HereForTheBeer: A problem of creativity or experience, not of diversity. If I were to design a game, you probably would not want me to attempt to put a bunch of elements of diversity in it, because I'd likely make a botch of it. I think the primary goal should be to make a good game. If you can fit the other stuff in while doing so (if it makes sense), great. If fitting it in makes for a worse game, then don't.
If you were to design a game, I'd hope you'd put in some thought to the story, and not just go the lazy route. Then, if there is a specific reason the characters you chose are the characters you chose, then sure, it might be fine. To take the example of STALKER which I think someone here mentioned before, nobody complains that the player character in STALKER should've been black or could've been black.
pearnon: Even if that were an issue, it'd be called supply and demand. However, it most certainly is not, as Gordon Freeman, Guybrush Threepwood, George Stobbart
et alii beg to differ (as pertains to character "types").
How is it supply and demand? I'd say it is either lazy writing, or when it is forced (there are quite a few stories you read about games envisioned with different characters having to be changed to be more 'relatable'), it's because publishers are cowards with outdated data. I'm not sure I understand your examples, though. You just gave me 3 white male characters, a twenty year old one that has since been turned into a stereotypical comical buffoon, a stereotypical loudmouth american, and a silent protagonist? Are they diverse? The three aren't the same character, certainly, but I can't say more than that.
pearnon: I assume you're referring to FPS and the like. If people bought into the notion of female, chipper, pollyannaish character types indulging in warfare and wanton killing as some sort of default, it'd bespeak a very problematic
zeitgeist in our society. As for White being the default, it's as much of a problem as Asian being the default in Asian games - that is, not at all.
So many weird preconceived notions. Can women only be chipper pollyannaish characcters?
Asians are the default in asian games?
And the entire analogy itself- Whites being the default in 'our society' is like Asians being the default in Asian society- You're matching "Whites in our society' to "Asians in Asian society'. Whites (especially white males, which you skipped out on) are not the majority market for video games any more. And 'our society' (even taking your meaning to be your society and not mine) isn't white by default.
To echo your assumption to Vainamoinen, I'm going to assume you're white?
pearnon: Defaults aren't lazy, they're merely defaults for a reason. But, just because they're defaults and, by definition, a majority, they do not impede variety in any way, nor have they ever.
"Default' is by no definition a majority. And selecting the default (or more accurately, going the default way due to a lack of forethought or any actual selection) IS lazy, by definition. A game development tool I use has a specific font, and this grey flat GUI theme for the save/load and menu options by default. If I play a game with those in it, I won't think "No, the developer SPECIFICALLY chose that because they wanted it to be part of their game" or "that's just the majority". I would think "This developer, for whatever reason, didn't do something different than the default in terms of the interface. It is an indication that they may possibly be lazy, or have not thought this through".
pearnon: It's not nearly as interesting as this conflation of yours of "fleshed out" with "diverse". Nobody called Memoria, Heavy Rain, Longest Journey, Bayonetta, to name but a few, "diverse". They're just accomplished games which happen to have main characters who aren't all white males. And they would have been equally good games if they had been envisioned for white male characters, as "diversity" in and on itself is just a meaningless, empty shell of a buzzword, which accomplishes nothing in and on itself. Unless you're talking about your eating habits, which should indeed be as diverse as possible.
Saying they'd be just as good if they had been white male characters is also a bit strange. Errr..they aren't. No they wouldn't. We just doing guessing games now? So if a character different than a stereotypical white male was swapped in for a stereotypical white male (not advocating something as simplistic, obviously), it would be forced, but if a white male was swapped in for one of those characters you mentioned, it would make no difference at all?
And are you saying that they are NOT diverse? Or just that they were not called diverse? I don't get your point. Just because they aren't CALLED diverse (they're just called in general good games, because of the reason I said- well thought out and non-lazy writing- not that I can be sure, I haven't played them all), doesn't mean they aren't.
Are you simply angered by the term 'diverse' because it is being used by those you consider your idealogical opponents, thus must be wrong?
