Racially stereotypical character creation: Respectful request.

[Hale-Fire]

My girlfriend is African american and she bought myself and her a copy of this game. She found out that she could not change the skin color of the spell casters that she wanted to play. She also pointed out that the strength based class or strong looking man in armor is ethnically dark and the intelligence based or wizard looking characters are ethnically light skinned. She got her money back, but is open to buying it again if the developers add personalized character creation for their users. There are billions of people on earth. Not everyone is an old man that wants to play an old man wizard. Also woman are warriors too so please be respectful to your users and you will make a definitive rise in sales and larger crowd base to tribute to your work. Thank you for reading my post, I wrote this pleasant translation compared to the more painted canvas version that she gave me an earful of.

[mooN]

an enjoyable read and a fair request too. Well done!

[Boss Hawg]

Half-Fire while I respect your request and feel sorry for the Girlfriend aggro you received. I will disagree.

To a hammer everything is a nail. Translation - If you're looking to be offended, you'll be offended. Designers create these games with a palette they prefer to paint with.

Developers. Do as you please, but I am going to humbly request that you don't bow to these types of requests. You did nothing wrong. People would rather you design the game YOU see fit to present to us without outward pressure.

I've had absolutely ZERO issues playing as any race, creed, sex, religion, ethnicity in any game. The whole point is to escape your current reality with some -->FUN<--.

For example - the diablo 2 paladin referred back to templar origins with a dark skin tone. They wanted to design the game as they see fit. Most people didn't have any issues playing paladin. I loved running a thorn build.

Then again - Most people back then weren't looking for something to be offended by.

[Theory]

stop bring race into gaming just play

[Ardenian]

Originally posted by Hale-Fire:

(...) Not everyone is an old man that wants to play an old man wizard. (...)

There are two sides of the coin here. Some games allow a character creation of varying degree that gives you control over how your character looks, what their background is and how they act in the world (Cyberpunk 2077, Divinity: Original Sins 2, ...). However, many games instead offer a selection of presets that tell the story of that particular character, not the one that you create as a player (Witcher 3, Life is Strange, Control, ...) and it seems that Last Epoch is such a game as well.

Being represented in a game often offers a deep experience, allowing you to roleplay within the game, being represented as you wish to present yourself. However, one has to differ between games that allow that and games that instead tell the story of a different character, of someone who you take control of in your gameplay. I am not an old white man regretting failing someone or a power-hungry necromancer, yet I do enjoy taking that role in the game and seeing their perspective and story.

As for skin colour, I don't see why the developers of Last Epoch could not offer different character models for the same story at some point in the future. It is worth noting though that skin colour is not as easy as just changing the skin colour of the model, as one also has to consider how lightning reacts with different colour tones and so on, for a believable illusion of realism.

[Yokorushi]

While some good character customization would be great, your argument is pretty stupid, sorry.

[Dekar]

Originally posted by Chiram Sin:

Half-Fire while I respect your request and feel sorry for the Girlfriend aggro you received. I will disagree.

To a hammer everything is a nail. Translation - If you're looking to be offended, you'll be offended. Designers create these games with a palette they prefer to paint with.

Developers. Do as you please, but I am going to humbly request that you don't bow to these types of requests. You did nothing wrong. People would rather you design the game YOU see fit to present to us without outward pressure.

I've had absolutely ZERO issues playing as any race, creed, sex, religion, ethnicity in any game. The whole point is to escape your current reality with some -->FUN<--.

For example - the diablo 2 paladin referred back to templar origins with a dark skin tone. They wanted to design the game as they see fit. Most people didn't have any issues playing paladin. I loved running a thorn build.

Then again - Most people back then weren't looking for something to be offended by.

You sir, said it all. This "discussion" (or whatever it was intended to be) has ended.

[Ura]

Originally posted by Chiram Sin:

Half-Fire while I respect your request and feel sorry for the Girlfriend aggro you received. I will disagree.

To a hammer everything is a nail. Translation - If you're looking to be offended, you'll be offended. Designers create these games with a palette they prefer to paint with.

Developers. Do as you please, but I am going to humbly request that you don't bow to these types of requests. You did nothing wrong. People would rather you design the game YOU see fit to present to us without outward pressure.

I've had absolutely ZERO issues playing as any race, creed, sex, religion, ethnicity in any game. The whole point is to escape your current reality with some -->FUN<--.

