Villager Suggestion

As a complete whitey, I know that my thoughts and feelings will not be shared by all but I have to pitch in.
No one here is racist, if you believe that one race is superior to another, THAT makes you racist, and I haven't seen that belief at all here.
And any white person is going to feel hurt or attacked or even uncomfortable if you start throwing the race cards at them, because these days, especially tumblr terms, white people aren't allowed to have an opinion on these things and sometimes people just have that two cents.
POC sometimes make non POC uncomfortable with their words and that's not okay, and it's easy to be afraid of happening here.
White people are told to be sorry and feel bad for the past, even though our generation should not have to do anything of the sorts for something they had no control over. It should be remembered, thought about and learned from, not used as a guilt tool, which I have personally been witness to and it's kind of sick.
I too sometimes get uncomfortable on the race subject, afraid to offend someone, with my fluid race/culture views it's not always agreed with, but that's how opinion works so I just have to deal.

The word racist is thrown around freely and not very cautiously, and guys, I know someone a lil racist and non of you are close to it, so stop feeling so hurt by the word, you're okay. Gosh.


PLUS, I am now really hungry for cake thanks to this thread.

 

Personally, a lot of the problems often have to do with the lack of self awareness of a lot of white people about their privileges that other people do not have, even the people who "see" everyone as "equal" don't mean that everything is actually equal. There are systematic racism and subtle racism that based it on stereotypes and perception which hinders people in many aspects in life like career, dating, etc. Black Lives Matter don't mean that black lives are superior to white lives, it means to bring attention to the mistreatment happens to black people. People complain about changing race of Human Torch despite the amount of race bending in many movies, especially if the leads are Asians like Speed Racer, 47 Ronins, Last Airbender, etc. It's not that people saying white people are evil, but a lot of the time, some of them are often being very dismissive which can be jarring.

 

Who taught you we had our own language?
British English, and French, are Canada's two official languages.

"Canadian" isn't a language, and there are many Native languages as well (such as Inuit), but no: There's no separate language for Canadians. That said, Canadians have many turns of phrase and cultural words that refer to uniquely Canadian things. Like Tims or Timmy's for the Tim Hortons franchise of coffee shops. We call one of our political parties "Tories", we spell it Colour and Armour and Favourite, because we use the Queen's English. We have a widely used $1 coin (loonies) with a loon on it, and the Canadarm on our $5 bills. We have a 2 dollar coin (Toonie) and don't use pennies. It's more akin to the difference between Jersey and Texas.

 

The best way to avoid racism is to not even think about it. I am a scientist and I see all people as humans. Like srsly, why don't white skin go bath in the sun for 3 hours everyday. Then racism will be erased

 

Pretending racism doesn't exist is one of the worst ways to combat racism, especially when it comes to subtle racism and Institutional racism. I'm against people bring up racism when there isn't or cry racism when it's not, but racism still exists, and avoid talking about it is basically pretending it doesn't exist, it doesn't go away but it would still be there.

 

True, I mean when directly seeing someone. Well, if we talk about this longer, we'll get kicked out for going too off topic. So let's stop.

I think the idea of Maru gaining more role is great.

 

I agree with the above posters. Refusing to talk about race is one of the ways that racism is perpetuated. If we don't talk about racism, then racism can continue without any challenges.

With that said, I see no problem with Stardew Valley becoming more diverse as more content is added. Nobody should fault Concerned Ape for Stardew Valley's whiteness. He is one man who worked tirelessly on a project and as a lone creator who wanted to put out a product, it would be overwhelming to take all of these issues into account.
But diversity in games is important and this could be something he chooses to focus on more in future updates. There are lots of studies that show that early literacy is best developed when children see characters who like themselves represented in books.

Video games can be diverse without falling into the "social justice warrior" stereotype. Create strongly written characters who serve a purpose in the game's universe who just happen to be non-white. Demetrius is currently an example of that. It would be weird if he started talking about black lives matter and police shootings. He is a fully fleshed out character and he serves a much greater purpose to the game than "Here's a black guy!" A lot of white gamers think that if games add diverse characters they are trying to make a political statement. Only white people see diversity that way. Non-white gamers only think, "Hey, it's cool to see a character that looks like I do."

