Going to get this out of the way right now. We’ve tried to keep partisan politics out of things, but sometimes that just isn’t possible.
We were close enough to the Minneapolis riots that we could smell the smoke and hear the sirens. I used to live where it was happening; one of the buildings that was burned to the ground was six blocks from my old apartment. So the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t some nebulous thing that was happening in the middle of flyover country, it was something that absolutely impacted my world.
At Devil Monkey Games, we’re absolutely on the side of human rights. Devil Monkey Games is utterly opposed to bigotry, especially bigotry based on inherent statuses like ethnicity, gender, orientation, or disability. What happened to George Floyd was horrific and never should have happened. The cops were in the wrong. We have a lot of friends in the pagan community. That certain groups are actively trying to make them second class citizens in the eyes of the law is appalling to us.
If that statement is controversial, and especially if your first reaction to it is something about “all lives matter” or whining about “teh SJWs,” get out. We don’t want you or your dubious business.
Every single permanent staff member of Devil Monkey Games and our parent company (and some of the outside help we’ve recruited as well) belongs to at least one minority group, and we each have at least one disability according to the ADA. A few of us have been assaulted and/or lost jobs for it. It should be obvious which side we’re taking here.
We’ve had people take issue with some of our projects on the grounds that “if you make that, you’ll lose customers.” Yeah, about that. One of the projects was Virginia Smith. The objection was “but why a girl?! You know people aren’t going to like that! You should really rethink that decision.” When we were considering adding a medieval fantasy world to the Monkeyverse, we had some openly gay characters. And people whined that this would drive off customers. Another was using the Klan and other white supremacists as villains in a project. Because, again, “you’ll alienate customers by attacking conservatives.”
You know what? If a strong female protagonist or gay supporting character gives you the vapors, we don’t want your business. If you honestly think making the Klan or Nazis the bad guys is a personal attack, we really don’t want you. We especially don’t want your entitled whining, demanding we make changes to keep you well within your comfort zone.