Why New Game Capes Were Added To DEI Detected After Sweet Baby Inc Consultation

New Game Capes were recently added to the DEI-detected list after it was discovered that developer Spitfire Interactive consulted with Sweet Baby Inc. With this statement, you likely have a couple of questions. Firstly, what are Capes? Secondly, what is the DEI-detected list? Lastly, why does it matter if they work with Sweet Baby Inc on Diversity and inclusion? We will start with an overview of Capes and work our way down. The truth is that most people do not care about Capes and likely never heard of it. However, you have likely heard about Sweet Baby Inc and DEI.

Those are two terms that have been dominating the video game headlines lately. Unfortunately, it is for all the wrong reasons. Let’s quickly get through the boring stuff to get to the more important part of this discussion. Capes for All the People Who Do Not Care is a title developed by Spitfire Interactive and will serve as their debut release. It is a turn-based superhero tactics game set in a world where the supervillains have won. It was originally released on 29 May 2024, and the reviews have been mixed.

Although fans have found this title mixed, reviewers do not share this opinion. IGN says, “Capes is a clever and challenging tactics game with a clear love of the superhero comics that inspired it.”
8 out of 10. PC Gamer says, “Every hero has their unique super-strengths in this wonderfully intense turn-based strategy game.” 8 out of 10. Game Reactor says, “Strategy system that doesn’t rely on percentages is a highlight. Great worldbuilding. Top character design. Awesome presentation.”
8 out of 10. We can discuss why reviewers and gamers disagree, but I think we all know.

Capes Vs DEI Detected

For those who do not know, a website and subreddit are dedicated to detecting which games are affiliated with DEI companies. It started a few months back when one Reddit user created Sweet Baby Inc Detected. At the time, there was unhappiness with the direction of many video game titles. When working through the credits of these titles, gamers quickly picked up on one name that was constantly mentioned. That name was Sweet Baby Inc. They are a small team of consultants selling non-existent solutions to stupid people.

Gamers then realized that Sweet Baby Inc. was nothing more than a symptom of a much larger problem. That is how DEI Detected was born. DEI Detected is considered a watchdog within the gaming space, and many smaller developers do not want their games listed there. Games that get this title slapped next to their name almost always fail. Thus, when Capes was added, the developers were quick to defend themselves.

The Spitfire Capes Defence

They said in a statement,  “We already had 3 months and 14 pages of constructive discussion about “DEI” in the forum and delivered a gameplay update focussing on exactly what the playerbase wanted – leading to 80% positive recent reviews”

“You don’t have to take my word for it, you can actually read up on it yourselves, but we were already able to explain that SBI only worked briefly, mainly to bring the 4-5 people strong Indie-Dev team in contact with fitting Voice Actors, together with the Devs (2+ years ago) and many first sceptical players were able to find out that there is no hidden agenda or somethig else we “force down your throats” or other concerns they had – besides a well-rounded, diverse cast, obviously.”

“So why don’t we just focus on the most important question, that the OP was mentioning already? Is Capes fun? And this is exactly why I brought up the positive reactions towards our most recent update – we think you would enjoy it, if you gave it a chance.”

Let’s Talk Sweet Baby Inc and DEI

We must discuss DEI in video games and understand why people do not like it. Simply dismissing any game with a diverse cast as DEI would be wrong. Luckily, that is not what most gamers are doing. It is the implementation, not the diversity and inclusion, that people have a problem with. It is how certain groups are used to force a certain political and social message that most are resisting. The truth is diversity has always existed in video games. Maybe not to the extent that most would have liked, but it was always there, from Lara Craft to Gears of War, GTA, and Call of Duty. It was always there.

However, you most likely never even thought about it because you focused on the story. Then DEI companies started to pop up. They decided that gaming was too sexist and racist and filled with too many straight white men. Many publishers bought into this idea and allowed for massive changes to happen. Clearly, they did not simply change the game to be more inclusive. If they did, we likely would not be talking about it.

The result of the DEI inclusion was a bunch of white-dominated developers, including overweight women, extremely LGBTQ messages, and a bunch of race-swapping and gender-swapping characters. However, that is only step one.

DEI Detected: Step 2

Once they made these changes, they had to ensure everyone knew about it. You know, when you go on Twitter, and there is a dude with blue hair, and his bio reads, Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist, LGBTQ ally, They/Them. I am sure you have seen these. You have also likely asked yourself. Why the hell do you need to announce that you are an Anti-Fascist? Most people are. You have to verbally announce it every time, which makes me extremely suspicious. I hate to make this political, but in most cases, it is upper-middle-class, white liberal kids.

They will publically announce that they are anti-racist and also cross the street when they see a certain type of person come their way. As a fellow liberal, I know this to be true about my side. All of this leads us back to DEI in video games. It is all the same type of people. They do not only have diversity and inclusion in their video games. They also make it a vocal point in every single interview that they do. It is publically announced that this was their number one goal for the game. Then, they ensure you know diversity and inclusion are important to them.

They hold press conferences because everyone needs to know how amazing they are at adding women or people of color to their games. They are saving these groups and changing the space for the better. You know, the type of guy who calls himself a male feminist? It is the same guy jerking himself off about how stunning and brave he is for taking an existing story that everyone loves and remaking it for a modern audience, and all he did was swap out the main characters.

Conclusion

To conclude this long rant. Diversity and Inclusion should not be seen as a boogeyman. However, the people behind the implementation should. Diversity and inclusion have always existed, and they always should. Developers like Rockstar and Riot have led the way in that regard. However, the self-serving people who need to announce how stunning and brave they are for swapping out a male character for diverse gay women of color should get no attention from us.

Not because we have an issue with diverse women of color but rather because we have an issue with a self-serving jackass trying to preach to us about the importance of whatever social issue they believe in when all we want to do is play a video game where we can escape reality and shoot some people in the face.