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The Guardian: E3 2017 diversity report - female characters mask lack of progress

L

Lime

Member
The Guardian did their annual E3 diversity report where they look at characters, speakers, apply the Bechdel test, and compare it to last year's show. If you want to read the two latter categories, they're in the article itself.

EA - Diversity rating: 3/5
  • Player character diversity: Madden NFL 18 gets a story mode called The Longshot, like FIFA 17's The Journey, and similarly stars a black man: Devin Wade. FIFA 17's Alex Hunter is back for Fifa 18 too. The Battlefield 1 expansion, In the Name of the Tsar, features a Women's Battalion of Death (apparently there were several). Need for Speed Payback lets women take the wheel, Phasma is heading to Star Wars Battlefront II, and BioWare's Anthem will undoubtedly offer gender options for the protagonist. There are a good few female characters on show here, but no games that don't also offer male options. Cooperative prison break game A Way Out, from the creators of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, looks interesting, but is also the story of two white guys; the woman of colour in the trailer appears to be an NPC.
  • Speaker diversity: No Amy Hennig, no Jade Raymond. EA's stage was dominated by white men. Women only really showed up in videos, often without speaking. Until the bulk of the conference was over, that is, and it was time to focus on Star Wars Battlefront II. On marched the Stormtroopers, led by Janina Gavankar – a woman of colour who plays Commander Iden Versio in the game – in an absolutely incredible custom made dress. And then she went to play the game, while YouTuber iJustine (and some men) commentated.
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Microsoft - Diversity rating: 3.5/5
  • Player character diversity: While a fair few of the games Microsoft showed off force you to play as a man, quite a few also offer the option to play as a woman: Forza Motorsport 7, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, State of Decay 2, Black Desert Online, Code Vein, Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 3, and maybe the stylistic Ashen. The extended Anthem demo starred a female character, though knowing BioWare, players will probably also be able to choose a man. However, Microsoft does fairly well this year by offering multiple (well, two) games with female-only leads: Tacoma and Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
  • Speaker diversity: Microsoft's stage was similarly dominated by white men, but at least their director of software engineering is Kareem Choudhry. Professional race car drivers Shannon McIntosh and Verena Mei joined them on stage, as did the charismatic Mojang brand director Lydia Winters in a fantastic shirt.
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Bethesda - Diversity rating: 2/5
  • Player character diversity: Death of the Outsider features Billie Lurk, the badass grizzled boat captain from Dishonored 2, pairing up with gruff and tough assassin Daud. It's refreshing to see a woman of colour starring a title, though she has to share the spotlight with a white dude. Aside from Lurk, there don't seem to be any diverse player characters coming out of Bethesda this year. Wolfenstein 2 has some interesting women around the table in the war room, but it doesn't look like you'll be able to play as any of them.
    [*]Speaker diversity: Pete Hines was the only speaker Bethesda thought to bring, leaving most of the focus to the games
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Ubisoft - Diversity rating: 3/5
  • Player character diversity: The Crew 2 featured a white guy, but he seems so generic that it seems likely we'll be able to customise our avatars for this multi-vehicle motorsport game. The trailer for Skull & Bones, a multiplayer pirate battle game from the team that put naval combat in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, focused on a female pirate captain fighting off male attackers. Speaking of Assassin's Creed, AC Origins is set in ancient Egypt and thus features lots of people of colour, including the protagonist Bayek. Steep lets you play as a woman or man. And we know that Far Cry 5 lets you choose gender and race for your player character, as well as featuring a black woman teammate called Grace Armstrong. And a dog called Boomer. But the delight of the night was the long-awaited reveal of Beyond Good & Evil 2, which stars a black woman, a white woman, and multiple talking animals, though it's unclear if any one character in this cooperative multiplayer game is the main protagonist.
  • Speaker diversity: It was great to see Ashraf Ismail introduce Assassin's Creed Origins, a game he seems genuinely excited about. And on the gender side of things, Ubisoft did pretty well by having a total of three women speak on stage: singer Bebe Rexha during the Just Dance 2018 demo, studio director Rebecka Coutaz to talk about Steep, and narrative director Gabrielle Shrager to join a teary Michel Ancel in talking about Beyond Good & Evil 2.
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Sony - Diversity rating: 4/5
Player character diversity: It's unclear whether Nadine or Chloe will be the player character for Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, but to see two women, one of whom isn't white, headlining is great. If it were a standalone, full-length title, that would be even better. Female protagonist Aloy returns as the player-character in Horizon: Zero Dawn's The Frozen Wilds, though the cultural appropriation of Native cultures on a white woman still doesn't play well . David Cage's Detroit features multiple player characters, one of whom is a white woman, and one, Marcus, played by actor Jesse Williams, is a person of colour. There are also people of colour among the androids that Marcus liberates. Spiderman's Miles Morales, of black and hispanic descent, is a pleasant surprise, though it's unclear whether he will be a playable character.
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Much more at the link: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-white-men-conferences?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

On a sidenote for anyone interested, I also created this thread to appreciate some of the diversity in recent and future AAA titles to highlight the progress that's been made.
 
