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FF XVI IGN Interview Triggers ResetERA Into MADNESS (Diversity/Representation)

How excited are you for FF XVI coming Summer 2023 (answers represents 5% - 100% excitement)?

  • Day 1 (100%)

    Votes: 80 66.7%
  • Picking it up in Summer for sure (85%)

    Votes: 8 6.7%
  • Eventually will get it by end of 2023 (75%)

    Votes: 6 5.0%
  • Gonna wait for a deep sale (50%)

    Votes: 7 5.8%
  • Will pray and port-beg for a PC version (25%)

    Votes: 6 5.0%
  • I'll just wait 'till it's in GamePass in 2039 (5%)

    Votes: 13 10.8%

  • Total voters
    120
Status
Not open for further replies.

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I always love the obnoxious American centric mentality of woke people. They are so "open minded" but seemingly can't comprehend that the entire world doesn't revolve around social issues and racial tension in america.
Imagine a Japanese publications invites over someone from Santa Monica to talk about GOW Ragnarok or from 343 to talk about Halo and they start pestering them about the lack of Ainu and Ryukyuan minority character in their games
Bingo.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
How about we give creative freedom to devs to do what they want without ridiculous limits like this? What’s next? A character from every ethnicity so people don’t rage?
 
DISCLAIMER: Please let's try to keep the conversation civil on this. I really don't want to see any equally stupid anti-diversity/representation takes ITT or trying to shift blame to the groups bigoted ResetERA posters say they're "speaking up for", or that the IGN interviewer tried pushing in their question WRT the topic.

Trust me, most of the people in these groups (of which I would fall into if I were dumb enough to let phenotypical features or skin tone absolutely define me, the way many on places like Reset seem to) used like chess pieces on this culture war game board, do NOT give a s#*t about the "representation" those like the interviewer or ResetERA are making seem must be legally required, let alone are offended over some perceived lack of said representation.

Also, I generally try to stay OUT of this culture war BS these days. Too many awful people on both sides, honestly. I like to consider myself a "born-again Neutral" in that respect. However, I can see fake outrage and BS agendas for what they are and this just happens to be a case where one particular side is trying to do it, so I want to speak up about such.

====================================================================================================================================

So IGN recently did an interview with (among other) Naoki Yoshida, Producer for FF XVI and, in true Western games media fashion, not only made a pivot to suddenly ask about diversity out of nowhere, but black diversity in particular (the reason some of these people do this is because they feel if they can get a good answer on this one, it "opens the door" for other types of representation. It's the trojan horse approach, essentially). IGN asked the following...



Keep in mind, this game is clearly set in and inspired by Medieval European folklore, which is practically, predominantly white. Yoshida's quite respectful response is the following:



A very, very respectable answer that doesn't antagonize the stupidity of the source asking the opening question, doesn't dismiss the questions of those who may be wondering about lack of particular diversity, but also shows a creator willing to stay true to their artistic vision and faithful to their inspiration and, yes, again the vast majority of medieval European lore is overwhelmingly white, JUST like how the vast majority of lore from African countries is overwhelmingly black, or the vast majority of lore/myths from Asian countries are overwhelmingly Asian, etc. But somehow, this doesn't seem to compute with IGN's interviewer, I guess they failed to learn about any of this.

It's okay though, because ResetERA has the outrage covered for him! I mean, just look at these gems...

User: Izanagi89



Conflation, how does it work?

User: Ashodin



See, told you this is usually how it goes. These kind of pushes usually start with asking about black people & POC, but that is just the Trojan Horse to get to what is really desired. A tactic almost as old as time itself.

User: L Thammy



Yes, nothing says "peak hot take" like running to a generic Wikipedia entry blurb to try contesting the creator's own actual words from an interview. Great tactic xD.

User: SpottieO



Basically, he's saying that because Josh Sawyer has an Ethiopian character in his game, because his game features the Council of Constance, which did historically have Ethiopians present from time to time.

But that's just the thing: from time to time. And let's be real here; not in large numbers, certainly not where they made up the majority of its members. That...that kinda matters.

User: Kalentan



So Europe wasn't overwhelmingly white during the periods many of the fables and myths most fantasy works are based on (at least partially), were made? Wat? What are we doing here? 🤣🤣

Icing on the cake is they think they have a grasp of actual history in this regard. Child, just stop.

