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Title pretty much says it already.

If the majority of players playing D&D are white and male
If over 90% of the human NPCs in the Forgotten Reals franchise* are white
If, according to Larian itself**, the average character made is white and male

Then why is the default human character a stereotypical black woman?

This is even more weird since the developers do track the character designs and know exactly that the players create white male characters mostly. If they would just simply sort the faces, colors and other options by popularity, they would also increase the usability of the creator by magnitutes.

I can't find any good reason for this design decision apart from a political agenda being pushed into a game.

* Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 together have less than a dozen black human NPCs among several hundreds - the only one I can actually recall is Dynaheir
** Hotfix #4 News

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Why not? If most players tend to recreate themselves (so while male human NPC) why not enocurage them to branch out in a game in roleplaying (aka. inhabiting made up character shoes?). I expect Origins will be a default anyway, once they become playable. Does it matter which origin will be listed first?

Originally Posted by adhominem
* Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 together have less than a dozen black human NPCs among several hundreds - the only one I can actually recall is Dynaheir
And romances in BG2 were heavily scewed toward male NPCs (not to mention other combinations than straight) - which fit me alright, as a straight male player, whos first character was obviously more or less my avatar. Still, as an american property I imagine newer additions have been mindful to have a wider ethnic representation. I don't see anything wrong or inappropriate with that.

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Honestly, I don't think it'd be anything deep. Just whatever is labeled as preset one for human female Tav. And if there is any reason, it'd likely to create variety between presets as you flip through races like Half Elf, Elf, Halfling, Human. Differences can make them stand out and make it easier for someone to figure out what type of character they want to play. Tbh, I am not sure why this would really be something anyone would notice, especially since the Male Human is Default Tav in a lot of people's eyes (even though when I start the game up Female Elf is always the default so that must be true Tav, Tav Prime, the Tav to merge all Tavs.)

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Originally Posted by adhominem
If the majority of players playing D&D are white and male

Oh boy, this topic again.

Originally Posted by adhominem
If over 90% of the human NPCs in the Forgotten Reals franchise* are white
If, according to Larian itself**, the average character made is white and male

Then why is the default human character a stereotypical black woman?

Why not? Does it offend you? Maybe it's Larian saying, live a little. If indeed most characters made are, as you say, "white and male", maybe they're giving encouragement to try something different. Or maybe it's just whatever default file pops up first.

I'm a person of caucasian background and that doesn't inform what characters I make in a fantasy setting. Across various games and years I've played female characters, male characters, of various skin colours. Lizards, elves, whatever. It's a fantasy game, not a Mary Sue fanfic.

Goodness, the wait for news on a new patch must be so agonizing, people are picking apart the smallest things just to get a reaction from others.

Last edited by Alexandrite; 08/05/21 01:40 PM.
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Another one! Another thread about "straight white male" not being the centre of the universe!

Your "politcal agenda" is something other people have had to fight for, so as not always to be the second-class to "straight white male".

Just get over it, that self entitlement is sickening.

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What's the problem if game has a character creator and you can create whoever you want?...


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Aaaand followed.

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This, if anything, is a real damn non-issue. The default human is a ... *drum roll* ... human. Get over it.

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Man, you really have to go out of your way to notice and then come to these forums for the sole purpose of complaining about a complete non issue such as this.

It’s all about respecting developer vision until suddenly it’s not. Or in this case, imposing your thoughts on what you think their vision is...

In this case it’s far more likely Larian had an idea people were going to go for a default set of looks, so they chose something out of the ordinary to force people to play with the character creation tools for testing purposes. And then they ended up being proven right if their Twitter comments about this are any indication.

Threads like this would only really encourage them to keep the default settings as is, purely to spite people like you. No creator hates nothing more than assholes coming in and using their creation as a platform to wage some kind of culture war.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 08/05/21 05:58 PM.
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Let me educate you OP. It's called diversity. Some people may want to create a black character. My wife chose an asian human on her first playthrough. I applaud Larian for their diversity in character creation.

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I hope larian will create more default presets, it takes time to change hair, skin tone, etc.

What about indian, asian, caucasian etc. default presets???

One-sided diversity is not diversity!!!

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Something have to be first ...
Why does it matter wich is number 1 and wich is number 2 ? O_o


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Originally Posted by derofim
I hope larian will create more default presets, it takes time to change hair, skin tone, etc.

