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This project

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Comments

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:29:36

    @Hatter I like Jacob more than Kaiden or god help me Ashley (God, they couldn't give Ash William's name to a less interesting character). Plus Kaiden levitates people and sets them on fire in mid air. That's a form of visual poetry in my book!

  • I told you a hundred times Seibah, I don't want you in my pool

    Just cause a character has black skin doesn't mean anything about dealing with racial issues, mind you, just that your Shepard is black, mine is pale death, and someone else's is orange.



    I guess you could bring up actual racial issues but that's separate than just bringing up gay or minority characters

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:30:30
    (void)

    Besides, even the games you mentioned are going to be 90% white, and the majority of games aren't going to have black or LGBT characters at all.


     


    Why does having a single game focused entirely on black/LGBT issues bother you so?  Is it because you're actually a racist, @Hatter?  I think it is.

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:32:41
    ʍɥɐʇ po ʎon ɔɐll ɐ ɾoʞǝ ʍıʇɥonʇ ɐ dnuɔɥlıuǝ

    So what, in order to count as a black character you have to wear a dashiki, celebrate Kwanzaa and talk about the white man putting you down?



    Really?


    I don't care if this is a joke, but really? Even as a joke it's pretty dumb.

  • I told you a hundred times Seibah, I don't want you in my pool

    @Saigouji: I don't think Fallout New Vegas can really be considered to be that much better, mind you I think it did a lot more, but yeah, I see your point.


     


    Really I can't think of a video game that actually handled the issue of race in a reasonable way, but I never really looked.


     


    That said, I don't really know how Bioware has this reputation for good writing anymore.

  • I think making an actual decent game should be a bigger focus than "lets make affirmative action...something..." Plus, the claim that they will "create a video game completely off the beaten path" is patently false when the path's been threaded by some of the most well selling franchises.




    Should there be more colored and LGBT characters in games? Yes. 

  • You can change. You can.

    I think making an actual decent game should be a bigger focus than "lets make affirmative action...something..." Plus, the claim that they will "create a video game completely off the beaten path" is patently false when the path's been threaded by some of the most well selling franchises.



    But the path is not just "A game that has coloured and LGBT characters" the idea is to not use gay or black people stereotypes as many of the aforementioned franchises do/have done. 

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:36:33
    Has friends besides tanks now

    So what, in order to count as a black character you have to wear a dashiki, celebrate Kwanzaa and talk about the white man putting you down?



    You have a horrible sense of humor, you know that? It's at the point where it's upsetting a lot of people, and for good reason, so can we tone it down with the hostility and inflammatory remarks?

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:37:53
    Glaives are better.

    Poni, LIFE is 90% straight. That's why we're called a majority.


    And a well-done game about black people or gay people wouldn't bother me. It's the well-done bit that's important. For instance, I've always wanted a game set in the era of the Mandingo Empire in West Africa, and I'm desperately hoping for the next TES game to take place in Hammerfell, which got a cool visual update in Skyrim. As for gays, I always intentionally play a bisexual character in Morrowind, thereby mantling the culture of the Dunmer.


    ^ I wasn't joking. I was expressing contempt for the idea that black people who don't display signs of African-American culture are somehow acting white. 

  • But you never had any to begin with.

    As for gays, I always intentionally play a bisexual character in Morrowind



    You always do something you can't actually do?

  • «Poni, LIFE is 90% straight. That's why we're called a majority.»


    Wow, that's some hilariously big point-missing.


    «It's the well-done bit that's important.»


    Well, as has been said, there hasn't actually been game that deals with these issues well, so...

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:42:12
    Glaives are better.

    Mods, my friend. Mods. I became a vampire overlord with a handsome male Redguard lover using the CM Companions and Vampiric Embrace mods - which are excellent, by the way.


    ^ And this one seems to be dealing with them badly as well, and may be a scam to boot. A game in which the black audience is represented by a woman who simply has light brown skin and green eyes?

  • And my best friends are black, so I can't be a racist!

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:41:03

    @Juan_Carlos: Except as we've pointed out, maybe of the aforementioned games/franchises also have not used them as stereotypes. 


