Gaming and The Gay Agenda. There is an inherent risk in working… | by Wasif M Rahman

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There is an inherent risk in working with content creators. If the content creator finds themselves mired in controversy, brands who work with said creator are asked to pick a side. That is the lose-lose position Activision found itself in after Nickmercs put out a simple tweet “They should leave little children alone. That’s the real issue.”

The tweet was in response to a viral video of a brawl between protestors outside the Glendale, CA school board meeting. The school board was voting to recognize June as pride month. These types of violent protests have escalated in recent months in conjunction with increased anti-LGBT rhetoric.

Nickmercs tweet drew serious backlash because the subtext of the tweet as it pertains to “little kids” calls to mind the notion that any interaction between the LGBT movement and children is fundamentally inappropriate even when it’s the simple recognition of a month that affirms the right to life for a very marginalized group of people. This homophobic idea plays to the decade’s old allegations that LGBT people are pedophiles and that their existence is not something that is appropriate to acknowledge around children.

This put Activision in an awkward place as they had integrated Nickmercs directly into the recent Call of Duty game with a custom skin that is part of the Nickmercs operator bundle.

In response to the controversy, Activision took the step of pulling the Operator Bundle from the game effectively stopping future sales of the skin. Unsurprisingly this polarized the Call of Duty community with many coming to the support of Nickmercs as #boycottcod and #callofgroomers started trending on Twitter.

TimTheTatMan tweeted in support of Nick

“We went in getting our CoD operators together. It feels wrong for me to have mine and him no longer have his. In support of my friend, please remove the timthetatman bundle.”

Dr. Disrespect jumped headfirst into the controversy by uninstalling Call of Duty live with a call to action for his fans “What we gotta do is uninstall the game” and going on further to say

“They need to apologize publicly to him or reinstate his bundle in order for me to consider playing Call of Duty again.”

As the controversy unfolds, Activision finds itself in the precarious position of having sold digital assets to its community that is effectively no longer available to purchase due to political controversy. Unless the skins are removed from the game altogether, players who are in support of Nickmercs will choose to showcase these politically symbolic skins during games.

Working closely with creators is a double-edged sword. Creators can be one of the most effective ways to market your brand but when the creator is mired in political controversy, the brand will be asked to pick a side at the expense of alienating a portion of its audience.

If that’s the price of progress, I am fine with it.