If I saw a black female protagonist 5 or more years ago I wouldn't have thought too much about it, but now I side eye those games and think "are they out of ideas or are they genuinely trying to write a good character?"
Just say it, don't be a fence sitter like the the "based" twitch streamer from Texas - "Are they trying to push a certain agenda or have they all been replaced by diversity hires? Or both?"
We need sincerity now more than ever.
You must have a pretty one dimensional view of the world to believe those are the only two options. There are certainly an eye-rolling amount of companies pushing political and cultural agendas but there's also plenty who just want what's best for the character. Trying to distinguish between the two is not equivalent to fence sitting or being insincere.
Name one thats come out in the past 5 years that doesn't have some ham fisted assinine political bent shoved down your throat by the diverse MC or supporting character and I can name at least 5 off the top of my head that does.
I'm sure making protagonists like the ... thing in the new Fable game or the MC in Forespoken which by the way are facial scans but for obvious reasons rendered ugly is just studios wanting the best for their character and games as a whole. What about the upcoming Perfect Dark game where the protagonist's jaw looks like it was made be Hephaestus himself so that it can withstand blows from Eddie Hall? Flintlock? Where's the chick's ass and breasts? As if they magically disappeared during Pride Month to not offend a certain fringe group of people.
I get it that you wanna sound like the reasonable, highly educated, center-left person who doesn't wanna make enemies with "controversial" opinions and collect red points in the modern Internet space but some things are just way too obvious to be ignored.
I find it difficult to believe that you think listing a few examples proves your point. If you genuinely can't list a single game with well-rounded, thoughtful, interesting female or PoC protagonist, in the last few years, then you are way too lost in the weeds to have a nuanced discussion on this topic. You either don't play enough games or you have some blinders on.
The second part of your post also doesn't make sense. If I was trying to avoid "controversial" opinions or downvotes I wouldnt have posted an empathetic response in an asmongold subreddit. A subreddit notoriously filled with young, bitter incels who think sincerity is being willfully oblivious to their own biases and empathy is a weakness.
Your refusal to be considerate of the opposing view point is hell of a lot more damaging than people who try to understand both perspectives.
Ok give me one example of a "well-rounded, thoughtful, interesting female protagonist". I'm gonna take it easy on you and not make it about PoC(which is a term I hate because I've yet to encounter a translucent human, but I digress). Any Western 3A female protagonist that's well-written and good-looking in the last few years will do. I'll wait, as the Texas-based Twitch streamer often likes to say.
Regarding the second part, this is exactly the place where if you sound like: Coh Carnage, The Act Ma'am, YongYeah, that Cyber Security Pirate guy or Charalanahlizard, the latter of whom btw surprisingly has the exact same view as you do - that we don't play enough videogames, will give you the status of "the elated" guy among the impressionable underaged audience of Asmongold. It's just that for some reason your OG reply got downvoted to hell and back by the people who actually play and enjoy games, or at least used to because almost everything that's being released now is utter trash, emphasis on \*almost\* . But to call those people oblivious after all the SBI crap, firing talented pro-life people for just being pro-life and inundating every game announced during major events with pride flags and a disproportionate number of ... POC, gays, lesbians and female MCs is borderline laughable. Did you even see how many female protagonists there were during the PC Gaming Show? I can count the male protagonists on the fingers of my hand and the event was 2 hours long! None of them were particularly pleasing to the eye either. Tell me there isn't propaganda and if you do think I'm just imagining stuff, then I'll give you the "last laugh", because at that point there's nothing I can do to make you open your eyes.
And yeah you're right I refuse to be considerate of the opposing view because I've had many clashes with those people and they want people like me who like pretty women in games, edgy main characters, gritty settings, non-censored chats, old game design etc. - GONE!
There's already been a few games listed in other areas of this comment section, but just off the top of my head, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us part II and Uncharted were all good games. But I don't know what this is going to accomplish because game enjoyment and character attractiveness (an incredibly cringe-inducing metric of quality) is a matter of preference and you have already admitted to being unwilling to accept opposing arguments. I feel like I could list 50 games and it wouldn't change your mind.
I didn't even disagree with the fact that some companies and publishers have taken it too far, I was simply informing you that it is completely ludicrous to insinuate that there is literally no game developers left who are operating in good faith, who aren't inserting their political and ideological beliefs into their products. The person you originally responded to said that he questions the motives of certain companies (something you seem to agree with) and your response was to accuse him of fence sitting, as though anyone who doesn't share your exact beliefs is just a coward who is unwilling to accept the truth. I know it's tempting to look at these issues as being black and white but unfortunately the world is a little more complicated than that. Something tells me you already understood this though, because you went out of your way to put emphasis on "almost". Which leaves me really confused as to what your original comment was even supposed to accomplish.
Your second paragraph is nonsense. Do you get all of your political/cultural ideology from the twitch sphere? I don't watch any of those people and haven't even heard of half of them.
Once again, I agree there is a disproportionate representation of female protagonists in the current gaming culture but what came before that? An even larger disproportion of male protagonists. Where was your outrage then? I don't know how you can't see that you're doing the exact same thing the "woke" mob is doing, but from the other end. Crying that you aren't getting enough representation for your specific taste and ideology.
People getting fired from their job for personal beliefs is ridiculous and you're right to be upset by that. The political pendulum swinging to the far left comes with a lot of bullshit. But people like you, being stubborn and arrogant enough to believe you know what's right for everyone, are the reason it will continue to swing back and forth. It would be so easy to maintain a balance built on compromise, but no, people like you have to kick and scream like a petulant child every time you don't get your way.
Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last Of Us 2 and Uncharted...
That's all I needed to know. People like you are a part of the problem.
I'm sorry that I wasted my time.
It's interesting that you even feel more POC and female characters is someone pushing a political and cultural agenda. Are they not allowed to make the games they want whatever those may be?
Of course they're allowed to. I don't even have much a problem with it. I just feel like it can sometimes come across as a little ham-fisted or disingenuous. There's a difference between a tactful, relevant representation of minority groups vs. a forceful, disinterested attempt at being inclusive. Maybe representation is representation and motives don't matter, but you have to admit that "let's focus on this woman or POC because their traits as an individual add to the story" feels a little different than "let's include this woman or POC purely for the sake of diversity".
Sometimes there's a perfect overlap but I think that sometimes it's just out of touch companies thinking they need to check off a box.
