A Moment for Goodness
The world may be teetering, but we at The Chief Brief believe in one simple truth: good energy begets good energy. So before we go full throttle on all that’s wrong -
Let’s pause.
Take a breath.
And remember—there’s still kindness, empathy and decency all around us.
This past fortnight, Jane Goodall turned 91 years old. She has spent her lifetime showing us that graciousness. Showing us the world around us matters—from the animals, the plants, you and I. Together, we shape this planet. Together, we ensure it survives and thrives.
So here’s to perseverance. To hope. To the concept of ‘together’. To Good for All.
To Jane, Happy Birthday, and thank you for reminding us to care. Our birthday wish at The Chief Brief is for you keep bringing us together in hope, for many years to come!
No Mercy: The Global Business of Angry Young Men
You’ve just clicked into April 2025’s latest controversy—an assault on our children’s minds—aptly titled No Mercy. It hides behind the ridiculous label of being a “choice-driven adult visual novel” (read: softcore misogyny, assault, and incest simulator). A game that landed in March on Steam, the world’s largest digital game store (Steam is a digital distribution service and storefront developed by Valve corporation).
The premise? Incest, rape fantasy, and “domination.” The price tag? $11.99. A bargain for digital hate disguised as fetish.
Governments across Australia, Canada, and the UK scrambled to geo-block it. UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called it “truly appalling.” But Valve—the company behind Steam—shrugged, claiming it wouldn’t moderate content unless legally forced to. Thankfully, vocal outrage from both men and women, combined with government pressure, forced them to remove it entirely.
But there’s always a loophole. If you bought it before the removal, you can still play it. And Steam wasn’t the only source—your teenage or pre-teen son/nephew can still access No Mercy with a couple of clicks on the game’s own website or indie platforms like Itch.io - it’s even going at a slight discount now and your nephew might even be recommended it.
Let’s pause.
This isn’t a glitch. It’s a feature.
Because No Mercy didn’t materialise in a vacuum—it’s a direct product of a global economy built on frustrated young men and the platforms cashing in on their clicks.
Indie studios like Zerat Games, the creators of No Mercy, run anonymously and rake in funding via Patreon (and other platforms) where adult games say at Patreon quietly pull in over $2 million a month. They’re small, nimble, and thrive where no advertiser or investor dares tread. (Patreon has since removed Zerat’s account).
⚠️ Note: This piece will not link to or feature images of Zerat’s game. Feel free to search for it online—but we have no intention of funding the manosphere economy, even indirectly.
The Manosphere
According to Dr Eviane Leidig an expert member of the EU Research Community on Radicalisation, the broader ‘manosphere’ umbrella ties misogynist ideas with the far and alt-right. Movements within the manosphere span from the men’s rights and fathers’ rights movements to MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way), which advocates for men to separate from what they perceive as a feminist-controlled society.
Manosphere Economy
Where there is disgruntlement, there is economic opportunity.
Welcome to the manosphere economy—where that male loneliness, unchecked misogyny, and indie game design are colliding to produce one of the fastest-growing—and darkest—micro-industries of the digital age.
Ironically, it all started with a woman.
In the late 1990s, a Canadian named Alana (no last name) created a website for lonely people looking for love. She called it the “Involuntary Celibate Project.” Fast forward two decades, and her idea has been hijacked by a generation of keyboard warriors blaming women, feminism, and Tinder for their misery. The incel (involuntary celibate) movement was born—men who describe themselves as unable to find romantic or sexual partners despite wanting them.
Documentaries, essays, and academic research have repeatedly warned us. Even Netflix stepped into the debate with the bleak but powerful Adolescence. Many of us noticed—and then retreated into a comfortable “it won’t happen to us” mindset. The result? No Mercy, March 2025.
I don’t play games—why should I care?
Let’s zoom out:
• 3.2 billion gamers globally
• 20% under 18—that’s ~618 million young gamers
• 80% of 2- to 18-year-olds identify as gamers, spending nearly 30% of their entertainment time in video game environments
• In the UK, 74% of children aged 12 to 15 play games online with people they know, and ~30% play against people they haven’t met in person
So when a “game” like No Mercy pops up, it’s not fringe. It’s feeding a massive, male-heavy ecosystem with very few rules—and even fewer consequences.
The Manosphere Isn’t Just Misogynistic—It’s Algorithmic
It’s engineered for extremism - sucking in young minds—often isolated, bullied, unemployed, under-educated, or just plain angry.
