Why No Black People in Video Games??

[@CaptainAstronaut]

PEOPLE, I BEG OF YOU! PLEASE ACTUALLY WATCH THE VIDEO BEFORE EMBARRASSING YOURSELF IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!! My goal for the rest of the year is going to be to get better at Green Screening lol Anyways, if you enjoyed the video, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!! One thing this video didn't have time to talk about is that representation is more than just skin deep. It would be marvelous to see more uniquely Black Stories told in big budget video games, however I'm not sure that, at time of writing, the current game industry is necessarily best equipped to handle that weight. Hopefully someday though. Also a lot of what I say in video is applicable to the representation (or lack thereof) of other minorities too, not just Black People.

[@pablitotorres8254]

Good video👍, I'm sorry for you having had bad neighbors in the past, they sound like A S S

[@ozpictures]

Well what about tf2s demoman?

[@ciancaldera395]

I liked the video and made me realize we do need more diversity but not forced in cuz that’s what corporate wants. We need to find that balance of “why are there so many straight white guys?” And “why is there 1 not straight white guy that was forced in here cuz of corporate.” Honestly, just have an AI that randomly generates the models and characters. Same build and body (aside from gender) but just randomly made characters and same animations that were already included.

[@samalton5837]

So you admit you don't play any fighting games? There are plenty of black characters in fighting games. Sports games too for that matter. Otherwise this just sounds like more Nintendo bashing; it's not Nintendo's job to mandate diversity ahead of creativity in their games. If you're so passionate about more black characters in those style of games, learn how to build your own games or form a team with other people so you can make your own. Stop being dependent on other people for your desired representation, and represent yourself. Otherwise you're never going to get what you actually want; this should be common sense.

[@CaptainAstronaut]

@@samalton5837 I literally talk about sports games at 4:45 and fighting games at 5:07. Please watch the entire video BEFORE commenting in the future.

[@JBoop]

I love this video. Personally, lack of hair options bother me the most. Not having black characters is one thing but giving me a character creator and not allowing me to be black is wild

[@acedapanda7344]

Duuuude ifkr it's always bothered me too, just lemme be myself in a character creator y'know what I mean 😔

[@user_Z-]

As a person who plays NBA 2k this has never been a problem but for every other game yeah 😭

[@ProphitDesigns]

I think what's bothersome about that over just not having black characters is the promise of "make your own character. You can be yourself!" and literally not being able to create yourself is just the biggest fuck you to the player. The game essentially says "oh not even as a custom character do we think you're worth being allowed in this game." It's ridiculous.

[@moosesues8887]

Tru like how you make a bunch of models for hair n shit but can’t add a feature to change the skin color

[@galientl4723]

Cough…Elden Ring…..Cough

[@revanjagergaming8714]

"As a life long black person." Omg dude that had me rolling.

[@ZsH85]

if he believes strong enough, everything is possible! dont give up, remember mj !

[@watchf]

😐

[@strider3438]

Wishing him quick recovery ❤

[@CircleGaming2763]

I got hacked on twitter for putting a black character in an art piece. Getting called "racist, woke and the reason why black people in media is horrible now adays" I am a black person.

[@pixelander]

Like info doxxed?

[@CircleGaming2763]

@@pixelander It was like taking over my twitter account by somehow getting hold of my passwords mean they must likely found my personal info

[@Sparten-177]

Welp, this is the society we live in when Blk ppl doesn't like to work together and beat on other Black people in the black community. I think the Spanish community and some other ethnic ppl also work together but i mean, i heard my dad saying it so like..yeah that's just the reality sadly.

[@flydrop8822]

@@CircleGaming2763 you werent doxxed, you were hacked... This is why its important to have ways to protect yourself (and your privacy) both in the physical world and in the virtual one, I am sorry this has happened to you.

[@grnpyro5110]

How were you hacked? Did you click any suspicious links?

[@tetsupannn]

I'm not black, but as an artist, this has always been weird to me. Different races give SOOOO much variation to character design and give so many more opportunities for unique designs!! Like, its so much more fun? This just makes me think of games like Genshin Impact, where you have hundreds of characters but they all start to blend together at some point because they're all average attractive tall skinny white person. PLUS, THE WHOLE POINT OF THAT GAME IS TO EXPLORE DIFFERENT CULTURES??

[@xplodingkatz]

I actually completely agree with that Genshin example I thought it was just me, but most of them are extremely similar in design

[@tetsupannn]

@@xplodingkatz you can only get so much variation out of 5 default character models that all use the same skin tone, art style and and generally cluttered clothing hahah

[@stylinsandwich]

I mean for genshin you kinda have the CN community to blame for it

[@DenseCortex]

I thought race was just skin color and the differences between the races were superficial? The Jews assured me of this.

[@RF-Ataraxia]

And it's honestly impressive, given how overdesigned many of the characters are in Genshin.

[@somieuler-ajayi5246]

I propose an extra clause for the black-del test. So hear me out: The black characters shouldn't immediately die

[@kalebtewodros]

Fair

[@Kabaiaa]

And shouldn't be stereotypes

[@blobishlybelfer2717]

nor kill

[@rutgeroudenampsen492]

Nah, if I was developing a game, I would want to have the option at least to have any character be killed early, no matter what the skin color. Having black characters specifically excluded from that feels unnecessarily restrictive.

[@averysmith9943]

oH mY gOd HoW dArE yOu BrInG uP sOmEtHiNg sO UNREALISTIC????!!! (sarcastic)

[@AHylianWarrior]

My problem goes like: imagine being part of a cultural minority and whenever your culture appears in any media it's nearly always played as a joke or a gag character lol

[@raspberrycruse3795]

The pain

[@mattygee79]

Exactly. Asians get it the worst.

[@Darth_Bateman]

And when you dare to have your own character in a white persons show, suddenly you’re the bad guy…. The Star Wars fans proved this again….

[@Darth_Bateman]

@Seggs Master Oh great, more racist bullshit….

[@realdeal8225]

What minority group are you from?

[@bizznick444joe7]

I'm still wondering where all the short men are in media, comic books and video games.

[@0led07]

Play deep rock galactic, that’s where all the short men are.

[@lxmesoda]

link and wario are right there

[@TylerO-l7l]

Olimar

[@mohammadalhusaini810]

Levi

[@comradeshaq7467]

Wolverine

[@Afterthoughts]

OH MAH LORD OKAY SO Heroes of the Storm's character roster is made up of all the Blizzard games (originally Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo, Overwatch added later), and I remember when they added their first Black female character in 2019. She had to be INVENTED SPECIFICALLY for the game. They did not have a Black female character to add from any of their existing franchises - not the demon war one, not the space war one, not the magic war one - so they had to invent one. What an incredible moment to summarize the history of game development.

[@viktorgabriel2554]

that is in fact not true there is the Admiral from Wow the 4 story important named Paladins 6 separate Pirates two Priests 2 Rogues 7 Dragons and about 20 Warriors thank you for proving you dont know what you are talking about and then in SC we have about 3 and Diablo we have an entire NATION and the Witch Doctor of Hots is a Black man from Diablo 3 and he is one of their Beta characters stop being a racists

[@Afterthoughts]

@@viktorgabriel2554 you're cool can we hang out

[@eneasantoni1181]

@@viktorgabriel2554 Please put commas in your comments, I have no clue about what you're saying.

[@ryanweible9090]

​​​@@viktorgabriel2554said without a drop of punctuation. Seriously if you're going to post a counter argument, make it readable. I'm not sure if you're making a point or having a seizure. If you have a valid counter argument, please phrase it like you are having a conversation, not an exorcism. Also do you really want to call the witch doctor out as positive? One of the more crude racial stereotypes, we are using that?

[@becausesakamoto5938]

​@@viktorgabriel2554 Notice they said black FEMALE character, and it would have to be an important enough named character to actually make sense for a crossover. Come on bro if you're going to excuse racism you might want to try being at least marginally comprehensible first

[@eman7183]

Customization is always a struggle. I always go “o wow I can finally make a character that looks like me” *looks at hair options “Um ok I guess I’ll be a black guy with a perm”

[@Edson07bs]

Hahahaha fr

[@DC-yx8qt]

Lol or just be bald. That’s every male black character I’ve made in a FromSoftware game

[@mjt1517]

Why would you want a character that looks like you anyway? Go for fantasy, not realism.

[@Good_Watch]

I just go for the bald look everytime I stumble across that situation.

[@DC-yx8qt]

@@mjt1517 it's still fantasy. Lots of ppl like to see themselves in different settings. It doesn't take anything away from the game

[@TatsumiOga682]

As an indian guy that is almost never represented in any media as anything other than a guy wearing a turban or doing yoga and breathing fire or something, I relate to this video

[@RGamingBlastoise]

I’m an autistic guy (white in the US if that gives any context) and one of my best childhood friends was also autistic and she was half Indian and half British and we easily bonded over our special interest in Pokémon and often joked about there being no Indian characters. Then sword and shield came around, based on a place with a pretty substantial Indian population (Great Britain) and we got multiple that are probably meant to be Indian. (It’s technically unclear cause it’s Pokémon but still) not just that, but your main rival and his brother who is the champion/strongest trainer of the region, and other characters. She really enjoyed getting to see her fairly unknown culture (at least where we live) get shown off so openly in the largest franchise in the world.

[@TheKaurK]

Honestly yeah. And as an Indian woman.. I thought I’d probably see my own death before I’d see a protagonist who’s a woman with skin color darker than beige. Then came Raji. The game itself was okay but I enjoyed the heck out of it because I am badly starved for some representation.

[@somerandom2858]

There's over a billion people in India. Game engines and tools are free and more powerful than ever, and you can learn enough just with free youtube tutorials and there's thousands of super cheap learning courses online. Out of those over a billion people, where are the indian game devs?

[@whome9842]

An interesting thing in anime is that dark skinned characters in Japanese settings usually are tanned Japanese people, Okinawa people, Indians and other South East Asian people because those are the more common dark skinned people in Japan. In Shokugeki no Souma we have two dark skinned characters among the important characters, one is a tanned Japanese girl and the other in an Indian boy.

