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Respawn Supposedly Rejected Calls for a Female and/or Black Lead for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (IGN)

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Can a brother get some representation and finally get a Hawaiian Jedi? And I want him to be as stereotypical as possible, pretty much a mix of the turtle from Finding Nemo and the fat guy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Hawaiian Jedi always on Kamino just kinda surfing and chillaxing.

If Asian and Black people are considered minorities, us Hawaiians have got to be one of the least represented American groups in videogames.
 
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Filben

Member
You bring up excellent points all around. And as an American of Latino heritage myself, I would like to be repres...

... No wait, I wouldn't. Because in the end I don't need a video game character to "represent me" or "look like me." I don't give a shit. I put zero of my self worth or value based on what video game characters are doing or what they look like.

So sure, people can lobby for more Hispanic representation in video games. But they shouldn't act like they speak for me, because again I personally don't give a shit.
And it's mostly white, virtue signaling people that try to act as a mouthpiece for other groups.

So let me, as a white man, correct you on how I think you should think and behave and should care for diversity and representation!!
 
So let me, as a white man, correct you on how I think you should think and behave and should care for diversity and representation!!
I knew it! You did strike me as a "colonizer" and an oppressor, and... (LMAO good thing I'm behind a screen typing this on a keyboard, because it's hard for me to keep a straight face while typing that gibberish. Gosh, so much of this stuff is so dumb 😂)
 
Here are a couple of reminders of why it's better to just let the creators be, instead of demanding that "my character has to be X gender or Y race or Z ethnicity!"

Two of the most unquestionably iconic characters in all of video games are Chun-Li and Lara Croft, both women.

Chun-Li was added organically. No one demanded that she be added to the game, let alone be a protagonist. While the modern interpretation of Street Fighter II is that it's a truly ensemble cast, as kids we all sort of understood that Ryu was the protagonist. But there was Chun-Li, the only chick in a group of 12 fighters. And as kids, when we first saw her in action, we were fucking floored, we couldn't believe how awesome she was. Oh my God, this chick can flip upside down and do a helicopter kick! Lightning-fast kicks! Jump off the wall and stomp you on the head! We didn't place a lot of emphasis on her being a woman because she was so damn cool; in that way, she was on a truly equal level with the rest of the cast. Ahhh, true equality, it was a beautiful thing.

When Lara Croft was introduced, we collectively lost our shit. She was so cool, so bad ass, that at the time she was introduced she was cooler than any male video game action hero we had played as. The Contra dudes were a distant memory. Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Garden was a distant memory. Even Mario was put in the backseat. Why? Because this chick had a bad ass attitude. She had DUAL GUNS. She went to exotic locations and fought tigers and jumped on all sorts of things and did it all with confidence and massive amounts of cool. And, several video games and multiple Angelina Jolie movies later, Lara Croft is one of the unquestionably most iconic fictional characters in the modern era. (Well, that was until they annihilated her character and made her into a supremely annoying, whining, self-doubting, entitled brat in the new trilogy.)

So it's very simple. True, organic equality = good; forced, inorganic equality = bad.
 
Games with white male leads:
- Guardians of the Galaxy
Based on a comic book characters with a popular film franchise where the fan favorite character is the lead white guy. Not original.

- Final Fantasy 7 remake
A remake of a 1997 game.

- Resident Evil Village - though you never see his face or character model saving everyone the horror of witnessing a white man
Like you said, you don't see Ethan's face. And even then, it's a continuity for a character we first encountered in 2017 (and presumably first created several years before that).

So, let's readjust your numbers a little bit.

Total number of new, original white male lead characters in AAA games = 0

😂
 

PC Gamer

Has enormous collection of anime/manga. Cosplays as waifu.
Former Respawn developer Nora Shramek has claimed that Respawn management rejected requests to make the lead to Jedi: Fallen Order Black and/or a woman.

Which is neither sexist or racist...
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
"Diverse" means female or black. What a world.
It's the old go extreme route to cover all bases.

Even though there's tons of different people in the middle of colour spectrum sandwiched between white and black people, the thinking is if media disproportionately skews a lot to Black people then it means....

