Racial Variety?

[Nice]

(wrote this on another topic, off-topicish and decided to start a thread)

I just looked at the wiki and it confirmed(worse actually) what i noticed in videos:a lack of racial variety(in quantity); Theres little darker skinned or asian looking. I guess the devs are north american or european because geez that surely looks like 'minority'.

Im no Sjw, i hate extremist sjw that are everywhere nowadays and im one of those who saw the Kingodm Come Deliverance backlash as stupid (historically the region was all white etc)- but in Portia? What makes the 'too white' vibes i got more evident is that even the darker skinned characters (2, 3 if you push it) are light brow/tan; Lovely color btw (very fond of it, btw here in Brazil its very common) but theres literaly 0 blacks.

Come on devs. I was deciding what to get on my budget on this sale, Portia being one of the choices, and when faced with hard choices i start nitpicking- if x titles are equally worth it on my cart i start looking for reasons for elimination; I wasn't expecting such a dumb one. Even on EA something as simple as color pallet fiddling would go some way (but having proper character design and features of course is better).

Im not sure if removing/changing current chars would be good (but maybe called for- i see 6 clone looking males) or the feasibility of adding more, but more would be great. I believe there should be at least 3 choices for each ethnic 'branch' (broad categories, the game world nor art-style fits with specific ethnicity), minimum; 2 feels little... and currently there are options that have 1 to zero.

Also do then some justice. The only black-ish male (and thats a stretch) Remmington reminds me of a oompa loompa. Not only hes barely dark from his hair to other features look more like a caricature - that isn't bad alone, Portia fits a lot of quirky characters and out-of-this world ones... but in context: theres a bunch of white people who look like normal people, the only non-white(nor black) one doesn't... his whole mix in context sounds really bad (the only darker skinned guy have brighter lips, tribal face paint and bizarre/ugly hair), like really?

Pietra is fine- but also in context her hair helps paint a bigger picutre of some people or the artist/artists not familiar or not liking drawing darker characters. She is fine and her hair too- but once again context: the only darker skinned female have a mixed-race hair (wich she looks more like)... its like theres no place for black people(or their hair) in Portia.

Black is only more jarring but it extends to all others(beyond caucasian). Theres like 1 female asian-ish: she looks asian on the concept art, but in-game nothing as such. Theres 2 asian looking males on the concept art(1 actually, the other is mei stretching it), but i couldn't see its game model (not on the wiki). If all the in-game eyes look the same it surely helps paint Portia as a all caucasian world.

[JVC]

Originally posted by Brasil.Hexa:

I guess the devs are north american or european because geez that surely looks like 'minority'.

TL;DR

The developers are Chinese. Pathea Games is located in Chongqing, People's Republic of China.

https://twitter.com/PatheaGames

That's why the game includes a winter celebration with Chinese-style lamps, why there is a "luck" decoration with a Chinese character, why there are 7 Hulu brothers
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash_Brothers), a doctor named "Xu" that talks about Western and Eastern medicine and an engineer called Mint that looks Asian.

http://mytimeatportia.wikia.com/wiki/Mint

And later in the game you meet Musa, who is obviously named after Mansa Musa, an African king that was the richest person in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali

Musa has the same skin colour as Mansa Musa and is the richest person in the Free Cities.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1417535880

Edit: Forgot about the spiritual leader, Lee. He is obviously not North European and his religion is described by the developers as something close to Taoist.

http://mytimeatportia.wikia.com/wiki/Lee

[coldcoffee]

I'm not sure it needs a lot more tbh, you can't please everyone as the old saying goes, you could add a lot more darker skinned people or asians or native american or inuit or whatever takes your fancy but honestly what would it prove, they all sound the same in game and their personalities are either ultra chirpy or a bit mopey so as in real life it's only skin deep.

Like I said variety comes in all shapes and sizes and having everyone being a different race, colour, religion, personality or whatever else people wants is honestly fine but a lot more work for the devs and there will always be someone displeased with some choice they make so damned if they do damned if they don't sort of thing ;)

Edit The clone looking males you see are probably the brothers with similar sounding names, which is why they look similar.

[Kyr]

Originally posted by Brasil.Hexa:

The Devs are from China. I would assume they are Chinese.

Mint, Lee and Lucy all kinda look Asian.
That Mr. Musa, who helps with the Harbor is a Black Person.
Petra looks like a lighter skinned Black Person.
Sonia, kinda looks Spanish/Hispanic??

You can make your Character a very very dark brown, thus a Black Person.

Also, the fur wearing guy?? Was raised by a sentient Bear, called Mr. Bear....who it happens, is NOT a white person. Just Humanoid....as are the Rat Bandits.

As to the 'Clones', they are all Brothers, it is a big family and look kinda Spanish/Hispanic. I figured they are just Septuplets.

Portia is a small town, I figure very few people had survived around there, when the 'Catastrophe' happened....as it seems the town that was there, was basically destroyed.
People immigrated and such, thus Petra and others....now that Portia is becoming bigger (Harbor, Buses, Etc.) they might have more variety.

It is kinda like going to China and expecting to see more Ethnicities than Chinese. Sure you will see Ex-pats of all Ethnicities, but the Majority of people in China are....now this may come as a surprise....are Chinese.

[Luna]

There is plenty of diversity within this game. Quite a bit more, in fact, than most games in this sort of genre.

Like others have said, the developing team is Chinese. There are tons of things in the game that show that aspect and it is great.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Brasil.Hexa:

(wrote this on another topic, off-topicish and decided to start a thread)

I just looked at the wiki and it confirmed(worse actually) what i noticed in videos:a lack of racial variety(in quantity); Theres little darker skinned or asian looking. I guess the devs are north american or european because geez that surely looks like 'minority'.