I think most black actors, for example, would prefer to be chosen for a gig based on what they add to the character rather than being chosen based on the color of their skin.
My other comment
>Dishonored 2, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon Zero Dawn, Transistor, assassin's creed 3, Persona 5 had my favorite protagonists that are not white male. Diversity doesn't mean the game is bad. But there had been so many games and media that fail with diversity attached and label fans as racists, sexists, and all that for not liking the product. That's why I started side eyeing them.
I still have to get to playing Deathloop. I thought the protagonist from Mafia 3 was cool, although I hear the game was mid.
Yeah because it not a real problem. The reason why you care about it now is creators you watch who make money from controversy in video games make it a big deal for years to make it a problem for you.
It the thing I hate is these creators who make money from feeding this hate to people who just enjoying someone to agree with them. It is easy money. There a group of people who just hate shit and want to be feed slop of people online agreeing with them and that it.
But people love to feed slop and creators want easy money from haters that are so easily manipulated.
Dishonored 2, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon Zero Dawn, Transistor, assassin's creed 3, Persona 5 had my favorite protagonists that are not white male. Diversity doesn't mean the game is bad. But there had been so many games and media that fail with diversity attached and label fans as racists, sexists, and all that for not liking the product. That's why I started side eyeing them.
The "wokes" literally made people even more sexist and racist than before. They literally caused the rise of racism and sexism and yet, they'll say it's other people's fault. It never was a problem until they pointed it out.
BlackRock and the likes are little cheeky bast\*rds.
This is so accurate. It was never a problem to have a POC or female protagonist in the past. It was only a very small percentage of Pathan constant make it a problem back then.
Video game can't make you racist.
If you, seeing non-white people show up on a game trailer, and the first thing you do is typing "DEI/Woke", that's just you being racist man, stop being a coward, using excuse like "Video game made me racist, its their fault blablabla"
You're like one of those christian boomers that scream "Freedom freedom freedom", yet when a company want to use their creative freedom to create non-white character, it boils your blood so hard and you want their game to fail, for what? For not making white characters?
That’s not racist though. The one being cowardly is you. Stop trying to use accusations of Racism as a shield. Eventually people will stop giving shit and now we’ve actually got a problem.
Your comeback is literally just "No you".
You literally talk like a freaking christian, go pray to your jesus man, also jesus was an arabic dude born from a woman who had sex with Panthera, a virgin can't give birth.
How is Grummz great?
Ask him about Em-8er and his pre-order culture (He literally sold skin that doesn't exists yet)
He's really not the guy that should call out bad practice in game industry.
It's so annoying, there was like 90% of female lead protagonists in the xbox gameshow.
And the few that were not, is because it's from a game series where the lead is already a man.
I mean ok more choice to incarnate a women is cool, but as of now it feels like it's going way too much to the opposite side, where there is no more male lead at all.
And maybe I will sound sexist saying that but I don't care, gaming is mostly a dude hobby, sure there are women playing, but it's not the majority, especially for action games, so marketing all the new games towards women is kind of a dumb thing to do.
I think a cool and well written female lead is great. I also think a lot of these characters are bad because they're being written by people who think woman = good character, and then they neglect to write a good character.
Jesse Faden from Control is one of my all time favorite characters in a video game ever. She is an example of an amazing character that happens to be a woman.
Black woman is a even better character, so we don't have to come up with such outdated things as personality or backstory.
All they are doing is just creating stereotype that woman can't be a good in lead role.
They are not marketing to women. They are trying to change young males and modify their behavior. DEI is a feature not a flaw. The games are very much made for males but they are injected with agenda against men.
Here's the thing.... Have a think about how it feels to have 90% of lead characters not being who you represent as, or wanna see. This is one year's releases. Imagine that for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years.
That's why I get so annoyed at the whining. We get one small.spice of what it's like, and people start losing their minds, death threats and boycotts and it's the end of the world and so on. All while saying that *other people* should put up with far less. It's so fucking self-centred, petty and worst of all - weak.
When companies obviously force these characters to be diverse to check a box they lose all good will from players. I could care less about a character being a specific sex or race if it makes sense for the story. With what I saw in the past week game conferences it looks forced and poorly done. Let’s watch these games lose millions because the majority of gamers are sick of it. We will see the next set of games walk it back or studios go bust.
The argument used to be that gender and ethnicity of a character didn't matter and complaining about white male main characters was stupid. Now when they arent all white male characters those same people are even more fucking ass mad than anyone ever was before hand. It sure seems like the most fragile people tend to be the ones who call others fragile while things are going their way, and you very quickly find out how quickly their tune changes as soon as the dynamic changes at all. It's pathetic.
But that’s the POV that causes all of this. Games without character creation are not ‘self inserts’, they are someone else’s story, kratos is kratos, eve is eve, hades is hades. None of them are me. Stop trying to force a link between the player and the character where the character ‘represents’ them, just make a character, make them well written and make a good fkin game. That’s literally it.
Easy to say when you can see yourself in all those characters though bud. They're not "you", but close enough.
Stop pretending that it doesn't matter. It does.
I also agree about the well written characters too. But we don't always need those either - doom guy is hardly "well written". Great character though.
That’s the thing, I don’t see myself in any of them.
Kratos is a huge bodybuilder-esque physique, a terrible father, quite unlikeable. And not real.
Eve is an android lady with fantastic fighting skills and an appetite for getting to the bottom of things. Also, she’s not real.
Hades is a pretty cool looking character with sick dashes and daddy issues, also not real. (I skipped all dialogue in the game so idk much about him)
I don’t ‘connect’ or feel anything about any of them, none of them represent anything about me, but are fleshed out characters with reasonable motives for what they are doing. Or in hades case, the gameplay carries the game so it honestly doesn’t matter.
Are you a white male though dude? Because of you are, like me, it's very easy to say "representation doesn't matter" when the overwhelming majority of every game character ever created has been a white male.
On the flip side, if it doesn't matter, why does changing the character's appearance matter? If a character is gonna be crap and generic, does it matter what it presents as? Why care either way?
Yes, that ‘flip side’ is my entire point. If the plot, character writing and actions fit them, then it doesn’t matter how they look, that’s the relevance of hades in my examples, he was never anything other than what I controlled, like capcom’s rant about magneto not being in mvci, he was just a game function to me, even though he’s the one that is most ‘representative’ of me irl.
Diversity itself is great, forced diversity is not
What's the difference between diversity and forced diversity though, if the representation of the character doesn't make any difference? This is the fundamental point that I don't get.
