Poll of the Day > How important is the diversity of the company that creates your entertainment?

(+) Yeah! (+)

So what do you think?

When you play a new video game....is the ethnic diversity of the team important to you? Would you be bothered if you found out the game was made by all white people?

Even if it was a great game, would something rub you the wrong way knowing it was made by a team of all whites? Would you assume the company has racist hiring practices? Would you feel compelled to do something about it?

When you watch a new movie...does the gender/ethnicity/sexual orientation of the writer, director, producer, etc.....play a factor in how much you enjoy that movie?

Do you get upset when there are too many straight/gay characters in a show?

Do you get upset when there aren't enough handicapped people represented? Trans people? Muslim? Etc?

Now, I already know some of you might try to say, "Well, it depends on what it is!"

"If it's a movie about the black experience...I would obviously not be able to take it as seriously if I found out the writer was some privileged white dude."

But even so. Does that mean privileged white people are 100% incapable of writing an engaging and relevant story about the struggles of blacks? What if you later found out that that "privileged white dude" who wrote the story, grew up with a black family in a black community and experienced/witnessed extremely brutal racism firsthand? Would that change anything?

How important is this stuff to you?

is the ethnic diversity of the team important to you?
Not at all.

the game was made by all white people?
Wouldn't care. I would evaluate the game based on content, not on who made it.

Would you assume the company has racist hiring practices?
I wouldn't give a single thought to that.

the writer, director, producer, etc...
Would not cross my mind.

Do you get upset when there are too many straight/gay characters in a show?
I get upset when that's the focus of the character. I find that in most stories there is no reason to know a character's sexuality.

Do you get upset when there aren't enough handicapped people represented? Trans people? Muslim? Etc?
I would not notice the absence of such characters any more than I would notice their presence. And I would only notice their presence if they are so poorly written that there is nothing else notable about them.

take it as seriously if I found out the writer was some privileged white dude.
I would not care who the writer is. I would assume anyone is capable of researching events and using them for material to portray in their story until demonstrated otherwise.

How important is this stuff to you?
If anything I think this stuff hinders the creation of media so it's more important that it not interfere.

Not that important at all, but I do care when it turns out companies have toxic work environments (a la Blizzard).

If you're obsessed with making sure your team is as diverse as possible, you're probably not spending as much time worrying about whether your team is actually qualified, or your product is actually good.

If something is good I don't care who made it or stars in it or who/what the characters are. If something is bad I don't give a shit how diverse the people who made it are (except to potentially blame said diversity for the thing being bad in the first place, thus resulting in the exact opposite of what diversity is supposed to encourage in the first place).

But I'm a privileged (mostly) straight cis white male, so the Internet constantly tells me my opinions don't matter anyway.

is the ethnic diversity of the team important to you?
No.

the game was made by all white people?
They usually aren't? I play mainly Japanese games.

Would you assume the company has racist hiring practices?
No?

the writer, director, producer, etc...
Seeing as my favorite Directors, Producers, ect. of all time are Japanese...?

Do you get upset when there are too many straight/gay characters in a show?
No?

Do you get upset when there aren't enough handicapped people represented? Trans people? Muslim? Etc?
No?

take it as seriously if I found out the writer was some privileged white dude.
As opposed to a privileged Japanese dude?

How important is this stuff to you?
It's not.

Westerners truly live in their own delusion.

If I don't already have a strong impression of how the development team is, an environment that's not diverse gives me a suspicion that there is some reason they're driving away everyone who isn't substantially similar to them. That's a bad sign for whether they'll have broad perspectives on what they're developing, and they might bring those prejudices into games that they make.

It also depends on the size of the team; a small indie company with only one or two people? Sample size is too small, so it could very well be coincidence. A company with 50 people, or 500, tells me that they looked around and all of the best developers they could find are cis straight white men? Probability-wise, that's just so unlikely that I'm pretty certain they're lying.

Literally could not care less about that kind of trash. If I wanted diversity I would spread out my tastes to other cultural things rather than complain about how my favorite entertainment interests needs to be more 'woke'

It does not matter in the slightest to me. I couldnt even tell you the main directors name for the vast majority of games ive played let alone what they and their entire staff look like, what they prefer sexually, and whatever else. Why would i care?

If the game is good ill get it. Thats all that matters to me.

GreenKnight127 posted...

So what do you think?

When you play a new video game....is the ethnic diversity of the team important to you? Would you be bothered if you found out the game was made by all white people?

Even if it was a great game, would something rub you the wrong way knowing it was made by a team of all whites? Would you assume the company has racist hiring practices? Would you feel compelled to do something about it?

