In the video game 'Defenderloin', you must protect the Tenderloin neighborhood from Scam Assaultman's ‘bro-bots’, as they attempt to evict your neighbors and turn everything into luxury condos.
Screenshot of Defenderloin the a browser-based video game. “Billionaire Scam Assaultman promised his AI would build a better world. Instead he built Techbrobots and turned them loose on the Tenderloin…”
San Francisco artist and creative director Razelle Swimmer made Defenderloin in response to a now-deleted game called Tenderloin Night Shift, a first-person shooter where the objective was to kill as many “zombie residents” in San Francisco’s most disadvantaged neighborhood using assault rifles.
In contrast, Defenderloin asks you to convert techbrobots into community advocates by throwing zines at them, or hitting them with ‘glitter empathy bombs’ or a ‘rent control ray gun’.
The two games display wildly different worldviews; one is about empathy and defense, while the other is about eradication and profit-taking. Both games show us how Artificial Intelligence has expedited the creation of simple video games. You no longer need to be a talented engineer to make a game; you just need an idea and a few dozen prompts.
Screenshot of Defenderloin video game.
Y Combinator alum Pierre-Louis Biojout’s great idea was bragging on X.com about how he had created an AI game where you could shoot Tenderloin residents, while he profited from the ads the game served. Wow, serving ads on a shitty browser game…what an innovator.
In many ways, Biojout’s Tenderloin Night Shift was a perfect reflection of techie transplant culture in San Francisco. Wannabe ‘entrepreneurs’ are not just lacking basic empathy for the neighborhoods they are actively gentrifying; they make it abundantly clear that their only motive for being here is profit.
Shortly after waves of backlash forced Biojout to apologize and take down his game, Razelle posted on Instagram:
I read a post from @brokeassstuart last night about some edgelord YC wannabe founder who used AI to make a game where you get to kill the "zombie" residents of the Tenderloin (screencapped as last photo to not highlight it too much). I'm so sick of techbros rolling into the Bay and dehumanizing its denizens.
So I made a game called Defenderloin - you are a member of the radical queer 1960s group the Vanguard (of Compton's Cafeteria Riot fame) and you are out there defending this block of the Tenderloin from techbrobots who wanna evict the residents and turn every building into a luxury condo. You can actually play the full game on my website (linked in bio) -- watch out though you might get caught up in a bad AI pitch. Can you burst Scam Assaultman's AI Bubble before the neighborhood gets gentrified?
I have some preetttttty mixed feelings about using AI in this battle as an artist, but my general sense is that we'll be even worse off if we don't turn their tools against them. Instead, I'm choosing to remind people that we could use these things to help people -- like make fun ways to share resources supporting folks in the Tenderloin! Encourage people to support Prop 40 and not 41/42! It's just that massive psychopaths are at the wheel and we've really gotta do something about that if we're gonna make it out of this hellscape.
If you would like to play as militant queer street youth ‘Roxy’ and defend the Tenderloin from the techbrobots, Defenderloin is both free and fun to play. The game weaves in SF activist history, and you get to shoot techbrobots who say things like, “your apartment is under-monetized.”
Instead of display ads for overpriced apartments, Defenderloin displays information on why you should vote for the Billionaire tax.
You can play the game in your browser here: https://razelle.art/defenderloin/
