#African American devs

[pixiatn]

POKEMON AND DISLYTE CHARACTER DESIGNERS, SNEAK INTO HOYO HQ AND MAKE DARK SKINNED CHARACTERS AND MY LIFE IS YOURS‼️‼️‼️

[midnightsunnyday]

Reading fanfic with Mammon as a character in it is hilarious to me because sometimes his dialogue is so choppy and awkward. But that's mostly due to the fact that 90% of this fandom have no idea how AAVE works.

[spacesauce2]

All in one place.

[allieebobo]

College Tennis: Origin Story

Demo | Characters | Dev log | Ko-fi

Tennis/Sports x Slice-of-life x College x Found-family x Coming-of-age x Coz

Experience the ups-and-downs of life as a freshman on the Cargill University varsity tennis team amongst a colorful cast of characters.

Compete in nail-biting singles and doubles matches, forge lifelong friendships, pursue budding romances and make a name for yourself, both on and off the tennis court.

Will the once-great Cargill Coyotes succeed in reclaiming the NCAA Div I championship title for the first time since the 90s? Will you come into your own as a promising young tennis star, primed for the professional leagues? Most importantly, how much are you willing to sacrifice in pursuit of these dreams?

Full character customisation

Customise your gender, height, build, personality, physical appearance, languages spoken, tennis style, dominant hand, and more!

Strike a balance between: tennis, keeping up a rich social life, and maintaining your grades

Nail-biting tennis matches

Every match is different! Play matches throughout the fall and spring seasons, leading up to the NCAO championships—that is, if you make the Cargill team.

Intricate tennis game mechanics: Factors such as your condition/energy, preparation for the match, opponent's play style, doubles partner chemistry, as well as your choices at key junctures of the match etc. will affect the outcome of the match!

Craft your own distinctive playing style and make a name for yourself on the tennis court

Hone your strength, agility, finesse, serve-and-volley skill, and endurance over the course of the game!

Romance four possible characters

Rayyan Afiq, the gruff, hot-headed no. 1 seed

Guillaume/Geneviève Lavigne, the sardonic international student on your floor

Tobin Harris, the warm, unflappable team captain

Sam O'Connelly, your nerdy and spirited high-school best friend

And forge lifelong friendships with many more...

Rayyan Afiq The rival

Gender: Follows the gender of your team Age: 20 Nationality/Ethnicity: Egyptian-American

Student information: Junior, Anthropology major Player information: Vice-captain, No. 1 position, Aggressive Baseliner

Appearance: 5′6 (f) or 5′10 (m). Lean, athletic build. Dark, wavy curls, and thick sweeping eyebrows over piercing dark-olive eyes. Tawny, honey-brown skin.

Description: Surly, intense, and proud. Ambitious and driven to excellence in everything they do. Willing to give up almost anything for their tennis career. Has a soft-spot for cats. Loves organising things, has a plan for everything, and dislikes surprises.

Tobin Harris The captain

Gender: Follows the gender of your team Age: 20 Nationality/Ethnicity: African-American

Student information: Junior, History major Player information: Captain, No. 2 position, All-court player

Appearance: 5′9 (f) or 6′1 (m). Tall, solid build. Short black hair, warm, brown eyes and a calm, assured demeanour. Dark bronze skin. A smile that lights up the room.

Description: Kind, laid-back, selfless, and sociable. Goes out of their way to make everyone feel welcome, but has a tendency to stuff down their own emotions in the process. Surprisingly private and cautious when it comes to their own desires/wishes. Gentle to a fault, steadfast and unflappable. If not playing tennis, probably can be found cooking, hanging out with friends, or going to the library.

Geneviève/Guillaume Lavigne The exchange student

Gender: Gender selectable (f/m) Age: 20 Nationality/Ethnicity: Half French (father's side), half French-Canadian (mother's side)

Student information: Third year exchange student, Political science bachelor’s degree. Hall-mate.

Appearance: 5′6 (f) or 5′11 (m). Toned, supple build. Dark, tousled hair with fair skin. Smoky grey eyes, with a smattering of freckles. Permanent half-smile.

Description: Rarely excited or enthusiastic, always armed with a dry remark. Slightly cynical, but softer than they look. Very intelligent, though they don't often let on what they're actually thinking or feeling. Rich (and intensely private) inner world.

Sam O'Connelly The childhood best friend

Gender: Gender selectable (f/m) Age: 18, Freshman Nationality/ethnicity: American

Student information: Freshman, Undecided major. Player information: No. 6 position for the UCLA Bruins

Appearance: 5′4 (f) or 5′8 (m). Trim build, with a small frame. Curly russet hair that often sticks out in all directions. Mischievous light blue eyes and an infectious smile.

Description: Excitable, with a chaotic positivity that radiates from them like sunshine. Fun-loving and scattered, and nerdy. Competent tennis player, but too often distracted by other hobbies and interests. Somehow manages to survive on a diet of Cheetos and Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

More character descriptions here, face-claims here.

