Should Diversity be an Obligation in Game Design?

[Redryhno]

Diversity shouldn't be expected or obliged for the most part. Just because you have different sexualities, skin tones, and genders doesn't make your game better. In fact, most of the time, including those seems to dumb the already bad writing in games down(compared to other mediums) to accommodate them and make sure everyone knows what makes them different instead of making them a good character.

That being said, I'll echo what alot of people say, I'm sick of seeing the same mid-thirties white guy in as many western games as there are the past few years, it's nearly the exact same model every time, and it's boring, not exclusive of others, just boring and incredibly repetitive. And Eastern devs are becoming less and less open to localization unless they're Nintendo because it's too much fucking trouble because for the most part they don't give a damn about what a character looks like or their jiggly bit attraction, because they're characters first, not-white second. It's too much fucking trouble because the loudest voices screaming for diversity are closed to that market and they routinely get panned by "critics" that scream diversity as well.

 

[Dragonbums]

Putting heavy emphasis on diversity in game/art related courses should be obligatory. However at the end of the day if you want your game to be a Wonder bread fest with a dappling of chocolate people to blow up that is your own obligation and personal freedom.

That simply doesn't exclude you from getting criticized for it.

Which is what it all boils down to. You don't want to add diversity in games? Cool. People have every right to criticize you for it.

You want to add more diversity in your game? Also cool. People have every right to criticize that.

You know what's not cool? Every single fucking time a dev even so much as mentions adding in a gay/woman/lgbtq+ in their game they get accused of "bowing" to SJW's or said group forced them to do it ala angry tumblr posts and internet forums.

 

[mecegirl]

You gave two basic, and somewhat well known, examples of why a female or Muslim person would be a solider in Medieval France based on from what we know of history. So why can't players just use that knowledge to fill in the blanks for themselves then like they would a male or White chracter? Why do we need to set aside time to add in/explain/explore context for something that already has a place?

Why not? Learning and education yourself via games is a good thing. Why are you so opposed to context being placed in games to educate others less knowledgeable than yourself? A lot of people might not know these things.

The lack of knowledge is gonna depend on the person's age really. And I don't know about you but I looked things up that I didn't understand in media as a child. I don't see why others wouldn't. It's gonna depend on if the writer wants to spend time educating their audience or not.

There is also a problem of othering such characters by not often including them in media depicting certain time periods and alternatively making a big deal about their inclusion when they are put in. But in reality things like a Muslim solider wasn't that uncommon back then. And so you have writers under the impression that they have to justify a certain type of chracter, but justifying that chracter could very well throw the overall plot out of whack by taking time away from plot specific issues. And so they don't bother being more inclusive and more and more people leave with the false impression that Medieval Europe was racially homogenous.

If a story is about a Muslim mercenary being newly hired to fight in a war then the writer would take all the time they needed to explain things. But what if its not? What if the main thrust of the story is about overthrowing some evil overlord? Are writers supposed to stop the action just for an info dump? What if the Muslim mercenary has been hired for quite some time and the other soldiers are already used to his presence? Would it not be inorganic if the story stopped for an info dump? Or is the writer supposed to include an obligatory racist solider who hasn't gotten over that fact that his lord's hiring outsiders yet just to bring it up? Or will a writer trust its audience to guess based on how different the mercenary looks that he's a foreigner.

In everyday life people don't stop to explain things they already know. If two adult Americans are talking about the president one of them isn't gonna drop in a basic explanation of what the presidents job is. Most adult American's have some idea of what the presidency is. A writer can choose to have the main character be from a different culture, or have amnesia, just as an excuse to have the characters explain what the presidency is. Or a writer can leave well enough alone and let that be another piece of the setting puzzle for the reader/viewer/player to click into place later. Questions can good for a story, questions encourage us to pay attention so that we pick up subtle clues in order to figure things out on our own. Questions encourage us to do our own research in order to enrich our lives. And nothing about that makes a story weaker.

 

[mecegirl]

It shouldn't be an obligation anywhere. Diversity is not virtuous or ethical, it is diversity. It's ultimately meaningless. I go to school in Vancouver, literally one of the most diverse cities on Earth. After a week it means nothing. Human beings are human beings. They do not become more interesting because they're from Yemen or Singapore.

But that diversity exists and that's why people are so adamant about including it. Say someone makes a game set in Vancouver, but they don't include characters representative of the diversity you casually see day after day. Does that not strike you as odd? Would you not wonder if the creators had ever actually been to Vancouver?