M

Masterspeed

Member
They're talking about Phasma in Battlefront 2 but I see the lack of mention if the main fucking story protagonist being a female.
 
G

Garrett Hawke

Member
Not to shade the writer but... Chloe isn't white, is she?

She might be white passing but they definitely changed her features in Lost Legacy to look less white.
 
M

Moosichu

Member
Female protagonist Aloy returns as the player-character in Horizon: Zero Dawn’s The Frozen Wilds, though the cultural appropriation of Native cultures on a white woman still doesn’t play well.
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I disagree with this. But apart from that, good write up. Highlighting this stuff is super important, and the fact that progress has been made shows that it works.

Horizon is influenced by so many things, and although it may stumble in some areas, its a large assumption to assume the DLC will have those stumblings.
 
J

JStein0222

Member
This seems like a weird thing to give a number score to, but I will admit the EA conference was annoyingly and noticeably white.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
I have to slightly question their rating on Bethesda. It seems like The New Collusus is tackling issues of racism extremely head on - and doing so with an exceptionally diverse cast of characters. But since none of them are playable - that's all effectively tossed aside. In turn, Far Cry 5 gets praise for having a character creator - despite that game seemingly dodging all questions of race & bias despite the hyper-contemporary setting.

This just seems like it's missing the point a bit.
 
B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Garrett Hawke said:
Not to shade the writer but... Chloe isn't white, is she?

She might be white passing but they definitely changed her features in Lost Legacy to look less white.
Click to expand...
She has always been half-indian, but that half doesn't count you see.

Mushroomer25 said:
I have to slightly question their rating on Bethesda. It seems like The New Collusus is tackling issues of racism extremely head on - and doing so with an exceptionally diverse cast of characters. But since none of them are playable - that's all effectively tossed aside. In turn, Far Cry 5 gets praise for having a character creator - despite that game seemingly dodging all questions of race & bias despite the hyper-contemporary setting.

This just seems like it's missing the point a bit.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a checkbox game review. ;-)
 
C

Cess007

Member
[Uncharted: The Lost Legacy] If it were a standalone, full-length title, that would be even better
Click to expand...

But I thought it was a standalone, retail, full-length title. Wasn't that the reason the price for it went up?
 
L

Lime

Member
Kinyou said:
Isn't it progress if there are more female characters? The headline confuses me.
Click to expand...

Read the article: "Games have come a long way in putting fictional women in lead roles – but yet again it was largely white men that dominated the stages at the press conferences"
 
M

Moosichu

Member
Lime said:
Read the article: "Games have come a long way in putting fictional women in lead roles – but yet again it was largely white men that dominated the stages at the press conferences"
Click to expand...

I fear this will take a lot longer to change, but games being more representative will hopefully bring more people from all walks of life into the industry that will eventually lead it.
 
T

TheChaos

Member
I love how Nintendo isn't even there. How exactly can we break down the diversity content of a pink amorphous blob, a green dinosaur, and a fat Italian plumber with a sentient hat?
 
K

Kinyou

Member
Lime said:
Read the article: "Games have come a long way in putting fictional women in lead roles – but yet again it was largely white men that dominated the stages at the press conferences"
Click to expand...
That doesnt mean it's not progress. And the article doesn't dive into this either.
 
E

Elandyll

Banned
Wow, so much wrong in so very few lines with Lost Legacy. Lmao.

Yes a woman is the protag, they're both non white, and it is a standalone game.

/Smh
 
M

Mory Dunz

Member
TheChaos said:
I love how Nintendo isn't even there. How exactly can we break down the diversity content of a pink amorphous blob, a green dinosaur, and a fat Italian plumber with a sentient hat?
Click to expand...

they could've easily done speaker diversity for them. Since Treehouse.

It was mostly white, but there were a lot more girls than guys.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Springy said:
Of all communities, I thought people who play video games would understand the most about giving something a scored rating.
Click to expand...

Yeah but it feels like this format (scoring press conferences and the criteria they're using) cheapens strives towards diversity and actually sets them back.

It seems like they're just trying to pull controversy with very little ammunition.
 
T

Twilight Gap

Member
If these numbers ever reach 5, I expect the scale to change. The comment about Aloy of all people - in Horizon of all games - is ridiculous.
 
J

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Did anyone else find it weird that I'm the same breath the article compliments Beyond Good and Evil 2 both for featuring two female protagonists (one of which is black) and several talking animals?

The way it's worded makes both of these sound equally 'progressive.'

It's just not a good article.
 
D

DrunkShogun

Member
Slayven said:
Being a brown dude in a sports game isn't breaking any barriers. Unless it is Hockey
Click to expand...

With you there. Brown dude in anything other than a sports game or as a enemy in a shooting game can't be considered breaking barrier. Think there's been a overall improvement in female representation compared to what it was.
 
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