• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Would you sacrifice AAA quality for better social representation?

Status
Not open for further replies.
petran79

petran79

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,025
Greece
With all the recent discussions about representing gender, race, sexuality, social and political issues etc this makes video game creation even more demanding. Except the technical and artistic challenges, creators need also to have the knowledge, sensitivity and sensibility to be more considerate and better informed about social issues. Basically not just creators but anyone involved in promoting video games.

It isnt surprising all these past years that games with unique gameplay that paved the way for the industry of today, hardly bothered with those issues. Eg complex fighting games, yet full with fanservice or genres with damsel in distress trope

The ideal thing would be to have quality in both game play and representation and some popular games manage this indeed. Eg Life is Strange, some AC games etc

On the other hand games that try to change the formula, Eg the last Layton game, are not that well received compared to their predecessors

Then there are the known games like XC2 where players try to like despite their shortcomings

Finally there is the majority of games that does not care, like MG5 and God of War and are still successfull.

Would you make the sacrifice and accept a game that takes into consideration some social issues, yet at the same does not meet AAA standards and is unlikely to get a console release? A game where it is the message that counts? For example a game like this one

https://m.facebook.com/HalftheGame
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,703
Brazil
I don't see how can this take more demand ... hell I can even see how it can make a game LESS demanding... but

As I said before, I would take 720p without voice acting and focused level design instead of open world with non realistic graphics pushing for better art direction than lifelike even when everything else is taken into account.

So yeah I would gladly kill the AAA genre if it is for better games to come out
 
Sir Laguna

Sir Laguna

Member
Oct 27, 2017
251
I don't understand. Why would representation reduce the "AAA quality"? that doesn't make any sense.
 
TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
Nah, I didn't spend $500 on a Xbox and $1300 on a new TV to play games that are not pushing the limits of the system.

That's if I had to pick one or the other.

If they want to put diversity in my game go for it, as long as it looks nice on my tv
 
ajszenk

ajszenk

Member
Dec 6, 2017
1,211
I think the premise of the question is a bit ridiculous. Games change the formula all the time, and it doesn't work out sometimes. That's just how the creative process works. That often has little to do with representation. Sometimes a game just isn't as good as predecessors, which is fine. But the notion that we even have to think about sacrificing quality for representation is flawed logic.
 
Servbot24

Servbot24

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
43,139
If it's still a competent game with great gameplay? Yes, of course. People are more important than graphics.

If it's just a bad game? No, then I'd rather it just not exist since bigoted gamers will celebrate that they're bad games.

That said I see no correlation between the two, so I have no idea why I would have to choose.
 

Deleted member 8593

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
27,176
petran79 said:
With all the recent discussions about representing gender, race, sexuality, social and political issues etc this makes video game creation even more demanding.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The mental image of some designer at Monolithsoft struggling to tone down a female design.

You're creating some very weird narrative here.
 
Khezu

Khezu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,947
I mean if it for some reason it absolutely has to be one or the other?

No, absolutely not.

But I'm also a straight white male, and most games cater to me anyway.
 
TheThreadsThatBindUs

TheThreadsThatBindUs

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,151
United Kingdom
No and we shouldn't have to.

Better representation of minority groups in games doesn't make games any less marketable. If anything it creates more believability in gameworlds, enhancing the richness of the worlds games developers create.

The idea that to appeal to straight white males the game needs to be dominated by straight white males is a myth of a bygone era. And with the success of entertainment properties like Black Panther (black representation), hopefully, that antiquated perspective is now slowly fading into the aether.
 
Casual

Casual

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,547
I don't see why you can't do both. But for the question? Nah. I don't give a shit about the message in some game. Game stories are pretty much universally awful anyway, if I want a message I'll look at a different medium. Gameplay > all.

The example you used looks like a game I'd never bother playing.
 

Cap G

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,488
Why would it make a difference? The new Assassin's Creed game had a black dude but it was still just another AssCreed game.
 
Warrior of Light

Warrior of Light

Member
Jan 11, 2018
9,857
Sir Laguna said:
I don't understand. Why would representation reduce the "AAA quality"? that doesn't make any sense.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Companies being afraid of losing customers over things like this is, sadly, still a thing. Put a female front and centre on the box art and the game will sell less copies. It's a shame we're not even past that yet. I don't think being more inclusive is what would lower the quality of a game, but rather the fear that it wouldn't sell as much would probably make many developers reduce its budget as to not take too big of a risk.
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
i have a bunch of questions:

1.-Why can't AAA games get better representation?
2.-What do you mean AAA quality? There are tons of quality games without AAA budgets

This is a loaded premise, you are presenting a situation that implies AAA games can't have decent representation or political tones and where people would chose substandard games for the sake of "representation", reinforcing the deplorable narrative that people want "representation for representation's sake", that's not how the industry works.
 
Mass Effect

Mass Effect

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
16,793
I feel like this premise is the very definition of false dichotomy.

You can have high quality, big budget games with better representation. See Assassin's Creed Origins and Overwatch, both of which are doing insanely well.
 
spman2099

spman2099

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,893
This is a strange question because you don't position it as a parlor game. It is as if you are arguing that it is impossible to have the one without the other.
 
Heartimecia

Heartimecia

Member
Oct 27, 2017
73
If anyone thinks these two things are mutually exclusive, that says a lot more about you than anything else.
 
The Booktastic Bus

The Booktastic Bus

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
808
Literally don't care about the characters, representation, or anything like that.

Just give me a kick ass game that's fun to play and that's that.
 
Scrooge

Scrooge

Member
Oct 25, 2017
633
I'm not sure I totally get the question, but I'll try to answer what I think the OP is asking.

No. I'm gay, but if given a choice between a high quality game with your standard straight, male protagonists and a weak one that put a lot of effort into representation, I'll take the better quality game every time.
 
Trigonometrize

Trigonometrize

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,143
"AAA" quality? As in fancy graphics and shit? Sure, but I feel like I want to get away from that for reasons outside of wanting representation (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense but I'm just rolling with it)... I do really like seeing different kinds of characters and if we're not talking about quality as in the game is just less fun to play, then yeah, fuck the budgets, fuck the scale. Work with limitations and give me diversity while you're at it.
 
Ploid 6.0

Ploid 6.0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,440
Why on earth would you have to sacrifice either?

Would the devs' hearts not be in it if they make a game that doesn't have a white bald buff dude with guns?

Do their hearts and drive to make the game fade when they have to make something like Banjo or Conker?

Is that why Sonic had that real girl in his game? Because the devs couldn't relate?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.