And these were all just dumb takes on the first page! All of this to say, Yoshi P's response was nothing wrong, hostile, dismissive, or offensive, yet ResetERA are of course pissed anyway simply because he didn't tout the same generic answers many others do, or doesn't appear remorseful in not having a supposed enough diversity in the game. Nor should he be remorseful, honestly.

Going by the mentality of ResetERA, every single work of a game, in every genre, should have some kind of diversity representation, and some amount constituting "major roles". This is the bean counter approach, the business suit approach. The irony is, they believe they are being progressive when all they are doing is emulating the same hardline, tyrannical demands style of corporate and government figures, and time and time again, it's ACTUAL creatives who are negatively affected.

To me, real progressivism is in letting people, among other things, create the kinds of works THEY want to create. If some arbitrary representation or whatnot is achieved, fine. But if not, that doesn't suddenly make those creators bigoted. With the tone and rhetoric people like those in this ResetERA thread use, though, you'd think that were actually the case. Of course, they are never honest enough to outright admit such a thing if you were to ask them directly.

Anyway, I just wanted to go over how stupid all this controversy over his answer is. And I say this as someone who's a supposed "person of color" because one thing I've always noticed, is people like those on ResetERA who try getting offended on our behalf, more or less treat us like a statistic unless we lick their ideological taint and co-sign on their misplaced outrage. We don't need you to speak for us, or be outraged on our behalf. Believe it or not, a good many can actually form full sentences, form thoughts of our own, and articulate well enough to speak for ourselves. Shocking, I know 🙄.

It's also just this idiotic denseness to historical reality that displays their own ignorance so profusely. Yes, lots of medieval fantasy may have fantastical creatures that in themselves don't exist like dragons, but those fantastical dragons are INSPIRED by animals that were actually VERY common in the countries the works come from. Same goes for werewolves, wyvern, etc. No matter how grand or high-level the fantasy was, it was ALWAYS grounded in the local reality, and the local reality for many of the fables these ideas come from was nothing like the global world we live in today, nor does it mean those fables, works, or the elements they use are inherently racist simply because they aren't ethnically diverse.

If you look at almost any classical East Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, Sub-Saharan African, or Latin American fables, myths etc., they will ALSO have a preponderance of fantastical creatures inspired by the regional wildlife, and VERY homogenous peoples reflective of the majority populations of their societies. This is normal, it's called reality, and those works are not inherently racist or bigoted for simply representing the scope of their local realities through fantasy. Neither are the various European myths or fables that dominate that style of fantasy, but ResetERA seem to want to force a fake narrative in that case because, well, they're bigoted.

Again, I'm not even white, but I am tired of seeing the intellectual dishonesty a lot of people like in that FF XVI thread on Reset, forcibly use in order to try drumming up outrage. And it says a lot about the interviewer at IGN who even asked Yoshida this question in particular, which was purposefully loaded and IMO, not even genuine. A real interviewer who understands anything about history, artistic liberty & freedom, would have rather asked Yoshida if we'll ever get a Final Fantasy entry based on fantastical Middle Eastern, African, Latin American, or Asian myths & fables? Or heck, if we'll ever see a JRPG from Square-Enix based on one of those cultures and their myths. Because this may surprise the bigots on ResetERA, but there are actually a LOT of really neat myths, fables & legends from these cultures, such as Yoruba mythology (Nigeria), and Piasa Bird (Native American) that could serve as basis for games of their own.

Not that it's Yoshida or Square-Enix's responsibility to make such games, but I think a more respectful question regarding diversity & representation to them in this interview would have been along those lines, not phrasing the question on the expectation that FF XVI in particular must be more diverse because of reasons. But yeah, that's all I wanted to really say about the lame outrage over this segment of the interview. Some people ask me why I troll ResetERA profiles, or pull posts from over there to ridicule and criticize here. Well because on ResetERA, you can't have a genuine conversation with actual differences in opinion if your opinion runs counter to the groupthink that mods & even Admin there want to push, meaning even if you are not being toxic or bigoted, simply appearing more factually correct than them will likely catch you a ban. Using actual comedy and being flagrantly ridiculous to provide satire on some of the worst hot-takes from otherwise obvious console warriors & shills on that forum, will get you labeled as an aggressor, and banned, simply for pointing out the truth in a comedically outlandish fashion.

