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[Black_Stride]

Aren't whites like minority in global population scale? Funny how diversity works nowadays. People of colour are like 15% of usa population yet from todays media you could think they are majority. I love to see good written diverse characters but it's hard not think that 90% of such characters in gaming and especially movies are written as a token diversity bonus points

90% of PoC in gaming?
Think about what your typing before you type that shit aye.

And even on american media you just arent noticing that 15 or even less percent of cast/actors are white.
Nigga black people had to start their own channels and production companies just to be "included" same with Latino actors.

American media is still dominated by white actors.

OK let me rephrase it, what I meant to say was that the very relaxing/muted facial expressions don't match the over the top-ish voice.

For me there are three options:
(1) Re-work the facial animations to make them more over-the-top to match the over-the-top voice acting.
(2) Re-do the voice work (with the same voice) to make it more subdued so that it matches the subdued/muted expressions.
(3; nuclear option) just change the voice actor completely.

No, I've obviously worded it wrong.
The voice is okay, when she's talking in gameplay that's fine.
It when see the character talk, there's a disconnect.
Something seems off if you know what I mean.

Ahhh.
I see what you mean.
Yeah maybe the animations still need some work.

Reminds me of Alan Wake your wife had some weird lip sync issues like what she was saying was coming from someone else versus what we were actually seeing.

On point on point!

 

[Jadsey]

I honestly like seeing diversity in games where it fits the narrative. Any game in a contemporary, urban world setting...I think they should include a wide range of characters with different sexuality and ethnicity.

Sure they don't represent me, but I play me every day of my life.

I also actually don't mind the black girl in the God of War trailer...I mean none of it's real, Kratos isn't based on a real person....it's all fantasy, so why the hell not!?

I draw the line in a game like Kingdom Come Deliverance getting hammered by idiots for not having black characters...come the fuck on!

My main beef with woke culture in gaming is not with the developers or writers who feel justified in including a range of characters....I honestly believe their hearts are in the right place (mostly!). It's with the publishers who are parade their wokeness as though they are doing it for any other reason than nickel and diming their customers....that makes me feel sick.

 

[MilkyJoe]

It's funny how some here laugh at ERA for being woke but then follow it with misogyny and homophobia.

 

[Coolwhhip]

I think someone that makes a game/movie/book whatever, should not focus on race or other minority crap. Just their creative vision. And in games where you play 'you' there should just be character creation.

 

[Cutty Flam]

It's funny how some here laugh at ERA for being woke but then follow it with misogyny and homophobia.

That entire site is worthless, not even sure why people have accounts there. I went over there to see their One Piece thread, might as well have been reading posts by second graders tbh. Most vapid pos so-called 'forum' you can possibly visit

 

[Kokoloko85]

Forspoken in not woke. People need to calm down lol.

Yeah just because the main character isnt typical doesnt make it woke.
Cringe dialogue for sure, but not woke

They are like the opposite side of the SJW/Woke people. People need to chill

 

[Rykan]

The increased focus on diversity doesn't bother me at all. Quite the opposite: I applaud it and I do think that representation in entertainment media, be it video games, movies or otherwise is important. What does bother me is the fact that most of these attempts focus on one thing and one thing only: To be the American ideal.

Every attempt at increased diversity ends up with a character cast that has a member of every race & gender working together because that is what the "ideal" of America must look like. It's why we have so many games that tick all the racial identity boxes, but almost no games with a lineup of only black characters. Or Indians. or South Americans, or pacific islanders. Heck, even Europeans are underrepresented in anything that isn't a historical game or a strategy game with only the British being an exception to this rule.

 

[GymWolf]

I had no problem with the forspoken trailer aside from the annoying writing.

 

[STARSBarry]

I just buy games that appeal to me. If you feel a game no longer appeals to you by all means vent your frustration as to why, I would never begrudge people that. But also move onto recognising if they want to make trash going forward then they are allowed to make trash. It's your right as a consumer to not buy a product you know you won't enjoy.

I am not a religious man, that's because I hate being preached to, I have found recently in alot of big budget tiles the niggling feeling that I have some cult leader nudging me along there ideological path about inequality which they somehow unironically manage to create while in a position of power living in some of the richest countries in the world while working in a multi billion dollar industry.

 

[Freeman76]

Companies like Dont Nod who ram it down your throat at every given opportunity are the ones I avoid. If its handled well it makes no difference to me, if you want to pretend you're a cat that's up to you, makes no difference to my life.

 

[thegame983]

Wokeness should be a disclaimer along with violence/nudity so people know what they're getting.