[@thirdwheel9938]

^ What the hell is that guy talking about? 💀

[@SiLvErWaRe000]

I answered this question years ago when Game Informer did a whole article on it. The answer is that there just aren't very many black game devs. In my opinion it isn't an intentional exclusion, just that most artists tend to create based on their own experiences. That's why when you do see black characters they're typically just a stereotype. Like the character Tyler from Indigo Prophecy, or Fahrenheit, depending on what part of the world you're from. What we need is not only black game developers, but black game studios if we want to see that kind of change. I would rather push for more of our community to go into game development and creation rather than push people who understand nothing of our cultures to try and shoehorn in their version of a black character.

[@agentjohnson3973]

GTA San Andreas got the representation spot on with your peoples culture and that game was made by whitey LOL

[@SiLvErWaRe000]

@@agentjohnson3973 They also used black voice actors, and consultants for authenticity. Also San Andreas dropped 20 years ago, and things are the same. You act as though it ushered in some sort of cultural shift in the game industry.

[@LamiaLover]

​@@SiLvErWaRe000Ngl, at first I wanted to become a game developer when I was younger, but due to how many of the western AAA companies treat their own workers lower than garbage, I said hell no.

[@SiLvErWaRe000]

@@LamiaLover We need full dev studios. You don't have to work for EA or Blizzard. We need black owned indy studios.

[@agentjohnson3973]

@@SiLvErWaRe000 cultural shift? Reread my comment because I think your reading comprehension is a bit lacking.

[@thekingofcookies4877]

Where are the playable chubby characters in games? Where is the chubby representation? Most character creators don't even have the option. But seriously tho, why can't I play as a chonky main character?

[@WonkyWater-YT]

Wario, various Pokémon guys and Bob (Tekken)

[@thetabo8648]

I'm pretty sure all the FromSoft games have the option to be sorta chubby

[@thekingofcookies4877]

@@thetabo8648 if I equip very specific armour, I can get chonky, but custom char not really.

[@KingNerdius]

Have you heard of the popular indie game Dave The Diver

[@DenseCortex]

King DDD, Bowzer, jigglypuff

[@littywitty5867]

"Do you remember how they whitewashed Daisy?" No, my neurons were firing too rapidly.

[@nathanrailsback9667]

I was like, "Damn, I DIDN'T remember that until you brought it up!" Then I realized how fucked up that was.

[@t.funkthecoolmunk5472]

@@nathanrailsback9667 and she’s from a desert kingdom so it would make more sense for her to be dark skinned

[@dantemustdie00]

@@t.funkthecoolmunk5472 Granted her original render during the N64 games was just too similar to Peach at the time, but I liked that in the latest Mario Golf game, they gave her a slightly darker skin tone, I was hoping that would stick, but unfortunately Nintendo can't decide what the hell to do with Daisy to the point of taking away her personality.

[@beanieboi7743]

Daisy was very pale in mario land her first appearance

[@j-rex229]

@@beanieboi7743 Lmaoooooooo 😐

[@TheDarkAdventure]

It's hilarious when they complain someone is Black in a universe with purple, green, red, etc aliens. Like they'll accept an alien with purple skin and 30 arms over a regular Black dude. Shit crazy.

[@jakobl7469]

Retarded gamers when they see a minority, a different sexual orientation, women and etc: Omg politics in my vidya game

[@Ze_Chevalier]

Lol

[@cve486]

Yeah, like "I can't immerse myself" says the white neckbeard whilst playing a purple female elf.

[@calibvr]

@@cve486 haha

[@toffeenut1336]

Aliens don’t bellyache about everything.

[@stephenfergerson]

2 years late, 6 seconds in, the answer is because not enough black people are making video games....

[@SavageScientist]

You killed me with the Goomba joke. But you made a valid point I never knew talking about video games would be this interesting. Im a black programmer and we need to get more blacks and diversity in the companies creating these games then it will trickle down to the products.

[@hannahyamauchi839]

"HOW DARE THEY BRING POLITICS INTO MY GAME ABOUT war."

[@lordbeerus5990]

Well to be honest we want to have fun playing war shooter games not bring real life into it and make it all depressing

[@chao3948]

@@lordbeerus5990 i get your point but war is literally politics

[@lordbeerus5990]

@@chao3948 yeah technically your right especially if its historically accurate or has a historical backing to it but most war games tends to focus more on the events that take place in the game. Not to mention theres also fictional war/shooter games like killzone, gears of war, lost planet, (maybe metal gear solid) etc

[@nomnom2298]

@᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼᲼ its high skill trolling

[@chao3948]

@@dexulescu i actually agree with everything except that video games shouldn't be political. which now that i think about it, is probably imposible

[@jackbob83]

“I’m a black, Scottish, cyclops. They got more feckin’ sea monsters in Loch Ness than they do the likes of me” -Tavish Degroot, sometime in the 60’s

[@rexosaurus3610]

**Scottish Music Starts Playing**

[@Seen420]

Most game companies: nooo that would be racist Valve: Imagine caring

[@SgtHawk45]

Got to love the demoman

[@devforfun5618]

wooooooo a character that represents TWO minorities, is it even allowed ?

[@concerningindividual629]

@@devforfun5618 Yes, finally some cyclops representation! Go poseidon!

[@millerk7456]

this video has opened my eyes thank you for making this! your advice "your character doesnt have to capture the black experience, they just have to *be black*" is extremely helpful. now im reconsidering *why* some of my characters are white- is it actually important for that character specifically, or am i just afraid of misrepresenting blackness?

[@nashambenyisrael7689]

To be honest type casting black characters is super cringe. When I see it in games or movies it’s kinda annoying. In the black experience as much as the world is diverse so are black people, we all don’t listen to rap and hang out in the hood etc etc all the stereo types that misrepresent us. You have black people who enjoy death metal, and are alternative etc etc. just like some white people like gangster movies or like rap and hang in the hood and is the unusual white person there shouldn’t be a type cast as humans we all live different lives and disagree with one another, the type casting of characters just need to die and it would be better for the future stories. Just my 2cents as being “black” and growing up seeing the same as you less diversity even though we live in a diverse world lol so silly when you really think about it…

[@abstract5249]

@@nashambenyisrael7689 I feel like every time a black person says black people are diverse and have all sorts of interests and personalities, white people think, "yeah, but those guys are the exception and only make up a small percentage of black people." I think white people think this way because I'M white and **I** used to think like that no matter times I heard (on the internet) that black people are diverse. Unfortunately, it's really hard to get over stereotypes until you personally interact with people and see for yourself that, yeah, people are just people.

[@nashambenyisrael7689]

@@abstract5249 I mean, stereotypes exist for a reason. People biases and perceptions of other national background unlike their own stem from a basic understanding that is apparent to those individuals?

[@mkgeostar]

a point about hair, ive always found it interesting how yes there seem to be a lack of black hairstyles however as a white person with curly hair it has even been hard to find a hairstyle similar to mine when making a character, sometimes (cough cough mii maker) the only non straight hairstyles they have are just afro and dreds. i will agree that this issue mainly affects the black community but i do think that it isnt intentionally racist and often games just cater to 'straight hair as opposed to white people hair (which are often the same thing but u get what im saying)

[@FrogmanhatesQibli]

just because something isn't intentionally racist doesn't mean the outcome isn't racist

[@mkgeostar]

@@FrogmanhatesQibli i agree but thats not my point

[@TheMarashian]

Us meditterenean whites with curls can't find hair options man it's annoying

[@colbysheep]

I want to see dark skinned characters who are: animal lovers, book nerds, awkward, techy, snobby, haughty, humble, quirky, shy, religious, or snarky or any other traits that you see used constantly by lighter skinned characters. Representation of skin colors falls short when you cycle through the same 3 tropes.

[@littlered6340]

This! My personality has never been on a video game black woman 😭

[@dethkon]

@@XmrcaptainbobXCool, I can’t wait to play it with my friend Kanye West!

[@evilceochad884]

Virgin "normal fictional game characters": Read useless books, aka nerds who get bullied and always think about how world revolves around them, have really high levels of narcissism. Don't know how to fight, learn it only midway or at the end of the story. Most of the shy and quirky types soon become cannon fodders or go into irrelevancy. Sometimes, they are so over the top of their tropes, you begin to question authenticity of them existing in real life, for if they did, they would be socially ostracized. CHAD BLACK PEOPLE VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS: Only 3 trope behaviors, all delivered excellently. Since birth knows how to put up aa good fight, his homies are always by his side. Always set in DA HOOD, where everyone lifts, no bullshit hobbies. Most keep it real, some snitch out and become bad, but overall, they are all believable and likeable. And overall, they all are just trying to live a life normally, but circumstances force them otherwise, still humble about themselves.

[@malum9478]

actually i could do with less religious black people. that's actually a very common trope--even barret talks like an incensed pastor. and i'd be warry of a lot of these otherwise. representation falls short when you cycle through the same 3 tropes, sure, but one of those tropes for black people is negative personalities. i'd much rather take boring black characters then to deal with the catch 22 of "we exist, but we either die immediately or have a bad attitude". representation also falls short when your representation is primarily negative; i want black characters treated like the main characters, fuck being a side character with a shitty personality.

[@dethkon]

@@malum9478 I prefer my Negroes magical, personally.

[@michiyaslana5974]

"I am a straight white dude and I'm dissatisfied because this game only has one straight white dude and he's locked behind progression/paywalls!" Damn, he was so close to getting why people make a fuss over diversity, wasn't he.

[@jb34ch1]

Could you just enlighten us then? I can't seem to decipher what you're trying to say.

[@michiyaslana5974]

@@jb34ch1 That redditor was upset because the game was "too diverse" and he was unable to pick a character of his race, and when he finally got ONE option to do so, it turned out the character was lacking in key ways (he didn't like the character's personality or skill set). This took away from his enjoyment of the game enough to complain online about it. Almost like what people of colour have been upset by for years now. I'm white, and even I see the irony.

[@pixel.pocket]

@@jb34ch1 They're saying people of colour have this exact experience with most games where it's just one black character locked behind progression/paywalls, or they aren't even playable.

[@onyxangelle]

Lmao exactly

[@marseillejoh]

I mean having the only character you can relate to locked is pretty bad. Oh I just realized what you were talking about.

[@theandroids]

The hair type/hairstyle thing is a bit of a piss take. Always afro, cornrows or buzz cut. Lucky if you even get a fade.

