i think the whole "gamers react badly to diversity" thing is nonsense. to evoke yet another comparison with another genre, take MTG for example.
Currently people are realy upset about MTG just.. having alot of very WEIRD art. Conventionally attractive people seem to be verboten, besides the poster boy planeswalkers.And the ethnic makeup of various of the factions just seeming outright bizarre. i think the picture from Innistrad of the three werewolves that were literaly the "Three ethnicites of the world according to americans".
This can be cited as people beeing upset by diversity. but then people forget that MTG had Jamuraa, an entire continent (and a full blown expansion at that) based on Africa, and people loved it. because it didnt feel out of palce. Noteably it also wasnt very diverse, sicne everyone in it was african, obviously. But in the grand total of MTG, it was more "diverse". likewise people realy liked Kamigawa.
My point here beeing: Actual Diversity was never the problem. but people feel like they are beeing treated like children that need to be educated when it comes to blatant tokenism (which i thought we got over in the 90s)
Ive made this point in another thread regarding Dragon Age Inquisition.
Actually from descent into avernus, im a bit hopefull that Larian might bring some sense into the Diversity bit. Little Calimshan is something i like: something that grounds middle easterners suddenly apeparing in a European inspired fantasy world. Opposed to Dragon Age Inquistion where it just felt like it was done with a Spreadsheet "we need this percent of that ethnicity".
Now, with regards to what ive said about PoE: there seems to be a trend of , for the lack of a better term, wanting to punish the audience for making certain choices. I dont know if it was here or in another forum where someone pointed out that none of the straight romances in PoE had a happy end while all of the non straight ones did. As i certainly havent tried that out myself, people can correct me if im wrong in quoting that. Which circles around what is aid about Female characters vs male characters in Western RPGs. Theres a double standard here: male characters are almost always attractive with chiseled jawlines and male model physique, meanwhile female characters become dumpier, crooked nosed and Karen haired.
So when someone claims they want to make "More (X) (enter: nuanced, mature, realistic etc.) character interactions" then i just wonder if that just means "punish what i dont like and pander to what i like"
