Guest Column: Visibility is Not Enough

Ultimately you are still trying to dictate who creates what. Who is anyone to do that? Imagine the world that leaves us in. Only certain people can speak and create within their socially acceptable corner. It's so artistically destructive.

@sil3n7 said:

Oh my God, dude, no one is saying this.

Though it's always funny to hear terrible voice acting and over the years its led to a lot of funny quick look moments, hopefully the people that make games don't follow what this article wants. If you weren't in the voice auditions you have no idea at all if the other choices were all terrible or even if anyone that you'd find acceptable was auditioning in the first place.

I feel like some of the people who are voicing disagreement are misinterpreting criticism like this. I don't believe anyone is saying that creators have to do anything. In the end they are free to make the art they want but people are also free to voice a critical (positive or negative) opinion of it.

I hear what Ms. Alexandra is saying. There's a long history of creators of one type (be it heterosexuality, cisgender, "white" ethnicity, or Christian religious perspective) portraying characters of other types in their works. Often this results in incorrect and/or offensive stereotypes. That being said, Ms. Alexandra's anecdote about Krem was disheartening to hear. She seemed to suggest that the game's portrayal of Krem was not only accurate to her own experiences as a trans individual, but touched her due to its reality. Yet it was only upon learning that "no" (as she understood based on her research) trans individuals were involved in the creation of Krem that she began to find distaste for the character and her creators as a whole. While I can certainly understand wanting more inclusion of minorities in the game industry--as a science fiction writer, I certainly want more minorities in that field as well--I also cannot agree with the notion that a product that portrays a minority ought to be criticized or put down simply because the creator is not a member of that minority group. If the portrayal is in some way harmful, or not true to life, then I would certainly encourage criticism... but while I agree with her point that more minorities should be called on to participate in the creative field and proudly display their identity in their work, I do not agree with her point (or my reading of her point, at least), that artists should be criticized or their work should be criticize because they dare to portray minorities that they themselves are not. To suggest this, would, I think--were it to gain steam--in fact discourage minority portrayal and visibility in media due to artists' fear of criticism for their work.

I disagree with the idea that the voice actor of a character should be representative of that character's image or background. I think the opposite goes further in providing diversity and inclusion. As long as a person can portray the 'spirit' of a character through their voice, they should be able to perform as so without the implication that a person who actually has that background is being excluded.

And because some people will think it matters: I am african-american/black.

@lurkero: I'm of two minds about this. Part of me is definitely on the artist's side: we shouldn't be afraid to portray characters that are not 100% similar to our racial/sexual/religious background. Indeed, that's the very spirit of acting, to appeal to the humanity in the audience by creating humanity in a character.

That said I also understand the notion that voice acting is, like honestly, I think, nearly every other art form, a primarily homogenous group. Without active efforts to change this--i.e. encouraging black actors to play black characters--there will be negligible change. And I don't think we have to pick sides necessarily. It's possible to meet in the middle. An example of this could be to encourage developers to explore black actors to voice their black characters before springing to a recognizable name like Nolan North. Not necessarily prohibiting it.

I watched Anna and the King of Siam last night, with Rex Harrison playing a Siamese king. If they can't (or won't) get a Siamese person to act in that role, should the story not be told? I can't think of any non-American or English movies I've seen that are set in other countries, with actors of the movie production's nationality representing other types of people. All the Japanese, Indian, Spanish, Argentinian movies I have seen and can think of are set in their own countries, with local actors playing local people. Is it bad for America and England to make stories that take place in other countries, if they arent shot there and contains all locals? Is it worse to show something that may not be a complete representation of something than just to stick with what's around you? Should art only represent what certain people agree is the important part of the representation, with the deciders these days being minorities? Should any member of any minority be free to decide how they want to portray anything, with straight white people being forced to play only straight white people, because as a group they've overcome all sorts of issues through history to be at the top today? What's the most important aspect of being a person, your color, sex, sexual orientation? Aren't these things not supposed to be important? But they need to set people apart, if it helps minorities?

@halexandra64: women have voiced men, men women, black people white, white black, etc...Anyone arguing the VA needs to be 1:1 with the fictional character they represent is misguided.

Interesting article. I think my view on this topic has been stated a bunch already but hopefully there's something here to add to the convo. Also I should note that I have grown up in Canada where our race/sexuality issues are a bit similar but not exactly the same as USA.