[cinnabutcringy]

[ just a small cw; i'm gonna be talking abt racist stereotypes, not very in depth but still ]

i said this on twitter but i'll say it here too: reverse1999 is NOT a perfect game and i think people should stop acting like it's "the exception" because of the devs doing the bare minimum when it comes to some of the representation.

like, it's okay to like these characters. hell, if you're part of the groups that they represent (indians, for example) then i'm not gonna tell you that you can't like them or find them decent representation. i also understand the feeling of "i take what i can get" when it comes to representation in media of marginalized groups.

but at the same time, i think it's important to acknowledge that there is genuinely criticisms to be had of this game and its way of handling non-east asian poc.

for one, there's only about 4 characters that have dark skin (i would not personally consider joe to be one of them but i'm counting him just bc i forgot to in my twt thread and also to just cover my bases.) kaalaa baunaa and kanjira do not have dark skin. has no one considered why this is???? at all???

and on the topic of kanjira, she also is a character full of orientalist stereotypes. i like kanjira, i think she's a sweet kid, but aside from that, she's written to be a thief, con artist and is illiterate and homeless. i'm not saying that that's not a reality for some kids, but the fact that she was deliberately written this way is kind of a red flag.

there's also some smaller things that people have pointed out like most of the representation in this game of those cultures being things like the characters naming off foods, or just saying small phrases (i.e. centurion talking about burritos and enchiladas, and leilani saying "aloha!") and not actually having many cultural references nor speaking a lot in their language

don't even get me STARTED on the lack of african or african american representation in this fuckin game.

again. i don't want to say that no one can like these characters. i don't want to say that people cannot relate to these characters, or that people can't think they're good representation. that's not my call especially not if you're part of the groups of ppl they're representing (i.e. latin americans, hawaiians, indians, etc.) but i think it is important to realize that like

well, for one, no group is a monolith. there are probably ppl who feel this way but either don't get heard or are too scared to say so.

and two, even if you're not a part of these groups, you can still recognize the flaws in something and acknowledge that, most likely, it's part of a bigger problem in society--colorism, orientalism, whatever. it's in many gacha games and will continue to be, and r1999 is not an exception that should be justified or ignored because "it's better than genshin impact"

[samadhi-fire-forged]

i talked about this on another account (a non-genshin related account) but the way that culture in genshin is handled is absolutely awful in my opinion.

clearly, the devs for genshin/hoyo do not respect black, indigenous, and west asian cultures. we get this clearly demonstrated with both natlan and sumeru.

natlan has three different ethnic groups (broadly). african (specifically more northern, it seems), polynesian, and latin american. that means it's two completely different countries, as well as one region. technically, it could make sense with polynesia and latin america, but... for the most part... probably not africa included? unless you were interested in exploring like, the complex dynamic of afro-latino culture. which. likely not. (if you want more research on WHY it could make sense to have latin american - polynesian cross, check these sources: x x x x - all of these are relatively about the same content. dna crossing. if you want to ask me about how i, personally, would've wanted to execute natlan in this regard you can shoot me an ask).

sumeru is... well. we do see aspects of zoroastrianism iirc - west asia has a hodgepodge of religions, honestly, with having an incorporation of our very well-known abrahamic religions (judaism, islam, and christianity). but as i said, there's zoroastrianism. yet, most of sumeru's religious references tend towards vedicism, buddhism, so on so forth. which... is interesting. if it had clear influences from a lot of west asian culture (and north african, specifically egyptian), then why didn't it have much focus on zoroastrianism? why would we incorporate south asia for seemingly no reason outside of grouping so so many ethnic groupds together.

this might surprise you all, but inazuma is.. pretty interesting. i've had a few opinions on this, given the fact that i am japanese. inazuma is depicted as a pretty dictator-esque nation, as well as being isolationist. its ruler is horrible and the such - i genuinely believe that this might have been some bias on the devs' parts. given the fact that, well... china has historically had multiple dictatorships and was also isolationist, much like japan. i understand depictions of china given laws in china, so yeah, sure, but... throwing the japanese-based nation under the bus was pretty interesting. they didn't need to do that at all, and there could've been an interesting storyline without this at all.

mondstadt. god, no one thinks about mondstadt in this regard, but mondstadt is the only nation that pretty much has zero places named with the language its culture is based on, other than its own city name. even sumeru has this - albeit some names do come from sanskrit words (kinda... complicated? most of it derives from sanskrit, though, or egyptian in the desert). whispering woods, starfell lake, brightcrown mountains. all of that. even its characters - many of them don't have german names! (jean gunnhildr, diluc ragvindr) i understand that scandinavian and german do have incredibly similar roots, but... still.

like, no matter what hoyo does, it seems that the only culture that they really "respect" is their own. no matter how much research they do - and believe me, there is a lot they've done! listen to a lot of the music, you'll notice they incorporate a lot of traditional musical instruments.

and yet... when executing it? it comes out quite terribly?

and then, even with their liyue characters - there's plenty of characters where it'd make so much more sense if they were dark skin (ex: yaoyao). and yet.... they aren't? some of them are paper pale

i'm just saying. genshin is riddled with flaws.

and don't even get me started on just... their general character design.

[genshinconfessions]

Honest to god, the more I see people behaving like actual monsters or children throwing a temper tantrum over characters not having skin as black as the abyss the more I flat out just do not have the capacity to care. I get it sucks that the characters aren't being diverse enough, I get it, but throwing death threats, slurs and god knows what else at the devs while behaving like spoiled rotten brats just makes me not care to any degree. If people can't behave like ACTUAL ADULTS and genuinely have polite points to say other than "Time to attack the devs again/slander the VAs or whoever for agreeing to go with this" whenever a character isn't dark skinned, they have no one to blame but themselves if the devs elect to not listen to what basically amounts to spoiled two year olds not getting what they want. I genuinely feel bad for people who want more diversity but are less hateful and end up being lumped in with the assholes who think threatening the devs lives is a okay, and I also feel bad for anyone genuinely excited about the Natlan characters getting absolutely harassed and ripped to shreds for not "thinking they're ugly for not being dark enough". I feel like if the fan base were ALOT LESS VITRIOLIC about the issue of diversity the devs would likely listen more. But as it stands now I can't wait for the harassing and death threats being thrown around to die down again so I can actually browse genshin twit and tumblr again in peace without having to worry about running into anyone being genuine human trash towards the devs over the color of fucking pixels. I've got enough stressing me out like grieving the loss of a parent, I don't need people being assholes to add to it and it sickens me that they don't see anything wrong with how they're acting. I'm just. I'm tired and wish people could be less like bullies or arseholes for once over a silly little gacha game they claim to love yet act like this. Sorry for this being a long confession, I just needed to get this off my chest cause it's been bugging me and stressing me out so much since the Natlan teaser got released whenever I've gone to look at Genshin stuff practically everywhere lately.....

