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[Spring-Loaded]

It's not something every game has to adhere to. It's fair to say that most games (and media) have a problem with representation. It's just a far bigger problem with gaming as TV/movies have made some (limited) headway in regards to this. The best way to look at the problem is look at gaming as a whole and see how much representation people are getting.

Yeah, it's not something that has to a night-and-day switch, or an all-or-nothing deal. It's something that can always be improved in small ways here-and-there.

The biggest problem I see is that if people only focus on one game at a time, then they can (and will, all too often) dismiss there's a problem. "Oh this game was made by only one person," "Well, these developers are from a non-diverse place," or "There are games that are more problematic than this one, so focus on those instead." That last one will always be true btw, but if we continually ignore the "lesser," instances of lack of diversity, then it'll never truly improve.

 

[EdwardTeach]

Ironically real life farming communities are diverse. Even those without African American populations like Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama have large Latino populations. Bringing up real life communities only really makes the game look worse.

Only in the US.

There is 1 black farmer in the UK, out of a black community of several million. Black people typically live in the major cities. IT will be the same story in most of Europe (except barring france the % of the population that is black will be much smaller).

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Only in the US.

There is 1 black farmer in the UK, out of a black community of several million. Black people typically live in the major cities. IT will be the same story in most of Europe (except barring france the % of the population that is black will be much smaller).

Where does Stardew Valley take place?

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Sure, but how far should we go to force "our normal" on someone elses normal?

It's very tricky.

I'd make a bigger point of misrepresentation of minorities rather then exclusion. A much more valid argument.

Short of simply outright stereotyping, you can't really "misrepresent" most minorities, because a member of that minority could be absolutely anything (outside of fantasy/sci-fi games where there might be a specific reason, or history-related games).

If Stardew Valley's characters were randomly changed to have different skin colors, nothing about the game, the story, or the characters would change, but it would be more inclusive.

 

[Melkezadek]

What?

In my country white people are the minority, clocking in at around 9% of the total population. What you're describing would be...Tuesday.

Where I'm getting at, is that if the reality was inversed, and characters in gaming were mostly brown people, would we still see this "stop trying to force diversity" narrative pushed by many posters in this thread. Would you accept the "It's just fiction" line that others are pushing?

Why is it so difficult to step outside one's self and see it from the eyes of the minority? Especially since, when I actually look outside, the world is far more diverse than gaming represents. I don't see "5 non-whites for every 50", I see a bag of skittles. Why do we accept the former when it doesn't represent the world we live in today? I doubt very much the creator of the game meant any harm in how he designed the game and I don't think the OP suggested it.

The problem I see in this thread is how knee-jerk many posters here are at the idea of more diversity in fear that it's "force-fed". That, to me, is a troubling reaction.

 

[texhnolyze]

Being an Asian I don't find problems with games that have no Asians in them

And Asian is like the most populated race in the world.

I never get these sentiments from African Americans.

 

[……forgetit]

Only in the US.

There is 1 black farmer in the UK, out of a black community of several million. Black people typically live in the major cities. IT will be the same story in most of Europe (except barring france the % of the population that is black will be much smaller).

Well Yeah, In a topic of diversity I just decided to bring up a more diverse country, A farming community in Morocco will likely not have any white people. The west doesn't have near a monopoly on agriculture and if we go world wide their will be plenty of homogeneous areas across Europe, Asia and Africa.

Edit: Also I haven't played the game, but after looking it up it apparently takes place in a fictional US? Well there ya go.

 

[bjork]

If you're a black kid and every single show you watch has a white protagonist, you're inevitably going to ask yourself why is that. Are you not worthy?

Yeah. When I was a kid, shows like GI Joe (sort of) tried by having teams on an episode that would be a little varied, but stupid Duke always saved the day, but I can't recall a show from then with a main character of any color, really. I can see how that would be frustrating, and how I can't fully speak to it since it wasn't my experience.

Yeah, it's not something that has to a night-and-day switch, or an all-or-nothing deal. It's something that can always be improved in small ways here-and-there.

The biggest problem I see is that if people only focus on one game at a time, then they can (and will, all too often) dismiss there's a problem. "Oh this game was made by only one person," "Well, these developers are from a non-diverse place," or "There are games that are more problematic than this one, so focus on those instead." That last one will always be true btw, but if we continually ignore the "lesser," instances of lack of diversity, then it'll never truly improve.

I agree with this too.

 

[Falk]

Here's more food for thought.

