When trying to grow your audience ends up shrinking it.

[@vincentallen1318]

What really makes me mad, is they ignore all the minorities & women that hate this agenda push for people that were never into these genres. The amount of terrible black characters created/ substituted in the last 10 years is insulting. Like you said, J, it makes it difficult to try something new that's generally good & stars minority/ female leads.

[@AzureRoxe]

Oh, they don't ignore them, they treat them like traitors and demonize them.

[@AL-ws5yi]

They step over them and dismiss their opinions. Very inclusive of them.

[@longtsun8286]

@@AzureRoxe As an ASIAN man whom a WHITE man FALSELY ACCUSED of being "racist" because I objected to Disney portraying my people as INSULTING STEREOTYPES, I know you're right.

[@Cerebrum123]

@@longtsun8286 I'm curious to hear the story behind that one. Which show or movie did you dislike for that reason?

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Bro, I feel the same. It's made me go back and look at older media made before I was born and I realized that real effort was made back then in a time where having Black characters was considered a risk. Now it feels like every Black character is the same; angry Black lesbian and fearful emasculated Black male because those are 'progressive'.

[@Burns_RED]

Cartman Kennedy is more relevant than ever 😂

[@BrandonScott-mi5pz]

I AGREE 👍

[@THEINFINITIVERSESAGA]

Who

[@Aom161]

South park creator. The guy on thumbail

[@revan5293]

Yupppp. Thank you South Park

[@longtsun8286]

Well said. As an ASIAN man, I rejected the 'Mulan' remake and other Disney films starring my people, because those films portrayed us as INSULTING STEREOTYPES. I did NOT appreciate the movies' WHITE writers FALSELY CLAIMING such "representation" helps us, or them FALSELY ACCUSING me of "racism" when I objected to the WHITE writers' stories. It should be obvious Asians are NOT the only minorities who object to such "representation" IN NAME ONLY.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

They're mar xist tho...

[@ramdom_assortment]

@@UniqueBreakfastTaco Who are?

[@Anonymous-zu7dh]

​@@UniqueBreakfastTaco what's Marxist ideology according to you? Is it a scary monster under the bed that comes when you're sleeping? The official Chinese stance is that they're Marxist under "socialism with Chinese characteristics", yes. But China isn't the only Asian country. And to be frank it isn't any of your business to tell them what they should have as ideology.

[@kap1618]

​@@UniqueBreakfastTacono there not. Point to me who actually is and maybe I be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt but saying stuff like that poisons the well of Criticism.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

@@kap1618 what..do ou not think mar xists exist? or do you need a study to prove it to you?

[@chrimsonphantom]

You know what's bad I was going to mention about how in teen titans they tackled racism, as in comparison to a recent episode of the proud family where they did a song about how slaves built this country. Then I remembered what they did to Starfire in I'm not Starfire, and then I remembered how they turned teen titans into teen titans go. Where they also attacked the original fans for money. Then with Teen Titans go they cancelled a lot of good series to push a show that just keeps going and how it took over Cartoon Network. Which the studio in Burbank closed down and a lot of shows got moved to HBO max and a lot of good shows got cancelled. It's just a long domino effect and with every domino that falls it will get worse.

[@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr]

WB Studios bankruptcy got so bad they almost sold their studio to Disney from all the bad business decisions they're doing including the ones you listed off.

[@longtsun8286]

American studios repeated the mistake American car companies made in the late 1970s and early 1980s: make poor quality products Americans DO NOT WANT, driving Americans to Japanese companies- anime studios, in this case- that did and STILL DO make what we want. You'd think this lesson would be taught in American business schools.

[@MoonPhantom]

Seriously though can we talk about how in the racism episode in Teen Titans AND Static Shock they had this important element called. "Road to redemption." The racist was actually offered a road to redemption, a way to be better and move past it, telling us there's a way to move forward and no longer be defined by the past. And the thing with both Starfire and Static is that they are being BETTER PEOPLE than the racist! They prove the racist wrong, by NOT being the kind of person the racist thinks they are, by legit just BEING the better person, who does the right thing, in spite of the attitude of the racist, and offers them a path to better themselves. And then it's up the racist person whether he takes that opportunity or not. While in The proud family and all other shows like it they legit pull up ancient old history, will not let it go, offer no way to move past it, just tell people to be super angry about it always and forever all the while acting like absolute brats themselves proving the racist... right.

[@chrimsonphantom]

@@MoonPhantom Road to redemption was important. Plus back then they also showed that it was complicated and also not one sided. Like in Fresh Prince of Bell air. they did have an episode where Will and Carlton got arrested because of discrimination. Yet they also had an episode where Carlton wouldn't be accepted in a African American Fraternity. Because his dad was so successful that the Fraternity didn't consider Carlton as one of them. Angering both Will and Uncle Phil. (Also Uncle Phil is amazing) Like you said about current media. It doesn't seem like they are offering the high road, and when they introduce a character like that. They would try to kill him off. Then aside from that In current media their was an episode of Star Trek Discovery. Where they have a new officer assigned to the ship, but the captain viewed him as just an idiot. She wouldn't allow him to defend himself and she wanted him gone. So of course he un-intentionally created a problem when trying to prove himself. Only to die and the captain who viewed herself as justified, once more called the guy an Idiot.

[@MoonPhantom]

@@chrimsonphantom Oh boy Prince of Bell Air, that actually dared to talk about how there are issues within the black community that they HAVE to figure out and straighten out by themselves. Will being somebody who is falling into this bad black Gangsta culture, while Phill is a center of morality going. "No! No you're better than that. So be better! We're BETTER than what they think we are." Meanwhile in our current modern world... I mean seriously. What is it with these modern racial activists and wanting to prove the KKK.... Correct... I just. KKK says. "We need to separate ourselves from the darker people, because they are violent criminals, who will mess up our street, steal our stuff and is a danger to society. It is both their culture and DNA, can't have them here." And 2020 racial activists be like. "You know you're right, this is our culture and DNA and it is trying to erase our culture to make us stop" I..... What? Well the sentence goes basing my judgment on your character and not the color of your skin.... That... That's a really bad character. "Hard work, cleaning up, being on time, ext is white culture! And blacks can't do it?" I.... huh.... what? ... huh.... again you're proving the KKK correct... why would you do that? And then still keep bringing up the past while having NO self-reflection at all. But yeah racial activists telling black people to be bad people... it really has to stop. Obviously, it is not helping them and never will. And heck they are not the only ones, women are being told to be awful people, to be so mean and angry and petty ALL the time. I'm a woman myself and man am I sick of it. Star Fire was nice, can we have more nice characters like her? Please! For god's sake. And heck even Raven who was supposed to be a little mean was STILL very nicer than these modern fictional women.

[@christscrackers647]

This is why Hollywood sucks ass now. Instead of actually promoting good diverse characters with interesting stories and intimate development with lore that actually engages the audience, they give us lackluster to absolute shit writing that turns audiences off too the idea of diverse characters in media at ALL. It's not that having diversity in media is a bad thing, it's just that Hollywood nowadays has completely dogshit writers and cannot connect with it's audience in the mainstream side of things. General Rule of Thumb: If it's made by the mainstream, it's pandering. If it's not and it has diverse characters, it's probably an actual attempt at Diversity.

