Them's fighting words!!

Last week, I published this post about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its encroachment into competitive gaming, noting how, in the fighting game community at least, this was a largely non-controversial push, even as it had been in many other competitive spaces. The response was large, as far as this blog’s standard goes, and I received some really interesting feedback from many different parties.

If there was negative criticism, aside from the more egregious, one-dimensional kinds called out in the piece, it was that some found the tone to be too harsh. Yes, it might be bad that the Saudi Royalty has its finger on the pulse of all Esports; yes, to work with them is to be guilty of ‘sportswashing’ and accepting the cultural terms that this brutal regime is desperately trying to purchase; yes, the groups that would be persecuted, imprisoned and/or executed there have a right to be very upset about how easily the Kingdom can buy support.

But don’t judge the actions of the talent – it was a lot of money, and they had no choice. Further, no one who took their money believes the same things they do, so the action is without material harm, therefore morally neutral. Get that bag, folks.

I don’t think that’s how it works.

The frustrating thing about life is that there is no guarantee of fairness, safety, or freedom from pain. Again, going back to the previous blog, there are truly some instances in which a compromise of dubious quality is necessary and it comes from opposing sides of who truly just wanted the best for all involved and were dealt the hands they played. There is no individual action one could do that would stop the KSA money that will, in time, flood the scene and cram the institutions we know into the Crown’s orbit, where they are the top dog. And if you internally reject the KSA framing of a changing nation that is friendly to all, that is a minor form of resistance to their plan.

I also came into some information regarding the pay that even put me at odds. From the sources that reached out to me, the feeling seems to be that some of the broadcasting talent were being offered rates north of $10,000 to commentate or host just for Street Fighter 6. I also reached out to a mutual who had done a lot of FGC commentary, just to compare rates, and the highest appeared to be in the $1000-1500 range, and that was for many hours of work in different blocks and sometimes for different games. To get paid ten times that, for a few days work? It’s unfathomable. I know if someone dropped $15k on me, that’s one or two paychecks away from eradicating my student loan debt. That would, quite literally, change my life with a wave of a hand, like Paul McCartney said.  I totally, 100% get how that would be an offer you couldn’t refuse.

I still think it’s bad, and we ought not encourage the encroachment of the Saudi government as a community with a reputation for a uniquely diverse playerbase amongst Esports. A playerbase in which a large swath of would be criminalized by that government’s extreme interpretation of Sharia law.

I think it’s good to have guiding, consistent principles to aspire to, even if the material impact of sticking to them may be very small. That speaks to my larger issue with the “get the bag” framing – most FGC influencers really love to hone in on the egalitarian, communal aspect of it all as a means of differentiating these communities from those of the larger Esports mold. Through this analytical lens, other Esports, like Activision-Blizzard, are safe and boring, with little to no diversity amongst its talent and a slavish dedication to corporate sponsorships and covering up the aforementioned lack of expression and diversity with big fuck-you money. By comparison, while the FGC simply can’t compete with the money those other Esports offer, there’s a degree of expression one could have that is unlike anywhere else because it rejects the idea of corporate ownership and censorship, even at the cost of being a smaller, tier-3 Esport.

With that logic, how could one possibly steelman the arrangement with the Saudi Crown? Other than, of course, a decision wholly motivated by temporary financial gain?

To me, even if I understand how one couldn’t possibly say ‘no’ to that kind of fuck-you money, I can’t ignore the predictable consequences of legitimizing this power grab. And make no mistake, Riyadh has no plans to just generously dole out millions of dollars and leave it at that. It seems that ESL/EFG is already plotting a circuit for Dota 2 that is meant to rival The International, and they clearly have the production teams and money to do so. Also, if someone believes they can take that money and be endlessly critical of the Al Saud regime for very long, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Lastly, with money comes control, and those strings can be cut at any time, which will lead to the inevitable pain point every major Esport has run into: huge money doesn’t solve the problems with monetization in the space, it just benefits a very small elite class.