 

[pratyush]

It's amazing how we are still having this conversation. Women being lead isn't new but some just can't hide their bias. Take Angrboda for example, she is black in Valhalla also but they saw one look at Black girl in GOW and people started losing their mind.

I don't mind character as long as they are good. And this notion that diversity is causing issue in narrative is just an opinion based just on their feelings. I would definitely love to play Asian character as well if they are good. Not sure why it should matter.

I was on era and people were complaining about how sexy the character looked in project Eve. Then came here and saw people complaining about black character in GOW. It's like same coin but different side.

Enjoy the game and it's character even if they don't look like you. We have all did with white character. It should not be difficult for you people as well.

 

[HoodWinked]

It's funny people are pointing out the bad writing/dialog

When they seemed to have gone way and above to get some expensive talent.

Writer(s)	Gary Whitta Amy Hennig Allison Rymer Todd Stashwick

 

[pratyush]

It's funny people are pointing out the bad writing/dialog

When they seemed to have gone way and above to get some expensive talent.

Writer(s)	Gary Whitta Amy Hennig Allison Rymer Todd Stashwick

Game trailers are always different to game. Remember how chatty Aloy was in Horizon trailer. They have limited time and wanted to show more about character and ended up overdoing it

 

[NikuNashi]

We need more games like Forspoken. I'm sure there will be some stumbles but the more that inclusion is explored the quicker we will get to where we need to be. IMO

Where do you need the be? Please explain.

 

[pratyush]

Where do you need the be? Please explain.

More stories from different perspective. There is only so much you can explore if you have just one category people as lead character.

 

[strange headache]

Diversity and representation are in themselves "woke" concepts.

I don't identify with ethnicity, skin-color or sexual preference, I identify with characters.
You can have the same color or sexual orientation as me but still be an asshole.

As long as diversity is being reduced to how people look from the outside, "woke" storytelling will keep sucking.
Diversity of thought is much more important but not readily apparent, you need to engage with characters in order to see it.

Unfortunately real diversity can't just be shoved into a 2 min. trailer.

 

[GymWolf]

No no, I just gave us a starting point, you go ahead now and keep going with a list the games that you like in support of your point that games have had diverse casts many times years ago. Let's paint a rainbow!

Like, here we go, Street Fighter 2 had a complexly diverse cast:

Imagine coming out with something similar to this image in modern days...

 

[NikuNashi]

More stories from different perspective. There is only so much you can explore if you have just one category people as lead character.

But what's happening is all the big companies are chasing each other's tails to the latest fad which is 'badass' female lead (preferably non white). So today we got that star wars with a female, or female narration. We got the rainbow 6 zombie thing with a female lead, we got the Korean ass shot game with a female lead then we got the forespoken with the female lead with dark skin. It's not diverse at all and it isn't genuine.

I think what you want is a dev from a particular background telling his or her story which would be cool but that's not what's happening here.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Hiring someone who clearly hates original Star Wars and its fans to rewrite a classic Star Wars game?

Now, that’s woke.




This person hasn’t been hired to create an exciting narrative.

Ah yikes my expectations have been dampened now. Kotor is an all time favourite of mine….

 

[pratyush]

But what's happening is all the big companies are chasing each other's tails to the latest fad which is 'badass' female lead (preferably non white). So today we got that star wars with a female, or female narration. We got the rainbow 6 zombie thing with a female lead, we got the Korean ass shot game with a female lead then we got the forespoken with the female lead with dark skin. It's not diverse at all and it isn't genuine.

I think what you want is a dev from a particular background telling his or her story which would be cool but that's not what's happening here.

And what would change if those were men? I just don't get the issue here. These characters are not real.

 

[killatopak]

I can't see anything woke about forspoken.

Sure it may have an all black cast but is that really woke?

As long as nothing is forced, it's ok to me.

 

[NikuNashi]

I can't see anything woke about forspoken.

Sure it may have an all black cast but is that really woke?

As long as nothing is forced, it's ok to me.

Wasn't it all female too? Only watched it once but that's what I remember, until the monsters showed up.

 

[RoboFu]

Of course you can.. the difference between true diversity and wokeism is that.. wokeness is “ just because “ and true diversity “ has reason “

no one cares that the lead character in halo 5 is black because that “ has reason “ he is a new character with a back story that fits , but if they would have turned MC into a woman “ just because “ that would have been wokeness

wokeness also merges race and culture as one where as in reality they are very different.

for example a rich black guy growing up in Manhattan is not the same as a poor white guy growing up in South Africa.

wokeness doesn’t care about the latter… only that the first guy is black “ just because “ he is black.

