Comment by nerdjon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nerdjon | Hacker News Reader

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> Gaming is probably the most diverse pastime on the planet.

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.

All of these things seem like "issues" facing nearly every subgroup or hobby I can think of. When is enough diversity enough? I don't think things are perfect in the gaming community, especially in multiplayer competitive online environments, but most of these complaints are leveled against most subgroups or hobbies that are traditionally male-dominated. It just gets tiresome after awhile because this doesn't seem like an issue with the international gaming community, but an issue with society. It's tiresome.

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?

The community you insist so much on everyone bending over for is dozens, maybe hundreds of people. Two games were released that cater to this very audience and this is how successful they are:

- 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.

I love that we again bring up 2 games that failed as if this is the only reason they failed.

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”.

Your feverish set of comments here tell me that gaming has a lot of work to do pushing moral busybodies (CCP censors included!) out and bringing back places for people that just want to make and play games.

> bringing back places for people that just want to make and play games.

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.

The complaint is about people complaining about lack of diversity and acceptance in subgroups and hobby communities.

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