I’ve been following this ongoing drama between four creators, ZombaeKillz & Nne Saga vs Griffin Gaming & The Quartering! The drama involves various topics, from inclusion and diversity to the accusation of playing the race card, harassment and false-flagging! As you can tell, this is deep topic that I wanted to tackle from a netural standpoint (if that’s even possible), and share my two cents from what I’ve observed!
Where do I even begin with this one here? So a few days ago, content creators ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga went on Twitter to express their frustration when they realized that a lot of the gamers who were receiving the PS5 and Xbox Series X early were mostly white gamers, and wanted to do something about that! So they contacted Sony and Microsft on the platform to see what they can do to change it. I’m going to be honest here, I understand where Nne Saga and ZombaeKillz were coming from and agree that if you want something changed, you got to the leap. However, the problem was their approach! No matter how you look at it, it really did come off as them using their skin tone to beg and negotiate a deal with the gaming companies. It painted them in a bad light so to speak. Eventually, however, the ladies were able to receive consoles for themselves and their team that they advocated for in the first place!
It’s one thing to want diversity, but to use Breonna Taylor, a woman who was unjustly killed by the police as a negotiation tool is kinda untasteful if you ask me! As I said, I do agree the Sony should try to reach out to more people of different backgrounds as I can tell you a few people, with the numbers, and are in the field of reviewing games would have deserved to work with them closely!
Later, they appeared on Inside Gaming to discuss how they’ve worked behind the scenes to ensure that companies like Sony and Microsoft did a better job at expanding the number of people they worked with i.e. work with more people of different races etc. It is true that a lot of the time, Sony and Microsoft tend to work more closely with White creators, whether it be sending out consoles or codes for them to review or create a first impression on. Yes, you can point at creators such as MKBHD or TheAverageConsumer, however, the numbers still paled in comparison and there were a lot of gamers from all races who had the numbers and influence to justify working with.
The goal that ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga was trying to accomplish was to ultimately be the middlemen that will help Sony and Microsoft find suitable creators to work with! It could very well be that Sony/Microsoft aren’t aware that other creators exit and Nne Sage wants to highlight them. Nne Saga in particular has a background as a consultant and has worked tirelessly to create connections and networks for years prior to this. This isn’t some random game chick coming out of nowhere, in Nne Saga case, she has the qualifications. ZombaeKillz on the other hand, from what I was able to find is just a streamer/content creator, she’s the one that landed herself in hot waters.
That’s the way I understood it. There’s only one aspect to her argument that I heavily disagree with, and that was the “impact over numbers” comment that she made. That might work in the UK, but the U.S. is a different beast altogether. Most business WILL look at the numbers, they don’t give a damm about social impacts. Unless you can make them money, they don’t give a crap about you or your social impact. Heck, I could argue I have a social impact.
Unfortunately, their message did not come across clear enough and was ultimately interpreted as “we as Black gamers and we deserve to sent consoles too“, with one of them, ZombaeKillz to be precise, making that bold claim of being one of the most visible female black gamer, while having a low following count! To be fair, that interview with Inside gaming did them no favors whatsoever! It really did make them come across as people who were asking for the console just because they were Black! However, if Inside Gaming could have let the comment open, it could have made for a great case study of the steeped racism that plagues the gaming community in the western world. The video also highlighted the unwillingness to at least try and listen, despite the blunders of these girls.
Griffin Gaming, another content creator, after seeing this, makes a video criticizing the video and their stances. I have watched that video, and I’m going to be honest here. Aside from the excessive insults hurled at the girls, which wrong on his end, he made some valid points. He agreed with some points with the girls but disagreed with most of their dialogue! The Quartering also made his own video, arguing a similar point to Griffin Gaming
Of course, this opened up the floodgates for racists to flood ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga social media accounts and harass them non-stop! This is the unfortunate side effect of criticism on YouTube, despite telling your followers not to attack someone, most are too stupid to follow orders. To counter, ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga both led a campaign to mass report Griffin Gaming’s video, and everything else, forcing Griffin Gaming to delete the video to avoid getting a strike! This is another area where I felt ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga messed up. Calling for mass reporting, which in this case could be considered false reporting, could land them in trouble if pursued. It’s not gaining them any favours in the long run and could hurt their brand!
Things seemed to have died down until The Quartering decided to report on the false reporting and reignited the possible bombardment of his fans going after ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga!
Like I said before, there’s nothing wrong with what ZombaeKillz and Nne Saga did, it was their approach that led to all of this mess, Griffin Gaming was also technically not in the wrong, his excessive insults was the problem, yet it does speak to an underlining issue with communication, the unwillingness for people to sit and listen, the need to play the race card in a situation that won’t favor you and the expectations that companies actually give a damm!
Look, to each their own in how they approach anything online! The way I’ve see things in this world and operate, the last thing I want is for someone to look at all that I’ve built and accomplish, and attribute it to just race! It’s why I look at the importance of legacies too! It’s important just like the ladies said to have a more widely diverse cast, but it’s more important to do things right in the eyes of the public, especially for Black people! Whether we like it or not, we’re not in the best position to make our matters worse!
It’s why I found the APPROACH off but understood why they did it. Had not contacted nothing would have been done. They held Sony and Microsoft accountable for all their pandering progressive activism.
However, had they contacted them privately or at least more professionally, I felt that would have come off better! Image is important after all! It’s hard to say whether Sony/Micdrofost understood the importance of having a more diverse group of people to work with, or if it’s simply them caving in to what they saw as a potential PR disaster. I mean they did just release a Black Lives Matter wallpaper and made that whole statement, would be a bit weird NOT to have a little bit more Black/ Asians and other races who have proven themselves receive the console too and more importantly, work with them! Guess we’ll never know!