 

[MagnesG]

It's Gary Whitta who wrote this shit. Just like Cuckman, expect woke stuff sprinkled in on much of the occasion.

The character design and personality is literally how those woke people act and express themselves. I can already imagine topics like diversity, toxic masculinity, segregation being ejected into the script and conflict lol.

Also the cat. Wow that explains a lot about someone.

Good job on being westernized SE.

 

[killatopak]

Wasn't it all female too? Only watched it once but that's what I remember, until the monsters showed up.

the bracelet was a guy at least. besides we haven't truly seen everyone in the game or an in depth trailer.

 

[Kilau]

Yikes, Abelism on full display.

 

[DenchDeckard]

So what you are saying is they should have hired the actress to do the model then hired another actress to do the voice?

She is absolutely stunning! Hot damn!

Where do you need the be? Please explain.

I think we just need a genuine fair representation of all people in video games and media and the way for it to feel natural and not forced is for more representation until it gets to the point that we get well written well designed games around people of all colours, creeds, religions and sexual orientation.

Not what people call woke but just how the world is. If that makes sense?

 

[DustQueen]

Yes. It can.
Good writing n knowing laws of dramatic storytelling goes a looooong way.

 

[Corndog]

Most games with diversity and inclusion aren't woke...the people who criticize them as just aren't connected to reality and hate seeing anything different than the norm.

Why should it be different then the norm? Your proving it’s skewed in an unrealistic way

 

[Whitecrow]

Forspoken model is very beautiful and attractive, so it anything but woke.

Also, if any game main protagonists is ugly, it's obvious on purpose so it will allways be woke.

Just let the games be an scape window from reaity, that's the reason they exists, and dont lecture it's consumers.

 

[nush]

Yikes, Abelism on full display.

 

[martino]

Sure, when it is organic to the world. Take Aliens:Fireteam Elite. It has a diverse ethnic cast and it fits. But there is no sexuality because that makes no sense in a military sci-fi shooter. It isn't woke.

But some fantasy game about a tiny remote village isolated for hundreds of years but has a full panalopy of ethnicities and everyone's sexuality is on display despite it being heavily based on European medieval history? Woke.

Here you're just telling us that your own value make your suspension of disbelieving very low on what can be organic in a fantasy.
So i can't totally agree.I can agree when adaption or expansion of an existing lore (or worse historical context of our reality) bring this kind of change but in case of new original ones ? you can do what you want.

 

[nemiroff]

I think someone that makes a game/movie/book whatever, should not focus on race or other minority crap. Just their creative vision. And in games where you play 'you' there should just be character creation.

Fun fact: The script for the movie "Alien" was written as unisex. Ripley only became a female when Sigourney Weaver was cast. So when the movie hit the theaters people all over praised the bad ass Ripley character, and no one batted an eye that she was a woman. This is how you do it, sex or pigment.. But because of the intersectionality obsession we have in our society today this is "no longer possible".

 

[CuteFaceJay]

I think this might be why I gravitate towards GTA or driving games recently.

 

[The Skull]

I legit think the movie Shazam was one of the best pieces of diverse media in recent years with the whole adopted family vibe. That's diverse without being "woke".

 

[xiseerht]

As a 41 year old black man. There is nothing I hate more than when they put some black dude in the game acting like no black man on Earth would ever act like. I would be sitting there saying " Hell, just let me play with the white dude then. "

 

[Woopah]

It's 2021. I'll assume any game made in the west nowadays with non-white/male/straight characters is most likely due to woke pandering. Sorry.
I don't mind diversity when it makes sense. Black Norse gods or Vikings don't make sense.

This sort of argument doesn't hold much water. It's a game where a Greek god is walking around Scandinavia talking to Norse gods, a talking head, blue dwarves and all manner of magical creatures, and the thing that "doesn't make sense" to you is someone having dark skin.

Same with the pandering argument. Was it bad that Kratos was created as a male character to appeal to male gamers? Of course not.

Games featuring certain types of characters to appeal to certain types of people has been happening for 30+years. Why is that an issue?

 

[RJMacready73]

Exactly this. I wish everybody collectively removed the stick from their ass. Why did people become like this anyway? It seemed like one minute things were progressing in a good way and the future looked good and then the next minute we devolved into some tribalistic nightmare.

Facebook and Twitters algorithms broke the world up into 2 camps and fed each camp the shit that would annoy them most thus driving them further apart

 

[TheSHEEEP]

To be fair, if that same fantasy game has fire-breathing massive dragons and Nephilim-tier orcs, and it's there being characters with some varying skin tones that's considered the unrealistic part, the person making that call might to sit down and rethink a few things xD.