[@longtsun8286]

Hollywood studios' idea of "diversity," tends to consist of INSULTING STEREOTYPES. I know this as an ASIAN man who refused to see many Hollywood movies and TV shows, because they portray my people as INSULTING STEREOTYPES- and if they're smart, other minorities should do the same, to stop the studios from continuing to portray them as INSULTING STEREOTYPES.

[@Code7Unltd]

The other rules of thumb for the entertainment business: "wider audience" almost always means casuals (gamers confuse this with 'unskilled players', but recent "wider audience" appeals signal an attempt to dethrone 'habit' games). "global audience" is corporate jargon translating out to targeting communist nations, most notably that nation west of Taiwan. In earnest, 'ethnic diversity' isn't really focused on ethnicity (that's a "stochastic" element), but instead is a form of entryism to squeeze a nation's patriots out of industry, usually spearheaded by men with weak willpower.

[@tacticianAlexandra]

Yeah, hollywood just wants to go fans are evil. If they don't blindly support whatever they throw out. Even when people point to japanese media doing similar things but with much better writing behind it, to make it work. They still call the fans evil. even when there is clear proof, people are willing to accept x y and z, if the quality of writing was better. Which given they have gone. lalalal can't hear you, your just bad people, your bigots. Countless times at this point. I think many people are just tired of the nonsense. Have given up. Which given hollywood has use diversity as a marketing buzzword. I can't blame people for thinking, oh this must be bad. For hollywood has just tainted the word. So when something comes along that offers something truly interesting, diversity meant to enchant the world building and writing aka good quality. People might not give it a chance, just due to hollywood ruining things for everyone. For they want blind sheep as followers, not people who care about the state of star wars. Which hollywood likes to talk about the fan being bad all the time. Which it like, wait a minute. Hollywood, your acting like diversity in media has never existed until today. While calling science fiction fans. all sorts of names. Who would be the most used to, different ideas, seeing people who don't look or think like them on the screen all the time. So the fans getting tired of hollywood putting the same set of ideas forth and never changing from them, are the close minded people and not hollywood who can't accept people might not think the same way as them? Truly maddening. For as much as hollywood likes to say it hates close minded people. They sure do act like it and do their best to create more close minded people. Which even after it being proven , the fans they hate are the ones that bring in the money. They still double down on their hate for the fans and keep changing things in ips. That rip out all creatively and things that make them good and special. For they can't accept. That you know what, maybe the reason men and women like the red fire truck, was due to it being red and not pink. Or to put it another way. They like the thing the way it was, it didn't need to be changed.

[@animezilla4486]

I also have a problem with Hollywood these days but that doesn't mean I'm going to start hating every single diverse character. No offense but that general rule of thumb does not make any sense my everything mean by mainstream is pandering

[@DragonBallsolosyourverse]

Who cares about diversity If you have a product with black characters and have it be fun or entertaining people gonn a watch it Make a fun show first if x show has black,gay or whatever then it does Anime is a great example of this Astolfo in fate is gay but people like him not cause he gay but because he's overly energetic and entertaining to watch on screen.

[@wlfmanjack]

What's truly ironic, is that with Hollywood's attempt at trying to fight against bigotry, they've created far more bigotry as a result.

[@rosverlegaspo6752]

I don't really think they are trying to fight bigotry.

[@TheCrimsonElite666]

That's Intersectionality in a nutshell. Americans created a social science designed to highlight who is more oppressed based on race, sex, and gender, but it ended up creating more racism and bigotry because it's also designed to shove every demographic into monolithic boxes. Meanwhile it fails as a tool to combat oppression because too many people use it for Oppression Olympics, to the point where they start ignoring actual oppression because the demographic associated with it isn't oppressed enough.

[@Translucent73]

@@rosverlegaspo6752 Right. 'My bigotry is righter than your bigotry!'

[@kaykutcher2103]

It's like trying to calm a fire by starting another one right next to it.

[@jeremyallen5974]

What 'bigotry' would that be?

[@chrimsonphantom]

I won't lie to you mjtanner. I'm kind of getting tired of all this, and its getting worse. To think we have two shows back to back that are trying to dissuade fans so they could get their. "Modern Audience."

[@DragonBallsolosyourverse]

It's just slang for the "liberals"

[@mazkeraid4039]

​@@DragonBallsolosyourverse Sounds like a case of illiberals to me.

[@travisb.honest2438]

Growing an audiance was never the end goal. Alot of companies are convinced are convinced or have been convinced that there is a mythical "modern audiance" that will be more profitable than the old audiance (like the Saints Row reboot). It is basically the "Hello fellow kids" meme or how companies tried to appeal to kids in the past with radical and other words like it.

[@aquapendulum]

Every executives in every entertainment industry seem to hold the assumption that the audiences you currently have will be loyal to you till the end of time and there is absolutely nothing you can do that will cause those audiences to lose their loyalty.

[@tacticianAlexandra]

That is true. Given the way they have acted over the years. If you don't show blind loyalty. Your a bad person. For they often fail to understand, what made something so great or beloved in the first place. Someone wanting to tell a good story, to entertain others. Not to peach at them or talk down to them. For they treat fans of these ips, like they are addicted to drugs. Rather than remembering it just entertainment. Entertainment, being easily replaceable. Once quality becomes subpar or is no longer appealing to someone. It easy to give it up or switch to something else, that you will enjoy.

[@JoeOvercoat]

They expect you to act like sports team’s fans.

[@ericjohnson6120]

This is the same Harley Quinn that was complicit in the murder of a five year old girl and then convinced the girl's father to Ctrl+Z himself. She has no right to be lecturing Batman about morality.

[@matityaloran9157]

Is Ctrl+Z a euphemism for suicide?

[@ericjohnson6120]

@@matityaloran9157 yeah

[@matityaloran9157]

@@ericjohnson6120 Thanks

[@Jonderlei]

The creators definitely do seem to spite the audience. When it comes to things like Marvel and star wars it feels like the people who made fun of me for liking that stuff when I was younger and the ones making it now and it shows with how bad its all got

[@drganknstein]

Yes like during the interview for Acolyte they were laughing and making fun of Star Wars calling it gay, C3PO gay, RT a lesbian etc. Like wtf, if that's how they feel go work on another project

[@Jonderlei]

@@drganknstein Yeah watching those two cackle over how gay star wars is was awful. As if we needed more reasons to not watch this show

[@loupblanc7944]

Pretty much.

[@Raximus3000]

@@drganknstein Do you want to know smth absurd, there was an adult comedy show called triping the rift that was filled with parody, there was a golden robot that was (closet) gay. So, in roughly 20 years the parody has become the norm for these people...

[@MASTEROFEVIL]

200th like

[@KeeKage37]

This has definitely gone on for far too long. And it’s definitely sad to see that due to companies spiteful and prideful actions often times putting down and alienating the very audience there trying to sell to. There now created a counter audience that’s just as bad and dismissive. Unable to see and recognize great looking games because there so triggered by any hint of diversity. But unfortunately when those same people have been put down and burned by titles touting diversity, it’s hard to fully blame them. What I do know this constant pit downing of everything and everyone is doing no one any favors.

[@animezilla4486]

That still is no excuse to start hating diverse character just because they have issues with certain idiots in the entertainment industry. The person that made that remark 6:00 really rub me the wrong way I cannot believe they going to use the DEI as an excuse

[@chrimsonphantom]

I hear you on that one. I've had several people comment on how I'm not seeing it their way. How it's fiction and I shouldn't think to hard about it, and the writers could do whatever they want. Yes I am not seeing the majesty of a farting ship.