[@dimasguerreiro]

Facts

[@IlLust101]

No black characters. Twitter gets triggered Adds black characters. Still gets triggered

[@Hyurno]

Honestly, out of all the mainstream games, I can really appreciate Pokémon for going the extra mile.

[@arko5959]

Agree but just want to point out that the sword and shield "black charcters" are actually "brown"(british-indian or Indian immigrants) Edit:- yea I meant to write to be of the respected country's pkmn works counterpart

[@Valstrax420]

They go the extra mile of adding things no one cares about but won't go the extra mile in making a better game. Arceus doesn't even have followers.

[@PeterGriffin11]

Agreed.

[@TheHeavieKiwie]

@@Valstrax420 Yeah their work and creativity is becoming half assed lol. Plus they are completely running out of ideas for Pokémon too lol. Literally repeating the designs of previous Pokémons once again now. Plus their main series games have become completely repetitive and it's almost becoming 30 years of doing it. But oh well... everyone buys it either way because it's Pokémon. So they have nothing to lose and the undefeated have nothing to learn either.

[@WAEVOICE]

TFW the extra mile has been in play since the beginning of the franchise but was regulated to maybe only two named characters.

[@Hinatachan360]

"There are Japanese Black people!" Thank you for acknowledging my family's existence.🇯🇵

[@nipoone6109]

Technically half-breeds. Like me, western European on my father's side and southern African on mother's. Too black to be white, too white to be black.

[@thelingeringartist]

Oh my goodness,the amount of times PEOPLE get flustered and their panties in a bunch over me having dark-skinned characters from Asia,specifically Japan,(in a story of mine,one of the main protagonists is literally black and grew up in Japan all his life) is insane. and it’s always frustrating,because I know dang well if he were white,nothing would be said. Absolutely nothing.

[@mits9991]

People think of asians all light skins complexion, but there are a lot of brown complexion folks out there too. Curls and all

[@ShrekGKSPrivacy]

Ah yes. There was a video of a guy with a japanese mother and an african american father. So yeah there is in fact Japanese Black People.

[@korvexus9922]

wowee

[@lisaanimi]

The editing style, the humour, the pacing and the music everything in this video just kept me so entertained that I'm impressed. Please make more content like this!

[@purplegalaxies2149]

OMG YOU HAVE A HUSKY?! You’re now my favourite KZbin of all time

[@NeonSonOfXenon]

The hairstyle thing hit the closest to home for me. I'm only half black, and I'm lighter skinned, so the curly hair is kind of my only indicator. I don't always try to make myself in games, but when I do its irritating

[@RESURGAM.]

same brother, but im full black, my mom straight up ran out of ink and all i got is my black curly hair 😂

[@wordfr]

@@RESURGAM. same

[@toastandersmith6804]

it's impossible for me to make a mii

[@crystonlight5804]

yeah im white but the traditionally black styles usually looks so damn good when done right too. such a damn shame how few there are

[@lil_s24]

me too but I am black tho

[@Leukick]

It would be refreshing to see more dark skinned characters and WITHOUT some sort of stereotypes. Your skin colour doesn't dictate a particular personality after all; people are diverse.

[@dansmith1661]

They should maybe combat it instead of perpetuating them. Then they get into a rage when called out on it.

[@wakkaseta8351]

But, but, muh black experience/struggle!

[@Leukick]

@@dansmith1661 The ones perpetuating the stereotypes are different than the ones who aren't perpetuating stereotypes.

[@Trilliman707]

exactly!!!exactly!!like Leroy Smith in telling is basically a black iPhone man which is awesome and not stereotypical and if u have a problem with diversity than play sports ages and fighting games they are one if the best games in terms of good diverse representation

[@lanapoke936]

ppl rly forgetting steve is black

[@aiunderstand274]

Extremely supportive comment: Loved ur vid, great watch, learned something new today.

[@shellephant552]

It amazes me how these people are like "why do you care so much if there's someone who looks like you in a game?" And then immediately switch up to "why is there a person who doesn't look like me in this game?" as soon as there's a black character

[@jedisalsohere]

Jet Set Radio was Japanese and came out in 1999, and it featured not one, not two, but THREE wholearse playable black characters, one of whom was female. Jet Set Radio Future came out three years later and featured the same cast but with another playable black female character. And guess what? The world didn't fucking implode. JSR and JSRF are, like, the only games by a triple A publisher (Sega) to feature black female playable characters that I can think of. (okay until apex was brought up)

[@gogetathegreatestfusion801]

Sega does what Nintendon't

[@samalton5837]

Wow, so either you're too young, or haven't gamed for that long. Virtua Fighter has Vanessa, DOA has an Afro-Mexican girl, Tekken has Raven Master, and there's more from other games in addition to that especially when also adding male characters to it. This is the dangerous rhetoric that happens when people don't know history, including their own. You should probably play I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream as that also has an African-American woman in it who is playable.

[@jedisalsohere]

@@samalton5837 I mean I am sixteen so that would explain it (Although I will say, I'm not sure how asking for more diversity in games is "dangerous rhetoric", and he did actually mention fighting games in the video)

[@calebhoward7763]

There’s Age of Calamity (Urbosa) and Arms (Twintelle) as of now so that’s at least an improvement.

[@NitroIndigo]

I've never played Jet Set Radio, but isn't inspired by American youth culture? Hmm.

[@JohnnyDoeman]

I've noticed character creator hair options aren't great from a gender-perspective, either. With Japanese games in particular, making a male character gives you about 1/3rd the options of female characters, just in general, and there's always a few that just look silly and unappealing. And most games gender-lock the hairstyles, so it's even more limiting.

[@nichi1031]

Same with typically afro-centric hair. Very few games will allow you to have course hair, an afro, or anything afro-centric. So you got dark skinned characters with straight hair, which i feel like doesn't feel like black representation.

[@hasseo195]

At last, the japanese games have better options, than the western. I hate most hair stils in the western games, because, they didnt even come near to my wish for hair. And that is simply, straight, flatt hair, without any extra and a pony. How are the hairs of most western games? Nearly all of them has free foreheads. Or are to short. Dont have simply semi long hairs. Or, have some extra or fancy things in the hairs.

[@aliceslab]

ya but like, a man with some haircut thats meant to go on a girl is throw up worthy cough cough* man bun

[@NIHIL_EGO]

That's one of the reason Miis are/were so cool, you had no limitations based on genders.

[@BeastGuardian]

@@aliceslab I don't know, some guys make the most incredibly femme styles work, though not everyone has the same tastes. Vomit-inducing is kind of a worrying reaction though. You might want to stop and examine why a dude with his hair in a bun bothers you to the point of illness. Sounds like a symptom of possible fear of people who defy gender norms or your expectations. Lots of people take the sight of people subverting gender expectations as a direct assault on their personal masculinity/femininity, which is unfortunate.

[@RidireGeas]

Oh, I love this video so much! It perfectly encapsulates the lack of Black representation in video games while simultaneously shattering every single bad faith argument I've seen against them. My personal favorite was at 11:16, where you pointed out the bad faith argument that I hate the MOST where white people would pretend that representation doesn't matter while ignoring the fact that they can say that so comfortably due to them being represented in the vast majority of media. Plus, the point made at 12:01 was the cherry on top of how whenever there is non-white presentation, it is almost met with outcries of "Forced Diversity!", as if the presence of a Black person somehow means the absence of a white person. ...With that said, it's a shame that a lot of the new comments don't even watch the video and are immediately hostile for no real reason.

[@MasterBotttle]

Actually agreed.

[@KingNerdius]

Encapsulates my thoughts on this video exactly

[@Purp1e_]

splatoon is a total exception to this, youve got great customization and 2 very important black idols :D in matches you see people of all skin colors and its great

[@Crybaby_21]

Frye is based on Indian culture, so she is Indian, you guys have to stop thinking that all characters with dark skin are black, that's racist.

[@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

I was always one of those guys who said "Oh, I don't really mind if I never see/play a character that looks like me, as long as the story is good". And then the Shang Chi movie came out, and while it wasn't the "Black Panther for Asian people" that the world expected it to be, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel pretty happy about seeing someone who looked like me on the screen paired with cultural stuff that hit pretty close to home. That being said, I also liked the "stereotypical" stuff, so take this with a grain of salt.

[@JustinCage56]

Today I learned that JSGWAM is Asian. Neat!

[@CookiesAreCookiesLOL]

I think I'm the same way. I'm happy if I see it but I don't mind if I don't.

[@Dr_Mundo]

Damn, didn't think you was Asian, but cool I guess.

[@clark987878]

Good to know

[@kungfuhusler]

Literally half or more of the gaming industry is Asian so.....

[@thevoidmagician6653]

"I have no problem with women and blacks in video games.... but" 'But' is such a powerful word

[@ThyFloorestFloor]

I have no problems with the actual age of consent, but…

[@SpiritofFireMrVader]

I am dead, BUT...

[@Nick_Lamb]

I want video games to be well made and fun ... but

[@69Kazeshini]

im not a furry.........but

[@1LuvMLPFiM]

But.

[@TheBigGlober68]

You make so many great points. It's just the colour of someones skin. Why are they treated so differently

[@Man-ej6uv]

"lifelong black person" implies that you can be a temporary black person

[@Man-ej6uv]

"females"? "blacks"? dear god is this 1956?

[@terraprint9183]

tbf Michael jackson was a temporary black person

[@MegaTheman25]

My issue isn't representation, it's the fact that when a black person is shown in a non-historical piece, it's considered "forced diversity" Like the story can have well written characters that just exsist without refering to their race, or just be a good game, but people write it off anyways.

[@missingdiamond6676]

Not always, look at Game of Thrones.

[@bloody4558]

"forced diversity" Not true, It's only really forced diversity when you have tokenism. When you have proper adaptations or the creation of original characters of other ethnicities that were written to be on the story from the very beginning, you'll rarely see anyone complain. The problem arises when Hollywood will ignore all original ethnical characters in favor of tokenizing other characters

[@revimfadli4666]

Weren't most cases of forced diversity not well-written in the first place?