Coming from a straight white males perspective, I have always thought that, in videogames, you don't have to have a black person voice a black character, or even a white person voicing a white character. The voice actors job is to make you believe that they are X person, and in a medium where the actor isn't being seen (unless they do that face capture stuff) it comes down to pure skill. Now there are a lot of marginalized people that do have amazing skills but if they get beaten out by someone with celebrity status, or some other person who is a better fit, who happens to be white, that sucks. But the same rule applies for white people who get beaten out of a position by a minority. Tough luck whitey, but ya gotta keep truckin'. I believe that actors should do what they are paid to do, which is act. And if Laura Bailey can make me think that she's portraying a black mercenary leader, or if Terrence Carson can make me believe he's a white Greek demigod then good for them because their skill has risen above what race they were born as.

Now if you're saying that there is a bigger problem that companies aren't hiring trans, people of colour, or whatever else then I would agree. That's a issue rooted in years of systemic hatred taught by parents to children. We will see change but it's going to happen generations at a time. The article though seems to be focusing on shaming (not the right word, but I can't think of anything else for some reason) videogames themselves rather than company hiring practices.

Also there's the case of business being business, which usually isn't a great excuse for anything but sometimes it's just the reality of life. Business will go wherever the money is. If a company knows that hiring a transgendered person to play a transgendered role will sell more copies of something they will do it in a heartbeat.

It's a tough situation that, honestly, I can't relate to at all because of my "privileged position" as a white male. But it's very interesting to read ideas on a topic from a different perspective. Thanks for the article and thanks Austin for setting up these kinds of things!

So what would Krem's writer or voice actor being transgendered have changed about the character, or how you reacted to the character prior to knowledge of the gender of his writer and voice actor? There is a possibility I'm missing your argument. The way it reads to me, you thought less of a creative work solely because two of the people who created the work were cisgendered. Could you point out how characters like Krem and Nadine were incomplete or imperfect portrayals of trangendered and black individuals by referring only to the characters, and not the shortcomings of the race or gender of their writers or voice actors?

I don't have anything against the inclusion of more members of minority groups in the creation of games, or their increasing portrayal in those games. I want more variety in the backgrounds of people who create games, particularly because seems to correlate with an increase in the variety of interesting and different games available. I'm often drawn towards playing as a woman and/or homosexual character in games that allow it, and do a good job of it, because it's outside of my normal experience and more interesting. However, I think this inclusivity should be created by adding more minority creators and actors to the field and working towards eliminating bias against them. The idea of creating a bias towards minority groups and considering the work of people who aren't LGBTQ or of a certain race to be fundamentally flawed if they attempt to portray someone in that group seems to be inherently discriminatory, both towards those who are members of minority groups and those who aren't.

This seems like a great way to stifle creativity and artistic expression.

Also what happens to all the cis characters when you do have a trans person write your game? Is the entire game only trans people? How could your trans writer accurately write your cis characters?

You see this is a never ending cycle, and is untenable in the realities of game development.

Totally. I was at this panel one time where a voice actor was asked what she liked most about voice acting, and her answer was that it allowed her to get roles regardless of her age, race, or gender. Not to mention you don't have to be beautiful to be a voice actor. That sounds like a really cool thing, and we shouldn't push back against that.

@thecherishedgarbagedevotional said:

I had a similar reaction, and I'm curious if she thinks this interpretation is accurate. As a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual male myself who wants to tell stories, I certainly want to tell stories about a wide variety of people outside of my own personal experience. And I would only do so if I had extensive communication with people that represented these different backgrounds. But I'd be disheartened if, say, I were to write a trans-gendered character and later be criticized for it because I myself am not trans-gender.

That's a tricky proposition though. Do what degree can someone who has never dealt with the trans condition capture that experience? Likewise for blackness or homosexuality. Believe me, I have faith in the efficacy of acting. One of my fields of academic study is the theater. Actors can, particularly through something like the Method, create gut wrenching and powerful portrayals of things they've never had to endure. (I say this as someone who decidedly does not like Stanislavski.) But performance does have gradations of authenticity. Do we have to make sure that every gay character is written by a gay writer? Or that every black superhero is written by a black writer? Of course not.

But are there opportunities to diversify the industry such that it provides authentic and powerful icons while allowing marginalized people access to an economy that has repeatedly denied them? Certainly.

@privatemalarkey: I think the idea is that she wants trans writers for trans characters because the industry is almost entirely composed of cis people. That said I don't entirely agree with her measures, just the idea that the industry, as all artistic fields, deserves to be more diverse and that we ought to attempt to foster that.

I honestly think that limiting voice auditions to actors/actress that identify with the same gender identity as the character would be a step in the wrong direction.