[@Saltedroastedcaramel]

​​@@animezilla4486 When you have people in the Hollywood industry attack people for their race and gender and people like *_you_* defend them after they antagonize people over it, then yes there will resentment towards any diversity characters especially if the terms "diversity, representation, inclusion and modern audience" are included. You don't have the right to even say this because you're okay with Hollywood being bigoted towards their audience and even alienated the people they are trying to market for. Instances like at 6:00 is rare but what do you expect when there's community managers who outright say they hate whyt man, want them gone and use minorities like meat shields?

[@MrNickPresley]

@@animezilla4486 To be fair, using minorities and women as a shield against criticism is modern gaming's go-to. Every time a company puts out a game with a female main character, or a black character, or a gay character, there is ALWAYS a big deal made out of it by the devs and journos. It's treated as a big selling point when that's never been the reason anyone who regularly buys games has ever picked up a game, or enjoyed a game they bought. Every time, it's: "We're not going to tell you anything about the story or gameplay, but hey! You can play as a fugly, snarky, black, gay, disabled transwoman girlboss with a heckin' case of vitiligo who is also a furry. Don't you feel REPRESENTED?! Don't you feel EMPOWERED?! BUY IT NOW!" Where that isn't the case, those games get demonized and slandered (look at PalWorld, or Stellar Blade's reception by gaming media), or they get a shakedown by some DEI consulting firm, like the studio making Wukong did just recently. And even if the decision to implement a woman or minority character is a legitimate, artistic decision, it ALWAYS gets weaponized anyway. It's no wonder it's become zero-tolerance.

[@brandonscott9747]

I don't know what planet you live on, but here on earth your woke fantasies about diversity-hating gamers are nothing but a delusion. That racist audience you've hallucinated has never existed. But you HAVE created a real group of racist bigots - it's just that they hate white people, not minorities. Stop pretending that there is anybody who is "triggered by any hint of diversity". It's a disgusting lie, and you really should be disgusted with yourself for telling it. You need to do better.

[@TheSimodon]

For eiyuden chronicles most backlash wasn’t even about the black character but mostly the awful localisation, which was even worth since the English one was used for all other languages. Some quotes in German sound awful and characters switched on a dime in personality.

[@NeWx89]

I never heard the backlash of the black character, only about the bad localisation. Most have been a minority

[@baalfgames5318]

It never ceases to infuriate me how people will fight tooth and nail to defend anti-nature, pro-destruction and furryphobic messages in media, but will throw a tantrum over "are you sure it's a he?".

[@tuliosan9399]

Yeah, agreed. Today we're seeing people fighting extremism with extremism. The last time we tried that we ended up with some hundreds of millions of deaths 💀

[@SapphireKnight675]

what do you expect, if it was nipped before it started we wouldn't be here, but we didn't, now everyone gets to suffer for it

[@TwilightWolf032]

That's why it's important to call out extremism where it arises, no matter the side.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

Hundreds of millions?

[@Raximus3000]

When the hell was that?!

[@t.ot.o7571]

​@@Raximus3000WW1 and 2?

[@NathanielHellerstein]

Marginalized groups to Disney: "You are *NOT HELPING."*

[@WolfmanArt]

I just wish everything coming out was about entertainment, not the "message."

[@gameragodzilla]

The biggest issue really comes from trying to push for equal outcomes rather than equal opportunity. Equal opportunity means anyone should be allowed to be a fan of something without being pushed out, ie if a woman shows interest in Star Wars even though it’s mostly male dominated, she should be. The issue is equal opportunity doesn’t ensure a firm 50/50 split of, say, male and female audience because people are individuals who have their own interests, so you’ll never get an exact split for anything as it’ll always turn out that more men are interested in certain things and more women are interested in certain things. Therefore, the only way to achieve equal outcomes is to try and artificially force it, which is where we see the constant changing of existing IP in a vain attempt to try and increase their appeal to an “underrepresented” demographic. The issue is trying to artificially force that won’t make people who weren’t interested in the property suddenly become more interested, simply because that’s just not what they’re into. But they do end up alienating the existing fans who dislike the new direction and losing what originally appealed to them in the first place. So it ends up appealing to neither. I’d say some of it also comes down to lack of original IP. It used to be that different studios made new IP to appeal to different demographics, but now studios are just desperately trying to make existing IP appeal to everyone regardless of whether it works or not.

[@lehahiah81]

I wouldn't necessarily call it funny but it also doesn't make sense to try and appeal more to the newer fans by changing things, because they got interested in the product for what it was already

[@lordsinister707]

That's why people want Equity more than equality. They don't want to put in the work or create an IP that has to stand up to scrutiny. They just want people to shut up and consume products, and that's not going to work

[@TheIronTiger44]

I don’t think people want the politics of either side.

[@kap1618]

Yeah that's not true. I've seen enough right wing movies to know the anti woke crowd is okay with pandering when it's on their side.

[@JohnCassidy1993]

I agree.

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Yeah, both sides are crazy.

[@pichugirl6]

It's worse when these so called "creators" that claim to have ideas go so far as to say their idea is better than the original creation to the point of destroying what was already there just to fill in their sick kink of what they deem as entertainment.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

It's peak arrogance, and that's why I enjoy the lay-offs in the west. For me, the whole AAA gaming scene in the west could be destroyed for all I care. The good ones will rise from the ashes because they are talented enough to overcome such setbacks, and the garbage will burn and change areas to spew their woke garbage.

[@Mae4Ever]

One problem about Eiyuden Chronical is that the localization… sucks balls. Like, *REALLY* sucks balls. It has THAT dialogue.

[@samalton5837]

"That" dialog isn't the vast majority of the script. Also it's relegated to one character, who for all you know it's intentional to make light of them, by the other characters. You know, context.

[@Mae4Ever]

@@samalton5837 I am not spending money that is written by twitter users. Stop “modernizing” Japanese games.

[@samflood5631]

Could you give us some examples on why Eiyuden Chronical localization bad?

[@hassathunter2464]

It has a woke translator. Sp yeah, I think that was the major issue most gamers had...

[@Mae4Ever]

@@samflood5631 they use the word “chud”.

[@joemayo1589]

When your target audience doesn't want your product. And the people that want your product is not your target audience.

[@Bucketus.Lord.of.Buckets]

About kenzera: I am genuinely curious as to why a Kenyan man doing a game based on lore around his Kenyan heritage needed to consult a bunch of white women for the game.

[@Code7Unltd]

Sense is not required for a grift. A grift requires casting solutions to the divide as "part of the problem" and finding a way to make money complaining about it. It's like how most charities avoid their stated mission, knowing that accomplishing it means money potentially dries up.

[@kieragard]

I probably would have checked out his game but now not touching anything related to sweet baby Inc. oh well, he made his bed and now needs to sleep in it.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

I'd have considered buying the game if there was no SBI involved. I'm actually interested in real african culture instead of the woke garbage the west try to appropriate and call african.

[@dawnmana5876]

The concept is really good. It's far past time African lore was used to feature black characters instead of just cheaply black washing European lore. However, sweet baby inc involvement makes it an automatic hard pass.

[@14bis42]

Ohh No no no .. If those people thought they would be growing their audience with that , they are a terminal case of stupidity .....

