IGN takes issue with white male lead in Days Gone.

[Heavenly_King]

Mr Puggsly said:

CosmicSex said:
He was trying to say that initially he thought the character was going to be a troppy scruffy one dimensional white male stereotype. He was glad that he was not.
Stop the outrage. He said nothing wrong.
As a black man, if he said he was worried that a black character would be a troppy black stereotype. I would understand and I do not find that offensive. Stop looking for opportunities to become a victim. It is very unattractive and just tire at this point.
The wave in 2019 is a victim pity party trying to attract white men into wanting to play the victim. Pretending that anything that isn't some stereotype white male is an attack on the white race... White people in and of themselves are far more complex than that. Please stop.

"While I’ll admit that I initially rolled my eyes at yet another Gruff White Male Protagonist™ in a grim world - especially one with such a Gruff White Male Protagonist™-ey name as Deacon St. John."

I'm calling bullshit. He's flat out saying he saw a white guy and assumed the worse. Why even mention race and gender? Its not something that would have even crossed my mind.

On a side note, Crackdown 3 should get praise from IGN for having a gruff black guy as the lead. But I guess we only attack games for not doing that.

 

pokoko said:

"While I’ll admit that I initially rolled my eyes at yet another Gruff White Male Protagonist™ in a grim world - especially one with such a Gruff White Male Protagonist™-ey name as Deacon St. John - I ended up getting far more invested than I’d initially expected."

This is what the writer said.  It's right there.  I have no earthly idea how people are trying to downplay the ignorance of this sentence.  He made a baseless assumption based on the appearance of the character, period.  The very fact that he admits to being wrong perfectly illustrates just how idiotic such assumptions are.  

Even beyond that, where is common sense in the first place?  How the bloody fuck is a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world supposed to look?  Oh, no, he didn't shave this morning!  He looks awfully gruff!  Is he supposed to be wearing a tuxedo?  Maybe a sturdy sweater vest?  

We know what this is about.  The character is a white male.  Take the same character and change the race or gender and the writer wouldn't be complaining about "gruff" anything.

Forget that, though.  It's kind of laughable that this kind of generalization is only acceptable because he's a white male but it's not what bothers me.  As a reader, I come across something like this and all I can think is that I can't take this writer seriously.  Before he even begins, he's going to assume that he knows all about the character?  That's more than just ignorance, that's flat out stupidity.  How about learning about the character BEFORE MAKING IDIOTIC ASSUMPTIONS?  Why not try THAT?  The same with all these, "oh, he looks like a boring character because there are other characters who look generally similar."  I mean, the fuck?  What a character looks like is often one of the least important aspects.

Yes, ultimately the writer was just trying to be witty while scoring a few brownie points with his direction of choice but the end result is that it makes him look less than intelligent.  Not really a criteria that I seek out with reviewers.  

I completely agree with both of you.