 

As a preface, don't go and tell me that I can't "understand" as a white either, I lived years in a country where I could go months without even seeing another white person and was often treated less than fair to put it mildly. I personally experienced and saw literal racism that makes our problems pale in comparison, which has shaped my current opinions. Like Labyrinth said, white people, especially those of our generation who never participated in or saw institutional racism don't appreciate being given guilt trips over something that we had no control over. Remembering something in historical context is one thing, harboring resentment and negative emotions over the past is another.

I don't think anyone here would deny that there are true racists out there, but I would contend that our society as a whole is not racist anymore. Xenophobic would be a more proper term; while racism has its roots in xenophobia they are still very different. I don't think the conversation is going to get anywhere useful as long as we only focus on race, it's culture clash and xenophobia that are the true problem imo. That's one reason why I think the "race debate" has been so sour of late, because we're whacking away at a shadow instead of the actual problem. It's entirely counterproductive to tell someone they're treated differently because of their skin color when it's actually how they act because of the culture they come from. It goes both ways too, I've heard plenty of stories of how someone of a particular race/culture is ridiculed by their own because they started acting "too white" and called other snide terms I'm sure you're aware of. By the way I'm not saying other cultures besides "white" culture are inferior

I completely agree with that. All I want is for everyone to be less sensitive about race, your skin color should be one of the least important things about you and not something you immediately think about when consuming media. I have a middle-eastern sister-in-law who treats her heritage just as something fun to talk about (makes "brown" jokes all the time), not an integral part of her being that you must accept and celebrate. Demetrius is a perfect example of it too, no stereotypes, he just happens to be black like you say. Like I said before, since to me I view skin color as just another physical feature, I view people "needing" X represented as silly as me wanting to see a skinny freckled male ginger with a size 10 shoe in all my games. It's funny, because the only one that comes to mind was a guy in a Borderlands DLC that was so revolting I couldn't do any of his questline.

Anyway, as a summary I'm not saying we don't have a problem, I just think as a society we're approaching it the wrong way. Both "sides" are.

 

I disagree with it strongly. Racism still exists, it just transforms. Especially if it's hidden and on the downlow, the only people who experienced it would be the minority and those in the majority wouldn't notice such things. People are just not outright racist against you, and I doubt you can understand the structural racism and institutional racism from personal experience especially in America. The degree and treatment of each country is different. I can point out so many examples of racism nowadays, but this is not really the purpose for this thread. I'm not saying you don't understand or that you couldn't understand, but the issue is not very apparent. I love CA for what he did with this game, so whether he decides to include or not include people, it's up to him. This is just a suggestion thread afterall, so let's get back to the topic at hand.

 

Guys~ we're getting a little off topic here~ well nvm

 

Like I said before, since to me I view skin color as just another physical feature, I view people "needing" X represented as silly as me wanting to see a skinny freckled male ginger with a size 10 shoe in all my games. It's funny, because the only one that comes to mind was a guy in a Borderlands DLC that was so revolting I couldn't do any of his questline.

I don't see a problem with wanting to play as a character that looks like yourself. It's natural to want our digital selves to look like we do. White people have never really had that problem because most games allow players to play as white characters. The same isn't true for minority characters. All I'm saying is that video games can include more diverse characters without detracting from the game play. Letting gamers play as characters of different races/genders/other representations isn't a political statement. It's the developers way of saying, "Hey, we know a lot of different people are going to be playing this game. Lets give them lots of options." More options have never hurt a video game.

 

No reason to add even more black people in my opnion, not that there would be in the first place. Caring about representation and such is not really a thing that should bother people, why bother if there's x ammount of people of a certain color or none? As in, i don't care for color, i just want good characters and writing for then, if they're black or not it's the last thing on my mind.

Plus, it makes sense, since most of the population is white in real life in a lot of places. At this point it would feel like shoehorning "diversity" for the sake of it.

 

Isn't that the point, you don't care about colors, and the majority of the representations are white and it makes sense. Basically, you have already seen the majority as white, so it doesn't matter if a few characters are non-white, while for the non-white, the lack of other characters that look like them is more apparent. It stands out more for them instead of the other way around. All I'm saying is trying to put yourself in the other people's situations. I don't think he should add more non-white just for the sake of it, nor any game should do it just for the sake of representation, but the purpose is just to bring attention to the issue afterall. Even just by adding gay marriage in this game made me so happy because I love Harvest Moon, but I always find it sad I can't marry Karen as a girl or Gray as a guy. It's not necessary, but from the perspective of someone who like to play as minority characters, it makes me really happy due to the rareness of it and finally be able to play game the way I want to.

