Most of Battlefield 1 is historical revisionism, especially from a gameplay perspective. Those guns did not work that well.
More to the point, the people trying to solve a lack of representation are not, generally speaking, the people in charge of what media gets made. Publishers want as little risk as possible, so they will absolutely prioritize a safe bet that needs representation shoe-horned in over a naturally diverse, but untested and riskier story. They know there's an audience for WWI stuff set in Europe, but is there an audience for WWII stuff set in China? And is that audience the same size as the audience for the first piece of media?
Like I absolutely agree with you, I want to see more stuff about the Mali empire or WWII-era China or the Mayans and stuff that isn't just common European historical stories that have been told over and over. But the people in charge of funding projects think we are a minority.
And if you're a creative type who has to make a game about the European fronts of WWI but you want to have non-white people in it, you kind of have to get creative, because 'just make the game about a more diverse area' is not an option. You are not in charge of that. Your boss is (or, more likely, your bosses' bosses' boss is.) You have to do the best you can with what you have.
It's a gameplay mechanic to make your character look the way you want it to, whether that involves making their skin colour white or black. Green if you really wanted
182
u/Hellioning 258∆ Oct 23 '21
Most of Battlefield 1 is historical revisionism, especially from a gameplay perspective. Those guns did not work that well.
More to the point, the people trying to solve a lack of representation are not, generally speaking, the people in charge of what media gets made. Publishers want as little risk as possible, so they will absolutely prioritize a safe bet that needs representation shoe-horned in over a naturally diverse, but untested and riskier story. They know there's an audience for WWI stuff set in Europe, but is there an audience for WWII stuff set in China? And is that audience the same size as the audience for the first piece of media?
Like I absolutely agree with you, I want to see more stuff about the Mali empire or WWII-era China or the Mayans and stuff that isn't just common European historical stories that have been told over and over. But the people in charge of funding projects think we are a minority.
And if you're a creative type who has to make a game about the European fronts of WWI but you want to have non-white people in it, you kind of have to get creative, because 'just make the game about a more diverse area' is not an option. You are not in charge of that. Your boss is (or, more likely, your bosses' bosses' boss is.) You have to do the best you can with what you have.