#establishment or the liberal agenda but like. i’m not taking myself out of the game bc i believe i can Do Something and it’s my duty to do

[nicollekidman]

realizing that people who equate cynicism with intellectual rigor are often just being lazy and pathetic has been so helpful tbh

[silvokrent]

(Trans anon) Rep is good, important, and necessary for the progress of society. I’m glad you’re not complacent, neither am I, fight for rep and all that it entails, and I hope we can see that day that everyone doesn’t feel like a stranger that’s out of place. Just leave Doom and every other successful franchise alone if they continue to do their own thing. They’re unifying, despite the progat, as every race, gender, and sexuality I know love Doom despite its lack of rep.

For the sake of ending an argument before it begins, we clearly have different opinions regarding representation. I accept that. But I'm not going to stop demanding that franchises provide representation. I have no intention of leaving Doom and their ilk alone. That's my prerogative. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, then don’t engage. At the end of the day we can live-and-let-live.

But you don’t have the right to dictate to other members of our community to stop just because you feel it’s unnecessary. You don’t have the right to come into my space and demand that I “just leave [them] alone” and let them do their own thing just because they’re successful. If people like myself want to criticize media for being bereft of queer rep, we should be able to do so without fear of backlash. There are already enough detractors out there without having to contend with intra-community conflict. That’s simply not a discourse I want to engage in beyond establishing my stance on the matter. At the end of the day, me asking for representation doesn’t do any harm, and at best, carries the potential to do some good. I see criticism as a catalyst for change and progress. And right now, the forces driving those changes are feedback from consumers of media, be it videogames, cinema, literature — take your pick.

Large companies including representation is important for quite a few reasons. It’s a sign of allyship — that by featuring queer characters, you’re promoting human rights over lost profits from bigoted customers boycotting your game out of a sense of entitlement. At the end of the day, that’s the message that’s being sent: that a company values diversity more than profit. That normalizing queer existence is a more important endeavor than catering to the whiny queerphobic pissbabies out there that throw a tantrum whenever a franchise gets “taken over by the SJWs.” That making their communities safe for minorities is more important than permitting toxic people within those same spaces, at the expense of minorities feeling unwelcome.

We need rep in triple A titles and other big-name companies because this knee-jerk reflex is still a thing. Because whenever a company includes even one (1) character that’s POC, or disabled, or neurodivergent, or queer, there’s always an inevitable shitstorm on social media from alt-right, fascist, white supremacist, homophobic hate groups and their members. It’s gotten to the point where this is expected. This is normal.

That’s why we need representation from id Software and other industry veterans. Because it sends a message. If diversity doesn’t matter, then why are the protagonists of so many games the exact same cookie-cutter cishet white guy? Why is this template “default”? Why is the ratio for this archetype so disproportionate to reality? The world is not 50% generic white dude, 50% “other.”

I’m not gonna stop playing these games because I do, in fact, love them. But I can love something and still be critical of it. I can still enjoy the content I consume, while holding its creators to higher standards. I can still expect these franchises to represent the other demographics that make up their consumer base. To reiterate: there is nothing to lose in asking for diversity, and everything to gain. No one is harmed by a game featuring an asexual Muslim woman, or a nonbinary Deaf Korean person in their casts. But if you pitched this idea on Twitter, I’m sure you’d have thousands of people bitching about how their beloved franchise is being tainted by the “liberal agenda.”

Why is a Deaf person’s existence an agenda? Why is a queer person’s existence an agenda? Why is simply being a radical agenda?

It’s because people feel comfortable asking questions like these that we need representation, and we need to hold content creators accountable. Art is informed by our opinions just as much as the art we consume informs our opinions. We need to deconstruct the systems in place that make the existences of marginalized people controversial, when the act of existing shouldn’t be in the first place.

And I have a right to say something about it.

I doubt we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on this topic, and that’s fine. For the sake of parting amicably, please don’t continue to engage me further on the topic. I’d prefer to simply part ways and let the matter be done. Thanks.