 

Where I live IRL, which is in the Northeastern US, the ratio to Whites:Blacks:Hispanics is about the same as it is in SDV.

I work at a grocery store, and I can put in a 7+ hour day and not see a single black person. This is IRL, not in a video game mind you. There are a couple black people who shop at the store, but they are rare. I know there are a couple hispanics, and even an oriental (Chinese descent, IIRC) woman who comes in, but also rarely.

In Stardew Valley, we have about 30 NPCs, one of them is black, and one of them is half-black.

2 in 30 is actually a rather realistic ratio IMO, and it fits very close with what I experience IRL.

 

You didn't address the rest of my point, so I invite you to do so. There is a distinct difference between xenophobia and racism even though they're related. Even the worst hill-billy types I've talked to won't say that blacks are inherently born inferior (true racism), even though the way they talk about "them black people" makes it easy to assume that's what they mean. I know this is parsing words and definitions here, but it's important that people use precise language when dealing with controversial things like this so that there's better communication and understanding.

But ya to the topic on hand I agree with Xylia, what's in the game is already fairly representative of the actual population, especially considering it's a country area.

 

This conversation has gotten WAY off topic. The racist and xenophobic things being said here are driving me crazy. Please get back on topic...

 

Anything having to do with race pushes SJWs' buttons to the point they get triggered.

Just wish these people would calm down and realize that not everything needs to take into account the color of a person's skin....

But anyways back on topic, 2 out of 30 sounds like a very reasonable number for minorities:whites in most places in the USA.

In fact, I'd think one should be happy that he put any minorities in the game period. Many games don't have them at all.

 

I AM happy there are two black people. I'm not saying that is too few. I am asking (suggesting even) that more POC be added. No one said it's not enough. No one said it's a bad game. No one said they would stop playing unless more POC are added. It's a simple suggestion.

We are not trying to make everything take into account skin color. Just this one thing. That's being hyperbolic to argue a point that no one else is making.

 

I second this. Racial diversity (and every other kind of diversity) is really cool to see in games and I'd love to see what CA would be able to create with characters of more varying backgrounds and sexualities.

 

Woah woah! I entered the thread hoping to see ideas of possible townsfolks/villagers and got a lot of...well, not that! In hopes of backtracking so people can feel as though they CAN make a suggestion in here that isn't related to race I'm going to try to alter the direction this conversation is going. This is not because the topic of racism, or having a diverse cast of characters, makes my stomach flip or angry. I am also not trying to dismiss the importance of what many of you said that touches on PoC and minorities within media and society as a whole. That IS very important, and a topic I am usually up to chatting about for hours. But this thread is not about that, it is simply about suggestions for Villagers. And its okay that it got off topic, that happens, but at this point that tangent has just become a cycle. Some of you will agree with each other, some won't. We aren't going to change that overnight. On the plus side you have all given something for people to think about, both the players and creator of Stardew. So to sum things up (if I miss anything I apologize) the suggestions for villagers so far have been;

>> More PoC. Stardew has a pretty diverse cast personality wise, but it would be greatly appricated if there were more NPCs with a varity of skin tones/different races and ethnicities.
>> A couple who is not heterosexual. The game gives the player the option to marry ether gender, but it be nice if an NPC couple exsisted that was not hetero.
>> A larger cast moving in over time.
>> More marrige options!​

Again if I missed someone's idea I apologize! There was a lot to go over and not posting it here wasn't because I dislike it I just missed it. Personally I'd really like to see some strange or odd characters visiting Stardew for their own odd reasons like; a college grad who has a deep interest in the Dwarfish culture and has come to SDV after hearing about the Dwarf Scrolls (and the rumors of a real Dwarf!), a UFO/Extraterrestrial enthusiast who visits in hopes of getting real proof that "they" are out there, a traveling botanist who is looking for a rare plant/plants, and a family who were on their way to a nice vacation and ended up stuck in STV because their car broke down (depending on how things turn out they might visiting every summer/eventually moving in).

Also some random dude who won't leave his bunker would be pretty fun/neat, more because it would open a lot of interesting quests up?