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[Lime]

Veve Jaffe wrote an excellent piece on Model View Culture. It's something that I've been thinking about in terms of having the main game being "incredible comfortable" by featuring the usual white dude with easily digestible content for the status quo audience, while the less financially risky expansion gets a female character with more experimental aspects (story/mechanics). We saw this with Last of Us and Left Behind, AC3 and LIberation, AC4 and Freedom Cry (white->black), Infamous Second Son and First Light, and some of the other examples that Jaffe mentions in her article (Fire Emblem: Fates, Mass Effect 3, etc.).

Diverse characters and storylines are often withheld from games to be sold as optional add-ons for additional cost.

AAA games have an infamous reputation when it comes to representing marginalized people, either by neglecting to include them entirely, or only representing them through harmful stereotypes. With player demographics steadily shifting and diversifying for decades, recent AAA game releases show a gradual interest in involving more diverse characters and environments, but mostly at a cost to players. Companies producing DLC have been criticized for selling intentionally omitted content rightfully belonging in the core product, and in the same vein, diverse characters and storylines are often withheld from games to be sold as optional add-ons for additional cost. What was originally justified as a means for developers to add more content that they didn’t have the space or budget to implement for a game’s release, has become a questionable practice of holding diverse representation ransom.

Making the marginalized the DLC

Keeping marginalized characters out of the base game and tucked into additional paid content ensures that they needn’t be included in marketing or press material, saving the latest brooding white male protagonist from sharing the box art cover with human props, and avoiding consumer complaints that inclusion of a few marginalized people threatens the medium’s white male uniquity. Additionally, DLC tacitly communicates a studio’s tentative commitment to such content; they’ll provide it at a cost to players but rarely, if ever, extend those characters opportunities to be front and center, included in the cost and campaign of the main game.

Video Games: Now with 68% more Diversity (if you can afford it)

Some of the best depictions of marginalized people in recent AAA games were introduced exclusively in DLC, presenting marginalized players with a harsh ultimatum that the games industry would never bring to white cishetero male players: pay extra or go without representation. AAA games are sold on average at $60, taking costs for a single game including DLC as high as $80. This makes for an expensive hobby, especially for marginalized players who — due to systemic pay gaps and discrimination — are less likely to earn as much as white male players and subsequently offer their disposable income to the medium. With more racial and gender minorities playing games than ever, leaving consideration for marginalized players out of core narrative and game design enables games companies to thoroughly monetize the inclusion of diverse content without making true concessions to the sizeable demographic.

Coding characters of colour and gender minorities as unnecessary, additional components of large-scale, elaborate worlds denies a huge population of players the escapism and fantasy AAA games purport to provide their audiences. The only people who are given free reign to escape into media are white cishetero men, the default human ideal under which all character and story design is influenced. Jane Espenson said the following about writing sci fi, but it applies to video games as well:

“If we can’t write diversity into sci fi, then what’s the point? You don’t create new worlds to give them all the same limits of the old ones.”

Continuing to market and design games with a singular demographic in mind not only robs digital media of enriching, varied content, but insidiously implies whose patronage entitles them to games’ ostensibly universal escapism… leaving all others to prove they’re worthy of representation through further capitalistic commitment.

https://modelviewculture.com/pieces...ow-aaa-games-monetize-minority-representation

 

[Abstrusity]

I want to know how the hell you're going to have that much diversity without a really big stretch in 500 years when we've done nothing but mix cultures into one big one.

The Honorverse novels hit on this in a big way -- multiple different cultures and private interests gathered together, from the humble east coast weeaboos(Grayson), to the mix of German and Chinese, to Russian-Australians, Europeans and African, and THE UNITED STATES.

And they all went to different planets in different star systems and developed their own weird cultures based around the culture from the Sol system and everything was alright until Space United States started a conquest and Space genetic slavers started doing worse things.

Suffice it to say, space is likely to be a closer to single culture affair at first.

Seriously, no joke, Grayson is literally "White people who live by the old movie The Seven Samurai."

 

[Mushroomer25]

It's a fair point - AAA studios are largely not willing to put down the marketing cash for a minority lead in a major game (though we're seeing some progress with black leads in Mafia III, Battlefield 1, etc) - but still see the financial opportunity in those stories. As a result, they're pushed to a sort of 'second tier' for content in the space.

But calling a $15 addon for a $60 progress "capitalistic commitment" is a bit over-the-top.

 

[Lime]

If you want to be cynical, at least it's good that stuff like Freedom Cry, Jack the Ripper, and First Light are released as more expensive stand-alone products alongside as a cheaper expansion to the main game.

But it's still negative that these characters and stories are relegated to DLC with little to no marketing.

 

[HStallion]

I want to know how the hell you're going to have that much diversity without a really big stretch in 500 years when we've done nothing but mix cultures into one big one.

