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[Black Girl Gamers] Forspoken wouldn't have received this same level of criticism had Frey not been Black.

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RagnarokIV

RagnarokIV

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Black Girl Gamers' Jay-Ann Lopez on the importance of Black representation in fantasy​


Ahead of the release of Square Enix's Forspoken, there were concerns about representation. Frey, the game's Black female protagonist, was described in a 2021 preview session as having a "hip-hoppy kind of walk", as well as being "an orphan" and "very angry", raising eyebrows at the perpetuation of negative Black stereotypes.
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"As a trusted voice in gaming, diversity, and inclusivity, we were brought in. We had an opportunity to weigh in on the game - especially given that it is one of the first games to feature a fantasy female protagonist of Black descent.
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Speaking to Eurogamer, Lopez says she believes the game wouldn't have received this same level of criticism had Frey not been Black. "In the gaming industry, there are these dude bros that come out of the woodwork whenever they feel like Black and Brown people are stepping out of their place," Lopez tells me. "They feel they own the gaming industry and gaming culture. And part of that is because gaming media outlets and publishers have allowed them to feel that way for such a long time. They feel empowered to tank a game [that has a Black protagonist]. If it had a white person, they would probably have not felt the same way.

"All the people I've spoken to who have played the game have enjoyed it on some kind of level and thought it doesn't deserve the flack that it got.
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Yeah, that's bollocks.

Link:
archive.is

Black Girl Gamers' Jay-Ann Lopez on the importance of Black represent…

archived 24 May 2023 13:23:53 UTC
archive.is archive.is

If someone could make an archive lin instead, it'd be much preferred.
 
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killatopak

killatopak

Member
Ryan Gosling Lol GIF
 
PanzerCute

PanzerCute

Member
Total bullshit. I loved the game, even got the platinum, but the hero has to be the worst in the history of JRPG, no matter her skin color. She is an asshole, selfish, dumb, uncaring, self centered and obnoxious THE WHOLE game.

The story is a mess and the message is absolutely terrible: be an asshole until you discover if something is relevant to you.

Its like LOTR from Amazon, we dont hate the main character because she is a woman, but because she is a fucking sociopath with absolutely nothing to make her likeable.
 
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Dorago

Dorago

Member
RagnarokIV said:

Black Girl Gamers' Jay-Ann Lopez on the importance of Black representation in fantasy​






Yeah, that's bollocks.

Link:
www.eurogamer.net

Black Girl Gamers' Jay-Ann Lopez on the importance of Black representation in fantasy

Ahead of the release of Square Enix's Forspoken, there were concerns about representation. Frey, the game's Black femal…
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net

If someone could make an archive lin instead, it'd be much preferred.
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The game would never have been made or released of the character wasn’t black.
 
Wooxsvan

Wooxsvan

Member
good grief. please people. stop seeing yourselves as victims and blaming everyone else.

this game looked so bad.
 
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Wildebeest

Wildebeest

Member
All I ask for in life is £65 AAA games that can be enjoyed in some sort of way if you really put in a huge effort to pretend they are not turds.
 
HerjansEagleFeeder

HerjansEagleFeeder

Member
As ridiculous as that statement sounds, it might be important to take these voices seriously, as in: if there's a significant portion of the population subjectively in a mental state of emergency because they feel threatened by "structural racism" or whatever bullshit, a society can't afford to just ignore it. Otherwise you risk ending up with partisan forces in your country. Someone is injecting their brains with this stuff. I refuse to believe it really reflects their everyday experiences.
 
A

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
feynoob said:
Not like the story and the dialogue were garbage.

These people don't like facing reality.
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There are games with garbage dialogue and story out all the time that don't get nearly the same amount of coal raking that FORSPOKEN got. The amount of derision that - inarguably for most - mediocre game generated was wild.

RaZoR No1 said:
Everyone knows that GTA SA flopped, because the MC was black....
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. . .which is not at all what the woman is arguing.
 
