6 réponses à ce sujet

[TheButterflyEffect]

 So, are we actually going to be able to make decent looking characters who are NOT white this time around? Like, you know, with non-European facial features and such?

I sure hope so. Mass Effect did alright, I was able to make a somewhat convincing looking Arab male Shepard, as well as an Indian female... though the craptacular lighting often made them look all pasty. Blegh.

But in DAO and DA2... terrible. Every single attempt failed miserably. All of my characters simply looked like a white person who fell into a vat of molasses. Mortifying. 

[Allan Schumacher]

Lord Aesir wrote...

While I agree with your principle, I don't think "go play another game" is at all what Kalas was saying.  Kalas was more wondering why people would find it so difficult to enjoy a game just because they didn't share the ethnicity of the protagonist.  Certainly I would agree that I felt no problem playing through Jade Empire despite a lack of white male protagonist.

Perhaps because the opportunity to do so comes along more rarely.  Or perhaps because for them they prefer to place themselves in the player character.

It's a simple enough request yet gets met with a lot of resistance for some reason.


It's great if it's not an issue for you or other people.  It's not an issue for me either.  But my experiences differ from other people's.

[Allan Schumacher]

motomotogirl wrote...

Thought nugget for the day: "privlege" is claiming your engine can't handle creating black and brown people. But somehow it's miraculously accurate at creating white people.

I had no idea technology defaulted to white.

I'm already aware it defaults to male. *snorts*

You won't find me disagreeing.

[Allan Schumacher]

The Mad Hanar wrote...

I think the resistance mainly comes from people not wanting video games made by a company they enjoy becoming platforms for political statements.

I think that this is the fault of the person coming to that conclusion though.  For all of the "I don't care" types of comments, if it was true they wouldn't bother posting.

Besides, is it a political statement for us to go "You know, we could probably accommodate that?"  Or is it simply trying to give a segment of the fanbase something they'd appreciate?

A lot of people feel that they are constantly bombarded by cries for equality, along with the inherent propaganda that most of these sides create. It's an understandable grievence, since games are usually used as a form of escapism.

Agreed, games can be used as a form of escapism.  If something undermines someone's ability to enjoy that escapism, then they're free to make suggestions as to what they think might improve it.

For example:

Unless the plot is used specifically as a platform to speak about issues of equality in-game, this is an utter nonissue being disingenuously complained about.

I have a hard time not agreeing with this.

Doesn't it become a political statement once people start stating that it doesn't make sense in a fantasy world?  Is it because their inclusion will undermine their own escapism?

Modifié par Allan Schumacher, 30 octobre 2013 - 01:00 .

[Allan Schumacher]

I think it only becomes an issue if responding to such requests otherwise reduces the quality of the game. For example, as far as we know so far, there is no Asian inspired/looking culture in Thedas.

If you wanted to make an argument for all ethnicities being included in the game world, the argument would be that Bioware should have put them all in (in reasonable quantities) to begin with. Whether they should have done that or not is debatable - I guess it comes back to the idea of going with their original vision

While I can understand these perspectives, it can also simply be a reflection of it not really being included as part of the perspective of the original vision (disclaimer: I wasn't around during the original vision... although such things are facts of life with gaming and in that sense the original vision will always be susceptible to new influences).

[Allan Schumacher]

I think it's more about the games source material. In Jade Empires case, it's a game that is based on Asian culture and history. I think it's insulting as hell to go into that game saying "I wanna play a game inspired by the people of Asia, but I don't want my character to look like them."

I've seen Jade Empire come up a couple of times now. Did anyone say that? Is the example you provide actually accurate if we tie it in to Dragon Age's universe and the issues that people have, or is it a bit of a red herring?

[David Gaider]

Morocco Mole wrote...

These are seriously always the worst threads on BSN.

I agree.

The OP asked about the ability to create better-looking dark-skinned PC's. That's the intention, and with the new engine the old problem with dark skin tones has (thankfully) gone away. There's nothing more we can elaborate on that front until we start discussing the chargen system.

Since this topic inevitably dovetails into larger hot-button issues, and already has, I'm shutting it down.