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[The Verge] Final Fantasy XVI has a medieval approach to diversity

Are you a diversity supporter?


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Go_Ly_Dow

Member
This, 100%. We had articles calling Forspoken racist for starting the game with Frey in court. Then we had other articles from the same clique calling it racist for not portraying ENOUGH in-game racism towards Frey. I didn’t see a single article, anywhere, that celebrated the fact that a major new Square IP had a black protagonist.

There’s no way to win. They WILL punish developers. They just don’t always know why yet.
Japanese developers need to realise this. I think most do thankfully. Simply don't pander at all and just make great games, that appeal to your defined target audience without polticial, racial, gender pandering garbage.

If you end up focusing on those things you'll end up caught in this horrible nonsense.
 
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Thabass

Member


Just looking at the eurogamer quote tweets and found that. :messenger_grinning_smiling::messenger_grinning_smiling:


This is funny, but reading the article itself, Vikki is pretty neutral about it. This Twitter use calling her out is a bit...over the top I guess? If you plan to boycott, that's fine. Someone in quoted in the article said it best (the bolded part especially):

"So despite notable criticism and backlash online regarding the lack of diversity in the game, and square's continuously questionable response to the topic, it seems a lot of people are still planning to purchase FF16," began one poster, adding a poll to collate commenters' views.

"This feels...a little odd to me, because it would seem like the best way to send a message to Square would be to 'vote with your wallet' per say [sic], and not purchase the game given these concerns?

"Therefore [...] I was specifically wondering if anyone was going to take a stand, and not purchase or boycott FF16 due to these issues?"

This is always the best course of action if you really are against something. Don't like what they're doing, then don't buy it. But let's not pretend your boycott will actually solve anything. If it makes you feel better to not support a game because of something you don't like that's either in it or not, then that's your choice.
 
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Gojiira

Member
What a fucking joke, if the game had been all Black they wouldn’t have a single complaint about diversity or whatever ‘cause’ they just HAVE to virtue signal. God I hate hypocrites…
 
This is funny, but reading the article itself, Vikki is pretty neutral about it. This Twitter use calling her out is a bit...over the top I guess? If you plan to boycott, that's fine. Someone in quoted in the article said it best (the bolded part especially):



This is always the best course of action if you really are against something. Don't like what they're doing, then don't buy it. But let's not pretend your boycott will actually solve anything. If it makes you feel better to not support a game because of something you don't like that's either in it or not, then that's your choice.
Vikki should have not written that article. She knew what she was doing and 40 people out of 1200 isn’t a boycott. And why is she writing articles based off what that dump thinks?
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
RPtffw2.png


How fucking dare they? Devs making what they want?.......thats blasphemy!

/s
I like how it’s inflammatory and trolling to point out that, as a POC, he gives zero shits that Japanese developers decided to make a game about white people killing each other.

How dare you!
 

Thabass

Member
Vikki should have not written that article. She knew what she was doing and 40 people out of 1200 isn’t a boycott. And why is she writing articles based off what that dump thinks?
I mean she's a journalist. It's her job. Even if she had a personal motive behind it, her job is to report on the games that she covers (I assume her beat is covering 16). It may not be major news and, judging by the paltry response, it's not major, but it's something to cover.
 

Boss Mog

Member


Wokegamer joining in too.

The key point from the article is this:

However, at the time of writing, over 1200 players have responded to the poll, but just 2.9 per cent – that's around 40 people – are intending to intentionally boycott the release, with 72.8 per cent still committed to buying it despite the issues.

So basically their article was full of shit, but they wrote it anyway just to get some clicks.
 

vpance

Member
Wheel of Time made me so sad.. it's literally a bloodline passed down in the Two Rivers and a town that maybe gets a (singular) peddler once a year... Yet it's a multiculti chill out zone. That really brings me out of the experience. Jordan already wrote in a variety of races/colors into the book - just not in that village. It's dumbfounding and so obviously agenda driven.

There are mandated quotas they have to commit to now in all big Hollywood productions I believe.
 
There are mandated quotas they have to commit to now in all big Hollywood productions I believe.
It shouldn't even have to be explained why this is nonsense. Jobs should be merit based, college admissions should be academically based, films and other creative works should be based upon the creative vision.

But we live in a bizarro world these days and somehow a minority has taken a strong handle on power.

Imagine if something like Ghost of Tsushima had mandated diversity quotas.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
It shouldn't even have to be explained why this is nonsense. Jobs should be merit based, college admissions should be academically based, films and other creative works should be based upon the creative vision.

But we live in a bizarro world these days and somehow a minority has taken a strong handle on power.

Imagine if something like Ghost of Tsushima had mandated diversity quotas.

And where do you expect the gender studies graduates gonna find jobs?

Completing the Gender Studies major gives you an in-depth awareness of the making and meaning of gender in various cultures, with practical knowledge that can be applied to many different career fields. Students with the Gender Studies B.A. take their education in many directions.

 

phant0m

Member
I support diversity.

What I don’t support is vilifying anything that doesn’t include artificial or forced diversity.

If a developer wants to make a game with a cast of mixed races, genders, and/or sexualities, that’s great.

If a developer wants to make an all-white, all-black, all-female or all-gay cast that’s fine too.
 
