A PoC Scion please? There is so much untapped potential here.

[Tsiron]

Ignoring the "pandering" complaint (which I disagree with as an issue), can't we agree that from a character design point of view the Scions are really samey? For instance I'm normally a huge fan of white hair, and would have definitely used it on my character... if most of the Scions weren't already white haired. It's a bit much.

[KadaRemnant]

Appearance is not everything. It's the personalities and more.

[Tsiron]

Appearance is not everything. It's the personalities and more.

So introducing darker skinned characters shouldn't be a problem then, right?

[Stormfur]

When does it "make sense" for a character to be black (or anything else, really) then? They just are. Unless they do something random like change an existing character then a non-white character doesn't need any more of a special introduction or reason to be there than any other character.

What I mean is that, let's say the devs read this thread, and they were like "you know what, the playerbase is right, (LOL) we should add more PoC to the game" and then suddenly every quest protagonist is that way and there's much preening about "look how inclusive we are!" -- that's what I DON'T want to see. It's ridiculously exaggerated but you saw a lot of that after the protests in the states, everybody tripping over each other to show how "supportive" they are, and then things slowly revert to "normal" and we're back where we started and everyone forgets about it.

And that doesn't just go for PoC, but also same-sex relationships in game with NPCs. I think the Japanese version of Aymeric he very strongly flirts with your character, male or female, and people on here were lke OMG Aymeric is gay (in both a positive and negative sense), and I'm just like.. it's a game, people! It's not hurting you or anybody else! There's a lot of things in game that, like it or not, are a reflection of real life! All shades and variations of characters should exist in game without it having to shock anybody like "oh wow, there's a black Roegadyn!"

[Yencat]

What I mean is that, let's say the devs read this thread, and they were like "you know what, the playerbase is right, (LOL) we should add more PoC to the game" and then suddenly every quest protagonist is that way and there's much preening about "look how inclusive we are!" -- that's what I DON'T want to see. It's ridiculously exaggerated but you saw a lot of that after the protests in the states, everybody tripping over each other to show how "supportive" they are, and then things slowly revert to "normal" and we're back where we started and everyone forgets about it.

And that doesn't just go for PoC, but also same-sex relationships in game with NPCs. I think the Japanese version of Aymeric he very strongly flirts with your character, male or female, and people on here were lke OMG Aymeric is gay (in both a positive and negative sense), and I'm just like.. it's a game, people! It's not hurting you or anybody else! There's a lot of things in game that, like it or not, are a reflection of real life! All shades and variations of characters should exist in game without it having to shock anybody like "oh wow, there's a black Roegadyn!"

Okay sure, but why does it need to go from "we could do with a few more characters like that" to "okay everyone is black now, pat us on the back"? It doesn't have to be that extreme at all. I see what you're saying of course, but I have a bit more faith in the team than to be so on the nose about it.

When they started opening up a few more glamours for both genders they talked about it a bit and why they did it, but Yoshida wasn't suddenly a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race to show how fantastic they were for letting people dress a bit more how they want in game. (But now I kinda want him to do that tbh.)

Let's say next expansion's G'raha Tia-type character is dark skinned, that would be fine wouldn't it? They don't need to make a big deal about it or put him in a kufi hat or something to emphasize it, hell they don't even need to mention it at all. They never do for other characters so why should this need to be different?

I guess I just take issue with people asking for some sort of God-tier writing needed to explain why someone would be black/brown/whatever, I don't think it's needed at all. Obviously don't introduce the Brady Bunch and have one random black sibling just because, but Zenos is about as interesting as a wet carrot but I never see anyone question his legitimacy as a character (beyond how boring he is).

[Shinklet]

One day, maybe 7.0 or 8.0 but people will learn to not get baited by this guy's posts and just let them sink to the bottom, atleast until whatever media company SE outsources ban him.

[Iscah]

Ignoring the "pandering" complaint (which I disagree with as an issue), can't we agree that from a character design point of view the Scions are really samey? For instance I'm normally a huge fan of white hair, and would have definitely used it on my character... if most of the Scions weren't already white haired. It's a bit much.

Agreed. They sort of look like they weren't properly designed as a group - like nobody sat down and looked at them as a whole and thought about them having different colour schemes to each other. It carries out into a lot of the supporting cast as well. Too much white/silver/light-coloured hair and unsettlingly pale eyes all around.

[Hazama999]

I first saw that concept art in the credits of Shadowbringers and I gotta say it did get a chuckle out of me. It wasn't so much that the characters are white, but just how many of em have silver/white hair lol...

[Stormfur]

I guess I just take issue with people asking for some sort of God-tier writing needed to explain why someone would be black/brown/whatever, I don't think it's needed at all. Obviously don't introduce the Brady Bunch and have one random black sibling just because, but Zenos is about as interesting as a wet carrot but I never see anyone question his legitimacy as a character (beyond how boring he is).

LOL a wet carrot, you got that right. And I 100% agree with you, I hope it doesn't come to "pat us on the back" (and I don't think it would). I've just seen a lot of businesses do that outside of the gaming industry and it makes me want to facedesk every time. I hope we do get characters across the whole spectrum, not just in terms of their skin color but also their orientation and such, to show that in game, just as in life, there's a whole variety of folks and there's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, the original post was bait but it's actually a good discussion. I mean, even the fact that you can marry same sex characters in game is pretty awesome and open-minded of SE to allow (when there are places IRL that don't even go that far).

[Amnmaat]

What I mean is that, let's say the devs read this thread, and they were like "you know what, the playerbase is right, (LOL) we should add more PoC to the game" and then suddenly every quest protagonist is that way and there's much preening about "look how inclusive we are!" -- that's what I DON'T want to see. It's ridiculously exaggerated but you saw a lot of that after the protests in the states, everybody tripping over each other to show how "supportive" they are, and then things slowly revert to "normal" and we're back where we started and everyone forgets about it.

And that doesn't just go for PoC, but also same-sex relationships in game with NPCs. I think the Japanese version of Aymeric he very strongly flirts with your character, male or female, and people on here were lke OMG Aymeric is gay (in both a positive and negative sense), and I'm just like.. it's a game, people! It's not hurting you or anybody else! There's a lot of things in game that, like it or not, are a reflection of real life! All shades and variations of characters should exist in game without it having to shock anybody like "oh wow, there's a black Roegadyn!"

That's a you problem, by your own measure, there's no way you'd accept dark skin characters in this game. It'd all have to be a conspiracy since you will never know why they added one (or many).