However, considering the sway Reset seems to have among gaming media types and content creators, it's rather concerning. The forum's already shown it isn't above orchestrating targeted agendas at various people (it's even outright doxxed people in the past), being hypocritical about what games to discuss vs. not (i.e banning Harry Potter discussion because of some viewpoints of the series creator, yet openly allowing threads for ABK games to keep rolling out despite the laundry list of toxic workplace incidents from various employees that have come out from several of their studios. AKA you punish the majority for the thoughts of a single person in one instance, but don't punish the majority for the actions of a group of people in the other instance? Where's the consistency?), and is very likely compromised in terms of funding sources (I won't get too much into that here, but I have some thoughts).

Okay, rant over. Just needed to air that out.
as an autistic black guy i can bet the person voicing these "concerns" is white.
 

TransTrender

Gold Member
As others have said.
Stop feeding the trolls.
Devs don't need to engage in Twitter or get sucked in to disingenuous conversations from the likes of Kotaku, IGN, Polygon, etc.
These people are insane.
 
DISCLAIMER: Please let's try to keep the conversation civil on this. I really don't want to see any equally stupid anti-diversity/representation takes ITT or trying to shift blame to the groups bigoted ResetERA posters say they're "speaking up for", or that the IGN interviewer tried pushing in their question WRT the topic.

Trust me, most of the people in these groups (of which I would fall into if I were dumb enough to let phenotypical features or skin tone absolutely define me, the way many on places like Reset seem to) used like chess pieces on this culture war game board, do NOT give a s#*t about the "representation" those like the interviewer or ResetERA are making seem must be legally required, let alone are offended over some perceived lack of said representation.

Also, I generally try to stay OUT of this culture war BS these days. Too many awful people on both sides, honestly. I like to consider myself a "born-again Neutral" in that respect. However, I can see fake outrage and BS agendas for what they are and this just happens to be a case where one particular side is trying to do it, so I want to speak up about such.

====================================================================================================================================

So IGN recently did an interview with (among other) Naoki Yoshida, Producer for FF XVI and, in true Western games media fashion, not only made a pivot to suddenly ask about diversity out of nowhere, but black diversity in particular (the reason some of these people do this is because they feel if they can get a good answer on this one, it "opens the door" for other types of representation. It's the trojan horse approach, essentially). IGN asked the following...



Keep in mind, this game is clearly set in and inspired by Medieval European folklore, which is practically, predominantly white. Yoshida's quite respectful response is the following:



A very, very respectable answer that doesn't antagonize the stupidity of the source asking the opening question, doesn't dismiss the questions of those who may be wondering about lack of particular diversity, but also shows a creator willing to stay true to their artistic vision and faithful to their inspiration and, yes, again the vast majority of medieval European lore is overwhelmingly white, JUST like how the vast majority of lore from African countries is overwhelmingly black, or the vast majority of lore/myths from Asian countries are overwhelmingly Asian, etc. But somehow, this doesn't seem to compute with IGN's interviewer, I guess they failed to learn about any of this.

It's okay though, because ResetERA has the outrage covered for him! I mean, just look at these gems...

User: Izanagi89



Conflation, how does it work?

User: Ashodin



See, told you this is usually how it goes. These kind of pushes usually start with asking about black people & POC, but that is just the Trojan Horse to get to what is really desired. A tactic almost as old as time itself.

User: L Thammy



Yes, nothing says "peak hot take" like running to a generic Wikipedia entry blurb to try contesting the creator's own actual words from an interview. Great tactic xD.

User: SpottieO



Basically, he's saying that because Josh Sawyer has an Ethiopian character in his game, because his game features the Council of Constance, which did historically have Ethiopians present from time to time.

But that's just the thing: from time to time. And let's be real here; not in large numbers, certainly not where they made up the majority of its members. That...that kinda matters.

User: Kalentan



So Europe wasn't overwhelmingly white during the periods many of the fables and myths most fantasy works are based on (at least partially), were made? Wat? What are we doing here? 🤣🤣

Icing on the cake is they think they have a grasp of actual history in this regard. Child, just stop.

And these were all just dumb takes on the first page! All of this to say, Yoshi P's response was nothing wrong, hostile, dismissive, or offensive, yet ResetERA are of course pissed anyway simply because he didn't tout the same generic answers many others do, or doesn't appear remorseful in not having a supposed enough diversity in the game. Nor should he be remorseful, honestly.