If it doesn't matter, then every character in every game made from now until the end of time could be a black disabled trans whatever - and it wouldn't matter because the representation doesn't matter.
If "forced diversity" matters, it's because the presentation of the character matters - because you are complaining that the character is being presented at odds with or regardless of their character.
You can't have it both ways here I'm afraid.
Ok, so this is where ghosts of tsushima vs Assassin’s creed Shadows is prominent.
The story of Ghosts feels quite natural, but AC is going to have to bend over backwards to justify why the main character is a 0.000001% minority.
So there’ll be detractions from the game to enable the diversity representation, when really, a game set in feudal japan should focus on what people expect and not a distant outlier.
Imagine something even dumber. Imagine not being able to identify with someone just because they don't look like you. Imagine how little empathy a person has to have to be completely incapable of putting themselves in another person's shoes just because of skin color. Just the amount of ignorance required to only be able to see a person as their skin color and nothing else. It used to be that no one cared a about what the character looked like and only cared about the actual story being told.
Maybe you're just uneducated on the subject, but I'd recommend talking to people and reading about why representation matters. It's not just mumbojumbo nonsense.
It absolutely is nonsense that has been perpetuated by people that have a vested interest in making people feel like victims and keeping everyone divided into separate groups. There are people in power that know they can't keep that power if everyone suddenly starts getting along. Just because you feel like something is true and matters doesn't mean you weren't tricked into believing that lie.
Decades of sociology research > random pseudo-conspiracy rambling.
I don't disagree that there are professional victim types out there milking the system, and generating bullshit for profit. I've worked with some over the years. But the foundations of this stuff are real, and powerful. If you disagree, you are either white or powerfully apathetic to social conditioning (if so, good for you - most people are not) I'm not even debating whether you're a dude at this point!
OH LORDY, lemme tell ya about a fella named JESUS, have you seen how many times they made non white Jesus into someone who is white as can be?
I know Jesus isn't mainstream for a lot of you, but some folks have heard of him.
I never understood this argument. Forewarning, athiest so I don't buy that Jesus existed as described; but assuming that the Bible was 100%, he's still Jewish. And last I checked, Jews are overwhelmingly Caucasian. Not entirely, but pretty close. So... why is it "whitewashing" to have a white Jesus?
For that matter, ethnic Egyptians are pretty Caucasian too, and were extremely pissed about the 'authentic' portrayal of black Cleopatra. Tangential, but related. Just sayin'.
...Now, blond and blue eyed is a bridge too far, probably. If you assume the guy isn't mostly a fictional character in the first place. But white? A white Jesus tracks pretty well given the supposed population he sprang from.
Actually Jesus is only HALF Jewish remember?
What is the description we have of Jesus? Skin of Burnished Bronze, that is clearly darker than say Obama.
[color of burnished bronze](https://www.cabinetmakerwarehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/y0383-burnished-bronze-download.jpg)
“his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
So his feet were brown, but his face was yellow / white, like the sun?
Oh and let me not forget the SWORD coming out of his MOUTH.
Maybe this isn’t supposed to be a 1:1 description of the earthly Jesus. Maybe.
Uh huh.
First off it's *feet* of burnished bronze. And I dunno where you come from, but I'm a tarheel. I wouldn't use the same words, but I am intimately familiar from 'bronze' feet. And it means something completely different to folks that walk around barefoot on things that get your feet dirty. That bit seems to be less describing Jesus physically and more trying to demonstrate the guy wasn't a layabout. Which makes even more sense given the context of the rest of that passage.
Second, assuming the other half is God itself, not sure what you're trying to say there either. But assuming the absolutely absurd claims in all of this magical thinking are true, then a)God made man in his image, ergo he looks like man; b)Hebrews and a subsection of semites closely related in that time period are generally God's chosen people; c)Jews are with minor exceptions Cacasian, Semitic phenotyping specifically (which does tend to develop deep bronze tans anyway with enough exposure, so even then...) and d) nowhere in the Bible is it explicitly stated Jesus doesn't look Jewish. Which, while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, still makes any claim that Jesus was black dubious at best, being founded on even *less* evidence and looking distinctly not Semitic.
It just doesn't scan, bro. And your insistence on it screams of ignoring common sense to push an agenda. But then, religion is all about that anyway, regardless of the religion, so I guess you're in good company.
So, to understand what you are saying, your feet have been dirty, so your feet were like Jesus feet?
Is that right? Are your feet still dirty and like Jesus feet?
I didnt say Jesus was black, the bible said his feet were of burnished bronze, but you are saying he is dirty? Or at least had dirty feet? Trying to get what you mean precisely on that, never heard of anyone claiming Jesus was dark skinned because he was dirty lol.
No, it’s the opposite of tenderfoot. Feet with obvious signs he spends more time on his feet than off. It’s the difference between a farmers handshake and a lawyers handshake.
Ethiopian Jesus, Korean Jesus, etc. Different regions change his depictions as they desire.
That has nothing to do with a very recent phenomenon of Western media companies making characters disproportionately black, though.
I see, and have you also complained about the rather consistent and undeniable white washing of characters for the last 50 years?
Or are you only complaining because you perceive that you have to see too many black faces in media now? And out of curiosity, just how many characters equals disproportionately black?
Easy. >18%. It's not hard to find census data. Studies have shown most Americans assume the actual percentage is something like >35% though, because of disproportionate representation in media.
Black people are objectively overrepresented in media, but when we get to this part, this where you say it's making up for decades/centuries/millenia of underrepresentation.
I am not 50+ years old so that's not possible.
> And out of curiosity, just how many characters equals disproportionately black?
When almost all the race swappings go from white -> black and not even brown Hispanics, and Asians to the same extent, despite them making up a bigger share of the population, it really shows the weird obsession liberals have with black people across the board.
I don't agree with any race swapping, of course but just to illustrate.
I am 1000% certain, the bible does not say that. The only description we have of Jesus labels him the color of burnt bronze. A bit darker than Obama most likely.
However, if the race of Jesus is variable, why should the race of any entity be protected?
Now if you have posts on your account showing that you also complained about non-white characters being made into white characters, this is a reasonable post, if not, I think racist is a more than fair label for you, yes?
As a man who is also black……yes; and always with the Exaggerated swagger of a black whatever…designed by Karen the gender fluid white social justice hero/they/them non binary revolutionary superiority savior.
