So as many have probably heard and seen, the Korean MMO Lost Ark is coming to NA/EU regions with Amazon Games publishing it there.
The game has already been released in Russia and Japan some time ago and of course has originally released in December 2018 in Korea.
One of the things Amazon Games have said about bringing Lost Ark to the West is that they want to make sure that the game not only has a rich and diverse character creator (outside of classes being gender locked, which is a different topic) but they also want to increase the overall seen diversity of NPCs in the game world.
www.playlostark.com
They also seem to be changing the appearance of some named characters, one example can be seen here:
The left being the current NPC in KR,RU and JP, the right being him in the NA/EU alpha. (Note that this isn't my picture but was just linked from Reddit)
They are also using some different custom characters for the promotional materials of the game that are darker skinned, for example here are the NA/EU promotional pics for the Summoner and Martial Artist:
So this all sounds pretty alright, doesn't it?
Well, yeah, just as always: Here come the closet racists and other scum.
On the subreddit and on the streamforums, but in general across places where Lost Ark is discussed, we now have threads popping up from "concerned" (isn't this a great little dogwhistle?) users who are not at all ok with NPC appearances being changed or the "westernization" of the game, as they call it.
Some example are posts such as:
Absolute weirdness such as this where I guess this person thinks Asian/Korean characters can not be made in Western versions of game character creators?
Outside of the "concern about diversity" they also have another thing going on, being the "Capital G" Gamers that they are: Censorship.
Even though Amazon has, through a dev on the steamforums, repeatedly stated that there is no censorship and that they are just using some of the more "modest" outfits in the game for their promotional materials, the garbage people are very "concerned about the censorship on display" which leads to such wonderful posts such as this:
"Windsward", the person questioning their life at this moment, is an Amazon Games dev who has been very communicative on the Steamforums for Lost Ark.
This is a small example of the weird ass questions they had to answer.
So why is this topic worth a thread in my opinion?
I guess two reasons:
1) I think it is important to point out when a company, even one such as Amazon with the multitudes of horribleness on display, actually takes steps to make a game more diverse and thereby inclusive. Since Lost Ark is a game I have been looking forward to for a long time, it's a positive thing they are doing imo and I wanted to point this out to people.
2) I also believe it is important to point out whenever decisions such as this get backlash, even if just from these vocal shitheads in the gaming community, as I am a firm believer that when you see hate,openly or thinly veiled, you should counter it and fight it. Yeah, it's just "some dumb posts on the net" but every one of those posts could start to take root in someones mind and create more needless hate.
Let's discuss this, ERA!
What are your opinions on all of this?
The game has already been released in Russia and Japan some time ago and of course has originally released in December 2018 in Korea.
One of the things Amazon Games have said about bringing Lost Ark to the West is that they want to make sure that the game not only has a rich and diverse character creator (outside of classes being gender locked, which is a different topic) but they also want to increase the overall seen diversity of NPCs in the game world.
Bringing Lost Ark to the West
We are working with our developers at Smilegate RPG to faithfully bring you this beloved game while preserving the developer’s original vision in this unique take on the MMORPG genre.
www.playlostark.com
To give an example to people who haven't played the game: While the gameworld is home to NPCs of different races and skintones, a lot of the continents you visit are very homogenous. You have a "medieval europe" themed continent where basically 99% of NPCs are Caucasian. You have a kinda "asian kung fu flick" themed continent where basically every single NPC is Asian. So while you see different cultures and races in the game, it always feels kinda "wrong" how they are never really mixed together at all, even though there is canonically lots of trade and travel between these lands. So Amazon is probably gonna make every place in the world look a bit more mixed than purely "one color".
They also seem to be changing the appearance of some named characters, one example can be seen here:
The left being the current NPC in KR,RU and JP, the right being him in the NA/EU alpha. (Note that this isn't my picture but was just linked from Reddit)
They are also using some different custom characters for the promotional materials of the game that are darker skinned, for example here are the NA/EU promotional pics for the Summoner and Martial Artist:
So this all sounds pretty alright, doesn't it?
Well, yeah, just as always: Here come the closet racists and other scum.
On the subreddit and on the streamforums, but in general across places where Lost Ark is discussed, we now have threads popping up from "concerned" (isn't this a great little dogwhistle?) users who are not at all ok with NPC appearances being changed or the "westernization" of the game, as they call it.
Some example are posts such as:
Absolute weirdness such as this where I guess this person thinks Asian/Korean characters can not be made in Western versions of game character creators?
Outside of the "concern about diversity" they also have another thing going on, being the "Capital G" Gamers that they are: Censorship.
Even though Amazon has, through a dev on the steamforums, repeatedly stated that there is no censorship and that they are just using some of the more "modest" outfits in the game for their promotional materials, the garbage people are very "concerned about the censorship on display" which leads to such wonderful posts such as this:
"Windsward", the person questioning their life at this moment, is an Amazon Games dev who has been very communicative on the Steamforums for Lost Ark.
This is a small example of the weird ass questions they had to answer.
So why is this topic worth a thread in my opinion?
I guess two reasons:
1) I think it is important to point out when a company, even one such as Amazon with the multitudes of horribleness on display, actually takes steps to make a game more diverse and thereby inclusive. Since Lost Ark is a game I have been looking forward to for a long time, it's a positive thing they are doing imo and I wanted to point this out to people.
2) I also believe it is important to point out whenever decisions such as this get backlash, even if just from these vocal shitheads in the gaming community, as I am a firm believer that when you see hate,openly or thinly veiled, you should counter it and fight it. Yeah, it's just "some dumb posts on the net" but every one of those posts could start to take root in someones mind and create more needless hate.
Let's discuss this, ERA!
What are your opinions on all of this?
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