i'm very sorry for your loss :( and if it will help you feel less alone, i generally agree with your sentiments.

for me, i am a pretty staunch hoyo defender (evident in previous posts when we used to comment on asks more frequently), but i must admit, i was slightly disappointed in the natlan characters since i believed the fan edits with darker skin did look better, and i wished hoyo would have listened to the intl fandom regarding south american/african/indigenous poc things.

that said, it's never okay to send death threats to anyone for any reason. i'm sure the devs are a lot less willing to make changes if all they're getting is death threats and, like you said, vitriolic hate. constructive criticism helps ppl realize where they're wrong and how to fix it; unconstructive criticism is generally useless and tends to be ignored.

the societal issue of colorism runs very, very deep, both in asia and generally around the world. it's not something that hoyo can fix singlehandedly by changing some characters. granted, i'm sure it would set a very good example for future game devs, and it would be really great if they did listen to intl feedback! but if they choose not to, that's not smth we can change their minds about.

side note, regarding a lot of the 'natlan is colonized' comments, we don't know the story yet. it's possible that hoyo will address it as social commentary, or it might be something totally different. leaks and the search for instant gratification have really made it difficult for people to enjoy a drawn-out storyline, and that's really sad.

we've said this a lot on this page but i'll say it again: why spend so much energy hating fictional media? if it no longer brings you joy for whatever reason (i.e. you dislike the natlan characters), stop playing. if the fandom is the main source of negativity, stop engaging with the fandom, block users and tags, curate your own experience. if you claim to hate everything about it but continue to engage with it, that's quite hypocritical and unconvincing.

in any case, if you like the game well enough to keep playing, keep playing. you don't need to justify your reasoning to anyone, and you definitely don't need to fall into a trap of radicalized (and dare i say often performative) social justice.

[daughter-of-sapph0]

1) Detroit become human was about how white robots have it just as bad as African American slaves. cyberpunk 2077 alongside its glitches had racist elements such as orientalism, demonizing black men in the main story, and a horrible implantation of black features in the character customization. the Stanley parable had an in game video of a white man lighting a black child on fire. all games in the grand theft auto series showcase racist stereotypes of black criminals. all south park games have multiple racist "jokes" that are just as offensive and stupid as the show. minecraft on consoles had skin packs, one of which featuring the main character Steve wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, and being one of only two skins where Steve is depicted as Black.

Black people have been telling you about games that are racist for years. but you simply refuse to listen or care.

2) BLM is not an organization that all Black people are a part of. BLM stand for Black Lives Matter, and is a movement, not an organization, that is against police brutality. of course you don't understand the difference between a movement and an organization because you think all people you disagree must all be friends and all agree with each other and are secretly plotting to ruin your life. there is that Black Lives Matter Global Organization Fund, which IS an organization. that is a collective of far-left anticapitalists activists who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement. but not everyone who is part of the movement is part of the BLMGOF. when you say "BLM has never done this", who are you referring to? all Black people ever?

3)

4) "sex class" holy fuck kill yourself

5) "wait till tras find out..." firstly, stop with the tra shit. say tranny with your whole chest. because that's what you mean. you want to call us a slur, but you don't want to face the consequences of calling people slurs. so you make up weird words and acronyms, which are just tranny spelt different ways. it's the same energy as calling someone a fag and then saying "what? all I did was call you a bundle of sticks! there's nothing offensive about sticks, is there?". it's middle school level bigotry. and it's pathetic and makes you look insane.

6) you're trying to make the argument that trans people don't know that markus pearson sucks. but minecraft is the most popular game in the world. every already knows that markus pearson is a terrible person. he's a stupid racist sexist antisemitic transphobic cunt and I hope he fucking kills himself. but a) he hasn't had anything to do with the game in years, and b) he isn't actively funding for the death of trans people.

I have my own criticisms of minecraft. mainly the antisemitism with the villagers. because, surprise, they were created by an antisemite. but despite trying to distance themselves from pearson, Microsoft has done absolutely nothing to change this gross part of the game. I have been vocal about this for years, yet people like you don't give a shit.

also, minecraft is incredibly popular with autistic people, and people who are autistic and people who are trans overlap a lot.

also also, Lena Raine, famous for her work on soundtracks for Celeste and Deltarune, also composed some of the best songs ever for minecraft. why is the important? let me direct you to the best and shortest "personal life" section on wikipedia I've ever seen

actual trans people work on minecraft. minecraft and mojang are filled with queer devs who actively support and are part of the queer community.

so when the current dev team of a game has trans people actively working on it, doesn't invite the creator to the 10th anniversary celebration, does literally everything they can to get rid of all mentions or ties to the creator, and have gone on record saying they want nothing to do with pearson and have cut ties with him completely, I think that means that the game is not transphobic like you want it to be. it's not that no one cares because "he's a man". it's that minecraft isnt a franchise that uses its profits to fund genocide.

also, as I was saying before, minecraft isn't perfect. it still has antisemitism, it still has a racist past, and it still has a shitty ex dev. and while they can't change the past, they can change the future by removing the antisemitic tropes that surround the villagers. yet they don't, and I am very vocally upset and have expressed my views on this subject many times.

