Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Statement

Last updated: 2024 July 4

This is a statement on the contents of hai!touch Studios video games, written by Haley Wakamatsu, head of hai!touch Studios.

Statement

I believe that injustices and inequalities in society should be remedied. I also believe that raising awareness for the plight of minority groups and normalizing them is best done organically, as opposed to out of obligation or investment money.

Approach

As such, the story and settings for a video game will not be written or rewritten in a way that inserts references and tokens that do not belong, but instead, any messaging in the games will be naturally occurring and well-integrated within it. This will increase the relevance of the advocacy topics to the player without breaking suspension of disbelief.

Many minority groups in our society face a diverse range of invisible inequalities and visible discrimination. The most effective way to remedy those inequalities and quell the discrimination is with principled messaging and normalization of the oppressed minority groups. This is not to say that unlikable characters should not be made at all; it is to say that characters should neither be offensive caricatures contributing to injustice, nor goody two-shoes that serve no purpose but to virtue signal.

The hostility of so-called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” firms such as Sweet Baby, Inc. towards their audience is not to be praised or mimicked. By alienating the existing audience of established games and pushing badly-integrated writing and pandering is not the way to bring people to the side oef the minorities; in fact, that kind of self-aggrandizing approach only serves to irritate the player and push them further towards their prejudices. You can’t insult someone to get them to like and understand you.

Combating sexism

Women and men should have equal rights under the law, but the physical and cultural differences between them cannot be ignored or denied. Specifically, “uglifying” female characters because of concerns of “sexualizing” or “objectifying” women should never be done; that is putting the cart before the horse, and tells women that having sex appeal is a sin—a backwards, sexist idea that calls to mind religious taboo. Beautiful and confident women are not the enemy. Girls deserve to have confident, admirable role models to look up to.

Combating homophobia and biphobia

Same-sex loving people deserve no judgment for their preferences that they were born with. Between consenting adults, anything that goes on in their amorous life is private, and none of anyone’s business. Love is love, and marriage is marriage.

At the same time, adults should still try to keep innocent children away from sexual material. Despite the history of Pride Parades being tainted by the presence of pederasty advocacy groups such as NAMBLA, we must remain committed to keeping minors out of harm’s way.

Now, by no means does this mean that homosexuality as a whole must be kept away from children. The existing standards with heterosexuality should apply equally with homosexuality. Some PDA is perfectly fine, and children can handle it. More explicit gestures, whether homosexual or heterosexual, should be kept away from children.

We must also have zero tolerance for homophobic slurs such as the F-slur and Q-slur, and should not encourage their use, for signaling to homophobes that these words are simply not cool to use, and for keeping the same-sex loving audience comfortably watching. Censorship of these slurs must be comprehensive in every video game.

Combating transphobia

Transgender people deserve relief from the gender dysphoria that they experience or have experienced before, and deserve access to safe, controlled, and affordable transition. They deserve to be treated and recognize as their internal gender instead of their sex.

Transgender people also deserve to be heard without being overshadowed by those who pretend to be transgender for attention. Transphobic rhetoric such as “it is a choice to be transgender”—denying the intrinsic nature of gender identity—and “pronouns aren’t linked to gender” and “you can have multiple sets of pronouns”—excuses to misgender transgender people and make their reasonable request to have their identity recognized and respected—must be rejected and criticized for the corruption that it is.

Combating gender normativity

Freedom of gender expression must be protected and enshrined. The idea that only girls play with dolls, or only girls wear dresses, or only boys like cars, or only boys go rock climbing, is sexist and denies those people’s gender, by saying that their gender expression must match their gender identity. It does not matter whether the conclusion following “you’re a girl who has traditionally male interests” is “you must start acting ladylike at once” or it is “you must start identifying as a trans man / transmasc / nonbinary”, such bigotry must not be tolerated.

Summary

1. Friendly, not preachy.
2. From our conscience, not consultants.
3. Relevant, not shoehorned in, messaging.
4. Combat both traditionalist sexism and third-wave feminist sexism.
5. Equality through normalization and exposure.