[@Doctor_Pickney]

A good show that I feel like grew with it's audience was Ninjago. It started off as a fun kids show about lego ninjas spinning so fast they can create elemental tornados and fight bad guys. Really fun stuff to watch as a kid, but as time went on, the writers realized that their audience was getting older so they grew the stories with them. Now the season plots are more mature and it went from a kids show to a family show that people from all ages can enjoy. It started back in 2011 and it's still going strong in 2024, with engaging seasons and characters

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Honestly I don’t mind the newer seasons. I watched the ones that were after the Oni trilogy and I had a fun time with them.

[@Doctor_Pickney]

@@Cubeytheawesome A majority of the 11 minute episode seasons after the Oni Trilogy were a little iffy, but after they went back to 22 minutes for Dragon's Rising I saw a sharp increase in the quality and stroytelling

[@sab3redg333]

This is the dark side of the audience being burned so many times. You lose trust in your audience and they stop trusting everything. I know at this point you really don't want to be bothered with it but the audience should still try to play things by the ear and the content of the content. We can't be like the studios that have made their judgements about us before they even release the product. But we also don't need to test everything out just so that they can feel like we are supporting them. Its unfair that we have to play mind games and waltz with media just for our entertainment to be entertaining

[@samflood5631]

I don't know which side to believe in, the woke crowd or anti-woke fandoms.

[@mazkeraid4039]

​@@samflood5631 Side with the rational ones instead of strawmen.

[@jeremyallen5974]

We don't need to taste the end result of them squatting with their bare asses over a plate to know it isn't going to be appetizing in the slightest That's the equivalent of going back to an abusive ex because they said they've learned their lesson and then goes right back to treating you like trash

[@sullyb23511]

​@@samflood5631Trust your own eyes and ears.

[@somethingclever8916]

The activist media influencers cant get people to buy their merchandise. Sales recruiters know your sales person has to be likeable because you are more likely to buy from them. Hollywood wants to degrade people and even as a marginalized person I hate the way Hollywood treats others.

[@kungfuzeebra]

Love how you formatted this problem with calling out all the pandering thats been going on and then pointing out some examples that do it right but are being dragged under or unfairly criticized since yeah both ends of the spectrum are getting out of control and annoying

[@FF-tp7qs]

Supposedly Sweet Baby Inc tried to get the devs of Wukong Black Myth to hire them for 7 million dollars

[@chrimsonphantom]

Can we talk about something wholesome, I feel like this point of conversation has been going on long enough. It's good to address and you made good points. Especially how its gotten out of hand and that people are starting to become hypocritical. Yet with acolyte episode three being released, this conversation is going to explode and everyone is going to talk about it. I do find it interesting that we like to talk about things we hate, but we need to promote things we should support. I'm really surprised no one has talked about the new IF movie, I saw it with my nieces and nephews and we all had a good time. Which in this day and age I'm glad to have something like that...Its so rare now.

[@TheLunarLegend]

'You hate Eiyudenn Chronicles cause there was a black character on the cover, I hate Eiyudenn Chronicles cause they went with a 'lol so random' translation. We are not the same.'

[@Unrealizedthoughts0]

At this point, you really can't express opinions, work any where, etc. As Gen Z says "it's giving 'I swear I'm not the problem' vibe". I knew this would happen. Audiences can't tell the difference now. People will blame a project being bad because it's diverse while others blame the audience for being "closed-minded".

[@Shin_Mothra]

Honestly, I can't blame the extreme reaction. You have to deal with this crap for so long, I can see why some would just dash in the opposite direction.

[@FrostWolfPack]

When you get insulted and told ''Its not for you'' ''you are bigot'' ''you are raising if you dont agree whit me'' speal over and over again across the entertaiment media from now dead IP's or the ever rare new ones no wonder people feel burned and very prone to lash even a bit of things that burned you.

[@kap1618]

​@@Shin_Mothrabut that's childish. If you can't diagnose the problem then nothing will get fixed.

[@Shin_Mothra]

@@kap1618 That's what happens when you go so hard in one direction. You'll get a subset of people who reject anything that resembles that direction.

[@jacksandman3641]

We don't hate diverse or female or different characters. What we HATE is characters that can't stop telling others that they're diverse or different, being better at everything, and characters that remind us of our sometimes crappy world outside of media by referencing something about it. I always go back to Captain Holt from B99, cause like... here you have a black, openly gay character, and aside from a story beats that fit into other plot points, it's never screamed at us that THIS CHARACTER IS GAY AND STRONG AND AMAZING!!!! He's just Captain Holt, a police chief who is dryer than the Sahara but still funny and likeable and most importantly.... HUMAN. He's not some god among men who's excellent at his job and never makes any mistakes. He doesn't constantly bring up the fact that he's gay, it just pops up in the form of (actually funny) jokes. TLDR; We just want characters that are written well and aren't Mary Sue's or Gary Stus. I could care less about what they look like or who they like to bone.

[@kap1618]

The problem is you have actual bigots spouting the same thing and making the good faith critics look bad.

[@karinasnooodles_]

​@@kap1618Exactly

[@ryanrockers]

"There is a war between the rich and poor A war between the man and the woman There is a war between the ones who say there is a war And the ones who say that there isn't" -Leonard Cohen

[@UsingGorillaLogic]

I lost it when the American audience wanted a Shark and Wolf man because it pretty much mirrors how on any social game every dude ever plays as some dumb meme model like a little cat or a big robot or something.

[@XC11301991]

Lol likewise, I started giggling when I saw that random reveal.

[@nekoking8330]

Yeah. Why would you want a character that looks just like you when you can play a wolf man?!

[@UsingGorillaLogic]

@@nekoking8330 Pretty much. It is actually something that took me a bit to comprehend that it is mostly an American thing to want to play as ridiculous characters.

[@cathygrandstaff1957]

Yeah if there’s one bad thing about American gamer culture it’s that it got taken over by “for the memes” mentality. Then again you see a million games with anime boy protagonists and not that many with anthro sharks so it definitely stands out.

[@luiginumbers6268]

It’s a shark with a mace at the end of a flail. That’s peak character design

[@anguyrandom]

I started following your channel, it's really good, I recommend this channel to people

[@taffysaur]

I agree wholeheartedly. There was NEVER any resistance before to “diverse” casts or characters, but unfortunately now we are beginning to see people being hesitant to watch ANYTHING with a female or non-white lead because they assume it will be part of the same spiteful and divisive agenda push. I saw Furiosa last week and it was awesome! It is NOT woke and Furiosa is NOT a flawless, hateful girlboss. As a huge mark for Mad Max, I regret strongly that future movies in the series seem now to be in jeopardy of not getting funding because of the backlash against the D.E.I. style of “storytelling” (I use the term loosely). They’ve pushed it so hard for so long that they’ve actually created enemies where none existed. It really sucks, but it was easy to predict that something like this would happen. I’ve been saying for years that the more you press down on the scales, the more tension you build up for an equal and opposite reaction in the other direction. Personally I wish we could just get back to entertainment and art being fun and inspiring again, rather than propaganda for this or that political ideology.

[@TheBizziniss]

When a company attributes my dislike of their unentertaining work to some type of character flaw, I stop giving them my business. It works every time. Try it.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

Voting with you wallet is the only way

[@fierygamer582]

When fanfiction is better than Hollywood, you know they have failed.

[@christianstamm94]

They missed out on having a street shark as a main protagonist

[@arnowisp6244]

Exactly. That would be so cool and Unique. Not the DEI girl. Shark boy all the WAY!

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

Bruh we had street sharks in the 90s. These people would have screwed it up.