Or what if its thousands of years in the future and humans have begun living on other planets? Based on current global demographics just how likely would it be that all the "heroes" of this hypothetical space epic would be White? Odds are there would be more folks looking Asian or African. At the very least they'd be ambiguously brown. That's not ethics, that's math. Our world is diverse, and that's why it stands out when that diversity is ignored in media.

 

[halisme]

It'll happen naturally overtime. People tend to write from their perspective so the characters they write will either be similar to them, or and idealised version. Since the majority of people that make games are male, the majority will be from a male perspective. As the a more diverse range of characters will appear. My main issue is that some games need to point out their equality, such as the latest dragon age, instead of just treating it like a normal thing.

 

[default]

Fuck no, game design is about building a functioning and interactive digital world based around a set of rules.


Storytelling on the other hand is a different matter entirely, but no one should ever, EVER be obligated to cram in diversity. If it doesn't fit with the themes, tone or story the game is trying to tell, it always feels awkward and forced and diminishes the quality overall.

I'm also of the opinion that if the designer just plain-old doesn't want to have a diverse cast of characters, it is THEIR decision and theirs alone for their creative vision.

A diverse cast of characters however, can add colour and depth and interest if used appropriately. It's a storytelling tool like any other.

 

[Lunar Templar]

No, cause forced diversity would end up hurting the creative process if the setting doesn't really call for it.

That said, in setting and storys that can support it, yes, there should be a bigger roster of races and characters then what we usually get.

 

[sXeth]

For games like Far Cry, then that could easily be changed to playing a different type of character, with a more ethnic origin, or even a woman. I remember Far Cry 2 you could play as a range of characters from different backgrounds.

Far Cry 4 gives us an asian (half-asian? His parent's are supposedly both Kyrati, but he (ingame, not his character art) looks mixed race). He's also more blandly and poorly written then either of the "straight white boy" protagonists I played in Far Cry 1 or 3 (even though I hated Fratboy Jason Brody). His background only even comes up as an excuse plot to halfway explain why he suddenly joins up with the Golden Path (his father's rebellion). Its what I'd use an example of "This diversity was pointless, because it just churned out a character they didn't do anything interesting with". The funnier thing being that the game does have interesting non-white characters (and a woman) in Amita and Sabal, who contribute an actual dynamic, even if it doesn't resolve satisfyingly beyond the usual token nod to "choice".

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

No, of course not. However I don't think that if they want to say make the badass space marine a woman, it shouldn't lead to the sort of shitfights that allegedly occurred with Remember Me.

 

[Bat Vader]

They aren't obliged but it doesn't hurt to add some diversity to a game. Going back to the whole no female assassin's in the co-op for Assassin's Creed: Unity. The fact that Ubisoft lied and said it was lot of work when it clearly isn't is what I hate. Come on, just take a random female NPC, copy her, and then give her the same move set and clothing as the male assassins. Done.

Heck, Shadow of Mordor gave players a female skin to use. If they can do that in about a month or so there is no reason Ubi-Soft could not have done the same thing.

Instead of lying through their teeth they should have just come out and said they didn't want to add female assassins in co-op.

 

[Pete Oddly]

The biggest problem with this entire discussion, particularly in terms of social media, is the black and white stance so many loudmouths take. The reasonable folks usually have their voices drowned out in the din created by a select few screaming "You're a PC SJW libtard who wants to ruin gaming!" and "You're an ignorant conservative asshole who has already ruined gaming!" at each other in turns.

Part of the problem is a tendency for most of the rest of us (myself included, I'm not perfect) to just sit back and let the flamewar consume the entire discourse, eating popcorn and shaking our heads with smug smirks, saying stuff like "This is why we can't have nice things". Another part of the problem is that these shitstorms tend to sway the more susceptible of us, and we get caught up in the turdnado, landing on one side of the fence or the other simply to have a side to stand with, even if only so there will be other people to agree with the words we say.

So it remains that talking about the shoulds and shouldn'ts isn't the best way to have a discussion about inclusivity in gaming. Rather, it's best to continue what others already have begun: Highlight games that are different from the norm. Shine a spotlight on games which wouldn't get the same attention otherwise. Show the big companies that we want these different, diverse experiences by supporting them. If you're the type that doesn't buy into these experiences because you've always had the ones you wanted all along, good news! Those are never going away, because you keep buying them. Just keep on keeping on and you'll have the next Mighty Whitey Kills the Foreign Hordes: The Reckoning Revengeance in no time.