7) but you know a game with far worse antisemitism? hogwarts legacy. far more antisemitism than any transphobia. this game is literally the blood libel myth of Jews stealing the blood of white children. the goblins, which have large noses and control the banks and have a shofar and kidnap white wizard children and are secretly working with the wizard nazis are quite literally based off the antisemitic lies and conspiracy theories of the new world order, blood libel, greedy Jew, and holocaust denial. even on their own, these tropes would be absolutely disgusting and repulsive to any person with half a brain. but even though this game has more antisemitic lies and myths than a 4chan /pol/ thread, people like you don't care at all. because "it's hairy potty! and I love hairy potty! the creator hates trans people and that's based ... uh... I mean... I have nostalgia for the series! (and I don't give a shit at all about Jews)"

interestingly though, when this was pointed out to you in the replies, you said "no that's not true" and "so what? that's no reason to get mad" and "actually YOU'RE antisemitic for thinking that goblins are supposed to be Jews". and personally I think that anyone who says that last one deserves a bullet though their skull.

8) also, I find it very interesting that you're complaining and crying and pissing their pants when trans people boycott one (1) game, yet they refuse to listen to anyone else, especially Black people or Jews, when they suggest boycotts, and also refuse to boycott any games with extreme sexism and misogyny in them, despite pretending to care about women.

I have never seen a radfem say anything negative about fat princess, the guy game, dead island, overwatch, persona 5, grand theft auto, and hell, even hogwarts legacy.

if you didn't know, this game was developed by people who were part of gamergate. and if you don't know what gamergate was, it was a massive controversy online where women were saying how sexism in online games is bad, and a bunch of men said "no, and you're wrong! my opinion is worth more than your lived experience". and then some of those men went on to make what you think is the best game of all time, that contains extreme amounts of racism and antisemitism, and sales of which are actively funding a genocide against trans people. but I'm assuming that none of those things are negatives to people like you.

tldr: op need to kill themselves

[kuzco-lover]

Actual Critiques of my Favorite Game, Life is Strange 2.

Life is Strange 2 (2018) is factually an amazing well developed game. Personally, I adore the game on every level. That, however, does not mean there aren't flaws, because there's BIG problems with this game and I want to shed light on 2 issues for those wondering why many people dislike parts of the game. Here is my (unasked for) criticism of Life is Strange 2. There will be spoilers so please tread lightly.

Number 1: Growing up with Esteban, and Karen's grandparents.

I believe that it was pretty unnecessary to make Sean and Daniel, the first important POC characters in the franchise, mixed with white and barely show their heritage. While it wasn't a big problem that they were mixed with white because mixed kids deserve all the representation in world (me being one, I would know), the problem is that the dev's should have shown more of how Sean and Daniel grew up with their father, Esteban, and shown the cultural dynamic from then in flashbacks or something. Instead, Esteban is just killed off and we never get to see how they celebrated culture. This could have been a great moment for Hispanic fans who grew up in a household where they celebrated Hispanic family dynamics and culture, to relate to the characters on a bigger level. This also would've contributed to the engagement of the game, which was so bad for many reasons, some being on this list. (I am African American, so please let me know actual Mexican opinions on this subject)

Number 2: The Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Love Interests

A big part of LiS games is the selection of a straight relationship, or a queer relationship. Every main character is bisexual for the players enjoyment of the game. LiS2 is the first game in the series where the mc is a male. This made the queer fans very happy because of the MLM representation. Here's the problem, the male love interest was absolutely horrid. Apparently, this is an unpopular opinion and it really shouldn't be. Finn McNamara is a shitty love interest for so many reasons. First, lets talk ages of the characters. Sean Diaz, born August of 2000. The game starts in 2016 and takes place in October, near/on Halloween. This means Sean is freshly 16 when the incident occurs. Finn and Cassidy are described as teens in an article in the game, but are very obviously adults and their age range is from 18-21. Considering they can get beers, ouid, tattoos, etc. It makes sense for them to be 18+. Sean meets Finn and Cassidy in the winter of 2017, making Sean still a 16 year old. Sean escapes and starts hanging with them in the winter up until the summer of 2017. Sean is 16 throughout the whole time. Finn and Cassidy should not be romantically interested in a minor. Some people think 16 and 18 isn't a bad age gap, but Finn and Cassidy are also on a whole different maturity level, they have been through homelessness and so much tragedy themselves that they are nowhere near the maturity level of Sean. Let's take age out of the equation in case Finn and Cass are in fact under 18, Finn is still a bad person. Trauma makes people do crazy things, but that is just an explanation and not an excuse. Finn screws Sean and Daniel over. Finn gets Sean and Daniel caught and separated because he wants money. Finn manipulates Daniel and exploits his power to steal from Finns boss, who literally has a body guard. Finn knew his boss is very dangerous, probably armed, and that Daniel is still learning his power and is not in full control of it yet. Because of this heist, that Sean can either agree to do, or refuse, Sean and Daniel get busted and separated. Finn and Sean have no romantic chemistry at all. In the game, they share one small kiss, and are flirtatious almost in a friend way, the relationship is very forced. Cassidy, on the other hand, has sex with underage Sean. Cassidy's age is not determined as well, but assumed 18-21 as well, and the sex was just completely unnecessary. The only sex scene in all of the games is in the one game where the MC is underage, which is honestly so weird. There shouldn't have been love interests in this game. A person I've talked to brought up a great point. There would be no time for a love interest if Sean is always on the run from the law. I'm sure police would track down that his family lives in the part of Mexico that Sean fled to. Anyways, I'm very passionate about this specific topic, let me know your opinions :).