The Honorverse novels hit on this in a big way -- multiple different cultures and private interests gathered together, from the humble east coast weeaboos(Grayson), to the mix of German and Chinese, to Russian-Australians, Europeans and African, and THE UNITED STATES.

And they all went to different planets in different star systems and developed their own weird cultures based around the culture from the Sol system and everything was alright until Space United States started a conquest and Space genetic slavers started doing worse things.

Suffice it to say, space is likely to be a closer to single culture affair at first.

Seriously, no joke, Grayson is literally "White people who live by the old movie The Seven Samurai."

You kind of answered your own question. If people spread to other planets they are going to develop incredible diverse cultures even after a couple hundred years. The Dune series is all about this. There is your major diversity in 500 years, not only that but if people live long enough on their own planets they might start evolving into new sub species of humanity if not outright new species given enough time and isolation.

 

[spectator]

Interesting topic, although I'm not sure how Mass Effect 3 fits in, as it allows you to define your own protagonist.

 

[chrominance]

I think this is a good point to make: diversity happens in the DLC, aimed at an audience that already loves your game and thus will give you more latitude to explore non-traditional protagonists and settings. This puts a higher price on the material for people who are already interested in that non-traditional, more diverse space, and asks that audience to play through a game they may be less interested in to get to the content they actually want.

That said, I'm not sure how much of that is due to the accident of where the industry is right now in regards to representation, and how much is by design. We've seen a gradual increase over the years in non-white, non-cishet, non-male characters, and many of the cases brought up in the article could equally be seen as elements of a vanguard: developers making their first tentative steps towards greater diversity and testing the waters. You can definitely make the argument that we're not moving fast enough, and examples like Dontnod getting publisher notes to drop the female lead in Remember Me show we've got a long way to go still. But I wonder if the fact that DLC tends to host the diverse protagonists is just an embryonic stage. Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a decent example of a woman getting (mostly) equal billing in a mainstream AAA title, and it feels like if anything we're going to see more examples in the future rather than fewer.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I want to know how the hell you're going to have that much diversity without a really big stretch in 500 years when we've done nothing but mix cultures into one big one.

The Honorverse novels hit on this in a big way -- multiple different cultures and private interests gathered together, from the humble east coast weeaboos(Grayson), to the mix of German and Chinese, to Russian-Australians, Europeans and African, and THE UNITED STATES.

And they all went to different planets in different star systems and developed their own weird cultures based around the culture from the Sol system and everything was alright until Space United States started a conquest and Space genetic slavers started doing worse things.

Suffice it to say, space is likely to be a closer to single culture affair at first.

Seriously, no joke, Grayson is literally "White people who live by the old movie The Seven Samurai."

This is a book? Sounds neat. Going check it out. Thanks!

 

[soultron]

Freedom Cry is available as a standalone product now.

Isn't Left Behind also available as a standalone on PS4? It wasn't for PS3, if I recall correctly.

Still, it'd be nice to include notes about how these 2 examples were handled at release and how they're currently available for purchase, as standalones, today.

More singleplayer story DLC should be made standalone, if possible. Also, as the article aims to argue, we should have more choice in terms of representation through means like character creators... but it'd be great to have more authored characters (like Adewale) that are minorities as well, right off the bat, in the main narrative of a character-focused game.

I think it's something that games are working towards. 2016 is looking a bit better than years previous, so hopefully that's evidence that we're making progress.

 

[Heshinsi]

This is a book? Sounds neat. Going check it out. Thanks!

Books, and they're awesome, and have a female badass as the main character.

 

[TheChaos]

Interesting topic, although I'm not sure how Mass Effect 3 fits in, as it allows you to define your own protagonist.

In the first two games female Shepard could be a lesbian but Male Shepard could only be straight. It was clearly aimed as girl-on-girl spank bank material for straight guys instead of any kind of push for diversity.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I feel like anybody can tell you that we are in the transitionary stage where developers need to prove to their investors and financiers, and even their marketing departments, that diversity is not a hindrance to business.

Nobody does anything until it's proven bankable. The moral reasons for doing this are objectionable, but the business motivations are historically apparent. Once it becomes clear that diversity makes as much money (or more money) as straight white men, the argument that they do not is effectively dismantled. Then walls, theoretically, come down.

It's part of the process.

Is it admirable that they play it safe over something so important? No. Am I fine with it as long as it leads to an equal playing field for all creators and content? Yes.

Do games like Mirror's Edge: Catalyst and Dishonored 2 deserve more credit for placing their female leads in the forefront? Yes.

Does Naughty Dog still deserve credit for Left Behind? Yes.

It's still the wheel of progress in motion. You should never have to justify diversity, but if you are forced to do it by skeptics looming over you, then you should do it. Make it paid DLC. Prove people wrong.

But if you're making the conscious decision to sell minority representation as paid content even after your experiment proves your game should have had diversity in the first place, that's not right. And I guess, thinking about it, that's more the issue this article is about. The goal is to have all diverse representation from the get go. If that is not your goal, that is not progress, it's exploitation.

