We finally have concrete proof of the reason why Michael Bell of Bellular Gaming has refused to discuss the infiltration of DEI propaganda in video games. This week Bell interviewed Blizzard World of Warcraft Vice President Holly Longdale who was giving interviews in London England for the upcoming WoW expansion: The War Within.
Strangely enough, Bell doesn’t appear in the video unlike Mr. GM who interviewed Holly on the same day:
If Bell had spoken out truthfully about DEI and the Sweet Baby James scandal, he very well may have been denied an interview with Longdale. As readers of this website know, Blizzard is committed to far-left causes like DEI and representation in all of their video games. Holly Longdale has long been an advocate of LGBTQ representation and was the person directly responsible for PRIDE vanity pets being offered for free every June for EverQuest players.
A couple of weeks ago Bell tried to deal with the original outrage that he caused by releasing a video that ended up creating even more outrage from viewers:
Here are some devasting comments from the video:
I’m shocked you just refuse to acknowledge the awful things SBI employees have said.
Is he trolling? I refuse to believe that someone with “news” in the channel name is as uninformed as he is coming across. This calls into question every Bellular video I’ve watched over time. I thought he could be trusted but I’m no longer convinced that’s true.
“no sense in beating around the bush” – proceeds to beat around the bush for 30 minutes. C’mon Michael, it’s a pretty big elephant, and the room is tiny. How did you miss him?
A 30-minute long video in which you try to dance around the elephant in the room.
Bro literally talked for 29 minutes without saying anything.
Wasn’t your game The Pale Beyond published by the studio Fellow Traveler? The studio who is on the client list of Sweet Baby Inc. ? Is this the reason you guys are running defense and being intentionally obtuse?
It goes on and on and on like this. You’re not fooling anyone, Mikey.
Conclusion
To keep the spice flowing, Bell feels he must capitulate to the woke agenda. The truth be damned. It’s just that simple. Michael’s entire business operation is all about leveraging his access to Blizzard so he can continue to produce videos that provide exclusive content to his readers. Therefore, he’s not going to rock the boat by challenging the appropriateness of neo-Marxist propaganda being inserted into video games. If he does, his interviews with woke studios like Blizzard will cease and he’ll most likely be denied a press pass at BlizzCon and all press events.
This is not true journalism, it’s access journalism. Most of the YouTubers who report on video games have followed suit and avoided any form of controversy that would put them at odds with the ideological alignment of the studios they cover. This has turned them into obedient lapdogs of the studios they are covering.
Authentic journalism while admittedly rare these days, is the opposite. It purports to strive for objectivity, fairness, and accuracy. Journalists also serve as watchdogs over public affairs and institutions, playing a crucial role in supporting the democratic process.
The bottom line is that Michael Bell has sold his soul and betrayed his audience for more clicks. Failing to report on wokeness in video games, has the unintended consequences of making video games worse than better. Not only are DEI-focused developers propagandists, but they are also the least skilled of anyone on the dev team. They are often hired because they check off diversity hiring requirements.
Many entertainment companies like Disney and Blizzard are currently being sued by former employees for illegal discrimination based on DEI policies. The odious practice of DEI is swiftly coming to an end as the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled for plaintiffs who have been adversely affected by it.
–Wolfshead
I just took a trip down memory lane, I read some postings in a strategy game forum I did over 10 years ago. Around 2014.
This is Warlords of Draenor era, in its very late stage there was a “Return to WoW” promo that a friend gave me, and I went to Draenor through the Dark Portal … again… and had fun again. Till Legion, I left during BfA Beta as it just felt too wrong to me. Who created the story/lore for BfA, was it Danuser, Christie Golden, whatever, the whole story and questlines and the horrible overweight Kul Tirans had already such a woke stench that I just didn’t want to explore this way.
Strange that the world of Draenor was always so fun for me, as it introduced flying which …hmm not sure if I still believe it to have been a bad idea, but it totally changes how the game plays. There is a reason flying must now be regularly “unlocked” before you can fly over a new map in a WoW expansion. But at least it goes back to the time of Metzen and original WoW lore.
But what does this “10 years ago” thing have to do with Bellular Gaming? 10 years ago, this is also the date of the first still available videos of Bell posted on YouTube.
He was always of the agreeable sort, not alienating anyone, friendly. He then grew in subscribers, started his own game studio, and released an apparently rather unsuccessful game in 2023. He even posted a video about this on the Bellular Studios channel.
There one can see the same pattern as in this video. The title was “I failed” – and just like in “The Elephant in the Room” he is beating around the bush for the entire duration of the video, as not one sentence, a single moment in this video is him or anyone else shown talking plainly about failure or the elephant in the room.
Just bait and switch, attracting viewers. But also showing not one bit of the honest statement hinted at. It is apparently a rare thing to admit in games development, so I don’t want to blame him too much.
His channel grew, his studio costs money… he is depending on viewers, funding… and is afraid of biting the hand that feeds him. He chose his woke industry buddies again over his viewers.
Games journalism is one of the most access gated kinds of journalism, also surprisingly the one with the most delusional writers about their capabilities, they are all Pulitzer price winners and celebrated authors somehow, in their mind at least, and extremely woke infested.
Streamers who made a business out of streaming also got extremely streamlined into a very samey group of woke-friendly and developer-friendly court-reporting lackeys, it’s not only Bellular.
You can watch them for early access to this or that content. You shouldn’t value their opinion and even be more than aware that they are paid promoters. The bigger they are, the more rotten they are. I cannot name an “authentic” YouTuber that is a big fish right now, thinking about it.
When I was still playing WoW a few years ago I was also watching dev videos, but thinking now about it… just like this Holly Longdale interview, all smart talk, extremely well-orchestrated, and then you see some content and the rest was hogwash that might turn into a proper brainwash if one is exposed too much to it.
I noticed the pattern of his criticism already earlier. When it was harmless criticism that was already well known and widely accepted, he voiced it, but bringing up a new point of criticism? Or talking about the elephant in the room? NEVER.
Danuser, Asmongold, Bell(ular) have something in common, despite all their differences. When they got deep into business they did not turn back when it came to the point to sell their soul. Too many others did so as well, some just even embraced it.
I never really liked him, a bit like Rhykker. They feel so vague and lacking passion. The news they choose to report seem boring, vague and also very easy and lazy. I’ve tried watching them several times, probanly about 10 times each, but I never finish the video, they are just too boring.
They have found their niche where they don’t take a side or really have any kind of defined opinion, they are so impartial, they bore me to tears.
Bell drones on because he likes the sound of his own voice. It’s very weird that a game developer loves Blizzard so much. I’m wondering if he’s trying to get hired there.
All of these YouTubers are worshiping the golden calf of money. I find it amusing that Bell is so desperate for engagement that he uses his own embarrassing blunder as fodder. This guy is so high on his supply that he can’t think straight.