For the better part of a decade – if not longer – so-called nerd media has been under assault from within its own walls.
Wokeness, DEI, and HR run amok have irreparably destroyed far too many franchises to count. But with a right-wing vibe shift occurring throughout the civilized world, a change is coming, and one former developer from the once-beloved gaming titan Blizzard should get his dues for risking it all to lead the charge.
Before the culture war dominated so much of our lives, Mark Kern, aka Grummz, was already an important figure within the realm of gaming. Consider him the Greek God of the sky, for he raised multiple titans. As a producer, he helped bring Starcraft and Diablo IIto life, but more impressively he was the team lead on the global MMO powerhouse World of Warcraft.
With his contributions to those titles, he forever altered the gaming landscape. Not content to settle and simply end things there, he eventually began a crusade – not just to alter it a second time, but to save it from the clutches of left-wing demagogues intent on destroying the hobby for their own activist agendas.
For those not personally entwined with the hobby, it’s hard to fully convey just how far gaming has crashed throughout the 2010s and ‘20s, but one need only look at big-budget Western games to see how devastatingly it has rotted.
Military shooters like Call of Duty proudly feature trans flags and other gender-bending propaganda, while in far too many games to count, female characters are intentionally made ugly – spitting in the faces of real women, as the character models bear little resemblance to the actresses used as their base.
Consultancy groups like Sweet Baby Inc. are brought in to dictate changes in the name of inclusivity, and if that weren’t bad enough, left-wing preaching permeates nearly everything. Fun and meaningful gameplay have been thrown aside to cater to those who don’t even enjoy games in the first place.
Throughout the industry, most game developers are afraid to speak up, lest they be ostracized, forcefully silenced as gaming turns into a slurry of social justice agitprop. So it’s all the more meaningful that, at a time when doing so was nearly social suicide, Mark Kern risked his reputation and career to stand up to the mob.
Over the past several years, he has gone all in on fighting back, spending hours on social media calling out injustice and inadequacies where he sees fit. In doing so, he has caused a number of woke games to financially stumble or fail, while also helping titles untainted by DEI – like Black Myth: Wukong and Stellar Blade – find massive success.
None of this has been taken lightly by the opposition. He has survived endless attempts at cancellation and doxxing. The replies to his posts are often filled with death threats or wishes for grievous bodily harm. Detractors giddily share GIFs of him being beaten with hammers. His name is constantly smeared, and even his role in delivering Blizzard’s greatest hits is questioned.
All that is just par for the course for anyone who loudly and proudly goes against the “tolerant” left – which is all the more reason to commend him, because he has stood firm.
It’s a massive gamble that is now paying dividends. Elon Musk retweets him often enough, helping spread his message to an even wider audience, which is only serving to unify a growing army of distraught gamers. They are now taking back the medium – but perhaps more importantly, they are fighting back against runaway leftism.
The 2014 Gamergate scandal was already one of the original MAGA battlegrounds, but back then, the right wasn’t fully united. By 2025, however, the story is vastly different. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are being rejected by the masses, and now government institutions and entertainment mediums are being reclaimed for the land of the sane.
There’s no doubt a lot of people deserve thanks for putting us on track toward stability and no one person can take all the credit, but Kern still deserves his dues as a commander in the culture war.
That’s not to say everything about him is perfect. Post-Blizzard, his game development track record isn’t as strong, and sometimes he posts things that are a bit too cringeworthy. But that doesn’t diminish the strides he has made.
He may be an imperfect messenger, but his voice is still one the world needs to hear.
Wokeness may be on the back foot, but it’s not completely down and out. People like Kern may be the ones to finally land a knockout punch.
As Musk loves to proclaim, “DEI kills art,” and Grummz is how we bring it back to life.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
