Sudden drive to make Video Games P.C.?

[Montmorency]

The problem displayed in this thread is one of missing the forest for the trees. While this is often an issue of how "SJWs" present their arguments and positions, it's kind of shocking how off the mark those here are with respect to the common complaints about various elements of videogames. Likely, part of the problem is that they aren't familiar with "social justice" ideology in general and so can't place the instantiations relevant to videogames in the larger context of the movement/school of thought.

Anyway, to put it very simply in a 'top-down' way, when people criticize various media products or industries for deficits that you interpret as having to do with "political correctness":


1. They are doing so as part of a larger program of changing mainstream cultures to fit their ideology, which is generally what ideologies or social movements are always doing or trying to do.

2. They are doing so out of a position that many norms, standards, or values (re)created in many games are, to be blunt, bad for society, and so if society is to be improved in their vision, video games must of course be part of their cultural criticism.
2.a. For example, they might complain that female characters tend to have no role in games other than to be sexy and/or be a prize/goal, which then perpetuates undesirable conditions and outcomes for women outside the game world.

3. On a more immediate and practical level, they are just doing the logical flipside of what wooly mammoth said:

Don't like it, don't buy it. There's no reason to bully other people for it.

In other words, they see products with elements they don't like and in response they're saying, 'Hey, I have money too, please make something that I would like to play'.

Regardless of what you think of feminism and associated movements, a complete ignorance of the actual issues brought to bear can only leave you confused and frustrated.

That said, if you want to be picky, making a medieval pseudo-European setting without any blacks are less accurate than them being rare.

Just a quibble - this of course depends on what exactly one means by "Person of Color", which is really a useless term for both historiography and sociology. Even "sub-altern" is much better.

As for "pseudo-medieval" game environments, well, aside from questions of marketing/audience (which tend to be the center of gravity for both criticisms and apologetics), we moderns are basically equipped to imagine distant societies (especially Medievalesque ones) as being much more homogeneous than they really were. In fact, when complaining of whitewashing one must be careful not to commit this very error and end up ignoring the actual diversity of Medieval Christendom. Further, all this is amplified in fantasy settings (which tend to be medievalized). For a relevant work, see this.