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[Mit-]

Those of you who aren't from the Detroit area or who have never been there - it's absurd how white the trailers are compared to the actual city. It's like the white flight from the postwar period never happened.

If someone made that next medieval dragon game mostly black, the internet would throw a hissy fit about "forced diversity" and "historical inaccuracy", yet turning a mostly black city white is fine?

It's showcasing downtown in 20+ years. I'm sure they visited downtown during the day. Even now, I wouldn't say the downtown area is "mostly black," and it will likely be even less so in 20 years.

I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, but I am saying this isn't horrifically inaccurate.

 

[RoboPlato]

There were several black characters in the reveal trailer and Cole was probably my favorite character in Beyond so I'm hoping the lack of diversity in the E3 demo was just the segment they chose.

 

[Spring Drive]

What's Ben Carson doing in that game?

That's not Ben Carson, that's Kadeem Hardison

 

[exmachina64]

That's not Ben Carson, that's Kadeem Hardison

I know, it was a joke.

 

[Freeman]

There was like 5 different characters really shown in the trailer. Don't jump, to conclusion.

 

[Johndoey]

Oh fuck I forgot about that guy. Dude looks like a stormfront sketch.

Yeah after junkyard dude, I don't see why I should give QD the benefit of the doubt, they don't have a good track record on this stuff.

 

[Jacobi]

Don't buy it then

 

[Memento]

There were a lot of black people in the first trailer

 

[IdreamofHIME]

I'll wait till I can see who the third character is going to be. We already have two androids so I'm suspecting a human but who knows who or what.

Cage said the story is about humanity, but all playable characters are Android.

 

[Imm0rt4l]

Yeah that heavy rain character was terrible. We haven't seen much so I'll keep an open mind. I'm not expecting much though.

 

[Wanda/Wander]

You know sometimes I get a little sick and tired of these diversity for the sake of diversity threads. It gets annoying that every time I go on a forum you see people complain that there is a lack of something in a game so they're going to veto it. When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism, like people actually look at a title and think "Ugh, not enough black people in this game, I think I'll pass," or things like "Wow, nobody is gay here, think I'm going to leave it." This whole thing with the female Link like they're expecting Nintendo to drop a male character that has been established for years and suddenly adopt a Mass Effect type system allowing players to choose if Link is a male or female. Then do we choose whether he's black, white or Asian? Within the context of Asian, are we talking oriental or middle eastern? Can we choose whether he's gay or straight? Can we choose what gender he actual identifies as and if he is pansexual or a-sexual? It's like the whole Nadine thing in Uncharted all over again even though Kratos is a caucasian character that's had two black actors play him.

Needlessly to say right now people have probably read that and are outraged, but I'd ask before replying to my comment, you take a moment to read this next section.

I am a stereotypical male white (British if you want to know) person and I don't judge games based on any kind of the things we are discussing here and I want to stress that I agree with Shawn Layden who rightly said that we need to show a little more love to everyone right now, not just for the LGBT community after what happened in Orlando, but people being discriminated against for whatever reason the aggressors choose. I want to be clear that I do not discriminate unfairly against anyone because of their religion, age, sex, race or perceived gender.

I take a look at some of the games I really love and I see that there is already diversity within that space. I'm currently playing through Primal on PlayStation 4 which is a PlayStation 2 title from 2003 that has a female lead character and is very much about a feminine heroine. The best Grand Theft Auto game I ever played was San Andreas and I loved CJ and the whole Grove crew. (I live in a place called Rose Grove and the dick head chavs here identify as the Grove crew so that hit close to home.) I could relate to him as a character, I rooted for him and I thought he made a great lead character for that story. I also preferred Lamar and Franklin to Michael and Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V which might come as a surprise to some.

I played Mortal Kombat X when it came out and I was surprised to learn that Kung Jin was gay. I didn't suddenly hate him as a character but I thought it was an interesting development that fleshed out his character and gave more reason as to why he passed on joining the monks of the Wu Shi academy. When I played Starhawk, I had a great time and never for a moment thought that I wanted Emmett to be anything other than who he is. Infact one of my favourite games of all time is Shadow Man and that's a title about a black super hero protagonist based on a Valiant comic. I take a look at Horizon Zero Dawn and I'm all down for that because I love the look of the game and I think Aloy is a great character, the same way I love Kat in Gravity Rush. Okay, Kat is from time to time over sexualised somewhat but it doesn't change the fact that she kicks ass and I really enjoying playing as her.