For example - the diablo 2 paladin referred back to templar origins with a dark skin tone. They wanted to design the game as they see fit. Most people didn't have any issues playing paladin. I loved running a thorn build.

Then again - Most people back then weren't looking for something to be offended by.

Yes, the devs shouldn't listen to the players. Maybe the discussion forums should just be deleted so that we can keep them as untainted from feedback as we possibly can.

[aqvamare]

It is a fantasy setting, why skins like earth?

[Valanze]

I respect what you are trying to say but I personally do not see this as an issue. I don't care what race/color a class is I want to play. However, that is just me. If you want us to have more character customization down the road because that is your vision I am 100% ok with that. If you plan on doing it just to bow to request like this please do not bother. If you want to do it and it is significant changes that pushes the full release back please don't do it.

I do respect your girlfriend and her opinion for sure and I see nothing wrong with her request on the surface as that is how she feels and her feelings are valid. The issue has become is that in the end this is a game and the DEVS have a vision for what they want the game to be. If there is a reason they do not allow you to change race/sex that is fine. They want to tell a story how they want to tell a story. If people do not like the story they are going to tell don't make the assumption they do not believe in inclusion. Just put it down and say this is not the story I want to read.

[Bovin Khan]

She refunded the game because of the skin color...... Maybe tell her to stop being racist and judging based on skin color? I WOULD say i respect your girlfriends opinion, but the fact is that people like this are ruining everything for everyone. They are forcing developers to spend valuable time, wasted on things that are not necessary. With the current culture, as a white guy, i am CONSTANTLY seeing heros/characters that i grew up with, replaced by either gender/skin colors that they never was. While this really don't bother me much, one HAS to wounder why people feel like they can rewrite entire stories/epics in order to satisfy a VERY SMALL minority of people. All the while not even considering what the other majority would say/think. This breeds animosity and can just as easily be turned in the other direction. Also, replacing a character that has already created a HUGE story, instead of them making their own story and earning their own respect, is nothing more than tokenism. Black Panther did it correct.... He OWNS his OWN story, his OWN accomplishments. He does not need to steal from someone else's story.

People need to take a page from MLK Jr. Stop looking at skin color, and instead just look at the person they are..... If developers had to take the amount of time it would take to make sure EVERY class had EVERY race/color/spells/ect, then NO games would even get made. Not every single game is going to reflect YOU exactly as you like it to, this is why human beings were given an imagination. Use it. Stop letting yourself be offended by things that are NEVER meant to be offensive. If you do not, then you will be offended by EVERY single thing you see in life and you will lead a MISERABLE existence.

I'm a white guy, which means (by her logic) the game is saying i'm Physically weak, yet more intelligent.... yet here i am, 6 foot 2 and weighting in at 260lb and used to be a power lifter.... So this game would not represent me in the slightest, yet i could give two craps..... It's a mythological game. When you can summon magical items in real life, then you can complain about the game not representing you.

Seems like an abuse of the refund system as well if you ask me. The game worked AS IS INTENDED and you was getting EXACTLY what was paid for.

[jV]

your gf sounds racist if she can't get over such a non-trivial hurdle. are people really this fragile? she doesn't want to play as an old man? I think you really mean white man here and she would be hyped if the wizard was black and still old. to the devs, I really hope you never cater to crybullies who are hyperfocused on race to the point of being racist themselves unless I will immediately lose respect and be forced to badmouth you out of principle. p.s. OP, you sound like an emasculated husk of a man. your gf owns you. I really hope this whole post was bait.

[Wulfos]

bait

[Vorelas]

Simple answer: The characters aren't there to represent you. They aren't there to represent the real world. You shouldn't need a character to look like you in order to play them.

[NinjaMunky]

This isn't the type of RPG where you are creating yourself as the character in the story. You are playing a character already present in the story and performing in their Role. There are literally hundreds of other RPG games out there that allow you to customize yourself into the game in some fashion. ARPGs typically are not on that list of immense character customization. Diablo 1, 2, 3, Grim Dawn, PoE, are all set/determined characters to play as.

[NinjaMunky]

Originally posted by Wulfos:

bait

I don't think this is bait at all. There are really folks out there who can't see past trivial ♥♥♥♥ like race in a video game.