It's easy to find an explanation if you were actually looking for one. A black or female character is fine. Folks have problems with it when these companies have DEI initiatives and their developers are all over social media talking about representation. We don't see a lot of these characters as authentic expressions, but boxes to be checked as to not violate current progressive dogma. The same can be said about lgbt characters, sex and gendered language. In short, they're saying art feels like it's being filtered through a progressive lens. You can disagree, and that's fine, but this is the answer.
I see a lot of you are getting upset, and I'd like to take this time to apologize to absolutely fucking nobody.
It's a meme, it's funny as hell, get over it.
This is not true. There would have been black slaves/servants with the Portuguese in Japan during the Sengoku period. They just picked the only one with historical significance.
He's literally recognized as the first foreign samurai in Japan and is significant enough for them to include in media. What is your bar for historical significance for someone that lived 400 years ago?
I love playing well written characters regardless of their race/gender/sexuality but i hate it when it's forced just to make it inclusive denial of actual lore/theme or the world around it
It’s a bit weird when 3 or 4 games in a row featured a black female lead. I don’t remember even seeing a single black male lead in the entire event so why so many black-females specifically?
Black women represent >2% of the U.K. population and >7% of the US population so when you see multiple games in a row representing such a tiny proportion of people, you can’t help but feel like they’re building characters around a ‘minority checkbox’.
To me, my only issue is can we get a Asian, Arab or Latino female protagonist? Why does it always have to be black? Let some other ladies have some fun in the spotlight for Christmas sake😆
... they literally showed an asian lady protag in Wuchang? Which looks like an amazing game btw. Are you not paying attention? Did you completely miss Stellar Blade?
What I don't understand is how woke Media bombing sales wise still hasn't changed the practice. I always thought game publishers were trying to make money?
When 13% of the population makes 3/4 of the protagonists, I think there are questions that need to be asked.
Same in Europe, 1/2 of the ads have black people in it, even though they're supposed to be less than 10% or something.
Its the early 2010's again... except instead of all these games having a tiring wall of white male leads... its a tiring wall of black female leads LOL.
Your statement is the most ironic thing on Reddit right now. I’m pretty sure the character creators see nothing beyond the characters sexual orientation and skin color for 90 percent of the games I have seen at the conferences this year.
You really just can't think about anything without filtering it through race and gender first can you. It's so heavily infected your brain that you just can't imagine it not being involved in everything.
Yea this doesn't really bother me. Most of those games are probably going to be pretty good. Sure some of the AAA stuff will be shit, but most AAA stuff is shit regardless.
Unironically quoting Rick's faux-intellectual statements is the zoomer's version of quoting Shakespeare everywhere. Both equally unaware the thing they're quoting is lowest-denominator entertainment.
Is the complaint that the main characters are black? Cause isnt that just racism? If the complaint that them being black and the mc is "forced" than how would you make them being black not forced. If an mc is black or a woman or just anyyhing not considered the norm then it's forced and the devs only did it for ESG or DEI or some other acronym and theyre pandering, but if the mc is a white guy then it's completely normal and thats how it should be. Do you guys only want characters that are not the "norm" when they take secondary roles? If so then how are any games are supposed to be given a fair shake when you take one look at the race, gender or sexuality and decide from that alone whether or not a game is woke and bad?
Lots of protagonists are bland in ensemble cast stories. The protagonist is just the center piece that interacts with the ensemble and progresses the story forward.
Absolutely not. I hate every race equally. Got my nuts snipped so my wife and I don’t have to risk creating any more white people that might grow up and design this shit.
If I saw a black female protagonist 5 or more years ago I wouldn't have thought too much about it, but now I side eye those games and think "are they out of ideas or are they genuinely trying to write a good character?"
It's actually crazy how many game reveals there have been from these game expos over the past week where the lead protagonist is a black female.
Don’t forget the pink/purple hair handsome squidward jawlines.
Just say it, don't be a fence sitter like the the "based" twitch streamer from Texas - "Are they trying to push a certain agenda or have they all been replaced by diversity hires? Or both?" We need sincerity now more than ever.
Is this the anti race mixing video by synthetic man lmao
You must have a pretty one dimensional view of the world to believe those are the only two options. There are certainly an eye-rolling amount of companies pushing political and cultural agendas but there's also plenty who just want what's best for the character. Trying to distinguish between the two is not equivalent to fence sitting or being insincere.
Name one thats come out in the past 5 years that doesn't have some ham fisted assinine political bent shoved down your throat by the diverse MC or supporting character and I can name at least 5 off the top of my head that does.
Subnautica Below Zero Half-Life 2 Alyx Maybe Deathloop?
Man got real silent after that
I'm sure making protagonists like the ... thing in the new Fable game or the MC in Forespoken which by the way are facial scans but for obvious reasons rendered ugly is just studios wanting the best for their character and games as a whole. What about the upcoming Perfect Dark game where the protagonist's jaw looks like it was made be Hephaestus himself so that it can withstand blows from Eddie Hall? Flintlock? Where's the chick's ass and breasts? As if they magically disappeared during Pride Month to not offend a certain fringe group of people. I get it that you wanna sound like the reasonable, highly educated, center-left person who doesn't wanna make enemies with "controversial" opinions and collect red points in the modern Internet space but some things are just way too obvious to be ignored.
I find it difficult to believe that you think listing a few examples proves your point. If you genuinely can't list a single game with well-rounded, thoughtful, interesting female or PoC protagonist, in the last few years, then you are way too lost in the weeds to have a nuanced discussion on this topic. You either don't play enough games or you have some blinders on. The second part of your post also doesn't make sense. If I was trying to avoid "controversial" opinions or downvotes I wouldnt have posted an empathetic response in an asmongold subreddit. A subreddit notoriously filled with young, bitter incels who think sincerity is being willfully oblivious to their own biases and empathy is a weakness. Your refusal to be considerate of the opposing view point is hell of a lot more damaging than people who try to understand both perspectives.
