I am encouraged that they are trying to do anything to be inclusive. Artificially manufacturing integration eventually encourages natural integration. I get how people can feel tokenized by artificial integration, but I prefer to take the positive of some integration is better than none and have faith that eventually it won’t be artificial.
Oh wow, we hit peak galaxy brain folks. Bigotry is good because it leads to less bigotry…
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Umm. Zas?
I don’t know how to put this, but if those people… whomever you assign that too… feel like their tokenized by artificial integration…
Maybe that’s not positive, or they should look for more natural integration?..
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Are you even being serious? The tool was not made by Blizzard. It was made by King (Candy Crush) starting in 2016. Interestingly enough they are the one company left out of the lawsuit and the one that has the most diverse staff currently under the ATVI umbrella of companies.
There is no plan to automate anything… none.
The tool isn’t meant to be used in isolation; teams would sit down with company DE&I staff to identify existing norms and then discuss, educate, consult, and collaborate on how a character’s representation is expressed beyond those norms. This process is intended to create a conversation where our developers, assisted by the tool, challenge assumptions, assess choices, and find opportunities for authentic representation to be fostered in our games.
I find the tool pretty cringe, esp how they presented it. It can provide insight as part of a character analysis, but the idea that it would be used to automate or make decisions is really terrible. Thankfully Blizz is not doing that!
The tool is just… words fail me. Avoiding token characters is important, but having to use a tool to do it just seems wrong.
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Interesting take. Would you say that the 14th Amendment was bigotry?
People who feel tokenized by something like this are probably very small compared to those who want representation. Without this tool, there may be no inclusion at all and that’s a much worse alternative.
Tbh anyone who has ever written a story will know that this is just part of the process. It’s just that MIT Game Labs decided to fluff it up a bit, but it’s really no different to “ok I’m writing a story set in France, so I need to understand the authentic experience of a French citizen, and perhaps some of their socio-economic class dynamics, cultural norms in different regions, attitudes towards certain key topics, and maybe even body language etc…” so as to write a good story that can be as genuine and authentic as possible.
I’m guessing it’s meant to address scale and perform some sort of gap analysis, but this is a very common process that I’d say every writer does to varying degrees.
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No kidding.
Like… do they even care about what minorities or any people they represent even said or want?.. or even worry that what they said is probably insulting to them? 
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Here’s the bottom line that I think many just aren’t understanding. If I’m out in Elwyn Forest defending my homeland against an Orc invasion ( you know, those super huge, dual axe wielding savages that are coming in through a magical portal from another planet) and I’m on the back line with the rest of the ranged soldiers, I don’t really care if the mage next to me is gay or trans. I just don’t care. I want to know if that mage next to me has the cognitive fortitude to remain calm and cast enough frostbolts and ice traps to repel the invasion.
I’ve said this before, but I just don’t understand why people in these (for lack of a better word) alternative communities, just don’t petition blizzard for a realm of their own with their own storylines that represent their alternative lifestyles?
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Nah, you don’t get to come back with a loaded question logical fallacy after that hot take you just had. You literally said tokenizing people is fine, people just gotta have faith it’ll get better. That’s like saying “hey everyone, if we all just went around shouting the N word, it’d lose all meaning and no one would be offended!”
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I get it and feel it is kind of like those “which character are you most like” quizzes. It is just a way to look at aspects of a character and traits. It opens up discussions.
BUT the ATVI news release was just… not good. It is super uncomfy and not well explained. It comes off as an attempt to say “hey King’s character sheet tool is way great for this metric!!”. Stop hating us!
Because putting people you don’t like in isolation (and worse) has proven to be a very very bad idea. We fought wars over it. The existence of people who are different won’t hurt you. It is not contagious. You won’t catch pink hair, a different view on attraction, a different style. Like it or not humans come in all types and co-existing peacefully is a good thing.
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Tulnn… you are virtually saying “Screw what the people i’m representing for actually feel or want!”…
If even a small percent of people feel tokenised, full stop and take a look at the method you’re using to represent people with and try something else. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be tokenized and yet you’re supporting this.
…Worse alternative? like what? ACTUALLY asking people? Getting people’s REAL thoughts and opinions on your characters you wrote? … Wha-- Is this where we at now? 
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That is not at all what I said. I said that some step is better than no step.
You have absolutely no idea what marginalized groups I fall within. You have no idea what I have put up with, but I refuse to throw away an attempt at a step forward because it isn’t the sprint I would prefer.
The 14th needs to be protected and expanded upon in my opinion, but at its outset it was an artificial construct to force states to behave themselves. My great-grandparents were against it. My parents and grandparents accepted it, though in some cases begrudgingly. I can’t imagine life without it.
Part of the problem with spitting on imperfect attempts at making something better is that if you spit on someone, they are rarely willing to try again. Progress is iterative.
While I think the tool is kinda cringey if that is what it takes to help developers shine a light into their blindspots, good on them for trying.
There will always be people who don’t like something but that shouldn’t stop Blizzard.
Blizzard will never win if they try and appeal to everyone. They do what they think is best for the game. I agree with them that this tool is useful.
I think so. The alternative is not having anything, which would be bad for the game. The game still has peoples real thoughts and opinions. The tools doesn’t replace that. Just goes to show you don’t have all the facts.
Given your seemingly close minded and antagonistic approach to this conversation, I don’t think I want your opinion guiding my content. It is not possible for developers of a game to speak with and integrate the opinions of every potential player.
“a new system for character design which translates elements of diversity into character attributes to facilitate more diverse character narratives.”
You don’t get out much, do you?
This looks like a method of keeping track of diverse, numerous, common and not so common factual snippets of data about people, each person having their own unique set. Qualities? Broken down to a weighted score? With each person being unique, our resultant scores would be a product of our uniqueness. This is dumb. When you are caught in the sights of racist, bigoted, sexist or whatever prejudicial observation, you won’t be scrutinized for your “unique” qualities.
Who said anything about not liking anyone? My take was on distractions. There’s so many rules now and more it seems, everyday. It’s becoming more and more distracting. So many emotionally fragile people now and if someone who’s not a part of these alternative groups isn’t up to date with the newest lingo/constructs and says or does the “wrong” thing, they run the risk of being suspended/silenced. No one wants to hurt anyone. I think it’s a fair statement to say that we all want to like and get along with everyone, but when things are moving this fast and so many new rules coming out, things are becoming less fun for many. And when those many leave the game, all that will be left is the alternative communities. So before that happens, perhaps it is time to discuss an alternative realm? You can’t just shut it down, it’s a valid question
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Proudmore exists.
Well that is good! 
I really hope so.
The rules have not changed since 2004 though, at least at the core. Some could argue they were stricter then. Nobody is going to get you in trouble for an accidental slip up - slang in particular moves fast and is hard to keep up with.
Segregation of those are worried about is not an answer for not being aware of the basics. Just be polite. You won’t ever get in trouble and if you get falsely reported, appeal it.
What were the old rules around holiday tables? Don’t talk about religion, politics, sex? Something else? Those were the hard and fast guidelines though. Heh. Our ancestors had the right idea maybe. I still use that overall if I want to ensure I don’t ruffle feathers with strangers. With friends that is a whole different thing.
So much for being judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.
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Nah you don’t look at the example for Ana, Ana got 7 points in culture for being Egyptian, and 5 points in gender identity for being a woman. Talking alot had nothing to do with it.
This app surprisingly isn’t that bad, now we know for sure that Zarya is heterosexual for having 0 point in Sexual orientation.