Prototype 2 and The Walking Dead are two more examples of games with black protagonists that I really enjoyed playing. I played a lot of Tomb Raider and Blood Rayne throughout my life because they had really strong female leads which I very much enjoyed. Aveline in Assassins Creed on Vita was a black female character which again, was a great game that I enjoyed.

I'm the stereotype that people tend to associate with the reason why there isn't diversity in games. I would argue that there is diversity in games and it is growing. We can see more games about black people, asian people, gay people or people from all walks of life. I'm going to love them and enjoy them no matter what. While I feel there is a responsibility on the developers side to be creating these games, I think people can be too vocal or judgmental about games where they don't have the level of diversity that they want and some times it ruins the fun of games for me. Too many times we've squabbled over these topics and ignored all the good stuff in front of us.

If you really consider this game to be another white washed project with nothing to offer you based on the colour of people alone, then fine. I'd argue you're going to potentially miss out on what looks like a great game because you have personally made colour an issue. If that is your mantra or your feelings then fair enough, we can agree to disagree. But I put it to you that if Kara was a black female protagonist who was a Lesbian I would still love the game because those details don't affect my opinion like that. I want to experience a great game with great characters and great game play. I'm happy to criticise a character for their flaws, I'm happy to say when a character is literally just a bad character. Like the stereotypical black woman in Deus Ex Human Revolution, that seemed to me like a bad character made in poor taste. However, I'm not about to write a game off because it's too 'white.' I feel that it's almost a little racist to imply that you're going to miss this game because the characters are white. Racism goes all ways, and it's not just against black people or asian people.

All I'm saying, if anything, is that I fit a stereotype that I don't feel that I am a part of. I'm going to give this game a chance and allow myself the opportunity to have a great time or be disappointed. I admit my opinion might not count for much because I haven't personally been to Detroit or the USA, but I don't feel that should stop me having an opinion on this game or feel as though it is too white, black, asian or what ever to enjoy. Let's spread some love people. Peace.



I don't remember people complaining too much about Martin Lawrence in Black Knight. Just saying.

You know sometimes I get a little sick and tired of these diversity for the sake of diversity threads. It gets annoying that every time I go on a forum you see people complain that there is a lack of something in a game so they're going to veto it. When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism, like people actually look at a title and think "Ugh, not enough black people in this game, I think I'll pass," or things like "Wow, nobody is gay here, think I'm going to leave it." This whole thing with the female Link like they're expecting Nintendo to drop a male character that has been established for years and suddenly adopt a Mass Effect type system allowing players to choose if Link is a male or female. Then do we choose whether he's black, white or Asian? Within the context of Asian, are we talking oriental or middle eastern? Can we choose whether he's gay or straight? Can we choose what gender he actual identifies as and if he is pansexual or a-sexual? It's like the whole Nadine thing in Uncharted all over again even though Kratos is a caucasian character that's had two black actors play him.

You know sometimes I get a little sick and tired of these diversity for the sake of diversity threads. It gets annoying that every time I go on a forum you see people complain that there is a lack of something in a game so they're going to veto it. When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism...

When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism...

it's kind of a like a reverse racism...

reverse racism

Please tell me more about this "reverse racism"

 

[Jugendstil]

Yeah after junkyard dude, I don't see why I should give QD the benefit of the doubt, they don't have a good track record on this stuff.

I feel exactly the same way. When I got to that part in Heavy Rain, my jaw dropped and not in a good way.

 

[LionPride]

You know sometimes I get a little sick and tired of these diversity for the sake of diversity threads. It gets annoying that every time I go on a forum you see people complain that there is a lack of something in a game so they're going to veto it. When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism, like people actually look at a title and think "Ugh, not enough black people in this game, I think I'll pass," or things like "Wow, nobody is gay here, think I'm going to leave it." This whole thing with the female Link like they're expecting Nintendo to drop a male character that has been established for years and suddenly adopt a Mass Effect type system allowing players to choose if Link is a male or female. Then do we choose whether he's black, white or Asian? Within the context of Asian, are we talking oriental or middle eastern? Can we choose whether he's gay or straight? Can we choose what gender he actual identifies as and if he is pansexual or a-sexual? It's like the whole Nadine thing in Uncharted all over again even though Kratos is a caucasian character that's had two black actors play him.