Going by the mentality of ResetERA, every single work of a game, in every genre, should have some kind of diversity representation, and some amount constituting "major roles". This is the bean counter approach, the business suit approach. The irony is, they believe they are being progressive when all they are doing is emulating the same hardline, tyrannical demands style of corporate and government figures, and time and time again, it's ACTUAL creatives who are negatively affected.

To me, real progressivism is in letting people, among other things, create the kinds of works THEY want to create. If some arbitrary representation or whatnot is achieved, fine. But if not, that doesn't suddenly make those creators bigoted. With the tone and rhetoric people like those in this ResetERA thread use, though, you'd think that were actually the case. Of course, they are never honest enough to outright admit such a thing if you were to ask them directly.

Anyway, I just wanted to go over how stupid all this controversy over his answer is. And I say this as someone who's a supposed "person of color" because one thing I've always noticed, is people like those on ResetERA who try getting offended on our behalf, more or less treat us like a statistic unless we lick their ideological taint and co-sign on their misplaced outrage. We don't need you to speak for us, or be outraged on our behalf. Believe it or not, a good many can actually form full sentences, form thoughts of our own, and articulate well enough to speak for ourselves. Shocking, I know 🙄.

It's also just this idiotic denseness to historical reality that displays their own ignorance so profusely. Yes, lots of medieval fantasy may have fantastical creatures that in themselves don't exist like dragons, but those fantastical dragons are INSPIRED by animals that were actually VERY common in the countries the works come from. Same goes for werewolves, wyvern, etc. No matter how grand or high-level the fantasy was, it was ALWAYS grounded in the local reality, and the local reality for many of the fables these ideas come from was nothing like the global world we live in today, nor does it mean those fables, works, or the elements they use are inherently racist simply because they aren't ethnically diverse.

If you look at almost any classical East Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, Sub-Saharan African, or Latin American fables, myths etc., they will ALSO have a preponderance of fantastical creatures inspired by the regional wildlife, and VERY homogenous peoples reflective of the majority populations of their societies. This is normal, it's called reality, and those works are not inherently racist or bigoted for simply representing the scope of their local realities through fantasy. Neither are the various European myths or fables that dominate that style of fantasy, but ResetERA seem to want to force a fake narrative in that case because, well, they're bigoted.

Again, I'm not even white, but I am tired of seeing the intellectual dishonesty a lot of people like in that FF XVI thread on Reset, forcibly use in order to try drumming up outrage. And it says a lot about the interviewer at IGN who even asked Yoshida this question in particular, which was purposefully loaded and IMO, not even genuine. A real interviewer who understands anything about history, artistic liberty & freedom, would have rather asked Yoshida if we'll ever get a Final Fantasy entry based on fantastical Middle Eastern, African, Latin American, or Asian myths & fables? Or heck, if we'll ever see a JRPG from Square-Enix based on one of those cultures and their myths. Because this may surprise the bigots on ResetERA, but there are actually a LOT of really neat myths, fables & legends from these cultures, such as Yoruba mythology (Nigeria), and Piasa Bird (Native American) that could serve as basis for games of their own.

Not that it's Yoshida or Square-Enix's responsibility to make such games, but I think a more respectful question regarding diversity & representation to them in this interview would have been along those lines, not phrasing the question on the expectation that FF XVI in particular must be more diverse because of reasons. But yeah, that's all I wanted to really say about the lame outrage over this segment of the interview. Some people ask me why I troll ResetERA profiles, or pull posts from over there to ridicule and criticize here. Well because on ResetERA, you can't have a genuine conversation with actual differences in opinion if your opinion runs counter to the groupthink that mods & even Admin there want to push, meaning even if you are not being toxic or bigoted, simply appearing more factually correct than them will likely catch you a ban. Using actual comedy and being flagrantly ridiculous to provide satire on some of the worst hot-takes from otherwise obvious console warriors & shills on that forum, will get you labeled as an aggressor, and banned, simply for pointing out the truth in a comedically outlandish fashion.