A writer can only realistically portray a culture he's intimately familiar with.

As an extreme example, asking e.g. a Japanese writer who's lived all his life in Japan, to write a multicultural cast, will result in a lot of token stereotypes. Don't even get me started on when some English-speaking devs attempt to write asian things, resulting in a lot of casual racism (hi, Red Alert 3)

Asking a single dev who, by his own account, spent a -lot- of his life devoted to the creation of a single video game, to not only write a whole cast of characters, but enough of their backstory while preserving their heritage might be quite a tall order. There's this zone where you know just enough that what you know is dangerous. (This is from personal experience, albeit not writing or game related, which I'd rather not go into, but you can PM me if you're really curious)

There are quite a few characters in Stardew Valley who are already borderline caricatures, and not just by being of a certain skin color. The

Spoiler

dwarf

in the mines, for example, and

Spoiler

Sandy

in the desert.

Again, more diversity is a very noble goal in the larger picture. I'm presenting a very specific example based on the premise of this thread, that being a single game made by a single guy.

 

[EdwardTeach]

Well Yeah, In a topic of diversity I just decided to bring up a more diverse country, A farming community in Morocco will likely not have any white people. The west doesn't have near a monopoly on agriculture and if we go world wide their will be plenty of homogeneous areas across Europe, Asia and Africa.

Edit: Also I haven't played the game, but after looking it up it apparently takes place in a fictional US? Well there ya go.

Have you ever been to Morocco? A lot of Moroccans look white and have blonde/orange hair.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

The problem I see in this thread is how knee-jerk many posters here are at the idea of more diversity in fear that it's "force-fed". That, to me, is a troubling reaction.

It's troubling to me too. Few people veiw the focus-tested 20/30-something white dude protagonist as being "force-fed," to people in games for the past few decades, and they accept that as normal.

Here's more food for thought.

A writer can only realistically portray a culture he's intimately familiar with.

As an extreme example, asking e.g. a Japanese writer who's lived all his life in Japan, to write a multicultural cast, will result in a lot of token stereotypes. Don't even get me started on when some English-speaking devs attempt to write asian things, resulting in a lot of casual racism (hi, Red Alert 3)

Asking a single dev who, by his own account, spent a -lot- of his life devoted to the creation of a single video game, to not only write a whole cast of characters, but enough of their backstory while preserving their heritage might be quite a tall order. There's this zone where you know just enough that what you know is dangerous. (This is from personal experience, albeit not writing or game related, which I'd rather not go into, but you can PM me if you're really curious)

There are quite a few characters in Stardew Valley who are already borderline caricatures, and not just by being of a certain skin color. The

Spoiler

dwarf

in the mines, for example, and

Spoiler

Sandy

in the desert.

Again, more diversity is a very noble goal in the larger picture. I'm presenting a very specific example based on the premise of this thread, that being a single game made by a single guy.

So since the developer is the only person working on the game and it's dangerous for him to attempt having more diversity, in what ways could the game be improved in this regard then? At what point or at what team size does it become reasonable to make a go for diversity?

Have you ever been to Morocco? A lot of Moroccans look white and have blonde/orange hair.

I have been to Morocco, and all the Moroccans I saw had black hair, and didn't look "white." That's as anecdotal as what you just said, but even still.

 

[……forgetit]

Have you ever been to Morocco? A lot of Moroccans look white and have blonde/orange hair.

Really? That's all you got from the post? I just picked a country off my head with farms at random, but fine, substitute Moroccan farm with Nigerian farm. Point is fairly homogeneous countries aren't important to the current topic.

 

[Lanrutcon]

The problem I see in this thread is how knee-jerk many posters here are at the idea of more diversity in fear that it's "force-fed". That, to me, is a troubling reaction.

As long as the inclusion or exclusion of diversity in a creator's vision is up to the creator, then it's not force-fed.

 

[EdwardTeach]

Really? That's all you got from the post? I just picked a country off my head with farms at random, but fine, substitute Moroccan farm with Nigerian farm. Point is fairly homogeneous countries aren't important to the current topic.

I get your point, I was just pulling your leg as Morocco is a bad example.

 

[Maxim726X]

Thats funny because I think that Stardew valley is supposed to take inspiration from the real world and is supposed to be some small sleepy town where everyone knows everyone else. Yes places like that still exist where there aren't too many minorities.

This is how I interpreted it as well.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

As long as the inclusion or exclusion of diversity in a creator's vision is up to the creator, then it's not force-fed.

