"Yet Another Generic White Dude" - A legitimate discussion on criticism regarding character design diversity

[Voyevoda]

It's so hard to explain to people sometimes what it's like to not have representation because, for some, it's the status quo. White male gamers have a simply staggering number of options to choose from if they want to see themselves represented in their favourite medium. I envy them. They have the privilege of being able to say "I only care about personality"/"I only care about writing" because they can be fairly confident that no matter what, the game is going to be written with them in mind. Other kinds of people don't have that luxury.

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I don't know if it's an American problem or not, but I don't "identify" as a "white dude". It's really an issue that I don't see in my everyday life, but everyday on the English-speaking Internet.

I'm an introvert, I'm shy, I like books, I like games, I love languages. I feel much closer to Clementine in the Walking Dead than to Arthur Morgan (yet I find the latter even better written). I don't think "they thought about me!" when I play a wisecracking white muscly man that goes about his day being badass, guns blazing, because I'm none of that. So, no, I'm not confident they wrote the character with "me" in mind.

Many of my favourite characters from books, games or films/series have been non-white-male characters, because they were interesting. Some others are.

But hey, maybe that's just me. I'm just gonna be told that I don't understand. Maybe I don't, fine. Still, I think personality is the most important component, as I can relate to anyone, as long as the writing is good.

EDIT: Of course, you weren't talking about 'me', specifically. But being a white guy, and the quoted person, I'm just giving my point of view, obviously. :)

 

[Nebty]

The boring answer is just that marketing works best when you slap a white male on the box.

"Interesting" doesn't come into it. It's just corporate marketing and how it works at the moment. We're only just getting to grips with female leads never mind coloured folk/aliens/bizarre characters. It's depressing that they think nothing else will sell as well but here we are.

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It's going to be an action adventure AAA game, which means the majority of their users are going to be young males mostly white from NA and EU, so they choose a main character design than most of them can relate to. Makes sense from a business stand point.

Regarding the character, yes he looks generic. But being a woman or giving him another skin color wouldn't fix that.

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This kind of thinking is, imo, unhelpful. It's the equivalent of throwing up your hands and saying, "Hey, the world sucks! What do you want me to do about it?" A bad status quo should be changed, and talking about problems of diversity can lead to those changes.

Hell, is there a less appealing word than "safe" when it comes to storytelling? Man I do so love a safe bet. Gonna run out to the store and get me that new thing that's been focus-grouped for success. It's also a chicken and egg situation. There's no way that a majority of the video game-buying public are stupid enough to turn up their noses at a well-written character, no matter their gender or skin colour, right? I mean, the one thing this thread seems to agree on is that well-written characters are good! Only the writing and personality matter. Therefore, if one chunk of your audience doesn't particularly care about race/gender as long as the character is well-written, and another chunk is actively looking for and is excited by characters outside the norm, then it's a win/win! Weird that boring white dudes are considered the sure thing when you could expand your audience like that.

 

[L Thammy]

Why being so egocentric? I was talking about an overall climate that's beginning to annoy all the devs of the world because each minority wants to be vocable for very superficial reasons.



Solving a micro injustice only lead to another injustices. Don't you see the absurdity of the situation where each minority in the world will begin to claim their spotlight? It's not possible to please everybody and devs now feel obliged to censure themselves by our fault. If really something has to be "fixed", we better concentrate our efforts on law. Please, leave games alone.

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I'm kind of amazed that this if you give one minority anything they'll all get uppity attitude came out. I'm not surprised that it exists, but that it was stated so nakedly here.

I think this post is a good demonstrator of why we need "forced diversity" though.

 

[timedesk]

It's going to be an action adventure AAA game, which means the majority of their users are going to be young males mostly white from NA and EU, so they choose a main character design than most of them can relate to. Makes sense from a business stand point.

Regarding the character, yes he looks generic. But being a woman or giving him another skin color wouldn't fix that. His Jedi master seems to be a black woman who also seems generic. The woman from Battlefront II was a woman and wasn't too white and she was very cool but more because of the actress itself instead of for not being a white male.

To suggest to increase representation of certain collectives is ok, but it's racist to say that a character is bad for being white, and sexist to say a character is bad for being male. Let the devs to do whatever they prefer in each game.