Needlessly to say right now people have probably read that and are outraged, but I'd ask before replying to my comment, you take a moment to read this next section.

I am a stereotypical male white (British if you want to know) person and I don't judge games based on any kind of the things we are discussing here and I want to stress that I agree with Shawn Layden who rightly said that we need to show a little more love to everyone right now, not just for the LGBT community after what happened in Orlando, but people being discriminated against for whatever reason the aggressors choose. I want to be clear that I do not discriminate unfairly against anyone because of their religion, age, sex, race or perceived gender.

I take a look at some of the games I really love and I see that there is already diversity within that space. I'm currently playing through Primal on PlayStation 4 which is a PlayStation 2 title from 2003 that has a female lead character and is very much about a feminine heroine. The best Grand Theft Auto game I ever played was San Andreas and I loved CJ and the whole Grove crew. (I live in a place called Rose Grove and the dick head chavs here identify as the Grove crew so that hit close to home.) I could relate to him as a character, I rooted for him and I thought he made a great lead character for that story. I also preferred Lamar and Franklin to Michael and Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V which might come as a surprise to some.

I played Mortal Kombat X when it came out and I was surprised to learn that Kung Jin was gay. I didn't suddenly hate him as a character but I thought it was an interesting development that fleshed out his character and gave more reason as to why he passed on joining the monks of the Wu Shi academy. When I played Starhawk, I had a great time and never for a moment thought that I wanted Emmett to be anything other than who he is. Infact one of my favourite games of all time is Shadow Man and that's a title about a black super hero protagonist based on a Valiant comic. I take a look at Horizon Zero Dawn and I'm all down for that because I love the look of the game and I think Aloy is a great character, the same way I love Kat in Gravity Rush. Okay, Kat is from time to time over sexualised somewhat but it doesn't change the fact that she kicks ass and I really enjoying playing as her.

Prototype 2 and The Walking Dead are two more examples of games with black protagonists that I really enjoyed playing. I played a lot of Tomb Raider and Blood Rayne throughout my life because they had really strong female leads which I very much enjoyed. Aveline in Assassins Creed on Vita was a black female character which again, was a great game that I enjoyed.

I'm the stereotype that people tend to associate with the reason why there isn't diversity in games. I would argue that there is diversity in games and it is growing. We can see more games about black people, asian people, gay people or people from all walks of life. I'm going to love them and enjoy them no matter what. While I feel there is a responsibility on the developers side to be creating these games, I think people can be too vocal or judgmental about games where they don't have the level of diversity that they want and some times it ruins the fun of games for me. Too many times we've squabbled over these topics and ignored all the good stuff in front of us.

If you really consider this game to be another white washed project with nothing to offer you based on the colour of people alone, then fine. I'd argue you're going to potentially miss out on what looks like a great game because you have personally made colour an issue. If that is your mantra or your feelings then fair enough, we can agree to disagree. But I put it to you that if Kara was a black female protagonist who was a Lesbian I would still love the game because those details don't affect my opinion like that. I want to experience a great game with great characters and great game play. I'm happy to criticise a character for their flaws, I'm happy to say when a character is literally just a bad character. Like the stereotypical black woman in Deus Ex Human Revolution, that seemed to me like a bad character made in poor taste. However, I'm not about to write a game off because it's too 'white.' I feel that it's almost a little racist to imply that you're going to miss this game because the characters are white. Racism goes all ways, and it's not just against black people or asian people.

All I'm saying, if anything, is that I fit a stereotype that I don't feel that I am a part of. I'm going to give this game a chance and allow myself the opportunity to have a great time or be disappointed. I admit my opinion might not count for much because I haven't personally been to Detroit or the USA, but I don't feel that should stop me having an opinion on this game or feel as though it is too white, black, asian or what ever to enjoy. Let's spread some love people. Peace.



I don't remember people complaining too much about Martin Lawrence in Black Knight. Just saying.

The hell...