There's no need for cajoling or threatening and there's no need for irate posturing because one disagrees with certain criticisms, and I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, because a goodly number of the folks on these forums are pretty reasonable people, but it needs to be said for the benefit of the noisy little minorities from both extremes of the issue. If anything, it might get them to ponder a bit about just how far up their own asses their heads are.

 

[likalaruku]

Eh, in restraint. It makes me think "should using more spices be an obligation of cooking?" Sometimes more spices compliment eachother & bring out new flavors, but sometimes they work against eachother, & give you heartburn on top of it. If you appeal to every whim of minorities, they'll expect more & more in the future, they'll each want those parts to expand & be focused upon more heavily, taking away time & resources from core gameplay & story, until the game loses it's identity.

 

[Vault101]

Eh, in restraint. It makes me think "should using more spices be an obligation of cooking?" Sometimes more spices compliment eachother & bring out new flavors, but sometimes they work against eachother, & give you heartburn on top of it.

dude minorites aren't "spices" to the "default" foods

white guys are not the default of humanity

[quote/]If you appeal to every whim of minorities, they'll expect more & more in the future, they'll each want those parts to expand & be focused upon more heavily, taking away time & resources from core gameplay & story, until the game loses it's identity.[/quote]
there is so much wrong with this I don;t think I have the energy...

OT: you might as well ask should all games have italian plumbers in them? because its about as useful as a question

games are not unlike other mediums before, criticism from a cultural perspective has been going on for eons and like it or not games are and SHOULD be subject to the same criticisms and analysis

 

[Dizchu]

dude minorites aren't "spices" to the "default" foods

white guys are not the default of humanity

I think you missed her point. She's not saying that "white guys" are the default, she's saying (I hope I'm getting this right) that white guys are like the most mundane, commonly used spice which gets old for some people but despite that is still the default choice for others.

Everyone has their "default" or "regular" choices. Most game devs are straight white males, therefore that's their "go-to" demographic for writing protagonists. Most of the characters I make are lesbians by default, because that's just my "default". All of my characters have been white so far so I'm planning on making my next one non-white just to add a different flavour.

Though I am not suggesting for a moment that I am using race as a commodity. Just something to break up the homogeneity.

Putting heavy emphasis on diversity in game/art related courses should be obligatory. However at the end of the day if you want your game to be a Wonder bread fest with a dappling of chocolate people to blow up that is your own obligation and personal freedom.

That simply doesn't exclude you from getting criticized for it.

Which is what it all boils down to. You don't want to add diversity in games? Cool. People have every right to criticize you for it.

You want to add more diversity in your game? Also cool. People have every right to criticize that.

You know what's not cool? Every single fucking time a dev even so much as mentions adding in a gay/woman/lgbtq+ in their game they get accused of "bowing" to SJW's or said group forced them to do it ala angry tumblr posts and internet forums.

I understand what you're saying but I don't think that neglecting diversity is necessarily a conscious choice. Even if it is a conscious choice, it could be because the writer is too afraid of making poor portrayals of races/genders/sexualities that aren't their own. Personally my characters' races and sexes can be chosen at random and they'd still "make sense", because all my characters tend to be strange in ways that aren't limited to any demographic haha.

I think the reaction people make to announcements of "diverse" characters is at least partially fuelled by the attitudes of devs themselves. I think recently a Far Cry 4 dev said that "anyone who is against social justice will hate this game" as some sort of brag about how diverse the cast is. It's an attitude that was also in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Now I'm not saying all this "omg SHW shills ruining gaming" nonsense is warranted, but it's certainly not helped on the other side.

 

[Silvanus]

I think people very rarely actually advocate obligating developers to include something. I've never seen it advocated here, or in gaming articles, or in games themselves. People talk about encouraging it, or criticising the lack of it, and then others misrepresent that as wanting to obligate or force developers into something.

It should be encouraged, but this was always an issue of trends, not individual examples.

 

[Zhukov]

"Obliged" is kind of a big word.

Developers and publishers are not obliged to do anything of the sort. They are free to make the straightest, whitest, dudest games they can. And they do. Frequently.

Thing is, the audience, or a portion of the audience, isn't obliged to stop making criticisms, complaints or requests to the contrary. Even demands, although I personally think that's a bit rude.

(For the record, I also think the AC:U playable female thing was a bit silly and certainly misdirected.)

Perhaps this is just wishful thinking and biased observation on my part, but it feels like the message is getting through, however slowly.