However, considering the sway Reset seems to have among gaming media types and content creators, it's rather concerning. The forum's already shown it isn't above orchestrating targeted agendas at various people (it's even outright doxxed people in the past), being hypocritical about what games to discuss vs. not (i.e banning Harry Potter discussion because of some viewpoints of the series creator, yet openly allowing threads for ABK games to keep rolling out despite the laundry list of toxic workplace incidents from various employees that have come out from several of their studios. AKA you punish the majority for the thoughts of a single person in one instance, but don't punish the majority for the actions of a group of people in the other instance? Where's the consistency?), and is very likely compromised in terms of funding sources (I won't get too much into that here, but I have some thoughts).

Okay, rant over. Just needed to air that out.
the part about women is funny cause people will throw a fit if for example they make the woman a villan, kill her/put her in danger, isnt as powerful as her male contemporaries
 
hiring based on diversity, race or any other factors rather than skill ---- is actually racist/prejudice and whatever you wanna call it . i had to do diversity training yesterday at my job lol. they were talking stereotypes are bad, then put a dark skinned man playing a part that he had to fast for Ramadan, ISNT THAT A STEREOTYPE LOL. whole thing is a joke. just treat everyone fairly and hire the best people for the job. i do agree on hiring based on race for characters that are an actual race lol. give everyone a fair chance - whoever's the best gets the job. whatever man, the world isn't perfect. be kind.
 
As others have said.
Stop feeding the trolls.
Devs don't need to engage in Twitter or get sucked in to disingenuous conversations from the likes of Kotaku, IGN, Polygon, etc.
These people are insane.
its just pathetic the way places like era speak about minorities we are nothing more than zoo animals for them
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
IGN quite frankly sucks balls most of the time and baits with bullshit like this all the time. Take a look at a line from their recent review of Andor Episode 9:

In placing white characters always on the side of wielding power, it presents a stark reflection of our own world and its history of persecution.

:messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy:


Then later on:

Her conversations with Vel are particularly poignant as two powerful women trying to make their male-dominated galaxy a better place.

Looking at who wrote the review though, it's no surprise to see bullshit like this in a Star Wars Andor review

20220706_140010_2-1660692581052.jpg
That shit reads like fucking satire.
 
DISCLAIMER: Please let's try to keep the conversation civil on this. I really don't want to see any equally stupid anti-diversity/representation takes ITT or trying to shift blame to the groups bigoted ResetERA posters say they're "speaking up for", or that the IGN interviewer tried pushing in their question WRT the topic.

Trust me, most of the people in these groups (of which I would fall into if I were dumb enough to let phenotypical features or skin tone absolutely define me, the way many on places like Reset seem to) used like chess pieces on this culture war game board, do NOT give a s#*t about the "representation" those like the interviewer or ResetERA are making seem must be legally required, let alone are offended over some perceived lack of said representation.

Also, I generally try to stay OUT of this culture war BS these days. Too many awful people on both sides, honestly. I like to consider myself a "born-again Neutral" in that respect. However, I can see fake outrage and BS agendas for what they are and this just happens to be a case where one particular side is trying to do it, so I want to speak up about such.

====================================================================================================================================

So IGN recently did an interview with (among other) Naoki Yoshida, Producer for FF XVI and, in true Western games media fashion, not only made a pivot to suddenly ask about diversity out of nowhere, but black diversity in particular (the reason some of these people do this is because they feel if they can get a good answer on this one, it "opens the door" for other types of representation. It's the trojan horse approach, essentially). IGN asked the following...



Keep in mind, this game is clearly set in and inspired by Medieval European folklore, which is practically, predominantly white. Yoshida's quite respectful response is the following:



A very, very respectable answer that doesn't antagonize the stupidity of the source asking the opening question, doesn't dismiss the questions of those who may be wondering about lack of particular diversity, but also shows a creator willing to stay true to their artistic vision and faithful to their inspiration and, yes, again the vast majority of medieval European lore is overwhelmingly white, JUST like how the vast majority of lore from African countries is overwhelmingly black, or the vast majority of lore/myths from Asian countries are overwhelmingly Asian, etc. But somehow, this doesn't seem to compute with IGN's interviewer, I guess they failed to learn about any of this.

It's okay though, because ResetERA has the outrage covered for him! I mean, just look at these gems...

User: Izanagi89



Conflation, how does it work?

User: Ashodin



See, told you this is usually how it goes. These kind of pushes usually start with asking about black people & POC, but that is just the Trojan Horse to get to what is really desired. A tactic almost as old as time itself.

User: L Thammy



Yes, nothing says "peak hot take" like running to a generic Wikipedia entry blurb to try contesting the creator's own actual words from an interview. Great tactic xD.