[@samueltitone5683]

The Acolyte is beautiful, not because of it’s gayness or diversity, but with the way it’s brought everyone in the Star Wars fandom together to agree it’s shit. Truly wholesome. 😊

[@tjazzartcomics]

Girl you are preaching to the choir 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 it’s thanks to DEI everyone thinks or assume that everything is either exstreamly left leaning or right leaning.

[@MultiAFroDuck]

im def sick of this whole culture war bs for sure! i just want good written games!! i dont wanna sit down and have to be lectured about agendas after buying a game when i am already being nickel and dimed by the greedy game companies!

[@hibikiholmes2867]

M and J, thank you for being one of, if not the only, channel on KZbin that get how both ends of the extremes has made it annoying to enjoy any kind of media. Yes, this so-called culture war is getting tiring. Resources and talent wasted just to push political ideals or childishly spite some other parties. It's all so tiresome.

[@AL-ws5yi]

Clownfish did a video that said 70% of the audience for Marvels was male. Shocker that they are losing their audience.

[@DragonBallsolosyourverse]

Women dont like marvel comics or movies who could of guessed Japan does marketing far better like they have entire genre's of shows for females like magical girls or yuri anime.

[@tacticianAlexandra]

@@DragonBallsolosyourverse That a good point. Since anything from japan. I recall ah yes, the action show is a action show. the romance show is a romance show. Giant hero show? Yep giant hero that fights giant monsters. You get what is written on the can. So if I end up watching a romance show, when i'm into romance show and come off disliking it. Yeah that on me. while something like Kevin Smith He-man. It could end up being a bait and switch. Sell you on one thing, only for the show to be something totally different. Which can leave a bad taste in someone mouth. Yeah there is some western media, that just seems to have a marketing issue. Which given hollywood does from time to time, like to use, it not for you. Well how am I meant to know that, when their marketing can at times be very misleading?

[@kap1618]

Clown fish is an incredibly bias media source. Not worse than Grummz but their up their in terms of hypocrisy.

[@DragonBallsolosyourverse]

Nearly every source has a bias I prefer right wing biased sources as it tends not to be corperate propaganda unlike the more left sources say cnn or wikipedia.

[@matityaloran9157]

Jester Bell also made that point

[@WatanukiProductions]

With Eiyuden Chronicles I never heard a thing about the black girl, though I certainly don't doubt that people are getting so jaded that someone would dislike the game for that reason alone, she's cute though, but the controversy I constantly heard about was the translation. There's increasing blowback towards Americanized translations of Japanese media. This doesn't appear to be politically motivated like the most infamous localization controversies but it falls very strongly into the main pitfall of localization. Basically, localizers take a raw translation and westernize it, "punch up" the dialogue. When done well it's invisible, trying to make the wording as comprehensible and impactful as it is in the original language. However there is generally this need to justify their own existence, they have to "punch-up" every piece of dialogue even when a literal translation sounds better, is funnier, more concise, more loyal to the spirit of the original text, and lacks distractingly modern lingo. Say the literal translation is "*Sigh* Another meathead." The localized version becomes. "*Sigh* Another muscle-brained chud." In isolation not a big deal, across a massive game? You just turned 200,000 words into 300,000 words while changing the tone of the game significantly.

[@Skaiser_Wilhelm7938]

The way they killed Batman in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League largely spat in the face of the legacy of Batman and Kevin Conroy. I'm glad I wasn't alone in this beleif. All it really did was made me appreciate the Arkham games and animated series even more, because those were stories told by people, not corporations.

[@lydauqbsjxbsj]

Yeah I’m sick of the culture war. I’m sick of the people in these businesses not knowing how to take proper criticism in order to make actual good quality projects. I am thankful that there are a majority of people who care about quality and still want something to be made with love rather than it being pumped out like waste.

[@69SalterStreet]

Another huge problem with modern writing is they think one’s race or gender is the source of evil or good. They seem to legit not understand that we won’t see a character who cuts the arms of the innocent, murders kids, etc…as good or justified just because they are female, black, whatever. They keep writing truly reprehensible, callous monsters and then acting shooketh when people don’t love them as a Hero. It’s so freaking basic. 😂 if your “hero” is doing evil things for selfish, evil reasons they are not actually the good guy.

[@anonymoususer208]

It’s bad when even the terrible pandering of big name companies overshadow independent studios that isn’t trying to push propaganda and being it’s own passion projects

[@NathanielHellerstein]

You're missing the point. Disney isn't buying and ruining competing IPs to push DEI; they're pushing DEI to ruin the competing IPs that they buy. They're monopolists.

[@Burns_RED]

I really really get being jaded to woke. I am too, but not EVERY female or dark skinned character is. I miss the 90s, with real diversity that no one even noticed because they were just good characters and stories. No one dislikes that new game because it's African. They dislike it because of Crybaby Inc. They know the talking down they'll get and how forced it'll all be.

[@Alecrim-dp1yb]

Same, and I didn't even lived through the 90s...

[@chrimsonphantom]

A game that was inspired by the folk tales and lore of the creators home country sounds great. Yet people will not look past what Sweet Baby Inc has done. Though I am curious on what a consulting group would have to offer when a story is based on the legends the creator grew up with, not SBI.

[@xdomeman]

​@@chrimsonphantomsad isn't it? African folklore isn't explored alot so this game would have been at a lot of folks alley. But because for the damage SBI and others have done they aren't even giving it a glance.

[@chrimsonphantom]

@@xdomeman it is sad. Though we would have to wait until the release date to see how the game will do.

[@animezilla4486]

If these people can give these game a fair judgment than they have no right to review it

[@AnimaVox_]

Zau actually looks interesting, I like the art style and like side-scrolling platformers. However, SBI's involvement makes it a hard pass for me because I'm not rewarding people like that with any of my money _on principle._

[@arnowisp6244]

Exactly. Another reason we don't support them is because we know these people hate us unconditionally. Why should we support people who hate us?

[@nathanschmidt4272]

These days, I find myself prefering stories that feature non-human characters. Especially those that feel disconnected from the human experience. It makes me feel more relaxed.

[@vengeance1701]

Like on Doctor WHO, RTD said he enjoyed the old show because the Doctor wasn't interested in sex. He's so close to the reason why the character endured. The Doctor was DIFFERENT. Yet, given the chance to write for the character, he did the exact opposite of what he SAID HE ENJOYED. *thud*

[@Rocket1377]

That's because he was trying to give modern viewers what they wanted. RTD drew a lot of inspiration from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as he didn't think copying the old DW format would work in the mid 2000s, and he felt it needed more interpersonal relationships. Given how successful the reboot was, he was probably right. Unfortunately, with the current DW series on Disney+, RTD has decided to make the show the kind of show he would want to watch now, and not what the viewers want, as he has openly admitted he is 100% embracing his sexuality and pushing that agenda into his writing (even moreso than he ever did in the past).

[@dawnmana5876]

I am guilty of this. Hollywood and american game developers have gotten so bad that Ive developed a Pavlov response aversion to seeing a "diverse" lead character. And I'm not even white!

[@XC11301991]

I'm also so tired of these extremist views on both sides being in all the media I see. Even on random FB posts of cute animals I can see people arguing and making it political in the comment section.

[@someguyontheinternet2399]

You forgot to mention Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes sloppy localization from what I remember THAT was why people were mad I'd send you the link but youtube keeps deleting my comment

[@kap1618]

While you can critique the localization, when you have people complaining about one of the protagonist having "Wakanda hair," then it gives a bad impression.