"Hey everyone, we just changed from whites and 180'ed to blacks. So for all you Latinos, Asians, Indians, and for the guy above who mentioned Hawaiian (who I dont think I've ever seen as a leading game character), the game dev or TV ad can just say we already covered you. Just pretend the two kinds of media (white and black heavy) cover all bases"
 
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Scotty W

Member
I for one would love it if game studios made a realistic India Indian the lead in a game. The gaming world could not bear so much reality.
 
Can a brother get some representation and finally get a Hawaiian Jedi? And I want him to be as stereotypical as possible, pretty much a mix of the turtle from Finding Nemo and the fat guy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Hawaiian Jedi always on Kamino just kinda surfing and chillaxing.

If Asian and Black people are considered minorities, us Hawaiians have got to be one of the least represented American groups in videogames.
You gotta admit Gibraltar from Apex Legends is amazing. His VA is spot on with the pidgin. Sounds like I am back home in Hawaii when I play him.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
You gotta admit Gibraltar from Apex Legends is amazing. His VA is spot on with the pidgin. Sounds like I am back home in Hawaii when I play him.
Lol, whenever I played Apex, my buddy was always like, you gonna pick that guy rrrriiiight? No, I'm picking the fuckin' robot guy.
 
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The Skull

Member
Big nothing burger. Let's creators do what they want whether the protagonist is white, black, male, female, straight , gay whatever. I'm more interested if the protagonist is interesting or not.
 

Javthusiast

Banned
Angry Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles GIF


You know me, if a choice presents itself to have a male or hot female main character I choose a hot female. Though this being a western game, she would never be hot, so milktoast Joker from Gotham dude is fine enough.
 
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sircaw

Banned
Would a hover chair work? Support X-men instead.


professor x wolverine bring me a cheese pizza GIF
In those early days of cartoons, I was in love with Captin Marvel, makes me so sad what they have done to her in the last few years.

Rogue plus gambit, what a love story.

Sebastion Shaw, hellfire club etx etc.

X-men was da bomb.
 
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PhaseJump

Banned
Just imagine a woman in the Vader scenes of the endgame.

It would be review bombed by the hardcore SJWs due to "patriarchy"
 
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IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
No because his story was boring and the actor halfassed his way through an already boring character.

This is Trilla story:
Shes an Imperial Inquisitor who is the mainish badguy of the game was once a Jedi Padawan she survived Order 66, her former master betrayed her so she succumbed to the dark side, taking the title of Second Sister and setting out to hunt down surviving Jedi.
Yeah people might say her story would be kinda a rehash of Episode 3.....but it would have been alot more interesting surviving Order 66, being plot twist betrayed by your master then playing the second half of the game as an Inquisitor.

Ah. I see.

Yet, that's a story element. Nothing to do with race/gender. Although I do agree that story would have been more interesting, especially if the main character doesn't turn back to the Jedi.
 

Danknugz

Member
I'm all for diversity in games, the world is a colourful place... but why does Diversity seem to just mean Black people?

Where are the Indian or Asian leeds?

I don't particularly care about the race of a character (I don't project myself on them, same as with female leeds), but diversity is not just Black people.
some might argue it's just a facade of virtue signaling to sell more copies, generally management is more concerned with ROI, but to be fair the largest minority (in the us at least) are black.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Cal is a spectacularly boring cipher so it wouldn't have changed really. . .anything in the game. The only issue in my mind would be that would make the great majority of major characters in the game all ladies which would have been odd honestly. Personally, I think Cere and the Sister were the better characters, so if making Cal some milquetoast is the cost of that. . .I'm fine with them sticking to their guns.
 

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Where is the asian guy failing math?

or

The group of white guys fighting over a game of spades?

or

The all black water polo team?

When does this craziness end?
 
You are. They not male. The list is about games without white male leads.
This is none-sense you can't claim they are X vs. X when one you only count one towards one side and then claim there are too many female leads now and no one will make a game with white males now... like wtf kind of logic is that? you people are really showing your true colors and the type of people you vehemently hate and despise.

It's not 2002 anymore. Pretty much every other game has a black or female lead already. Let's not overcorrect so that no one ever makes a game with a white male lead. They are by far the biggest gaming demographic in this country and if we believe this nonsense about how black kids and little girls cant see themselves in straight white leads then by the same definition, we have to assume that white kids wont be able to connect with fat lesbian women.