As a little side note, in Japan it isn't all that unusual for women to perform the voice acting for the most well-known male characters. Some examples are Goku, Naruto (who is voiced by a woman in the English version as well), Luffy from One Piece and Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist. I really don't think there's anything wrong with that either, as long as the voice fits the character.

I don't. What's of chief concern to me is combatting social and economic issues present in art, not necessarily creative ones. That's a battle for another time. Simply put: Jen Hale didn't need the work but a transman did. Yet, given how imperfectly culture functions (particularly professional cultures), I doubt many transmen, if any, got as fair a shot to play Krem as Jen Hale did.

White

Exactly.

White people writing black history = Birth of a Nation, Song of the south

Black people writing black history = Roots.

@singing_pigs: I think there are two important paths to increasing diversity in an artistic field or medium. The first is easier than the second, and it involves artists making conscious efforts to represent minority characters in their art. As a writer I've definitely tried to do this, writing sci-fi that focuses on gay, lesbian, asexual, muslim, mentally handicapped, and mexican (which I am) characters. Some could argue that my portrayal is inherently less accurate or less valuable than a portrayal by an actual minority as that which is being represented. Generally I would agree. Hell, an actual full-blooded Mexican's take on Mexican characters is almost certainly going to be more accurate than a Chicano's, like mine. That said, I don't think you or I should be criticized for our efforts. If our portrayals are factually inaccurate or god forbid actively harmful or offensive, then sure, criticize us--but it's absolutely unfair to bedevil us only because we are trying to do something good for our brothers and sisters. I am reminded that the "A" in LGBTQIA+ originally and continues to stand for "allies," something that I hope I can consider myself as one.

The second way, which is I believe more important, is to offer helping hands and opportunities to the voices of minority content creators. Sometimes this means putting effort above art, depending on one's goals. For example, is Quentin Tarantino a better filmmaker than Tyler Perry? Yes, I think so--but this is not always the rule, as Sandra Cisneros is head and shoulders above Beatrice fucking Sparks. I think artists have an obligation to help people. I once read a criticism of Lena Dunham that was effectively based around the lionization of her as a feminist icon despite her explicitly white, bourgeois leanings. The author of the article in question bemoaned the fact that Dunham had done little for POC artists. Part of me, as an individual who identifies as an artist, chafes at the notion that an artist should be criticized for their lack of action. Then again I also believe that an artist who only creates for the sake of creation is hollow in comparison to an artist who creates with a purpose in mind.

Yes, that seems to be what she is suggesting, and this is what I have a problem with. So, game developers need to bring in a freelance trans writer just to sign off on trans characters? What Heather seems to be proposing seems to be entirely glossing over the fact that games are hard and expensive to make. Her prescription to this 'problem' is unrealistic.

Spare me your criticism then. All this piece says is that "we need more jobs for minorities on this industry, like the comics and tv people are doing". I think we all knew that.
To say that any work of art is diminished because the creatives/creators don't represent the subject of their piece in their real lifes is absurd.

I agree that there probably wasn't much of a move during the development of the character to actively go looking for a trans actor. It's the sort of inequality that I think should be remedied and can be, given enough time and effort by people who care. That said, I don't think it's possible to separate social and economic criticism of art from creative criticism of art. The very nature of art is creative, and the process of its creation is--ah, there's that word--creative, though certainly economic and social efforts go into the process at well. It's why Mr. Moosa's criticism of The Witcher 3 was not entirely to my taste (though I certainly agreed with it). Though he was criticizing less the game itself and more the largely homogenous culture of gaming around it, his criticism was nonetheless inseparable from the game itself, and frankly--though I don't believe it was his intent--I found it in poor taste that he made this (perhaps inadvertent) potshot at a game that accomplished so much in terms of representation where others failed.

@halexandra64 said:

Ahh I gotcha, that social/economic vs creative distinction is helpful. I think I understand your broader point better now.

Again I don't entirely agree with all her points, and don't presume to speak for her, but I believe the fairer solution and one she could agree with would be to instead attempt to hire more trans people into the industry as a whole. I recognize that it might be more expensive to create a “game developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs," not to mention genders and sexualities, but in my humble opinion... if something's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

Now granted it's not always possible to do that. It won't always be possible to have a trans actor voice a trans character. It won't always be in the budget to consult with a rabbi before writing a Jewish character... but that shouldn't stop people from trying, I don't think.