Thanks or listening to my LiS 2 rant. No matter what, I will adore this game, and I am very hopeful for a LiS game where we have black love interests and a Black MC (without making anything stereotypical PLEASE). Let me know your critiques of the LiS games, or if I said anything wrong please correct me but be civil and nice. (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

[northwest-cryptid]

Jumping off the anon from earlier: I don't think anyone likes the new world set and I've seen plenty or people call out the devs for it so your def not alone there. Also I thought the Ala mhigan gown was African American patterns, since that is what they take inspo from?

Also as a certified zenos simp he calls even himself savage and while I sympathize with you having it used against you I dont think its as deep as you're making it out to be, zenos is a villain of course he's going to say rude shit to the wol

Anyway I dont go here and I don't doubt you'd block me for this if I wasn't on anon and I don't feel like being attacked for an opinion. So ✌️

A. The fact "no one likes the New World Set" isn't good either, the thing I dislike about it is the headdress specifically. As I said the actual outfit itself feels very "Party City Native" but it's the headdress that's actually offensive. Everything else about it is fine, at least more or less.

B. "He's bad so he's gonna do bad things it's not that big of a deal" I'm gonna say it again, SAVAGE IS A SLUR THAT HAS BEEN USED AGAINST MY PEOPLE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, DENIAL OF IT BEING A SLUR DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY LESS OF A SLUR. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say people don't listen to Natives. I don't care if he's a bad person doing bad things you're REALLY missing the point, he's not real, someone at Square wrote that shit into the game thinking it's okay to use a slur and you are living proof that people do not care, congratulations you are part of the problem. Again people wouldn't be saying this shit "isn't that deep" if he used a different slur, you just don't think Native problems are worth worrying about unless they're cookie cutter shit like the New World Set which you still miss the point about.

C. You thinking the Ala Mhigan gown was African is exactly what I'm talking about, Natives aren't given any recognition when our culture is being stolen and profited from. I literally told you I'm Deer Clan Lakota and those very same patterns are on clothing passed down from my father's grandfather to him, and from him to me; patterns on clothes made by our people.

D. The entire ending of your message shows you don't know me but assume your opinion would upset me enough to block you rather than correct your misunderstandings, what do you take me for; some kind of savage? (See I can make that joke.) Ask yourself why you think I'd block you and ask yourself why you would be "attacked" for your opinion.

I genuinely do mean people like you when I say I wish people would listen to Native voices. A lot of people don't actually know squat about us, our culture, or our problems. Since you were so confident in making an assumption about me, allow me to do the same; you would not say these things about other minorities. Because you feel safe telling a Native that slurs that have been used against us aren't that deep, but you sure as hell wouldn't tell a Black person that the N word isn't a big deal, and before anyone says "well you can say one of them and not the other!" Yes I can, savage is our word, the N word is not. If I were Black it'd be the other way around for me.

People do not want to accept what we as Natives have to say unless we specifically say what you want to hear. This is specifically a big reason why most people don't know about our history, our culture, and our problems; it's not that we're not sharing them, it's not that we're not trying; it's that most people don't care enough about Natives and would rather get up in arms about FFXIV.

Do you realize how little I care about FFXIV?! There are Natives being raped, and murdered every day. The government has told us that if we cannot keep the blood of our people pure enough for them to consider us Native we won't be able to inherit our land and the American government will just take what little we have left because Native American people will no longer legally exist, our options are inbreeding or choosing to give up our very existence and we don't want to take either opinion.

And you want to argue with me about whether or not a slur is a slur because you're horny about a fictional video game character who says a slur.

I don't even have to say "people aren't listening to Natives when we try to tell you something is bad" because not only do people STILL think this is about FFXIV but people are willing to tell me it's "not as deep as you think it is" yeah alright cool thanks, let's not pay attention to the fact that it took until the 70s for Natives to be able to practice our culture and religion off the res, and even then where my father grew up, if a Native was off the res past 8 pm they would be violently beaten by cops. On my father's res the young men were taught how to survive in the white man's world of business while our young women were taught how to please the white men and not make them angry so they wouldn't be murdered or worse. Our culture was literally taught out of the youth because we are being forced to conform or die.

Let's ignore the decades of hate crimes committed upon my family alone, let's ignore every time I've heard the word savage while being beaten, mocked, and harassed. Classmates would try to hold me down and cut off my braid because they heard it would dishonor me. Classmates would grab me in the hallways and beat me, if I defended myself at all I'd put up with the parents of these kids screaming about how "this savage hurt my son" and when I'd explain I was just trying to get to class and was jumped by 3 kids with sharp objects even the principle would say I shouldn't have used force only to remark how he realizes "my people often don't handle conflict with words" so sure yeah, you can deny racism all you want.

Because it doesn't hurt you, and it's easier to look away and pretend this is all about some MMO than some actual real world problem that I was literally just saying the MMO exemplifies in its use of our culture and the use of a slur, and sure you can continue to defend it, to be mad about the wrong things because listening to Natives is hard.

But hey maybe it's just not as deep as I think it is, right? Perhaps all the racism and rape and murder and erasure of a whole people isn't that deep, because after all "savage" is just a word.

Look you're going to need to excuse me here, because yes I am upset; you have no idea what it's like to never be listened to when you try to explain racism and the problems your people are facing. Only for it to get some traction and then every inbox message I get completely misses the point, okay fair I'll explain things, no one has been offensively misguided until now; but to get this in my inbox first thing in the morning is like waking up to someone saying "no one cares about Native shit, shut up it's not that deep" and then ending it with the most passive aggressive "you're just gonna block me anyways and I don't want to be attacked for my opinion so ✌️" that tells me your not listening, you don't care to listen, you didn't want to learn you just want me to shut up.

