Temtem angers bigots by being inclusive

Posted on January 24, 2020

Temtem is, by all accounts, a wonderful experience. Although the creature collector/battler is also finding a way to make bigots mad. What’s got them so riled up? Inclusivity! Because of course it is…

The developers of Temtem have gone to great lengths to make the game more inclusive. Not only is your rival Non-Binary, but the game lets you mix and match pronouns and body type. It feels similar to the system that was proposed for Cyberpunk 2077, and in practice, makes the game feel more inclusive for all players. But there has been a section of the gaming community, and I think you know which one, that’s gotten pretty vocal in opposition to this. That’s right, the bigots and transphobes came out on mass to “own” the “woke SJW leftie game”. It started rather quickly after the game’s launch. The game’s official discord server was flooded with the usual catch cries.

https://twitter.com/weeaboo/status/1219878391085707264

The game’s steam community was also swamped with idiocy. Some wanted the feature removed. Some wanted a refund. Some wanted politics out of video games. And others still denounced the “evils” of the queer community, and urged the devs to “wake up and take the red pill”. There was even some good old fashioned religious hatred. All in all, the bigots took to whatever official forums they could and screamed their awful opinions as loudly as possible. And the Temtem devs took much-needed action. On Discord, they banned people from the server. On Steam, they locked threads and started a containment discussion where everyone who was “unhappy” could take their complaints. At this point in time, this thread has 87 pages, and it shows no signs of slowing down. This, of course, didn’t stop them from taking to other social media platforms and complaining. But honestly, that will have as much impact on this matter as a fart in a hurricane.

You may have noticed a condescending tone throughout this article, dear reader. That’s because this article treats these bigots with as much respect as they deserve – none. None of their complaints matter. Gaming is for everyone, and therefore, games, especially those like Temtem, can and should do all they can to make everyone feel welcome. The people who complain about inclusivity, especially in video games, feel like something has been taken from them. But they’re wrong. The “leftie SJW squad” haven’t come to steal their games. They’ve lost nothing. All that’s happened is that they’ve had their problematic views challenged and their privilege acknowledged. And they don’t like that. They don’t like having to acknowledge that there are people different from them, with different experiences, living different lives. And they’ll continue to complain, society will keep moving without them, and the world will keep spinning. And some kid out there somewhere, who’s probably having a tough go of it, will finally feel seen and accepted in a medium they love. In the end, that’s what’s important. That’s what matters.