Open Menu
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
lotide
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
Login

Are game studios suddenly abandoning Black developers?

⁨39⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨chloyster@beehaw.org⁩ to ⁨gaming@beehaw.org⁩

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/are-game-studios-suddenly-abandoning-black-developers-

source

Comments

Sort:hotnewtop
  • verdigris@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Answer from the article itself: no, they were never well represented. This is a terrible clickbait title for a decent article.

    source
  • rgb3x3@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This makes me realize that I can’t think of hardly any videogames with a black character at the forefront.

    Sure, there are black playable characters in MOBAs and MMOs, but how many story-driven games have black characters at the forefront?

    The most recent one I can think of is Alan Wake 2. Which is sad.

    source
    • Lath@kbin.earth ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Assassin's Creed Odyssey? Or Origin? Too many of them, don't know.
      Watchdogs 2.
      Most games with a customizable main character.
      Mafia 3.
      Crysis 2 and sort of 3?
      Some platformers I can't name because it's not my genre.
      That 80s Kingdom offshoot.
      Does Crusader Kings 3 have African leaders enabled or does it come as a DLC?
      Civilization series.

      Representation of any demographic in games should be done by those who have an interest in doing it well.
      Doing it just to pad the numbers is more insulting than even not doing it at all.

      source
      • barsoap@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Does Crusader Kings 3 have African leaders enabled or does it come as a DLC?

        The base game has a notoriously difficult achievement involving starting as a specific female tribal chief uniting “all of Africa” under one reformed pagan religion. Scare quotes because the map doesn’t go further south than approximately the Sahel, not all Africa is playable. Whole of the Americas, Oceania, as well as much of east Asia (incl. China and Japan) are missing. There’s probably going to be map extensions (and China and Japan will be DLCs with lots of custom mechanics) but the original map is already bigger than CKII ever got, and India was playable from the start, with custom mechanics and all.

        source
    • Jaysyn@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      GTA: San Andreas.

      source
      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        And GTA: V

        source
        • -> View More Comments
    • frog@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Slime Rancher’s protagonist, Beatrix LeBeau, is definitely not white. It’s not the most story-driven game out there, but I really appreciated how the main character is a PoC woman, with zero fuss about it. She’s just a lady with a ranch on an alien planet, and why shouldn’t she be a PoC woman rather than a white dude?

      source
      • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Just for the record I agree with you, but the opposite of that final question is true, why shouldn’t she be a white dude, or a PoC man? Ranching/farming isn’t a job that requires a specific gender or sex.

        source
        • -> View More Comments
    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Watch_Dogs 2

      source
    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s old by now, but Telltale’s Walking Dead. Loved those games, and loved those characters.

      source
    • vardogor@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      can’t even pick a decent black hairstyle in the character creators. 90% only have a fro, 9% that weird comb over dread style bc it was in black panther, even tho i’ve never seen a real person wear it

      for reference

      source
    • soliloquy@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Prototype 2 (2012)

      I can’t recall too many that haven’t already been mentioned here though

      source
    • WolfLink@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Baldurs Gate 3

      source
    • e-five@kbin.run ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I can think of Forspoken and Deathloop

      source
    • all-knight-party@kbin.run ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Mafia 3 comes to mind and a lot of the game's story and themes are based around that fact

      source
    • Beegzoidberg@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You’re right, but deathloop is a great one imo

      source
    • brsrklf@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      One of the 6 characters in Xenoblade 3’s main cast is black. He’s quite interesting too, this game has pretty good character writing IMO. They’re not the usual stereotypical JRPG character types.

      source
    • JCPhoenix@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Final Fantasy XIII had Sazh Katzroy. He’s not the main character (that’d be Lightning), but he is a playable character right from the get-go. He has his own storylines as well.

      source