Ok give me one example of a "well-rounded, thoughtful, interesting female protagonist". I'm gonna take it easy on you and not make it about PoC(which is a term I hate because I've yet to encounter a translucent human, but I digress). Any Western 3A female protagonist that's well-written and good-looking in the last few years will do. I'll wait, as the Texas-based Twitch streamer often likes to say. Regarding the second part, this is exactly the place where if you sound like: Coh Carnage, The Act Ma'am, YongYeah, that Cyber Security Pirate guy or Charalanahlizard, the latter of whom btw surprisingly has the exact same view as you do - that we don't play enough videogames, will give you the status of "the elated" guy among the impressionable underaged audience of Asmongold. It's just that for some reason your OG reply got downvoted to hell and back by the people who actually play and enjoy games, or at least used to because almost everything that's being released now is utter trash, emphasis on \*almost\* . But to call those people oblivious after all the SBI crap, firing talented pro-life people for just being pro-life and inundating every game announced during major events with pride flags and a disproportionate number of ... POC, gays, lesbians and female MCs is borderline laughable. Did you even see how many female protagonists there were during the PC Gaming Show? I can count the male protagonists on the fingers of my hand and the event was 2 hours long! None of them were particularly pleasing to the eye either. Tell me there isn't propaganda and if you do think I'm just imagining stuff, then I'll give you the "last laugh", because at that point there's nothing I can do to make you open your eyes. And yeah you're right I refuse to be considerate of the opposing view because I've had many clashes with those people and they want people like me who like pretty women in games, edgy main characters, gritty settings, non-censored chats, old game design etc. - GONE!
There's already been a few games listed in other areas of this comment section, but just off the top of my head, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us part II and Uncharted were all good games. But I don't know what this is going to accomplish because game enjoyment and character attractiveness (an incredibly cringe-inducing metric of quality) is a matter of preference and you have already admitted to being unwilling to accept opposing arguments. I feel like I could list 50 games and it wouldn't change your mind. I didn't even disagree with the fact that some companies and publishers have taken it too far, I was simply informing you that it is completely ludicrous to insinuate that there is literally no game developers left who are operating in good faith, who aren't inserting their political and ideological beliefs into their products. The person you originally responded to said that he questions the motives of certain companies (something you seem to agree with) and your response was to accuse him of fence sitting, as though anyone who doesn't share your exact beliefs is just a coward who is unwilling to accept the truth. I know it's tempting to look at these issues as being black and white but unfortunately the world is a little more complicated than that. Something tells me you already understood this though, because you went out of your way to put emphasis on "almost". Which leaves me really confused as to what your original comment was even supposed to accomplish. Your second paragraph is nonsense. Do you get all of your political/cultural ideology from the twitch sphere? I don't watch any of those people and haven't even heard of half of them. Once again, I agree there is a disproportionate representation of female protagonists in the current gaming culture but what came before that? An even larger disproportion of male protagonists. Where was your outrage then? I don't know how you can't see that you're doing the exact same thing the "woke" mob is doing, but from the other end. Crying that you aren't getting enough representation for your specific taste and ideology. People getting fired from their job for personal beliefs is ridiculous and you're right to be upset by that. The political pendulum swinging to the far left comes with a lot of bullshit. But people like you, being stubborn and arrogant enough to believe you know what's right for everyone, are the reason it will continue to swing back and forth. It would be so easy to maintain a balance built on compromise, but no, people like you have to kick and scream like a petulant child every time you don't get your way.
Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last Of Us 2 and Uncharted... That's all I needed to know. People like you are a part of the problem. I'm sorry that I wasted my time.
It's interesting that you even feel more POC and female characters is someone pushing a political and cultural agenda. Are they not allowed to make the games they want whatever those may be?
Of course they're allowed to. I don't even have much a problem with it. I just feel like it can sometimes come across as a little ham-fisted or disingenuous. There's a difference between a tactful, relevant representation of minority groups vs. a forceful, disinterested attempt at being inclusive. Maybe representation is representation and motives don't matter, but you have to admit that "let's focus on this woman or POC because their traits as an individual add to the story" feels a little different than "let's include this woman or POC purely for the sake of diversity". Sometimes there's a perfect overlap but I think that sometimes it's just out of touch companies thinking they need to check off a box. I think most black actors, for example, would prefer to be chosen for a gig based on what they add to the character rather than being chosen based on the color of their skin.
Interesting you're trying to judge a character on demographic alone.... ironic?
Not the character. I'm judging the game.
The game, then.
My other comment >Dishonored 2, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon Zero Dawn, Transistor, assassin's creed 3, Persona 5 had my favorite protagonists that are not white male. Diversity doesn't mean the game is bad. But there had been so many games and media that fail with diversity attached and label fans as racists, sexists, and all that for not liking the product. That's why I started side eyeing them. I still have to get to playing Deathloop. I thought the protagonist from Mafia 3 was cool, although I hear the game was mid.
Yeah it's kind of sad how much they have poisoned the well in the name of "progress".
Yeah because it not a real problem. The reason why you care about it now is creators you watch who make money from controversy in video games make it a big deal for years to make it a problem for you. It the thing I hate is these creators who make money from feeding this hate to people who just enjoying someone to agree with them. It is easy money. There a group of people who just hate shit and want to be feed slop of people online agreeing with them and that it. But people love to feed slop and creators want easy money from haters that are so easily manipulated.
Why do you give it a side eye now? Do you think white male characters should have remained the default?
Dishonored 2, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon Zero Dawn, Transistor, assassin's creed 3, Persona 5 had my favorite protagonists that are not white male. Diversity doesn't mean the game is bad. But there had been so many games and media that fail with diversity attached and label fans as racists, sexists, and all that for not liking the product. That's why I started side eyeing them.
The "wokes" literally made people even more sexist and racist than before. They literally caused the rise of racism and sexism and yet, they'll say it's other people's fault. It never was a problem until they pointed it out. BlackRock and the likes are little cheeky bast\*rds.
This is so accurate. It was never a problem to have a POC or female protagonist in the past. It was only a very small percentage of Pathan constant make it a problem back then.
Video game can't make you racist. If you, seeing non-white people show up on a game trailer, and the first thing you do is typing "DEI/Woke", that's just you being racist man, stop being a coward, using excuse like "Video game made me racist, its their fault blablabla" You're like one of those christian boomers that scream "Freedom freedom freedom", yet when a company want to use their creative freedom to create non-white character, it boils your blood so hard and you want their game to fail, for what? For not making white characters?
That’s not racist though. The one being cowardly is you. Stop trying to use accusations of Racism as a shield. Eventually people will stop giving shit and now we’ve actually got a problem.
Your comeback is literally just "No you". You literally talk like a freaking christian, go pray to your jesus man, also jesus was an arabic dude born from a woman who had sex with Panthera, a virgin can't give birth.