[@PenguinDust1969]

Criticizing these shows, movies and video games does not automatically make you an alt-right zealot as some in the media will quickly label you. Speaking out against token diversity doesn't mean you are against diversity, it means you are against tokenism and using "diversity" to remove traditionally popular character types. You can be in the center socio-politically or left-leaning and still take issue with the ideology that plagues so much of this poorly written modern entertainment.

[@Code7Unltd]

Newsmedia slander people like that because they need a 'big scoop', but want no potential to kick off that all-American sport, known as the "lawsuit". The "women and minorities" that the news industry tried to protect from critical gamers (read: Gamergate) during 2014 were really "journalists in the industry".

[@alecperdeau650]

We really need a new word for diversity because of how corrupted it's become.

[@tacticianAlexandra]

Been ages since I last heard the term tokenism. Which yeah that what they do. Throw something in there just for brownie points. Not really caring about it. Which heck, given the term diversity character shouldn't exist. For what makes a good character? Being flesh out. Having things they like dislike, things that annoy them. Goals, hopes, dreams, fears. Strengths and flaws. These things are universal. The character can be green, blue, yellow or rainbow color. In the end, it doesn't matter. For what makes a good character at the end of the day, is universal. For it rather clear what hollywood want us to focus on. Traits that do not matter about the characters. If a character is good, they are good. It shouldn't matter if they are male, female, diverse or not. They can call people names all they want. At the end of the day, it clear they don't care about good writing. For that what should be the focus. Not all this other nonsense.

[@cultreader9751]

As one of those evil left leaning people, it never bothered me that "bad" modern art or media is left leaning. Artists have always been mostly left leaning.

[@Web720]

​@@cultreader9751 That isn't the case, it's only since the 20th century and even then. Artists are not "always" left-leaning, maybe expand your horizons.

[@SnowAster]

I never heard of people boycotting Zau (most people I know of kinda forgot about). The biggest issue with it I saw, (after the creator did that post on X) is that why even hire DEI consultants? Why hire people who have no expertise in this area? It’s a story told about African folklore. No one in Sweet Baby Inc are experts in this. So why were they involved?

[@m1hfn2f]

this is purely speculation but I think he or his company did this as it seems to be the gaming industry standard now, and anyway, almost all businesses hire a third party consulting agency to increase their revenue through marketing

[@dltr4730]

The saddest part about The Acolyte is that it had potential. I've always wanted to see the forced used by people outside of the two centralized institutions that are the Jedi and the Sith, since everything points at the force being another natural law of this universe that anyone could connect with with enough dedication. I was exited to see a different culture that developed it's own set of traditions around it, and the Ashoka show had already implanted the idea of ancient witches with inmense control over the force. But then they got everyone out the closet and into the fridge. We got to see a single ritual of them and then they were dead. Hopefully we get a few more flashbacks to actually explore anything with these characters couse right now they're just repeating the trope of having gay characters just so they can be killed. It could have been so much fun...

[@pavelh.4515]

The problem with people saying they're sick of the 'culture war' is that usually one side says it, makes something political and says anyone objecting to it means you are in the wrong. You can't be political and at the same time denigrate people for not taking your political side. Also what happened with the primary goal of entertainment which is to entertain? Prior to the 2010s we had movies/games/comics with diverse characters and hardly anyone objected as they focused on making a good story. Now they usually don't respect the already established lore, are preachy and usually hire unqualified people for box-checking or people who already share their politics meaning you've created an insular echo chamber, usually with activists and even if the parent company wants to make a non-political product, they're facing an uphill battle when a large portion of the staff don't care or can't deliver. Let these companies fail and die, nothing of value will be lost.

[@sangheiliwarrior86]

The whole anti-leftist backlash of Gamergate was people sick of a "culture war". When do people realise it's not gonna stop until people make good, non-insulting stuff again?

[@Shapelybox]

This "progressive" movement in media is unironically doing the exact opposite.

[@RealHyperHedgehog]

It seems like modern media is getting worse and worse. I rarely look forward to movies and shows nowadays, and video games (my favorite form of media) seem like they’re going down that same path thanks to companies like Sweet Baby Inc. These companies need to realize that trying to pander to people who never liked these series’ in the first place is a waste of time, and will only drive away their old fans.

[@MissMCwuffles]

I'm a left-wing person who I know these projects are often pandering to. The thing that irritates me is that I can tell when I'm being pandered to, and it breaks my immersion. Or, if a project gets too preachy, it feels like I'm being talked down to like a child, rather than experiencing a part of the narrative. This feeling applies even when I agree with the message. I do want to see and read more diverse stories, so I tend to seek them out from smaller creators or more niche authors.

[@arnowisp6244]

On the Eiyuden Chronicles thing. One of the reasons it was hated was because of Bad Localization that is seen to be changing the story. The Game is Japanese Furst so it had to be translated into English. But "Localizers" insist on Localizing the game instead of translating it and changing words around that end up rewriting Characters. Many Fans who caught this wete not happy.

[@geoxaga6507]

that video game eiyuden, i hear has a bad localization that's driven by dei. bad political based localization has been a problem for years for fans of Japanese franchises whether it was anime, video games, manga or light novels. The community manager has also been banning people from their discord for talking about how they don't like the localization. i remember a few years ago there was talks about how localizers from seven seas removed a complete 13 pages from a light novel translation because they didn't like the message or something. I can't remember.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

I hope the Japanese, Korean and Chinese people fully embrace AI and leave the western bs localizers without jobs.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

I hope the Japanese, Korean and Chinese people fully embrace AI and leave the localizers without jobs.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

I hope the Japanese, Korean and Chinese people fully embrace AI and leave the localizers without jobs.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

​@@Bronze_Age_Sea_Personbruh you're being stupid. Who programs the AI? People. AI can easily be altered to do the same thing localizers do but even more soulless. Translation will always require a human touch

[@adamaccountname]

It's like they've never heard the idiom, "If you try to please everyone, you'll please no-one"

[@kirbycooper9496]

Bro i didnt not buy zau because of SBI. I didnt buy Zau because i dont wanna play another 2d metroidvania game. AND THEY DIDNT CHOOSE THE WOLF MAN AS A MAIN CHARACTER??? This fursecution will not stand

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

The wolf furries tend to be the reason why the furry community is always looked at with disdain so it was the smart move

[@ColonelHess]

The issue is that people like sweet baby inc wanted to start a war, and the thing with war is people get caught in the cross fire, I dont know if there is anything we can do about it but ride it out at this point.

[@calummacritchie7840]

Thank you for offering a rational point of view in all this. As frustrating as the woke agenda is, we need to be careful not to become hypocrites who also embrace spite. Keep up the Good Work Sisters. :)

[@Jonderlei]

I think people judging a game by one black character on the cover is almost exactly what is wanted by all this race nonsense nowadays,I feel its all to make people more racist and more divided and now ill see things in trailers or whatever and ill be skeptical because of a part that I normally never would have but with how things are nowadays you know why theyre doing it usually.

[@animezilla4486]

If people are really going to go down this path and that really are stupid in my opinion it doesn't matter if the main character is black, white, female, male, straight or gay the only thing that matters if the characters are well written that's all that matters. The individual that made that stupid post 5:58 seriously has issues I will never say anything like that

[@Mae4Ever]

Don’t buy the game anyway. The localization is bad. Like, REALLY bad. It uses twitter language and buzzwords.