Here are some of the more recent games with non white male leads: 2020-2022
- Horizon FW
- Returnal
- Ghostwire tokyo
- Deathloop
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Spiderman Miles
- The Last of Us 2
- Ratchet - including this because it has a female lead
- Resident Evil 3
- Metroid Dread
- Kena
- Far Cry 6
- Half Life Alyx

Games with white male leads:
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Final Fantasy 7 remake
- Resident Evil Village - though you never see his face or character model saving everyone the horror of witnessing a white man

So 2 vs 13 AAA games in the last 2.5 years. 1 if you count western devs.

Sony studios are pretty much the only western studios making single player games anyway, and you would have to go back all the way to 2019 to see a white male lead from Sony. Neither Days gone or Death Stranding is getting a sequel so there is that.

If anything, I think we have had enough games with black leads, female leads and black female leads. If diversity for the sake of diversity MUST be done then lets tell some stories about native americans, arabs, indians and hispanics. It's funny how we never hear those demographics ask for more representation. My favorite demographics. It's odd seeing people shamelessly beg for parts.
WTF not only is this pure nonsense.

But give me a list of how many games from last gen era (2013-2020) had a white person lead versus how many had a black person lead

If anything, I think we have had enough games with black leads, female leads and black female leads. If diversity for the sake of diversity MUST be done then lets tell some stories about native americans, arabs, indians and hispanics. It's funny how we never hear those demographics ask for more representation. My favorite demographics. It's odd seeing people shamelessly beg for parts.

Admit it, you hate us. Yet we are the most integral part of America. We built this nation with our blood, sweat and tears. The fact that you would equate us to "arabs, indians, etc" shows how much you hate us.
 
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"So I have this character, he's young and scrappy on some rare planet and finds out that he's force sensitive one day. He's white, younh with ginger hair"

"Can you cast him as black and a female?"

"Well, when I created the character in my mind I saw the character I mentioned....so that's the character"

"What is wrong with you.....wait until reeeeeeeeee hears about this!"

"I just wanted to make the character I invisioned" sadge


Meanwhile on the internet...."don't make games by commitee or focus tested"

Like I'm all for everyone and everything. Do, be and find what makes you happy. Life is short. But I get a worse image of game development if we pandered to all this. lik3, I can see a circle of people listening to the writer pitch their story and characters and then straight away the group being like "why don't we make the character a black female lesbian....that would be so inclusive and instantly get us brownie points with the majority of the gaming press and fans"

"What about an Indian protaganist" One person says....."don't be daft, we are no where near ready for that kind of protagonist yet!" Get the funk outta here with that shit I say.

OH the horror of not making the 100,001th game the same white generic male.
The horror of asking you to think of anything, ANYTHING other than a generic white male.
The horror of asking you to invasion anything, ANYTHING other than the same white male.
The horror!
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
This is none-sense you can't claim they are X vs. X when one you only count one towards one side and then claim there are too many female leads now and no one will make a game with white males now... like wtf kind of logic is that? you people are really showing your true colors and the type of people you vehemently hate and despise.


WTF not only is this pure nonsense.

But give me a list of how many games from last gen era (2013-2020) had a white person lead versus how many had a black person lead



Admit it, you hate us. Yet we are the most integral part of America. We built this nation with our blood, sweat and tears. The fact that you would equate us to "arabs" shows how much you hate us.
Dude calm down. And Stop assuming shit about me. You dont know me. You dont know my background.

You are acting completely irrational about a pretty factual list. Take a deep breath. Then read the post again in a day or two. You have not only failed to understand the basic premise of that list, you have gone total resetera on my ass accusing me of hating black people and women. Im giving you the benefit of the doubt here because of my previous interactions with you, but I dont appreciate being labeled a racist. The next time my reply wont be so nice.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
I mean, every red headed man or woman in comics, games or cartoon has been replaced with a black person recently. I say it's about time a red headed person gets represented again.
 
Dude calm down. And Stop assuming shit about me. You dont know me. You dont know my background.

You are acting completely irrational about a pretty factual list. Take a deep breath. Then read the post again in a day or two. You have not only failed to understand the basic premise of that list, you have gone total resetera on my ass accusing me of hating black people and women. Im giving you the benefit of the doubt here because of my previous interactions with you, but I dont appreciate being labeled a racist. The next time my reply wont be so nice.

Let me try communicating with him

OH the horror of not making the 100,001th game the same white generic male.
The horror of asking you to think of anything, ANYTHING other than a generic white male.
The horror of asking you to invasion anything, ANYTHING other than the same white male.
The horror!