 

[Shiggy]

You know sometimes I get a little sick and tired of these diversity for the sake of diversity threads. It gets annoying that every time I go on a forum you see people complain that there is a lack of something in a game so they're going to veto it. When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism, like people actually look at a title and think "Ugh, not enough black people in this game, I think I'll pass," or things like "Wow, nobody is gay here, think I'm going to leave it." This whole thing with the female Link like they're expecting Nintendo to drop a male character that has been established for years and suddenly adopt a Mass Effect type system allowing players to choose if Link is a male or female. Then do we choose whether he's black, white or Asian? Within the context of Asian, are we talking oriental or middle eastern? Can we choose whether he's gay or straight? Can we choose what gender he actual identifies as and if he is pansexual or a-sexual? It's like the whole Nadine thing in Uncharted all over again even though Kratos is a caucasian character that's had two black actors play him.

Needlessly to say right now people have probably read that and are outraged, but I'd ask before replying to my comment, you take a moment to read this next section.

I am a stereotypical male white (British if you want to know) person and I don't judge games based on any kind of the things we are discussing here and I want to stress that I agree with Shawn Layden who rightly said that we need to show a little more love to everyone right now, not just for the LGBT community after what happened in Orlando, but people being discriminated against for whatever reason the aggressors choose. I want to be clear that I do not discriminate unfairly against anyone because of their religion, age, sex, race or perceived gender.

I take a look at some of the games I really love and I see that there is already diversity within that space. I'm currently playing through Primal on PlayStation 4 which is a PlayStation 2 title from 2003 that has a female lead character and is very much about a feminine heroine. The best Grand Theft Auto game I ever played was San Andreas and I loved CJ and the whole Grove crew. (I live in a place called Rose Grove and the dick head chavs here identify as the Grove crew so that hit close to home.) I could relate to him as a character, I rooted for him and I thought he made a great lead character for that story. I also preferred Lamar and Franklin to Michael and Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V which might come as a surprise to some.

I played Mortal Kombat X when it came out and I was surprised to learn that Kung Jin was gay. I didn't suddenly hate him as a character but I thought it was an interesting development that fleshed out his character and gave more reason as to why he passed on joining the monks of the Wu Shi academy. When I played Starhawk, I had a great time and never for a moment thought that I wanted Emmett to be anything other than who he is. Infact one of my favourite games of all time is Shadow Man and that's a title about a black super hero protagonist based on a Valiant comic. I take a look at Horizon Zero Dawn and I'm all down for that because I love the look of the game and I think Aloy is a great character, the same way I love Kat in Gravity Rush. Okay, Kat is from time to time over sexualised somewhat but it doesn't change the fact that she kicks ass and I really enjoying playing as her.

Prototype 2 and The Walking Dead are two more examples of games with black protagonists that I really enjoyed playing. I played a lot of Tomb Raider and Blood Rayne throughout my life because they had really strong female leads which I very much enjoyed. Aveline in Assassins Creed on Vita was a black female character which again, was a great game that I enjoyed.

I'm the stereotype that people tend to associate with the reason why there isn't diversity in games. I would argue that there is diversity in games and it is growing. We can see more games about black people, asian people, gay people or people from all walks of life. I'm going to love them and enjoy them no matter what. While I feel there is a responsibility on the developers side to be creating these games, I think people can be too vocal or judgmental about games where they don't have the level of diversity that they want and some times it ruins the fun of games for me. Too many times we've squabbled over these topics and ignored all the good stuff in front of us.

If you really consider this game to be another white washed project with nothing to offer you based on the colour of people alone, then fine. I'd argue you're going to potentially miss out on what looks like a great game because you have personally made colour an issue. If that is your mantra or your feelings then fair enough, we can agree to disagree. But I put it to you that if Kara was a black female protagonist who was a Lesbian I would still love the game because those details don't affect my opinion like that. I want to experience a great game with great characters and great game play. I'm happy to criticise a character for their flaws, I'm happy to say when a character is literally just a bad character. Like the stereotypical black woman in Deus Ex Human Revolution, that seemed to me like a bad character made in poor taste. However, I'm not about to write a game off because it's too 'white.' I feel that it's almost a little racist to imply that you're going to miss this game because the characters are white. Racism goes all ways, and it's not just against black people or asian people.

All I'm saying, if anything, is that I fit a stereotype that I don't feel that I am a part of. I'm going to give this game a chance and allow myself the opportunity to have a great time or be disappointed. I admit my opinion might not count for much because I haven't personally been to Detroit or the USA, but I don't feel that should stop me having an opinion on this game or feel as though it is too white, black, asian or what ever to enjoy. Let's spread some love people. Peace.