This gets to the heart of my disagreement with this article. That there is somehow a correct and incorrect way to create a certain character. Implying that a black character written by a black writer is somehow more valid than one written by a white writer. I disagree with this assertion.

Characters, just like real people, are individuals. To say a black character doesn't represent the 'black experience' because they were writte by a white person is in itself a generalization of black people.

I like this. Thank you for posting this.

@cactusapple: It could also be said that an great actor or actress worthy of that moniker would do the research on the character they are set to play to bring the the most authentic representation of that character as possible to the table. We are talking about voice acting. To follow the logic that only some one who lived it can accurately represent it on any type of medium seems unrealistic.Only those who live in war torn African countries could play those characters on screen and make it real on any medium? No. The art of acting is a translation of what those subjects went through, translated to a variety of performance pieces, not to mention that there can also be biases in those too close to a subject and how they portray that can be just as inaccurate. To say that Jennifer Hale should only take white ladies in there forties roles and Phil LaMarr to male african americans seems utterly myopic.

Wait, what? You seem to think she's making an argument that she's not making. Heather isn't - or doesn't seem to be - saying that anybody should force anything on anybody. Boiled down, she just wants to see more minorities included in the creation of fictional minorities. She's not saying "Put more trans/black/gay/whatever" characters in your art, she's saying, include those minorities in their creation. Again, nobody's forcing anything.

As far as why it matters... one of Whoopi Goldberg's inspirations was Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the original Star Trek series. Apart from that role, there pretty much weren't any black people playing major roles in science fiction, especially not females. I imagine George Takei's role meant something to a lot of Asian-Americans as well. Does it matter less for voice acting, or writing, or art? Perhaps, but I think it's ridiculous to say that it doesn't matter at all. I'm a straight white guy, I don't think about these things too much, but it's so easy to forget how much media represents me. I'm in fucking everything.

(Also, and this is kind of off-topic, I didn't play that Baldur's Gate expansion but a lot of people seemed to dislike it because the quality of writing was pretty low and not necessarily because there was a transgender character present. Some people definitely had issues with the latter, though).

Definitely. Though a lot of the noise about that Baldur's Gate character was because of people who disliked the fact that she was trans, even more of it was due to the fact that there was little to her character beyond a brief dialogue which was along the lines of, "I changed my name because I'm trans! Whoopee! Look at me! Being all trans!" Such that the writers publicly apologized and promised to give her more, better dialogue.

I'm sad to see Austin go but I am so pleased about the legacy he's left behind here at Giant Bomb, at the diversity of voices and new perspectives that the contributor program has showcased here on the site. Great article Alexandra!

"Why do people care who voices a character?" People of the comments section, I agree. It is confusing then that a bunch of people who genuinely don't mind who's involved with what characters are so opposed to the idea of a trans person writing, creating, or voicing a trans person. Well it's under the guise of creators being free to do what they want, of course. Except that Bioware freely put the character in their damn game, so why is asking them to come correct next time such an appalling notion?

It is absurd that in an imaginary world people can imagine elves, and beast people, and cat people, and lizard people but imagine more than 2 genders or colours other than white and fans draw a line in the sand. No one is saying creators aren't free to do what they want. You can create whatever beautiful or vile world you can imagine and no one will tear the keyboard from your fingers.
But if the creators of Dragon Age made the decision to include a trans character, why is it considered an assault on creativity to ask them to take the extra step in order to provide meaningful representation? Presumably providing representation was the aim, so good on you Bioware but also here are some areas you can improve.

That's all I think the writer is asking for here. Bioware had already gone and done the thing and while that's great to see, if their aim is be inclusive, they take further steps to meaningfully portray these characters.

This is how we are answering posts? Ok then...

Yes.

@halexandra64: this is exactly the point everyone seems to miss. Your article is a criticism, not you knocking someone down, standing on them and yelling at them to cast Trans people in their games. No need to get defensive, people!

I'll try to catch up on more comments tomorrow but I'll jump in here to say that I've had mixed feelings about that read of the situation. Did some people want Mizhena to be expanded? Sure.

Do I think far more people used that as an excuse to deflect from and disown their transmisogyny? Absolutely. It changes with each scenario. Some time ago, it was the rallying cry of ethics. For Mizhena and Beamdog? It was the assertion: "Oh no. I don't want this character removed from the game because I hate trans people! I...uh...I just don't want her around because she's...uh...poorly written! Yeah! That's the ticket!"

More often than not, if someone has a choice between accepting complicity in erasure or doing whatever they can do to brand their erasing as a type of progressivism, people choose the latter. Granted, this is not to dismiss those with legitimate concerns. There were plenty of honest folks who just wanted something less perfunctory. But still, the point stands...