Unless the code is made public and can somehow be changed/uploaded to everyone by everyone, then what goes into the game will always be the creator's choice.

This is how I interpreted it as well.

Are there no small places like that where more diversity exists? Would it be inconceivable for that to exist in a video game like this one?

 

[bjork]

Here's more food for thought.

A writer can only realistically portray a culture he's intimately familiar with.

As an extreme example, asking e.g. a Japanese writer who's lived all his life in Japan, to write a multicultural cast, will result in a lot of token stereotypes. Don't even get me started on when some English-speaking devs attempt to write asian things, resulting in a lot of casual racism (hi, Red Alert 3)

Asking a single dev who, by his own account, spent a -lot- of his life devoted to the creation of a single video game, to not only write a whole cast of characters, but enough of their backstory while preserving their heritage might be quite a tall order. There's this zone where you know just enough that what you know is dangerous. (This is from personal experience, albeit not writing or game related, which I'd rather not go into, but you can PM me if you're really curious)

There are quite a few characters in Stardew Valley who are already borderline caricatures, and not just by being of a certain skin color. The

Spoiler

dwarf

in the mines, for example, and

Spoiler

Sandy

in the desert.

Again, more diversity is a very noble goal in the larger picture. I'm presenting a very specific example based on the premise of this thread, that being a single game made by a single guy.

I think you're right, you run the risk of writing a offensive characters. But it isn't impossible to ask for an outside perspective, or possibly even get someone to help in return for a writing credit or something.

 

[Falk]

So since the developer is the only person working on the game and it's dangerous for him to attempt having more diversity, in what ways could the game be improved in this regard then? At what point or at what team size does it become reasonable to make a go for diversity?

ConcernedApe has been really clear on his intention that future work on Stardew Valley remain a solo affair. Considering how much time he's poured and is pouring into this, I'm not too sure for this specific instance. I brought up modding once in this thread and we all know how that went. :V

Outside of that, I feel like it's something that we as an industry can start placing more value in. I feel people who travel simply make for more interesting writers because they're exposed to many more things. Let them tell more stories.

My point is, you can't really ask someone who's e.g. not from the middle east, to write about life in the middle east. He's simply not going to do as good a job as someone who's been there and absorbed some culture.

It's not even something that's strictly divided up by geographic borders.

Someone who has never been involved in corporate culture isn't going to be able to write a compelling white-collar thriller.

Someone who's marginally familiar with computers is not going to write a compelling CSI episode dealing with cyber crime. (Ahahah)

 

[……forgetit]

Here's more food for thought.

A writer can only realistically portray a culture he's intimately familiar with.

As an extreme example, asking e.g. a Japanese writer who's lived all his life in Japan, to write a multicultural cast, will result in a lot of token stereotypes. Don't even get me started on when some English-speaking devs attempt to write asian things, resulting in a lot of casual racism (hi, Red Alert 3)

Asking a single dev who, by his own account, spent a -lot- of his life devoted to the creation of a single video game, to not only write a whole cast of characters, but enough of their backstory while preserving their heritage might be quite a tall order. There's this zone where you know just enough that what you know is dangerous. (This is from personal experience, albeit not writing or game related, which I'd rather not go into, but you can PM me if you're really curious)

There are quite a few characters in Stardew Valley who are already borderline caricatures, and not just by being of a certain skin color. The

Spoiler

dwarf

in the mines, for example, and

Spoiler

Sandy

in the desert.

Again, more diversity is a very noble goal in the larger picture. I'm presenting a very specific example based on the premise of this thread, that being a single game made by a single guy.

Fine, so the game maker can only reflect his reality, so let me google the university he went too......oh

https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/

Literally first image I see on the website

 

[RichiRamjag]

Yeah, it's not something that has to a night-and-day switch, or an all-or-nothing deal. It's something that can always be improved in small ways here-and-there.

The biggest problem I see is that if people only focus on one game at a time, then they can (and will, all too often) dismiss there's a problem. "Oh this game was made by only one person," "Well, these developers are from a non-diverse place," or "There are games that are more problematic than this one, so focus on those instead." That last one will always be true btw, but if we continually ignore the "lesser," instances of lack of diversity, then it'll never truly improve.

Such a well-said comment. If you keep breaking the topic apart on a lesser scale, then how can any major changes ever get made?

 

[VibratingDonkey]

I basically agree with everything in the OP. It's something you notice that makes you go "Huh." Would be better if you didn't and it came across more natural.
The developer is one guy, so you can probably cut him some slack, but this is feedback he should at least take on board for future projects. I don't know that there's an easy or perfect answer for how to deal with minority representation, but you know, any improvement would be welcome.

