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So, what is the excuse for virtually no black people in The Witcher 3?

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Memento

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I think after 118 hours with the game I can finally make this thread. No spoilers please, since I have yet to finish it, thanks.

So... yeah. Is there any statement from CD Projekt Red in regards to this? Because it is pretty fucking gross. One of the biggest open world games of the generation, with hundreds of NPCs and yet, not a single one of them is black. Fuck representation?

I would love to hear the mental gymnastic behind this fucked up situation.

Edit:

Seems like people found my tone aggressive.

Fair enough.

I am sorry for that. I am not even black, but it just feels so out of place to have a game with zero representation in today's world. Historical pertinency is not really a good argument when your game has dragons and demons. It is the same situation as The Order 1886, back in 2015. It is even more gross here imo, because we are talking about a game with a HUGE developer behind it and literally HUNDREDS of NPCs, none of which are black. It just seems so done deaf in this day and age that makes me mad.

And I actually really like the game, so there is no bias here. It is already in my top 3 this generation, easily. And I didnt even finish it.

But the complete lack of representation is really disappointing.
 
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Arsenic13

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They made a statement awhile ago when someone asked the same question. Short version, "geographical accuracy" based on the lore. But, you know, it's fantasy, so they could have ignored that.
 
Com_Raven

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Their reasoning would be that their game's world is heavily inspired by and based on Slavic mythology, which (probably unsurprisingly so given history and geography) has pretty much only Caucasian people. I think there are more Arabic-inspired locations in the witcher world further to the south, but I could be wrong.
 
Zacmortar

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Black people arent allowed to exist in fantasy, but if they do, its usually as an expy monster race that will inevitably be made malevolent
 
Enzo88

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User was warned for this post: Inappropriate behaviour.
This sjw stuff is getting out of hands...
 
gdt

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There are some Arabic/middle eastern inspired people but yeah that's it. And you know the excuse already.

Hopefully 2077 has a far more diverse population.
 

Deleted member 9714

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The world of the Witcher is strongly influenced by ScandinavianSlavic geography and mythology, particularly Poland's.
 
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Deleted member 8112

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Enzo88 said:
This sjw stuff is getting out of hands...
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black-guys-gif-3.gif
 
Com_Raven

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gdt said:
There are some Arabic/middle eastern inspired people but yeah that's it. And you know the excuse already.

Hopefully 2077 has a far more diverse population.
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Given the setting and source material of Cyberpunk, I'd be very surprised if the cast wasn't a lot more diverse than in the Witcher.
 
Paul

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http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.de/2015/11/the-witcher-3-is-amazingly-written-and.html

Putting On My Critic Hat

There was some vigorous critical debate about The Witcher 3 when it came out, but it primarily centered around whether this Polish game, made by Poles and set in a fantasy Poland based on Polish books, had too many white people.

(Side note: Did you know that many Eastern Europeans, who occupy a large, diverse region with a long and rich history, severe poverty, and recent history of vicious oppression, find it intensely irritating to be thoughtlessly lumped into the huge, vague category of "white people"?)

The question of whether the Polish people deserve the right to make their own representations of themselves without getting permission from affluent North American academics is one I plan to leave entirely alone.

Instead, I'm going to say something about The Witcher 3 that will probably severely agitate some readers: It is a terrific, much-needed dose of diversity for the game industry.
 

Deleted member 197

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I mean no blacks, no arabs, no latinos, no asians, bunch of poor people speaking in barely understandable dialects...is basically just poland.

But i think they added some in the DLC.
 
Casual

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"This fucked up situation".

Yeah, no. It's a series based on a book which is strongly based on medieval age Poland. Not really sure what you expected.

A game isn't "fucked up" by default just because it lacks representation of a specific thing.
 
Bjones

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I can see if you are indie dev from a mostly white nation just not giving it a thought, but the Witcher is a pretty big game.
 

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Com_Raven said:
Their reasoning would be that their game's world is heavily inspired by and based on Slavic mythology, which (probably unsurprisingly so given history and geography) has pretty much only Caucasian people. I think there are more Arabic-inspired locations in the witcher world further to the south, but I could be wrong.
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This is what I remember reading as well, and I didn't know there were Arabic-inspired locations in the Witcher! Pretty cool, I'll have to check it out.

Memento said:
I would love to hear the mental gymnastic behind this fucked up situation.
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OP...relax man.
 
Funny Valentine

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I thought we were leaving baggage from the old forum behind but I guess we can drag out this dusty old argument again
 
Ahasverus

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There are black people in Hearts of Stone.

And it's the same reason you don't find exotic ethnic groups on western games, black people are not common in Poland, racial issues are not on the minds of people there so they see no need to up representation.

I mean there aren't any Asians either.

We shouldn't be telling Polish people how they must represent themselves.
 

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Memento said:
Not yet, still finishing the main game. Is there more diversity on it?
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It introduces visitors from "far away" lands which due to mimicing real life geography introduces more than just "scandanavian" folks

Ofir is the land mentioned in Bible, from which King Solomon received a cargo of gold every three years. it is identified by researchers as either present day Yemen, the Afar region in East Africa, Rajasthan India or a legendary mythical place.
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http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Ofir
 
DioMuller

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I remember it being something about the game's setting being something like Medieval Poland and their mythology. I think it's fine, just like a game that has Japan as a setting is fine for having only Japanese people.

Sargerus said:
Same reason why there aren't PoC in the LOTR movies/books.
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There are black people in the LOTR books. They fight for Sauron, if I remember correctly. Now, that's something that, if it was written today, would deserve some criticism.
 
White Glint

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Paul said:
(Side note: Did you know that many Eastern Europeans, who occupy a large, diverse region with a long and rich history, severe poverty, and recent history of vicious oppression, find it intensely irritating to be thoughtlessly lumped into the huge, vague category of "white people"?)

The question of whether the Polish people deserve the right to make their own representations of themselves without getting permission from affluent North American academics is one I plan to leave entirely alone.
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So much truth it hurts.
 

JDSN

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We brown people have no place in fantasy settings unless we are wearing tribal stuff or have white hair.
 
Kyprios

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There are people of colour in the Witcher world according to the books but they are from further south from where The Witcher 3 took place.
 
Latvian Hitman

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They did introduce some Arabic locations and characters in the first DLC- but, the games are based on the books which, as the above poster states, are based on Slavic folklore. I think there are probably bigger fish to fry than trying to hold CDPR's feet to the fire over not shoehorning diversity into a world that it didn't really exist in. Now, if we're having the same conversation about Cyberpunk after it launches, that might be indicative of a bigger underlying issue at CDPR.
 
LowMax

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It's really not that big of a deal. The developers are free to choose what their characters look like and what sort of vision they want to bring to life.

If they want to include all races in their game, that's great

If not, no harm done.
 
Famassu

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Bcuz realizum. We can have superhumans, dragons, vampires. But don't you dare introduce black people in muh fantasy. Immersion breaker. Suspension of disbelief DENIED.
 
Casual

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Some people aren't going to be happy until you can customize the looks of every character encountered in a game.

And then you'll complain that the dialogue between characters is too general and unspecific.
 
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