Moreover, I’m increasingly troubled by the idea that there is a specific price that can be reached to withhold judgment. How far does this go? For a while, if one even whiffed a sponsorship with an NFT or otherwise crypto-adjacent industry in the FGC, that was grounds for social termination. Weeks if not months of harassment on Twitter, loud condemnation everywhere else, etc. I once received a DM from an organization that used Matcherino about how disgusted they were when I wrote about that company’s crypto-backed financing, and wanted to stop using that very helpful service. The justification was that NFT and crypto were deep moral wrongs due to the influx of scams within the space and, at the time, their very eco-unfriendly practices. I didn’t agree with the zealous nature of that harassment per se, but I did see it as a moral wrong along similar lines. Am I to believe that if it had been enough money, it would be less of a moral wrong?

It’s these inconsistencies, along with the hypocrisy of what is commonly preached by FGC influencers, that rub me the wrong way. ‘Core Values’ is a meme that has been mocked since Evo used it to deflect from a minor controversy, but I do think there is something to the underlying idea. And to me, values aren’t very, well, valuable if it requires endless caveating and asterisks to worm its way around a world that is unfair and inflexible by nature. Creating a moral system definitionally accepts that the world isn’t perfect, and neither are we, but there is an ideal that we ought strive towards in order to wring out what good we can. And, personally, I don’t see what good is wrung out of taking this blood money except one of short-term, individual financial gain, with worse long-term affects being loaded in the background.

We are moral agents who have the unique ability to determine a right from a wrong, and part of having the freedom to do what we want is accepting the predictable consequences of our own actions. For me, if you take the understandable road of maximizing financial stability for yourself by any means necessary, that will inevitably lead you to take money from morally dubious sources. It may not hurt anybody in the short term, but it does imply that the abilities and values of the community can be bought, which is a reputation that I think can only invite more and more bad-faith actors in the future. 

Listen, I knew going into writing about this that I wasn’t going to win anyone over with a heavy focus on my personal moral viewpoint. I know full well, having done this sort of thing for years, that audience capture will ensure that going down that road will only leave you preaching to the choir. On the extremely polemic platform that is the internet, the philosophical ponderings associated with the great men of antiquity are now the sand of the colosseum, waiting for hot blood to be spilled onto it daily. I’m just as guilty as anyone else of seeking the adrenaline rush that comes with hurling your convenient, always-right moral system at foolish apostates with as much force as possible, and giggling like an addict as the back-pats and congratulations of a curated, sympathetic audience pour in. It’s an easy addiction to slide into, and I’ve been trying to avoid it due to it being bad for me and not terribly convincing to the wider set of people I’d like to reach.

Nevertheless, I do have a consistent set of ideals that, while I am only human and therefore imperfect, serve as a lighthouse to guide me through a murky world. Some of them revolve around the concept of finding a way to do good in the world with what I can find, and I personally have found that maximizing my own material wealth within the system I live in is not a morally good way to live, due to the necessary paths that would entail. It is these principles, divorced from online social circles or a potential audience, that I used to try and rationalize taking the Kingdom’s money to aid in the promotion of Saudi Arabia as a beacon of hope in a rapidly cooling Esports environment.

It just simply did not pass the test, and therefore I believe it to be a morally bad action.

However, as much as that might excite the more zealous among us to rev up an endless series of harassing tweets, I reject the notion that committing what I would consider a morally bad action is indicative of the totality of someone’s contributions. Like I said in the blog, I don’t sympathize, but I do empathize. I look at the list of people who attended that tournament and I’m sure I could probably name about ten things they’ve done in these communities over my decade-plus that I would consider morally good before Saudi Arabia would even come up. But it would still come up.

I’ll end this by once again saying it’s a very tough world and many of us are simply doing our best. That being said, I don’t think those truths make anyone above criticism, nor do I believe that there is a moral neutrality in doing a bad thing for lots of money. I haven’t been offered the same kind of money, of course, but I’ve turned down writing jobs that this blog has afforded me, that paid better at the time than my current job, because I truly value what I do and think curtailing that just to pay the bills isn’t right. I’m well aware that I’m probably very lucky that I’m in a position where I can do that safely, and my code will come across to some as haughty, unreasonable, and privileged. That’s okay; I accept the predictable consequences of my worldview. 

I just ask others do the same.