Another thing to keep in mind is how much of a minefield "diversity" is. Even if you include women and minorities, the people who demanded them in the first place invariably find something wrong with them. Don't include them, and we're back to square one.

As for why so many main character's are white guys, well, no one cares about them. A white guy is allowed to be a lecherous alcoholic (a women can't cuz teh sexist), a disturbed soldier (a woman can't, or else you're portraying women as crazy), or any number of things. A white guy who has negative traits is just a white guy with negative traits. A woman or a minority with negative traits suddenly becomes representative of ALL women or ALL minorities. What kills me is that sheer irony. The people who demand diversity are the one thing standing in it's way.

Tell me, where was the outrage when Naughty Dog made a gay guy who was also a foul tempered, socially maladjusted hick who constantly mumbled to himself? Where was the outrage when they made a black, female antagonist who was willing to sacrifice the child of her best friend? Or the ruthless female villain from Uncharted 3?

Where was the outrage when Bioware made a female nigh-psychotic criminal?

Where was the outrage when The Wolf Among Us featured a murderous madwoman as a secondary villain?

Where was the outrage when The Walking Dead included a woman who snaps in the face of adversity and commits murder?

Where was the outrage when Bioshock Infinite included a black female revolutionary who goes too far and decides to kill the children of her enemies?

Where oh where was all the outrage? All that terrible outrage standing in the way of inclusivity? Because I don't remember seeing it.

Maybe, just maybe, those dastardly games got away with their horrendous crimes against the image of non-white, non-male, non-straight people because their developers took the time to make rounded characters with coherent motivations and a mixture of good and bad traits? Maybe because they managed to included multiple non-white, non-male, non-straight characters within the same game so that the negative traits of one were 'balanced out' by the positive traits of another?

Maybe?

Just... just answer me this. Do you really think the predominance of straight white males in this industry is because developers are terrified of what some angry fifteen year old might say on Tumblr? Really?

If so I won't try to convince you otherwise, but I would like to know if I read you correctly.

 

[CaitSeith]

Eh, in restraint. It makes me think "should using more spices be an obligation of cooking?" Sometimes more spices compliment eachother & bring out new flavors, but sometimes they work against eachother, & give you heartburn on top of it.

dude minorites aren't "spices" to the "default" foods

white guys are not the default of humanity

[quote/]If you appeal to every whim of minorities, they'll expect more & more in the future, they'll each want those parts to expand & be focused upon more heavily, taking away time & resources from core gameplay & story, until the game loses it's identity.

there is so much wrong with this I don;t think I have the energy...

OT: you might as well ask should all games have italian plumbers in them? because its about as useful as a question

games are not unlike other mediums before, criticism from a cultural perspective has been going on for eons and like it or not games are and SHOULD be subject to the same criticisms and analysis[/quote]
The topic isn't about criticisms and analysis. We are talking about obligation. They have two different kinds of consequences, and the later limits any medium.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

Name me one game where anyones complained you can't play as a male character if the lead is female - or a white guy if the man isn't (ok the 2nd one may have come there are some die hard racists)

Now ask me the original question again

I am so sick of this...cancer...at the heart of gaming

NO ONE IS WINNING

It's making both sides look bad - and TBH anytime the topic comes up I just want to slap it down

...I don't know why I bother TBH

It's been discussed there are no winners

Should game makers consider it, yeh, why not if - if it's easy and quick and or/done right - say Mass effect

But some games, it'd change....too much, just thinking of the last single player game I played - sleeping dogs. That was an experience, trying to shoehorn lots of 'diversty' and PC into would ruin it...I could make arguments some of the female 'partners' were really badly done.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

snip, because I hate quote pyramids.

First off, this is the Escapist, not Tumblr. Gifs have no place here.

Second of all, Bioshock infinite's furor was rather small, but it was there.

Third, you just listed a group of character's who were well written and, notice how none of those character's were protagonists. If the character's a well written one, I hope that the perpetually offended either ignore them or get shouted down by normal people. But if the character isn't well written, then they assume it's from hatred rather than not having the budget or time to hire a writer. I was referring to protagonist's and I'm kicking myself for not including that in my original post.

Does that answer you're question?

 

[sageoftruth]

I'm with everyone else in saying it should not be an obligation. On the other hand, I am a bit bothered when I hear about devs being told they HAVE to make their characters a certain gender and race (essentially white male) for the sake of sales.

Anything that meddles in a developer's creative vision is an issue for me.