GENSHIN IMPACT Faces Backlash Over "Ethnic Erasure" On Newest Region

[OliviaRodrigoStan 5,941]

The open world RPG Genshin Impact, is facing criticism upon the release of their newest region, Natlan. 

This new exploration area, takes inspiration from several different real-life cultures, and ethnic groups; such as Maya, Azteca, Inca, Maori and African. Themes from mythological figures, fashion and food from these cultures, were incorporated into Natlan's visual presentation. 

However, after the release of the new nation's trailer, presenting the new cast of characters, players couldn't help but to notice most of the region's playable units were undeniably light-skinned. Which is odd considering they are based off ethnic groups from Africa, America and Oceania, characterized by having predominantly darker skin tones. 

This prompted heated discussions online, about the game "appropriating" darker people's culture, but failing the represent them accordingly. As of today, several voice actors and content creators have openly expressed support towards concerned fans, insisting the game should have a wider virety of skin tones among playable characters, to match the wide variety of cultures it takes inspiration from. 

Thoughts on this besties? . Are you excited for Natlan?  , do you believe the game should have more diversity in terms of skin tones? . 

I personally think Natlan should've given us AT LEAST 1 or 2 legitimately dark skinned characters, at the bare minimum 

[thatfoxyfeeling 12,955]

I mean the majority of Asian RPGS/MMOS have racist undertones so this doesn't surprise me. One of the reasons why I'm excited for WoW's new expansion War Within, the character shown in the trailer Faerin looks badass. 

 

[Plastic Flower 4,508]

I usually don't put too much energy into this stuff but this is so ****ing annoying.

If you're going to appropriate elements from my country's history and cultural legacy do it well. 

[Karl 3,331]

34 minutes ago, thatfoxyfeeling said:

I mean the majority of Asian RPGS/MMOS have racist undertones so this doesn't surprise me. One of the reasons why I'm excited for WoW's new expansion War Within, the character shown in the trailer Faerin looks badass. 

 

Yeah as a FF14 player the amount of problematic cultural issues in that game is wild  Also so excited for the war within 

[OliviaRodrigoStan 5,941]

22 minutes ago, Karl said:

Yeah as a FF14 player the amount of problematic cultural issues in that game is wild.

Wasn't the devs for that specific game the ones that said that, they were not going to have black characters because the game is based on European culture and it would "break the immersion" . Which is funny to me, brcause the Final Fantasy franchise is full of unambiguously asian looking characters, fully dressed with germanic fashion... but that's not "immersion breaking", only black people are? ok... 

57 minutes ago, Plastic Flower said:

If you're going to appropriate elements from my country's history and cultural legacy do it well. 

It's crazy because people started comparing how the mythological figures from Natlan look in their original cultures, and how they look in Genshin, and it's... . This is how Olorun looks in African mythology: 

Vs how he is represented in Genshin: 

 

[Plastic Flower 4,508]

28 minutes ago, Jigglygoth said:

Wasn't the devs for that specific game the ones that said that, they were not going to have black characters because the game is based on European culture and it would "break the immersion" . Which is funny to me, brcause the Final Fantasy franchise is full of unambiguously asian looking characters, fully dressed with germanic fashion... but that's not "immersion breaking", only black people are? ok... 

It's crazy because people started comparing how the mythological figures from Natlan look in their original cultures, and how they look in Genshin, and it's... . This is how Olorun looks in African mythology: 

Vs how he is represented in Genshin: 

 

I-  They're testing me.  I definitely won't support this.

[A D A M 538]

1 hour ago, Plastic Flower said:

If you're going to appropriate elements from my country's history and cultural legacy do it well. 

Do people care that much? The topic was about skin tone, not history.. You won't find any real history in genshin because it is fantasy world, disconnected from ours. I know that they loosely base stuff on the real things, because some tropes will repeat itself anyway, no matter what (conflicts, archetypes of characters, borrowed names).