[@bloody4558]

@Smash 123 I mean they are literally forced, there is a law hat make it an obligation to include a black character in a movie, that's why we have so much tokenism in Hollywood. Of course the law does make sense as Hollywood used to be devoid of any black representation whatsoever. But now that law is causing many problems. Still producers and directors are partly to blame anyway fr being scummy and not adapting characters to represent these ethnicity, many of which already exist in books and comics.

[@hailghidorah2536]

@@bloody4558 no there's f*cking not? Don't spread BS

[@hermes932]

I think what makes people dislike "forced representation" is that its implemented in a really shameless and stereotypical way, like, if you look at how some writers represent other races, genders or sexualities they usually end up making characters that are just walking stereotypes, like black characters have to be loud or a comic relief, or gay characters have to be overly feminine or masculine and every action they make has to announce that they are gay ect. This makes people dislike this characters because they are just badly written, they dont feel like real people and thats because real people have their own unique identity regardless of their gender, race or sexuality. At the end of the day representing others shouldn't go beyond a well written character who is also black or asian or whatever really, with that just being a characteristic and not their entire personality, otherwise it feels "forced" and just annoying to the people you're trying to represent really. TLDR: Don't make "black characters", make characters who are black.

[@malum9478]

then the people who are being represented would be the ones voicing their opinions on the alleged annoyance, but that's rarely the case, is it? it's always people NOT from that group. usually white, usually straight, usually male, etc. the fact of the matter is that the characters could be written like gold and the complaints would remain. the reason people dislike "forced representation" is no other reason than bigotry. full stop. the same groups don't give a shit about characters being boring or badly written nearly as much if they're a white boy. and actually we do still need "black characters". see, this is the issue, and why actually talking to a black person for once in your life is important--on both a personal and professional level: when the black experience is ignored entirely, it's how you get weird shit like keanu reeves coaching a little league team of black kids going to a catholic school in the 90's, like that's a real thing. for those unaware: black folks in the US are predominantly protestant for a variety of reasons. black catholics are more likely in latin america, the islands, and europe (black italians). while you can do this in a way that's clever(paramount+'s EVIL is a really good example as a major factor of david's character and struggle is that he's one of a handful of black catholic priests in the WORLD, hk rec) it's an example of something not making sense for a black character and clearly being an example of white writers and directors not understanding black people. the "colorblind" approach is almost as flawed as the nothing approach; you need both types. you need characters who's experience isn't defined by their "black experience" but also characters who are unabashedly very black with a very black experience. and in both cases, if you ain't sure: we are LITERALLY. ALL OVER THE PLANET. and even if you don't live next to one of us: THE INTERNET. IT EXISTS. compensate us for our time and give credit if you're getting consulting for a professional endeavor. it's that simple. i refuse to believe this is a thing people really have trouble understanding.

[@hermes932]

@@malum9478What Im referring to in my comment is stereotypical behaviour, not the "experience" you are talking about. I understand your point and you are partly right; of course there are differences in how someone lives their life based on their race, gender and/or sexuality, (those are parts of someone's personality and body afterall) but what Im referring to is stereotypical, untrue and often exaggerated characteristics that can end up being harmful by reaffirming the stereotypes they are based on. For example: Im not quite sure what you are referring to as "the black experience" in your comment but, lets say a writer wants to represent that experience with a character and the writer ends up writing a walking stereotype that completely misses the point of that "experience"; that could end up being harmful to the image of the "black experience" that the people who see this character have and that is the type of scenario is what Im talking about. This is also completely ignoring the fact that we are all human and none of this shit should really matter tbh. But the fact that more and more writers in modern media are following this trend in which a character has no personality beyond their race, gender and/or sexual orientation makes it clear that they dont really care about making good characters or a good story ,they only care about making more money by tricking people into relating to some charicature of themselves. So yeah the problem that I have with "forced representation" is that its lazy, greedy, pointless, possibly harmful and honestly just really annoying. Also don't assume my race, sexuality and gender based solely on my opinion pls and don't forget that discrimination is something every single person in this planet suffers reagrdless of how/who they are thx.

[@dueydeebs5848]

This is precisely why I dislike the idea of representation. Dont put a character in to "represent" shit. Characters need to exist because they are people involved in the story. This is the entire basis of why people scream WOKE at much of modern entertainment. Halo, Cowboy Beebop, Star Wars, The Witcher, Resident Evil, Saints Row, G4...The list continues to grow. Modern writers are guilty of precisely what you describe here. Their entire perspective is based upon one thing and one thing only, which is gender, race or sexual orientation. When those aspects take on more precedence than development of a competent plot, it's a surefire sign of woke pandering. How do you determine whether or not those aspects will take precedence over the plot before the show/game/movie is released? Pay attention to the first things the creators are excited to tell you about. They should never under any circumstance tell you anything related to gender, gender roles, race, or sexual orientation. If they're trying to sell you a product or earn a subscription by peddling that, you know it's agenda based and you can safely and smoothly avoid wasting your time and attention on that drivel.

[@Basicedit101]

Yess thank you

[@crfstewarje]

@@dueydeebs5848 Halo, Disney Star Wars, and Cowboy Beebop were not "woke". They were poorly written, which is why they failed.

[@somerandomyoutuber3509]

As a white male gamer, I confirm that this video has extremely valid points I have been seeing across games for years.

[@ZeanZaffre]

“As a white male gamer” How many labels do you want? Yes One individual doesn’t represent a whole demographic 😑

[@somerandomyoutuber3509]

well no duh. just saying he talks about guys like me and I agree with the points he makes. and while I obviously don't represent the whole demographic, you have to use broad strokes when talking about broad topics.

[@ZeanZaffre]

@@somerandomyoutuber3509 The topic of race and inclusion has done nothing but destroying merit and artistic values only for the sake of fulfilling a quota. It should have been left decades ago... Centuries if you throw Marxist theory in the mix.

[@stelliarsheep]

I may be the whitest and palest white boy ever, but god I love representation in games. It makes things more realistic to me. Just having a cast of stark asian and white people in a game or a show feels so off to me and is definitely unrealistic. I absolutely need diversity in games to enjoy it a little more, and most of my favorite games have a lot of it. I actually enjoy making characters I play as a little tan, so having an option to make my character darker than paper is always super nice, since I personally wish I wasn't as pale as I am. (not because i'm sad about being white, but because i burn SO EASILY and i think tan skin is more pleasing in character designs) Splatoon, for example, has gotten great with its diversity especially with the newest installation. Not only are the playable characters super customizable with more hairstyles for most people (including a buzzcut, cornrows and an afro lol) but it has a lot of skin colors available. I think the main reason I love splatoon 3 is because the main idols are all based on different parts of the world. Big Man is based on Brazil, Frye is based on the Middle East, and Shiver is (unsurprisingly) based on Japan. I love that there's diversity like this, and my latin american and indian friends absolutely LOVE Big Man and Frye for being representation for them that they rarely get. Even Shiver is great representation for Japanese culture, even if Japanese people get more than enough rep, but its unsurprising she exists when Nintendo is a Japanese company, and splatoon is more popular in Japan than the west. (this video came out before splatoon 3, i know that, but i thought i would bring it up) I think our society has a lot to learn from black people and people of color, and I really hope someday darker skinned characters in media are normalized and not stereotyped. It sucks that its now 2024 and only things are slightly kicking off, but even then, diversity in media is still scarce. I still wish there was more representation for trans men, as I am a trans man and rarely see representation for people like me, so I can understand in some ways what its like to not have people who look like you in a game.

[@admiralAlfonso9001]

Same it’s like it’s mind boggling to some people that some people enjoy other cultures and want to represent it of their own volition and they think the only reason you would represent other cultures is that you’re just doing it for brownie points and to be “politically correct”

[@ooctie]

“Remember how they whitewashed Daisy?” *remember how they left her out of Mario strikers: Battle League*

[@danielsimmich1858]

Yet another example of white genocide smh

[@kinoleogeo7998]

She’s home… and Shy Guy, I guess. Man that game was more barebones than launch SFV

[@emalmohsenzada3887]

@@kinoleogeo7998 yeah gladly

[@harlgg]

I like your pfp

[@Guy-cb1oh]

Daisy was as white as mario was in her very first game appearance...

[@AkaiKnight]

It's simple: if we (black people) want more representation in video games, then we have to make some and play the games these characters are in. Would it be nice for European and asian developers to add more black people to their games? Sure. But I don't think it's wise to rely on this form of "welfare of representation", banking on the solidarity from other races to "give" us a seat at the table. If we go that route, we won't gain any respect because "they" won't see us as peers, and all of the power is in their hands, allowing them to dictate what form that representation takes. The irony about all the talks concerning representation is that it would also apply to Asians and whites. if there's something about humans that just NEEDS to represent themselves racially in everything in order to identify with it or whathave you, then clearly that would impact white people and Asian people, which would cause these creators to prefer their own race when they create these works of fiction, ergo its foolish to expect them to rise above their own human qualities and NOT do that, for the sake of satisfying that same biological itch in another ethnicity.

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

THANK YOU! George RR Martin put it best. when asked why most of his characters are white, he simply replied that it's because he's white. he wasn't being racist, but he admitted his works are obviously gonna focus on European oriented fantasy. he said as people get older and more POC make their own works, you'll see a lot more representation. personally I think Africa is too underlooked in civilizations and Afrocentrists try to only use Egypt and call it all black rather than acknowledging the great diversity within Egypt. I'd love to see a fantasy world similar to the Kush, Mali, Axum, etc.

[@fernandobanda5734]

I kinda agree with most of this, except you can have more creators of more diverse groups *and* also demand it from other creators, let's say European or Japanese. Of course it's not a must for them and not every game is meant to be super internal but a clear example would be a character creator that lets you pick tons but it doesn't cover everything. That's a great opportunity to tell the developers to care just a bit more.

[@Ray03595]

yea i can agree w/ what you're saying. but also, it's just not a very hard thing to do either. Pokemon has been doing if effortlessly across all their forms of media for a while now. And to play devils advocate a bit, japanese media seems very open to representing europe, white ppl, and medieval settings in their fantasy. So I don't buy that they are simply creating characters w/ only ppl who look like them.

