The same voices that cry out for diversity in gaming, as well as every part of life are likely the REASON that this even exists.
Imagine for a moment that you are creating a game. You are approaching the decision to create the characters and how they must look. True, most games seem to portray a male Caucasian adult. As you begin the task of creating a character, what will you make him/her? White or black? Skinny, fat, or overly athletic? If you create a black character, anything he does that is illegal will have NAACP up in arms.. You create an Eastern Indian character, ah but he is too stereotypical, more angry organizations. You create a female character, ah but her breasts are unrealistic, and she is not representative of a modern American (overweight), more hate-mail. Your game does not have anyone in a wheel-chair, more problems. Your hero uses any type of slang, and now the Dev's are racist towards the group who speaks that way. Any deviation from that white male that we all knew since the inception of gaming is in the cross-hairs. Game makers would have started changing it up long ago, if it weren't for the crying voices that always seem to condemn those who actually step away from the norm. Diversity is coming to America even without your cries for diversity and correctness- maybe if you shut up and watch the melting pot bubble things will be just fine? "These video games don't represent America!" WTH did you just say? These "games" don't represent real life census statistics, because they are games. Why do developers (developers, developers!) stick to the same characters? Maybe because attempting to include everybody when it really should not matter, is just as bad as crying about representation. To say that a game NEEDS diversity is to say that a Mexican guy can't handle playing a game as a pale looking character.. stop coddling the world. If you care about people, go care about the people who are hungry and sleeping on a slab of sidewalk. I'm not a smart man, but I do know what dumb is. With that said, I am not entrenched in this thinking, so if you have a good response, I am glad to entertain it, as I have been wrong before.. that one time..
Slashdot Mirror
The same voices that cry out for diversity in gaming, as well as every part of life are likely the REASON that this even exists. Imagine for a moment that you are creating a game. You are approaching the decision to create the characters and how they must look. True, most games seem to portray a male Caucasian adult. As you begin the task of creating a character, what will you make him/her? White or black? Skinny, fat, or overly athletic? If you create a black character, anything he does that is illegal will have NAACP up in arms.. You create an Eastern Indian character, ah but he is too stereotypical, more angry organizations. You create a female character, ah but her breasts are unrealistic, and she is not representative of a modern American (overweight), more hate-mail. Your game does not have anyone in a wheel-chair, more problems. Your hero uses any type of slang, and now the Dev's are racist towards the group who speaks that way. Any deviation from that white male that we all knew since the inception of gaming is in the cross-hairs. Game makers would have started changing it up long ago, if it weren't for the crying voices that always seem to condemn those who actually step away from the norm. Diversity is coming to America even without your cries for diversity and correctness- maybe if you shut up and watch the melting pot bubble things will be just fine? "These video games don't represent America!" WTH did you just say? These "games" don't represent real life census statistics, because they are games. Why do developers (developers, developers!) stick to the same characters? Maybe because attempting to include everybody when it really should not matter, is just as bad as crying about representation. To say that a game NEEDS diversity is to say that a Mexican guy can't handle playing a game as a pale looking character.. stop coddling the world. If you care about people, go care about the people who are hungry and sleeping on a slab of sidewalk. I'm not a smart man, but I do know what dumb is. With that said, I am not entrenched in this thinking, so if you have a good response, I am glad to entertain it, as I have been wrong before.. that one time..