Bioware's strategic diversity

But it's so good.

Oh how i have seen the light. The op was very insightful and thought provoking.

10/10 would read again.

Ugh. The OP smells a bit too much like trollbait, but then again.... maybe they do lean a little heavy toward the bland Caucasian females. And I agree that Asians have kinda got sidelined in the later ME games. For a company that wears its diversity so proudly on its sleeve, perhaps there is room to keep expanding the horizons? I wonder if you made more racially diverse romances, would the player stats be really depressing?

According to this Canadian Economics blog, in 2011 Canada was 12.4% Asian (4% Chinese) and 2.9% Black. In the US the numbers are reversed. Asians are the largest minority population in Canada. So if they were using a Canadian perspective 12% of their characters would be Asian.

worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2013/06/if-canada-used-american-racial-categories.html

Bioware tries to be very inclusive, which is admirable, and it's one of the reasons I want to support the company. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement, though. If you look at the headshots of the VA's for the MET, for example, there are not all that many minorities, although the ones that are in the cast have relatively prominent roles (Ashley, Jacob, Kasumi, Shala'Raan, Anderson, Uvenk). Bioware has cast minorities as non-minorities (Gwendoline Yeo as the Asari Wasea and Shiala) but when character and voice actor races are discordant more often a caucasian actor gets the minority role (Alix Wilton Regan as Traynor, Troy Baker as Kai Leng, Siobhan Hewlett as Maya Brooks), which I think is too bad.

www.imdb.com/title/tt1073668/fullcredits/

www.imdb.com/title/tt1540125/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

www.imdb.com/title/tt1839558/fullcredits/

How are Bioware supposed to win at this game of 'pick a crew'?

If they pick white characters they are not diverse enough.
If they pick diverse characters, they are doing it for an 'agenda'.

Will give it a little longer to see if any meaningful discussion emerges, but this thread has 'bait lock' hovering over it...

Yes, that's true. But it's telling I had to look up who the last 3 of those were despite having played each ME game at least twice. I like Matsuo! Forgot about her.

I think what I meant was I'd like to see more major characters be Asian. And not like a "wise spiritual" character, just you know, a person who happens to be ethnically Asian.

Something like 1 in 5 people today is Chinese. What happens to them before ME? Only two (presumably) Chinese characters show up that I know of: that's Emily Wong, and Kai Leng who is oddly a (Japanese?) cyber-ninja.

She is. 

It never comes up in the games, but it was mentioned by her writer back in 2007 or 2008.

Agreed, it was a thing that really bugged me in ME3 and I'm glad others now notice it too. Saying oh we include aliens of all species seems to be a form of faux diversity meant to score brownie points when the entirety of your cast is basically racially or culturally white.


Indeed, and to make matters worse, the only forms of Asian representation are Emily Wong (minor side character who dies offscreen) and Kai Leng (ridiculous villain). So yes talk about reinforcing stereotypes.



Go away trump

I think it's bait, but if you think Cora is what men regard the most desirable then you haven't met a lot of people. Also, where have you been when Jessica Chobot's butterface character was revealed?
But yes, BioWare has token diversity characters. Honestly it's a game where the only winning move is not to play.

It's the difference between what's assumed to be desired vs. what people actually find desirable. You got women like say Ciara who's obviously desired by men (and lesbians) of any race yet black chicks rarely get the lead female parts. Asian lead men? Look no further than Sleeping Dogs where Wei's attractiveness became a topic of itself around the game

It's just about picking the 'hot' people from any given race really, way easier than assumed