I have an issue with attributing poor game sales or review to DEI without looking at the overall picture. It’s way more than DEI. If that was the case, games like GOW Ragnarok would have failed as well (Asian woman in Nordic mythology remember?). You’ve mentioned a bunch of games but I will only address the few of them I was interested in or have something to say about it.
Suicide Squad – This game was in trouble from the very beginning. The first gaming trailer showed every single character with the same abilities (shooting) so terrible design not in the spirit of the material and it looked boring as fuck. It was so bad if forced Rocksteady to delay the game and make adjustments. I was positively sure this game was dead on arrival then. In the end it was still an unecessary bad live service game with seasonal pass with fun but repetitive action lacking in depth. The game was doomed to fail from the beginning regardless of DEI.
Forspoken – I was interested in this game but was on the fence and like many others I base it on reviews. Reviews noted that the controls were fun but the world was mostly empty and boring. It was also noted that by the time you acquired all your abilities the game was practically over. Not complete deal breakers but it was enough for me to skip on this game. I’d definitely give it a shot once it hits PS+. The fact that you believe that a black female main character = woke is a terrible take. Why should it matter whether she be a black female? So she shoulda been a white female old or young wouldn’t matter? Tons of games out there with white protagonists but this one game with one black female character is woke? Absolute dog shit take.
Concord – I wasn’t even aware that there was a game called Concord when it released. I did a search and the only post I found was a preview trailer that Madmick posted in a thread of trailers. It was one of many and no one commented on it. There was no mention of this game in ANY thread (or maybe I did a bad search) until after the game was released. Yes the designs were supposedly dog shit but I never cared much about it. The main problem with the game aside from the fact that most people weren’t aware the game existed till it was too late was it lacked innovating gameplay, had poor designed maps and cost money compared to similar games like Overwatch and Apex Legends. This game wouldn’t be on my radar but I was utterly surprised about having never heard of this game til after it was released.
I can’t comment on the other games you’ve mentioned cause they aren’t my cup or tea or I didn’t care as much. My point is harping about DEI DEI DEI whenever a game fails isn’t correct.
I never said DEI is sole cause of entertainment being shitty. Having forced diversity is never the reason for a game/movie/show being a failure, but it can really hurt it. We've had inclusion in western entertainment for ages now. Up until recently (past 8 to 10 years or so) I felt like it had largely been handled organically, where identity politics didn't define a character/story, and it didn't come across as a check list.
Maybe I see things from my white bias, but since the 90's to early 2010's It felt like we moving towards a less racist/misogynist society, where diversity and inclusion (focusing on NA entertainment here) were being reflected naturally as demographics changed.
Ragnarök is a good example of forced inclusion/representation that doesn't help the game. There is no reason for Angrboða being black, other than lazy tokenism. It's such a small aspect of a quality game, that it can't hurt it, but it pulls you out of the immersion. When you multiply that numerous times, then it can severely damage the product.
A fine example of forced inclusion/representation multiplied endlessly and hurting the product is the Wheel of Time Amazon series. Two Rivers (starting location) is a medieval western European settlement. People have been living there for generations, thousands of years. Making it like downtown Toronto is ridiculous. You can probably get away with diverse skin tones/ethnicities visually because it's in the very distant future from us. Regardless, the culture should be homogenous, with everyone speaking with the same accent as It's incredibly isolated. It's basically the Shire. No location in the series really felt culturally unique, just one melting pot after another. It's really too bad, because in the books the locations and characters are very diverse, and loads of well written female characters. It should have been a slam dunk. Bad writing, casting played a bigger role in its downfall, much like Ring's of Power, but the DEI nonsense definitely hurt it.
I'm not sure how my Forespoken take is bad one? If she was a white male it would be awful. He'd be a lazy Gary Stu instead of a Mary Sue. She's Ray Skywalker with a bigger chip on her shoulder. Her being black has nothing to do with it being a bad game, though the subtle allude to her being mistreated by the court system because of her skin color, yet she's a thief who still thieves after being given a break is eye rolling. What hurts it most is the terrible writing and MCU-like dialogue. I wanted to like it as it gave me an Infamous vibe, and I love Isekai Anime. It was made by a Japanese company, one of my favs, Square Enix, surely they'd do a decent job with that trope...
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