Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[FeliAiko]

A dark-skinned Miqo with features prominently characteristic of PoC would not be a "black person". Same way that Kugane is not Japan despite obviously incorporating elements of Japan's aesthetic into its makeup.

Luna's initial point was to challenge and mock the flawed argument that the former wouldn't fit in a fantasy game but the latter is okay even though both cases would be drawn/inspired by real world elements.

[Iscah]

I've been saying the whole time though - if there is an Africa-equivalent in the game world like there is a Japan-equivalent, yes there would be African-equivalent people living there. I have no problem with that, but we are yet to actually see that such a place exists.

Also, if it does, any Hyurans there are probably dark-skinned Midlanders-or-Highlanders. Therefore, they do not have features outside of those available in the character creator, even if their real-world equivalents do. Would that be a bad thing if they were included but didn't have the "true range" of possible facial features?

[Magic-Mal]

I've been saying the whole time though - if there is an Africa-equivalent in the game world like there is a Japan-equivalent, yes there would be African-equivalent people living there. I have no problem with that, but we are yet to actually see that such a place exists.

Also, if it does, any Hyurans there are probably dark-skinned Midlanders-or-Highlanders. Therefore, they do not have features outside of those available in the character creator, even if their real-world equivalents do. Would that be a bad thing if they were included but didn't have the "true range" of possible facial features?

But we need to know or see where they come from to have the facial features or hair? I mean we got the first look of an Au Ra in 2.55 and were actually able to play Au Ra when Heavenward came out. Then 3 years later we finally saw where Au Ra come from. Before that, Au Ra pretty just appeared out of nowhere and were walking around like it was nothing. But only because the devs decided to make it so.

When it comes down to it, the devs can give the options and choose to say they come from anywhere they please.

I mean they invented Ivalice now. Now we can apparently have Vieras, Bangaas, and Seeq... suddenly.

[Iscah]

But we need to know or see where they come from to have the facial features or hair? I mean we got the first look of an Au Ra in 2.55 and were actually able to play Au Ra when Heavenward came out. Then 3 years later we finally saw where Au Ra come from. Before that, Au Ra pretty just appeared out of nowhere and were walking around like it was nothing. But only because the devs decided to make it so.

Okay, fair enough - although Doma has been talked about since ARR (in the ninja questline), and Yugiri is introduced as being from there. It establishes the place even if we haven't seen it.

There are the few previously-discussed hairstyles available - limited, but available, and with additional options spread across different races - and nothing stopping a player from making an African-looking character if they want to (or at least what I would perceive as African if I saw it), even if the face options aren't perfectly what they are looking for.


As I wrote earlier, it's possible there's a technical reason for not having any wider noses - since all the different interchangeable pieces of the face need to move together for expressions and animations, it may be that there's a fixed strip down the centre of the face and the nose can't be wider than that.

In any case, the options won't be changed unless they completely reprogram the character creator. It seems they can only add new hairstyles and facepaint.


On actually getting new hairstyles, it seems to me that a lot of the available styles probably originate from designs for new NPCs - looking through the list, there seem to be a group that I'd associate with characters from post-ARR, then Heavensward, then post-Heavensward and Stormblood. (*) If so, then it's possible that if we do visit an Africa-equivalent, that's when we'll get more hairstyles suited to that location.

*Although, when was the Scholar job introduced? Alka Zolka's hairstyle seems to be at the end of the Heavensward part of the list (though it's also used for Charibert there). Does anyone know if that style was available prior to HW or if it was NPC-only to begin with?

[Ruru_Nayu]

>Fantasy game
>Was remade in 2013

Like damn, it's supposed to be a different world... It's why the planet is called Hydaelyn and not Earth.
Can't people just enjoy the story without thinking about all theese nonesense things like "It's racist that..." or "It's sexist because..."
It's a game and games are meant to be played to have fun!

[FeliAiko]

If SE wanted to go the extra mile and add an Africa region equivalent in Eorzea (even though that's not what people are asking for) then that would be their perogative. The notion that it has to be there first as some sort of precondition just to get extra facial options in a fantasy game (where lore can be easily changed and updated to explain new additions that wasn't there prior), however, is absurd.

[FeliAiko]

I can accept the argument of technical limitations on SE's part, as it wouldn't be the first time in their case (hence the "PS3 limitations" and "small indie dev" memes), but the other BS excuses I've seen whenever these kind of topics come up are just that.

SMN and SCH came with 2.0 launch. ACN was in 1.0 but was not a playable Job and gameplay wise was going to be different from the current incarnation.

[Mahrze]

Weeee, 51 pages of outrage culture.

[Miste]

Maybe we should campaign to get more hairstyles more often...I noticed they seem to have slowed down in releasing new ones, maybe I am seeing it wrong, but it just seems that way to me since SB released.

[FeliAiko]

I'm sure SE are working on their next straight hair variant as we speak.