Let’s see how many people fail their Reading Comprehension check and believe I accidentally spelled “White” wrong in the headline. I’ve simultaneously been dreading and waiting for quite some time to write about diversity in games. The predictable backlash with Dragon Age: The Veilguard and its decision to include a Transgender identity option made me mentally revisit this nonsense. So, as exhausting as this will be to write, I need to talk about diversity in video games.
The focus will be Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Wyll. (I promise I’ll keep spoilers to an absolute minimum.) In the game, Wyll is the noble Blade of Frontiers. Defender of the weak. Good Guy Extraordinaire! He’s like a Disney Prince! He’s regal, passionate about doing the right thing, and his character arc is more “external” than “internal.” And he also happens to be Black.
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Now, I’ve played nearly 100 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 at this point and am deeply invested in Wyll as a character. I love him! He’s much more than “generic Marty Sue who has no flaws and does no wrong.” He’s got layers, man! He also happens to be the only definitively Black “main” companion you can recruit. Yes, there are technically brief Black followers and Black Hirelings, but I’m talking about the companions the game is tailored around who factor into the larger story. (I won’t touch on the PoC coding of other characters as we’ll be here all day bickering about it.)
why does diversity intimidate people?
So, as someone who quickly fell in love with Baldur’s Gate 3, I decided to hit the forums and drink in all the chatter about the companions! That’s when I saw it. The infamous “Make Wyll White” mod. I was disappointed. I was angry. Literally all the other Origin companions are (debatably) white. Even worse: You don’t have to recruit him. Even if you’re a racist scumbag or “anti-diversity crusader” and Wyll being Black is a deal-breaker, he’s easy to ignore!
That’s when it clicked. They liked the picture — the Blade of Frontiers, the noble gentleman, the effective Warlock. But they hated the frame. So, someone was oh-so generous enough to have it so you could wash away that pesky, minor skin color issue! Now, Wyll was acceptable! He could roll with the rest of my squad!
Which is another factor here that makes me furious. Again — I gotta repeat it — all the other companions are white. The fact one Black person “makes my team woke” is lunacy. Zero logic, zero sense. Racism doesn’t make sense, sure. But that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to get upset about it. It only solidifies the idea that the issue is never “there are too many Black/PoC characters in this game!” (Though, again, what’s the problem even if a cast of characters is predominantly non-white?) The issue is the audacity they have to exist at all.
how ‘dragon age: the veilguard’ brought all that anger back to the surface
I was able to suppress the sheer indignation I felt for a while. After all, that’s what People of Color do when they’re hit like that, right? If a racial stone is thrown at you, it’s improper to be angry about it because you become the aggressor. Instead, you take it! You vent to friends who would understand and keep it pushing! But then, Dragon Age: The Veilguard — a game that hasn’t even formally come out yet — happened. Specifically, the conversations/reviews surrounding it.
By now, it’s likely no secret that someone who won’t be explicitly mentioned tied the title to Sweet Baby Inc. (a disaster of a situation I don’t feel like touching on here) and the game’s apparent “agenda” to highlight People of Color. This “criticism,” by the way, was in an official review for the game. As a games journalist, to ding a game for including People of Color or, God forbid, giving players the option to be Transgender or Non-Binary, should be grounds for losing any and all credibility.
Yes, game reviews have a degree of bias in them — of course! At the end of the day, it’s someone’s opinion! But if I, a Black person, dared to write “Eh, there were too many white people, but it was cool, I guess” in a review for any game? I’d, one, likely be fired. Two, nobody would ever — and I mean ever — take me seriously as a reviewer again. Hell, I’d probably never work in games journalism again!
and now, here we are
Back to Wyll. A Reddit post pulled out some interesting statistics regarding Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Origin companions and the time you spend with them. The thread title? Simply “Wyll Deserved Better.” There are spoilers in that post, so I’ll abridge its contents. Basically, a dataminer found files detailing how much content/dialogue each Origin companion had throughout the game. Here’s what was discovered.
- Astarion: 12 hrs 45 mins 37 secs
- Shadowheart: 12 hrs14 mins 48 secs
- Gale: 11 hrs 14 mins 27 secs
- Lae’zel: 10 hrs 58 mins 43 secs
- Karlach: 10 hrs 23 mins 4 secs
- Wyll: 8 hrs 29 mins 3 secs
Why does Wyll have significantly less screen time than anyone else? Yes, he’s not as “internally troubled” as an Astarion. But it’s awfully disheartening to see that Wyll got the least amount of love. I’m not even accusing Larian of intentionally setting things up that way! After all, the team had to rework a lot of Wyll’s character! It’s less about Larian doing something wrong and more that, alongside all the subtle and overt racism from “fans,” it’s so tiring it’s another way a Black person didn’t get an equal opportunity to shine and show off.
I’m tired of the constant ‘diversity crisis,’ y’all
It doesn’t begin or end with Wyll, either. He’s just one of many in the “Times People of Color Were Shafted In Games” Hall of Infamy. Sometimes, it’s women. Then, Black people have their turn. The roulette wheel stops on a different minority — a different controversy — a different gaggle of idiots sharing a dying brain cell with no legitimate criticisms to give. All in the name of “forced diversity.”
If they don’t like it, they scream about it on social media. If they do like it, they find sneaky ways to soften those rough edges! Such as fan art mysteriously lightening a person’s skin tone to an “acceptable” hue. Wyll, according to the “anti-woke” crowd, did everything he was supposed to do. He had none of the “Black struggles.” His race is barely mentioned throughout the game. He didn’t feel the need to emphasize how Black he was at every turn. And still, despite all that, it wasn’t enough. And in truth? It never is.
