Revived on 21st Oct 2015 in response to this thread:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=209400&page=3#5
As with all sensitive topics, I must take my time to first of all state my personal position:
I believe in the fundamental human rights for all women, homosexuals and minority groups. But this will in no way prevent me from speaking objectively. Therefore, I would appreciate if all readers take their time to read and think carefully before jumping to conclusions.
Discrimination is an inhumane act. Those who are on the receiving end of it have to experience a feeling of worthlessness most of us will never endure. It is something we should all be vehemently against.
But unfortunately, discrimination still occurs. Many groups still endure the hate. Many groups still endure the pain. Out there somewhere, some jerk will discriminate. He/she will continue to make someone else feel inferior.
These persons deserve to receive our collective condemnation. This is because we are all equal, and those who do not believe we are, should be given a swift and firm reminder of this fact.
I honestly believe that most of us want to do right, and most of us sympathize with the plight of the discriminated. But this very concern can sometimes be used to manipulate us. Overzealous and aggressive human rights advocates can bully other persons/organizations into doing their will by quickly making accusations of bigotry and bias.
Though bias and bigotry is everywhere, I can assure you, not every accusation of the same is true. Despite this fact, most of us when we are accused of bias will never challenge the cries of these “victimized”, and I understand why.
We do not want to hurt others.
We care.
But this is the very reason why we are susceptible to be victims of covert aggression.
In North America, Nintendo released Tomodatchi Life on June 6th 2014. It was a simple game which had a feature where Miis of the opposite sex could fall in love. To my surprise, Nintendo ended up being on the receiving end of an anti LGBT campaign. The accusations were many. All because there was no option for same sex love relationships.
If a developer wants to make an all homosexual game, they deserve the right to do so. If they want to make an all female game, they deserve the right to so. If they want to make a game with only dark skinned persons, they deserve the right to do so. The same goes for games with only straight couples, male only games, caucasian only games and everything in between.
To accuse someone of bias just because your group wasn’t included in their video game is dangerous. In order to expose bias, we must first of all prove that the other person is acting that way. Accusing Nintendo of being biased toward homosexuals just because there is no homosexual love relationships in their game is outrageous. Nintendo has that creative right. They didn’t hurt anyone, didn’t insult anyone, and most of all, didn’t have an anti LGBT agenda.
Yes, I agree, we all want to weed out discrimination. But we should be very careful when we accuse others of being biased. If the issue is simply us not getting what we want, then we should not accuse. What we should do is judge the person’s actions/motives and see if the individual is discriminating. If the individual is found guilty, we should act immediately because no one has the creative right to discriminate.
On the other hand, if the developer is not discriminating, one can simply make a request or a suggestion to the said developer to include your group in their game. The game developer still retains their creative freedom and as such, could choose to accept or respectfully decline your suggestion. There should be no coercion.
Using threats and false accusations is the tactic of a bully. This is why developers are beginning to feel pressured to include females, homosexuals and minorities in their games, even though creatively, they may never have intended to do so. That I believe, is infringing on the creative freedom of game developers and it should be exposed for what it is.
Leave your thoughts below.