User: SpottieO



Basically, he's saying that because Josh Sawyer has an Ethiopian character in his game, because his game features the Council of Constance, which did historically have Ethiopians present from time to time.

But that's just the thing: from time to time. And let's be real here; not in large numbers, certainly not where they made up the majority of its members. That...that kinda matters.

User: Kalentan



So Europe wasn't overwhelmingly white during the periods many of the fables and myths most fantasy works are based on (at least partially), were made? Wat? What are we doing here? 🤣🤣

Icing on the cake is they think they have a grasp of actual history in this regard. Child, just stop.

And these were all just dumb takes on the first page! All of this to say, Yoshi P's response was nothing wrong, hostile, dismissive, or offensive, yet ResetERA are of course pissed anyway simply because he didn't tout the same generic answers many others do, or doesn't appear remorseful in not having a supposed enough diversity in the game. Nor should he be remorseful, honestly.

Going by the mentality of ResetERA, every single work of a game, in every genre, should have some kind of diversity representation, and some amount constituting "major roles". This is the bean counter approach, the business suit approach. The irony is, they believe they are being progressive when all they are doing is emulating the same hardline, tyrannical demands style of corporate and government figures, and time and time again, it's ACTUAL creatives who are negatively affected.

To me, real progressivism is in letting people, among other things, create the kinds of works THEY want to create. If some arbitrary representation or whatnot is achieved, fine. But if not, that doesn't suddenly make those creators bigoted. With the tone and rhetoric people like those in this ResetERA thread use, though, you'd think that were actually the case. Of course, they are never honest enough to outright admit such a thing if you were to ask them directly.

Anyway, I just wanted to go over how stupid all this controversy over his answer is. And I say this as someone who's a supposed "person of color" because one thing I've always noticed, is people like those on ResetERA who try getting offended on our behalf, more or less treat us like a statistic unless we lick their ideological taint and co-sign on their misplaced outrage. We don't need you to speak for us, or be outraged on our behalf. Believe it or not, a good many can actually form full sentences, form thoughts of our own, and articulate well enough to speak for ourselves. Shocking, I know 🙄.

It's also just this idiotic denseness to historical reality that displays their own ignorance so profusely. Yes, lots of medieval fantasy may have fantastical creatures that in themselves don't exist like dragons, but those fantastical dragons are INSPIRED by animals that were actually VERY common in the countries the works come from. Same goes for werewolves, wyvern, etc. No matter how grand or high-level the fantasy was, it was ALWAYS grounded in the local reality, and the local reality for many of the fables these ideas come from was nothing like the global world we live in today, nor does it mean those fables, works, or the elements they use are inherently racist simply because they aren't ethnically diverse.

If you look at almost any classical East Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, Sub-Saharan African, or Latin American fables, myths etc., they will ALSO have a preponderance of fantastical creatures inspired by the regional wildlife, and VERY homogenous peoples reflective of the majority populations of their societies. This is normal, it's called reality, and those works are not inherently racist or bigoted for simply representing the scope of their local realities through fantasy. Neither are the various European myths or fables that dominate that style of fantasy, but ResetERA seem to want to force a fake narrative in that case because, well, they're bigoted.

Again, I'm not even white, but I am tired of seeing the intellectual dishonesty a lot of people like in that FF XVI thread on Reset, forcibly use in order to try drumming up outrage. And it says a lot about the interviewer at IGN who even asked Yoshida this question in particular, which was purposefully loaded and IMO, not even genuine. A real interviewer who understands anything about history, artistic liberty & freedom, would have rather asked Yoshida if we'll ever get a Final Fantasy entry based on fantastical Middle Eastern, African, Latin American, or Asian myths & fables? Or heck, if we'll ever see a JRPG from Square-Enix based on one of those cultures and their myths. Because this may surprise the bigots on ResetERA, but there are actually a LOT of really neat myths, fables & legends from these cultures, such as Yoruba mythology (Nigeria), and Piasa Bird (Native American) that could serve as basis for games of their own.