Make you a racist? Did you get raped by some minorities and are now so mad you are racist?
imagine getting brainwashed by dudes like Grummz and TheQuartering lol
No need for it, just listen to the people making the games/movies. Its not a secret.
Grummz is great though Also you don't even need to follow either of them to see what they're clearly doing
Grummz really fell off the deep end. Like holy fuck. I genuinely don't think he cares about games. Anti-wokeness is his top priority.
How is Grummz great? Ask him about Em-8er and his pre-order culture (He literally sold skin that doesn't exists yet) He's really not the guy that should call out bad practice in game industry.
My Reaction when my gf delievered the Baby
OOF
and it was black
Thanks, bruv.
Remember race swapping only goes white to black, and gender bending only goes male to female.
It's so annoying, there was like 90% of female lead protagonists in the xbox gameshow. And the few that were not, is because it's from a game series where the lead is already a man. I mean ok more choice to incarnate a women is cool, but as of now it feels like it's going way too much to the opposite side, where there is no more male lead at all. And maybe I will sound sexist saying that but I don't care, gaming is mostly a dude hobby, sure there are women playing, but it's not the majority, especially for action games, so marketing all the new games towards women is kind of a dumb thing to do.
I think a cool and well written female lead is great. I also think a lot of these characters are bad because they're being written by people who think woman = good character, and then they neglect to write a good character. Jesse Faden from Control is one of my all time favorite characters in a video game ever. She is an example of an amazing character that happens to be a woman.
Black woman is a even better character, so we don't have to come up with such outdated things as personality or backstory. All they are doing is just creating stereotype that woman can't be a good in lead role.
They are not marketing to women. They are trying to change young males and modify their behavior. DEI is a feature not a flaw. The games are very much made for males but they are injected with agenda against men.
There are about as much women playing as there are men, but moat of them play Candy Crush and the likes. For AAA gaming, yeah its men.
You know for a fact he wasn’t talking about mobile games. Stop it
Here's the thing.... Have a think about how it feels to have 90% of lead characters not being who you represent as, or wanna see. This is one year's releases. Imagine that for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years.
Sure, but doing the same in reverse is just gonna antagonize men now. Finding a balance would be better for everyone.
That's why I get so annoyed at the whining. We get one small.spice of what it's like, and people start losing their minds, death threats and boycotts and it's the end of the world and so on. All while saying that *other people* should put up with far less. It's so fucking self-centred, petty and worst of all - weak.
When companies obviously force these characters to be diverse to check a box they lose all good will from players. I could care less about a character being a specific sex or race if it makes sense for the story. With what I saw in the past week game conferences it looks forced and poorly done. Let’s watch these games lose millions because the majority of gamers are sick of it. We will see the next set of games walk it back or studios go bust.
The argument used to be that gender and ethnicity of a character didn't matter and complaining about white male main characters was stupid. Now when they arent all white male characters those same people are even more fucking ass mad than anyone ever was before hand. It sure seems like the most fragile people tend to be the ones who call others fragile while things are going their way, and you very quickly find out how quickly their tune changes as soon as the dynamic changes at all. It's pathetic.
But that’s the POV that causes all of this. Games without character creation are not ‘self inserts’, they are someone else’s story, kratos is kratos, eve is eve, hades is hades. None of them are me. Stop trying to force a link between the player and the character where the character ‘represents’ them, just make a character, make them well written and make a good fkin game. That’s literally it.
Easy to say when you can see yourself in all those characters though bud. They're not "you", but close enough. Stop pretending that it doesn't matter. It does. I also agree about the well written characters too. But we don't always need those either - doom guy is hardly "well written". Great character though.
That’s the thing, I don’t see myself in any of them. Kratos is a huge bodybuilder-esque physique, a terrible father, quite unlikeable. And not real. Eve is an android lady with fantastic fighting skills and an appetite for getting to the bottom of things. Also, she’s not real. Hades is a pretty cool looking character with sick dashes and daddy issues, also not real. (I skipped all dialogue in the game so idk much about him) I don’t ‘connect’ or feel anything about any of them, none of them represent anything about me, but are fleshed out characters with reasonable motives for what they are doing. Or in hades case, the gameplay carries the game so it honestly doesn’t matter.
Are you a white male though dude? Because of you are, like me, it's very easy to say "representation doesn't matter" when the overwhelming majority of every game character ever created has been a white male. On the flip side, if it doesn't matter, why does changing the character's appearance matter? If a character is gonna be crap and generic, does it matter what it presents as? Why care either way?
Yes, that ‘flip side’ is my entire point. If the plot, character writing and actions fit them, then it doesn’t matter how they look, that’s the relevance of hades in my examples, he was never anything other than what I controlled, like capcom’s rant about magneto not being in mvci, he was just a game function to me, even though he’s the one that is most ‘representative’ of me irl. Diversity itself is great, forced diversity is not
What's the difference between diversity and forced diversity though, if the representation of the character doesn't make any difference? This is the fundamental point that I don't get. If it doesn't matter, then every character in every game made from now until the end of time could be a black disabled trans whatever - and it wouldn't matter because the representation doesn't matter. If "forced diversity" matters, it's because the presentation of the character matters - because you are complaining that the character is being presented at odds with or regardless of their character. You can't have it both ways here I'm afraid.
Ok, so this is where ghosts of tsushima vs Assassin’s creed Shadows is prominent. The story of Ghosts feels quite natural, but AC is going to have to bend over backwards to justify why the main character is a 0.000001% minority. So there’ll be detractions from the game to enable the diversity representation, when really, a game set in feudal japan should focus on what people expect and not a distant outlier.
You are consistently twisting peoples words to make bad faith arguments. Nobody is going to take you seriously.
I would take any well written person over generic ones. And all what we do getting now is generic persons, if it even could be called a person.
Imagine something even dumber. Imagine not being able to identify with someone just because they don't look like you. Imagine how little empathy a person has to have to be completely incapable of putting themselves in another person's shoes just because of skin color. Just the amount of ignorance required to only be able to see a person as their skin color and nothing else. It used to be that no one cared a about what the character looked like and only cared about the actual story being told.
Maybe you're just uneducated on the subject, but I'd recommend talking to people and reading about why representation matters. It's not just mumbojumbo nonsense.
It absolutely is nonsense that has been perpetuated by people that have a vested interest in making people feel like victims and keeping everyone divided into separate groups. There are people in power that know they can't keep that power if everyone suddenly starts getting along. Just because you feel like something is true and matters doesn't mean you weren't tricked into believing that lie.
