So, a new Harry Potter game has been announced right in the middle of serial escalation of vileness from JKR transphobia (quite a feat in itself, considering her past record, but that's not the point of this thread). Among the usual bad faith arguments to justify purchasing the game, a familiar one has been popping up more often than usual; one that is rarely, if ever, actioned. Not even a warning is ever issued for it, let alone a ban; of course, this is probably why it's so popular, as opposed to other arguments that would get actioned.
Yes, I'm talking of the "think of the poor devs" argument, phrased in a handful of variants with the same underlying sentiment ("it's unfair to punish the people that worked on this game", etc.). Again, this is nothing new: it's been used to justify (and sidestep discussion of) vile shit in videogames since the dawn of time (see Kingdom Come: Deliverance, The Last Night, Cyberpunk 2077, etc.).
I think both the argument itself and the lack of moderation about it seems to arise from a fundamental misunderstanding of how game development works and how most developers profit from game sales or will have their livelyhood affected by their sales (news flash: in the case of AAA games with dozens or hundreds of salaried devs, barely at all). Much has been written in this forum about the validity of this argument as a whole, often by devs themselves, but few of it seems to ever be heeded, or have any kind of long-term impact whatsoever on either its usage or moderation.
To throw my two cents, as a dev myself: I feel offended every time someone uses fellow devs as a shield to justify their own purchasing decisions. Please do not pin your support of vile people on any of our livelyhoods; I'd rather change jobs than be the excuse for people to e.g. keep funneling money into Rowling's pockets.
That said, I shouldn't, and won't, speak for all devs. And so, I'm calling to both developers and mods to have a discussion about it, on this thread, and hopefully reach some kind of conclusion.
- To devs, I ask you to please share your thoughts on whether you think the argument holds water, both practically and morally.
- To mods, I ask you to please listen to devs, ask them any questions you may have, and take a lasting decision whether to include it on the TOS, and have it affect future moderation about it.
