7.1 - More Wuk Lamat

[Lunaxia]

From the PAX Australia interview linked earlier in the thread

For the record I haven't even played DT and have no skin in this game, WL is honestly small potatoes in my mind compared to the grander problems the game has but browsing through the thread and seeing this comment made me do a double-take.

The first half is PR speak for "we acknowledge she comes off as shallow" which is a start, but the second part is incredibly telling and for the first time pointedly highlights the pivotal mistake they've kept making since Endwalker, only this time to disastrous effect: trying to force an impression of a character or storyline on the player instead of telling the story and letting players judge for themselves.

It shouldn't be "we're hoping we can show more of what makes Wuk Lumat so great", but "we're hoping we can show what we think makes Wuk Lumat a great character." It's not up to them to decide how players receive her; they can take feedback and revise the character to be more appealing if it's in their interest to do so, but objectively forcing the notion she is without taking in player perception and autonomy is not only ignorant and a little arrogant, but it's only going to raise hackles and foster even more ill will.

I think this is what I find so frustrating about the current climate of diversity awareness in video games. Diversity is incredibly important, and we absolutely need more representation and opportunities for minorities, but making an obnoxiously over-exposed token character with a "love me" sign on their back is not the way to do it. If anything it's disrespectful, given that it others them from other characters that get treated with the nuance and humanity that makes them genuinely endearing and does far more harm than good in engendering acceptance in the gaming community.

[PorxiesRCute]

For the record I haven't even played DT and have no skin in this game, WL is honestly small potatoes in my mind compared to the grander problems the game has but browsing through the thread and seeing this comment made me do a double-take.

The first half is PR speak for "we acknowledge she comes off as shallow" which is a start, but the second part is incredibly telling and for the first time pointedly highlights the pivotal mistake they've kept making since Endwalker, only this time to disastrous effect: trying to force an impression of a character or storyline on the player instead of telling the story and letting players judge for themselves.

It shouldn't be "we're hoping we can show more of what makes Wuk Lumat so great", but "we're hoping we can show what we think makes Wuk Lumat a great character." It's not up to them to decide how players receive her; they can take feedback and revise the character to be more appealing if it's in their interest to do so, but objectively forcing the notion she is without taking in player perception and autonomy is not only ignorant and a little arrogant, but it's only going to raise hackles and foster even more ill will.

I think this is what I find so frustrating about the current climate of diversity awareness in video games. Diversity is incredibly important, and we absolutely need more representation and opportunities for minorities, but making an obnoxiously over-exposed token character with a "love me" sign on their back is not the way to do it. If anything it's disrespectful, given that it others them from other characters that get treated with the nuance and humanity that makes them genuinely endearing and does far more harm than good in engendering acceptance in the gaming community.

I was with you until you got to the diversity rant. What about Wuk Lamat makes her an "over-exposed token character"?

Being female? There's so many other female characters in this game, that doesn't make sense.

Being Turali? Being from the location the new expansion is set doesn't make her a "token".

Unless you meant... but no, it wouldn't make sense to call her a token based on the identity of only one of her localized voice actresses. That would be silly.