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I don't think business is a good excuse anymore. Horizon Zero Dawn sold 10 million copies while staring a woman, and featuring a very diverse supporting cast. Star Wars is selling millions of tickets while staring a woman. Why do the games need to rely on a white male lead to succeed? Also to restate something that has been repeated numerous times on this thread, people are saying they are disappointed the game is staring a bland looking white male lead. That disappointment has foundations in both boredom with what is seen as a "safe" choice for a lead, as well as a desire fore better representation in video games.

You yourself are saying this character was made out of a craven business decision made under the assumption that white people would reject anything other than a white male lead. Isn't that worse? Doesn't that imply an assumed racism, or at least intolerance? How are people supposed to communicate their desire for representation if the industry to to afraid to provide it in one of the most marketable and profitable franchises available?

 

[UnNamed]

The problem is many of you center this discussion on an American centric perspective and I don't feel like many of you see that as a problem

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Sometimes I feel that's because ERA is very US centric, GAF was more multicultural, not a big difference but significant. That's why you see a unique way to face problems, way of thinking, etc, something an european or asian would never do or never think. They have their own type or racism based on their story and their culture in a way me or Others don't fully understand. It's not like there is a good or bad racism, of course.
The only problem is when they put their vision as the only legit. So "i'm right, you are wrong" or the classic "you don't understand, so you're part or it".

 

[Voyevoda]

The problem is many of you center this discussion on an American centric perspective and I don't feel like many of you see that as a problem

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Sometimes I feel that's because ERA is very US centric, GAF was more multicultural, not a big difference but significant. That's why you see a unique way to face problems, way of thinking, etc, something an european or asian would never do or never think. They have their own type or racism based on their story and their culture in a way me or Others don't fully understand. It's not like there is a good or bad racism, of course.
The only problem is when they put their vision as the only legit. So "i'm right, you are wrong" or the classic "you don't understand, so you're part or it".

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Oh, it's not just me, then. Totally feel that as well.

 

[J 0 E]

I don't have a problem with him being a white male, I agree that the actor they chose have a generic face.

 

[Asuka3+1]

representation is a legit complain for those that care, but saying a character is "generic" just cause is "another white guy" is a terrible generalization. when we really dont know anything about him or much.

regarding or "why yet another white guy" there is possible many reason.
1) the "common denominator" trying to "appeal" to what is possible the widest audience among video games players (I might be wrong on this, dont remember more up to day polls and stuff)

2) less likely to miss represent. its possible people at the head of the production just white guys, so for em to write in a specific character could lead to generalization, broad use of cultural cliches or just out right missing the point and we are left with a terrible token character.

3) using a white dude, for plot purposes, allows to miss treat / abuse em in ways doing so to women or PoC would be more "wrong". say an scene require torture, or slavery or steal something, yada yada yada. (remember so complains back in the days about GTA San Andreas 1st mission was stealing a bicycle). applying the same circumstances to a white guy would be less problematic.

 

[Nebty]

But hey, maybe that's just me. I'm just gonna be told that I don't understand. Maybe I don't, fine. Still, I think personality is the most important component, as I can relate to anyone, as long as the writing is good.

EDIT: Of course, you weren't talking about 'me', specifically. But being a white guy, and the quoted person, I'm just giving my point of view, obviously. :)

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I was speaking more to your argument rather than to you yourself because...well, I don't know you. But I've seen the "I don't care about gender/race/sexuality as long as characters are well-written" argument a lot in response to calls for diversity. I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'm just going to say what I hear when people make these arguments.

The subtext of the argument is often (and again, not accusing you, just using this as an example) "Good writing is the only worthwhile metric. Diversity is not." This discounts a large number of people to whom diversity is "good writing". The experience I had playing Mass Effect as FemShepard was completely different than the one I had playing Dude Shepard. I want those kinds of experiences all the time. It matters very deeply to me. Therefore it rankles to be told that I should use someone else's standards - someone else who, perhaps, has the ability to experience the majority of video game stories the way I would want to.

 

[PlzUninstall]

This kind of thinking is, imo, unhelpful. It's the equivalent of throwing up your hands and saying, "Hey, the world sucks! What do you want me to do about it?" A bad status quo should be changed, and talking about problems of diversity can lead to those changes.

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I never said I was happy about it or complacent. My post was just a general response to those people who seem to think this thread is an attack against white straight men when they don't realise they're just being pandered to by corporations.