You are thoroughly confusing realism with internal consistency.
This "but there are dragons! Y u don't complain about that?!" is the biggest BS strawman that keeps coming up as if it had any merit.

Nobody ever in the existence of gaming has claimed FANTASY games need to adhere to our world in order to be realistic.

However, they do need to adhere to their own world and the rules of their own world to be good and believable.
A game where the population is not generally mixed between skin tones, genders and sexualities, - and there are issues of racism, sexism, etc. in the game world - but the characters you meet just happen to have an overrepresentation of every possible checkbox there is? That's usually pandering and makes the game actively worse by not being believable.

 

[RJMacready73]

As a 41 year old black man. There is nothing I hate more than we they put some black dude in the game acting like no black man on Earth would ever act like. I would be sitting there saying " Hell, just let me play with the white dude then. "

When I watch a foreign film it's specifically to enjoy a different culture and get away from the same old Hollywood shit and see things through different eyes, if the character in my game is from another culture it better be accurate to that culture, so if the game has an Irishman as the main character I better be able to fight like fuck and be in a constant inebriated state...

Diversity is great in games, I don't give a shit who I play as long as game is great and the character is true to whatever it's representing and that means get in proper consultants not what a bunch of middle aged white dudes think how this character would act.

 

[Kimahri]

Sure, when it is organic to the world. Take Aliens:Fireteam Elite. It has a diverse ethnic cast and it fits. But there is no sexuality because that makes no sense in a military sci-fi shooter. It isn't woke.

But some fantasy game about a tiny remote village isolated for hundreds of years but has a full panalopy of ethnicities and everyone's sexuality is on display despite it being heavily based on European medieval history? Woke.

Nailed it. Got instantly concerned when I saw that colored girl in God of War. We know vikings weren't as white and blonde as many would have you believe, they traveled a lot and brought people back with them. But mostly in Europe, having someone of clear african descent there is... a bit of a stretch. I'd rather get some mongolian/russian heritage in there, or even middle eastern since there were vikings fighting in mesopotamia for example. That'd make sense easily. Vut the law seems to be that characters need to be either black or white, all other ethinicities be damned.

 

[Winter John]

I've said it before, the morons who scream about wokeness or women in bikinis need to be banned from the internet. It is too much for them. They're very simple, surface level people. There's not a lot going on with them. The reason take out places have bright, colorful photos on their walls is because having to do anything more complex than pointing and saying, "me want that" frightens and confuses these people

"Get woke, go broke" is a popular saying among these people. Many of them have literally no idea what it means. It's just words they heard from the man on the youtube video they watched. They are a problem. Because we allowed them unmonitored access to the internet the village idiots became the global idiots. Throw the media into the mix and now we have a mass of global idiots conditioned to regurgitate whatever bullshit the media tells them to.

In the old days the message to the village idiot was simple. Shut the fuck up. He was kept safely quarantined. There were no other village idiots to prop up his flat earth bullshit. Or feed him more bullshit like get woke go broke. We had a system and it worked. Normal people got together and discussed the problems they faced. Ideas were formed. Theories were tested. Debates were had. Society advanced and we all benefited.

So I say ban the village idiots from the internet. It wouldn't be hard. A quick search of post histories for things like sending death threats because a woman's thighs were exposed, or an Asian guy was cast as a main character. Get the idiots off the internet and back into quarantine where they belong. Maybe then we can start having conversations again.

 

[kingkaiser]

Regarding Forspoken I don’t think it can be actually called woke, at least not with the footage that has been shown so far. Nonetheless, what really turns me off, is the power fantasy depicted in the main character’s monologue shown in the newest trailer. It’s basically a one to one conversion of blunt male power dreams, big gun and big muscles, into a female version of it. An example, the main character gets a new jewelry, a talking bracelet, which gives her pretty much unlimited power. It wouldn’t be half as bad, if the dialogue between the heroine and her bracelet wasn’t so hilariously infantile and especially over the top. “I can bent reality…with my mind?” Woooohooo!” It sounds almost like a parody, just don’t know if it’s intentional, but it’s so bad it exceeds even the most macho-man game in existence, like the original Gears of War for example. I mean, could you imagine Marcus Fenix speaking to his gun and screaming about his absurd power after every chainsaw kill?
“Hell yeah, another Locust decapitated, waddaya say Clementine, was it as god for you as for me?”

