Plaintiff wrote...
Boiny Bunny wrote...
My point is that you are taking a 'work of art' (or whatever words you might use to describe a game) that somebody else has created, and requesting for them to change it in a way that may not fit with their vision, because it doesn't fit into your personal view of what the fictional world should be comprised of (which is informed by the under-representation of other races in popular media). That is, in my mind at least, using the game, from the consumer's point of view, as a platform for racial equality. You've said it yourself here - if many more games had multi-cultural casts, it would send a good message to consumers of those products about racial equality.
I'm not seeing the problem here. Art isn't sacred, it exists for the sake of public consumption. It is a commercial industry. Artists want to make money, make no mistake about that. In fact, much of history's most famous art pieces were produced on commission. Van Gogh's story may be tragic and romantic, but nobody actually wants to die in penury.
If an artist's "vision" doesn't gel with what the consumer actually wants, then a smart artist will adapt to fit, because they want to make money, so they can keep doing what they love instead of flipping burgers. When consumers offer criticism and make requests, they're actually helping the artist (even if that's not their intent). Of course the artist is free to pick and choose from the criticism offered to them. The audience criticising them may not be the audience they want to target at all.
Bioware (at least the division in charge of Dragon Age), has expressed an interest in being socially progressive. They've expressed an interest in broadening their audience and making their games more welcoming to minorities (the GLBT community in particular). If they were one of the many development studios that show no interest in being socially progressive whatsoever, people probably wouldn't bother trying to offer constructive criticism about the areas (like racial depiction) in which they fall short. I know I certainly wouldn't.
Broadly, I agree with what you're saying. Bioware is looking to make a profit, and if there is a reasonable share of its consumer base indicating that they will not purchase the product unless specific issues are addressed (in this case, the lack of racial representation), they will need to make changes to accommodate those views.
But art is (well, from my perspective) also about creating something that resonates with you (as the artist), and that you enjoy creating. If the painting market had fallen through the floor in favour of stone sculptures in the time of (say) Monet, I doubt that he would have made the move. I guess there's a fine balance to be had between finding a crowd who appreciate your unique vision, and adapting it as the crowd grows and different tastes enter the mix.
Bioware is definitely a progressive company, and has not previously backed down on its decisions to do things like include LGBT relationships, even in the face of negative press. That said, I have no idea what Bioware were thinking when the made the entire cast of DA Caucasian. Was it deliberate - and if so, on the writers behalf, the model creators, or marketing? Perhaps it was an accident (nobody really thought about it?)
Whatever the reason, it is perfectly reasonable for a consumer to let Bioware know that they don't feel that they are being catered for (not enough options in the character creator for example - which seemed to be the original point of this thread). From my perspective though, being more aggressive, and 'demanding' (let's not take that word too seriously though, since some people are quite clearly being very level-headed about their requests) changes be made, for no obvious in-game benefit, but rather to help support what is essentially a political/social cause (the under-representation of non-Caucasians in media), is over-stepping a reasonable consumer-company boundary, in my opinion.
As an alternative example, I'll come back to Doctor Who once more. There is absolutely no (current) in-universe/plot reason for the Doctor to become a female. Making the Doctor a female would not be expected to improve the quality of the show (or lower it) in absolute terms. But many vocal fans and non-fans alike, are in the process of demanding it happen for the sake of gender equality and sending a good message to society. The request is driven by a political/social agenda, and gives little to no consideration to the actual impact on the show's quality (which may be entirely negligible), nor its ratings. As the current lead writer is always saying, it must be story driven (with regard to most fan requests/demands about certain characters returning, etc.). If there is a good story reason for a change to happen, that change will happen. Changing something to appease an external political/social lobby group which may or may not have a negative impact on the quality of the story is not something that I agree with personally - which is essentially my main point and reason for entering this thread.
If Bioware can come up with a non-lore breaking reason for Asian or African inspired NPCs to exist in the world of Thedas, despite them never having been mentioned or seen thus far, and there is a decent story reason for introducing them, then I'm completely behind them on doing it.
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