 

[Kosma]

Fine, so the game maker can only reflect his reality, so let me google the university he went too......oh

https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/

Literally first image I see on the website

Yet the state of Washington


Race and Hispanic Origin
White alone, percent, July 1, 2014, (V2014) (a)
80.7%

White alone, percent, April 1, 2010 (a)
77.3%

Black or African American alone, percent, July 1, 2014, (V2014) (a)
4.1%

Black or African American alone, percent, April 1, 2010 (a)
3.6%

 

[Falk]

Fine, so the game maker can only reflect his reality, so let me google the university he went too......oh

https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/

Literally first image I see on the website

What's your point? I was addressing the whole 'every ethnicity should be represented' discussion.

p.s. As I stated, I'm Chinese Malaysian, I went to college in Boston, specifically Berklee where people of all cultures and arguably the cream of the crop in terms of musicianship gather. I've made close friends with people from 5 continents. I still really don't understand what you're trying to get at.

 

[caleb1915]

Fine, so the game maker can only reflect his reality, so let me google the university he went too......oh

https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/

Literally first image I see on the website

You're right, he should've made a game about his university, then this thread would've never happened.

 

[Henkka]

ConcernedApe has been really clear on his intention that future work on Stardew Valley remain a solo affair. Considering how much time he's poured and is pouring into this, I'm not too sure for this specific instance. I brought up modding once in this thread and we all know how that went. :V

Outside of that, I feel like it's something that we as an industry can start placing more value in. I feel people who travel simply make for more interesting writers because they're exposed to many more things. Let them tell more stories.

My point is, you can't really ask someone who's e.g. not from the middle east, to write about life in the middle east. He's simply not going to do as good a job as someone who's been there and absorbed some culture.

I think you can, as long as the writer does their research. The whole point of writing as a profession is to step into someone else's shoes and write from their perspective and empathize with them. As an example, George R. R. Martin has never been a woman, but he writes better female characters than Stephanie Meyer.

 

[Bboy AJ]

You're right, he should've made a game about his university, then this thread would've never happened.

I feel like in your mind, it's worse to be called racist than to be racist.

 

[……forgetit]

Yet the state of Washington


Race and Hispanic Origin
White alone, percent, July 1, 2014, (V2014) (a)
80.7%

White alone, percent, April 1, 2010 (a)
77.3%

Black or African American alone, percent, July 1, 2014, (V2014) (a)
4.1%

Black or African American alone, percent, April 1, 2010 (a)
3.6%

I mean the whole state of Washington is a big place. I'd say where he went to college and made most of his friends, ect would be a better indicator, and that has a higher percentage of African Americans.

Edit: Originally it said 21.2% but that's the seatle branch.

What's your point? I was addressing the whole 'every ethnicity should be represented' discussion.

p.s. As I stated, I'm Chinese Malaysian, I went to college in Boston, specifically Berklee where people of all cultures and arguably the cream of the crop in terms of musicianship gather. I've made close friends with people from 5 continents. I still really don't understand what you're trying to get at.

Just that the "itg's not his reality" arguments are silly, the dude lives in Seatle. It's more white than Most US cities, but acting like diversity is an alien concept to him is silly.

 

[xRaizen]

I think you can, as long as the writer does their research. The whole point of writing as a profession is to step into someone else's shoes and write from their perspective. As an example, George R. R. Martin has never been a woman, but he writes better female characters than Stephanie Meyer.

That's simply because G. R. R. M. is leagues above Meyer in terms of writing.

 

[RichiRamjag]

Yet the state of Washington


Race and Hispanic Origin
White alone, percent, July 1, 2014, (V2014) (a)
80.7%

White alone, percent, April 1, 2010 (a)
77.3%

Black or African American alone, percent, July 1, 2014, (V2014) (a)
4.1%

Black or African American alone, percent, April 1, 2010 (a)
3.6%

Now look at the demographics of the actual university and that drops to about 44% and the amount of blacks and other minorities increase to about 10%(individually). Half of the school isn't classified as white.

In any case, this specific argument regarding that site is getting a bit silly.

 

[caleb1915]

I think you can, as long as the writer does their research. The whole point of writing as a profession is to step into someone else's shoes and write from their perspective. As an example, George R. R. Martin has never been a woman, but he writes better female characters than Stephanie Meyer.

