Hello interwebs!
I do not pretend to be a master of social paradigm nor do I pretend to have a realistic solution to this problem but the gaming community as a whole and it's been highlighted lately in the controversy over Tomodochi life.
I've seen this problem crop up before, usually in regard to how offensively some people perceive the over sexualization of video game characters (both female AND male) or how unrealistically a specific gender is portrayed in a video game (damsel in distress, impossibly masculine hero). Even people relying on racial stereotypes and tropes in the portrayal of their characters (in some cases it can be in a negative light so understandable). The problem is that no matter how inclusive or sensitive game developers may try and be someone somewhere will likely be offended or feel left out.
The truth be told that unless someone is within the demographic with which they are trying to realistically portray within a game it will be incredibly hard for them to portray them accurately and fairly. This gives rise to the potential of being offensive even if that was not the original intent.
Seriously what I want you readers to do (if anyone reads this) is to imagine as many possible groups of people you can who could feel excluded by any game including tomodochi life.
Imagine if the general developers gave way to all of the various minorities, orientations, beliefs, ages, literally all of the hundreds if not thousands of groups of people that exist!!!
There is no way a company can consider everyone especially considering a lot of these groups beliefs and lifestyles directly contradict one another, somebody somewhere is always going to be upset. If you spend all your time try to appease everyone nothing will get done except for maybe games like pong where there are no "characters" to relate to.
Outcries like this are not good for anyone who is fond of a character driven game that involves any people at all. These controversies are not good for the gaming community as a whole, if games cannot be made through fear of offending somebody then no one gets to play and that's bad for every group withing the gaming community, male female gay or straight or whatever you happen to be.
so peace out everyone and just enjoy your game. No one is purposely trying to hurt you so smile and relax :).
Turtle Beach has revealed their latest wireless gaming headset.
GamesRadar+ - "The Future Games Show is set to return this June as part of a trilogy of presentations showing off a huge suite of upcoming games.
The Future Games Show itself is set to take place on Saturday, June 6. The Future Games Show Summer Showcase will air at 12:00 PDT / 15:00 EDT / 20:00 BST, and you can expect more world premiers, exclusive trailers, and demo drops from a range of exciting studios as the show streams across Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Steam."
Vaka Game Magazine and ImCyan has released side-scrolling horror game Tsugunohi: The Chamber of Phantom Name for PlayStation 4 and Switch for $3.99, the developers announced.
I used your explanation of how people who aren't a part of a group trying to represent the group could cause a lot of problems in my blog. You pretty much hit the nail on the head then, and you did so again now. Great blog.
As an aside, maybe it's because I associate the word with Anita Sarkeesian and her use of it but, I really hate the word "trope." It sounds so negative to me, like it's something wrong. That's something I really dislike about Social Justice Warriors, especially on Tumblr. They can make you actually hate words.
I mean, I've heard words like ableist, ageist, and even sailist. Yes, sailist. Try figuring that one out.
Ugh. Freedom of Speech is so abused by people who just word vomit.
I agree with what you are saying. I don't believe that a company or artist should be forced to include anything other than his/her original vision. I understand the want and need to be included and inclusive. However, as a minority, I would rather a company do this with artistic intent as opposed to inclusion for inclusions sake. I would want them to take the time to "portray them accurately and fairly", as you stated, as opposed to shoehorning them into a game to say...we've included them, now shut up about it!
I don't claim to be a master of social paradigm myself. But, one thing that I DO know is that change is not easy, instant, or always welcome. It's more often than not messy and takes time to weed out the stagnant mentalities that have perpetuated the very ideas that are in need of change. It requires huge amounts of patience, understanding, and some compassion...from BOTH sides. As you said, bullying and coercion only makes you look as bad as, if not worse than, those that are resistant to your ideas. Good blog!!!
But if it's just an oversight on Nintendo's part, how come they're not trying to meet a clear wish of gamers? Allowing relationships between characters of the same sex is a 10 minute fix on their end, so finance is hardly an argument.