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This is a game made by a Chinese company primarily for a Chinese audience and set in China. I doubt there's a single white character in there.
Also ignoring that in the phrasing for that message I think it is pretty clear that I am talking more generally and most of the people that are mad at "politics" in video games fall in that category.
At least in the US, which yes that is where I am from so that is my exposure to this particular issue so that is what I am commenting on. Never claimed otherwise.
Yes and no, it really wasn't that long ago that Dragon Age had their whole "straight male gamer" controversy because someone was upset at it having diversity.
LGBT representation is a lot better now but that is really only a recent change.
Non sexualized female representation has been lacking for a long time. Even look at Horizon, and you could find people complaining that in Forbidden West they made her face a bit fuller.
It is very easy (just look at this thread) to find people complaining about the idea of "politics" or diversity in gaming and who represents it. Anytime a female character in a sequel gets a less skin tight or revealing outfit it's "politics".
Yes there is a lot of diversity in the gaming audience and who makes the games. A lot of that is more in the open today. But it has not always been like that and for a long time it was largely associated with being straight and male.
Just look at comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41367392 and tell me that the gaming community is just fine. I fully acknowledge that those opinions are likely in the minority, but we see it a lot. I mean Xbox Live had a reputation (and still has) of being very homophobic in the Halo 2 and 3 days.
Edit: I literally see nothing wrong with the comment you linked (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41367392). Is this what you meant to link?
- dustborn: all-time peak 83 people playing
https://steamdb.info/app/721180/charts/
- concorde: all-time peak 696 people playing
https://steamdb.info/app/2443720/charts/
Gamedev is a business and these projects clearly failed to deliver any return on the investment.
When there are plenty of games with a diverse set of characters that sell just fine. First party Sony games are (generally) a fantastic example of this, that sell very well. SpiderMan 2 is a great example. Horizon, etc.
I already mentioned other games like Overwatch, Mass Effect, Apex, and many others that have diversity are just fine.
Simply having a gay character, a black character, a woman that isn't a sex object, isn't "bending over backwards".
I am sorry but you need to face the fact that gaming is no longer male dominated. That is a good thing. A gay person (or character) existing, is not "political" or shoving it in your face. At least no more than every single straight relationship that I see every single day in media my entire life is “shoved in my face”. But that’s fine because it’s normalized.
A man and a woman can be all over each other and no one bats an eye, but 2 men dare to express the simplest of affection and suddenly it’s “political”.
What exactly does that mean?
No one is stoping you from playing and making games. There isn't a law that says that every game has to be diverse. You can do whatever you want.
If you are playing a heavily story driven game like Spiderman, Horizon, or the many other games from Sony that are diverse and sell quite well. You should want it to reflect reality instead of a narrow view of the world. That is good story telling.
The ability to see yourself in media is a powerful thing. Something that many people take for granted since they are in a group that was already largely represented by video games, movies, tv shows, etc.
If you just want to play a game for the sake of playing a game, skip the story, play online games and just do whatever. That still exists also.
I don't understand what your complaint is.
Like maybe take two recent high enough production value games that have done extremely great doing this. Dustborn and Concord. Massive number of players of this large community representation. Dozens and hundreds.
Doing what exactly?
It isn't clear to me if you are advocating for recognizing a diverse group of players or to focus on a narrow definition of what a gamer is.
My point is that two contemporary examples of games targeting and recognizing these new diverse groups of players have utterly failed. Indicating that either they totally failed in their marketing in informing that finally there is game for not gamers. Or there simply is no demand...
What your argument was, was unclear. Not everyone knows what is going on with every game at every time. I personally have not payed any attention to either of these games so had no idea what your point mentioning was.
Counter Point:
Boulders Gate 3. Overwatch. Mass Effect. Dragon Age. Apex Legends. Life is strange.
The list goes on
The fact is that there are a ton of games that introduce "politics" (diversity) into their video games that do just fine and trying to choose 2 as "failing" isn't proving your point.
They could just be bad games with basically zero hype or marketing, I knew they existed but barely knew they even came out.
You mean, representing what your idea of the "community at large" is.
There's been no shortage of games lately trying to represent your imaginary version of the world where white and asian people don't exist. Games like Concord and Dustborn. Why is nobody playing those games? Why aren't you playing those games?