It's boring hearing the argument that it's racist against white folk that we're critiquing the blandness of the casting. We have a million white male leads already, let's use literally ANY of the alien races in the universe. Heck, make it a droid. No one is claiming he is going to be boring, the issue comes from what he represents and what a focus group tells us the majority wants.

The only way this will change is if other people take risks and show them that it is worthwhile to bet on a different type of lead.

... Yet even so what they're offering is mildly appealing because there's such a void of decent Star Wars games that literally anything will do nowadays.

 

[Epcott]

For me personally, it's not even his race that makes Cal, the new Star Wars games main protag, such a bland game character... especially coming from such diversity as Iden, Rey, Fin, and Kaz.

It's that his background story is eerily similar to Kanan Jarrus/Caleb Dume, whom we've already had a show and book based on (which also downplays the impact of Order 66 if just a little). It's also because we've already HAD Starkiller from The Force Unleashed series to fill that power fantasy gap this one is going for (maybe not as OP ad moving ships).

Third and final, that trailer was boring and generic. I will say, Jerome Valeska is probably one of few saving graces of Gotham, and Cameron Monaghan played him perfectly. That said, The Fallen Order trailer was nothing special, and that's more of an issue with Respawn's direction than the actor or his race... IMO. But that's just my 3 cents.

 

[Nebty]

I never said I was happy about it or complacent. My post was just a general response to those people who seem to think this thread is an attack against white straight men when they don't realise they're just being pandered to by corporations.

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Ahhh, gotcha. Sorry about that, guess I mistook your meaning.

 

[Asuka3+1]

They are not the lead

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Poe, Finn and Rey ARE THE LEAD, what are you talking about.

Rey Is new Luke
Finn is new Leia
Poe is new Han

sorry but how are this 3 not the leads?

t's that his background story is eerily similar to Kanan Jarrus

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Even going with Legends, any Jedi that did not die during Order 66 either

1) Tried to fight back was killed // rebuild Jedi his own style and everyone killed
2) Went to live on exile
3) Tried to blend in society and leave his Jedi life on the past to survive.

on terms of broadness, there is nothing much to work about on a different scale from each jedi.

 

[Killer]

I'm not white dood but I really don't care what the characters look like. I only criticize if it's poorly written.

 

[Voyevoda]

I was speaking more to your argument rather than to you yourself because...well, I don't know you. But I've seen the "I don't care about gender/race/sexuality as long as characters are well-written" argument a lot in response to calls for diversity. I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'm just going to say what I hear when people make these arguments.

The subtext of the argument is often (and again, not accusing you, just using this as an example) "Good writing is the only worthwhile metric. Diversity is not." This discounts a large number of people to whom diversity is "good writing". The experience I had playing Mass Effect as FemShepard was completely different than the one I had playing Dude Shepard. I want those kinds of experiences all the time. It matters very deeply to me. Therefore it rankles to be told that I should use someone else's standards - someone else who, perhaps, has the ability to experience the majority of video game stories the way I would want to.

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I get it, and I agree. Diversity in any medium is important. I do hope you'll get to have more good game experiences like that.

 

[M4xim1l1ano]

I just think that... considering how vast and rich the SW universe is, why can't the story be about someone/something else that we have not seen 2637915191082663 before.

The universe of SW supports a myriad of characters/species that can work with the narrative.

So yes, a bit boring for sure

 

[Asuka3+1]

Right now there are no living Skywalkers even (she could be one for all we know).

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Leia is an Skywalker (Daughter or Anaking skywalker) she just has the Organa Last name from her adoptive family
Ben Solo/ Kilo Ren is the son of Leia Organa which makes him too an Skywalker (he being skywalker is one of the reasons he is so "powerful" in 1st place)

and unless they do decide to go "that rute" and retcon TLJ, no, Ray is a literally no body bloodline, just drunk parent that sold their baby.

 

[Breqesk]

There's too many white dudes in lead roles in games, and I don't really care how well written they are because the problem isn't bad characters so much as it is one specific demographic being over-represented to the exclusion of so many others. That's why the whole, 'what about Arthur?' argument doesn't really work for me--Arthur may be a well-written character, but he's still another white dude in a sea of white dudes. Like, look:

Gender Breakdown of Games Featured at E3 2018

24% of games shown at E3 last year had set male protagonists; only 8% had set female protagonists. I don't have a similar breakdown by race, but I really wouldn't be surprised if the disparity were even worse.