Do you think it’s just a 'Western' problem? It’s not.
This is becoming one of the world’s biggest security risks, driven by varied socio-economic triggers:
• India: Jobless growth, religious extremism, no sex-ed, and a porn-saturated internet
• Nigeria: Skewed sex ratios and high income inequality fuelling incel forums
• South Korea and Japan: The relatively harmless 1990s hikikomori generation has metastasized from social withdrawal to digital cults that promise power, sex, and status—often through violence or domination.
• The West: A cost-of-living crisis, rising loneliness, and digital echo chambers make the perfect storm
In the United States for example - one out of every five gamers is under 18. Now extrapolate that access for kids across the world. There are 1.4 billion gamers in Asia, followed by Europe, Latin America, THEN followed by North America, MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.
No Global Guardrails
There’s no effective global regulation to prevent misogynistic content in games. These aren’t clumsy cartoons—these are coded fantasies, often drawn from violent porn, coercive dynamics, and revenge plots that mirror real-life extremism.
Academic research papers highlight shocking statistics. For example one pointed to an incel forum which had rape references every 29 minutes. Nearly 8% of that traffic came from the UK. That number has only grown. New research is finding linkages between violent porn, misogynistic game content, rising incel ideology and the political rise of the Alt Right—a worldview blaming women and minorities for male frustration and economic disenfranchisement.
Academic and gender scholar Dr. Gurpreet Kaur explains for example, In India ‘Currycels’ merge incel, racial and religious insecurity:
“Currycels operate on a dual level: like western, white incels, they believe they are involuntarily celibate because they are the victims of feminism and are therefore unable to get sexual partners. But, Currycels also believe they are at a disadvantage due to their race and ethnicity because Indian women prefer white men to brown men.”
In Nigeria, local news reports link a rise in femicide to incel-driven online hate.
The Economics of Resentment
This isn’t just about gender. It’s about power. And economics. And purpose.
Medical and academic research tells us the roots of incel rage aren’t sexual - But where youth unemployment, loneliness and a lack of purpose thrives, radicalisation does too.
Sound familiar to other extreme political ideologies?
That’s because it is. And the internet knows exactly how to weaponise it.
A Billion-Dollar Descent
• The global gaming industry is worth $347 billion
• The adult entertainment industry is valued at $100 billion+
• OnlyFans for example alone made $6.3 billion in 2024
Games are no longer just entertainment—they’re ideology distributors in 4K. Put that kind of power, with no checks and balances on age restrictions, hate speech or any other rules that the rest of us have to adhere to - on massive platforms like Steam and smaller indie ones like Itch.io, and you’ve got the manosphere’s playground—where boys are players and women are targets.
47% of global gamers are girls and women. But while statistics tell us they dominate casual gaming, it’s the boys and men who seem to be falling deep into the algorithmic abyss—where NPCs (A Non-Player Character in a game is not controlled by a player) exist for abuse and feminists are the final boss to defeat.
The Business Irony
Pornhub - the world’s largest porn site was set up in 2007 by three Canadian college bros. These folks have an expansive library of explicit content and a staggering viewership. Pornhub is owned by Aylo (formerly MindGeek) which is frequently singled out for its almost monopoly on internet porn.
Aylo Portfolio of Companies have:
130 Million+ Daily Average Visitors
5.2 Million+ Pieces of Content in the Pornhub Library
1,400+ Employees
The company has been frequently embroiled in investigations and lawsuits over publishing non-consensual content, including revenge porn. But did that stop investors pouring in funds?
The lawsuits instead gave a Canadian private equity firm called Ethical Capital Partners the opportunity in 2023 to get a stranglehold on the internet’s porn. Another lawsuit revealed a US$400-million price tag. Yes, Ethical. You can’t make this stuff up.
Did Aylo aka MindGeek aka Pornhub quit the money spinning non-consensual part?
They claim to have done a lot, but you can take a wild guess on implementation.
Not a Fringe. Not a Moment. A Market.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about kink-shaming or censorship. This is about calling out an economy that profits from dehumanising women, children and minorities and radicalising vulnerable boys and men.
Unless we start treating this like a market—regulating it, taxing it, disrupting it—it will only grow. Louder. More violent.
There’s no mercy in No Mercy. But there’s a business model. And it’s working.