My point is, the skin tone which is a polarizing aspect of the issue is the result of the climate and biome that people were living through centuries in those areas (Africa, Oceania). They didn't choose that, human body just adjusted itself, but my question is, why do we need to apply the exact rules to the genshin region, since everything is just inspired not taken 1:1.

I think I know that people just want to be mad and be protectors, free publicity to the game

[OliviaRodrigoStan 5,941]

13 minutes ago, A D A M said:

Do people care that much? The topic was about skin tone, not history.. You won't find any real history in genshin because it is fantasy world, disconnected from ours.

Is it tho? Genshin included real life chinese celebrations into the game, like the lantern festival: 

Genshin literally has a lantern festival event, every single year, in-game: 

Liyue, the nation based off China, has COUNTLESS real life elements from chinese culture, all of which have been adapted into the game quite faithfully, and respectfully. 

So you could hardly argue that the game is "disconnected" from our world. It is very much so, connected to our world, and the cultures it borrows elements from. 

It is fictional, yes, but it is not disconnected from our world. Not to mention that, the game at large does seem to understand the racial differences between the nations, and all of them seem to mirror the real life communities they're based off. Liyue characters do look asian-coded, and Fontaine/Mondstadt characters do look european-coded. 

The game only starts disconnecting and breaking this pattern, specifically on the regions inspired by predominantly dark-skinned communities (Natlan/Sumeru). Don't you find it peculiar, at the very least? 

Because Hoyoverse DOES represent people in Sumeru and Natlan as dark-skinned. Most of the NPCs in both Natlan and Sumeru DO have dark skin. 

So... Natlan and Sumeru do have a racial code. The game itself presents those regions as predominantly dark-skinned, very much mirroring the real life ethnic groups it takes inspiration from. 

However, only the non-playable characters have this trait. The playable ones, look mostly unambiguously white: 

Is that not a little bit SUS to you? . 

[James Gibson 3,471]

Lol genshin goes through this every single year and they never learn

[HoeMoe 1,242]

3 hours ago, thatfoxyfeeling said:

I mean the majority of Asian RPGS/MMOS have racist undertones so this doesn't surprise me. One of the reasons why I'm excited for WoW's new expansion War Within, the character shown in the trailer Faerin looks badass. 

 

A FELLOW WOW ENJOYER IN GGD ?!??!!?!

[OliviaRodrigoStan 5,941]

7 minutes ago, James Gibson said:

Lol genshin goes through this every single year and they never learn

What kills me is that leakers said that the first three characters to be released were "all dark skinned", and then this was the dark skin: 

Crazier thing is, that is, indeed, "dark" for Genshin's standards 

[A D A M 538]

13 minutes ago, Jigglygoth said:

Is it tho? Genshin included real life chinese celebrations into the game, like the lantern festival: 

Genshin literally has a lantern festival event, every single year, in-game:

Liyue, the nation based off China, has COUNTLESS real life elements from chinese culture, all of which have been adapted into the game quite faithfully, and respectfully. 

So you could hardly argue that the game is "disconnected" from our world. It is very much so, connected to our world, and the cultures it borrows elements from. 

It is fictional, yes, but it is not disconnected from our world. Not to mention that, the game at large does seem to understand the racial differences between the nations, and all of them seem to mirror the real life communities they're based off. Liyue characters do look asian-coded, and Fontaine/Mondstadt characters do look european-coded.

It flows with my next sentence you didn't put into quote:

51 minutes ago, A D A M said:

I know that they loosely base stuff on the real things, because some tropes will repeat itself anyway, no matter what (conflicts, archetypes of characters, borrowed names).

It is fictional we agree, with term "disconnected" I have to add what I meant. They borrow a lot of nuances from history, so they can build up their own narrative, but do you know why? It is not because they want to praise someone, or celebrate. They do it BECAUSE it is easier to make a history based on something that people are familiar with, like the whole society is based on adapting stuff from our ancestors. Every IP borrows ideas from other medias, so people can make connections in their head.

