Helldivers 2 Community Manager Claims Game is “WOKE” as Bans Targeted “Bigots, Racists, and Homophobes”

The popular live service game, Helldivers 2, which gained recognition for its impartial approach to political discussions, is now facing criticism.

The game’s community manager, Katherine Baskin, sparked controversy by declaring the game as “pretty woke” before revealing that the apparent neutrality towards political discourse was actually a strategy to target “bigots, transphobes, and racists.”

The game previously faced criticism from LGBT activists after discussions were removed about Arrowhead Game Studios incorporating LGBT capes into Helldivers 2. In the “current year,” some find it unfathomable for a game not to cater directly to LGBT individuals, despite the game’s focus of blowing up bugs, robots, and yourself.

Numerous self-proclaimed “media literate” individuals have compared Helldivers 2 to Starship Troopers, arguing that the game is merely a satire of “fascism,” urging players to view the authoritarian regime of “Super-Earth” as a parody of fascism.

However, in reality, most players just want to enjoy themselves and engage in explosive action, without delving deeply into political interpretations.

However players may no longer be able to celebrate the fact that Helldivers 2 has extensively been viewed as being politically neutral with its official community manager, Katherine Baskin responding to a Tweet regarding a Steam curator review by “Is It Woke?” for Helldivers 2 that stated the game wasn’t woke.

Katherine declared that Helldivers 2 is notably progressive, highlighting its development by a diverse team including “brown and black people,” as well as LGBT and female developers. She described the live service game, devoid of a proper story narrative, as a satire of jingoism.

In the same conversation, Katherine Baskin disclosed that she and the Arrowhead Game Studios team were actively removing individuals from the game’s Discord whom they identified as bigots, racists and phobes.

Despite being admired by the gaming community at large for simply taking a neutral stance in regards to political discourse in regards to the addition of LGBT capes into a game that doesn’t need to pander towards any sexuality in order to be enjoyed.

Baskin has taken steps to shield her Twitter account and modified her Discord profile to evade negativity. However, Mark Kern, also known as Grummz, shared several other posts she had made over the past four years.

In June 2020 she she posted, “I’m not talking much because it’s not my turn to talk. It’s time for black people to be heard and for white people to listen. I want to continue to do everything I can to help, including passing the mic.”

In a separate post, she expressed disdain for the terms “casual” and “hardcore,” noting their implication that skill equates to passion. She suggested that as games become more accessible, inclusive, and experimental, these terms are losing their relevance and becoming meaningless to gamers.

The possibility of consumers being misled by Arrowhead Game Studios’ political stance was not overlooked. However, discussions regarding the actions of its community manager were promptly deleted from the game’s Steam community forums, intensifying the controversy.

Given the commercial nature of products, official platforms like Discord are often heavily moderated by progressive individuals. Those inclined to moderate others are typically not the most trustworthy, as few are willing to undertake such tasks except for those with control freak tendencies, often indicated by prominently featuring their pronouns in their social media bios.

“Community Managers” tend to exhibit similar behaviors. Many come from platforms like Reddit and Tumblr, where power dynamics and pronoun usage are prevalent. Consequently, a significant portion of the fanbase actively avoids official Discord servers, opting to create their own as gatekeeping is the most effective way to preserve a fanbase.

It raises questions as to why companies like Arrowhead Game Studios would hire individuals who seem to hold animosity toward their consumer base. The real question is what action will Arrowhead take regarding their community manager if any whatsoever because her antics are inexcusable.

Her attempt to suggest that Helldivers 2 players are unaware of the fact that Super Earth is supposed to be “evil” shows a lack of understanding of satire.

Additionally, her assertion that the game is “woke” simply because it was developed by individuals of diverse races and genders implies that anything not exclusively created by White men is automatically considered “woke,” which really says a lot.

it’s striking how closely Helldivers 2 parallels Starship Troopers in every aspect.

Despite the corpulent cow’s insistence on arguing that Helldivers 2 “is satire against fascism,” most people simply enjoy the game for what it is, disregarding any supposed “message” that isn’t actually evident.

Helldivers 2 is purely about having fun, blowing up bugs and robots. Any convoluted backstory likely falls on deaf ears, as players are focused entirely on the gameplay experience.

There’s nothing inherently “woke” about it, the game itself doesn’t feature LGBT capes to appease vindictive progressives, which is why people such as Katherine Baskin have to manufacture bullshit to get woke about because they simply hate the fact that Helldivers 2 has become a game for “bros” because they despise the concept of people having fun and are compelled to push a progressive narrative.

I’ll reserve judgment until I see how this situation unfolds. However, I’m currently relieved that I haven’t bought the game yet, as it seems to embody many aspects that don’t align with my personal preferences in a video game.

Nonetheless, it does appear to offer mindless enjoyment.

The game is a live service title priced at $40. While I generally don’t mind live service games, I prefer those that don’t require an upfront payment. After all, as the saying goes, “you’ll own nothing but you’ll be happy.”

Eventually, like Ubisoft’s recent decision to shut down The Crew, these games tend to fade away and close entirely hence why I naturally detest the concept of paying for a game that’ll certainly be dead within five to ten years.

The game lacks a central story narrative, which focuses on a galactic squadron defending Super Earth from swarms of bugs and robots. However, seasonal updates have been underwhelming, with most attention directed towards the in-game store and microtransactions.

While in-game rewards are somewhat generous, you certainly get a lot more for your money versus other games of a similar nature, obtaining store items will require extensive grinding due to frequent rotations, but with a couple of hours grind it’s actually feasible to purchase in-game items without having to spend a dime.

Nevertheless, it’s evident that steps must be taken regarding the community manager for Helldivers 2. Their actions are jeopardizing the game’s reputation with consumers by straying from neutrality on political discussions and engaging in personal activism on social media platforms as an official representative of the game.