Im no Sjw, i hate extremist sjw that are everywhere nowadays and im one of those who saw the Kingodm Come Deliverance backlash as stupid (historically the region was all white etc)- but in Portia? What makes the 'too white' vibes...

Quit reading here, uninformed racist rant is racist

[Bobisz]

You claim that you are no sjw, yet you write a 7 paragraph complaint looking an awful lot like a sjw rant.

Im so tired of that not even an innocent, light hearted game like this can exist these days without someone inserting their virtue signalling in it because they are not happy with racial diversity in it.

the problems you people have... absolutely pathetic

[cassiels]

^ +1

[Nice]

Didn't knew they were chinese. That explains a lot- most games where this sort of thing happens isn't because of racism but bias- ie, the proportion/frequency ones see as they grow up and such. The eyes thing is probably because of art style and the in-game eyes being the same across the board (different from many of the concept art).

I looked at the wiki mind you, where the list of characters (romanceable and non-romanceable) doesn't show Musa. My concern was pretty simple actually- romance options. I was on a topic about someone complaining of little male variety in romance choices (also their looks), wich was wrong to start with (theres more romanceable men then women). In many games with romance its mostly white, heck, Mass Effect comes to mind- i could date more aliens then non-white people.

Thats it. If someone complained there were no gingers there wouldn't be this much salt. I don't blame you Bobisz, i hate sjw drama- your reaction reminds some reactions i had in the past, trying to argue with then. The sad thing is that this trend taints everything. I wasn't bashing, just giving constructive criticism. When i say things like 'dumb reasons' i mean things easy to fix (like collor pallet for skins). Im way into indie games (biased, i wanted to get into the industry but its hard around here even with a degree) and ive seen more then one game i liked and followed being bashed. Nowadays things like an mostly white cast or even not having gender choice like happened with Assassins Creed Unity is enought to expose a game to stupid backlashes, that affects image, reviews, profit... all things that for a indie studio could mean life or death(of the studio).
On another note '7 paragraphs' wasn't a rant- if you look at any forum posts i make they're big. It was worse years ago, ive been strugling to contain myself writing.

I suspected they were brothers- my point wasn't for reasons, just player choice. I didn't bought the game yet (still unsure, trying to squeeze it but my budget on this sale is limited) so i don't know how far the char customization go, but if we can't choose fuller beards you would see me requesting it the same way (common request by the way, many many games needs more beards. The world needs more beards).

Not being racist and people come on- not knowing the nationality of the team is no sin, i was uninformed Phantom, yes, now i know more. My point remains- i wish there were more options in romanceable characters with darker skin. I wouldn't mind more gingers either, or bearded men. There is no dark choice, just one light brown of each (and the male one looks like a oompa loompa). The choices are too white, fact- i went looking for my romance picks and didn't found something id like. Its simple as that.

[The_Outsider]

https://imgur.com/4fMr27L

How much darker should they make the options before it meets your approval, OP?

[Nice]

I don't think you understood. The topic wasn't about character creation but npcs (more proeminently romanceable ones). I just mentioned beards as an illustrative example, its the same sort of request (wanting more options/variety in the game). Or like ive seen some people requesting things like making mistery man romanceable, its like asking for making musa romanceable- just pointing theres no black choices at all (and just 2 tan/brow, 1 male 1 female).

You know what, forget it. Im just ignorant, saying blatant lies, a troll wanting to raise some sjw racial flag. Unpack all you guys want of it. I wasn't asking for more options or variety, the game isn't too white full of blonde/brunetes, there are black romanceable choices. It was all in my head, sorry.

[Rex Lupus]

Portia is a small village. Statistically speaking, there isn't much racial difference in a village that small.

[rincewind]

Originally posted by Canguru Perneta:

I don't think you understood. The topic wasn't about character creation but npcs (more proeminently romanceable ones). I just mentioned beards as an illustrative example, its the same sort of request (wanting more options/variety in the game). Or like ive seen some people requesting things like making mistery man romanceable, its like asking for making musa romanceable- just pointing theres no black choices at all (and just 2 tan/brow, 1 male 1 female).

You know what, forget it. Im just ignorant, saying blatant lies, a troll wanting to raise some sjw racial flag. Unpack all you guys want of it. I wasn't asking for more options or variety, the game isn't too white full of blonde/brunetes, there are black romanceable choices. It was all in my head, sorry.

Good thing that you learned! Now don't do it again! Good Canguru!

[KitKat]

At this point, I won't be suprised if the OP is actually serious about what he/she is asking... I won't be suprised if this is a real "problem" for him/her, not a troll-post full of sarcasm and mocking the SJWs.

But then again... Why would one go and write a whole wall of text to troll someone? That's a bit too much. Even for trolls. So it seems the OP is actually for real...

But hey, not surprised, not anymore. People these days are too focused on this "diversity" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, rather than caring for many other important things.

[Empurress MeowMeows]

In a fantasy world it doesn't and should not matter. They could be all purple and it would not matter since the world isn't using our world for facts. Maybe there is no Asian looking npcs because there is no such thing in the game world history. You have to look at the story and lore of the game abit to see if you can come up with an idea on your own. Now for a game that is suppose to be based on histroric facts it would probably matter but not here. They do atleast allow you to make your character whatever color you desire.

[Porky Pig]

We need more diversity, thow in a few fascists, feminazis, heterophobes, rapists, murderers, afterall diversity is all about everyone being inclusive! ^^