Absolutely. I’m the same user that posted that link initially, multiple times in this post in regards to people trying to give Microsoft’s studio a pass. That is absolute not what I was doing though I don’t you were implying I was. OP sounded personally upset that something they loved and enjoyed was potentially ruined for them, and the message about taking happiness where you can was intended for them and anyone else similarly affected.

That said.

At best, the ape camp is a tone-deaf mistake of accidental racism causing harm and feeding capital g G*mers in their “heated gamer moments” of spouting slurs in voice chat. Which should be condemned.

And there’s a possibility of malicious intent that should not be downplayed. Hard to trust when evidence is going to be suppressed with a huge company backing the game and huge amounts of money on the line. There is also a possibility that the systemic racism and white supremacy seeped into society insulated devs from being able to see how problematic it was. Not an excuse for them, they need to be and do better.

A fellow leftist and POC down at the bottom of this post mentioned that the watermelon model was already in use in multiplayer prior to its inclusion in this racist scenario. And that they don’t want to ascribe malicious, intentional racism to the camps. And I think that is a fair opinion to have for someone who called it suspect but seems to be a fan of the series.

One of Microsoft’s competitors had a Cosby rape room on site. Like 99% of AAA games are sucked out from the desiccated corpses of workers under crunch. If you want to strictly follow a moral code more power to you and I fully agree with the sentiment.

What I don’t want to do is be a wet blanket sucking the joy and happiness out of people while we’re living in a hellworld that is actively on fire. Because no one can be a revolutionary Che or John Brown or MLK Jr or Emma Goldman or Rosa Luxemburg 100% of the time without burning themselves out and shortening their lifespan. At this point, playing a little Halo is far from the worst game to play anyways, what with the Kyle Rittenhouse murder spree simulator on Steam. Now that game I would take a hard line stance on because no one should find joy and happiness there.