New gearsets preview is a disappointment

[PinkSorrel]

Brazillian here. This set is a disappointment. I've been eagerly waiting to see my people's cultures being represented as a gear set and instead we get... Spanish conquistador sets?
Brazil alone has SO MANY beautiful outfits that could serve as inspiration for the new set. Add the rest of the Americas and you're spoiled or choice. Yet you choose SPAIN COLONIZER? C'mon.

If you still have the sensitivity readers, please expand their duties to cover geasets. Stuff like this should not be happening, specially after making such a big deal about it on Fanfest.

[astralmoon]

Voicing my added support to this, as well as attempting to write a breakdown on why some designs of the dungeon gear are a very questionable choice. For context, I'm southeast Asian, and in a little bit I'll explain why the gear design is a poor choice that's felt across regions and not simply just in LatAm alone.

I want to specifically point out why for many these designs are offensive considering this expansion is supposed to be a tribute to the Americas in general - namely the gear design takes inspiration from the Spanish Conquistador era in the 15th century.

A few examples of the artistic depiction of some of the armors worn by Spanish conquistadores during the era:





and these are just some you'll find when you search this up. Similar armor have also been worn by Dutch & Portuguese colonizers during the colonization of Southeast Asia around the 16th century (the capture of Melaka in 1511 comes to mind).

I'll be the first to say, and strongly emphasize, that it isn't a 1-to-1 copy; clearly there are artistic liberties at play here to make the gear design as coherent to the game's art direction as possible. But for many of us, it's very hard not to see the resemblance, however slight. There's a generational pain that comes with this, and while none of us are a monolith or a "spokesperson" for every Latino and/or native across the board, I really do think it's poor form for the design team to look towards colonial outfits even if it isn't supposed to be historically accurate. If anything, I believe it comes from a lens of seeing American & LatAm history & culture as marketed by American pop culture, if that makes sense.

I believe what makes me especially frustrated and angry is that we were told that cultural consultants have been involved in the making of this game to provide as respectful an inspiration as possible when it comes to the region of Tural - was there no budget for these consultants due to the lack of funding as expressed in the previous live letter, or was there simply none at all to begin with? If so, why give us false hope to begin with? Why promise that this expansion will be "culturally sensitive" when the past few patch cycles - and even the second part of the expansion to begin with - have shown so many of us that there's such a gross lack of commitment to that promise?

The pain that lot of my LatAm & indigenous friends feel with the gear reveal is something I deeply relate to over a shared history of being colonized. So no, many of us will not simply "get over it".

[BigCheez]

What's with all the <5 post accounts jumping on this thread? Smells highly supsect.

[Khalithar]

snip

Hi. My family is from El Salvador. Get over it. You and your ilk complaining about this are cringe.

That conquistador drip looks great.

[Altina_Orion]

Voicing my added support to this, as well as attempting to write a breakdown on why some designs of the dungeon gear are a very questionable choice. For context, I'm southeast Asian, and in a little bit I'll explain why the gear design is a poor choice that's felt across regions and not simply just in LatAm alone.

I want to specifically point out why for many these designs are offensive considering this expansion is supposed to be a tribute to the Americas in general - namely the gear design takes inspiration from the Spanish Conquistador era in the 15th century.

A few examples of the artistic depiction of some of the armors worn by Spanish conquistadores during the era:





and these are just some you'll find when you search this up. Similar armor have also been worn by Dutch & Portuguese colonizers during the colonization of Southeast Asia around the 16th century (the capture of Melaka in 1511 comes to mind).

I'll be the first to say, and strongly emphasize, that it isn't a 1-to-1 copy; clearly there are artistic liberties at play here to make the gear design as coherent to the game's art direction as possible. But for many of us, it's very hard not to see the resemblance, however slight. There's a generational pain that comes with this, and while none of us are a monolith or a "spokesperson" for every Latino and/or native across the board, I really do think it's poor form for the design team to look towards colonial outfits even if it isn't supposed to be historically accurate. If anything, I believe it comes from a lens of seeing American & LatAm history & culture as marketed by American pop culture, if that makes sense.

I believe what makes me especially frustrated and angry is that we were told that cultural consultants have been involved in the making of this game to provide as respectful an inspiration as possible when it comes to the region of Tural - was there no budget for these consultants due to the lack of funding as expressed in the previous live letter, or was there simply none at all to begin with? If so, why give us false hope to begin with? Why promise that this expansion will be "culturally sensitive" when the past few patch cycles - and even the second part of the expansion to begin with - have shown so many of us that there's such a gross lack of commitment to that promise?

The pain that lot of my LatAm & indigenous friends feel with the gear reveal is something I deeply relate to over a shared history of being colonized. So no, many of us will not simply "get over it".

None of this looks anything like the set lmfao.

[Fawkes]

If SE has a single ounce of sense then Meracydia won't look like Australia and nobody there will have an Australian accent and we won't get any Koala mounts/minions there.

[astralmoon]

Hi. My family is from El Salvador. Get over it. You and your ilk complaining about this are cringe.

That conquistador drip looks great.

Kesiannya, generasi penjajah tak reti baca

[Khalithar]

Kesiannya, generasi penjajah tak reti baca

Oh I know how to read. I get what you’re trying to say. I just don’t agree.

[Lydeck]

I wish I had so little going on in my life that I had time to be up in arms & offended over something so dumb.

I understand most of you complaining are unemployed and need to do something to feel like you're making some sort of impact in the world, but you should probably do something legitimately productive instead of clutching your pearls online over something so meaningless.

[ChrisKatze]

In love with the new gear sets and will definitely make a glam with them, will voice my opinion loud and clear to square enix that we want and need more outfits like this!