What about indian, asian, caucasian etc. default presets???

One-sided diversity is not diversity!!!

There is a simple solution for that, implemented in many games that allow to make your own character - random character. Actually, the "random" button on the character look selection screen is one of the most beloved features in those games, but even without it - should not be a problem to add such function to the existing generator.

You click "select race", get to this screen and see not a preset, but a humanoid with the facial features randomly taken from the available options. A great way to demonstrate abilities of the character generator, and a truly wonderful toy to play with.

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I am confused about about what the issue is. You can create whatever character you want. There is no 'default'. If the first prebuilt that appears as a POC are you really feeling left out? And if you only platy as a white male you can't figure out how to change the skin? I am so tired of folks complaining about things that are not an issue.

And hate to tell you but the gamer community is no longer stuck in the 1990s. We are male, female, nonbinary. We come in all shapes, colors, preferences and non-preferences.

Last edited by smd1967; 08/05/21 08:44 PM. Reason: Typographic errors
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Originally Posted by Alexandrite
Originally Posted by adhominem
If the majority of players playing D&D are white and male

Oh boy, this topic again.

It seems so. :|

Originally Posted by footface
Aaaand followed.


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Originally Posted by adhominem
I can't find any good reason for this design decision apart from a political agenda being pushed into a game.

Ding Ding Ding you got it
The media is full of this shit nowadays
And although I hate identity politics (as any rational person should) in this case I don't care

Last edited by Youphreak; 08/05/21 09:51 PM.
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Last time I clicked character creator, I got the super model tanned High Elf cleric as the flat default, unless you mean when you click off for <shudders> Human? Clicking other races goes off the previous selection gender.

Example : Origin unlocker mod
Gale selected? Male Custom
Lae'zel selected? Female Custom
etc etc

My gripe with the character creation, are the locked heads to specific race nonsense we currently have. Like you'll pick Seladine Drow but not be allowed some of the Lolth Drow heads, whaaa? What's that about!

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Originally Posted by Lethan
Last time I clicked character creator, I got the super model tanned High Elf cleric as the flat default, unless you mean when you click off for <shudders> Human? Clicking other races goes off the previous selection gender.

Example : Origin unlocker mod
Gale selected? Male Custom
Lae'zel selected? Female Custom
etc etc

My gripe with the character creation, are the locked heads to specific race nonsense we currently have. Like you'll pick Seladine Drow but not be allowed some of the Lolth Drow heads, whaaa? What's that about!

The game defaults to a human, black, female cleric, at least for me. The rant the OP alludes to was clearly racist and misandrist and I would ask Larian if this represents the values of their company? But the editor can default to whatever it likes, so long as I have the opportunity to pick the race and colour and species of my choice within the bounds of the lore. Does it matter if it defaults to a black woman? So long as I can switch to a white man or Elf (since the human men faces look really, really bad) to chose then no, it does not. It's not like Larian excluded white men from it so I don't know why anyone is going to get bent out of shape about it defaulting to something other.

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Hey, yeah! Why doesn't it default to cleric when clerics represent a small number of players? It should default to a more popular class!

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Originally Posted by Chief_Jericho
Originally Posted by Lethan
Last time I clicked character creator, I got the super model tanned High Elf cleric as the flat default, unless you mean when you click off for <shudders> Human? Clicking other races goes off the previous selection gender.

Example : Origin unlocker mod
Gale selected? Male Custom
Lae'zel selected? Female Custom
etc etc

My gripe with the character creation, are the locked heads to specific race nonsense we currently have. Like you'll pick Seladine Drow but not be allowed some of the Lolth Drow heads, whaaa? What's that about!

The game defaults to a human, black, female cleric, at least for me. The rant the OP alludes to was clearly racist and misandrist and I would ask Larian if this represents the values of their company? But the editor can default to whatever it likes, so long as I have the opportunity to pick the race and colour and species of my choice within the bounds of the lore. Does it matter if it defaults to a black woman? So long as I can switch to a white man or Elf (since the human men faces look really, really bad) to chose then no, it does not. It's not like Larian excluded white men from it so I don't know why anyone is going to get bent out of shape about it defaulting to something other.

I do not know what you are talking about, by default I always have an elf female cleric... I mean after cutscene. And she's not black at all.


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