This whole answer isn't for the Anon who sent me this message. This answer is for you, the individual who's actually taking the time to read it, because I do appreciate that you're actually reading what I have to say, even if it's easier to say it's not that deep; even if it's easier to look the other way and pretend we don't exist. I say these things in hopes my message reaches you and that you are aware of the kind of shit we deal with. I want for a world where the needs, concerns, and racism against my people receive the same coverage and care that other minorities get. We're being ignored, we're being intentionally forgotten, swept under the rug by anons like this who can't accept that our problems are real.

Do not be that person. Be better.

[dear-indies]

helloo, i hope you're feeling better :( please do take your time <33 some male POC face claims with similar vibes to ben padgley? thank you so much

Vinny Chhibber (1980) Indian.

Tahar Rahim (1981) Algerian - has spoken up for Palestine!

Marwan Kenzari (1983) Tunisian.

Utkarsh Ambudkar (1983) Indian.

John David Washington (1984) African-American.

Martin Sensmeier (1985) Tlingit, Koyukon, Eyak, Irish and German.

Remy Hii (1986) Chinese Malaysian / White.

Karim Kassem (1986) Egyptian / Egyptian Jewish - has spoken up for Palestine!

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (1986) African-American.

Kalani Queypo (1986) Blackfoot, Kānaka Maoli, White.

Jim Sarbh (1987) Parsi Indian.

Manny Jacinto (1987) Filipino [Bisaya, Tagalog] and Chinese - esp the roles with facial hair

Ismael Cruz Cordova (1987) Afro Puerto Rican.

Michael B. Jordan (1987) African-American - has spoken up for Palestine!

John Clarence Stewart (1988) African-American.

Jermaine Fowler (1988) African-American.

Regé-Jean Page (1988) Zimbabwean / White.

LaRoyce Hawkins (1988) African-American.

Alfred Enoch (1988) Brazilian [Afro Barbadian] / White.

Mamoudou Athie (1988) Mauritanian.

Raymond Ablack (1989) Indo-Guyanese.

Himesh Patel (1990) Indian.

Amir El-Masry (1990) Egyptian - has spoken up for Palestine!

Nathaniel Curtis (1990) Indian / White - is queer.

Assad Zaman (1990) Pakistani.

Dev Patel (1990) Gujarati.

Varun Saranga (1990) Indian.

Jacob Anderson (1990) Afro Caribbean and White.

You're so sweet anon thank you, I'm still going through it but fc help from time to time is a welcomed distraction. I hope these suggestions are useful, take care. 💌

[beardedmrbean]

Oh hey, sorry let me explain what I meant

I understand the Americanization of saying the main cast of ATLA because the cartoons was a Y7 NICKTOON that hade to be compatible enough to bye syndicated with SpongeBob when needed

Nothing against the og show, just you can pick up the obvious westernization when you get into more Asian fantasy stories

But what I’m talking about is the lack of cultural exchanges despite the access of African kingdoms being for more accessible than before

Also what those things that assassin creed milk the living FUCK out of to explain why we can go to the crusades to Italian renaissance to the North America

And recent to the Viking era to a prequel that take place in 9th century Baghdad?

(Also teasing that India will probably be used in future games)

Oh yeah

TRADE ROUTES, TRADE ROUTES, TRADE ROUTES, ESTABLISHED A WHOLE LOT OF FUCKING TRADES IN YOUR FANTASY WORLD PEOPLE

Sorry, but I remember Dave pointed out the issues of modern fantasy stories is that they are written by metropolitan people who can’t comprehend life outside of their cities

Vs me who you know grew up in various places ie a college town for a bit.

Also under thing, if your ass can barely comprehend modern farmer lives

Your shit out of luck when writing proper world building

It like the issues with Yasuke for ac red, the thing is that story leaks revealed that Yasuke outsider status will be acknowledged

Hopefully it was a team idea not sbi suggestion

But as you know the assassins value free will, so when research and learning that Yasuke was kicked out of Japan by Mitshundie who refer to Yasuke as animal. I can see the devs desires saying the assassins saved him and Yasuke slowly agrees to help unify Japan to ensure the country won’t be at the mercy of Templars

Also I mention before because I did my own research and theorize that assassins Yasuke will die in Southeast Asia given the East African population there

Oh your other friend who the lawyer with the Cookie Monster icon pointed out that in rings of power made Gaderial a burnout millenial…ugh writers I understand you were told to write what you know

But you need to be VERY conscious especially if it a pre industrial setting

Yeah this is an issues, established. Fucking. Trade. Routes.

Make African kingdoms based off the Mali, the Yoruba, the Moors

Say in your fantasy world a group of refugees and immigrants decide to leave their ancestral homeland and move to the European kingdoms, now in reality most would be in trading ports and such

But say a second gen of them already assimilated into the surrounding area wanted to be a knight, of course it would have a lot of discrimination and such. But it make sense for that one character

Sorry, I was thinking about the Latin Americans and how they acknowledge they are mixed. Now yes Anglophones had a lot of separatism….but I think what huge root cause between black Americans and Africans is that my community don’t realize we’re like the Latinos-wait wait most of them have their native roots so nvm.

Because we grew up in an extremely different culture from them. Yes we can now interacted with native Africans due to globalism

But black activists, if the French and British were at each other throats for centuries. What the hell you guys think we are to Africans when we only started to have casual relations in the 60’s?

Sorry for these essay long anons, but I was thinking what wrong with modern fantasy beyond the woke shit…it’s because these fucks had very limited life experience or understanding of pre colonial times

Nothing against the og show, just you can pick up the obvious westernization when you get into more Asian fantasy stories. But what I’m talking about is the lack of cultural exchanges despite the access of African kingdoms being for more accessible than before

It's that money thing again, managed a great story still tho,

and ya have to wonder about the difficulty of gathering up a collection of "folk tales" from various indigenous groups around the globe, Africa being a massive untapped resource for that,

Not sure how many would lend themselves to movies, but anthology type tv series like twilight zone style with no set cast other than Rod Sterling as the announcer that does a new one every week, I could actually see that working

Your shit out of luck when writing proper world building

All this stuff feels pretty spot on

Also I mention before because I did my own research and theorize that assassins Yasuke will die in Southeast Asia given the East African population there

AC people seem to do a very good job, to the point that folks were thinking the one game could be used to help rebuild Notre Dame, that didn't pan out, but they still gave the game away free on Steam so people could visit if they wanted.