This cannot be stated enough. Games are fictional, and this title is not meant to depict reality or historical events. In my opinion, creators of such works should be free to decide themselves what their characters look like and how they behave, while the consumer can decide if he likes that outcome. Simply saying "there's not enough diversity" without any reason apart from "for the sake of diversity" appears rather odd.

I was already a bit perplexed by the discussion about a female character in Zelda or marriage in Fire Emblem or even skin colour in Animal Crossing. Are there similar discussion when it comes to book or movie releases? Do people identify that much with their own skin colour?

I might have lived long enough in an environment where I am a minority, so that I do not really care about the sexual orientation, gender, or skin colour. I believe diversity is definitely a need and everyone should be respectful of that. Yet I very much think that not everything needs a quota, in particular not fictional works.

 

[shingi70]

You know sometimes I get a little sick and tired of these diversity for the sake of diversity threads. It gets annoying that every time I go on a forum you see people complain that there is a lack of something in a game so they're going to veto it. When people start making their decisions based around the sexuality, race or gender of a character, it's just as bad as racism for me because it's kind of a like a reverse racism, like people actually look at a title and think "Ugh, not enough black people in this game, I think I'll pass," or things like "Wow, nobody is gay here, think I'm going to leave it." This whole thing with the female Link like they're expecting Nintendo to drop a male character that has been established for years and suddenly adopt a Mass Effect type system allowing players to choose if Link is a male or female. Then do we choose whether he's black, white or Asian? Within the context of Asian, are we talking oriental or middle eastern? Can we choose whether he's gay or straight? Can we choose what gender he actual identifies as and if he is pansexual or a-sexual? It's like the whole Nadine thing in Uncharted all over again even though Kratos is a caucasian character that's had two black actors play him.

Needlessly to say right now people have probably read that and are outraged, but I'd ask before replying to my comment, you take a moment to read this next section.

I am a stereotypical male white (British if you want to know) person and I don't judge games based on any kind of the things we are discussing here and I want to stress that I agree with Shawn Layden who rightly said that we need to show a little more love to everyone right now, not just for the LGBT community after what happened in Orlando, but people being discriminated against for whatever reason the aggressors choose. I want to be clear that I do not discriminate unfairly against anyone because of their religion, age, sex, race or perceived gender.

I take a look at some of the games I really love and I see that there is already diversity within that space. I'm currently playing through Primal on PlayStation 4 which is a PlayStation 2 title from 2003 that has a female lead character and is very much about a feminine heroine. The best Grand Theft Auto game I ever played was San Andreas and I loved CJ and the whole Grove crew. (I live in a place called Rose Grove and the dick head chavs here identify as the Grove crew so that hit close to home.) I could relate to him as a character, I rooted for him and I thought he made a great lead character for that story. I also preferred Lamar and Franklin to Michael and Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V which might come as a surprise to some.

I played Mortal Kombat X when it came out and I was surprised to learn that Kung Jin was gay. I didn't suddenly hate him as a character but I thought it was an interesting development that fleshed out his character and gave more reason as to why he passed on joining the monks of the Wu Shi academy. When I played Starhawk, I had a great time and never for a moment thought that I wanted Emmett to be anything other than who he is. Infact one of my favourite games of all time is Shadow Man and that's a title about a black super hero protagonist based on a Valiant comic. I take a look at Horizon Zero Dawn and I'm all down for that because I love the look of the game and I think Aloy is a great character, the same way I love Kat in Gravity Rush. Okay, Kat is from time to time over sexualised somewhat but it doesn't change the fact that she kicks ass and I really enjoying playing as her.

Prototype 2 and The Walking Dead are two more examples of games with black protagonists that I really enjoyed playing. I played a lot of Tomb Raider and Blood Rayne throughout my life because they had really strong female leads which I very much enjoyed. Aveline in Assassins Creed on Vita was a black female character which again, was a great game that I enjoyed.

I'm the stereotype that people tend to associate with the reason why there isn't diversity in games. I would argue that there is diversity in games and it is growing. We can see more games about black people, asian people, gay people or people from all walks of life. I'm going to love them and enjoy them no matter what. While I feel there is a responsibility on the developers side to be creating these games, I think people can be too vocal or judgmental about games where they don't have the level of diversity that they want and some times it ruins the fun of games for me. Too many times we've squabbled over these topics and ignored all the good stuff in front of us.