When you watch a new movie...does the gender/ethnicity/sexual orientation of the writer, director, producer, etc.....play a factor in how much you enjoy that movie?

Do you get upset when there are too many straight/gay characters in a show?

Do you get upset when there aren't enough handicapped people represented? Trans people? Muslim? Etc?

Now, I already know some of you might try to say, "Well, it depends on what it is!"

"If it's a movie about the black experience...I would obviously not be able to take it as seriously if I found out the writer was some privileged white dude."

But even so. Does that mean privileged white people are 100% incapable of writing an engaging and relevant story about the struggles of blacks? What if you later found out that that "privileged white dude" who wrote the story, grew up with a black family in a black community and experienced/witnessed extremely brutal racism firsthand? Would that change anything?

How important is this stuff to you?

So, how much time did you spend coming up with and typing out this bait?

Considering all of the video game industry's scandals, I think the less we know about companies, the better.

This is not something I ever think about. In fact I think I prefer to know as little as possible about the people behind entertainment that I enjoy.

The people bothered by diversity initiatives would never use the word problematic

The_Viscount posted...

Considering all of the video game industry's scandals, I think the less we know about companies, the better.

Totally, we should let people be harassed, bullied and assaulted so that we can have video games.

I try to avoid learning about the people who make stuff I like because it sucks when they turn out to be shitty people.

If they dont have a couple of lizard people working there, I get concerned. I think the only ones that do are Bethesda and the ones that made the Soul Calibur series.

A lot of the media I consume is from Japan which is largely racially homogeneous (as far as racism and such, I only expect it about as much as Japanese society is already known to be).

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

I find that in most stories there is no reason to know a character's sexuality.

That's a very weird thing to say. So you just think romance or repercussions of sexuality are irrelevant most of the time?

keyblader1985 posted...

That's a very weird thing to say. So you just think romance or repercussions of sexuality are irrelevant most of the time?

I agree.. It's also weird to think that people traveling for a long time, fighting in life or death battles won't develop deep or romantic feelings for each other sometimes.

Currently 48% say they don't like it and it's problematic, yet companies pander this crap left and right like 90% of people love this stuff when clearly they don't.

..GameFAQs and PotD do not represent America.

keyblader1985 posted...

..GameFAQs and PotD do not represent America.

Neither does Twitter, honestly.

GreenKnight127 posted...

Would you be bothered if you found out the game was made by all white people?

How would I even find that out? Like I know some spokespeople like Todd Howard, but typically I have no clue who makes the games I play and I see no reason I should care.

When you play a new video game....is the ethnic diversity of the team important to you?

How the heck would I even know? I mean, 99.9% of people outright skip the credits and even if you didn't you'd have no clue who the people were. Unless I went out of my way specifically to check the team beforehand for this I wouldn't know... which is just stupid.

Would you be bothered if you found out the game was made by all white people?

No.

Even if it was a great game, would something rub you the wrong way knowing it was made by a team of all whites? Would you assume the company has racist hiring practices? Would you feel compelled to do something about it?

I wouldn't even know in the first place unless they outright came forwards and said 'we only hire white people'. See above comment about how the heck I would even know.

When you watch a new movie...does the gender/ethnicity/sexual orientation of the writer, director, producer, etc.....play a factor in how much you enjoy that movie?

Nope. I barely watch movies anyways currently.

Do you get upset when there are too many straight/gay characters in a show?

Why would straight people upset the audience of a show? Maybe if it was something meant to be exclusive to the LGBT community, but otherwise...

Do you get upset when there aren't enough handicapped people represented? Trans people? Muslim? Etc?

No.

But even so. Does that mean privileged white people are 100% incapable of writing an engaging and relevant story about the struggles of blacks? What if you later found out that that "privileged white dude" who wrote the story, grew up with a black family in a black community and experienced/witnessed extremely brutal racism firsthand? Would that change anything?

I can safely say that this is not a question I feel should be answered by me.

How important is this stuff to you?

To me? Used to be completely unimportant. Only thing I care about is if a game was made in China or not currently, and that doesn't apply to Chinese PEOPLE, it applies to the CCP. Finding out a game was simply made by someone of Chinese descent or from China but left for whatever reason wouldn't cause me to consider not playing it for even a second.

The Chinese government makes games?

Revelation34 posted...

The Chinese government makes games?

They have a tendency to control their industries

Not especially. If a team of white cis het men create amazing content, I am happy to consume it. On the reverse if a diverse team of men and women, straight and lgbtq+, religious and non religious, and various skin tones come together and create crap I don't care to view it.

