When Geoff Keighley is not running his Game Awards show, he is busy plotting the future of the video game industry with initiatives like the Future Class. Members of this esteemed class do not have to attend any class or lectures. They do not have to study for tests or write essays. Instead, they’ve been hand-selected by Geoff for their potential and of course how many diversity and inclusion boxes they check off. More on that later.
Keighley is the Dick Clark of the video game world. Once upon a time he was a Canadian video game journalist. Today he’s a relentless self-promoter and impresario. Geoff positions himself as an erudite forward-thinking visionary who wants video games to be taken more seriously. While I do not disagree with him, I believe video games will arrive whenever they are ready and not when some self-appointed expert believes they should.
Keighley has staked his career on the actualization of video games as a major cultural force in our world. Like fellow e-celeb Jason Schreier, Geoff is a video game groupie — a frustrated wannabe game designer — who has never worked for a video game studio making games. Keighley is to game design as playing air guitar is to heavy metal.
Years ago, Geoff was embroiled in an embarrassing controversy over ethics in game journalism where he shamelessly promoted Mountain Dew and Doritos products during an interview. It became a viral meme. Perhaps, that’s why he’s shoehorning wokeness and identity politics into his Game Awards organization as an act of penance for previous transgressions.
Another probable reason is that because the diversity, inclusion and representation song and dance is en vogue with white progressives, Keighley wants to be one of the cool kids again.
The Future Class has not been without problems. Disgraced game designer Jennifer Scheuerle was removed from the 2020 class when her misdeeds were finally exposed. Apparently, he’s an excellent judge of character as well.
Bonus points if you noticed that ugly artwork.
Here’s the official motto of the Future Class:
50 Inspiring individuals who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future of the video game industry.
Says who? Why Geoff Keighley of course.
For some reason Geoff thinks he knows talent when he sees it and thus, the Future Class was born. He is convinced he can see the future just like Nostradamus and pick the absolute best game designers that will blaze a path of glory in the years ahead.
When you look at the fifty winners, you see consistent themes: wokeness, weirdness, and leftist groupthink. Each winner checks off at least one of the diversity boxes below:
- female
- LGBTQ
- green hair
- non-binary
- non-white
- talks incessantly about diversity and marginalized communities
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see there is clear pattern here that points to a far-left agenda that has the intention of usurping Western civilization. For an organization that preaches diversity I doubt there are any traditionalists, Conservatives, Republicans, Christians, or Trump supporters in the lot.
There are a total of sixteen males and thirty-four females. Why so few males? This looks very sexist and un-inclusive.
There are a total of eighteen white members and thirty-two non-white members. It looks like the future of video games won’t be including very many white people except of course for Geoff. Diversity for thee, but not for me.
Here’s a blurred picture of a modern video game company located in Austin, Texas:
There are a total of thirty six developers in the group photo. Four of them are female and the rest are males. In my personal experience working in the industry, this ratio of females to males is accurate.
The video game industry has been traditionally staffed by white males because most gamers are white males. It stands to reason that the various disciplines that are required to create video game would naturally come from the talent pool of gamers. No amount of social engineering by Keighley and his fellow woke elites will ever change this.
Studios that are foolish enough to embrace the neo-Marxist “diversity, inclusion, and representation” agenda will soon realize the hard way that white males make the best video games. Period. Any attempt to tinker with this winning formula will result in eventual failure.
Even if you don’t care about identity politics or the current state of our culture, you will care when those things ruin the very same video games that you love.
Which way straight white male gamer?
Conclusion
Keighley sees the future of the video game industry like one big happy intersectional hippy commune where feminists, alphabet people, non-binary freaks, miscreants, and pierced weirdos foist their bizzarro creations on the public. Straight white male developers need not apply. This is a conformist and a dystopian future that awaits us if Geoff and others like him have their way. Thankfully, most gamers know better and detest the imposition of wokeness into their beloved games.
Geoff should lead by example, take his own advice, and immediately hire all his Future Class winners and start a brand-new studio. Then instead of using these people as pawns to virtue signal, he would be putting his money where his mouth is and giving them legitimate careers in the industry.
I’m sure he could get funding from various woke studio heads like Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick or some leftist foundation drowning in billions of dollars. Then Geoff would have to walk the walk and produce a video game instead of just talking about them. Then we could all sit back and see for ourselves if he’s the real deal or a two-bit huckster living off the blood, sweat, and tears of others.
Do these fifty Future Class members really represent the future of gaming?
Despite all the platitudes and unearned praise thrown their way, the obvious answer is no.
The chances of any of these fifty Future Class members making any significant contribution to the video game industry is zero to none. Most of them will fade into obscurity and end up living on a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river with their cats. I almost feel sorry for them for how they have been used.
The Future Class is a complete and total sham and a pointless embarrassment that reeks of social engineering, white guilt, insecurity, and desperation. It’s a cheap plastic participation trophy perfectly suited for entitled millennials drunk on their own self-esteem.