If you really consider this game to be another white washed project with nothing to offer you based on the colour of people alone, then fine. I'd argue you're going to potentially miss out on what looks like a great game because you have personally made colour an issue. If that is your mantra or your feelings then fair enough, we can agree to disagree. But I put it to you that if Kara was a black female protagonist who was a Lesbian I would still love the game because those details don't affect my opinion like that. I want to experience a great game with great characters and great game play. I'm happy to criticise a character for their flaws, I'm happy to say when a character is literally just a bad character. Like the stereotypical black woman in Deus Ex Human Revolution, that seemed to me like a bad character made in poor taste. However, I'm not about to write a game off because it's too 'white.' I feel that it's almost a little racist to imply that you're going to miss this game because the characters are white. Racism goes all ways, and it's not just against black people or asian people.

All I'm saying, if anything, is that I fit a stereotype that I don't feel that I am a part of. I'm going to give this game a chance and allow myself the opportunity to have a great time or be disappointed. I admit my opinion might not count for much because I haven't personally been to Detroit or the USA, but I don't feel that should stop me having an opinion on this game or feel as though it is too white, black, asian or what ever to enjoy. Let's spread some love people. Peace.

First off fuck your first paragraph cause that's some MRA shit, and what's worse is your somehow self aware that's it's a shitty attitude which is the fucking epitome of the privilege of having nearly all types looking toward you.


That said if we don't call out developers on not having diverse casts and getting more minority's in the industry than the growth will be stagnet and that's how you get characters like the lady from dues ex.

Hell I'm not even asking for a black MC, but as a black guy who lives in detroit, that game doesn't seem to show the city and that's counting the early stages of gentrification going on right now.

 

[Harmen]

I really liked Cole in Beyond: Two Souls. And we have seen a few non-white androids, it would be nice if one of the protagonists (I assume there are a few) is non-white.

 

[Glix]

Serious question. Civil rights have been fought for all over the world by people of all colors and genders throughout centuries

Why would a game need to be "black" in order to be about civil rights?

Especially when it is in a future/alternate reality and not trying to be historically accurate or anything like that.

 

[Cess007]

...and he also had Cole in Beyond: Two Souls.

Pretty much the opposite of the black character in Heavy Rain. Not to mention the only likable and good person in that game.

I advice to wait before judging.

You're damn right (well, him and the people at the desert); but yeah, Cole was one of the few characters that was likable in all the game.

 

[dragonbane]

It was never said that this game is about Civil Rights lol. And there is a good chance the last lead is black. Plus the game is set many years in the future, a lot could have happened to explain a more white population again. Not to mention there were a ton of black people in the reveal trailer and out of the 5 characters shown in the new trailer, there was a black cop as well:

But I guess it needs to meet some arbitrary quota to be ok?

 

[Balb]

It's a bad look when proper Black representation in a game called "Detroit" is seen as forced diversity by some.

 

[Vice]

This cannot be stated enough. Games are fictional, and this title is not meant to depict reality or historical events. In my opinion, creators of such works should be free to decide themselves what their characters look like and how they behave, while the consumer can decide if he likes that outcome. Simply saying "there's not enough diversity" without any reason apart from "for the sake of diversity" appears rather odd.

I was already a bit perplexed by the discussion about a female character in Zelda or marriage in Fire Emblem or even skin colour in Animal Crossing. Are there similar discussion when it comes to book or movie releases? Do people identify that much with their own skin colour?

I might have lived long enough in an environment where I am a minority, so that I do not really care about the sexual orientation, gender, or skin colour. I believe diversity is definitely a need and everyone should be respectful of that. Yet I very much think that not everything needs a quota, in particular not fictional works.

In movies it's a rather large debate. Along with the drop-off in actresses careers after they hit their upper-30s. People do identify with their skin color and gender since it is a part of their identity.

And, diversity makes a world seem more real for many people since they live in a diverse world.

Serious question. Civil rights have been fought for all over the world by people of all colors and genders throughout centuries

Why would a game need to be "black" in order to be about civil rights?

Especially when it is in a future/alternate reality and not trying to be historically accurate or anything like that.