[@Jonderlei]

​@@animezilla4486 Oh I agree but I think that is the whole point of it just to turn everyone against each other. The majority of people dont go that way but will be treated like they are regardless but there will always be some brain dead people like that in any group

[@Pierceson-up8fs]

My question is why care about the reason people are doing something as long as the product is good? Companies live to make money; they make what they feel will make the most money. Every artistic decision is funneled through this reality. You can’t get mad at them including a black person for profit when you consider literally everything they do is made for profit. If something is well made; it’s well made. It being made for profit shouldn’t matter at that point.

[@Jonderlei]

@@Pierceson-up8fs Because it usually isn't good. Theyre usually more occupied with pushing a political messege than writing a good story. If it's good I don't care who the characters are. When they're done well I don't see people calling it woke,never seen anyone call jedi fallen order woke because of your mentor being a black woman because everyone is written quite well.

[@thepbg8453]

I thought this would happen. The tragic irony that people now reject diversity and inclusivity not because of hatred but because it is now associated with bad design, self insert and sloppy writing. It’s why I have come to loathe DEI, as it has gotten to a degree where it now does more damage to the cause of sponsors, than in any attempt to encourage what it stands for. And here is the thing, respect, tolerance and inclusion is all good strong values. But it had been spearheaded by or used by lazy corporate heads and activists who have sacrificed so much to use it to promote it deflect leading people to associate it with bad design. It’s tragic but I saw this coming: I don’t want it to be the case but those in charge of the industry have created this climate.

[@Samaru163]

I agree with you that we shouldn't proclaim something dead on arrival or "woke" until we've had the chance to experience it, but I cannot stand this modern era of "progressive" casting and writing. Especially because it's so selective. I'm someone with Autism (formerly Aspergers Syndrome), and it is beyond insuferable for me to listen to these writers, directors, actors, etc, talking about how inclusive they are, while excluding minorities that don't fit the current popular trend. For example, there is a new Time Bandits TV show in production, and of course, the main cast is made up of women and people of colour, and probably some queer folk as well... but not a single dwarf actor, despite the original Time Bandits being one of the few movies where the vast majority of main characters were actors with dwarvism. It's disgusting that they claim to be shining a spotlight on minorities while also erasing another kind of minority in the process. Same goes for learning dissabilities: autism is barely ever talked about in media, and when it is it's usually done as some kind of superpower with quirks. Yet these progressives also expect me to support their poorly written media despite its quality, and if I don't, I'm called an "ist". All I want is good stories again, and if you're going to have diversity in your show, have it make sense. But above all, focus on making good characters, good stories, and good messages that will inspire people for generations to come.

[@BrettCaton]

Reminds me of Snow White, which got rid of the dwarves, meaning a lot of actors couldn't get gigs, but then added cgi dwarves, so now there are fake dwarves without the jobs and careers.

[@GarciaXVLegend_04]

You nailed it very well, I have Autism too & plus I'm Hispanic, I'm not going into Entertainment to find someone exactly like myself but to find something exciting & what appeals to me. Also the same can be said for Food Products, we use to have Diversity but now it's only Captain Crunch, The Quaker, KFC Colonel, and some others only because Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, & Land O' Lakes had "stereotype depictions"... I miss seeing Jemima on my syrup😢

[@Samaru163]

@@GarciaXVLegend_04 Justice for Aunt Jemima!

[@BardicGM]

They won't give a shit about whehter you like it or not, give it bad reviews all you want the wokester gotyour money and can place your sale as proof their ideas work. You don't keep trying to pet the dog with the foaming mouth you call animal control.

[@asaka616]

Eiyuden Chronicle was targeted for its poor localisation into English, taking liberties with character dialogue that altered the characters from one language to another.

[@orboakin8074]

9:20 As a conservative, i agree. Mr. Birchun and other "conservative anti-woke" media are just cringe and spiteful. This kind of reaction from our side is just pathetic. Media should never be about promoting toxic identity politics or 'gotcha" moments in this ridiculous culture war. This is just ruing entertainment for everyone

[@robertbarga3694]

I've been speaking with my wallet a lot lately. I have no shame in admitting that I don't bother purchasing games that SBI consulted on. The actions of their employees and the words of their founder are derogatory and borderline racist and I hope going forward that game developers decide to steer clear of them. Maybe if Devs realize working with SBI is the kiss of death financially, they're just make good games without agendas pre-built into them.

[@bustergundo516]

Well said

[@ocarinaplaya]

DEI is racism, not needed at all.

[@ocarinaplaya]

I'd also point out that cartman Kennedy wants to put a chick in it who IS lame and gay, not put a chick in it TO make it lame and gay. Changes the motive behind the phrase.

[@Vherstinae]

When creating the tabletop RPG "Cyberpunk 2077," Mike Pondsmith worked with demographers, FBI criminologists, economists and historians to plot the course of civilization's next downfall. While much of his writing was shockingly prescient, his one stumbling block was with corporations. He modeled the corporations of his game with the idea of avarice as the ultimate motivation, but we can see that these corporations in the modern day will happily throw away money, like Disney spending millions of dollars buying tickets to their own movies to claim they're sold-out and thereby declare the movie is popular. What we're witnessing is not a misguided pursuit of a wider audience and the excuse should not believed any more than we should believe a naughty child stole cookies from the cookie jar to bring to her parents rather than intending to eat them herself. This is a case of deep, arguably spiritual malice, an intent to destroy what people love. The motives may vary - some want to destroy so they can (assumedly) rebuild, some think they're making it better, some want to destroy to unmoor people socially and morally from their cultural exemplars, and some just want to destroy what you love because they hate you and like seeing you sad.

[@greenliongirl07]

Jokes aside it has started to affect my writing. A story I'm currently working on has/had a gay character who in addition to being a monster hunter and studying fauna is a empath. He was a childhood friend of one of the main characters and I was planning on giving him his own stories later (including one where he introduced his boyfriend to the hidden magical world). I'm debating on if I still want to include him or keep his sexuality a secret ambiguous.

[@kungfuzeebra]

Don't change your story for the sake of pleasing people, if it's what/how you feel like your story should go then go ahead. The issue is when companies like Disney inorganically try way too hard to please and pander to audiences by creating hollow characters that are only marketed as or defined by what they are and not who they are or why is this character interesting which ends up creating a complete void of creativity.

[@Pierceson-up8fs]

I get the fear, but if you want my opinion, you should go for it if you think you can do it well. There will always be people that will inherently think something you’re doing is problematic or wrong. But if you do it well, I think the majority will be open to it and will silence those that would be angered.

[@Samaru163]

Ultimately that's for you to deicde, but just because modern media is overusing gay characters doesn't mean you can't include one in your writing. It all comes down to intent and how you use him in your story. Just don't have his sexuality define him and you should be good. Have him be defined by his actions, how he interacts with other characters, and how he reacts to the large earthshaking events in your story.

[@briangilmartin662]

Do whatever works for the story you want to tell about that character. If you try to change too much now, you risk making something unrecognizable to yourself or your original vision

[@talithakoum3922]

Make him bi. You can give him a love interest of either gender and still claim diversity points 😂

[@troffle]

"Let me know in the comments ... Are you sick of this whole culture war thing?" Yes. So much, along with my workplace being sick and dirty, it helped push my 50+ year old ass into needing a counsellor and I'm not even American.

[@cultreader9751]

I'm going to regret asking this, but what do you mean "sick and dirty"? I worked as a janitor for years, so I get curious as to dirty workplaces.