     


    Anderson and Jacobs' skin color does not impact who they are. Jacob's character isn't "The black guy". Anderson is not "the back CO". They are characters with complex histories who just happen to be black. Not just a quirky guy who'se skin color is an excuse so they can give off ebonic one-liners.


    A few games have features LGBT characters who, similarly, aren't walking stereotypes.


     


    Now, could there be more? Yes. Should there be? Hell yes. But saying it's an "off the beaten path" direction unheard off is frankly false, and insulting to those games that have made the effort to do these things.

  • You can change. You can.

    ^ I wasn't joking. I was expressing contempt for the idea that black people who don't display signs of African-American culture are somehow acting white.



    But that's not the point that was expressed at all. The point expressed is simply that customizable skin does not make for race as their race is entirely irrelevant to the plot, the same way their hair, eyes and clothes are. They're just things that enable the player to create an avatar that represents them, not to create an african american character who's, you know, actually african american, as in, understands the culture and is familiar with it.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    If you have to mod a game to do something, the game can't really be used as an example of something that lets you do that.

  • You can change. You can.

    Not just that, but playing a bisexual character doesn't mean you aren't homophobic, you know.

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:43:05
    ʍɥɐʇ po ʎon ɔɐll ɐ ɾoʞǝ ʍıʇɥonʇ ɐ dnuɔɥlıuǝ

    Mods



    This is an argument about representation in games, and yet you continually bring up things like custom characters or mods, which are options given freely to the player and not really established decisions made by the development team. Stop that.

  • I told you a hundred times Seibah, I don't want you in my pool

    Are we still getting mad about this?

    He's pretty obviously trolling you guys.

  • Has friends besides tanks now

    I wasn't joking. I was expressing contempt for the idea that black people who don't display signs of African-American culture are somehow acting white. 



    And you did so in a way that was rather lacking in class. I don't think you're racist, but your method of argument is very grating.

  • You can change. You can.

    Are we still getting mad about this?


    He's pretty obviously trolling you guys.



    pointing out how retarded Hatter's points are is not being mad. It's just spending an eventless sunday afternoon.

  • «He's pretty obviously trolling you guys.»


    He's been like this in every thread he's ever been in.  If he's a troll, he's a damn persistent one.




    I mean, if someone "trolled" BNP meetings by acting exactly like everyone else at them, and did so, repeatedly, for five years, does it really count as trolling?  It's much more likely that you're dealing with an actual member of the BNP.

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:46:57
    Glaives are better.

    "But that's not the point that was expressed at all. The point expressed is simply that customizable skin does not make for race as their race is entirely irrelevant to the plot, the same way their hair, eyes and clothes are."


    And? The argument the project makes is that there have been no major games where you can play as a black person. That's been established as false. Culture does not equal race. 


    Custom characters are different from mods, in that they're established choices offered by the dev team.

  • Has friends besides tanks now

    Are we still getting mad about this?

    He's pretty obviously trolling you guys.



    Who said anyone was mad?

  • But you never had any to begin with.

    Custom characters are different from mods, in that they're established choices offered by the dev team.



    ...You did not just use this as a legitimate argument. You didn't.

  • edited 2012-02-05 14:48:23
    Glaives are better.

    Wait, so how is disliking a blatant scam and advocating games which offer the opportunity to play a black person trolling?


    ^ Yes I fucking did. The devs give you a choice, in the form of the character creator, to play a black person. Deal with it.

  • «And? The argument the project makes is that there have been no major games where you can play as a black person. That's been established as false. Culture does not equal race. »


    The argument is that black people and LGBT* people are consistently marginalized in video games.  A game with a customizable character does not change that.

  • You can change. You can.

    And? The argument the project makes is that there have been no major games where you can play as a black person. That's been established as false. Culture does not equal race.



    No, the argument the project makes is that there are no major games where you play as a black person who's not a token something. Now, I can't discuss ME due to the obvious fact that I haven't played it. But I can say that ME's most likely an exception, rather than a rule. It just happens to be a high profile exception.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    This thread has already gone quite downhill, and is only going to get worse. Locking, at least until the mods talk it over.

This discussion has been closed.