In Deteoit's case it's because Detroit has been one of the most prominent cities with a large black population for decades. In general, in civil rights movements thw contributions of people of color tend to get ignored even in real life.

 

[LionPride]

It's a bad look when Black representation in a game called "Detroit" is seen as forced diversity by some.

It's always forced when you try to add in some color to some people. It's stupid. Just because I want there to be more people who look like me in my video games doesn't mean that shit is forced diversity. It's an issue in games when I would create lilly white guys in create a character because that's all I saw. I didn't see any black characters in the games I played for the most part and that has an impact on people.

 

[shingi70]

Serious question. Civil rights have been fought for all over the world by people of all colors and genders throughout centuries

Why would a game need to be "black" in order to be about civil rights?

Especially when it is in a future/alternate reality and not trying to be historically accurate or anything like that.

No said the game had to be black, however the game takes place in a mostly black city that underwent massive race issues in the late 60s that resulted in white flight to the suburbs and caused an invisible line around the city most notably 8 mile Rd.

If you really want to get into its not just black wondering Detroit has one of the biggest Arabic populations, and a sizeable nation population as well.

 

[Ushay]

I cant disagree with you OP. That being said the game looks immense graphically.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

83% of Detroit's population is black, mmmkay.

Instead of arguing "why should these characters be black?!?" you need to have to justify why these characters should be white because there's little to no reason.

 

[Glix]

Thank you for the replies.

 

[Beartruck]

2 of the 3 characters in the conference trailer were robots. They're not really any race technically speaking.

 

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Sure, it's quite simple....

This was your first mistake of many in that post. Reverse Racism is not a concept, and it's a massive dog whistle.


As for the game... It's in Detroit. There should be a bunch of black and brown people in it unless some serious gentrification went down.

 

[autoduelist]

They're white for the sake of being white. Why can't they be black for the sake of being black? I mean...creating white characters for a game is as much a choice as making any other race.

This question is from one black man to another.

A white writer may be more comfortable making white characters. It's a minefield out there -- you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you attempt a character of a different ethnicity and get something wrong - say, in their culture, or their dialog -- or even something 'right' that happens to be considered a negative stereotype, or overdo something accidentally into a stereotype -- you open yourself up to massive allegations. Even if you do everything right but their role is wrong [say, they're 'evil'] you're potentially in the spotlight. I'm not saying a writer of one ethnicity can never write another ethnicity -- some obviously can. I'm saying not all can, and even those that think they can may accidentally step on one of those mines.

 

[Ronin Ray]

Sign him up Johnny Mnemonic 2

 

[Balb]

A white writer may be more comfortable making white characters. It's a minefield out there -- you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you attempt a character of a different ethnicity and get something wrong - say, in their culture, or their dialog -- or even something 'right' that happens to be considered a negative stereotype -- you open yourself up to massive allegations. I'm not saying a writer of one ethnicity can never write another ethnicity -- some obviously can. I'm saying not all can, and even those that think they can may accidentally step on one of those mines.

Don't make the setting Detroit then. Put it in Vermont or some shit.

 

[NumberTwo]

It's a bad look when proper Black representation in a game called "Detroit" is seen as forced diversity by some.

Perhaps more ironic, the inclusion of White characters front and center in a game set in Detroit (of all places) isn't seen as being forced. Reinforcing the notion that White characters rarely, if ever, have to have their presence justified. The rhetoric only comes up in regards to minorities.

 

[Mit-]

Hell I'm not even asking for a black MC, but as a black guy who lives in detroit, that game doesn't seem to show the city and that's counting the early stages of gentrification going on right now.

Do you honestly believe this is an inaccurate portrayal of downtown in 20+ years? You even mentioned it's in the early stages of gentrification.

As for the game... It's in Detroit. There should be a bunch of black and brown people in it unless some serious gentrification went down.

It is going down, and in 20 years this game is likely going to be a fairly accurate portrayal of downtown.

 

[GamingOblivion]

I am a stereotypical male white

Oh, good. I don't need to regard a single stupid thing you're saying. Fantastic.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Well thats that

 

[Lord Error]

I understand that they'd be super-hesitant to make what is essentially a slave-race in the game, be played by androids that are black. It would be at best too on the nose, and at worst distasteful. But yeah on the other hand it's Detroit, so no matter how gentrified it gets in the robotic future, it's more than reasonable to expect a black person (or an android) to be a playable character. I actually also think that Cage is pretty outspoken about the equality rights and diversity, so it will be disappointing to see a lack of effort on that front here after hearing that from him.

