Sigh. Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead’s CCO and longtime figurehead Johan Pilestedt has tweeted that his philosophy is to “make good games, don’t make a contemporary political statement”. Which, you know, is a bit of a weird thing to say when a whole bunch of games – Helldivers 2 for example – clearly manage to easily be good and explore political themes by their very nature.
This line from Pilestedt came amid a chat with fans about politics and “DEI” – the latter being the diversity and inclusion stuff that internet idiots who think Fight Club is just about a club for fights rather than having any kind of subtext believe is ruining everything nowadays – in games. As you can imagine, intelligent points were made.
The thread started off ok, with Pilestedt simply ending 2024 by asking folks what their “expectations and desires” for Arrowhead’s next game are. Naturally, because this is the site formerly known as Twitter dot com, one user replied: “Never add DEI to your games.”
“If it doesnt add to the game experience, it detracts. And games should be a pure pursuit of amazing moments,” Pilestedt responded to this person. “How would DEI have benefitted Helldivers 2?” another user then asked the developer.
“I don’t like labels. But mankind is united in its extreme xenophobia on Super Earth,” reads Pilestedt’s reply to that, “#Inclusion so, maybe that’s DEI? I really don’t care. Make good games, don’t make a contemporary political statement.”
Got it. Just good games, and nothing that might resemble a contemporary political statement or point. Out of interest, let’s have a look at the fresh Major Order Helldivers 2 players have just been given in their ongoing war against The Illuminate.
“The Illuminate have been forced to pay a heavy toll for their merciless campaign of terror,” it reads, “The Helldivers killed vast swaths of the bloodthirsty alien species, sending a message of what is to come should they choose to continue their aggression.
“Yet the greatest casualty of the Illuminate campaign of terror has been our citizens’ sense of safety. To restore our citizens’ safety, the Super Earth Government has unanimously voted to enact the ‘Freedom & Readiness to Enable Effective Defense & Obstruction of Mind-Influence’ Act of 2184, or FREEDOM Act.
“The Helldivers are ordered to secure Mastia to facilitate the construction of the new Center. Only then will our citizens feel safe.”
What’s that FREEDOM Act about, you ask? Well, it’ll “create a new security force dedicated to loyalty enforcement, and empower them to find and indict Illuminate mind-influence, dissidence, and other serious crimes”. Nope, nothing political here. Then again, there’s nothing about treating minorities and people of different sexual identities like actual human beings – which is what actually bothers the anti-DEI lot.
It’s disappointing to see Pilestedt do some fence sitting here, even if his comments are interpreted as simply meaning that the game isn’t going to drawn on any of today’s important headlines and key issues for direct inspiration – which seems to be the most diplomatic way you could read them.
Are you terrified one of your games might feature something vaguely diverse or inclusive? If so, please take a long, hard look in the mirror, and maybe consider how other people feel for once in your life.