[@thehieromancer2795]

I like that I watch this video and of course the first thing I see from someone, who I assume is black, goes “If we want to see change, we should make the change and expect no one else to do it for us.” Clearly, the lessons learned from Malcom and Garvey’s movements have not be learned. It is not as simple as “more black businesses = better black representation”, as systematically these things won’t have an impact. To do anything, you need to learn it. The tools to learn it may not be accessible to you. And if they are, the means to distribute may be inaccessible. The situation is so much more nuance than “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” We are a social people. It make sense we tried to connect to each other and want to se ourselves in each other and work. Tl;dr There are potentially thousands of black works from black authors about black fantasies and there’s reasons why they go overlooked.

[@loweni7460]

@@ManiacMayhem7256 Egypt may have been diverse but the natives and rulers were still black

[@smashdriven1640]

I play a lot of Smash and I’ve thought of this exact thing before! It is strange that media has been so slow to adapt and I think you bring up some really good points.

[@mangle9143]

You make a lot of great points. I never thought about not having anything really resembling your hair texture in a game, that's kinda messed up.

[@jackstack2136]

I'm pretty white, but here's how I write races in fantasy for anyone who cares to dismantle it: Step 1: I write the dynamics of a character personality. Step 2: I write their backstory based on birthplace/cultural influences. Step 3: I establish their skin tone. Step 4: I never let Step 3 become more important than 1 or 2. So far, this seems functional. Personally, I am bored of slavery being used as an easy backdrop for civil unrest in fantasy settings so I try to avoid skin tone being a contributing factor in anything regarding a character aside from their physical appearance and physiology.

[@almanac4150]

I would say you're spot on. Fantasy stories don't have to inject our real life issues into them. So literally skin tone can just be skin tone. I applaud you for your considerations of others.

[@retr_0864]

I wish most people thought like this😔

[@NotJarrod]

This is how I always have said it should be done. I never saw the problem with characters not looking like me. I'm white skinned (mix race tho) but I dont need white characters just to feel included. For example, I still loved watching Everybody Hates Chris despite nearly the entire cast being black people. I never thought anything of it, I just thought of them as relatable characters that happened to live in a predominantly black populated city. Keep doing things the right way: character substance first, skin tone after. Just like anybody with the right mindset should be seeing people.

[@jeangarcia6432]

See this guy already has a problem with that because he thinks that if u do 1 and 2 then ur being racist lol this video is too vague because on purpose

[@speingogogaku9087]

This can get you in trouble with SJWs though. I have heard that white people should "stay in their lane" when writing fantasy as they could never "comprehend the struggles of black people" - from a white liberal professor. I think that might be one of the many problems contributing to lack of black diversity in media. Racists on the right and the left play a role.

[@FlareBlitzBanana]

I don’t understand how people can get upset about their being “too many” black people in games while also saying “if they’re well-written characters their race shouldn’t matter”. It’s not propaganda if it’s just reflecting reality.

[@giovanni6643]

If a game is pushed as being historically accurate and it's set in or based off an area that almost exclusively has one race at the time people will be upset if said race isn't represented accurately.

[@seanwilliams7655]

@@giovanni6643 agreed. If the game is set in 1400s Scotland, I don't expect to see any black people. However, if a game is set in modern day New York, I expect some diversity.

[@Abyzz_Knight]

The answer is simple, their problem is that they're racist. The whole "If they're well written" statement is just a cover

[@Abyzz_Knight]

In that case wouldn't the argument be something like "The racial depictions of characters aren't historically accurate" rather than "there's too many black people" The way someone responds to something is very telling.

[@wakkaseta8351]

"Reflecting reality" is always the go-to excuse, even when reality was nowhere like what's supposedly being reflected.

[@denjis_left_nut]

I'm immediately subscribing. AMAZING vid man

[@dibriolce9817]

I am an aspiring writer, and I like creating fashionable characters; and being born white, and living in an area with mostly white people, I have trouble when designing black characters. I write fantasy stuff, and I've always wanted to create good black characters but I simply just cannot get satisfied with it's style, color scheme, or whatever, 90% of the time I try and create one. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I personally never had too much contact with black people directly, I don't know how to represent them in a satisfying way. Wish I knew more about the black culture and fashion.

[@sheeesh404]

It's good you have an open mind about these things!

[@reeba4824]

Research helps a lot with this stuff. I'm an artist and I researched hair tutorials on KZbin, specifically for black and hispanic women. Then I would just draw what I thought looked the coolest. It's been a while, so hopefully you've done some research too! Oh and I'd recommend listening to a variety of different voices for the ppl you wanna write about, cuz everyone has a different POV y'know?

[@zeon9041]

If you think black people lack options, imagine being Native American lol But ya on a serious note as an ethno-historian this is mostly well constructed for a non-academic essay. You also did a good job picking up on the coded racism included with some of the criticism of inclusion in media.

[@sace3]

can confirm as a native american

[@Martalo7]

Oh man how about the lack of Eskimos in video games? We can keep going on and on and on...

[@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440]

Trails of cold Steel got a Native American kinda character

[@AnythingLounge]

@@sace3 isn't that because most full-blooded Native Americans no longer exist due to the fact of the white man murdering them?

[@norbs4004]

Assassin's Creed 3. Character is half Native American. Although I hated the game play compared to Assassin's Creed black flag lol.

[@aduckinlingerie]

Something people have to realize is that you can criticize media you love. Just because I love a game doesn’t mean I think it’s perfect! There’s always room for improvement. This mindset can be applied to imperfect game design so why can’t it be applied to their representation too?

[@florpleborp2275]

Critiquing a medium of art, whether it be a film, a photograph, or a video games, is a sign you care about that medium and therefore want the best from it.

[@bloody4558]

@@florpleborp2275 It should be, but many people do not understand this. To them "I like something" = "It's perfect"

[@flow185]

@@bloody4558 Id like to add that you can like trash things the thing is to not act like just because you like it it's automatically ggod

[@dumpydapillow8519]

@Russian Waifu What is "Forced Diversity" to you?

[@greencheekconurestan5316]

@Russian Waifu okay "Russian waifu"

[@CaptainFynx]

Ah, you are one of those youtubers who thoroughly list all the music used. Bless your heart.

[@VHSAM]

Honestly I hadn't given much thought to this subject, but this was very informative, thought provoking, funny and well made video. And this video has made me consider things that I've honestly never thought of before, definitely has me thinking about this subject in a different way.

[@DaffyTaffy93]

It’s a stretch but the homie Ganon counts in my heart as a brotha

[@PostModernCereal]

And the way he's always a villain is lowkey messed up. (They even try and give him a sympathetic portrayal in Wind Waker, but Link doesn't really do anything new with that info).

[@pablitotorres8254]

Well in ocarina of time he is just a male gerudo turned evil so, yeah he black

[@myguy4203]

Arguably the most popular Ganon (from OoT etc) is Gerudo Ganondorf, and Captain Astronaut as do many others also consider the Gerudo from BoTW black. So you can justify Ganondorf being black if you think the Gerudo are black, right?

[@PostModernCereal]

@@pablitotorres8254 I think the demise curse helps explain things to a degree, but like in Windwaker he mentions that his region was barren and in need of resources. I also think Hyrule's royal family at the time wasn't really willing to help in that regard (not unlike our own geopolitics and race). I'm just hoping that curse gets yeeted in botw2 and homie ganon gets a fair chance at being his own person.

[@ASHtheSLUGCAT]

Lol he's not black. He's comes off as middle eastern.

[@sillycookie]

It drives me bonkers that people get so hostile to others who only want to see more of themselves in media they want. My entire life I was expected to relate and consume media that was spearheaded by white male leads. And I did! Dare I say I loved some of that media. But theres such a wonderful personal connection when you see someone like you in something you watch/read/play that's difficult to articulate. Its what I felt when i watched El Tigre, or the Book of Life, Coco.... Of course, my experience as a Mexican is very different from a black person, but I can heavily empathize with the angle of media and cultural connections.

[@sethharpenger607]

I think its that there are a lot more Asian and white people making the games and just making what's familiar to them or relevant to the themes of the story. I think that broadly stems from the lack of wealth in Africa and the machismo of the cultures surrounding that population. Mexico, Italy, Ireland, Indra, most of the pacific islands, all of central and south america and Russia all have basically the same issue. Most depictions of those people are similarly troubled because its likely only a few of the devs have any experience with those people, their culture or values. They're just easier to make in a character creator

[@RE0XY]

The truth is that every time I see a Mexican in a video game with a big hat or clothes that were only worn in 1900, it just makes me laugh at this point xD, l The truth is I don't mind if there is Latin representation, I just want a good story and gameplay.

[@Jaycan]

It has been so hard to create myself in games every time I get to a character creation screen I end up praying “Please have dreadlocks PLEASE HAVE DREADLOCKS!”

[@lolzu]

that's why i personally just don't and i create anything that isn't human if it allows me to. literally in most character creations i would just make a white character lmfaoo

[@max-d8105]

It crazy cause dreads are the coolest hairstyle imo. Why not have it as an option? Don't people get tired of making and having the same usual rehashed protag?

[@deepblue8143]

I would cut them, anyone that has even remotely crossed paths with you would thank you.

[@themightybristolbomb]

@@deepblue8143 Are you...anti-dreadlock? 💀

[@deepblue8143]

@@themightybristolbomb yes just like everybody else. It's not so much that as just anti filth. Of course you can't smell it because you are used to it but have some consideration for others around you.

[@Pensive_Scarlet]

"He even made the first game to have a Pause Button in game!" Okay, hold up, Gerald "Jerry" Lawson ought to be one of the most revered and respected video game pioneers of all time. Not even kidding. The interchangeable cartridges thing is obviously important, but the *pause* button? Beyond essential. That is one hell of a legacy.

[@thorocomments817]

I was aware of the cartridges, but didn’t know about the pause button. Pause Kidding. RIP to the God. Yet ANOTHER reason why Elden Ring is racist. There is no pause. Fuck that game. Pause.

[@gustavonomegrande]

@@thorocomments817 there actually is a pause button, hidden behind some menus, there's two ways, the one I remember is by pressing the map button twice and selecting the second option, the other way is through the start menu, don't remember the exact way, but it opens the same options as the map one.

[@thorocomments817]

@@gustavonomegrande seems like a lot of hoops, lol. Thanks for this, though!