Say in your fantasy world a group of refugees and immigrants decide to leave their ancestral homeland and move to the European kingdoms, now in reality most would be in trading ports and such But say a second gen of them already assimilated into the surrounding area wanted to be a knight, of course it would have a lot of discrimination and such. But it make sense for that one character

Look up the Jewish diaspora that formed after the last time they thought it would be a good idea to piss off Rome. Not for integration so much as routes taken and areas settled

Sorry, I was thinking about the Latin Americans and how they acknowledge they are mixed. Now yes Anglophones had a lot of separatism….but I think what huge root cause between black Americans and Africans is that my community don’t realize we’re like the Latinos-wait wait most of them have their native roots so nvm.

Funny you mention them, that thing that nobody ever expects resulted in large numbers of, once again, Jewish diaspora who not only settled in North Africa they also went to Latin America, weird little pockets of Jewish people dotting places in various countries in the Caribbean and South America, couple that are widely disavowed by 99.9% of the Jewish population that knows they exist.

Might be less useful since they've managed to hold on to their Jewishness and not assimilate

-wait wait most of them have their native roots so nvm.

Number of Mexicans I've known that think they're descended from the Mayans I'm not so sure about that, but you're not actually wrong either.

But black activists, if the French and British were at each other throats for centuries. What the hell you guys think we are to Africans when we only started to have casual relations in the 60’s?

yay technology, it really has made some things better, other things worse but eh equivalent exchange as the Alric brothers say (my animu reference for the year)

Sorry for these essay long anons, but I was thinking what wrong with modern fantasy beyond the woke shit…it’s because these fucks had very limited life experience or understanding of pre colonial times

No worries, sorry bout the time it took to get this out got things pulling left and right and I want to be able to get a good answer out to you so we can call it even, lol.

[askagamedev]

American Mcgee is trying to get his new game greenlit. I know that his games are profitable and well received. However, it's taking aver 4 years for a response, and I'm puzzled to why it is so. What exactly causes a company to consider greenleting a game? Does it require more than the creators reputation?

There are many reasons one would pass on a game pitch, many of which have nothing to do with the pitch itself. Finding a publisher is very much like dating - the game being pitched must meet a bunch of the publisher's needs in order for them to run with it. Imagine you're the one in charge of green lighting new external projects. Here is a non-exhaustive list of potential reasons you might say no that have very little to do with the pitched game.

Your company doesn't have the budget available. You're strapped for cash and just don't have the money currently available. Maybe you just bought a studio. Maybe your games from the last year didn't sell well. Maybe you'll have some room in the budget after the current game launches during the holiday season and starts earning some money, but you just don't have the money available right now - it's going to all of the other projects you're already funding. Regardless, you just don't have the money available to fund another game, no matter how good it sounds.

You're already working on a similar game. You probably don't want to cannibalize the sales of the game you're already paying to develop, and you don't want to split the audience. You've already got one African Mythology-inspired Action RPG with card mechanics in development, you really don't need a second slightly-different one.

You've already got another major release planned for that release window. Cannibalizing sales is a thing if two games are released too closely to each other, especially if there's some general overlap in the kind of game they are. You can't really control other publishers, but doing it to yourself is kind of shooting yourself in the foot.

Your company and the pitched game are going in different directions. Maybe the pitch is for a short form linear single player narrative experience and your company has decided to grow its catalogue of multiplayer lifestyle games. Maybe it's for a dialogue-driven narrative story, but your expertise is in competitive esports titles.

The pitched game is for a platform you're scaling back on (or not supporting altogether). Maybe you decided that VR isn't working or mobile marketing costs too much, or that there just aren't enough sales on the Nintendo consoles to justify it. Maybe you're sunsetting all of your last-gen development and the pitch is for the PS4/Xbone. If your company just isn't supporting that platform anymore, you're probably not going to green light a new game for it.

These reasons don't take any of the details of the pitch itself into account either - the budget, the marketing, the licensing, the business plan, the game design, the development team, the project leadership, and so on are all incredibly important to whether you would say yes. Remember, as the one in charge of green lighting new projects, you need to be judicious. You only have so much funding and so many release slots per year you can fill. Even if the game sounds great, it might not be the best fit for your company and its needs right now. You absolutely must make the best choices you can for the good of the company and its shareholders, and there's a hundred more pitches after this one that are all hoping for your attention and funding.

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[saltminerising]

If L from light's posts weren't weird enough: There have been several times when they posted in TJ's server some shit take of theirs and after getting shut down with pretty reasonable arguments they usually got up and went "ya'll are taking this too seriously :/ guess imma not talk about this" (and then they do it again)

Off the top of my head, once they brought up flight stereotypes (said that x looked like an x flight member and that flights were *intended* to be extreme stereotypes for people to pick about themselves) and after people got Reasonably Upset about being balled up into a single entity only because they're in a flight they did the aforementioned thing and pretended that it's everyone's fault. On other occasions they keep bringing up pan-african flag items and despite people (and at least one forum mod) telling them that it wouldn't work on fr (afaik in america basically everything tied to race is political but i'm not american so idk) due to both likely causing a lot of shit on forums and devs also then having to add other flag items to represent race/nationality (which they obv can't do for everyone so they'd have to choose which never ends up well)

[allieebobo]

Merry Crisis—Cast of characters

Romance-focused x Slice-of-life x Queer x Non-Euro-centric x Character-based

Demo | Features | Dev log | Back to Main Post | COG forum | Dedicated tumblr | Ko-fi

Credit: The wonderful amazing INSANELY talented @dumplingcatho made these STUNNING character portraits!! I am still reeling from how dang good she is. I swear she probably made a deal with the devil for this talent but I shall not question it.