[@troffle]

@@cultreader9751 the practice is sick and dirty, not the sanitary conditions. Actually hold up that too, I was going on leave. Asked a colleague to log a call to get the area bugsprayed while I was gone, of course they didn't. We took over the ownership of one building, we removed the air freshener in the toilets. We won't do the little things that make our work practices better, or even functional. Either I don't control the technology that does, or I'm told it's not my job. I reply that nobody's doing it, including the team responsible. Someone above CxO level was finally affected. I said I wished I'd told that VIP about it so I could get the political lever to fix the problems. They said "but then they'd ask questions about you and what would they hear?". And over the next 12 months, they gaslit and pressured me into a nervous breakdown. And now, even though I collected as much evidence as possible, am being told they did nothing wrong. I now am forced to see a psychiatrist before I'm allowed to return there. Also daily life is now hard enough, before you ask if I just get another job. Yes, been trying that too and on top of everything else, the job market is bad here too. Oh, needless to say, my workplace is so very proud of doing the right thing, having a whistleblowing avenue, being On The Right Side Of The Culture War.

[@troffle]

@@cultreader9751 I responded to you. I edited the response. Why do I not see it here now? Please tell me it appeared in your notifications even if it doesn't appear here now, otherwise I'm going to have to re-write the whole thing from scratch. I was going to add they didn't just remove the freshener, they removed the wall screw mountings as well. Why is my first response not here now? I hate this site so much.

[@niccolomiglio6996]

Unfortunately, I don't think the culture war will ever end anytime soon: for the better or for the worse, this kind of media generates a lot of attention, either from the social media mob or the good ol Rage/Engagement bait these products are, meaning they will be discussed and teared down for ages and , in this social period we live in, pubblicity is the greatest income.

[@TheRevenantEdits]

"Inauthentic" and "Hollow" Like a lot of Western Media in the modern day? YUP. As Post Malone said; "Hollywood is bleeding, but we can't let go."

[@Andrew_TS]

I've just accepted this is a cultural low point for entertainment and will largely stick to playing older games, and watching older shows/movies.

[@SteelDalyn]

Don't worry, SSKTJL wasn't Kevin Conroy's last role, it was Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earth's

[@GabrielHenrique-qt4kf]

KAREN CARTMAN IS NOT REAL KAREN CARTMAN IS NOT REAL KAREN CARTMAN IS NOT REAL KAREN CARTMAN IS NOT REAL KAREN CARTMAN IS NOT REAL KAREN CARTMAN IS NOT REAL

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

I kinda wish she were because I find the design....kinda silly cute, mostly because of how round Cartman is. Kennedy could have gotten so much worse. 😂

[@ottz2506]

Whenever I hear someone say “I want to see myself in media”, I often hear “I’m a narcissist and want to see me me me or else I’ll have a breakdown. By the way did I mention that I’m strong!”

[@Cubeytheawesome]

I can relate to this a bit. My main OC was originally named after myself, but I then decided to change it to Finley so that it wouldn’t be a self-insert. I’m also trying to fix the personality so that I’m not just plagerizing from myself.

[@Lwiis64]

I don't think there is a single real fan out there that is not sick of the culture war. At the end of the day, fans just want to be entertained. But nothing can be done. These companies are ready to die on the hill of their agenda that their audience has completely rejected. If they want to keep losing money, fine by me. I'll spend my money elsewhere.

[@calebpribyl5152]

Oh so it’s like trying to make new friends and you try your best to make a good impression but ending up failing! I remember when I got my job and I talk to a LOT of customers and one of them would deliver newspapers! And he went on this 1 HOUR rant about how your parents didn’t make you Jesus Christ did and the moon landing was fake! And he also asked me if I wanted to go to heaven? Like you know you messed it up when the ARCADES can make religion feel comfortable than this guy!

[@eliaswiebe6862]

If a random fella on KZbin can rewrite, for example, Velma or the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy into Something way better, you know the original producers fucked Up

[@agentofsocialmediachaos6712]

I've seen more backlash involving the localizers whose job it was to translate Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes from Japanese into English deliberately mistranslating lines to shove zoomer internet slang into it. Sadly it's very common for translators to deliberately mistranslate content from Japan including games, anime, manga, and light novels. Up until watching this video I didn't know there was a controversy involving one of the characters too.

[@lekhaclam87]

Neither did I, honestly.

[@samuelebincoletto637]

Not only i totally agree with you in this video but i also like how you have no problem to criticize both sides in this regards, this alone makes you awesome.

[@GrimSoultaker]

This is just getting ridiculous girl disney is a Shell of its former self and the gaming industry is just getting worse

[@Enat1510]

It's truly a shame how ZAU is caught in the crossfire of all this bullshit. SBI needs to view themselves as accountable for turning the gaming landscape into such a hostile environment!

[@lazertazer1251]

My favorite movie when i was younger was between Alladdin and Hercules. Disney were amazing before they became more of an super company 😭

[@Cerebrum123]

I'm glad more people are talking out about stuff like Blackrock and Vanguard. They are just the tip of the iceberg, but they need to be stopped. Sweet Baby Inc. also needs to be stopped with their disgusting views. They see all gamers as picky babies that need to be force fed their ideology. Oh, and the biggest complaint I've seen about Eiyuden Chronicle is that they have activists in their localization process. I don't know if that is accurate, but it is pretty common in games being localized here lately.

[@justghost8713]

"Put a chicken in it and make it a little bit gay." I enjoy watching that South Park episode😂

[@julianhinck5455]

If we stop fighting,we lose. The 100 heroes game had success because it is a god game. The same goes for arcane the series. Just because there’s backlash doesn’t mean the game will fail. It just means it has to trai hard to win over fans.

[@arnowisp6244]

Exactly

[@brandonpollastri5757]

Yeah, I'm afraid all this extreme infighting is all going to set us back years in progress, where people wont watch films or play games because of certin groups, themes or ideas. Regardless of them being good or bad. Or worse, we just regress to a state of divide which ultimatly tears us apart.

[@williambragg6171]

This is gonna sound controversial but when you listen to the minority it tends to go poorly. You can`t listen to a minority of your audience and think they have the better ideas. They represent a small portion of your fanbase and can only get you so far.

[@palmfruits3023]

Zau is a co-lateral. The worst part : it didn't need to be. The game had everything going for it to be DEI approved without SBI. An original story, made by a black man about African Folklore on an universal story about grief and death. Why SBI is in it ? For more money ? More approval ? That poor guy got scammed. For Eiyuden Chronicle, didn't they had a problem with translation and localiser too ? In the end, the DEI crowd push so hard on a spring it just push back at the same strengh. It's not reasonnable but understandable. Also, how can you know what's your target audience when only twitter freaks scream at you with all their might ? Community manager are with DEI, twitter freak push everything that not normal shaming it to tears and death, gaming journos are litterally calling for the death of normality in all form and even the big corpos like Microsoft with their gaming part are pushing DEI in the design of the game itself. And BRIDGE is on the way undercover...Thoses peoples are calling for our death on a first degree basis. Even the US governement is in to consider all gamers as potential terrorist. DEI or not. The difference : DEI will give them more control. Do you really expect a REASONABLE answer to all of that ? I don't. I just hope to either die fast in the splash damage or survive good enough.

[@harbour08]

This is so much more than surface politics/activism. It's a reason these big companies can take the L repeatedly and survive