[@jayr5mitty351]

@@gustavonomegrande same with Nioh. Had to menu, the press start.

[@joshfreeman3452]

Lawson: I think we should incorporate a button to pause a game at anytime. Elden Ring / Souls Fans: What's a pause button?..

[@ocsjc13]

Let’s be real daisy isn’t black she was brown

[@dimasguerreiro]

and?

[@CarlJoshuaPornelos]

​@@dimasguerreiroracissst

[@dimasguerreiro]

@@CarlJoshuaPornelos 10 months later bruh

[@jadon1400]

Truthfully diversity and inclusion or whatever bs is being pushed doesn't matter cause at the the end of the day you play a game because it's fun and not because you don't feel represented I'm a white guy if I play a game about nothing but black women but it's still fun who cares

[@OGAngie]

The animal crossing story about your mom broke my heart. Holy crap, that's heartbreaking.

[@countersphere2924]

Ikr I literally felt quite sad after hearing that :/

[@junebunny2938]

Right? That's so depressing

[@dookfields2362]

It was sweet and kinda sad

[@ogmulletking3195]

You should probably go to the hospital

[@LadyOfTheEdits]

very heartbreaking :(

[@itzkingcringe]

Made me realise a lot of things I’ve never considered. Especially the hairstyle thing I was like “oh fuck he’s right”

[@Meatslap]

I don’t think i want goomba hair cut

[@bowenjudd1028]

@@Meatslap yeah, we need better hair than gumbas

[@Adam-wg2rf]

Does the hairstyle part matter realy i undestand the rest but i don't think hairstyles are a big deal or a deal at all .

[@maddiemcnugget1076]

yeah a lot of things, even if it pertains to the group we are in are kinda missed because we are conditioned to think a certain way. I always try to go out of these ways of thinking, but yeah sometimes it's like.... my brain cannot handle this. My life is already full of bs and now I'm learning there is MORE injustice in my life? IDK we the people are just... tired. But compared to other things in this world that REALLY need to be fixed... this one is a quick fix... just imo.

[@lxmesoda]

yes it does matter 💀​@@Adam-wg2rf

[@Glitch-vn4hz]

extremely based video, man is spitting straight facts, keep it up

[@jarlbalgruuf2415]

_"Why No Black People in Video Games??"_ *Thumbnail shows a black person from a video game*

[@KingNerdius]

I can’t tell if you’re joking or not because the internet might actually be this braindead

[@jarlbalgruuf2415]

@@KingNerdius PLEASE ACTUALLY WATCH THE VIDEO BEFORE EMBARRASSING YOURSELF IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!

[@dohickey7184]

As an African I've grown apprehensive over these kinds of videos because the end result is usually a demand of bad faith representation where they insist on changing established characters and labelling every non-black character as problematic and then telling me that I have to be outraged at it because I'm black. Which is why I am So SO glad that this video wasn't one of those, there was genuinely not a single thing I disagreed with in this video and you even called to attention some things that never even occurred to me, so thank you for this Astronaut, this will be my go to video to link if I ever enter a discussion about this topic

[@AudaciousBourgeois]

Yeah same here, except I'm a black American. A lot of the time these sorts of videos essentially make the "race swapping is good because white people already have enough representation" argument, but this one neatly avoided making that argument and spoke against it. I personally don't care about representation in videogames because in games where I can create my character I always design them according to the game's worldbuilding. I never thought of custom characters as an extension of myself or having to be relatable, to me that's a bit weird and larpy (but I get why others like it even though I disagree).

[@dohickey7184]

@@AudaciousBourgeois I completely agree with you there friend, like idk why so many people don't realise that you don't fix discrimination with more discrimination, that's how we stay divided. And yeah I'm in the same exact boat as you on character customization, I never spend more than like 5 minutes on that, I just make them dark skinned if I can and call it a day, otherwise I just pick the default option since 90% of the time they're going to be wearing a helmet anyways lol. But I do put in a lot more effort in life simulator games like Animal Crossing or Sims where the entire point is for the character to be a direct extension of you.

[@LvUhcX]

Yep African not equal black and vice versa

[@migueld8970]

Same here, I'm aware of the current climate of anti whiteness and thought it was going to be another sjw video, but he's just asking for reasonable representation.

[@sharku8417]

If you wanna lose an argument, then sure, go ahead. Dude says he doesn't want established characters to be race swapped but a minute earlier contradicts himself by praising representation in Witcher Netflix show where established white characters from books are played by black actors.

[@kinkykink5235]

Twintelle and Cyril are some of my favorite characters. As a black guy, I've noticed how much white preference ripples through the anime/gaming world. It's fine if a white person looks nothing like a character aside from being white. People just accept her for the attempt. If a black guy cosplays a white character, it's the "ghetto version" and black people tend to get made fun of for the attempt.

[@WGPhil-uw5cs]

Asia is racist to just about anyone who isn't in their country. So yeah.

[@breakfastsquad9871]

You say that, but a white person is absolutely guaranteed to be ridiculed and/or threatened for daring to cosplay a character who isn’t as pale as them.

[@kinkykink5235]

@@breakfastsquad9871 I haven't seen it. Though if it's possible, it probably exists. My point still stands.

[@kirbstomp96]

I swear

[@kirbstomp96]

@@kinkykink5235 if you haven’t seen it ,why even question something you know nothing about?

[@wyatttyson7737]

This video is wild. Putting Kratos, Issac Clarke, and Duke Nukem next to each other and saying "aren't these all the same people" is next level delusional. Imagine if I put Forest Whitaker, Chadwick Boseman, and Dwane the Rock Johnson next to each other and said "these are different people?" As a cherry on top, a large majority of the "white" characters in mentioned outside of that collage of characters aren't even white; they are Japanese. The fact that you didn't even take the time to notice really shows how this isn't an argument from good faith. Its an argument from Racism; just the Racism you agree with. If you were born White you'd be wearing a white hood instead of a scarf whose origins you only pretend to understand.

[@mageofchaos]

This is a great video that really explains the problems with diversity in games. Too bad the racists also found this video

[@d.d.t8350]

You know something I find interesting. How different cultures see cultural representation in games. I'm mexican and every time I see a stereotypical mexican with a sombrero and heavy accent in a game, I find it funny and I commend it. We enjoy representation even if it's stereotypical. Every mexican and their mother loved seeing mario with a poncho and Sombrero.

[@Ralathar44]

And yet people worried about representation ironically tried to cancel Speedy Gonzales and the Mexican community rose up and smacked their hand and was basically like "stop that stupid shit". lol. Its like when someone says 'we need more strong black voices on this" and then Candace Owens talks and they're like "but not you". Actual representation would be "good, now we need more voices from other perspectives too." But IMO most of the time the idea of representation is co-opted for people's personal gain...often by people who have nothing to do with that group.

[@BaltaBueno]

@@Ralathar44 Usually the people crying over it are American born Hispanics who don't even speak Spanish, real Mexicans don't give a shit. I remember when they removed Mario with a sombrero from the cover of Odyssey, people actually got upset because it was nice having him there.

[@Ralathar44]

@@BaltaBueno I grew up in South Texas in HEAVILY Hispanic communities. The only part of your comment that is correct is that there is a deep division between American Hispanics and Mexicans. Ironically Mexicans have this sort of harry potter "mudblood" mentality about American Hispanics insomuchas the less "culturally pure" you are the less of a person you are. The lighter your skin is the worse of a person you are. The more "white" you act the worse of a person you are. It's basically just racism against subsets of their own race and it gets very very ugly. Right on down to gang violence. I've seen the same in black communities but not to the same crazy degree that Hispanics do it. I'll never understand why people are such assholes to each other for no good reason. But it has nothing to do with actual race and everything to do with people wanting to feel superior to each other based on a buncha stupid bullshit. Growing up on that fundamentally how I view racism. Because even if we were the same race we obviously just find new shit to discriminate against each other with.

[@Words-of-encouragement.-.]

@@Ralathar44 Just to give you a heads up my friend, what you described with "The lighter your skin is the worse of a person you are" is called "colorism" and it's also a massive problem in the black community. ETA: It also goes the other way where darker = worse

[@Ralathar44]

@@Words-of-encouragement.-. It's got touches in the asian community too. Each group even has its own terms like coconut, oreo, banana, meaning brown/black/yellow on the outside and white on the inside. It's disturbing and seeing it happen first hand and so prevalent in any majorly racial area basically removed any idea that we were ever going to "fix" racism. Best we'll ever do is change how it presents. Because it was never actually about race in the first place. People will just replace race with something else and enact all the exact same behaviors.

[@ekubo954]

I figure I mention this here since I have no where else to talk about this (and I refuse to be this open about myself on twitter) That one part about how representation matters really struck me because when I began drawing as a kid I would only draw white or light skinned/coded characters simply because there werent any main or important black characters at the time when I was growing up. It got to the point where even if I drew myself, I'd have all my features down EXCEPT my hair, making it either a spikey mess like Naruto or just making it straight. Growing up around primarily white folk also didnt help at all as I was constantly reminded about how different I was. I believe it was when my brother and I were watching Soul Eater and this one character appeared named Killik. I was already a huge fan of the Boondocks, but this was different since Soul Eater came from an entirely different country. On top of that, he was just so cool and he sort of looked like me! (at the time) It deffinitely changed how I viewed my media forever and inspired me to draw more accurately. The people that say representation doesnt matter never needed it in the first place. Also, if any artist say that "learning" to draw black people is "too hard" are hacks and arent good artists to begin with

[@ekubo954]

@@Wishtelle I'm glad you could relate and I'm happier that we evolved ourself from such weird times 🙏

[@atomcrusher1236]

Same it's pretty embarrassing 😄

[@shondon-.-4363]

I personally find it hard to draw black characters, but I also don't draw them a lot. I'm willing to learn, and watching this video gave me some inspiration to draw more black characters. I agree though, it's easy to say people don't need more representation when you've always had it

[@ekubo954]

@@shondon-.-4363 Yeah, my little comment at the end was very harsh and I apologize if it stung you or anyone personally. But you trying to draw black characters instead of not and staying stagnant is way better than the "artists" out there that dont even try and I feel like thats definitely worth something in the end

[@xenmaster2203]

Wtf… is this a copypasta? i’ve litterally seen this comment almost word from word on other places.