Okay I see you are looking for a pragmatic solution to get more work for transgender creators. However I still think that isn't the best approach since in reality every opportunity that doesn't go to a transgender creator is techinically a missed opportunity if your goal is more transgender creators.

Except that's it's not asking for a perfect portrayal of every character, it's saying that if a company like Bioware or Beamdog or Naughty Dog's intention is represent characters of different ethnicities and genders then they should strive to represent them fully. The gesture loses power if all you're doing is applying a dark skin tone shader to a character conceived, written, and voiced by a white person. It says that you'll go as far as to include people of colour or non-binary genders in your game so long as they're imaginary. They can be a part of our story, just not our process.That is hollow. Why would anyone be satisfied with that?

p sexist to assume women can't write good male characters and vice versa

From Heather's Twitter:

"I'd rather have the accomplished voice actor..." tacitly suggests that there is not a transperson with the talent to match Hale. Foolish.

I don't know, is it really? Good video game voice actors are already a quite small group and given the preponderance of bad video game voice acting it's not like it's due to the industry being particularly exclusionary; rather it seems there's simply a dearth of people who are both skilled at the unique demands of video game acting and willing to take those jobs as opposed to something more lucrative.

Given that out of the entire population there's already a minuscule number of people who are accomplished at the job, is it really that foolish to assume that in the much, much smaller sliver of the entire population that is trans people, there might not be someone equally as skilled as someone who has already demonstrated she's superior to hundreds of others in her field?

Given how few truly exceptional video game voice actors there are, I think it may actually be more foolish to assume that there is a trans actor out there that would have done as well.

I'm still not sold on why push for any of this at all.

Sorry if that was insensitive, don't mean to be.

I don't agree that a trans character, or any character, needs to be voiced, acted, mo-capped, written or whatever by someone of the same persuasion. Bart Simpson is one the most iconic boy characters of all time and we all know he was voiced a by a woman. I really don't think it matters what happens behind the curtain with the development process of our entertainment, as long as the end result is a character portrayed well, and how they were supposed to be.

I also feel that if you don't like the way art is made, then go make it yourself. You may be disappointed if you rely on others to satiate your own wants. Plus, it sounds a bit entitled to grizzle about this kind of stuff. Games are art, and the artistic creators who make this stuff should be allowed to do it however they like, not the way someone else wants them to.

I hear what you're saying, and I understand that plenty of people probably did hide their bigotry (some perhaps even unconsciously) behind the aegis of "wanting better writing." That being said, two things: first I think it's unfair to paint a majority of the critics as secret bigots. It feels baseless and almost like an ad hominem. Secondly, it's nonetheless clear that Mizhena was a poorly written trans character. I take umbrage with the idea that you desire better-represented trans characters in games and yet use Mizhena as a fair example of people hating on trans characters. Because if there was one thing Mizhena was not, it was a well-represented trans character. Trans people are, like anyone, more than just their gender. Mizhena's character was little other than a point about the fact that she was trans. Whether or not she was representing an argument or perspective we can agree with does not change the fact that she was a strawman.

Maybe? Given the trials and tribulations within games as a subculture, I don't know if I'm inclined to take the more positive assessment of the situation. Trust me, I'd love to. I really would. But given the depths of our failings over the last two years? I don't know if I can.

Firstly there's a clear difference between simply writing a white character and making them black and writing a black character, and it is unfair to say that a white author cannot create a realistic black character. I'm not sure how many black creators were involved in the creation of Aveline from Assassin's Creed: Liberation, but she was certainly more than just a melanin-boosted white character. So much so that there were various gameplay mechanics reflecting both her status as a mulatto and a woman in a time when both were quite low on the social ladder.

I dislike the idea that a white creator's creation of a minority character is, according to your comment, the same as actively refusing to work with minority creators. I am a writer: I and I alone write my stories, and I have written about many minorities. If I were to write a black character, I would not ask a black writer to write my character's dialogue and actions for me, and I don't think we should expect game developers to turn over creative control on their projects to others out of some idea of minority inclusivity. Now, were I writing a black character who spoke Ebonics, or who regularly dealt with racism, I would be remiss not to research or even speak with black individuals who could help me craft a more realistic character. But I would not ask them to write for me. Also, if I were to write a black character who lived in a society where her race no longer mattered and she did not deal with racism--i.e. a character whose "blackness" is not important to her characterization as it relates to the story--that is not the same as applying melanin to a white character. That assumes that "white" is the default for fictional characters. And that's more than a little racist.

