After sparking a fury by saying builders ought to “make good video games, do not make a up to date political assertion,” Helldivers 2 artistic director Johan Pilestedt now says he was referring solely to commentary made “exterior the theme of the sport.”
Pilestedt’s preliminary assertion got here in response to a consumer on X who urged him to “by no means add DEI”—an acronym for variety, fairness, and inclusion that is change into a high-profile bugbear for the anti-woke crowd—in future Arrowhead video games. “If it would not add to the sport expertise, it detracts,” Pilestedt wrote. “And video games ought to be a pure pursuit of wonderful moments.”
Shortly after, replying to a different query about how DEI would have benefitted Helldivers 2, he continued, “I do not like labels. But mankind is united in its excessive xenophobia on Super Earth. #Inclusion so, perhaps that is DEI? I actually do not care. Make good video games, do not make a up to date political assertion.”
Superficially, Pilestedt’s feedback might be seen as comparatively innocuous, however eyebrows had been raised as a result of Helldivers 2 is a really, and really overtly, political recreation: A satire of fascism so heavy-handed it makes Starship Troopers look delicate by comparability. It was understandably jarring to see the man heading up such an on-the-nose antifascist narrative to instantly embrace a “hold politics out of video games” angle.
Some on X identified the apparent disconnect, however after all others glommed onto it as proof that their efforts towards DEI, “wokeness,” and different such tradition wars nonsense are bearing fruit. Unsurprisingly, Pilestedt tried to make clear his level earlier at present, saying he was referring to actions and statements made “exterior the theme of the sport.”
“Well, that is the theme of the sport,” Pilestedt wrote in response to a consumer on X who identified that his feedback had been incongruous to the very apparent political components of Helldivers 2. “I meant exterior of the theme. Sorry for being unclear. Also, it is extra chilly struggle/Bush-era politics that encourage HD2.”
It’s doable some linguistic nuance is being misplaced as Pilestedt seemingly makes an attempt to stroll the “hold everybody completely happy” tightrope, however there’s nonetheless a component of “do not be political” to his try at clarification that stands in sharp distinction to the sport itself.Â
Further complicated his follow-up, Pilestedt took the chance to invoke one more tradition wars sizzling level, saying that “cancel tradition is likely one of the worst sides of on-line interplay.”
Pilestedt’s statements recall to mind contrasting statements expressed by former Bethesda Softwork PR chief Pete Hines, who stated in 2017 that Wolfenstein is “a determined anti-Nazi sequence,” and “we aren’t going to draw back from what [Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus] is about.”
“[In the game] liberating America is step one to liberating the world,” Hines stated on the time. “So the concept of #NoMoreNazis in America is, in reality, what all the recreation (and franchise) is about. Our marketing campaign leans into that sentiment, and it sadly occurs to spotlight present occasions in the actual world.”
That’s advertising and marketing, sure, but it surely was additionally an expression of an specific place held by Bethesda and developer MachineGames. (“Nazis are dangerous,” in case that wasn’t clear.) Pilestedt’s exhortation to keep away from “up to date political statements” would not sound like a full-on embrace of gaming’s uglier facet, but it surely does replicate a refusal to both acknowledge or acknowledge the truth of present gaming tradition—which has been flooded with fury, prejudice, and cruelty directed at anybody or something that does not conform to an more and more slender set of requirements dictated by self-appointed champions of a harebrained, reactionary best of supposed white, Western, masculine values— and the straightforward truth that you simply can’t float above that milieu by saying you simply “make good video games.”Â
Ironically, among the individuals who would presumably be completely happy about Pilestedt’s “do not do politics” assertion stay deeply sad with him as a result of the Helldivers 2 Discord moderators proceed to maintain a good lid on the disruptive discourse that has turned X into such a sewer.
