Racial diversity among the powerplay lead figures

[Vandaahl]

Like wise. The majority of calls to close the thread are from people with nothing to contribute.

View attachment 41386

A similar discussion was held about the crew of Firefly

Looking at the facial expression of the guy 3rd from right, I wonder where the 2nd from the right his thumb is...

 

[bigian12]

In a predetermined future, there would be only one answer. But linearity would be the result of absolute perfection, which I doubt is a very human thing.

No, but is a borg thing : " Your species will add to our perfection" Borg Queen.

 

[Rocktopper]

I think the real issue here isnt "racism" at all. It's whether people feel the game was made for them to play it, or if it was made for people look more like the country it was created in. This game is an international phenomenon. And whether or not you feel the game was made for you will depend on whether or not you look at those 10 faces and see something that looks familiar. That's not racism, that's just human nature.

The problem with this familiar facial recognition, is that the current distribution looks very insular and is therefore a bit unwelcoming to some people. If you are fine with current distribution, it is likely because you see enough that you can relate to in those 10 faces. It doesn't make you a racist. It makes you a normal human being.

However, if you don't see yourself reflected in that line up, it's perfectly normal to feel excluded and marginalized. In point of fact, I can almost guarantee that if the spectrum was inverted, then the thread posting would be inverted as well. And instead of people calling it racist or biased, they would probably be calling it "pandering" and "unrealistic."

Personally, I'm feeling a bit pandered to. But as a gamer I am used to playing games were the villain is a few shades darker than the hero. It's nothing new. I am actually relieved Archon DeLaine was made paler simply for this reason alone. Although I am a little miffed that the Mexican looking dude is banana republic copy-pasta, but hey, there aren't a lot of Mexicans running around the streets of London, so I guess they can't be blamed for basing the chars on the headlines. Because the Devs have probably never met a Mexican. It's not a crime, and it's certainly not racist. It just speaks to their limited life experience that they made the Mexican looking guy a militant bag. If I had made the game, based on my own experience, Denton Patreus would have been a jolly organic farmer who loved to dance and cook. Or maybe a Yoga instructor who played the cello, lol.

Fair point, but one of the proponents of this thread describes themselves as "the palest dude you'd ever meet in your life". I almost feel that disqualifies him from his position. I'm a short brown guy and the picture looked fine to me!

 

[adoredtv]

You are of the genetic and racial group who will not have a problem identifying with the people here. I'm a tall, white North-European male myself. It not being a problem to you doesn't mean that a problem doesn't exist, however.

Yes this is my main issue with many of these threads. It seems to be white males who find fault easiest - not females or non-whites.

 

[Wicz]

Fair point, but one of the proponents of this thread describes themselves as "the palest dude you'd ever meet in your life". I almost feel that disqualifies him from his position. I'm a short brown guy and the picture looked fine to me!

Well I'm a tall white bloke, and I see people, not colours.

 

[Jason217]

So...do you people realize the update is over and you can get in game now? Stop arguing on the forums ;P

 

[WhosYourDaddyNow]

It's not about skin color, it's about eye color! Where are those pretty blue eyes? I would think that in 1000+ years humans will at least have been able to modified genetic traits, so the blue colored eyes would become more and more popular. That could be applied to skin color, but even with genetic manipulation I think the parents would want their offsprings to have the same color as them (at least most of them).

 

[Commander Jared]

Representation matters

"When I was a little girl, it was like, 'Oh, we are in the future.' Uhura did that for me. So I want to be on your show." Whoopi Goldberg to Gene Roddenberry.

 

[Steel Scion]

I think the art looks great. But yeah, all lined up like that it comes off as a little eurocentric. Nobody is protesting in the streets but it's something to think about as new factions rise up. Variety makes things interesting.

I'm disappointed that the very existence of this kind of discussion gets so much push-back. All sorts of design decisions are free game - turret confusion logic, ship model design, availability of icons and paintjobs, the infamous Empire bias, etc. So the first visual look at the people of the Elite universe should be up for discussion too, without rancor or disrespect.
Games have an emotional component or we wouldn't be drawn to them. Seeing a vibrant, expansive, fantastical world that still in some small way reflects ourselves and our world is what draws us in and makes us long term fans.

I support Felicia Winters. I would have preferred Gina Torres to Cheryl Ladd, but I'm still going that route.

If players feel under-represented by the available factions, then it only helps Frontier to know about it. Even if YOU PERSONALLY don't feel it's justified, knowing how their product is received helps the devs to improve it in the future.

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

I'm really disappointed that this thread even came up at all. Mephane, why would you do such a thing?

This entire argument is silly. There aren't any blacks as power leaders. Does this mean FD is racist? No. Is anyone sure FD meant anything at all by skin color? No.

