are well-endowed. All of which are deemed problematic, sexist, and wrong by today’s gaming journalists, consultancy groups and especially Larry Fink.
Microsoft has implemented its own “product inclusion framework” to help developers avoid designing games around sexist tropes, particularly in how women are portrayed and designed. Niantic collaborated with the GaymerX consultancy group to remove the female gender from the Pokémon Go mobile game, significantly altering the waist and hip ratios of “female” avatars to make them appear more ambiguous and masculine, as well as generally making them larger and reducing bust sizes.
Game developers are increasingly pushing the “diversity” and “inclusion” agenda, often collaborating with DEI and ESG consultants who review games to ensure compliance and the absence of problematic elements. These consultants frequently demand the inclusion of more diverse characters from non-White ethnic backgrounds. If developers resist these demands, they risk facing coordinated slander campaigns from mainstream media outlets.
A notable example is Game Science and their upcoming game Wukong: Black Myth. Reportedly, Sweet Baby Inc attempted to extort the Chinese developers for a $7 million ransom. When Game Science refused, game journalists tarnished their reputation by labeling them as sexist.
Back to the topic of Del Walker, he made a subsequent post featuring Tolami Benson alongside a Black female character named Commander Wright, designed for SEGA’s canceled HYENAS queer space heist shooter. The game was intended to feature a drag queen character but the game was ultimately scrapped by SEGA just months before its intended launch, raising suspicions that the game might have been a tax write-off.
Walker emphasized that his frustration wasn’t about subtle changes to his character concept designs but rather that his original vision was completely subverted and altered by his colleagues. These colleagues seem fixated on making their game as diverse and representative as possible, leaving no room for female characters of color to be designed for the “male gaze.”
Del reiterated his disdain for the modern consumer, stating that he doesn’t want to cater to “Gamergate men.” However, he is fed up with his concept designs being altered beyond recognition, resulting in unrecognizable, masculine, older women. He described his vision of Black female characters being turned into what he called “grocery store aunties.”
Indie developer Richmond Lee, known as being the art director for Zecha Tactics, shared a similar experience. He mentioned that a female Asian friend of his encountered the same issue when designing Asian women for Western games. Her work was constantly redesigned by another artist to look more “stereotypical,” with the team then patting themselves on the back for good representation.
Walker replied that developers fixate on stereotypical ethnic features as a last-ditch effort when tasked with diversity. For instance, Activision celebrates Black culture by incorporating Black hip-hop artists in Call of Duty, and modern game design often features Black male characters with a dreadlock fade hairstyle.
These developers don’t aim for genuine representation. Including beautiful, attractive female characters of any color would likely lower their ESG ratings. Instead of being creative, their designs are formulaic, lazy, repetitive, and essentially become stereotypes themselves.
We already know that DEI consultant agencies, in the case of Wukong: Black Myth, operate like a mafia, coercing developers to pay consultation fees to implement race swapping and diversification. This essentially means making every single female character unattractive, regardless of their ethnicity.
This orchestrated push for diversity and supposed representation goes against the wishes of the consumer, who are overwhelmingly male, as seen from Capcom’s recent Super Election. It’s no wonder that figures in the gaming industry are frustrated, realizing that this entire push for inclusivity was a ruse to label gamers as inherently sexist and racist, a tactic game journalists have employed for over a decade, even before Gamergate.
I don’t feel sympathy for Del Walker. He’s never going to fully grasp the agenda working against him, likely because it all originated as a means of attacking and displacing White people from the game development industry, and now their efforts are working against him.
This whole ordeal began with constant pleas and declarations that the gaming industry scrutinizes people of color, claiming that individuals like Del Walker would never make it due to systemic oppression. This has evolved into a global political movement of forced compliance, tipping the balance in favor of the “oppressed.”
As a result, consultation groups filled with “marginalized” voices have emerged, dedicated to race-swapping characters and injecting as much LGBT identity politics into games as possible to maximize supposed representation. The end result is often poor writing and unattractive character designs.
The oppressed have become the oppressors, and Del Walker is now facing a dose of reality as these same marginalized voices, who claim to fight for diversity and representation, tarnish the efforts and visions of ethnic developers such as himself, stifling creativity. Developers of any ethnic background are now being oppressed by diverse voices in gaming. How ironic.
Despite proclaiming he doesn’t wish to fuel Gamergate men, he confirms there’s an organized effort to undermine female characters and femininity, even if they happen to be Black or any other race.
No matter who you are or where you come from, gamers are being oppressed. We’re all in this together in the fight against modern game design.
His rant underscores what we already know, though it’s somewhat ironic to see woke interference in character designs affecting those of diverse backgrounds as well. Modern game developers, gaming journalists, and the like, seem to have an aversion to women. It’s as simple as that.