Also, on a purely self-interested level, I much prefer playing women to men, so the glut of dude-focused games is a bummer for me just 'cause it makes it difficult to work up an interest in a lot of stuff that I'd otherwise maybe be excited by.

Like, yo, I've wanted a new singleplayer, story-driven Star Wars game for ages - tho I'd rather a choice-driven RPG than an action game like this - but 'cause we're stuck playing as this Cal dude, I'm like, eh.

 

[Nebty]

I get it, and I agree. Diversity in any medium is important. I do hope you'll get to have more good game experiences like that.

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Thanks! So do I. It is getting better, though at a slower rate than I'd hoped. Still, being able to talk about diversity on a major forum without getting immediately shouted down is kinda surreal. And nice.

 

[LuisGarcia]

Jerome Valeska is probably one of few saving graces of Gotham

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Gotham is pretty fantastic all round now. After a rough first season it has been great.

Sorry I realise that wasn't the point of your post lol

 

[TheCrackedJack]

I identify with characters because of their actions, personality, desires, fears, dreams, hobbies, etc, not something like their skin color. I've never looked at at plethora of buff white guys in various media and thought for a second that they represented me as a person.

I can equally feel a connection with a gay protagonist like Ellie (one of my fav characters of all time), or Captain Flint from Black Sails if talking about tv shows, or Marcus from Watch Dogs 2, than some random white guy.

To me, that is an argument for diversity, not against it. Because if I can feel represented by people of a different skin color or sexuality then so should others. Therefore companies should feel more confident including minority characters in their games. It should go without saying you can disagree and feel representation is different for you than it is me. I'm just explaining my point of view here.

 

[teacup]

I think the issue has a few things on it here

1. They didn't show gameplay which is what people wanted to see. So we just have a generic story to focus on. If we want Star Wars stories right now we have a series of movies that just came out all starring a more diverse makeup of people. The mainline trilogy out co stars a female lead and a black co-lead, who also had a prominent side story with an asian female sidekick. Rogue One had a female lead and the second main character played by a Latino actor. So to only focus on story, and say "but it's star wars' is a bit rich. Star Wars has form here lately.

2. If they had an interesting story, or interesting gameplay, we could be distracted. Nathan Drake is a standard white dude and so is Joel from the last of us. But they are great games with great stories so they can get a bit of a pass... fair or not. I'm not sure I love this but it's kinda true.

3. Lastly when framing is like "is this specific character boring because he is white?"... it's a bit unfair. Like Peter Parker isn't boring because he's white, but that doesn't mean we can't ask for Miles Morales. tony Stark is a great character. Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt are both fun as their respective super heroes. All of the white MCU actors have done well. The problem isn't with individuals, it's with looking at the entire cast and realising that half of them are white men named Chris and we'd love to see something else AS WELL. Same with videogames. There may end up being NOTHING wrong with this character. But on a more macro scale there is.

 

[Cyberclops]

People can only analyse what they know (which isn't a lot at the moment), so you can't expect them to just assume that the character will be unique and interesting. At least a POC and/or a woman would be immediately different from the norm.

 

[Cokesouls]

it's not that he's a white dude

it's that he's the generic nathan drake looking mfer

there's nothing interesting about his visual appearance, looks like generic movie actor with american accent #3953

he isn't nero, dante, v-esque

he isn't geralt-esque

he isn't ezio, joel, kratos

he isn't doctor dude from vampyr, or agent 47 from hitman

he isn't artyom or corvo or adam jensen

he doesn't even come across as more interesting as the most generic white dude protag, BJ from wolfenstein

there's nothing to the character seen in the trailer - and that's where the "bland" shit comes from

if he was wearing interesting clothes or had some badass character moment in the trailer, this would be a very different conversation

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Thank you for this post. I now understand the criticism. It seems like a step back into ps360 era.

 

[Velezcora]

All I'm gonna say is that I laughed when people said "don't call him generic, what if the real actor reads your posts and cry?"

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I can't stop laughing. Why did you do this to me?

--

I've never felt well represented by brown haired white dudes despite being one.
For me personally it was a big hurdle to get over when discussing representation in media as I've never felt represented, so I never thought of it as a big deal. I do now. I've always welcomed diverse representation and was really happy to see more women in leading roles in games last E3. Personally I've always felt more drawn to feminine designs than masculine ones. Whether the character is a man or woman.