Nat [M/F]

The soulmate/ex/best friend.

Your ex. Your parents never approved of them, but you suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. Despite the breakup, you’re still friends, and worse still - you still live with them in a tiny shoebox apartment. New York rent, man—it's hard to say no even though you know you should be moving on, and moving out.

Height: 6′2 (M) | 5′11 (F)

Nationality & race: African-American

Occupation: Post-doc fellow, working towards becoming a tenure-track professor.

Description:

Warm, twinkling eyes, and big, infectious laugh. Can swing from nerdy charm to extreme goofyness at the drop of a pin.

Loving, thoughtful, and kind to a fault. Relaxed, gentle demeanour

The kind of friend—and partner—you can trust with your life.

An incurable optimist.

Loves people, art/movies (especially talking about them with friends), food/cooking, their two dogs. 

Nat's dogs

Kiho [M]

Breed: Cairn Terrier

Age: 8

Description: Proud, small, intelligent, standoffish, with a stern grandpa energy. Apparently, a reader/player told me long ago that Kiho means "big boss" in Finnish colloquial slang and that was so perfect that it stuck. If Kiho were human he'd wear an old patagonia vest and spend his weekends fishing (not very adeptly).

Liz [F]

Breed: Border collie

Age: 3 (adopted when MC and Nat were already together.)

Description: Not exactly literal golden retriever energy but... close enough. A ray of sunshine, playful, easygoing, happy-go-lucky and a voracious eater (she eats everything), loves playing in puddles and has a special love for chewed up tennis balls.

Qiu [M/F]

The estranged first love / soulmates.

Your first-love (or platonic soulmate), from junior college. You’d not kept in touch, and now, they’re ridiculously successful. But, according to your intel, still…single.

Height: 5′8 (M) | 5′4 (F)

Nationality & race: Chinese Singaporean

Occupation: Public prosecutor

Description:

Extremely intelligent, with a sharp, cutting wit.

Ambitious, determined, and a bit cynical / jaded.

Dark, piercing gaze, with a completely unreadable expression.

Formal, a little bit stiff, and always impeccably dressed.

Aloof, almost intimidating presence despite their relatively average height/slim build.

Loves a job well done, being useful, stimulating conversation, and solving problems. Peace and quiet.

Shay [M/F]

The charismatic stranger.

Your neighbour (Auntie Pearl)'s new tenant. Sexy, confident, and unabashedly unconventional. Your mother definitely does not approve, but you might not be able to resist their roguish charms.

Height: 5′10 (M) | 5′6 (F)

Nationality & race: Chinese (Peranakan) Singaporean

Occupation: Lead singer & guitarist in a rock band

Description:

Thick, sweeping eyebrows, expressive eyes that twinkle at the edges, and a permanent roguish half-grin.

Tan, athletic, with an undeniable swagger to their walk. Has a penchant for sleeveless muscle tees. Good with their hands (and... possibly other parts of their body).

Adventurous, resilient, unflinchingly honest, and uncompromisingly true to themselves / the people they love.

Loves the outdoors (and constant motion), music (especially rock, reggae and soul), dancing, soccer, nature/plants (including gardening).

Other asks

[ps-dane]

RIGHT

It so fucking infuriating when someone racewashes a character because they think they have some kind or stereo type or are "coded"

Like gender or sexuality are one thing so long as you don't try to claim it's canon when it's not confirmed officially

But when it comes to a characters damned skintone ESPECIALLY when the character isn't even human, it's just a bunch of racist trash. Even if done by black people.

There this one Asian character I like that's actually tan. They are literally just a tanned Asian character. But so many people claim they are "black-coded" or just straight up black because they can't seem to understand that Asians can be tanned. (and then there's those that think Asians can't be pale and must have a yellow skintone)

And it's not even just her skin. She has a "rock and roll" aesthetic, which BTW that music genre apparently come from the worlds equivalent of France so idk why they see so hung up on realism in that Fandom anyway. So she has this "scary appearance" that so many fans like to blame on her skin or think the game devs are being racist for describing her as "scary" when she has dark skin. But it's all because of her dress and make up. Like she's a tanned Asian woman they aren't scared of her because she has darker skin. Best part is that her clothes are still made like they are from her country just with a rock and roll aesthetic. She has an Asian name, lived in her worlds equivalent of a specific east Asian country. In the English dub she has a very American southern country accent. But that's literally just localization because if her English VA tried to do the Asian equivalent of an country accent it wouldn't make sense to English speakers. In her proper language she doesn't have that American country accent. She sounds how she's supposed to.

(I'm trying not to give away who she is too much)

And there's so much to her design that alot of black people try to claim is "African this" or "black coded that" and it so fucking annoying how little they know of anyone else's culture LET ALONE THEIR OWN since they can't even tell the difference between their culture and the one she's inspired by.

There is just so much wrong with racewashes and blackwashers especially I honestly don't even know what to do at this point.

They care so much about "representation" but they choose to do it in the most disgusting and disrespectful way. A way that was used against them but they seem to think it's okay for them to do because they have a victim complex.

Sorry for the rant this stuff just literally makes me so mad.

MY FIRST ANON ASK !!!

I don't have anything to add to this, but I'm not gonna let this rot in my inbox, since I agree with it so hard.