Let's end this whole thread and forget that it ever happened. Political Correctness is enough of a plague in real life, why bring it here?

 

[shadragon]

My only comment on the subject is there is only one race; the human one.

“Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.” Ronald Reagen

 

[MarcusReed]

A black person? Which one of them looks black to you,

As someone partly of that ethnicity ,Winters does.

 

[peter101cycle]

Why oh why do people want to bring up race again?

Let's get rid of this thread as it's going to go nowhere.

Besides on the 3300 future, who knows what the racial mix will be anyway.

 

[bigian12]

My only comment on the subject is there is only one race; the human one.

“Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.” Ronald Reagen

Exactly, the very concept of racism is, in itself, racist.

 

[Scruluse]

Riddle me this.

As an exemplary exercise I'd like to raise the question

"Which, in your opinion, is the one statement you feel is the more racist one and why?"

A) "I see 10 people, each of them striving to be the most powerful."

B) "I see 5 blue and 5 green people, each of them striving to be the most powerful."



I hoped we as a society would have learned it's not the cover of the book that really counts.



As the question for more darker skin tones in the images I suspect, as several before me have, that the range of the skin tones in 3300 will have narrowed because of cultural mixing. Exceptionally bright and dark tones would converge to the middle tones of tan and brownish, which I feel, is faithfully represented in the portraits, which are supposed to play in 3300.



Edit: aside colors topics I want to congratulate the artists for their exceptional fine arts on the portraits. They look smashing and charismatic without falling too uch into a stereotype cliche but still conveying a certain degree of the person's attitude.

C) I see one hot babe. (Notice I didn't mention bust size?)

 

[Rocktopper]

Well, to be honest, Archon is clearly the darkest-skinned of the group.

and he's a pirate lord/smuggler/murderer.

So, if we really want to get into this, FD DID go there. And, I'm not surprised. Black folks(like myself) have always been cast as the bad guys. The "blacks and crime" connection has been, frankly, pounded into the heads, indoctrination-style, of people across the world.

Meanwhile, white men and women in suits are the ones who orchestrated the global crash in 2008.(mostly) white bankers are the ones who launder money for the global drug trade. These are the people who took your job, your house, your livelihood, if it was lost. The biggest "gangsta's" on this earth are lily-white and have exactly zero chance of being "stopped and frisked".

But if you ask someone what a "criminal" looks like, they'll come back at you with the image of someone who could be found in any of Snoop Dogg's videos.

So, even though I don't think for a moment that Braben and co. had any racist intention here..there may be unconscious bias showing itself. how can it not? Every person on earth with access to TV and internet has been told, both overtly, and covertly, that we black folks are thugs, killers, low-class, etc etc etc. how can anyone expect that not to reflect in works such as this?

I think it's sad that we had to even get into this. It's a sci-fi universe,and racism shouldn't even be a thought. These fictional characters should have moved past racism at this point. I think, in the ED universe, they HAVE moved past it.

The real question is, have WE moved past it?

The answer is quite clear.

Maybe I'm just going insane, or don't know which of these guys is which, but is not Archon Delaine the tall extremely white guy next to Denton Patreus? 4th from right?

I thought it was the dark-skinned guy w/ goatee.

If I'm wrong, apologies.

You know what guys? I'm sorry I commented. This is a game about internet spaceships. Let's stick to that, shall we?

Probably for the best, mate. If I were you I'd be considering apologising for your rant about FD "going there", and the rest of your "white people are evil" generalisations. That's part of a bigger debate that I don't think has any place on this particular internet spaceship forum

 

[Travisk]

"When I was a little girl, it was like, 'Oh, we are in the future.' Uhura did that for me. So I want to be on your show." Whoopi Goldberg to Gene Roddenberry.

And I'm sure a long list of young black girls are playing Elite Dangerous wondering if they'll be in the future, and thinking they won't be because they don't see a black person as a power.


No, wait. That's complete nonsense.

 

[Jay8ch]

Is this really that high on anyone's priorities? Talk about having to walk on politically correct eggshells. I think this is a storm in a teacup just for the sake of it.

 

[_Flin_]

Really? Gender crap? Will all white males please stand up?

This is ridiculous.

 

[Werewolf13]

I hate to be that guy, but someone has to speak up. I am a bit disappointed by the lack of racial variety in the current power leaders.

OMG!!!

This is the silliest gaming thread I've ever seen and I've been gaming on PC's and participating in various gaming forums on many different venues since 1979!

Is there no where we can go to avoid the tyranny of political correctness?

ED's a game. A sci-fi game. It takes place 1000 years in the future. Who knows where that will lead.

So as long as we're being silly:
[silliness]
You xenophope! You humanophile. How insensitive that you aren't offended that there are no alien species or super intelligent genetically modified dog leaders?
[/silliness]