Ree reeeee re re reeeeeee re?
Reeee re rere reee re reee re ree re!
Reeeeeeee? Re rerere reee rereeeeeeeee!

Re re :)
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I mean, every red headed man or woman in comics, games or cartoon has been replaced with a black person recently. I say it's about time a red headed person gets represented again.
Not enough red heads in the world to put up a fight. Similar to Jewish people. Googling it, there's only 15M Jewish people in the world. And probably more than half are in Israel. Now you know why Jews can get dunked on a lot. There's simply not enough of them to fight back.
 
Dude calm down. And Stop assuming shit about me. You dont know me. You dont know my background.

You are acting completely irrational about a pretty factual list. Take a deep breath. Then read the post again in a day or two. You have not only failed to understand the basic premise of that list, you have gone total resetera on my ass accusing me of hating black people and women. Im giving you the benefit of the doubt here because of my previous interactions with you, but I dont appreciate being labeled a racist. The next time my reply wont be so nice.

Dude you literally made a list where you attributed points to females where there was also a white male lead. But did not attribute points to the male category.
That's like someone saying, Look at all these women attending sporting events. Then proceded to count the people in attendance at sporting events and for every event that has a women in attendance, would attribute a point under their women category. But since there was a women in attendence, he would ignore all the men that was also in attendance and would attribute no points towards men.

2,700 sporting events with women vs 0 sporting events with men.
Then conclude there are too many women attending sports events. That we should ban women from attending sports events.

That's your "factual list".

Then you went ahead and dismissed the obvious huge black history and cultural influence in America that is more than all the others you mentioned combined and the clear population difference
and minimized us to indians and arabs by suggesting "why ain't people asking for more indians in games?"
"why ain't people asking for more arabs in games?"

Its quite clear what's fueling you.
But continue on, im not gonna waste my time trying to help you see what you're doing.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Dude you literally made a list where you attributed points to females where there was also a white male lead. But did not attribute points to the male category.
That's like someone saying, Look at all these women attending sporting events. Then proceded to count the people in attendance at sporting events and for every event that has a women in attendance, would attribute a point under their women categor. But since there was a women in attendence, he would ignore all the men that was also in attendance and would attribute no points towards men.

Then conclude there are too many women attending sports events. That we should ban women from attending sports events.

That's your "factual list".

Then you went ahead and dismissed the obvious huge black history in america that is more than all the others you mentioned combined and the clear population difference
and minimized us to indians and arabs by suggesting "why ain't people asking for more indians in games?"
"why ain't people asking for more arabs in games?"

Its quite clear what's fueling you.
The fucking thread title is about how Respawn devs wanted EITHER A WOMAN OR A BLACK LEAD in place of a WHITE MALE LEAD. This is not me concocting a bizarre new scenario; this is literally the topic of the thread. My list shows that 90% of the AAA games no longer feature WHITE MALE LEADS. Your sports analogy makes no sense because women and black people are being placed in one group by the devs themselves. I did not do this.

I dismissed obvious huge black history in america? WTF are you talking about? Where did i dismiss this? Are you mentally deranaged? What's your medical history? You sound bipolar to me. Why is black history in america even a topic here?

You mention the population difference but hispanics outnumber blacks in america today. They are not getting represented. Why arent you outraged about them? Or more specifically why arent you giving me props for sticking up for Hispanics?

And why are you getting so triggered by a suggestion of WESTERN devs making games about indians and arabs? I didnt say anything about AMERICAN devs being forced to make games. My list includes European devs, Japanese devs, why in the fuck would asking non-american studios to make games featuring arabs and indians be minimizing black americans? There are 2 billion arabs and indians on this planet that have nothing to do with America, white americans, black americans or white women. WTF are you even talking about?

Its quite clear what's fueling you.
Go fuck yourself. I warned you. You dont know me. You seem to be the one getting triggered by me mentioning other minorities like fucking native americans who to you apparently are not deserving of a game lead. You took offense to that, me sticking up for a race that was made extinct. And you dare imply I am racist??? Get the fuck outta here.

Literally every single thing you wrote is wrong.
 
Oh i didn't know that Respawn Entertainment was a middle eastern company and not American. Good to know. You learn something new every day.
 
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