Inclusive Pandering In Gaming: Yay or Nay?

DJMMT of Gaming Rebellion Writes: "The current buzzword in game development seems to be “diversity.” Now of course while the term was originally coined to mean racial inclusion, it’s actually more being used today to mean women and members of alternative life style communities such as homosexuals and transgenders. Once again, racial minorities get ignored or tossed to the wayside but that’s not the specific point of this post so I won’t dwell on it today. What I find interesting is that developers seem more to be pandering to pro-diversity groups as opposed to actually developing games with diverse characters in a genuine form. Since I haven’t personally read anything that good on the subject, I decided I wanted to put in my two cents."

[DiaperFace]

Hell nay. We don't need SJW s*** in our games.

[Heyxyz]

If a character is a good character then race, sexuality, religion, gender, etc. don't matter. What I hate is when devs include a "diverse" character just to check a box and say "yep...we have a ________ character." That insults the people who belong to the group, could associate negative stereotypes within that group, annoys the people outside of the group, and deprives everyone of a good character.

[iceman06]

Inclusive pandering? Nay! Diversity for the sake of diversity? Nay! Inclusion of diverse characters that fit the narrative and gameplay motives of the developers? Yay!
No developer should be forced to create something that they don't truly want to create...that's not part of their vision. That being said, it would be nice for more developers to be open to new ideas surrounding the diverse nature of human experience.

[00]

to many people want this stuff to be nothing but an accessory, shallow and meaningless. and I'd rather they take garbage elsewhere because I consume entertainment to be entertained not to hear some special snowflake lecture me and impose their fantasy's on my fun.

[Roccetarius]

Definitely a loud Nay.

[madjedi]

Change any character to any under represented minority and see how little it actually affects the gameplay.

By all means continue to fight long and hard for a glorified skin change.

You could replace most video game main characters out there with a three head purple alien and it still would not change the games up much if any.

Any developers that try to push this diversity pandering crap will not get any of my money.

Create a insert "identity label" because you want to create them, not because some jackass decided that we need a quota system.

[BrianOBlivion]

A resounding nay. Every time an obvious token *insert minority/diversity* character appears in any medium, the producers of said medium just come off as sleazy. If there is a character or characters just happen to be "diverse", don't prop up the diversity of the character(s) unless it is a necessary plot point relating to the story. Otherwise, it's just creepy that the producer would even make light of it. Keep it authentic, contextual and within the parameters of the narrative and there wouldn't even be any controversy.

[Scatpants]

NAAAAY! Artistic freedom is the rule in every other medium and yet with games for some reason all of a sudden everyone has to have some sort of representation. Utter BS. I'm all for having gays and trannys and women in games if that's what the director envisioned for it, but shoehorning them in to everything just for social justice brownie points kind of turns my stomach.