So I'm very tired of the all the generic designs out there and wish publishers would stop assuming their audience is a bunch of sexist, homophones and racists.

 

[ket]

You can be a Male gay protagonist in many AAA games

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emphasis on the word "can". i cant think of any AAA games where you play as a canonically gay male protag.

 

[HighResTomato]

Can we please have an AAA with a gay male protagonist for the first time in gaming history? Nah let's have the 55647548647th straight white dude.

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You would still get a Gay WHITE male or a gay WHITE female.

Pass.

 

[Unaha-Closp]

As a generic white dude irl my interest in this SW game would have been more if it was not a.n.other white dude. Might be an incredible character though we'll have to wait and see. Never mind colour or gender give me something I've not seen beforehand. Sci fi is good at that but well this is SW and they want to sell a lot of copies so generic white dude it is.

 

[ika]

Frankly the design of this guy is just very bland, white or not. He does not stand out nor does he have any memorable or striking features. Although you could say the same about the entire trailer.

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Poor Cameron Monaghan lol

I don't have a problem with him being a white male, I agree that the actor they chose have a generic face.

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No, he's not generic in any way. Far from it. A different thing is how the studio will handle him and his expressions.

 

[Deleted member 4262]

he looks like male instagram model #19203290

boring but at least he's not some bald 40yo

 

[Desmond]

I don't have a problem with him being a white male, I agree that the actor they chose have a generic face.

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What's a generic face?

 

[Orbit]

Facts

Respawn were given the entire Star Wars IP to work with and they settled on this. It's weak honestly, I really wanted to see a Wampa or a Bothan.

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This is like asking who do you love more, your mom or your dad, for me. I'll take both, thanks.

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I think Disney can possibly hold a lot of blame for this: the generic plot, setting, characters, etc. As we've all read, working with Disney/the approval process is a major headache. Even more so when Disney is willing to call this 'canon', so you know they had a major hand in the everything involving this.

 

[Asuka3+1]

emphasis on the word "can". i cant think of any AAA games where you play as a canonically gay male protag.

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serious inquire, what is the difference? you get to play as the character you like? why is it seems as bad that is an option and not "the only way"??

Even more so when Disney is willing to call this 'canon

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wait, if Disney is counting this as canon, they they really are taking a lot of agency from the writter on what and what not then

 

[VinFTW]

As a white dude these generic looking white dudes are really becoming tired.

That being said I'll give the VA and the team a chance to see if he's at least somewhat interesting/well acted.

 

[Wulfram]

Its obviously legitimate to criticise the lack of diversity in video game protagonists. Its slightly awkward to criticise individual characters on that basis, but I'm not sure how else you can really push for things to change.

I don't think criticising a character we've barely seen for being generic is a very good criticism. Its certainly a different, separate criticism that shouldn't be bundled.

 

[ket]

serious inquire, what is the difference? you get to play as the character you like? why is it seems as bad that is an option and not "the only way"??



wait, if Disney is counting this as canon, they they really are taking a lot of agency from the writter on what and what not then

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Because I imagine most people are just going to choose to be straight instead of being gay? Again, it's cool that you can choose to be gay in like Mass Effect & AC Odyssey but it'd be very different if you had to play as a gay man.

 

[Asuka3+1]

Because I imagine most people are just going to choose to be straight instead of being gay? Again, it's cool that you can choose to be gay in like Mass Effect & AC Odyssey but it'd be very different if you had to play as a gay man.

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ok, but, what will be the problem then? (you) want non white guys so you can play as someone you feel related/ identify as or you want others to have to play as such for Perspective or god knows what reason.?
like if you get to do it, why do you care if other dont we the option is extended?

 

[ket]

ok, but, what will be the problem then? (you) want non white guys so you can play as someone you feel related/ identify as or you want others to have to play as such for Perspective or god knows what reason.?
like if you get to do it, why do you care if other dont we the option is extended?

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The problem is that there are little to no canonically gay protags? I dont get what you're not understanding here. There are a lot of canon hetero AAA gaming protags but when it comes to representing lesbian, gay or bi people it's almost always presented as a choice. Why can't there be more canon LGBT protags? Why is always a choice for that group but its usually canon for straight protags?

