The problem I have with her take is that she's taking the intentions of a small minority of people and extrapolating it to the wider populace who may've had issues with the game that had NOTHING to do with Frey being black (well, technically she's biracial but I guess we wipe away half of her ethnic background for reasons).
Now, there ARE some people I know who did target the game for, in addition to other things (being a PS5 console exclusive for starters, being "yet another" Square-Enix console exclusive for PlayStation, etc.) Frey's skin color or gender (or both). Or at least, you can get a hint that's a reason when you see other stuff they've done or talked about. Fritanga (shithead PCMR dude who caps for Xbox all the time), and some super alt-right chud grifters who constantly complain about "wokeness" and suddenly started targeting Forspoken.
THOSE people most likely had racist intentions behind their critiques, but they don't represent everyone who had criticisms towards the game, and that's something the person who wrote this article doesn't seem to understand. They've done the same thing here as the MCU bootlickers and access media who target everyone that dislikes modern Marvel or Star Wars movies/shows as racists/sexists/homophobes etc., when it's only a small portion of the community voicing the complaints who are ACTUALLY being racist, sexist, or homophobic. They pretend like non-bigoted criticisms no longer exist.
My other issue with these types of articles is that they're written by people who always come off as confrontational and like they aren't willing to have an actual dialog. Rather, they assume the worst out of the community as a whole just because of a few bad apples, and feel like instead of being genuine and listening to the majority of the community, they want to enforce their own rules and terms on the community, and guilty-trip them into accepting it. IMO that doesn't sound like someone who wants to truly be a member of the community, you don't take the vocal minority and make it sound like that's the majority of the community.
Granted, the article itself does seem to try to specify particular gamers, although again does so stereotypically (not all dudebros are racist/sexist/homophobic for starters). But there's two ways IMO that you can combat the actual minority of bigots who try going after games like Forspoken: either amplify their actions and provide ironic validation by focusing on what they do (what this article does), or take YOUR liking/passion for the game and express that for others to read & hear. One puts needless negative energy out, the other positive energy. Ignoring the trolls and negative folks seems like it would be the preferred way to do things.
Now, there ARE some people I know who did target the game for, in addition to other things (being a PS5 console exclusive for starters, being "yet another" Square-Enix console exclusive for PlayStation, etc.) Frey's skin color or gender (or both). Or at least, you can get a hint that's a reason when you see other stuff they've done or talked about. Fritanga (shithead PCMR dude who caps for Xbox all the time), and some super alt-right chud grifters who constantly complain about "wokeness" and suddenly started targeting Forspoken.
THOSE people most likely had racist intentions behind their critiques, but they don't represent everyone who had criticisms towards the game, and that's something the person who wrote this article doesn't seem to understand. They've done the same thing here as the MCU bootlickers and access media who target everyone that dislikes modern Marvel or Star Wars movies/shows as racists/sexists/homophobes etc., when it's only a small portion of the community voicing the complaints who are ACTUALLY being racist, sexist, or homophobic. They pretend like non-bigoted criticisms no longer exist.
My other issue with these types of articles is that they're written by people who always come off as confrontational and like they aren't willing to have an actual dialog. Rather, they assume the worst out of the community as a whole just because of a few bad apples, and feel like instead of being genuine and listening to the majority of the community, they want to enforce their own rules and terms on the community, and guilty-trip them into accepting it. IMO that doesn't sound like someone who wants to truly be a member of the community, you don't take the vocal minority and make it sound like that's the majority of the community.
Granted, the article itself does seem to try to specify particular gamers, although again does so stereotypically (not all dudebros are racist/sexist/homophobic for starters). But there's two ways IMO that you can combat the actual minority of bigots who try going after games like Forspoken: either amplify their actions and provide ironic validation by focusing on what they do (what this article does), or take YOUR liking/passion for the game and express that for others to read & hear. One puts needless negative energy out, the other positive energy. Ignoring the trolls and negative folks seems like it would be the preferred way to do things.
