Now that FF16 will feature LGBT+ characters, can we get some rep in FF14 too?

[Melorie]

Let me put it this way, if the story is set in the land where the prejudice and racism run rampant, very xenophobic, isolated, and homophobic, as well as that has very pale native inhabitants. Suddenly, despite the setting/lore, there's a dark-back character who is openly gay and tell everyone he meets that he is gay, yet, despite the setting of the location and lore, he serves no other purposes beside telling other people and players that he is dark and gay native, that, in my opinion, is what the token character is; the character than has no "character" and reason to be there beside to "be there" and make it more "inclusive" than it should be. Representation is good when it's not forceful and is flowing in the way the story progress, not just "just put one black man here and call it off" without serving any purpose. What I see in many western spheres is the notion of "just put gay or black characters here! What's so hard about that!" in which doesn't only disrupt the flow and logic of the world/setting, but instead of promoting diversity, they, on the contrary, also create the sense of animosity toward those people you want to represent as well, because, in the end, many people just want to play a good game, regardless of having representations or not.

Do you have an actual example where that happens? Because I can't honestly recall any. Most of the examples that people give are probably very out-of-reach, I have seen bad cases of representation and even then rarely match these fantastical examples. I would say that most of these examples are also bad because it is written by people with zero experience with these specific experiences. And even if this happens... It is just a bad story, it shouldn't be a big deal. Putting the blame on people that are gay or black or whatever and putting the blame on representation is a weak argument.

Why should black people or gay people serve a purpose? Why the rest of the people are ok to be there without a purpose? Your own argument to justify your vision is part of the thing you criticize.
So many people get all teary-eyed when there is a story about prejudice against, I don't know, dragons or beast tribes or whatever, and then if you put a gay person that deals with it (like Dragon Age Inquisition with Dorian, a superb enjoyable companion that trust us with his story), then suddenly you can't enjoy your game anymore? That is ridiculous. I thought that people that enjoy stories are able to embrace all the journeys that people and places go, that's what histories are about.

For black characters, those complaints are pretty much always when it's something with a historical context. Writers adding black characters to places where there really weren't any.
Lets reverse the situation... Imagine if you had something taking place in a fictional setting based off Africa, or even actual real world Africa, from several hundreds of years ago... And in that setting, you just had a random white guy in some tribe there who's presence is never acknowledged as special or anything, because "white people have always been in there".

But at the same time, that complain comes from people that know next to nothing about history. They don't realize how diverse most commerce hubs were. There is examples of that even here, on this thread, of a guy crying how Raubahn is a black guy in a "spaniard place". It is a troll, but that is a normal argument I have to see from people that barely ever read a history book on the period that they defend it was a certain way. Most of the time it comes from people that believe in a pure white Europe, for example, which is very far from the truth. Or even an all-black Africa. Like, these places are actually huge continents that had trading hubs and a deep story with Middle-east/Africa/Asia in some parts. It is a poor vision of how the story was, and the worst of all is when you go to a fantasy setting and demands some type of historical accuracy. The idea of what most people have of "medieval" for example, is poor as fuck. It is based on a bunch of fantasies they read and have little to do with the lives of medieval people.

There are TONS of non-interesting character in all media. Literally a guy being gay and not interesting should not be a big deal. Fact is, if there is a "quota" there is a demand for that. It makes MONEY. People want to see these kind of histories. A lot of company milks on that and make mediocre media, but that is the same for every other subject. What is the point of acting like this is such a big deal? There is bad storytelling everywhere, acting like putting someone gay or black is the source of that is ridiculous and serves nothing.

I am tired fantastical histories of brave western soldiers that go kill people in other parts of the world. But, I guess, there is a demand for that. You know what I do? I go and consume good media. I don't go crying in forums how I CAN'T see that in my game because I can't deal with it, how this should not exist, blablabla. You are surprised that there are weak histories out there being popular? Oh, colour me surprised. This has nothing to do with representation ruining things, there are simply a demand for meh stories out there.

[CaptainLagbeard]

I am tired fantastical histories of brave western soldiers that go kill people in other parts of the world. But, I guess, there is a demand for that. You know what I do? I go and consume good media. I don't go crying in forums how I CAN'T see that in my game because I can't deal with it

Except, you are here, crying about it. Coping with the fact that there was in fact not billions of black people in medieval Europe.

[Melorie]

Except, you are here, crying about it. Coping with the fact that there was in fact not billions of black people in medieval Europe.

Where did I said that there were billions of black people in medieval europe? See? You people are always so sensitive. I said that many people that act like someone not being white in a certain setting most of the time know next to zero about history and how complex it is. You are so dumb, you go and buy the same extremes and modern ideas of 8 or 80, black and white, y'all criticize. You cry regarding how people are obsessed with race but the ones that are actually obsessed with it are yourselves. The american concept of race doesn't exist in the rest of world's history. It's funny, really. Stop being such a simpleton and go see how complex the world is. Go take a look at the black people in The Garden of Earthly Delights from Hieronymus Bosch, perhaps?

I'm not here crying because there is no representation. I literally just said I find that diversifying the different stories around human journeys is always good, and don't see what the big deal is. The ones crying about it are the ones in the thread acting like seeing a gay dude in their video-game somehow ruins it.