| DarthMetalliCube said: I think some people are missing the point of this thread. I don't think the vast majority of people here actually have a problem with diversity in entertainment/media/culture. Why would they? Do you honestly think most reasonable white men are outraged by the fact that we're only featured in 70% of entertainment now rather than the 80% or so of the past? Rather, the issue most have is what this obsession with diversity often implies - which is a laziness and a sort of easy solution to generate interest to or sell a product, while on another level undermining traits that REALLY matter with is actual content of the product, or the character or actions of the individuals. Going back to the Ghostbusters example again - Sony completely sold the movie on the fact that "it's Ghostbusters with chicks!" to draw attention to it. Then when the vast majority slagged it for the dumpster fire it was (which had nothing to do with the fact that the protagonists were female), they were labeled sexists. And the movie got a ton of undeserved for attention for being essentially a shitty SNL style derpy comedy that's probably Adam Sander level of quality at best. At the end of the day this phony importance placed on diversity often is just corporate marketing to be looked upon favorably by the keepers of the morals and cultural authorities in society, and provides an excuse for them to be lazy with their end product. It's a gimmick. At least this is the way I see it. |
I agree with this, though like I said, Sony specifically pushed the debate for marketing and so engaging in it at all is getting involved in thier manufactured outrage.
outlawauron said:
They are mutually exclusive but in current gaming industry, they're pretty tied together. When the entire depth of a character is "they gay and stuff", then their effort to have a diverse character has now become the single defining trait of that character.
Of course there's not a provable metric, but ultimately we're talking about subjective taste in the quality of a game's story and/or cast. That said, there are numerous observable cases of developers being directed to have more diverse characters for the sake of it and thus said characters being entirely one-dimensional and poorly developed (if at all). Hopefully we get to a point where developers are able to have diverse casts and stories that aren't done in response to media. |
I see your point, I just think that a lot of the time in those cases, the characters would have sucked either way and the push to make them diverse wasnt really the reason for it.
