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Notes -
There is interesting coverage by Asmongold (A major gamer influencer) where he drew the direct link between game studios hiring these DEI consultants > Good ESG rating > More funding from Blackrock/Vanguard subsidiaries.
Also some major anti-woke movie critics like Critical Drinker have also picked up on Sweet Baby even though its out of their wheelhouse. The interest there was the direct evidence of creators hiring DEI consultancies to improve ESG.
Basically there is evidence now of the chain of causality of injecting DEI into content to attract investment, while before there was only suspicions.
Gaming diversity ESG scores (which don’t seem to have any substantial positive impact on valuations except in oil and gas and tobacco, where the divestment trend has existed for decades and isn’t driven by private sector ESG ratings at all) would be best served by hiring more POC and women staff across studios, not in writing. Writers make up fewer than 0.5% of the average AAA game’s development workforce, there’s no way diversifying the writers room counts more than just hiring more Hispanic QA testers or whatever.
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