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kiunchbb

www.dictionary.com
I guess since Hogwarts Legacy went so well for them they are going to try this shit again with a different AAA game

This is never about sales or equality, it is about making themselves feel special and morally superior than the everyone else; because sadly they have no other skills to contribute to society.
 

aclar00

Member
After playing the demo the main character and many of the main supporting characters appear to have the feminine male Japanese protagonist im use to seeing in video games, while other characters look more European.

To some degree, its interesting how its not meant to be diverse intentionally, yet typical Japanese features/characteristics are tossed in.

One of my first thoughts when i began playing was wondering if Clive was Japanese...seems like the art style, but at the same time seems intentional given other character designs.
 

NeoLed

Member
Why reference Europe? Its not Earth tho =)
Because they were inspired by medieval europe setting. You know, duchy, kingdom, empire. Noble-peasant (and slaves) with their respective clothing and lifestyle. Metal armor, stone castle. If they didn't make any story about skon tone, why should they conjure multiple skin color??
 
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SirTerry-T

Member
When this sort of shit hits our hobby, part of me just wants to fire up Robotron 2040 and just blast away some rather abstract pixels without having to worry about who they are, what they are or where they fucking came from.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
When this sort of shit hits our hobby, part of me just wants to fire up Robotron 2040 and just blast away some rather abstract pixels without having to worry about who they are, what they are or where they fucking came from.
Or, you know, you could just ignore all of it.

I kinda started doing that recently. I mean, everyone who has two brain cells to rub together already knows that this is retarded and it's there just to generate clicks, so why even bother talking about it?
 
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Myths

Member
Thinking outside the box, it’s also possible this release of the game only covers just these events and other historical situations could follow later in DLC.

One thing that doesn’t sit well is portraying black as loud-mouthed, nonsensical ancillary characters that have nothing more to offer outside of comic relief. Characters like Sazh being taken as a joke instead of having as serious a demeanor as the protagonist Lightning is annoying. I’d like to see one that’s just as serious about their arc and purpose, not merely portrayed as a “jesting monkey” which is probably how they see black. If that’s the case, I’d rather them be absent than included.
 
This has backfired massively on eurogamer.

Now everyone is noticing all their staff are made up of white men and women. They have two Asians on the staff, one is a contributor and the other is a moderator who probably doesn’t even get paid. They don’t have the excuse the other sister eurogamer sites do that there is a lack of black or Asian people in the UK.
 
Yup the worst possible thing you can do is try to explain yourself and prove to these people that you’re not racist. As soon as you do that, they smell blood and go into a frenzy. They will keep on shrieking until you beg for forgiveness and flagellate yourself, or until they find some new target to bully and browbeat.
Best and most true comment ever in the history of the world
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Yup the worst possible thing you can do is try to explain yourself and prove to these people that you’re not racist. As soon as you do that, they smell blood and go into a frenzy. They will keep on shrieking until you beg for forgiveness and flagellate yourself, or until they find some new target to bully and browbeat.
This is what you respond with,
mister rogers middle finger GIF
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Thinking outside the box, it’s also possible this release of the game only covers just these events and other historical situations could follow later in DLC.

One thing that doesn’t sit well is portraying black as loud-mouthed, nonsensical ancillary characters that have nothing more to offer outside of comic relief. Characters like Sazh being taken as a joke instead of having as serious a demeanor as the protagonist Lightning is annoying. I’d like to see one that’s just as serious about their arc and purpose, not merely portrayed as a “jesting monkey” which is probably how they see black. If that’s the case, I’d rather them be absent than included.

Brother, not sure about you, but black people are the most fun people on Earth. I work in a school that's 95% black and I can make jokes with every one working there up to the head. Humor is part of black culture in general, it's not about being a clown or what you called it "jesting monkey". Try saying that to one and if he's in a good mood you would be ridiculed to oblivion.

You might think that's "stereotype" but it's ok, you find blacks usually flourish in music, comedy, and sports in general, doesn't mean that there aren't scientists, nerds, and other types like the ones with too much feelings.
 
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Doomtrain

Member
Thinking outside the box, it’s also possible this release of the game only covers just these events and other historical situations could follow later in DLC.

One thing that doesn’t sit well is portraying black as loud-mouthed, nonsensical ancillary characters that have nothing more to offer outside of comic relief. Characters like Sazh being taken as a joke instead of having as serious a demeanor as the protagonist Lightning is annoying. I’d like to see one that’s just as serious about their arc and purpose, not merely portrayed as a “jesting monkey” which is probably how they see black. If that’s the case, I’d rather them be absent than included.
I’d argue that Lighting is a super boring, generic character, and Sazh is the most likable character in the game by far. “Has a sense of humor” is a huge plus in a game as self-serious as XIII.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
This has backfired massively on eurogamer.

Now everyone is noticing all their staff are made up of white men and women. They have two Asians on the staff, one is a contributor and the other is a moderator who probably doesn’t even get paid. They don’t have the excuse the other sister eurogamer sites do that there is a lack of black or Asian people in the UK.
Please tell me this is true. This is glorious if so!

The UK is a very diverse country and they could absolutely have staff from many walks of life. I'm all for this backfiring like this.
 
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