He didn't say you had to be one to properly write one, only a familiarity, and Stephanie Meyer is a bad writer all around.

 

[caleb1915]

I feel like in your mind, it's worse to be called racist than to be racist.

How do you know what's in my mind?

If you don't want me to discuss things just say so :3

 

[Henkka]

That's simply because G. R. R. M. is leagues above Meyer in terms of writing.

Well that's my point, it's about writing ability, not whether or not you belong to the same group as your character. Would Harry Potter have been a better portrayed male character if Rowling was a man? I don't think it matters.

 

[Malyse]

ConcernedApe has been really clear on his intention that future work on Stardew Valley remain a solo affair. Considering how much time he's poured and is pouring into this, I'm not too sure for this specific instance. I brought up modding once in this thread and we all know how that went. :V

Outside of that, I feel like it's something that we as an industry can start placing more value in. I feel people who travel simply make for more interesting writers because they're exposed to many more things. Let them tell more stories.

My point is, you can't really ask someone who's e.g. not from the middle east, to write about life in the middle east. He's simply not going to do as good a job as someone who's been there and absorbed some culture.

It's not even something that's strictly divided up by geographic borders.

Someone who has never been involved in corporate culture isn't going to be able to write a compelling white-collar thriller.

Someone who's marginally familiar with computers is not going to write a compelling CSI episode dealing with cyber crime. (Ahahah)

That's because those aren't good writers. Stephen King isn't a teenage girl, but Carrie still resonates. The "I don't know about this, so I can't write it" is ridiculously weak. The world has never been as small as it is right now; the Internet lets you find out anything.

Edit: beaten.

I think you can, as long as the writer does their research. The whole point of writing as a profession is to step into someone else's shoes and write from their perspective and empathize with them. As an example, George R. R. Martin has never been a woman, but he writes better female characters than Stephanie Meyer.

 

[Falk]

I think you can, as long as the writer does their research. The whole point of writing as a profession is to step into someone else's shoes and write from their perspective and empathize with them. As an example, George R. R. Martin has never been a woman, but he writes better female characters than Stephanie Meyer.

That's a great point, and I guess "cannot" was probably too strong a term in my statement.

Research is not a substitute for experience, but definitely is key when writing or designing characters and locales.

Careful consideration and being completely aware of the pitfalls of stereotyping is another.

I would argue that being aware of how to not write a gender badly is a much more attainable goal than being aware of how to not stereotype a place you've never been to. And don't get me wrong, the latter -can- be improved just by research, but I don't feel it's a substitute for experience. This is coming from living from two wildly different parts of the world, personally. And again, you're welcome to PM me for my story - I don't feel quite comfortable floating that one personal example out in the open.

Tangential, I have a friend in the industry whose main job is to design believable locales and cultures based off real-world locations. Traveling and observation actually is part of his research, too.

 

[caleb1915]

Well that's my point, it's about writing ability, not whether or not you belong to the same group as your character. Would Harry Potter have been a better portrayed male character if Rowling was a man? I don't think it matters.

Then we aren't talking about minority characters then in the same context, which is that race and culture are important, and a lack of familiarity, not just gender, is something that will make those characters less "token"


Edit: Read your research post, that'll fit the "familiarity" quota in my mind.

 

[Maxim726X]

Are there no small places like that where more diversity exists? Would it be inconceivable for that to exist in a video game like this one?

If you're referring to small farming towns, then it isn't very likely to find many minorities (at least here in the US).

If anything, I would find it particularly forced if there were.

 

[Bboy AJ]

How do you know what's in my mind?

If you don't want me to discuss things just say so :3

I don't want you to discuss the subject of this topic.

If you're referring to small farming towns, then it isn't very likely to find many minorities (at least here in the US).

If anything, I would find it particularly forced if there were.

Have you played Stardew? There's a bar and literally everyone is white but one character. He sticks out like a sore thumb. That's what makes it feel forced imo

 

[Paches]

I live in Washington, in a small farming community, population of about 8000. We have literally 1% black and 3% asian populations. I practically live in Stardew Valley.

 

[……forgetit]

If you're referring to small farming towns, then it isn't very likely to find many minorities (at least here in the US).

If anything, I would find it particularly forced if there were.

You'd be incorrect their, it depends on the state, A small farming town in Georgia can be incredibly diverse, and if it's in the Midwest it could be equally diverse, but you're more likely yo see Latino people over black people.

 

[levious]

I was much more impressed with the fact that a mixed marriage was featured in the game. But I also cannot argue against the fact that the cast is very white.