That said. I think a team that can draw from different backgrounds and view points have an advantage creating complex and interesting content.

keyblader1985 posted...

That's a very weird thing to say. So you just think romance or repercussions of sexuality are irrelevant most of the time?

Some examples:
Ghosts of Mars - Does the sexuality of any character add anything to the story?

Ridick - I want to watch a sociopath survive against monsters on an alien planet and steal a ship to escape. Does knowing that another character is going bang him afterward add anything?

Mandroid - At the end of the movie, after the villain has been defeated, he cheers himself up by going to a strip club. Does seeing that add anything?

^I haven't seen any of those, and in the case of the strip club, it would just count as something he enjoys. Doesn't add any more or less than any other basic fact about him. But the problem with that initial statement is that it completely disregards any case where romance/sexuality does play a major part, as well as romance as a genre entirely. Saying such stories are a minority is just plain wrong.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Some examples:
Ghosts of Mars - Does the sexuality of any character add anything to the story?

Ridick - I want to watch a sociopath survive against monsters on an alien planet and steal a ship to escape. Does knowing that another character is going bang him afterward add anything?

Mandroid - At the end of the movie, after the villain has been defeated, he cheers himself up by going to a strip club. Does seeing that add anything?

"People being human and having character traits adds nothing to the story"

I play racing games. Cars are the closest things to characters, and have no race or sexuality to speak of.

I'm not a fan of purchasing/consuming anything produced in abusive/toxic environments but not really sure what to do about it. Not like we're given an option to pay an extra 20 bucks and they'll actually pay their employees for all the hours they worked.

Lesbian porn needs diversity.

As long as the devs aren't doing anything illegal or immoral I don't care who's making the game. If a company needs to be diverse to make good games, they clearly suck at it, seeing how Japan's been doing great for 40 years now.

Kyuubi4269 posted...

They have a tendency to control their industries

Pretty much every company over a certain size in China is basically required to have direct CCP oversight and, if I'm not mistaken, have the CCP get a direct cut of the profits. Even if that's not the case, since the CCP effectively controls China (any other parties are meaninglessly small), any taxes from them would go to fund them. I know it's impossible to cut them out 100% in modern society just because of how many small things you don't even think about are made there (nevermind if you NEED something and all the products are made here) but I do my best to avoid them.

However, and I want to make this EXTREMELY clear, my problem is with the CCP, not with Chinese people. It has nothing to do with race or anything and is entirely because of how horrible I view the government.

I'm a white heterosexual guy, so it doesn't matter to me.

Voted kinda important. Usually, it doesn't matter, but it helps in these areas:

1. Character creator options, especially with hair and skin tones.
2. Character writing (human world). Unless you're really experienced, it'll be tough writing well developed characters of the opposite gender. Not many games are all that story focused, so it doesn't typically matter. Same with modern settings - It would be nice to have someone from the story setting, or the staff has contacts with someone who is.
3. Having people from all walks of life may make the game more well rounded. In America, racial identity is a pretty important part of this, but I'm certain it's quite different in other countries. Even non-gamers providing valuable input would be helpful, since many of us may take for granted systems that may turn others off.

Higher diversity has a greater chance of allowing different voices be heard. Some people may have some great ideas that can enhance the game.

Sansoldier posted...

Voted kinda important. Usually, it doesn't matter, but it helps in these areas:

1. Character creator options, especially with hair and skin tones.
2. Character writing (human world). Unless you're really experienced, it'll be tough writing well developed characters of the opposite gender. Not many games are all that story focused, so it doesn't typically matter. Same with modern settings - It would be nice to have someone from the story setting, or the staff has contacts with someone who is.
3. Having people from all walks of life may make the game more well rounded. In America, racial identity is a pretty important part of this, but I'm certain it's quite different in other countries. Even non-gamers providing valuable input would be helpful, since many of us may take for granted systems that may turn others off.
Higher diversity has a greater chance of allowing different voices be heard. Some people may have some great ideas that can enhance the game.

And far, far, more of them will offer ideas and complaints that are self-serving if not outright terrible. I'm sorry, but while I do agree that an outside view CAN be helpful, the idea that it's, somehow, a good thing in of itself is foolish. Should a CoD player need to have the voice of a JRPG fan in his shooter? Or a FF fan have to listen to someone complaining that they can't trick-shot the boss? Should either of them have to listen to, or see their game mechanics be influenced by, someone whose gaming 'experience' is playing Candy Crush on their rides to and from work? I want the doors to my house to be open to let others in, not knock down the supporting walls. We've already seen that game companies are more than willing to destroy their games and franchises for a quick buck. We shouldn't be encouraging them.