Current Events > kotaku: " Sorry, Your Cis White Woman Protagonist Isn't Progressive"

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LightHawKnight posted...

So you do want real video games to become money grubbing pieces of garbage that you can only play for a short periods of time then.

What's the difference between a real video game an a not real video game?

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Lmao I knew this would happen the second people started bitching about women being protagonists in video games

LightHawKnight posted...

So you do want real video games to become money grubbing pieces of garbage that you can only play for a short periods of time then.

have you never been to an arcade?

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hockeybub89 posted...

I mean, the article may come off a little dumb, but I too wish there was more diversity in video game protagonists. Even the games with cis white women have to fight and claw with the publishers to allow that to happen. Non-white protags of either gender are barely existent

Yeah, the fact that it's still difficult to get minority protagonists in games thanks to publishers is aggravating.

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CrimsonRage posted...

so white people only want to play white people?

That's your takeaway? How long did it take for you to come up with that?

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Candy crush is a real video game

It's a time waster in the same vein as sudoku.

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Lmao people are still trying to pull the "mobile games aren't real games!!!" argument in 2021?

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dave_is_slick posted...

It's a time waster in the same vein as sudoku.

Video games in general are time wasters... in fact any hobby can be labeled as such.

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NinjaWarrior455 posted...

Lmao people are still trying to pull the "mobile games aren't real games!!!" argument in 2021?

Yeah, the whole "real games" thing is dumb. A game is a game, doesn't matter if it's meant for short bursts of play like Candy Crush or what.

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BakonBitz posted...

Yeah, the whole "real games" thing is dumb. A game is a game, doesn't matter if it's meant for short bursts of play like Candy Crush or what.

I can understand people not wanting "people who only play mobile games for convenience and not out of a hobby" to be called gamers (gamers is a fucking stupid title to have anyways lol), but yeah to say that Candy Crush is not a video game is objectively wrong.

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dave_is_slick posted...

It's a time waster in the same vein as sudoku.

Minecraft is a time waster in the same vein as Lego.

Call of Duty is a time waster in the same vein as a firing range.

Dark Souls is a time waster in the same vein as tetherball.

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dave_is_slick posted...

That's your takeaway? How long did it take for you to come up with that?

You did say white male gamers expect to see the statistics reflected in the color and genitals of video game protagonists.

Should we take it farther? Should there be a regular census of the players of various genres of gaming, and developers should make their characters based on the demographics?

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hockeybub89 posted...

You did say white male gamers expect to see the statistics reflected in the color and genitals

No, that's some bullshit YOU made up. I said white people are the majority of the population and expect to see that. Whatever bullshit you put into that is from your own imagination.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Minecraft is a time waster in the same vein as Lego.

Lego has you fighting mobs? Argue in good faith.

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dave_is_slick posted...

Lego has you fighting mobs? Argue in good faith.

What is creative mode?

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Yeah when i play a new game i get super excited that the culture of gaming is changing but then bitch about it not changing good enough in a huge article that no one cares about....

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I guarantee the article writer did not make the article banner but it's still a hell of a thing that Kotaku of all sites couldn't find a third white woman protagonist.

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CyricZ posted...

I guarantee the article writer did not make the article banner but it's still a hell of a thing that Kotaku of all sites couldn't find a third white woman protagonist.

I think they were specifically going for prominent games coming out around the time the article was published; these are the three examples cited specifically in the article

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Antifar posted...

I think they were specifically going for prominent games coming out around the time the article was published; these are the three examples cited specifically in the article

Yeah I see it now that I've read the article.

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dave_is_slick posted...

No, that's some bullshit YOU made up. I said white people are the majority of the population and expect to see that. Whatever bullshit you put into that is from your own imagination.

Why would white people expect to see demographics accurately reflected in video game protagonists? Also, 90% of the country is not handsome, buff white dudes so why should that be the expectation of the white population? Again, straight white males should only be 30% of protags if we are going to enforce realistic demographics.

Weird how no one ever bitches about demographics when a fantasy race, alien, or animal is a protagonist, but start talking non-white human males and now we need to cite the fucking census. But only the part that says there are more whites than anyone else.

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I'd love to see more diversity in games yeah. More diverse protagonists. More diverse locations. More diverse time periods.

It's funny how it's not controversial to say that gaming in the AAA space is safe and samey but as soon as you bring up race and gender suddenly the argument shifts to that it should be.

BakonBitz posted...

Yeah, the whole "real games" thing is dumb. A game is a game, doesn't matter if it's meant for short bursts of play like Candy Crush or what.

Do they consider score attack games from the 80s to not be real games either? It's really weird logic.

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The question is how would diversity change the games. As I said before. If you replace Deacon with any other ethnicity why would it change anything? It wouldnt affect the plot unless you made the plot about their race or gender specifically. But that would be an entirely different story. You can complain about bland characters all you want but changing their skin color wouldnt change their personality.

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fan357 posted...

The question is how would diversity change the games. As I said before. If you replace Deacon with any other ethnicity why would it change anything? It wouldnt affect the plot unless you made the plot about their race or gender specifically. But that would be an entirely different story. You can complain about bland characters all you want but changing their skin color wouldnt change their personality.

I'm playing Mafia 3 right now and him being African-American changes the game quite a lot.

Same thing with GTA and CJ, Niko and Franklin.

Of course it doesn't need to change the plot either. A lot of game characters are simple blank slates. Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn is a woman and it doesn't matter. But she looks unique for a video game protagonist.

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Watch Dogs 2 having a black protagonist does change that game, in part because they comment on it, but also just because it stands out in a sea of samey white dudes.

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Darmik posted...

I'm playing Mafia 3 right now and him being African-American changes the game quite a lot.

Same thing with GTA and CJ, Niko and Franklin.

Of course it doesn't need to change the plot either. A lot of game characters are simple blank slates. Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn is a woman and it doesn't matter. But she looks unique for a video game protagonist.

Sure. Those stories were crafted around those characters races. Franklin not as much. Make Deacon black. Why would anything change? You would have to actually change the story.

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