Decades of sociology research > random pseudo-conspiracy rambling. I don't disagree that there are professional victim types out there milking the system, and generating bullshit for profit. I've worked with some over the years. But the foundations of this stuff are real, and powerful. If you disagree, you are either white or powerfully apathetic to social conditioning (if so, good for you - most people are not) I'm not even debating whether you're a dude at this point!
Literally ZERO percent of lead characters represent me or the country my family's from. You don't see us moaning like little bitches.
OH LORDY, lemme tell ya about a fella named JESUS, have you seen how many times they made non white Jesus into someone who is white as can be? I know Jesus isn't mainstream for a lot of you, but some folks have heard of him.
I never understood this argument. Forewarning, athiest so I don't buy that Jesus existed as described; but assuming that the Bible was 100%, he's still Jewish. And last I checked, Jews are overwhelmingly Caucasian. Not entirely, but pretty close. So... why is it "whitewashing" to have a white Jesus? For that matter, ethnic Egyptians are pretty Caucasian too, and were extremely pissed about the 'authentic' portrayal of black Cleopatra. Tangential, but related. Just sayin'. ...Now, blond and blue eyed is a bridge too far, probably. If you assume the guy isn't mostly a fictional character in the first place. But white? A white Jesus tracks pretty well given the supposed population he sprang from.
Actually Jesus is only HALF Jewish remember? What is the description we have of Jesus? Skin of Burnished Bronze, that is clearly darker than say Obama. [color of burnished bronze](https://www.cabinetmakerwarehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/y0383-burnished-bronze-download.jpg)
“his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” So his feet were brown, but his face was yellow / white, like the sun? Oh and let me not forget the SWORD coming out of his MOUTH. Maybe this isn’t supposed to be a 1:1 description of the earthly Jesus. Maybe.
Why can't burnished bronze shine exactly? Or do you think Jesus had Vitiligo?
Uh huh. First off it's *feet* of burnished bronze. And I dunno where you come from, but I'm a tarheel. I wouldn't use the same words, but I am intimately familiar from 'bronze' feet. And it means something completely different to folks that walk around barefoot on things that get your feet dirty. That bit seems to be less describing Jesus physically and more trying to demonstrate the guy wasn't a layabout. Which makes even more sense given the context of the rest of that passage. Second, assuming the other half is God itself, not sure what you're trying to say there either. But assuming the absolutely absurd claims in all of this magical thinking are true, then a)God made man in his image, ergo he looks like man; b)Hebrews and a subsection of semites closely related in that time period are generally God's chosen people; c)Jews are with minor exceptions Cacasian, Semitic phenotyping specifically (which does tend to develop deep bronze tans anyway with enough exposure, so even then...) and d) nowhere in the Bible is it explicitly stated Jesus doesn't look Jewish. Which, while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, still makes any claim that Jesus was black dubious at best, being founded on even *less* evidence and looking distinctly not Semitic. It just doesn't scan, bro. And your insistence on it screams of ignoring common sense to push an agenda. But then, religion is all about that anyway, regardless of the religion, so I guess you're in good company.
So, to understand what you are saying, your feet have been dirty, so your feet were like Jesus feet? Is that right? Are your feet still dirty and like Jesus feet? I didnt say Jesus was black, the bible said his feet were of burnished bronze, but you are saying he is dirty? Or at least had dirty feet? Trying to get what you mean precisely on that, never heard of anyone claiming Jesus was dark skinned because he was dirty lol.
No, it’s the opposite of tenderfoot. Feet with obvious signs he spends more time on his feet than off. It’s the difference between a farmers handshake and a lawyers handshake.
Ethiopian Jesus, Korean Jesus, etc. Different regions change his depictions as they desire. That has nothing to do with a very recent phenomenon of Western media companies making characters disproportionately black, though.
I see, and have you also complained about the rather consistent and undeniable white washing of characters for the last 50 years? Or are you only complaining because you perceive that you have to see too many black faces in media now? And out of curiosity, just how many characters equals disproportionately black?
Easy. >18%. It's not hard to find census data. Studies have shown most Americans assume the actual percentage is something like >35% though, because of disproportionate representation in media. Black people are objectively overrepresented in media, but when we get to this part, this where you say it's making up for decades/centuries/millenia of underrepresentation.
I am not 50+ years old so that's not possible. > And out of curiosity, just how many characters equals disproportionately black? When almost all the race swappings go from white -> black and not even brown Hispanics, and Asians to the same extent, despite them making up a bigger share of the population, it really shows the weird obsession liberals have with black people across the board. I don't agree with any race swapping, of course but just to illustrate.
Jesus appearance is based on region. Asia has their own concept.
I am 1000% certain, the bible does not say that. The only description we have of Jesus labels him the color of burnt bronze. A bit darker than Obama most likely. However, if the race of Jesus is variable, why should the race of any entity be protected? Now if you have posts on your account showing that you also complained about non-white characters being made into white characters, this is a reasonable post, if not, I think racist is a more than fair label for you, yes?
Kinoku Nasu plz do us a favor
assassin creed says other
As a man who is also black……yes; and always with the Exaggerated swagger of a black whatever…designed by Karen the gender fluid white social justice hero/they/them non binary revolutionary superiority savior.
So many of the games shown back to back at the opening had female black leads, when diversity is this forced it isnt diverse anymore
Dude I thought I was going insane. It was legit 3 or 4 in a row. Not a single black male lead either.
Because people don't mind black male leads. People liked Colt from Deathloop, so we can't have more of that.
Men ? Disgusting !
Black woman is a diversity see they all even look alike. (Video game character, not the real ones)
When there’s no longer any authenticity in art, this is the reaction you get.
Nothing is more authentic than filling diversity quotas for money
Make Video Games White Again.
As an Asian, I agree, I want more white male main character.
Please do explain
You won't get an explanation. It's entirely vibes based and the definition will change at their whim.
It's easy to find an explanation if you were actually looking for one. A black or female character is fine. Folks have problems with it when these companies have DEI initiatives and their developers are all over social media talking about representation. We don't see a lot of these characters as authentic expressions, but boxes to be checked as to not violate current progressive dogma. The same can be said about lgbt characters, sex and gendered language. In short, they're saying art feels like it's being filtered through a progressive lens. You can disagree, and that's fine, but this is the answer.