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HeisenbergFX4

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I am a 56 year old white guy living in the US so according to some groups I couldn't get anymore racist but let me be the first to say I don't care what the color of my skin is of my character

In fact in my Diablo 4 beta playthroughs I only had 1 "white" character and 5 other characters of all different shades
 
AeonGaidenRaiden

AeonGaidenRaiden

Member
I dont remember a SINGLE review mentioning the characters race except the annoying constant talking. The rest was all on frame rate, graphics and pacing. What a moron, these people should be equally punished when they pull a race card when there is no need for any of this.
 
Lucifers Beard

Lucifers Beard

Member
Some people will do absolutely anything for attention.

The game got average reviews because the game was fucking average. The protagonist could have been any colour and it wouldn’t have changed a damn thing.

This kind of shit doesn’t deserve a click or any form of discussion because it’s just so fucking stupid and only serves to fuel negativity.
 
Bernardougf

Bernardougf

Gold Member
The race card at this point is like a super special magic card in a cardgame that people use to get out of any problem or solve any question...
 
Carmen Winstead

Carmen Winstead

Member
When there's no games with black leads these people complain about too little representation in games and when there is a black lead and the game somehow turns out shit (and shit is an understatement for this garbage piece of uninspired mess) they do this kind of shit?

Angry Season 9 GIF by Shameless
 
Schmendrick

Schmendrick

Member
these guys write outrageously stupid bullshit on purpose to trigger people to make their content as widely visible as possible...and then there are board users who think "yep, I´m making a post about this".

Stop it!
 
Puscifer

Puscifer

Member
Her being black had 0 to do with it and more like bad marketing because The "freaking dragons" trailer immediately shifted everyone's opinion into cringe territory and that should've set off alarm bells in the editing room because it set the tone in how people were going to approach the game. I'm starting to understand why up until a point Bethesda only revealed games less than 6 months before launch, and barring delays, tightly controlled the marketing till launch.

Forspoken should've been scaled back and been a launch title that came and went like Ryse: Son of Rome. When you're launching 2 years into a console generation the standards are going to be higher than if you launched with the system and people just wanted something to play. Outside of making fun of the obvious cringy tones of the story, when talking about the gameplay people like the free movement and magic so clearly it isn't terrible, just middling, and launching for 70 dollars the same year titles like Ragnarok were available is NOT a good look.

Tony Hawks American Wasteland for 60 bucks for a launch game on 360 would not have been tolerated if it came the same year as Halo 3 looking like it did.
 
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Rykan

Rykan

Member
I've taken a look at who this "Jay ann Lopez" is.

This is what I've found:
Jay-Ann is the CEO and Founder of Black Girl Gamers™; an online safe space and platform that heightens the visibility of Black Women in Gaming and advocates for Diversity & Inclusion.
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Hmm okay.
Jay-Ann is also the Co-Founder of Curlture, a platform boasting over 50,000 followers that empowers women to embrace their natural hair, beauty and culture via beauty, lifestyle and travel content
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Oh hey look, she's an expert on beauty, lifestyle and travel content too. Wow.
In additional to winning awards as an influencer, Jay-Ann co-authored KINK - a collection of poetry and photography to empower Black Women against colourism and texture discrimination
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Look at that. She's an expert on poetry and photography as well. Incredible.
As a born and bred Londoner with performing arts background, Jay-Ann loves all things music, dance and culture and uses her passions and platforms to consult as Cultural and Diversity and Inclusion Strategist.
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Now she's an expert in "performing arts" as well.


or TL;DR: Has never actually touched a video game and has built a career on calling everything racist and discriminatory.
 
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Fake

Fake

Member
Yeah... who cares if this game is a piece of shit. Is all about color.

Same with Jedi Survivor. Talking about bait.
 
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MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
I think there are plenty of games that exist that prove that this kind of take is BS. But of course creating something out of nothing is what a lot of people love to do these days, unfortunately...
 
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