 

[caleb1915]

I don't want you to discuss the subject of this topic.

How dare you stifle my discussion :3

 

[Maxim726X]

You'd be incorrect their, it depends on the state, A small farming town in Georgia can be incredibly diverse, and if it's in the Midwest it could be equally diverse, but you're more likely yo see Latino people over black people.

More diverse, possibly.

Equally diverse? I'd need to see statistics to accept that. And it is very possible that my opinion is uninformed, but when I think of the stereotypical farm town I usually visualize it as mostly white.

Have you played Stardew? There's a bar and literally everyone is white but one character. He sticks out like a sore thumb. That's what makes it feel forced imo

I've played about an hour, so I've barely scratched the surface.

 

[RichiRamjag]

I live in Washington, in a small farming community, population of about 8000. We have literally 1% black and 3% asian populations. I practically live in Stardew Valley.

If the game were farming similar other than stawdew valley, then these points would mean something. You guys can repeat the demographics of your specific locale until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't really address the issue. It just seems like a cheap way to shutdown discussion. Your community isn't representative of every farming town as mentioned by previous posters.

 

[……forgetit]

More diverse, possibly.

Equally diverse? I'd need to see statistics to accept that. And it is very possible that my opinion is uninformed, but when I think of the stereotypical farm town I usually visualize it as mostly white.



I've played about an hour, so I've barely scratched the surface.

I mean dude, black people cane to the US as slaves on farms, most of those areas are still farms and a huge amount of those people never left. You're as likely to see a black person in Atlanta as you are to see one in my home town of 800 people.

 

[Bboy AJ]

Stats on ethnicity does nothing. That's too narrow of a view. This is a bigger issue. Ignore the farming town stats.

How dare you stifle my discussion :3

Your diet racism posts contribute nothing.

 

[Key789]

If the game were farming similar other than stawdew valley, then these points would mean something. You guys can repeat the demographics of your specific locale until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't really address the issue. It just seems like a cheap way to shutdown discussion. Your community isn't representative of every farming town as mentioned by previous posters.

Honest question: why does it matter if there are a few black characters in the game? The creator had an artistic vision with the game, and executed it. I personally don't see an issue here, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[J-Tier]

I wish Southeast "brown" Asians were more represented in media. I wish we had token representation =/

 

[Infinite]

Honest question: why does it matter if there are a few black characters in the game? The creator had an artistic vision with the game, and executed it. I personally don't see an issue here, but maybe I'm wrong.

It matters because representation matters.

 

[Falk]

I practically live in Stardew Valley.

Weather forecasts 100% accurate.

I call bullshit.

 

[Sylas]

ConcernedApe has been really clear on his intention that future work on Stardew Valley remain a solo affair. Considering how much time he's poured and is pouring into this, I'm not too sure for this specific instance. I brought up modding once in this thread and we all know how that went. :V

Outside of that, I feel like it's something that we as an industry can start placing more value in. I feel people who travel simply make for more interesting writers because they're exposed to many more things. Let them tell more stories.

My point is, you can't really ask someone who's e.g. not from the middle east, to write about life in the middle east. He's simply not going to do as good a job as someone who's been there and absorbed some culture.

It's not even something that's strictly divided up by geographic borders.

Someone who has never been involved in corporate culture isn't going to be able to write a compelling white-collar thriller.

Someone who's marginally familiar with computers is not going to write a compelling CSI episode dealing with cyber crime. (Ahahah)

I think it's potentially dangerous to ask someone who's not familiar with a culture to try and write that culture--absolutely. But I think it's also dangerous to feel like it's required to have "accurate" representations of that specific culture in said media. It creates a situation where that minority is othered--they become different and require an analysis and detailed research to even include in the first place.

The reality, for a lot of people, is simply wanting someone that has a skin-color, hairstyle, or some way they can easily identify with a character on a visual level. It's not always about including that culture, especially if the media takes place in a fictional place, but simply making the visual easy to understand.

We don't really see traditional, US "white culture" in a lot of games, despite most characters being white and male. We don't really see the "white trash" element, nor do we see the gentrified and surburban style of "white living". So why is there an impetus to do the same for minorities, when simply including their skin color and likenesses into a game would satisfy a large handful of people.

Not to say I don't think there's a time and a place for crafting cultures that represent those minority cultures, but I don't think you need to do research to be inclusive. Just include them. A black woman is still a person, so you can easily just write a person. Their skin color is just black.