[@jkh5331]

As long as characters are not related. When you are making a lot of new characters, just write the characters how you want/need them to be. And then take a spin on the skin colour wheel. No one has ever been able to choose the colour of their skin at birth, but they did choose how they became the people they became. What im getting at is that the nerdy tech guy, could be anyone. The shy but loyal emotional core of the group, could look like anything.

[@Flopdoodle]

Counterpoint: The shy loyal type usually is not conventionally handsome, so make them ugly. Shyness very often stems from failed social-interactions resulting in damaged confidence, and then it spirals downwards from there. Damaged confidence will very often cause neglect in many aspects of ones life including (but not limited to) managing ones personal appearance. As such a nerdy tech guy has to be FAT, use SQUARE GLASSES, and must use an inhalator every other sentence followed by a thick lisp. Henceforth theeese rules three shall be present in every piece of media said stereotype is considered! Ni! Skin-color is whatever.

[@msxd1280]

YES. THANK YOU. That’s a good idea.

[@old.angelless]

As a white person, I am really happy to hear someone talk about it! This is important for me to get different perspective. Diversity and black representation matter.

[@FireGlitch]

As a black person, I heavily disagree that diversity and representation matters. Since it heavily implies that we should focus on literally anything but people's character/actions and behavior.

[@old.angelless]

@@FireGlitch yo, there is a difference between having representation and focusing solely on race or other factors of characters. When done right, representation does a lot of good, you can Google if it is helpful or not for yourself, there were studies. But if you mean that just putting a black person in a game and giving them 0 personality is bad then I agree.

[@theghostofjeffgoldblumdail9613]

Honestly, despite being filled with jokes, this is one of the most mature discussions I've seen on race in games, most of the time it's just people seeing racism that isn't there for woke points on twitter, or them just plainly being racist themselves, my hat is off to you Funny Astronaut Man.

[@antoinem.al-aziz3521]

"What are you talking about? There are Japanese black people". Absolutely, sir. Absolutely. Happy Father's Day to all the Dads (and Moms who perform that role too)

[@J.O.Junior]

Tbh I as a black person myself, I'm tired of hearing ppl cry racism on everything. When I'm playing a game I don't see if it meets any diversity objectives and checkmarks. I'm playing it to escape from the real world. Video games are a form of escapism after all. As long as I'm having fun, I dont care what colour a character is. They could be White, black, red, turquoise, purple, yellow and I still wouldn't giva a damn. Because the game is fun, and I'm enjoying my self

[@thecluckster3908]

He addressed every single point you just said

[@rfurthegamer3412]

@@thecluckster3908stole the words right outta my mouth

[@jamesmontgomery7074]

I experienced white privledge in an eye opening way while playing Pokemon Moon. I am white but for this pokemon game I decided I wanted to play as a black character. I chose to play as a black girl named "Mahina" which is hawaiian for "Moon". I was loving it, one of the best names I've ever chosen and started my now tradition of choosing names based on the regions the pokemon games are based on. When I got to one of the islands I found wooden standups with holes cut out for my character to take a picture with. Both were white. It dawned on me how often this kind of thing happenes to minorities and I understand a little better now how much it sucks.

[@Magrat_Knoblauch]

Soo, I gotta admit, as a person with the complexion of a mozzarella my first thought was as well "but there black characters in video games" and went through a list in my head... and then it clicked when you said, mostly never more than one, and nearly no main chars. Well, you're right and it's really fucked up that I haven't really realized it before, since not being represented (for my ethnicity) was never an issue and so I didn't develop the point of view for that. The game industry (and movie industry, while we're at it) really needs to do better.

[@unripetheberrby6283]

What a lovely comment about your perspective. :'') Thank you for realizing these things, thank you for the support

[@Magrat_Knoblauch]

@@unripetheberrby6283 Normally my response would be "you're welcome" to any thanks in my direction, but it feels weird to say that in this context. ^^ I hope I'll learn more to be a better ally and thank _you_ for your kind comment :)

[@smaakjeks]

@@Magrat_Knoblauch Most based comment I've seen all week. Also, don't be too hard on yourself, it's common for us in the "default human" category to simply not see the privilege we have with representation. Not because we're stupid or secretly racist, but because we haven't seen the shoe on the other foot. That bias is a universal human trait, by the way. And, the point is of course not to make people feel guilty. What we *can* do is realise what's going on and advocate for things to improve, just like you did :)

[@unripetheberrby6283]

@@Magrat_Knoblauch Hah Thank you for the thanks! 😂 Please also try not to let the considerations weigh you down much in the future; I pray people can be a good team on these kind of situations and continue being truly helpful and, empathetic with each other whenever it's possible, or reasonable. Since we're all basically the same thing with a lot of emotions and thoughts of our own. If we ever cross roads somehow again, I hope I'd be a open-minded person and listener of you too ed: Plus I hope you have a good day/night or week or whatever you'll have!🙏😌 lol

[@stefanswiss3760]

Well, it depends on the type of game, I had a couple of games in my days as a 16 bits Sega kid with black characters : Adam in streets of rage 1, Sammy in its sequel, the black guy from forgotten world, Jax from mortal combat, balrog from Street fighter II and given I had at most 10 games in my collection, the rest was either mascotts (sonic and such), sports and racing games or ninjas (shinobi what a great game) few characters come to mind because few characters manage to capture the zeitgeist : FF7 managed to capture the people's imagination and what a shock everybody remember the characters and it might be the only black guy people could site on PSOne with Tekken characters that also manage to arrive at the right time. If you think about it almost every game non story driven have a black version of the default protagonist : Jet set Radio, bust a Groove, Crazy Taxi, Any figthing game. The problem is limited to story driven games where japanese people make the most memorable characters (and in japan they have 1% of foreigners including whites). Western studio just don't make interesting characters in my mind : white military-like short hair dudes, but whatever the skin they always go with characters that are bland and somewhat of jackasses rebel attitude exuding from their skin, aside from lara croft, (and even she is kinda bland if you don't count her sex appeal) what European / American compelling character comes to mind (not including comic books characters?), personnaly I have a harder time finding a character I'd like to cosplay as, choosing a character from westerns games. My point in one sentence : impacting the collective mind is nearly impossible and I think western studio are really bad at it, unless they have billions of budget and make GTA or overwatch

[@AngelKyoX]

My two cents is, video game writing hasnt been great in awhile except for a few exceptions. Personally i dont care about my race being represented, because the writers have shown me time and time again they cannot get white or black people right. If its a white character , gotta play it safe guns and family, if its a black character gotta make the whole game some allegory to Roots or some social commentary. Here's an idea , real shocker , just make a game with better writing where the content of the character is good or evil or whatever. Also real talk black people in media typically lean hard into race being the for front of our "entertainment experience" because the well of creativity is so damn shallow for so much money. Lee from the walking dead is a good character because his race didnt matter. Lee had a bad fucking day, and on top of that experienced shitty GA traffic all while a zombie outbreak was going on. That spoke to me more than anything .

[@bruhwhy677]

GA traffic can be a bitch sometimes.

[@snatchadams69]

That traffic could make a priest want to tear shit up...

[@SulL101]

Yeah, Lee was a pretty fire character

[@wakkaseta8351]

Unfortunately, a lot of people in the online black community these days tend to be the ones demanding that all black characters portray "the black experience", regardless of the context of the fictional world (RIP Ekko from LoL). You know the ones, the "everything is political" types.

[@karmiccrotal3480]

I fucking miss Lee😭🙏

[@RubeusArchos]

Loved this.. sharing the hell out of this.

[@RaiJolt2]

This is just a great video. You do not know how annoying it is using a character creator that only has hair options for Japanese and white people and maybe, maybe Latin Americans and native Americans. There’s so many hairstyles but theres always like 4 black hairstyles and usually only 1 is good.

[@BaltaBueno]

Whenever someone brings up the "these are Japanese games" and that their population is almost 100% Japanese, then I always say that they have no problem oversaturating their games with White characters. So that excuse is actually bullshit lmao

[@Chihiro-Kikuchi]

Actually thats due to white people being far easier to use a template for. Why do you think anime characters dont look asian by majority

[@gabepilled]

@@Chihiro-Kikuchi uhm how?

[@365DaysOfBald]

@@Chihiro-Kikuchi they don’t look like anyone. Name a white person with huge red eyes

[@Chihiro-Kikuchi]

@@365DaysOfBald the majority of anime and manga characters are made to look like white people,

[@Chihiro-Kikuchi]

@@gabepilled name a character in anime manga or jrpg and chances are their features hair or eye colour isnt natively asian looking. Cloud strife, soray, bayonetta, ken masters, dante, chad (bleach) , the majority of the sailor moon cast, saber, i could go on all day

[@spongii7937]

From a young age I always wondered why so many of my games never contained people that looked like my friends. I hope things continue to get better and better and we’ll get more black leading games/characters!

[@missingdiamond6676]

Out of curiosity have you ever figured out why that is the case? why we don't have that many diverse characters in western media?

[@spongii7937]

@@missingdiamond6676 I’d say it’s a lack of understanding, lack of care, and it wouldn’t shock me if racism was involved. But I really don’t know, there’s a lot of factors. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that know better than I do.

[@florpleborp2275]

I think while some of it is a bit of racism, a lot of big international games come from Japan, which is very homogenous. Korea is another good example of a homogenous country. As a result, they hardly have anyone who’s POC. A lot of it stems from simply never considering it because their diversity is wildly different from say the USA’s diversity. It is becoming more and more common for POC characters and customizations to be included as time goes on, and hopefully will be standard soon. As for games made in the west, I don’t play very many of them that haven’t included those options. I don’t opt for them because they don’t look like me, but it seems to be more common over here. Granted, I wouldn’t consider one black character in a cast of two dozen white ones to be adequate.

[@missingdiamond6676]

@@spongii7937 Or maybe the fact that the majority of the west is made up of white people.

[@JArt872]

I don't care if I don't look asain enough to play Asain Games with asain characters. I PLAY THEM TO HAVE FUN. And if the only purpose you're looking for characters with the same skin tone as you and your friends but not the character themselves. Then what's the point?