Not that it's Yoshida or Square-Enix's responsibility to make such games, but I think a more respectful question regarding diversity & representation to them in this interview would have been along those lines, not phrasing the question on the expectation that FF XVI in particular must be more diverse because of reasons. But yeah, that's all I wanted to really say about the lame outrage over this segment of the interview. Some people ask me why I troll ResetERA profiles, or pull posts from over there to ridicule and criticize here. Well because on ResetERA, you can't have a genuine conversation with actual differences in opinion if your opinion runs counter to the groupthink that mods & even Admin there want to push, meaning even if you are not being toxic or bigoted, simply appearing more factually correct than them will likely catch you a ban. Using actual comedy and being flagrantly ridiculous to provide satire on some of the worst hot-takes from otherwise obvious console warriors & shills on that forum, will get you labeled as an aggressor, and banned, simply for pointing out the truth in a comedically outlandish fashion.

However, considering the sway Reset seems to have among gaming media types and content creators, it's rather concerning. The forum's already shown it isn't above orchestrating targeted agendas at various people (it's even outright doxxed people in the past), being hypocritical about what games to discuss vs. not (i.e banning Harry Potter discussion because of some viewpoints of the series creator, yet openly allowing threads for ABK games to keep rolling out despite the laundry list of toxic workplace incidents from various employees that have come out from several of their studios. AKA you punish the majority for the thoughts of a single person in one instance, but don't punish the majority for the actions of a group of people in the other instance? Where's the consistency?), and is very likely compromised in terms of funding sources (I won't get too much into that here, but I have some thoughts).

Okay, rant over. Just needed to air that out.
people like this also go mask off with the racism if you dont agree with them. they are the ones stereotyping for example black men and talks of conforming as well as calling you the n word if your not on their side
 
You're autistic and black, need one more label to be truly diverse, you're practically a straight white male.
oh im aware the people who talk about diversity are the same ones who go on about how black men are a threat to say white women (i dont play identity politics by the way i only pointed it out in this instance to show how pathetic the statement was). considering the sjws thinks the struggle of white women is at all comparable to a black person shows this is all performative bullcrap aimed at social upstanding.
 
Last edited:
the anti-woke nonsense yall carry on with here is just as fucking annoying as the ‘woke’ nonsense they carry on with at era. Do some of you not realize how exhausting it is to be two sides of the same coin?

Either way, the excuse is lame but im day one. I don’t expect japanese game designers to fairly represent anything but japanese and white people
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
You know they are full of shit when they troll yoshi-p for the response by saying stuff like "i didn't know europe had monsters and magic but black people are off limit", but they were even more mad when kingdom come came out without many black people in it and that one was super realistic and based on real history, so no fantasy\dragons excuse to shit on the developers, and they still found a way to be triggered.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Reminds of the hate that Vavra received around the release of Kingdom Come:


fpz8k7zuiotaf5agmoew.png



Fortunately he didn't back down.
Yeah thanks to his idiotic takes and not wanting to back down, we as a team had a lot of hate mails.

But that's...anyway...I wouldn't be pushing this. He also admits, that he should have been less engaged on social media nowadays. He is very smart, but also very strange.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
DISCLAIMER: Please let's try to keep the conversation civil on this. I really don't want to see any equally stupid anti-diversity/representation takes ITT or trying to shift blame to the groups bigoted ResetERA posters say they're "speaking up for", or that the IGN interviewer tried pushing in their question WRT the topic.

Trust me, most of the people in these groups (of which I would fall into if I were dumb enough to let phenotypical features or skin tone absolutely define me, the way many on places like Reset seem to) used like chess pieces on this culture war game board, do NOT give a s#*t about the "representation" those like the interviewer or ResetERA are making seem must be legally required, let alone are offended over some perceived lack of said representation.
Just correcting you here: people like representation. Yes, they do. It's just most people aren't going to go on a rant when it's not there and they're fine not consuming the product if they feel it doesn't cater to them. ERA likes to make drama over anything, though.
Now, why is what is happening in ERA relevant again?
 
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I already knew that forum was going to have an outrage as soon as I saw this brought up in the interview. His answer makes complete sense and there is nothing wrong with it but of course you got the imbeciles who can't deal with it. One person said "It's a fantasy setting you can do whatever the hell you want." That's right and that's exactly what they did so deal with it and STFU
 
I think this is what happens when you don't have any real problems in your life, you get upset that a fantasy game set in mid evil Europe doesn't have black people. What a waste of energy.
Or your problems are so large it’s psychologically crippling to even glimpse at the edges of them.
 