Enter the Femosphere
And lets not kid ourselves. This ideology knows it needs its allies. Just like feminists needed theirs.
The manosphere Alt-Right ideology is propped up the femosphere. This is where tradwives converge—with regressive ideologies in pink packaging. Some echo patriarchy. At the other end of the spectrum, there are others who brand themselves girlbosses, and alpha women - all selling toxic empowerment.
And all of them are grooming young minds—into narrow roles that serve the same extreme ends. A clash of society, to be remade into whatever they believe will get them to power.
Extremists don’t care about your gender. They care that you’re angry, isolated, and online.
Make Love Not Porn
Meet Cindy Gallop, marketing legend and founder of MakeLoveNotPorn - the opposite of No Mercy. Her platform showcases real, respectful, human sex and she’s been building it for 15 years.
But can she get serious investments to scale the company? Or a lead investor to pull others in, despite her industry clout? Of course not.
The same funds that throw cash at Web3 goat yoga, or a company like Aylo won’t touch consent-first adult content.
Why? Because porn or gaming that promotes violence is profitable and normalised. But sex or gaming that promotes connection? That’s too radical.
And God forbid - a woman tell a bunch of investors the best way to make money and while supporting a healthy society!
Call To Action
If you agree that this sub-culture of incels is indeed a global security risk and have deep pockets or the ability to open doors to that deep pocket - Reach out to Cindy if you can be/know just the person to be a lead investor. She’s looking for that one special one!
What Do We Do?
While lawmakers move glacially, we can’t sit idle.
To drill this in - I'm going to borrow from my favorite movie dialogue from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels • 1998:
• Parents and educators: Don’t assume the kids in your sphere are untouched by this. Know what they are accessing and have the hard conversations - no matter how uncomfortable it makes you.
• Push platforms to remove misogynistic, Alt-Right content. Make it a bottomline threat.
• Policymakers: the internet is a warzone. Act like it. It is not a neutral zone and hiding behind a lack of technical knowledge no longer flies
• Funders: demand accountability from platforms and publishers. Shut down financial support if it goes against your value assessments.
This isn’t just a safety issue. It isn’t a women’s issue.
It’s a global security issue.
Because if we don’t step in now, we’re not just raising gamers—we’re training the next generation of extremists.
Movers & Shakers
🇸🇪 Katarina Berg is stepping into new shoes as CHRO of ON as of August 2025, changing her running track on her Spotify after nearly 12 years of serving as the music streaming giant’s chief human resources officer (CHRO). Anna Lundström has succeeded Katarina as CHRO of Spotify.
🇲🇼 Malawi – Temwani Simwaka is breaking barriers as the first female CEO of NBS Bank, a Malawi Stock Exchange-listed institution. She steps into the top role on April 1, marking a pivotal moment in the country’s banking sector.
🇻🇳 Vietnam - Honda Vietnam has a new CEO, Sayaka Hattori . A Japanese national with 25 years of experience in the automobile and motorcycle industry, Sayaka has worked with Honda in its many markets and was last, president of Honda Philippines from 2023 to 2025.
🇲🇾 Malaysia – UOB Kay Hian Securities (M) Sdn Bhd has appointed Anne Leh as its new CEO, effective March 28. The brokerage firm highlights this as a major leadership milestone, with Leh becoming the company’s first female CEO.
🇰🇷 South Korea – SK Inc., SK Biopharmaceuticals, and SKC Ltd. made history at their general shareholder meetings, appointing their first female board chairs:
🔹 Kim Seon-hee Maeil , Vice Chairman & CEO of Maeil Dairies Co., as SK Inc. board chair.
🔹 Suh Ji-hee, Special Professor at Ewha Womans University, as SK Biopharma board chair.
🔹 Chae Eun-mi, former President of FedEx Korea, as SKC board chair.
🇬🇧 UK – Adrian Jacob , former Executive Manager of Chelsea FC Women, is stepping into a new role as Head of Football at World Sevens Football. The groundbreaking seven-a-side league promises fast-paced, high-scoring matches with a game-changing prize pool for professional women’s footballers.
🇬🇧 UK – Women in Football is bolstering its leadership with some new board appointments. The new board appointments are expected to bolster the network’s mission to champion women across the football industry. The 4 new non-executive directors are:
🇬🇧 UK – The Mail has named Celia Duncan as its Global Women’s Editor, following news that the publication has surpassed 250,000 digital subscribers.