Call it something upon which we cannot agree then, because I must remain optimistic. You yourself said that the industry has made great strides, and games have the privilege of growing up in a time when minority inclusivity is a serious issue that allows for think pieces like this one on prominent sites like Giant Bomb. Austin's appointment to Vice's unnamed vertical only shows the expansion of this school of thought.

I'm not trans--I'm comfortably cisgender, and though I'm not entirely heterosexual I can't say I've ever seriously dealt with any form of homophobia, thankfully. I can't judge you for your personal views on life and the state of the industry because I haven't had your experiences, and I haven't dealt with the hardship I'm sure you, as a trans woman have. But I can't agree with or even condone what I perceive to be cynicism. If we want to make waves in the industry I believe we may only do so through optimism--especially optimism that has preserved itself in the face of deep failings, for that is truest and strongest.

Fuck man, this is the first time I've ever seen any racist bullshit about Watch Dogs 2. Based on what limited information I found it seems like it's just a small amount of trolls baiting for reactions on the game's Steam community page, but to think that anybody relates to Aiden Pierce more than Marcus Holloway based on color alone.. that person couldn't be anything other than human excrement. I hope that these are 14-16 year-olds that live sheltered lives and will eventually learn how absolutely abhorrent they used to be.

When it comes to people of other races voicing/motion capturing other races, my gut reaction is "what's wrong with that?" on principle. I have absolutely no problem with non-straight or white people voicing straight or white people; but upon thinking about it further, the other way around shouldn't be acceptable in this day and age. I think it may be a bridge to far to expect the same thing when it comes to writers, though. When there is a set of main writers trying to convey their vision, you can't really criticize them for not bringing in an external writer to write a LGBT character because they're straight. More LGBT and minority writers should be working on games, certainly. But writers should strive for diversely representative casts regardless of their race, gender or orientation.

I don't think that's a fair interpretation of many people's critics on this article. It's not opposition to the idea of a trans person writing, creating, or voicing a trans character. It's opposition to the implication that a cis-gendered voice actor and writer are incapable of creating a realistic portrayal of a trans character solely because they are not trans themselves.

The argument is problematic in that it implies these two things:

1. The author and actor do not know anything about the community they are portraying.
2. Only people in a minority group can write accurate fiction portraying a member of that group

I definitely agree about Watch Dogs 2. It was a definite failure that the cast of a game set in a majorly black city like Chicago featured a mostly white cast... and the few black characters it did feature were inept or sociopathic. Setting Watch Dogs 2 in San Francisco but making the main character a black Oaklander (I believe I heard he's from Oakland; Oakland represent!) is maybe one of my favorite things about the game--almost like a game developer's punk screed against the rampant gentrification of San Francisco. I remember I read an article a few years back about predominantly gay neighborhoods being overtaken by upper-middle class white cishet tech wunderkinds... it stuck with me. This probably wouldn't happen, but I could almost see Watch Dogs from this point on being a series about urban blacks. Watch Dogs 3 could take place in Atlanta. Et cetera.

I like this too. Thank you also for posting this.

Is that their goal, though? If it is, then sure, lay into them for using different types of people to sell games but not to make them. My guess is, though that their goal (or the goal of a publicly-traded parent company) is to make a profit, at which point everything else is just product and marketing. It's perfectly fine to say "not having a diverse crew of creators to match your characters is bad marketing" but I don't think there's any moral outstanding moral obligation. As much as I hate to lazily default to "vote with your wallet," it seems to me to be an appropriate response to this situation.

Sigh... I'm a straight white dude, I don't bear anyone ill will for what they like or feel. I can look at characters like Krem, female characters, gay characters whatever and look for parallels in my own life where I struggled with the question of "Who am I? Am I as an individual worth anything?". I don't think that thought or feeling is exclusive to any group, in a world like ours it's easy for anyone to feel like they fall through the cracks. Someone sharing my sexuality or skin colour does not immediately indicate that they've had the same or similar life experience as me.

We don't know what research the writers did before writing any character that doesn't share their own gender or sexuality, we don't know what the casting looked like. It's super easy to say I bet a transman or woman needed that VA job more than Hale, but there are plenty of people out of work regardless of their ethnicity, gender or sexuality. We don't know what the casting looked like and it's very unfair to Hale to say she got the job because of star power, she plays so many bit parts it's kind of clear that voice actors take any and all work they can (She was a fighter pilot in Black Ops 2).