Reallink

Member
Isn't this verbatim what Kingdom Come Deliverance was "canceled" and blacklisted by all the media outlets for? Are they going to do the same to Square and Sony? Will Black At Bungie release a statement?
 
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Oberstein

Member
IGN's question is interesting because, basically, there is a stated goal: they want to see black people in the game. This lobbying is constant.

Basically, diversity is mostly a smokescreen that, at the cost of consistency and competence, attacks a whole system that was created before. They can't stand white America, so they want to destroy it, and this is now done through movies and video games.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Square is literally making a battle mage game staring a black chick.

It's never enough for the false altruism parasites.
 
Just correcting you here: people like representation. Yes, they do. It's just most people aren't going to go on a rant when it's not there and they're fine not consuming the product if they feel it doesn't cater to them. ERA likes to make drama over anything, though.
Now, why is what is happening in ERA relevant again?

There's a difference between genuine representation, and artificial representation, though. Genuine representation CAN also include a character "looking like you" (though in reality just because I share a similar skin tone or ethnicity with a character doesn't mean they literally look like me at all), but that in itself is not the main basis for authenticity. It should, and has always, been down to how well-written a character is, what their expressed values and virtues are, their hobbies and interests, etc.

That's why I'm able to identify with so many characters who in fact may not "look like me", but embody aspects of who I am as an individual in one way or another. That includes characters of all colors (Steve Urkel, Goku, Blade, The Crow, Batman etc.), gender (Ripley, Linda Hamilton in T2, etc.), LGBT etc. That is authentic representation in my eyes.

I wish I could agree that places like ERA are irrelevant but when you have so many Western games media types proliferating there and dropping them by name in their own content, that in fact bolsters their presence online. Way too many gamin content creators name-drop ResetERA for rumors that don't even originate there 90% of the time, or gaming news in general, and that permeates with their audiences who will then...go to the forum and potentially get caught up in its BS.

So putting a spotlight on their horrendous takes every now and then is a good thing IMO.
 
Yeah thanks to his idiotic takes and not wanting to back down, we as a team had a lot of hate mails.

But that's...anyway...I wouldn't be pushing this. He also admits, that he should have been less engaged on social media nowadays. He is very smart, but also very strange.

It was nice to see somebody in his position show some balls for once.
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
It was nice to see somebody in his position show some balls for once.
I don't mind sharing the sentiment, I absolutely stand behind him with this, but there was a lot of surrounding bullshit in which he got suck into and that, I wasn't a fan.

But imagine fucking Polygon editor writing you to snitch on him, funny shit. Sadly my company email isn't no longer available, I would dug it up.
 
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FalsettoVibe

Gold Member
Stuff like this is one of the main reasons I quit posting on Era. Everyone is so quick to grab their pitchforks and torches, not once taking the time to think or reason.
I think at some point in that thread reason starts to get introduced, but for the most part there are some horrible posters in that forum.
 

OZ9000

Banned
Ah resetera... a place where men have vaginas, women have penises, men can menstruate and give birth, and misgendering is a crime against humanity.

I do not give a shit about the colour or ethnicity of the character in my video game. And I won't lose any sleep if 'X' group isn't featured in a video game. What is the big deal if X game doesn't have Black/Asian/lizard people? Or a game which doesn't have a 'gender diversity'? Why is this even a topic?

10 years ago developers made games and people enjoyed them. Now everything is under the microscope of 'inclusivity and diversity' - my two most hated words.
 

zomboden

Banned
If I played a game set in ancient egypt, ancient africa, ancient china, etc I wouldn’t expect to see any white characters and I sure as hell wouldn’t start a fuss about it. If he wants to make his game in medieval europe then let him and stfu. There doesn’t have to be a diveristy checklist and while its great when minorities are represented when it makes sense … it needs to be natural and not forced.

It feels like every game/movie/show made these days has some sort of checklist it has to hit all the boxes to keep the woke audience from losing their minds.
 

Fuz

Banned
Yoshi's answer is kinda shitty too, in that particular non-answer style typical of japanese culture.
 

Arachnid

Member
Lol @ resetera. Their argument is that it should have diversity despite setting because of magic and monsters?

Where was that logic when they were triggered over Kingdom Come when the devs gave the exact same answer? That game is a straight up medieval simulator with no fantasy elements. This proves that they really don't have any logic to their antagonism.

Anything that triggers resetera is a win for me.
 
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