These videos go deeper than just "oh, they are whining again." I was hoping to leave it open and maybe some of you would get to the meatier aspects of inclusion of more diverse characters in games and comics, what the real problems are and what could be some of the solutions. Here is are some excerpts of what was said in the videos. Food for thought:
"The reason why we so often fall into the trap of delivering female stereotypes in games instead of true believable characters is that we tend to think things that are related to being female, as being inherent to being female."
" ...How portrayal of 'race' works, or rather, how it doesn't. See rest of the world, let me explain something about white people: Our dominance of the western world and it's culture is so &(@**&$ monolithic that we don't even notice it's there. To the extent that even the smartest and most tolerant amongst us tend to subconsciously view our 'whiteness' as a kind of tabula rasa (latin d. blank slate) normalcy and 'blackness', or all other colors to be a special difference in and of itself. You can see this play out day after day in the creation of characters, not only in games, but in comics, cartoons, whatever. If a character is white you can expect him to have some sort of elaborate costume, perhaps a ridiculous hair cut, a signature weapon, or pages upon pages of back story. He needs all those things you see, because he's white, and therefore a blank slate of average normalcy. Where as if a character is black you can expect...not much beyond that. I mean take a look at one of the recent line ups for Marvel Comics 'The New Avengers'. Isn't kinda ...interesting that out of these five super heroes the only one who doesn't have a costume or even an identifying logo is Luke Cage over here?? Like, 'Nah, he doesn't need a costume, he's black!! That's just as weird as wearing a spider print leotard'. Now, comic fans would point out that Cage was never one much for costumes, but, COME ON!!! If you look at this you are not steeped in the Marvel arcana, doesn't it kinda look like this would be advertising- THE AVENGERS!! FEATURING: SPIDER MAN!! RONIN!! CAPTAIN AMERICA!! WOLVERINE!! AND THE BLACK GUY!!!!"
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