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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

At Japan’s CEDEC 2024 (Computer Entertainment Developers Conference), Bandai Namco Online held a seminar on the topic of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in games, particularly Japanese titles aiming for overseas expansion (as reported by 4Gamer).

Bandai Namco Online is Bandai Namco HD’s subsidiary that develops and distributes online games. Up until 2023, the company mostly produced Japan or Asia-exclusive titles, but has recently moved towards targeting Western audiences as well. Specifically, they developed MMORPG Blue Protocol and Gundam Evolution (now discontinued) with overseas expansion in mind.

Against this background, the company has, according to their quality assurance engineer, come to place importance on DEI. It seems Bandai Namco Online first became aware of DEI through feedback received from overseas partner companies.

Based on the contents of the seminar, Bandai Namco Online currently sees DEI, when used correctly, as a potential method to broaden the scope of their content and make it attractive to a wider range of players. On the topic of the actual relevance of DEI in the West, they cite a survey conducted by Newzoo, in which 55% of respondents (from the US and UK) agreed either strongly or somewhat to the question “Is DEI important to you?” They also cite a survey result that showed that American and British gamers tend to project themselves onto game characters.

In this sense, the DEI Bandai Namco Online are exploring seems to revolve around things like including more diverse hairstyles, facial features and body types to character creation as well as making NPCs more diverse in appearance and age. They seem to also consider accessibility options to be a part of DEI, as part of the seminar lauds the efforts of recent Japanese fighting games (likely Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8) in making their controls more accessible.

Interestingly, Bandai’s presenter admits to initially questioning whether DEI is really necessary in game content, and they stress that being excessive in pursuing diversity can harm a game’s setting and come off as performative (they give the example of a game set in a rural Japanese school where half of the students are foreigners).

The company seems to be proactively raising the staff’s understanding on DEI topics like gender and cultural differences through in-house training, but also stress that they are not introducing any kind of binding policy on their developers. They also mention doing research on Japanese games that have performed well in the West without making special efforts towards implementing DEI, which suggest the developer may still be in the process of forming an answer.

Bandai Namco Online shares views on DEI and its implementation in Western releases of Japanese games - AUTOMATON WEST

Bandai Namco Online, developer of Blue Protocol, recently held a seminar in which they shared their views on DEI.

automaton-media.com

 

[RagnarokIV]

55% of respondents (from the US and UK) agreed either strongly or somewhat to the question “Is DEI important to you?”

The magic 55% (a majority) who seemingly never buy games. All mouth no trousers.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The people they surveyed:

 

[Shake Your Rump]

“Bandai Namco Online first became aware of DEI through feedback received from overseas partner companies.“

Notice it wasn’t the players that provided feedback. It was the western “partners”.

 

[Killer8]

Now let's see Concord's player numbers.

 

[Bashtee]

On the topic of the actual relevance of DEI in the West, they cite a survey conducted by Newzoo, in which 55% of respondents (from the US and UK) agreed either strongly or somewhat to the question “Is DEI important to you?” They also cite a survey result that showed that American and British gamers tend to project themselves onto game characters.

This is the biggest bullshit ever. People would say that it matters for political correctness, but only a fraction of those people would actively avoid games without proper representation. Most people probably don't even think about it whenever they play a game.

Nonetheless, more options for things like character creation and so on are always great, but I don't know why anyone would need special training for that.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

 

[tommib]

Keep voting with your wallet. It’s the only way to have these consultancy services out of the picture and leave games to the devs and to what they actually want to do. This whole thing will fall apart if you just don’t buy the games.

 

[Success]

Always fun to see people expose themselves on GAF.

DEI is in the title and people get immediately triggered instead of reading the actual text.

How BAMCO is approaching DEI is actually the correct way.

 

[Robb]

they stress that being excessive in pursuing diversity can harm a game’s setting and come off as performative (they give the example of a game set in a rural Japanese school where half of the students are foreigners).

This actually sounds like the correct approach imo. Silver linings.

 

[tommib]

Always fun to see people expose themselves on GAF.

DEI is in the title and people get immediately triggered instead of reading the actual text.

How BAMCO is approaching DEI is actually the correct way.

Not necessarly. They acknowledge it but question it while having the staff trained on it. They just seem to be kind of lost on how to go further.

 

[Mr Moose]

Newzoo are full of shit.

 

[Success]

Not necessarly. They acknowledge it but question it while having the staff trained on it. They just seem to be kind of lost on how to go further.

Did you read the first message on this thread?

BAMCO literally said they don't want it to be performative.

How they are approaching it is the correct way.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The magic 55% (a majority) who seemingly never buy games. All mouth no trousers.

Yes, this is extremely poorly worded question from a statistical perspective + no clear link demonstrated between views on DEI and revenue.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Did you read the first message on this thread?

BAMCO literally said they don't want it to be performative.

How they are approaching it is the correct way.

The fact that DEI is even discussed as a serious matter in gaming makes it wrong. It's like a bunch of scientists arguing with flat earthers. You just don't engage in that conversation. Period.

 

[Woopah]

The fact that DEI is even discussed as a serious matter in gaming makes it wrong. It's like a bunch of scientists arguing with flat earthers. You just don't engage in that conversation. Period.

They are still companies and so can use DEI to broaden/enhance their talent pool. It doesn't just have to apply to the products themselves (though that can be good too, like the examples mentioned in the article).

