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[LordKasual]

I think that when people ask about black representation, they're probably specifically talking about characters with "black hair". And yeah, the representation on that front is pretty damn poor. You can usually skim by on facial features and skintone, "black people" cover a ridiculous range of features (and that's another discussion entirely) but the hair texture is usually where the distinction is made.

Afro hair is super scarce in games. Even in AAA games we're usually just limited to short cut, huge afro, and dreadlocks. If it's a K/JMMO then you're probably even less lucky. Don't even get me started on facial hair styles, and this is all just assuming that they look good. And even that's assuming that the dark skin actually looks like skin and not a lighter skin rubbed in dirty mustard.


Fuckin big shout-out to Square for at least making us look dope as fuck when we do finally show up, though.

And you know what?, fuggit

We claiming Fran too. Maybe not as a """""black""""" woman, but at least as a person of obvious color. Give brown girls someone to cosplay as, where they can get the most obvious feature checked off right by default.

 

[fireflame]

The protagonist from Prototype 2 was a black family father who fought always having his family in mind, and he had better powers than the character from the previous episode. I enjoyed playing him tbh, shame that there isn't a Prototype 3 in production.

 

[Suburban Thug]

It's hard to take this sort of reply seriously when plenty of games are lauded for inclusion which itself is telling that it happens so rarely that a games like that have to be pointed out.
If I'm an author and write about whatever I want that's fine but if I'm writing a historical fiction youd probably expect that I'd do research and maybe even speak to experts in the field or consultants, for example although watch dogs 2 has been disparaged they talked with IT specialist and hackers or black ops 2 they spoke at length with futurist etc.
I'll make it simple though, if you have a game with a minority lead 👍🏾 great, but if you want to take a deep dive into race relations or systemic racism like mafia 3 then yeah I'd expect that they would have input from actual black people.
Another example no one took issue with a sleeping dogs not having Asian writers (as far as I know)

Did Sleeping Dogs need Asian writers to tell the story they were trying to tell though? I mean, it was your typical revenge story if I recall correctly. I would agree if there was some important historical context or social commentary but I don't remember any. Please correct me if I'm misremembering.

I do agree with your other points though. Not trying to nitpick.

 

[Japanmanx3]

Thank you SE for Barrett and for all Vieras!!!!

 

[shoreu]

It's hard to take this sort of reply seriously when plenty of games are lauded for inclusion which itself is telling that it happens so rarely that a games like that have to be pointed out.
If I'm an author and write about whatever I want that's fine but if I'm writing a historical fiction youd probably expect that I'd do research and maybe even speak to experts in the field or consultants, for example although watch dogs 2 has been disparaged they talked with IT specialist and hackers or black ops 2 they spoke at length with futurist etc.
I'll make it simple though, if you have a game with a minority lead 👍🏾 great, but if you want to take a deep dive into race relations or systemic racism like mafia 3 then yeah I'd expect that they would have input from actual black people.
Another example no one took issue with a sleeping dogs not having Asian writers (as far as I know)

I think your misunderstanding what I'm trying to say.
You'll notice when games and movies try to be inclusive of minorities its taken as pandering in many occasions. It's many of these same people don't realize that they have been pandered to their whole lives and consider it the norm.

 

[Afrocious]

I wish I could meet more black folks who were into video games.

Nearly all of my black nerd friends are just into comic books and anime. That's fine for them but I definitely feel like an outlier for videogames.

 

[Apt101]

here you go

Wow.

 

[Platinumstorm]

I feel bad for laughing at that second tweet.

I had a friend and a youtuber I watch complain about how their is only really one black skin tone as an option in Pokemon S&M.

Link to the youtuber: https://youtu.be/bbApZJwfLxo?t=166



Oh god, it's true. That's kinda fucked.

Edit: Also this thread is further proof that Saints Row 3&4 are the most inclusive games in regards to character creation.

It's a nice black skin tone in S&M, and was almost my pick. There are 4 skin tones. It's highly unlikely that anyone looks like the character colors in sun and moon. I actually thought they were 8 female choices at first, and I thought I missed the gender selection.

 

[Head.spawn]

This is why my CC either looks like a demented shadow alien elf or Jidenna.

 

[Jintor]

Another example no one took issue with a sleeping dogs not having Asian writers (as far as I know)

That's kinda amazing cos anecdotally Wei really resonated with a lot of western-born Chinese in terms of not being able to go back to a culture

 

[Ashtar]

Did Sleeping Dogs need Asian writers to tell the story they were trying to tell though? I mean, it was your typical revenge story if I recall correctly. I would agree if there was some important historical context or social commentary but I don't remember any. Please correct me if I'm misremembering.

I do agree with your other points though. Not trying to nitpick.

That was my point, that it didn't "need" Asian writers

 

[Phoenix RISING]

It's a nice black skin tone in S&M, and was almost my pick. There are 4 skin tones. It's highly unlikely that anyone looks like the character colors in sun and moon. I actually thought they were 8 female choices at first, and I thought I missed the gender selection.

My children are now playing S & M and I am proud that they can make brown avatars!

 

[Spring-Loaded]

My children are now playing S & M and I am proud that they can make brown avatars!

It is nice to see. I actually like the braided hair in the game too.

 

[Dalibor68]

I think your misunderstanding what I'm trying to say.
You'll notice when games and movies try to be inclusive of minorities its taken as pandering in many occasions. It's many of these same people don't realize that they have been pandered to their whole lives and consider it the norm.

Well sometimes it is. The german scout in Battlefield 1 (fighting in France) being black for example absolutely is pandering. Showing actual black german colonial troops fighting in Africa for example would have been much more inclusive and respectful to history (as well as showing something that usually always gets overlooked). Stuff like that is just really bizarre for me because they are actively ignoring african history (afaik 40.000 Askaris that fought against Entente powers in Africa) in favor of making stuff up to pander. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they had black nazis in the next Battlefield game (if it was set in WW2 again) as they don't seem to care for context.