[@3173_Delta]

In my favorite game ever, 100% of all people are black (Because there's only one human character... Behold: The solution to racism: Furries!) The game is Spiritfarer, the main character, the character you play as, is Stella, a black redhead, the only character customization you get is the color of her clothing, and even that is progress-locked Never once did I thing "Man, I'm nothing like Stella... Because I'm a white trans man and she's probably cis (... At least we both probably got a 🐈)" No I'm nothing like her because she's loving and kind and patient enough to work in end-of-life care and calls out her coworker for being a jerk and complaining about a "difficult" patient And I basically disowned my grandfather as soon as he got dementia because I couldn't handle him calling me 5 times a day (now he's dead, yay) There is so much more to a character then the color of their skin or their gender Normally people see themselves in characters that act like them

[@OnslaughterEx]

I'm a brazilian, in 90s we're represented by Blanka... and EVERY one liked him. But what if the game didn't have cultural representation of us? There was no problem. Boys and teenagers wanted to have more fun playing a good game and not be represented, this was just an easter egg. We played as boys, men, women, robots, dragons, ugly fat ninjas, beautiful knights. The last thing we wanted to do was pay attention to something like skin color being the same as ours. I saw few girls playing, not because they felt poorly represented, if that's the reason, but because women simply like violence and fights less than men. Do you know any girls who play Armored Core? Ace Combat? CoD? probably not. But you definitely know of one that plays LoL, because the graphics are cute and so are the models. The game has always been like this, for children, girls, boys and everyone else. In the same way that there were girls who liked Super Mario at the time, because it was cute. It's always been like this, boys like to see blood and violence, girls like cute things. There were games for all audiences. Anyone who didn't like one could just choose another, no one was offended for not liking a game because they weren't part of that game.

[@PanchoPonceN]

I'm Mexican and, while I agree to basically everything you said in your video, I also gotta mention that a lot of people in a lot of countries aren't used to racial diversity. That is, they tend to think of people in just one "race" because that's why they see and 99% of their life. So, when they create a story (even fantasy ones) it's "hard" to think of other races. So, when they "force" themselves to bring other races to their story just because "it's the right thing to do", well, we then talk about "forced diversity". If I want to do a fantasy world based on Mexican native mythology, it's going to be really hard for me to think of african or asian characters. It will feel forced. Just my two cents. Great content.

[@lynpotter6471]

I don't think you have to put multiple races in a game that is explicitly set in one racial context. Even with euro-centric backgrounds, multiple races aren't necessary if it's actually a Europe thing (like a viking setting). However, when the euro-centrism is just used as a default setting and doesn't actually have a racial context, then it's a little weird to have a de facto single skin tone. Even worse, it's bad when there are black people in your game but they're only the Mindless Enemy Hordes, usually from the ambiguous southern regions. For a world based on Mexican native mythology, I don't think it'd be strange to have a fully Mexican native cast.

[@P0k3D0nd3M4cG]

At least a million enslaved Africans were brought to Mexico by the Spanish to act as field overseers. Your second president was Afro-Mestizo. Mexico is an amalgam of three races, Native, White and African, like all of Meso and South America post-colonialization. Different countries and even different regions within a country may have higher concentrations of specific groups or mixes. Afro-Mexicans weren't even included on your census until like 2014. What you're talking about is erasure or just plain ignorance of your own people's history

[@P0k3D0nd3M4cG]

@@lynpotter6471 Mexican isn't a race. Latino people, across the spectrum, are varying mixtures of Native, White and African. They are inherently mixed-race people

[@lynpotter6471]

@@P0k3D0nd3M4cG I know it isn't a single race, but in the context of this comment that didn't seem like a hair I needed to split.

[@P0k3D0nd3M4cG]

@@lynpotter6471 it does tho because it gets messy when you try to talk about cultural identity and representation. OP can't include a significant amount of Mexicans if we wants to make a story like his, as most Mexicans are at minumum 33% racially White

[@SoulConstruct]

I would like to see more games with non-stereotype black people in them as main characters. Hopefully this trend continues where a character can be a character, without any sort of perceived association with stereotypes. I had a lot of fun with both Subnautica games, and the Pokémon games have made great progress thus far.

[@carsonarnoldussen7239]

like craig of the creek

[@gioclayton6634]

I wouldn’t call it progress it’s just something that should be done

[@kizzagaming6523]

Final fantasy 7 Barette (Original, haven't played new ones) is a good example of even if they do put a black character in, they're stereotyped to shit

[@von6413]

I’d like to see more races other than black and white in media lol.

[@FierySpiritMaury]

Most video games are from Japan. In order for this to happen Japan has to be exposed to more POC within their country. You can’t make what you don’t know

[@SkyKing1225]

Good video! As a writer it's easy to lose sight of what's normal to everyone else because you usually point out things about a character if they become relevant later (chekows gun or whatever) and tend to leave other details 'normal'. But that doesn't give a reason not to have appropriately many black (or other ethnicity) characters, especially in fantasy settings, since it is normal in our world and in many settings would be likely, it just maybe is not in the society you live in, so you don't think about it much.

[@user-dh7sm9zh9e]

I fully disagree on the LOTR part. Elves are stated as white in the novel. Dwarfs women are supposed to have beards. Fictional races doesn't need skin color diversity, they aren't humans. Amazon just disrespect and bash the original material, it's simply garbage.

[@matteopoldrugo9535]

In college I studied game art and I was trying to make a 3D model of my best friend at the time who’s black and the sheer lack of resources about how to properly model black people hair was absolutely absurd.

[@Adrian-pp6qy]

Because, you have to admit it, it's a mess.

[@SamuraiiJakk]

@@Adrian-pp6qy wtf is wrong with you, black hair can be in a variety of styles. so white hair can’t be messy?

[@Adrian-pp6qy]

@@SamuraiiJakk Yeah, natural straight hair just follows the shape of the head, curvy hair goes everywhere, hard to depict. wtf is wrong with me? Well, I'm not virtue signalling, like you. Natural black hair is a mess, hard to modell, this is one reason not to use it, 2nd reason, esthetics. You're welcome.

[@latteistrash]

@@Adrian-pp6qy that’s why often times you can use actual references and techniques, most artists will often times keep finding a way to do it. Just.. idk think ? Not trying isn’t going to get you anywhere, especially since as an artist you must really push your self to the limits. You can also use reference of people with 4c hair

[@latteistrash]

@@Adrian-pp6qy plus in the end it’ll feel great and actually builds you as an artist as to what you can do, pretty much opening you up to a wider range of ability

[@dsch772]

Interesting topic. I guess as an Asian I never thought about how so many Japanese games don’t even have Asian characters, and I personally never really cared about the ethnicity of the person that I’m role playing as, unless it’s strictly meant to only represent “me” as an avatar like a Mii or in Animal Crossing.

[@cortster12]

Same. I'm more into if the game ethnically makes sense, and can get super confused if a race is there that wouldn’t logically be there. An example being if a game was in South Africa thousands of years ago, you wouldn't expect a random white guy being the Mc. That would bother me to no end!

[@AJ-lm5dl]

Hello, fellow sane human who doesn't care about the color or "race" of a pixelated character's skin, but the content of the actual game.

[@fleantucky4486]

@@AJ-lm5dl “I have a dream that one day games will not be judged by the color of the mc but of the content of the gameplay” - MLKGaming

[@DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek]

All Japanese games with anime art styles are ambiguous. Japanese have light skin. What do you want from them

[@wompwompcryabttit]

@@cortster12 South Africa’s population has an extreme amount of white ppl

[@theveganduolingobird7349]

I love the comments which say “if you want diversity make the game yourself” great suggestion! Everyone has triple A budgets experience in coding and the time to make a game. Why is it whenever people cannot refute criticism without being racist they immediately resort to attacking the idea of criticism itself? (Or thinly veiled racism, turns out when you are a straight white man you kinda don’t get a say in inclusivity since you are in physically every video game)

[@FireGlitch]

You don't need a triple A budget in order to make a decent game with the said diversity. In fact there are a fair share of indie games that don't even have a big budget yet have just as good gameplay. If you want change, then make the change. Then again that would actually require not just coding experience but some level of creativity to even come up with the idea and how to execute it. TL;DC Such a shame to complain about something while also having a chance to do something about it.

[@theveganduolingobird7349]

@@FireGlitch such inspired criticism. Yes because everyone has the money to make a game, everyone wants to make a game, everyone has the time to make a game, everyone can make a game and everyone can make that game successful. How dare anyone criticise anything that they can do? Bought a bad chair? Make one yourself. You got a disease? Make the medicine yourself. Want a dog? Domesticate your own wolf. Your rebuttal is lazy and uninspired, representation in indie games isn’t the same as triple A games

[@mango_beel]

Idris Elba as Solomon Reid in Cyberpunk’s new expansion is shaping up to be such an exciting and interesting central character to the DLC, though I think they do a pretty good job of inclusivity as the city the game takes place is a “melting pot” to begin with, it’s nice to see more people of colour playing central roles in the storytelling of bigger games like Cyberpunk 2077

[@facesh0pping]

I'm so mad, I wrote out so many paragraphs about my opinions on race in gaming, general media, shitty talking points from capital G Gamers, etc and I looked at the emojis I could use and then KZbin just deleted my entire comment draft. But anyway, this was a very informative and entertaining video (as I've come to expect as a long-time(ish) viewer) and I hope that this comment contributes somewhat to keeping the comments section the opposite of a klan meeting.

[@ron_morron790]

The next time you want to make a *long* comment, first write it down on a notepad or microsoft word like program to avoid these disgraces, then copy and paste it on youtube.

[@aIkaIi]

Yeah, can't trust KZbin connection. Copy it somewhere else before posting.

[@andymcclurg9916]

@@aIkaIi Sam? Is that you?

[@aIkaIi]

@@andymcclurg9916 gonna get whooped during lunch tomorrow?

[@yeyo1019]

Also, remember to reload the page 1 minute in to make sure your comment was actually posted, the youtube censor bot works in strange ways

[@Binyamin857]

That’s why we just make our own stuff. We can be able to make our own narrative, and get ride of the negative stereotypes in video games ab us.

[@AkiRa22084]

As a Slav, I'm almost never represented or a villain.