Here we go again. Daybreak Games under the stewardship of EverQuest Executive Franchise Producer Holly Longdale has decided burrow deeper into the rabbit hole of identity politics with more Pride virtue signaling.
In June I reported about this shameless act of virtue signaling. But this horse is still not dead. Recently, The EverQuest show reported in an “exclusive” that over 150,000 Pride bunnies had been adopted by EverQuest and EverQuest 2 players in July of 2019.
The article quotes Holly:
Holly Longdale says of the success of the bunnies, “We’re very proud to support our diverse community of players.”
The article goes on to educate the reader that each bunny — a free in-game vanity pet — represents a different part of the LGBT community. A flag for each of the three major communities within the larger community was displayed: one for the LGBT community the ubiquitous rainbow flag, the second a bi-sexual pride flag and finally a transgender pride flag.
I’ve been following modern culture for years. I knew there was a Pride flag but and I had no idea that bi-sexuals and transgender people had flags or even needed flags. Does every community need a flag now? Do people who do yoga and Pilates need flags?
I did some research into Pride flags and I was shocked to learn that there are more than just 3 kinds of flags. Apparently, there are 18 different Pride flags in existence:
- Gay Pride
- Leather Pride
- Bear Pride
- Bi-sexual Pride
- Straight Pride
- Lipstick Lesbian Pride
- Fat Fetish Pride
- Straight Allies
- Lesbian Pride
- Asexual Pride
- Pansexual Pride
- Polyamorous Pride
- Transgender Pride
- Intersex Pride
- Genderqueer Pride
- Rubber Pride
- Master/Slave Pride
- Feather (Drag) Pride
I am perplexed. Since LGBTQ+ people make up a purported 4.5% of the population, what does their gender identity and sexual proclivities have to do with EverQuest?
Some Questions
Why were only 3 flags chosen? Why weren’t all 18 Pride flags included?
Why should EQ/EQ2 players care what flags these communities have chosen for themselves?
Why was there no flag for heterosexual people? Heterosexual people represent 95.5% of the population. Why were they excluded and made to feel unwelcome in Norrath?
All EverQuest gamers are equal but some are more equal than others.
It is unclear why this story published by The EverQuest Show is even newsworthy. Why is this of any concern to rank and file EQ or EQ2 players? DBG sells all kinds of items in their stores with varying degrees of success. Will each new addition to the DBG store get an exclusive story or just the ones that have a trendy social justice message?
It is also unclear where the impetus came for this story since there was no press release from DBG nor was there any official Producer’s Letter divulging this information. Did Holly Longdale contact The EverQuest Show or did the EverQuest Show contact Holly Longdale?
After reading this article, I have to wonder if The EverQuest Show has become a propaganda arm of Daybreak Games.
The original announcement of Pride bunnies — which is blatant LGBT propaganda — was buried in a recent Producer’s Letter. If DBG would have released this news to the public in a stand-alone article with nothing else, I think they would be ridiculed by the player community who rightly is more concerned about the invasion of Chinese platinum farmers, hackers, bots and hundreds of unfixed bugs than getting some free Pride month bunnies.
Releasing this information to a friendly website seems like a sneaky strategy to virtue signal by DBG. This stunt will end up being a progressive rainbow-colored feather in someone’s cap that will look good on a resume. I fully expect a GLAAD or DICE award looming on the horizon for DBG.
Define Success
Holly Longdale claims that the Pride bunny adoption campaign was a “success”. Well, I beg to differ. It’s hardly considered a success when people accept a free gift. DBG should give other vanity pets away for free and they report back on the numbers of EQ/EQ2 players that have claimed them. Then we would have some form of legitimate comparison to gauge what constitutes success.
How much revenue did DGB make from giving away 150,000 Pride bunnies?
Zero. That’s hardly success for a company that consistently prioritizes monetization schemes before good game design.
Let’s be honest here. If DBG had charged people for the garish oversized Pride bunnies I highly doubt many people would have “adopted” them. I also highly doubt that Holly Longdale would be revealing the low levels of adoption to an EQ news site if that were the case.
Calipornia: Woke Capital of America
As I mentioned in my previous article, what DBG did is part of a disturbing trend of woke California-based video game studios smashing the fourth wall and indoctrinating their customers with progressive ideology.
As well as being the entertainment/videogame/porn capital of the world, California is notorious for being an insular progressive enclave that believes the world revolves around them. Woke Californians are the most self-absorbed people in the world as they walk to work stepping over homeless people and avoiding human excrement on the sidewalk as they clutch their Starbucks coffee on the way to work for a tech/entertainment giant that believes in “changing the world”.
Instead of doing some tangible good for people, they virtue signal on Twitter about the evils of strong borders, racism, xenophobia and white privilege. Trust me, they think they are perfect and they think YOU are the problem and that YOU need to be changed.
As a person who has worked in the video game industry, I know these people all too well. I can personally attest to the fact that most of the people in the video game industry when I was there, were left of center. As a conservative and a Christian, I was an anomaly in the industry. I dared not reveal my thoughts or beliefs to my co-workers or my boss. I stayed in the closet and kept my mouth shut in order to remain employed.
