If you think she is hairy you should see my butt, oh wait, you have x
Because we need to start where the problem starts and thatâs in education, politics and society. If we would give all people the same education and help them to understand that there is nothing wrong with being gay, straight, black, white, blond, woman or man, there would be no such thing as racists, sexist or homophobics.
I donât see any problem with one of the things I listed before but I also see many people having problems with at least one of those things. If they would understand from the beginning (childhood) that to be different (any kind of different) isnât something bad or something you should be ashamed of, the discriminating of different people would at least be minimized.
I love playing video games and I would like them to be a part of this venture but they cannot be the leading party because this would mean bridling the horse from behind. If youâve got a clogged pipe you donât change the toilet you free the pipe.
With regards to the comment about a black person fronting star wars⌠the lack of any black characters in the game seems to me to be a much larger misrepresentation than a woman having slightly too much of an arched back
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And yet, no one stated that games should fix racism or sexism in the world. What has been said is that more variety in games is a good thing because there are many different races and genders that buy games. Itâs just that simple.
No one is stopping any developer from only featuring stereotypical, non-diverse characters in their games. Those games will always exist. However, more developers (especially indie) are making more diverse characters because people have spoken up and said they wanted more diversity. It isnât a binary situation.
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I never said anything against diversity. They can do it and I would like it but fact is ⌠that would not change society and that is something that needs to be done for all people being treated equally. And as I see it most people are freaking out because of stereotypical characters.
And if I got Ivar right his point was especially the question, why we should not start the change trough video games.
Well, for those people that want the average game to stay stagnant, sexist and/or racist, I guess they should just dry their tears and deal with the fact that more diverse titles are being made every year. There are some developers that have chosen not to ignore huge parts of the world population.
But rest assured, the old style stereotypical characters will still be around in most games for those that find them entertaining.
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Your point is also very valid, but considering how the educational system is controled these days we can assume that the change wouldnât be effective âin a proper time frameâ letâs say.
We need to start wherever we want i say. 
We live in a wonderful age, where we can learn much more outside the regular school, outside the regular society paradigms and outside the regular media. Each day we, as human beings, have more and more access to information expanding our horizons beyond the windows of a regular classroom.
Every effort towards a better tomorrow to all human beings is a valid effort. If we can change the way of thinking of at least one person a day⌠Then, we are in the right path.
If the ones who still have some control over the educational system think they can âblindâ the youth for the next few decades they are wrong. I had a regular education, at a âthird world countryâ, and without internet access i would never dream about what i would know until today. To the âregulatorsâ of our society i would be just another number among millions, but what i chosed to be once i had access to what i want to know is something that they have no controlâŚ
We can have a âsilent revolutionâ at the very gaming forums we are using, we can share our experiences and help others even if we are apart from miles of distance. And how would someone call this all if not âWonderfulâ?
What we canât do is: Remain silent. Think itâs not worth to discuss it. Think itâs an useless effort.
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More women in this game need beards, and mustaches because women get those too but they are less noticeable than menâs.
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Sorry for taking too long to make a comment, but after my last post i went to do daily stuff (laundry, cooking, cleaningâŚ) before it gets late here.
I agree, it would be great to have more human ethnics in the game as troops and avatars and i hope we see it sometime soon.
Can we have it soon @Nimhain, @Sirrian ?
Iâm not trying to induce you two into revealing to us another sneak peek over the upcoming avatarâs models. Not at all⌠
I asked Sirrian about them adding different human skin colors. He said they are investigating it. So, I have my fingers crossed.
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Out of interest, I just started a skin colour count but stopped because itâs all white humans/elves, bar Marid (North Africanish), Raven (some sort of brown from what little you can see), Devoted (Egyptianish), Tyri (browner than other elves presumably due to her father) and dark elves being grey-purple.
So yeah, thanks for raising this with the devs, @Ashasekayi.
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Actions speak louder than words. Far more âeducationâ occurs outside a formal classroom, and before a child even enters one. We could drum it into their heads, make them recite a pledge, but theyâre still going to mimic what they see. It doesnât matter if you tell people that theyâre valued, when they can look around and see that theyâre unrepresented in media, the workplace, etc. The things we mentally consume are exactly where we need to start to enact real social change. Law follows society, rather than the other way around.
Iâll say it again: no one representation is the problem. The problem is that everywhere you look, you see the same limited set of representations. Each depiction contributes to the problem, without any one of them being to blame, or being responsible to change. And thatâs what makes the whole thing difficult for people, because they want a single cause they can point at and place the blame on, and make someone in particular responsible for fixing it. In reality, nobodyâs to blame, or weâre all more or less equally to blame, or really, blame isnât important, and the whole methodology of blame is wrong. Thereâs a problem, and everyone has the opportunity to contribute to fixing it. Nobody needs to stick their neck out or take a fall. Itâs not some binary thing where they have to cater completely to one audience or another. Only a very few would be offended if the representation rate of the dominant depictions dropped a few percentage points to allow for more diversity. The potential loss is small, while the potential gain is huge.
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And as a general principle Iâd say thatâs awesomeâbetter to have a point of view, better to take risks, better to make an interesting failure than a successful mediocrity.
Which is also the genius/problem of modern art. It only makes sense to people who understand the context, the history, the conversation going on. I love Ad Reinhardt but Iâve yet to convince anyone who wasnât already a fan of modern art to take him seriously.
Thereâs definitely a place for that kind of insider product. It can be really rewarding to engage with.
If I thought this is what was happening, Iâd be a lot less upset. I donât want to run around putting spoilers all over the place, but Iâd just gotten to the âWhite Mambaâ section. I was already really uncomfortable with the way that little child soldier corpses were scattered around as decoration, but introduce a white kid whoâs smarter, faster, stronger, better, who all the black kids immediately lift up as their leader, who has a name when the others are anonymous, whoâs told that heâs going to âget his head straightâ while all the black children just get to read and write and be grateful for it?
Do you really think players are meant to get to this section and feel utterly horrified by the blatant racism?
All around agreement here, but this especially. Makes so many things clearer (and also more understandableâin a lot of cases, it really is better to accept a wrongheaded idea if the cost of contradicting it is losing your place in your social group.)
I wish I had sources right at my fingertips, but thereâs more and more evidence to show that facts are unlikely to change strongly held opinions. You can present the same set of facts to two people with entirely opposite opinions, and each of those people will read, understand, and walk away assuming that the facts supported their opinion & disproved the otherâs.
Itâs (sadly) naive to believe that education can solve problems of prejudice, willful ignorance, etc.
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Any of you fine people heard of a song from Lady Gaga called âDo what you want with my bodyâ? Now thatâs confidence. No itâs not sexual.
Roisin Murphy >>> Lady Gagbag.
Alicia KeysâŚ
Shania Twain
I win.
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