 

[Abstrusity]

This is a book? Sounds neat. Going check it out. Thanks!

Yeah, just look up Honorverse.

The only issues I have with it are thus: The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue. When I say 'a bit,' I mean the universe conspires to be on her side.

And second: I don't have an issue with it personally because I absolutely love sci-fi pseudoscience stuff, but when its authors (predominantly David Weber) introduces a new concept, it is EXPLAINED in-universe. It's what people derisively call "infodump." So they'll explain how a three stage missile works, the penetration-aids a batch of those missiles fired in a cluster would use to stop them from being shot down, the image of anti-missile lasers or counter-missile ...missiles written in painstaking detail as t hey streak across the dark, close to the glistening fields of their sidewalls, loosely protected from radiation and lower power weaponry...etc. It's the best.

Otherwise I can't recommend it enough.

 

[Lime]

Freedom Cry is available as a standalone product now.

Isn't Left Behind also available as a standalone on PS4? It wasn't for PS3, if I recall correctly.

Still, it'd be nice to include notes about how these 2 examples were handled at release and how they're currently available for purchase, as standalones, today.

Freedom Cry started as an expansion that required the base game in December 2013 and became a stand-alone title in March 2014.

Left Behind was released as an expansion on Valentine's Day (February) 2014 and then in May 2015 it finally released as a standalone product.

Liberation was Vita exclusive for a while until it became multiplatform (different argument, but premise the same: relegating minority characters to second-tier areas)

First Light was released as a standalone product and expansion simultaneously.

Jack the Ripper was standalone and expansion simultaneously.

More singleplayer story DLC should be made standalone, if possible. Also, as the article aims to argue, we should have more choice in terms of representation through means like character creators... but it'd be great to have more authored characters (like Adewale) that are minorities as well, right off the bat, in the main narrative of a character-focused game.

Fucking exactly. I totally agree that authored characters are way better and that the whole "character creation" approach is just following some kind of market-logic that feeds into requiring minority players to buy these things in order to make them valid representation. It also makes it possible for white players to completely avoid playing as a non-white character, as the option to avoid are always there.

 

[Heshinsi]

Yeah, just look up Honorverse.

The only issues I have with it are thus: The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue. When I say 'a bit,' I mean the universe conspires to be on her side.

And second: I don't have an issue with it personally because I absolutely love sci-fi pseudoscience stuff, but when its authors (predominantly David Weber) introduces a new concept, it is EXPLAINED in-universe. It's what people derisively call "infodump."

Otherwise I can't recommend it enough.

The newsies call her the "Salamander" for a reason sir.

 

[psyfi]

I saw this on Twitter a little bit ago and really appreciated it. I gotta admit that I didn't notice this trend, but once pointed out it's abundantly clear. It's cool that games are growingly diverse and inclusive, but that effort really needs to be seen in launch content as well. Yet another reason to love Overwatch!

 

[Lime]

I feel like anybody can tell you that we are in the transitionary stage where developers need to prove to their investors and financiers, and even their marketing departments, that diversity is not a hindrance to business.

Nobody does anything until it's proven bankable. The moral reasons for doing this are objectionable, but the business motivations are historically apparent. Once it becomes clear that diversity makes as much money (or more money) as straight white men, the argument that they do not is effectively dismantled. Then walls, theoretically, come down.

It's part of the process.

Is it admirable that they play it safe over something so important? No. Am I fine with it as long as it leads to an equal playing field for all creators and content? Yes.

Do games like Mirror's Edge: Catalyst and Dishonored 2 deserve more credit for placing their female leads in the forefront? Yes.

Does Naughty Dog still deserve credit for Left Behind? Yes.

It's still the wheel of progress in motion. You should never have to justify diversity, but if you are forced to do it by skeptics looming over you, then you should do it. Make it paid DLC. Prove people wrong.

But if you're making the conscious decision to sell minority representation as paid content even after your experiment proves your game should have had diversity in the first place, that's not right. And I guess, thinking about it, that's more the issue this article is about. The goal is to have all diverse representation from the get go. If that is not your goal, that is not progress, it's exploitation.

Right, this is part of a piece-meal process of having financially healthy companies turn away from continue to double down on "risky" ideas (non-white non-male characters, uncomfortable ideas) by exploring it through less expensive products. This is descriptively what's going on. The problem, like you write in your final paragraph, is that it's treated as an after-thought or relegated to "optional" products that you also have to fork over money for after the fact. And this article also points out this trend in how non-dominant identities are relegated to smaller packages and almost completely left out of marketing.

And totally agreed about the good things about these games. Jaffe also mentions this in the article - these are some of the best examples of characterization of minority characters: Adewale, Aveline, and Riley, are excellently written characters. The point is that they're only thrown into the smaller projects.

Basically the point is that DLC is the Ghetto for minority characters.