Today it’s far worse. Back in the day when people valued propriety, most studio heads and game developers — at least outwardly to the public — behaved in a professional, dignified manner and did not reveal their politics. Sadly, that is no longer the case because of the arrival of the bad Orange man. America’s political climate has so drastically changed that many of them now feel emboldened to come out of the closest and happily reveal themselves as full-blown radical leftist activists.
The days are long over when LGBT people in America and Europe can legitimately claim that they are victims that need to be emancipated and coddled by social justice warriors and woke corporations. LGBT people don’t need to be pandered to or condescended to. Many LGBT people are sick and tired of the shrill minority in their own community that deigns to define the entire community, speak on their behalf and embarrass them by pride extremism antics.
People of Faith Are Gamers Too
Billions of people around the world who hold traditional faith beliefs such as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Shintos and Buddhists might find the promotion of the “official” monolithic LGBT agenda as offensive. People of faith happen to be gamers as well. We don’t appreciate it when our beliefs are dismissed, marginalized and disrespected.
From a business point of view, the strategy of alienating the religious and cultural beliefs of the majority of your customers seems downright insane. Dave Morrison from Blue Collar Logic YouTube channel does an excellent job of unpacking this madness:
Do as I Say, But Not as I Do
The tech and entertainment industry does not practice the diversity that they preach. They do not believe in the most important diversity of all: viewpoint diversity. Companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter allow their woke employees to harass and drum out conservatives and people of faith — especially those who happen to support President Trump.
Digging Deeper into Why
I have a theory as to how this came about. On June 3, the Fires of Heaven discussion forums released the results of an EverQuest Developers AMA Reddit. It’s quite possible that Longdale got the idea for Pride bunnies from one of the questioners:
110. What is Daybreak Games doing to make the Everquest community more Trans-Inclusive?
That’s a preposterous question if I’ve ever heard one. You could ask this question about any community and it would be equally as idiotic. Let me reiterate: EverQuest — a high fantasy virtual world — has never turned anyone away. As I mentioned in my previous article, anyone can create whatever gender character they like and role-play them how they see fit. Also, it’s not the role of the developers to force the EQ community to become more “trans-inclusive” whatever that means.
Conclusion
It’s misguided to needlessly alienate the majority of your customers. Yet that is exactly what is happening in corporate America today. The LGBT agenda i.e. the diversity and inclusion agenda has become the official values (religion) of business — especially in progressive California.
Holly Longdale claims to support “the diverse player base” of Daybreak Games and we all know that’s a thinly veiled euphemism for LGBT people. Of course, that’s her right as an American to believe whatever she wants and support them. However, her and her co-worker’s personal social/political beliefs should have nothing to do with EverQuest nor should they be using EQ and EQ2 and free vanity pet gimmicks as a vehicle to promote them.
DBG and SOE before them have never denied anyone the ability to play EQ and EQ2 because of their gender or sexual preferences. It’s a phony non-issue.
If you really support the diverse player base then please expend your talent and energies on content, features, and improvements that ALL players can enjoy and that all players can relate to. Make more content for authentic diverse player archetypes such as socializers, explorers, role-players and crafters who are players that are routinely ignored in favor of pandering to high-end raiding guilds. And yes, raiders are people too, so make better guild management tools. Start having live GM and Guide quests and events such as invasions and dragons and deities visiting Norrath once again.
If you have time and money to spend making free Pride bunnies that nobody wants, surely you have time and money to make things that EQ players actually want.
In 1997, Apple’s Steve Jobs challenged the world to “Think Different”. Now the titans of Big Tech want us all to “Think the Same.” They want us to obey. They want us to capitulate to their values, to their morals, to their rules.
I say NO.
Video games and MMORPGs are a sacred oasis. They are the one place we can escape to get away from the real world. Identity politics propaganda has no place in video games.
I recently came back to EverQuest because I wanted to relive all the wonderful times I had 20 years ago. I didn’t come back to have LGBT propaganda shoved down my throat. Identity politics has no place in EverQuest.
I have a lot of respect for Holly. I know she cares deeply about the future of the EverQuest franchise. As a long-time MMO player and EQ veteran, I’m completely invested in the future success of EQ but the intrusion of real-world politics into Norrath is divisive and a needless mistake.
It’s time to take a stand against this coercive propaganda. It’s wrong and it’s dangerous. I don’t want to play video games that are full of overt and covert indoctrination. Stop lecturing us!
We need to stop being cowards. We need to stand up and speak out. Let your voice be heard. If we do not, the tiny shrill minority and their enablers will win and we’ll surely get the video game studios and the video games we deserve.
–Wolfshead
Today I had no choice but to delete two inflammatory replies to this article. They did not rebut one single point in my article. Instead, they chose to hurl insults, epithets and ant-Christian slurs at me. I welcome posts that disagree with me as long as they are on-topic, polite and add something of value to the conversation.