I’m American. Remember when Witcher 3 first came out, and we complained that there weren’t any Black people in it? Well, Röki has the same problem. Not a drop of melanin. Like I said though, that wouldn’t bother Europeans, right?
Reminds me of a discussion about the Argentine World Cup team that I saw. Someone asked why the team had so few Black players, and an Argentine responded, “Because we are a country, not a Disney movie.”
Edit: Darnit, forgot to capitalize Black twice. I guess I’m too old for this stuff.
Question: Wasn't black a skin color and Black a political affiliation?
First: I want to mention I usually try to not get involved in these kind of discussions.
That being said, let's make a fool out of myself and get involved by typing the first idea's that pop-up regarding this topic:
I assume that every country has a culture, that makes them unique. Any group of people has a natural way of implementing defense mechanisms to detect outsiders. Like science has a vocabulary and notation, GP's have their cryptic handwriting, doctors have their white lab coat, army personnel has their uniforms, divers have their diving suit, etc. etc. So everyone group and country has similar things. If you state you are part of a group and don't have any of the particular trades of that group it automatically rings an alarm.
Having (anti-)racist point out the differences in skin colors all the time is just their way of showing their are part of a group, it's what they do to promote their group ideology. Anyone could be a doctor, just do the required stuff and put on the white lab coat. Anyone can be an (anti-)racist by pointing out differences in skin colors (just point out which color you prefer to indicate which group you are part of).
Most Europeans aren't (anti-)racist, so if a story or movie has stereotypical people in the statistical probable group it wouldn't trigger this natural alarm people have and would go by unnoticed. I assume the ideology of some people is that this internal alarm is bad and causes problems, which has some truth in it. But the main difference in perception is that some people believe individuals should be judged based on their behavior instead of their appearance and group affiliation. There is also a believe that people's identity is based on the person itself and not by others, so if you proclaim to be something; others should accept this. These idea's, not passing judgement if they are better/worse, are not the same everywhere.
btw. The US already has a pretty mixed population, compared to countries like China, India or many Africa countries.
I think any story or game should be a good game and the characters in the game should make sense somehow. Computer games, compared to reality, are probably a better place to bend these rules. You want to be a car that becomes a police officer that marries with a house? Sure why not. But in reality those concepts aren't accepted (yet). But if there is a story about people living in a imaginary Nordic country where there is lots of snow and not much summer sun, it's somewhat logical that all characters have a more light skin color. As the skin needs to receive less light which is adventitious in these circumstances. It's not because these people in this regions dislike other skin colors, it's just the skin color that works well for those regions. In a game you can change it, it doesn't matter anyway, but it could trigger some people's internal alarm. Especially if they find out that the reason for changing this part in the game is because you are a (anti-)racist.
Personally I don't care that much, if the game/movie is good it's not a problem. But some games/movies have the (anti-)racist part as the main feature, which can just make it a bad game/movie. Röki and Witcher 3 are good games, and every gamer could probably appreciate this. You could think it's not inclusive enough, but in real-life I'm never the person represented in the game. Games about boring office workers are usually not that fun. In a game you can be anything you want, which is not the same in real-life. Not only because you can't be a magical talking car, but even if you dress up like a police officer others will spot you're not and you'll be called-out for it. As your role is society is not determined by you, it's done so by others based on your own actions. If you want to be a police officer, you have to match the expectations of your society until everyone accepts you are an actual police officer. You could destroy society and make it so that everyone has to accept what ever you claim to be, but I doubt it will work. But if it does, feel free to congratulate me being your new president.
