Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[Dualgunner]

Careful you don't fall down that slippery slope there. Making it seem like this is some sort apocalypse level scenario.

Answer the question, though: how much is enough? When will people be satisfied with the level of representation? I mean, there are already people okay with just being able to have darker skin, if we want to work our way back up this "slippery slope."

[Raou]

Answer the question, though: how much is enough? When will people be satisfied with the level of representation? I mean, there are already people okay with just being able to have darker skin, if we want to work our way back up this "slippery slope."

Maybe more than a just a face/hair few options to make something closer to what people might want? Just spitballing here. Not like this hasn't been explained ad nauseam throughout this thread.

[Dualgunner]

Maybe more than a just a face/hair few options to make something closer to what people might want? Just spitballing here. Not like this hasn't been explained ad nauseam throughout this thread.

How much is "more than just a few"? Do they need an entire catalogue of PoC-approved hairstyles? Jawlines? Eye shapes? What about the people who will turn around and cry that their attempts to represent PoC are, themselves, racist because they don't get every last nuance of how a black face is *supposed* to be shaped with their limited pixel art?

[Galleyus]

We are all Asian, enjoy friendos. Nah but character creator could do a lot more than it is currently, but I must say I was surprised this game has so many skin color options. I enjoyed the fact that it has so many shades other than Asian color pallets. I think it is a great character creator on the macro scale, but on the micro scale its not the best. Would be nice to see a lot more options tho, maybe soon if they ever decide to redo it. Enough uproar and they may change it all in the next expac if people are loud enough. Iv learned you cant please everyone tho, and even if they were to put into the game specific features for each fantasy race to reflect real life, I can easily see them getting hit for it if they don't do it properly. Properly as in minute details and such, but Japan isn't too concerned with American politics and social concerns so I doubt that we will se racial specific changes to reflect people outside of an Asian demographic.

[Raou]

How much is "more than just a few"? Do they need an entire catalogue of PoC-approved hairstyles? Jawlines? Eye shapes? What about the people who will turn around and cry that their attempts to represent PoC are, themselves, racist because they don't get every last nuance of how a black face is *supposed* to be shaped with their limited pixel art?

... This is a bad thing somehow?

No, really. Why can't we just get some ideas from actual PoC and catalogue that stuff? Killer Instinct kinda proved that you can do that with Thunder and Eagle.

[MaloraYuki]

How much is "more than just a few"? Do they need an entire catalogue of PoC-approved hairstyles? Jawlines? Eye shapes? What about the people who will turn around and cry that their attempts to represent PoC are, themselves, racist because they don't get every last nuance of how a black face is *supposed* to be shaped with their limited pixel art?

Race in this game is hyur, aura, miqote, lala, elezen, roe. Then divided into subcategories by lore location/tribe. It is not based on what is considered rl race it is based on game lore and what part of the fantasy world said race is from. There is no such thing as a African American face or European face or Native American or Asian/ oceanic face because they are not based on RL. You are not black in this game you are miqote, you are not white you are roe. You are not anything-American or anything of that sort because this is not America, it is not japan, it is not France, it is Eorzea.

[Magic-Mal]

This is not America, it is not japan, it is not France, it is Eorzea.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

snip

Damn. I can hardly tell the difference

[Magic-Mal]

Damn. I can hardly tell the difference

Neither can I

I must say, conveniently forgetting feudal Japan? Clever move.

This game takes place in Kugane too.

[Iscah]

Taoism, from the glamour. Angels and devils, Christianity.

Unless they talk about those things in ways that clearly link them to their real-world origins, they exist in the game world, and it makes more sense to "explain them" as such. Otherwise everything in the game that also exists in the real world is a real-world reference!

I'll admit, naming the "Taoist" set seems like a direct reference, although you could theorise that the same philosophy exists in-world (just replace 'China' with Doma or Nagxia or wherever they want to set it).

The angel and demon sets are, to our perspective, based on stylised figures from Christianity, but that doesn't necessarily require the in-world creator of the costume to be aware of those concepts. Maybe there's a parallel concept somewhere in Eorzean religion, or maybe someone just said "hey, wouldn't it be cool to make a coat with giant bird wings on it?"

In any case, since they only exist as cash shop items, I don't feel like they necessarily even exist in game lore.

EDIT TO ADD: Having remembered that, of course, demons (ie. voidsent) do exist in-world, I went looking in the lorebook bestiary to see if there were any that particularly looked like the glamour designs. There's the Blackguard encountered in the Void Ark (a feather-winged knight) and also for the angelic side of things, the enchanted statue Kuribu, guardian of Amdapor. So records of the Amdapor-Mhach "War of the Magi" could serve as game-world inspiration for the costumes.

[image]

Yes, that's Kugane. In Hingashi. What's this Japan you're talking about? Nobody there has heard of it.