 

[--R]

I think Disney can possibly hold a lot of blame for this: the generic plot, setting, characters, etc. As we've all read, working with Disney/the approval process is a major headache. Even more so when Disney is willing to call this 'canon', so you know they had a major hand in the everything involving this.

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Might want to check why my post is there, mate.

 

[IvorB]

Regardless of his race that is one of the more boring protags I've seen. There just isn't anything cool, unique or interesting about him. Maybe in a movie he would be okay but for a game he's the very definition of bland/uninspired, looking like something off Dawson's Creek. What's with the hair? ha ha

He even makes the Days Gone protag look cool and exciting by comparison and that's saying something.

 

[Breqesk]

ok, but, what will be the problem then? (you) want non white guys so you can play as someone you feel related/ identify as or you want others to have to play as such for Perspective or god knows what reason.?
like if you get to do it, why do you care if other dont we the option is extended?

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the advantages of set protagonists over customisable protagonists have been explored at length in other threads. i prefer making my own, personally, but there are things you can do with a set protagonist that you just can't with a customisable one--like, for instance, if the devs decided the lead was a gay man with a specific love interest, they could put all their resources into developing that love interest/relationship.

it's like, the difference between geralt and yennefer's relationship - with all the history and added development that them having been established characters with a pre-existing relationship for so long brings - and, idk, the mass effect romances. (which, don't get me wrong, i like a lot.)

(and, of course, a character's sexuality can play into a much larger part of their story than just their love interests, depending on what that story is.)

if you make a character with aspects of their characterisation set in stone, you can generally speak to those aspects in much more detail than if it were a choice. that's something that, again, characters who aren't straight white dudes don't get nearly as often.

and i say all this as someone who loves choice-driven games more than any other sort of game.

 

[aevanhoe]

Personally, I always prefered female leads for various reasons. I've been playing Hellblade recently and love Senua (still haven't finished) and I love how strong she is and emotional at the same time in a way I just can't picture a male character (though there are some great and complex male characters, of course). So I would love to see more female leads, but I'm guessing they didn't want to be compared to the actual SW movie hero - Ray - in this case.

As for PoC, I don't care as much about race as I do about gender, but certainly wouldn't mind a black or asian character - it could be cool and refreshing. And we certainly don't have enough of them.

So, while this character can turn out to be great, he looks very bland visually. And I'm not talking just about him being white and male, he just doesn't have anything interesting going on visually.

 

[Heid]

Why is OP surprised, literally all the main characters in Star Wars have been generic white guys lol

 

[hassler]

So now we have to look at other's people's looks instead of their talent. Cool.

And I'm not white guy

 

[Asuka3+1]

Why is OP surprised, literally all the main characters in Star Wars have been generic white guys lol

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[No Idea]

So now we have to look at other's people's looks instead of their talent. Cool.

And I'm not white guy

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Talent isn't exclusive to white guys. People want representation that isn't a stereotype...that's not too much to ask for is it?

 

[SilentMike03]

I'm a white man and "generic white dude" is a problem I have with games. Having a white dude as your protag is like the least interesting thing you can do. It's entirely possible that writing will make up for it and the character will be great. But my initial gut reaction to seeing a white dude protag is immediate boredom.

 

[-2B-]

A characters personality and way they are written is what makes them interesting to me. I will play any character as long as they are a good character. Their skin color or gender does not matter and is not something that makes them interesting to me. The trailer itself was boring and did not show any gameplay. Changing the main characters skin color would have still left the trailer feeling boring and lacking gameplay. We don't know enough about the character or gameplay yet.

 

[TheSyldat]

Honestly what makes the protagonist very much bland and unappealing isn't limited to him being white yes he is white , but more over he is yet again the "your mom would see no problem you being in love with him and marrying him" . This actor is the "pretty face that even your mom won't be able to hate" ...

From the very few that we have seen he is a character thrown in a interressting setup but the protrayal of the protagonist living those life conditions is so flat that I couldn't care less...

So that reveal was underwhelming indeed ...

 

[Bjones]

When I think of " generic " white dude I think of shaved head, brooding, gears of war, god of war, cod type of characters we seen since the ps1 days.

This Star Wars guy isn't like that. You can not like that he is white ( like super white ) and that's cool but he really isn't generic.