 

[clarkision]

Ironically, I think white androids is actually an excellent argument for the need for increased diversity and probably goes further towards that argument than other raced (can androids be races?) androids. Do people really expect androids to be non-white? Who do you think is creating androids? Upper-class white male scientists. In their image.

 

[dragonbane]

It's a bad look when proper Black representation in a game called "Detroit" is seen as forced diversity by some.

It's not present day Detroit though.

83% of Detroit's population is black, mmmkay.

Instead of arguing "why should these characters be black?!?" you need to have to justify why these characters should be white because there's little to no reason.

You are talking about Detroit today. The game depicts a Detroit in the future that has experienced a huge upswing again thanks to the Android business. Can you not imagine it might change downtown a bit?

 

[spiderman123]

Personally too soon to judge.

 

[Asriel]

Characters in games shouldn't be black for the sake of being black and developers shouldn't have to make a character black to satisfy people that aren't involved in the creative process, haven't contributed to the games overall vision or to meet some arbitrary quota of lead minorities. I say that as a black man. I know not everyone shares the same opinion as me but that shit is tired.

And the X-Men were meant to analogs that were relatable to readers of any race, them featuring a smaller number of minority characters shouldn't change that... And a large number of their roster are of various ethnicities, sexual inclination or don't even appear to be human. You could probably apply your argument to the movies more easily but still, there are a number of characters in those films that aren't white.

As a black man, I completely disagree. So are the white characters in the game not white for the sake of being white?

The game is set in Detroit, not Des Moines, IA.

And WraithBringer's post is everything that's wrong about diversity in gaming.

I'm taking a wait and see aspect about this game.

 

[Fushichou187]

Representation as in, humans populating the game? Or representation as in "i want more black slave androids to be shown" ? Because that's what the focus of this game is: a slave race/entity. Even if all the playable android characters were black in skin tone-- which you have to admit, if this game was revealed to just be populated only with black androids that serve others, people would justifiably lose their shit-- but even if all PCs looked black, given that a major theme is seemingly emancipation from humans, I can't see them (androids) being too concerned with commenting on the state of African American lives, or race relations among humans in general, in future Detroit directly.

I do think this game will make its own attempt at addressing socioeconomic inequality and ethno-political conflict, but through the convention of human abuse of artificial life. We'll just have to wait and see if the attempt is totally ham-fisted.

 

[Human Trashcan]

Agree with OP and I'm 100% over stories ostensibly about civil rights or celebrating diversity being majority white and/or male. If you're gonna preach about diversity, you better put your money where your mouth is.

Plus the game is set many years in the future, a lot could have happened to explain a more white population again.

lol, this is some mental gymnastics right here. Like what? Genocide?

 

[firenskill2000]

So 5 non white characters have been shown on the last 2 pages, OP is still following the thread yet fails to comment on the fact that the original comment seems to have been a bit knee jerk?

 

[Zaventem]

reverse racism

Didn't read a damn thing you said past this.

 

[dragonbane]

They even had the black woman + white male android servant combination in the reveal trailer. I think it will be fine

 

[Kuro]

People come up with the worst excuses to justify their racism. Christ I wasn't expecting to read some of the things I have in this thread. Just gotta find any reason to keep video games as white as possible huh? Always crying about "forced diversity" when people of color have very little representation in video games and now one set in Detroit which is known for its large black community would just be "forcing diversity".

 

[Shambalakan]

And this:

 

[Qwark]

Quick recap on Heavy Rain junkyard guy? I don't particularly remember anything apart from him being a bad dude.

 

[Wanda/Wander]

So 5 non white characters have been shown on the last 2 pages, OP is still following the thread yet fails to comment on the fact that the original comment seems to have been a bit knee jerk?

What are the 5 non white characters names?

 

[Vice]

It's not present day Detroit though.



You are talking about Detroit today. The game depicts a Detroit in the future that has experienced a huge upswing again thanks to the Android business. Can you not imagine it might change downtown a bit?

Why wouldn't there be black people involved in the android industry, policing or downtown commerce in Detroit though?