As others have said, BN are doing DEI in the right way, not the performative way.

 

[STARSBarry]

The magic 55% (a majority) who seemingly never buy games. All mouth no trousers.

The issue is this question can be taken both ways, in that, Is DEI Important to you when buying a game can be taken as

Yes, games should push for DEI or I won't buy them

Yes, games that push for DEI I avoid buying.

And both of those could apply yes correctly to the question.

 

[Labadal]

I read posts saying that they are doing it the correct way.

That way does not exist.

The "correct" way always leads to the wrong way.

 

[FewRope]

Let's be real, the DEI problem is just americans, thats literally it

 

[Fake]

Never go full retarded.

 

[justiceiro]

Interestingly, Bandai’s presenter admits to initially questioning whether DEI is really necessary in game content, and they stress that being excessive in pursuing diversity can harm a game’s setting and come off as performative (they give the example of a game set in a rural Japanese school where half of the students are foreigners).

Somehow, a Japanese company understood the western market better than most western studios.

 

[Bernardougf]

Meanwhile BMW is selling bonkers with zero fucks given to DEI... make the game you want to make..fuck DEI research.. games always sold well without this "modern audience" approach bullshit... this firms just eat money doing this fake/arranged results ... next one 50%+ of gamers are female... bullshit.

Having said that.. I think their response was the "pc" one ... they aint china and wont give the middle thinger directly.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Dear Japan,

Go back to your roots in making kick-ass games and ignore the Western nonsense otherwise China and Korea are going to make you irrelevant.

With love,

Every sensible gamer

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

You can hardly toxic colored people outside of California....They only appear during pride parades.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Always fun to see people expose themselves on GAF.

DEI is in the title and people get immediately triggered instead of reading the actual text.

How BAMCO is approaching DEI is actually the correct way.

What do you expect? Gaf is exactly like Era, just the opposite end of the spectrum.

There's a reason they were once one.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

What do you expect? Gaf is exactly like Era, just the opposite end of the spectrum.

There's a reason they were once one.

How many banned people do you see in the thread or any other like this?

Don't equate things that are not equal.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Did you read the first message on this thread?

BAMCO literally said they don't want it to be performative.

How they are approaching it is the correct way.

The correct way would be to not even acknowledge it. It's a bunch of disingenuous bullshit that is a means of Control, underneath it's pretense to be more Inclusive.
As they say in the UK, Fuckin' Rubbish.

 

[Saber]

You may try implement, but thankfully people are putting alot of resistance. You will lose money in the process.

How they are approaching it is the correct way.

The correct way would be not use it. They received feedback from oversea partners, you know, clowns from the west. It wasn't even the players. We don't even know if those partners are DEI people themselves employing DEI aggressive tatics.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

How many banned people do you see in the thread or any other like this?

Don't equate things that are not equal.

There's still a strong hyvemind in general though.

It's slightly worse at best.

 

[Aion002]

In this sense, the DEI Bandai Namco Online are exploring seems to revolve around things like including more diverse hairstyles, facial features and body types to character creation as well as making NPCs more diverse in appearance and age. They seem to also consider accessibility options to be a part of DEI, as part of the seminar lauds the efforts of recent Japanese fighting games (likely Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8) in making their controls more accessible.

Excellent. More character customization options is always good.

Bamco games usually have great character customization options, from Tekken to Code Vein, they're great on that and hopefully they will add even more options.

The Tales of series also has a lot of diversity, having many characters that represents many parts of the world.

 

[DannyDanger]

Seems like a reasonable approach. My biggest problem is they used an external survey and advice from Western business partners. You already have a huge customer base, survey them yourselves and find out what they think

 

[Imaginary_Fiction]

Make a good game and it will sell. That's all they have to do.

I would imagine that if they start using dei standards they will lose more customers than they will gain. Maybe 20 more people would buy a game because of dei, but thousands would like myself would not buy it.

I miss when game studios and movie studios just said "here is some money, now to bring me back more of it" and that's it. Then people went off and created what they wanted to, the talented ones brought back a lot of money and the untalented ones didn't. Now most of them make what they think people want and ditch creativity for trying to please everyone.

When you try and follow the rules you're guaranteed to make a mediocre product no one can relate to.

 

[Gideon]

Why is the political forum banned btw? 1 in 3 threads are political (imo)

 

[night13x]

RIP namco. Though not much is lost with their anime RPG division when the only thing they churn out these days is the 20th version of sword arts online copy pasta game that usually ends up being bland. I guess we will get trans kirito and Fat girl Asuna out of it lol.

Though on the flipside - The more companies that can speedrun through doing the DEI shit, lose millions / billions of dollars, then realize that the DEI stuff is racist itself and a scam....the faster we can all move past this era of bullshit.

 

[Kotaro]

wait till they have their own mega-flop like Concord

 

[The_hunter]

Bandai Namco Online shares views on DEI and its implementation in Western releases of Japanese games - AUTOMATON WEST

Bandai Namco Online, developer of Blue Protocol, recently held a seminar in which they shared their views on DEI.

automaton-media.com

I buy bandai namco games because they are the least dei.

 

[Nickolaidas]

The worst aspect of DEI is the anti-white/anti-male rhetoric, the preaching, and the 'you're an istophobism'.

Japan stays clear from that, it's going to be ... well, not perfectly fine, but tolerable.

Say goodbye to all the kinky stuff, though.