As you said, Liyue is very detailed in chinese nuances, but are we surprised when the developer is from china? You mentioned Mondstadt is european-coded, for me it looks so generic, they just slapped german castle aesthetics and called it a day. Am I mad for diluting our culture? Absolutely no.

29 minutes ago, Jigglygoth said:

The game only starts disconnecting and breaking this pattern, specifically on the regions inspired by predominantly dark-skinned communities (Natlan/Sumeru). Don't you find it peculiar, at the very least? 

Because Hoyoverse DOES represent people in Sumeru and Natlan as dark-skinned. Most of the NPCs in both Natlan and Sumeru DO have dark skin. 

I see your point, had no chance to play those areas. It feels connected more to the issue "why 90% of cast is females at gacha". They don't want to be inappropriate, they just gonna make characters that gonna cater the most of the audience and sadly they do make research and collect data for making a desirable character.

Thank you for your comment and details!

[thatfoxyfeeling 12,955]

21 minutes ago, HoeMoe said:

A FELLOW WOW ENJOYER IN GGD ?!??!!?!

I think there's a few of us on here 

I didn't play much of Dragonflight, been playing Classic and SoD but I'm really looking forward to the saga now that Chris Metzen is back 

[HoeMoe 1,242]

1 minute ago, thatfoxyfeeling said:

I think there's a few of us on here 

I didn't play much of Dragonflight, been playing Classic and SoD but I'm really looking forward to the saga now that Chris Metzen is back 

Tbf you didn't miss anything with DF. Its a forgettable expansion although it did save the games rep a bit after the mess that Shadowlands was. Offtopic; I've mained shadow priest all my life so you can only imagine how happy I am to see Xal'atath as the game's cover girl

[OliviaRodrigoStan 5,941]

1 minute ago, A D A M said:

You mentioned Mondstadt is european-coded, for me it looks so generic, they just slapped german castle aesthetics and called it a day. Am I mad for diluting our culture? Absolutely no.

Mondstadt and Fontaine are very much "generic Europe", as they borrow elements from Germany, Italy, England and France. But even if the cultural elements are mixed randomly, the characters do resemble those regions, more or less. Jean does look british, which she probably is supposed to, and Fischl does look german. 

Similarly, Neuvillette does look french, and Navia does look italian. The characters do resemble the people from the countries they were based off. 

However, when we get to Sumeru, a region heavily inspired by India, a country with predominantly dark-skinned population, the characters look like this: 

They no longer resemble the ethnic group they were based off. If it was a one-time occurance, it wouldn't be an issue, and I also understand that not all indian people have dark skin. 

However, when you see that most non-playable characters in Sumeru DO have dark skin, and only the playable ones are light-skinned... it is impossible not to put two and two together, and assume that the game is deliberately avoiding dark-skinned characters on its playable roster. 

12 minutes ago, A D A M said:

I see your point, had no chance to play those areas. It feels connected more to the issue "why 90% of cast is females at gacha". They don't want to be inappropriate, they just gonna make characters that gonna cater the most of the audience and sadly they do make research and collect data for making a desirable character.

I do understand that this is a chinese game, and I would buy the excuse that they are merely trying to represent their own demographic, if it wasn't because, they just aren't. They're representing a lot of different demographics, not only by including elements from other countries, but also through their marketing campaign: Genshin has HEAVY investment on region-specific advertisement for latin american countries, I see their official ads in spanish, acted by mexican cosplayers, all the time. 

They are aiming for a global audience, not just China. So I don't think it is crazy for global users to expect more cultural and racial diversity. 

As for the desirability of the units, many shoujo franchises have dark skinned characters that would absolutely fit well with Genshin's "waifu" aesthetic. Like Caldina from Magic Knight Rayearth: 

Or Jabberwock from Miyuki Chan In Wonderland: 

If they wanted to, they could easily do it. They just seem to... not want to.