 

[p_xavier]

I've said it before, the morons who scream about wokeness or women in bikinis need to be banned from the internet. It is too much for them. They're very simple, surface level people. There's not a lot going on with them. The reason take out places have bright, colorful photos on their walls is because having to do anything more complex than pointing and saying, "me want that" frightens and confuses these people

"Get woke, go broke" is a popular saying among these people. Many of them have literally no idea what it means. It's just words they heard from the man on the youtube video they watched. They are a problem. Because we allowed them unmonitored access to the internet the village idiots became the global idiots. Throw the media into the mix and now we have a mass of global idiots conditioned to regurgitate whatever bullshit the media tells them to.

In the old days the message to the village idiot was simple. Shut the fuck up. He was kept safely quarantined. There were no other village idiots to prop up his flat earth bullshit. Or feed him more bullshit like get woke go broke. We had a system and it worked. Normal people got together and discussed the problems they faced. Ideas were formed. Theories were tested. Debates were had. Society advanced and we all benefited.

So I say ban the village idiots from the internet. It wouldn't be hard. A quick search of post histories for things like sending death threats because a woman's thighs were exposed, or an Asian guy was cast as a main character. Get the idiots off the internet and back into quarantine where they belong. Maybe then we can start having conversations again.

We're all somebody's idiot. Also witch burning was a thing, the idiots killed the intelligent.

 

[Faithless83]

Omg a black person in my totally realistic norse setting.

"What if" it was the other way around? Twitter reaction shows:


Yet we are not here to arrest anyone, but the game didn't look amazing (thank you PS4) and this "black giant" was the icing on the cake. Let's put a chinese on the game as well while we're at it, as China is all the rage now.

Maybe you are just too inside the woke hole to understand the point.

 

[captainnapalm]

Authoritarian SJWs ruined everything.

Before, if a character was made in some way, we just assumed it was born of the natural creative process of the author.
But now, we always assume checklists of token inclusions. Because we've seen that thrown in our faces at every turn.

When you coerce a culture into a forced-in mold, it becomes a stigma. And sure enough, it's a stigma now.

Yup. It's amazing how wokeness has poisoned the well.

For a long time, if you saw a woman or person of color pop up in a movie, or comic or game you didn't think twice. In fact, it was cool to see things get more diverse through the 80s and 90s and early 00s because it was happening organically.

Now, you frequently come across stories that are concerned with almost nothing other than promoting some or other identity group or gender, or bashing it. The plot has to come to a screeching halt just to show you how awesome and capable woman A or minority B is - even when it doesn't remotely belong. Forget politics, it's just fatal to good storytelling. There is nothing interesting about a character that only exists because of its gender, race or sexuality.

Just imagine if they remade something like the Lord of the Rings today. The films wouldn't be able to concern themselves with just retelling that story as well as possible - you would have to include a bunch of minority and strong women characters and the story would have to stop every five minutes to show you how awesome they are. The whole thing would get compromised.

There's also this really interesting phenomenon that happens when woke creators create woke characters, which is that these characters frequently turn out very unlikeable. I think it's because if someone who thinks they're special purely because of some immutable characteristic, and then gets hired because of that same immutable characteristic, then creates a character whose only selling point is a similar immutable characteristic - it is a recipe for total disaster. Say what you want about all those horrible white men of the past, but they never would have been able to create and sustain the creative industries they did if that was how they approached characters and storytelling.

 

[Synless]

Hiring someone who clearly hates original Star Wars and its fans to rewrite a classic Star Wars game?

Now, that’s woke.




This person hasn’t been hired to create an exciting narrative.

Why is this a thing? Someone in one of these threads wanted an example of how wokeism invades games saying it’s delusional. This one decision alone proves that is wrong,

 

[Lupingosei]

As a 41 year old black man. There is nothing I hate more than we they put some black dude in the game acting like no black man on Earth would ever act like. I would be sitting there saying " Hell, just let me play with the white dude then. "

If comics are any inidcation, this will be the future of black men in videogames

Because in the end black men are still men and by definition toxic. In comics the effeminate black man is pretty much standard by now, either as sub servant partner of the female lead or the romantic interest of the gay protagonist.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Representation is a dumb concept in and of itself. Games, books, movies have no obligation to represent anything, and the people that do think they have some larger-than-life mission to affect the real world in some way with videogames - or other entertainment products - make stupid stories 95% of the time.

That said, i dont know if forspoken is woke or not. What put me off in it was the teeny dialogue and the dumb overused isekai plot. I could still be wrong about the game and that was just a poor job on the part of whoever was making that trailer, but i can't say i have too high of a hope for the story.