Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[Nandina]

See, with this statement right here, it lets me know that you feel it's a race issue, when it's really not. This is a non issue. If you want to achieve a certain look, you have the options to do so. Limited options, yes, but it is still possible to get a look that your hoping could be representative

If people use it being a Japanese MMO for their reasoning as to why there isn’t any diversity, and I respond that SE isn’t just marketing their MMO only to Japan, how can you sit up here and take umbrage when I reason that they should think about their audience outside of Japan? And if the options were available to do so, the thread wouldn’t exist.

I wouldn't say it has a race problem, as all the games races are pretty well represented, and you can choose your skin color to be whatever you want.

racial characteristics from the real world shouldn't apply, as the game doesn't denote races by color. Stop looking for racial issues where they don't exist, it makes it harder to fight for them where they do actually exist.

They started off fine, but when something like this is said, they are just inviting themselves to criticism over an unnecessary response.

If you were fine with how it started off, why were you fine with Valkyrie_Lenneth’s comment? This is why I mentioned real life, because Valkyrie_Lenneth mentioned the real world, and from there it somehow spiraled into me wanting my character to look EXACTLY like me in the real world, which isn’t the argument I made. I’m sure none of us could recreate ourselves, including those players who are white. But those players who are white could at least make a character who is noticeably white, even if the character doesn’t look like them. It’s like playing darts. Even if I don’t hit a bullseye, I at least want to hit the board if I’m going to be bothered to play. Meaning, that character doesn’t have to look 100% like me, but I at least would want the option to customize my character in a way I can at least relate to.

The retaliation comes from people saying this isn’t the real world, and using that to justify why other facial characteristics and hair types can’t be represented. So you mean to tell me that in a world where there are people noticeably inhuman with horns, tails, and scales; asking for kinky/curly hairstyles, other face types, and a non-ashy skin tone which could be done in a mere patch is asking for too much because this isn’t real life? Fine, SE is too lazy to implement the face changes, but it doesn’t justify the response about “this not being the real world”. Like obviously, lol. But that same reasoning isn’t applied when it comes time to explaining why Europoean features are the standard. SE literally patches the game all the time. Why can’t this be updated again?

This isn’t about just me. I’m speaking up for others, because the reality is there are other people who have the same complaints as me. I don’t know if you’re knowledgeable about makeup, but you can’t replicate for example a NC44 in Mac, or a 330 in Fenty with the in-game color grid, and many of the options are identical. If you go too far to the right, you get too dark; if you go too far to the left, you get too light. There’s no middle ground, which means that no, you can’t be any color you want. And with the options available, the undertones could at least be fixed when going vertically. People are walking through Eorzea covered in baby powder, lol.

But my question is why haven’t you disagreed with people using the real world as an argument against it, but then when I respond, you only say I’m making it about race, lol. I never denied anyone the right to be represented or spoke out against anyone’s representation, nor have I justified why anyone else shouldn’t be represented. That however happened to me, and that’s fucked. You and others, are trying to gaslight me. But it’s whatever. I stand by my points. The OP was actually pretty jokey hence my use of “dookie dreads” and “in severe need of lotion”. It was Valkyrie_Lenneth, who trivialized the point I made, and said that I was making it racial issue when there wasn’t one, and essentially speaking up unnecessarily. But you agreed with how I started off, but didn’t take issue with that. I guess. It was really me just saying, okay we need a few improvements here. I never called anyone racist, bigoted, or anything of the sort; if anything I simply highlighted an issue of underrepresentation. Using make up again as an example, there was a time when the different shades you see in a department store weren’t available. Did that make the department stores racist? No. In many of those instances, the department stores didn’t know black and brown women wore make up, so didn’t bother to release shades for them. When it was known, this changed and we have the current beauty industry we have today. Meaning, that maybe SE isn’t in touch with a significant portion of their player base, but if I or no one else speaks up, they’ll never implement changes. But when I did speak up, nearly everyone shot it down because “it isn’t the real world”.

For the record, I don't have any problems with them adding customization options to character creation. I have a problem with people saying the game is racist because they can't choose specific features on their character on the race they want.

No one said the game was racist. Your mind was so quick to go into defense mode, that you’re fighting against a claim no one made. It says “Character Creation Has A Race Problem”. What is that race problem? Underrepresentation. Underrepresentation isn’t racist in and of itself. Now if they were out here giving people Jinx and Mr. Popo lips, I’d say it was racist. So now people are acting like they don’t know what racism is or isn’t. I have not once claimed the game to be disparaging to a group of people, so wtf are you talking about? And clearly you do have an issue with added customization, because your response is that “it’s a fantasy game, why does it have to match humanity on racial features”. Please be consistent.

If anything, I said “So you mean to tell me that my black and brown friends are good enough to receive a subscription from, but not good enough to have the character creation cater to them as well?” I 100% stand by that, because common sense dictates that you cater to your audience, especially if they’re paying you. Using makeup as an example again, you would not open a Sephora in Lagos, Nigeria; but only have pale shades, and if you do have darker shades, you wouldn’t have it so that only 20% of the demographic can find something that matches them. That’s speaking to underrepresentation, not racism.