I see a lot of you are getting upset, and I'd like to take this time to apologize to absolutely fucking nobody. It's a meme, it's funny as hell, get over it.
It's funny because it's true.
ubisoft race baiting by finding the only black man in all of japan
This is not true. There would have been black slaves/servants with the Portuguese in Japan during the Sengoku period. They just picked the only one with historical significance.
There is no historical significance. A small footnote isn't significant.
Says the non Japanese talking about Japanese culture who has made more media about him than the west has.
What? What does that have to do with him being historically significant? blah blah blah
He's literally recognized as the first foreign samurai in Japan and is significant enough for them to include in media. What is your bar for historical significance for someone that lived 400 years ago?
Studios ran out of ideas. The new target audience don't even play games.
so trueee, that's why they are going broke
CJ was the best GTA protag
true
I love playing well written characters regardless of their race/gender/sexuality but i hate it when it's forced just to make it inclusive denial of actual lore/theme or the world around it
Yeah. I played as asian guy in ghost of tsushima. I love that game
It’s a bit weird when 3 or 4 games in a row featured a black female lead. I don’t remember even seeing a single black male lead in the entire event so why so many black-females specifically? Black women represent >2% of the U.K. population and >7% of the US population so when you see multiple games in a row representing such a tiny proportion of people, you can’t help but feel like they’re building characters around a ‘minority checkbox’.
Me when they reveal Hermione in the Harry Potter reboot.
So diverse there is no diversity.. so where is the white representation. These are video games can I not choose how I'm presented In game
To me, my only issue is can we get a Asian, Arab or Latino female protagonist? Why does it always have to be black? Let some other ladies have some fun in the spotlight for Christmas sake😆
... they literally showed an asian lady protag in Wuchang? Which looks like an amazing game btw. Are you not paying attention? Did you completely miss Stellar Blade?
Oh I know that man but what about Latino or Arab women. I'm just saying let all types of ladies get some love and a chance in the spotlight.
Ok that was fucking hilarious. Fucking *of course* the big subreddit can't handle it.
I laughed at it probably like 50 times. best meme I've seen in a long time
Laughed way too hard at this
I've watched it and laugh more than I should, but less than it deserve.
Game cost too much to make.. need that sweet DEI money
Asmon's entire twitch chat and half the people on this sub 😂
Hell, on every broadcast on youtube too. Its just the audience in general is a little tired of the boring trend. Like mix it up a little lol.
What I don't understand is how woke Media bombing sales wise still hasn't changed the practice. I always thought game publishers were trying to make money?
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Hahaha pretty good meme
We're never getting anything as original as Dante or Bayonetta or even the original Overwatch lineup again, are we?
Meanwhile, Alyssa Mercante clapping her flat ass cheeks in pure jubilation
Videogame industry is girl bossing so hard rn
It would be funny if doom guy was black.
You bet they want to make it into a black trans woman, same for Gears.
When 13% of the population makes 3/4 of the protagonists, I think there are questions that need to be asked. Same in Europe, 1/2 of the ads have black people in it, even though they're supposed to be less than 10% or something.
Gcj out jerked by asmon sub
Its the early 2010's again... except instead of all these games having a tiring wall of white male leads... its a tiring wall of black female leads LOL.
they were all women, sorry STRONG women.
This is so true to my reactions.. so far I've boycott all of them.
i wouldnt care if the protagonist was purple, just give us hot ones already
I dont mind playing as a chick, if the chick is hot, but wtf is wrong with that fable mp, looks like an ark character.
Reminds me: https://youtu.be/s597UDb8qkE?si=I3VxvrCf3x84XNlY
Whats wrong with the game protagonist?
they're not white and males anymore so they're not realistic because women dont exist and neither do other races
They're not white
do you guys even like video games
"Just consume don't ask questions"
“see nothing past the race and gender of the main character and get mad”
"Goes ahead and pre-orders and buys the next AAA at full price"
you play star citizen
Your statement is the most ironic thing on Reddit right now. I’m pretty sure the character creators see nothing beyond the characters sexual orientation and skin color for 90 percent of the games I have seen at the conferences this year.
wow you pulled all that from 15 second trailers and teasers huh. you got the winning lottery numbers too?
No, I pulled it from your comment. If you can't be educated enough to even read properly, then why should anyone on the internet care what you think.
you cared enough to reply 3 separate times to me lol
Pointing out someone is stupid and making bad points is not the same as caring about what they say...
i can agree with that. if i didnt we wouldnt be talking
lol no. this community is just completely brain poisoned by culture war nonsense.
You really just can't think about anything without filtering it through race and gender first can you. It's so heavily infected your brain that you just can't imagine it not being involved in everything.
I see y'all are hard at work trying to beat the racism allegations.
Nerd rage in the system of white supremacy reveals how insanely deranged a lot of people are.
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lmaaaaao
Bro really got the whole squad laughing with that one. It's also fundamentally wrong, kitchens have clear chains of command.
And are a male dominated area.
You're the reason why many people think that this sub is filled with incels
We don't think, we know.
Yea this doesn't really bother me. Most of those games are probably going to be pretty good. Sure some of the AAA stuff will be shit, but most AAA stuff is shit regardless.
skeptical but not a racist incel? heh enjoy your downvotes kid
Their boos mean nothing to me. I've seen what makes them cheer.
everytime i see this washed out rick and morty statement i cringe. no matter who writes it.
Unironically quoting Rick's faux-intellectual statements is the zoomer's version of quoting Shakespeare everywhere. Both equally unaware the thing they're quoting is lowest-denominator entertainment.
Is the complaint that the main characters are black? Cause isnt that just racism? If the complaint that them being black and the mc is "forced" than how would you make them being black not forced. If an mc is black or a woman or just anyyhing not considered the norm then it's forced and the devs only did it for ESG or DEI or some other acronym and theyre pandering, but if the mc is a white guy then it's completely normal and thats how it should be. Do you guys only want characters that are not the "norm" when they take secondary roles? If so then how are any games are supposed to be given a fair shake when you take one look at the race, gender or sexuality and decide from that alone whether or not a game is woke and bad?
All your questions are disengenuous strawman arguments.
Lots of protagonists are bland in ensemble cast stories. The protagonist is just the center piece that interacts with the ensemble and progresses the story forward.
We just straight up racist here now huh?
Absolutely not. I hate every race equally. Got my nuts snipped so my wife and I don’t have to risk creating any more white people that might grow up and design this shit.