Comments on: The Sunday Papers

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:45:48 +0000

Japan have just privatised their postal service? Is that what you mean?

By: Rei Onryou

Rei Onryou — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:50:05 +0000

Really good selection there. Keep it up.

By: Sonic Goo

Sonic Goo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:52:49 +0000

Meant to be a response to Pundabaya…

By: Sonic Goo

Sonic Goo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:50:32 +0000

In my job we often find players coming up with all sorts of excuses like ‘but X also means this or that’ or ‘there are plenty of people called Hitler, I was heiling them’ etc. The answer to that is that we always go by the most commonly known meaning of the word, as that is what people will most likely be perceiving it as. In the case of Sambo, the racial meaning is the most well-known one so we’d consider it bad.

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:46:08 +0000

On the representation of diversity in games, I noticed while playing through the cult level of SWAT4 for the first time that there were no children, even though there is a creche. “Huh,” I thought, “they must have avoided including children to stop the players or the perps shooting them.” Then I found the basement.

By: Gassalasca

Gassalasca — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:09:50 +0000

I’ve never heard of Spaced.
I… I have nothing to say in my defense.

By: Klaus

Klaus — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:28:10 +0000

I have, more or less, given up on seeing any minority protagonists in different forms of media, or maybe I just don’t care anymore. Even though Master Chief has never taken off his helmet, to my knowledge, I believe that he’s white. When I wrote short stories in school even my protagonists were rarely minorities (or women), even though I am one… err a minority, not a lady. One of the things that bug me about this issue is that people tout games are fantasies so they don’t have to pander to real life but also argue that it is not realistic to add in old Latino women into the SAS.

Games set in a middle age period have beautiful people with little to no physical flaws, their hair is tidy, they are not suffering from malnutrition and have the capacity to become richer than the church or the king himself. Even the womenfolk. That’s all par for the course. The minute you add in some minorities, there’s some guy who will contest that it isn’t ‘historically accurate.’ God forbid someone make a tired and stale setting more interesting by adding ‘fantasy’ to a product which is fantasy by default, even if it’s WWI or WWII. I’m sure Valkyria Chronicles would be just as interesting if they took out all the pc nonsense and just added some accuracy it.

My problem isn’t the lack of minorities itself, it’s the excuses that allow this to persist. A writer who can not write for diversified characters is a crappy writer. Adding in Latino lesbians into the SAS isn’t going make a game where you can recover health hiding behind a bed any less realistic. For the record I’m not arguing that minorities be placed in every game. But unless the setting is specifically in some area where minorities are the majority then there will never be a ‘need’ or a ‘chance’ to add in non-token minority characters. And, as in case of The Dark One’s link (thanks for that by the way), someone can remove most of the minorities anyhow in favor of pandering to the targeted demographic.

By: Kommissar Nicko

Kommissar Nicko — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:14:34 +0000

I thought the article was fascinating as well. It fits perfectly with my bedtime reading these days: “When Corporations Rule the World” by David C. Korten. Reading this made me wonder if the U.S. Postal Service is suffering the same problem. I know U.P.S. and FedEx are real competitors, so maybe not.

By: The Dark One

The Dark One — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:23:52 +0000

This isn’t directly related to games, but it does have to do with ‘minority’ characters. Ursula K Le Guin owns.

http://www.slate.com/id/2111107/

By: luminosity

luminosity — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:23:04 +0000

I didn’t try the gay relationship, but the lesbian one in Jade Empire definitely makes reference to the fact that it is a lesbian one, and i imagine the gay one would be much the same. In a lot of ways the relationship options in that game were a lot braver than anything else Bioware have done, and I was a bit disappointed that Mass Effect was a bit toned back. Also, surprised that Obsidian didn’t do more of that, but I get the feeling a certain Mr Avellone is averse to writing relationships. In fact, iirc he wrote a piece asking people for what they wanted in relationships while making MotB, while simultaneously decrying writing them?

By: LearnSumfinkNew

LearnSumfinkNew — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:09:45 +0000

@ChampionHyena (Because reply is broke)

Same here (Blue Mary <3) . Never knew it could be mistaken for a racist term.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:04:46 +0000

Thanks Kieron, for linking to my ASCIIpOrtal interview. :-)

Children eaten by DRM today: 9529
Bloggers thrilled by their Sunday Papers debut: 1