I wanted to address a couple issues with the game that I feel should be changed. I was involved in the Beta servers and left some helpful ideas, but I never did address what I'm about to say:
Firstly, I believe there should be a wider variety of skin tones for starter wizards, concerning people of color. I noticed the darkest skin tone in the game is one you have to buy from the Shopping District for 100 crowns. I do not think this is fair to wizards playing the game who have that skin tone in real life. As an asian person, I wanted a skin tone that would represent my ethnicity. Which brings me to my next point.
Secondly, a new face representing asians. I found that all of the Wizard101 character faces have predominately white features. This needs to be changed, for I feel like I am not being represented in the game. Some of my fellow asian w101 friends feel the same way.
Thirdly, instead of only 2 options being represented in create a wizard, there should be an extra option that says “Prefer Not To Say” instead of the usual “Girl or Boy.” Providing androgynous names for a wizard that identifies as neither male or female would be helpful to folks who are non-binary or transgender.
I wanted to address a couple issues with the game that I feel should be changed. I was involved in the Beta servers and left some helpful ideas, but I never did address what I'm about to say:
Firstly, I believe there should be a wider variety of skin tones for starter wizards, concerning people of color. I noticed the darkest skin tone in the game is one you have to buy from the Shopping District for 100 crowns. I do not think this is fair to wizards playing the game who have that skin tone in real life. As an asian person, I wanted a skin tone that would represent my ethnicity. Which brings me to my next point.
Secondly, a new face representing asians. I found that all of the Wizard101 character faces have predominately white features. This needs to be changed, for I feel like I am not being represented in the game. Some of my fellow asian w101 friends feel the same way.
Thirdly, instead of only 2 options being represented in create a wizard, there should be an extra option that says “Prefer Not To Say” instead of the usual “Girl or Boy.” Providing androgynous names for a wizard that identifies as neither male or female would be helpful to folks who are non-binary or transgender.
I hope Kingsisle takes these into consideration.
Thanks turtlecorpse for your thoughts here, this is something we've actually been trying to work on more. The way the system was originally coded kind of restricts us a bit on how many options we can provide across genders... it sounds silly, I know, but that's the way it was described to me.
I wanted to address a couple issues with the game that I feel should be changed. I was involved in the Beta servers and left some helpful ideas, but I never did address what I'm about to say:
Firstly, I believe there should be a wider variety of skin tones for starter wizards, concerning people of color. I noticed the darkest skin tone in the game is one you have to buy from the Shopping District for 100 crowns. I do not think this is fair to wizards playing the game who have that skin tone in real life. As an asian person, I wanted a skin tone that would represent my ethnicity. Which brings me to my next point.
Secondly, a new face representing asians. I found that all of the Wizard101 character faces have predominately white features. This needs to be changed, for I feel like I am not being represented in the game. Some of my fellow asian w101 friends feel the same way.
Thirdly, instead of only 2 options being represented in create a wizard, there should be an extra option that says “Prefer Not To Say” instead of the usual “Girl or Boy.” Providing androgynous names for a wizard that identifies as neither male or female would be helpful to folks who are non-binary or transgender.
I hope Kingsisle takes these into consideration.
I have been a member of the Wizards community for many years and have enjoyed the game, along with my kids and my husband, over all these years. It is a fun, interesting, challenging at times, enjoyable game geared mainly to kids and families with people of all ages able to join in the fun.
I have created seven wizards over the years and in all that time, I picked skin tones and facial features that simply appealed to me and never noticed your claim that "...all of the Wizard101 character faces have predominately white features." Never. Ethnic features were never a concern as, again, this is just a game, a fantasy world to be enjoyed, not politicized.
This game is all about fun and enjoyment, excitement and adventure, challenges and accomplishments, making new friends, helping each other....but most of all, just having fun in a make-believe world!
There is no need to bring in the "politically correct" topics of ethnicity, facial features, skin tones, and gender choices into this wonderful kids game! These topics can and should be discussed between parents and their children or between friends/acquaintances.....just not here in this simple but wonderful fantasy game.
KI has done a beautiful job with this family game over the years and there is no need to change things up to accommodate the politically correct crowd.
Thanks turtlecorpse for your thoughts here, this is something we've actually been trying to work on more. The way the system was originally coded kind of restricts us a bit on how many options we can provide across genders... it sounds silly, I know, but that's the way it was described to me.
Can we do more? Yes, absolutely, and we will!
Great! Really be neat to see how the 58 genders are represented in Wizard101. I personally can't wait to select Gender Fluid option to switch between them on the fly.
I have been a member of the Wizards community for many years and have enjoyed the game, along with my kids and my husband, over all these years. It is a fun, interesting, challenging at times, enjoyable game geared mainly to kids and families with people of all ages able to join in the fun.
I have created seven wizards over the years and in all that time, I picked skin tones and facial features that simply appealed to me and never noticed your claim that "...all of the Wizard101 character faces have predominately white features." Never. Ethnic features were never a concern as, again, this is just a game, a fantasy world to be enjoyed, not politicized.
This game is all about fun and enjoyment, excitement and adventure, challenges and accomplishments, making new friends, helping each other....but most of all, just having fun in a make-believe world!
There is no need to bring in the "politically correct" topics of ethnicity, facial features, skin tones, and gender choices into this wonderful kids game! These topics can and should be discussed between parents and their children or between friends/acquaintances.....just not here in this simple but wonderful fantasy game.
KI has done a beautiful job with this family game over the years and there is no need to change things up to accommodate the politically correct crowd.
Although I identify myself as "white", I have noticed that the starter facial features/skin tones are very limited or non-existent for those wanting to create a wizard from the same culture/ethnicity This maybe a "wonderful kid's game" but the issue presented by the opening poster is just as viable on these boards and should be discussed, calmly and with consideration. There is nothing "PC" about wanting a wizard that reflects you!
I think it'd be a wonderful idea, especially since the dark skin tones aren't very realistic. They look kinda desaturated, which makes the skin look dirty.
Please don't bring modern politics to this game. That is so unnecessary. I'm black and I don't see the issue. This is a children's game.
She's not bringing in modern politics, she's requesting a skin tone/facial that reflects her ethnicity and she got a positive response from KI via Sparck. I don't see why a "kid's game" shouldn't address issues of race if there is a perceived lack by players; most of the "kids" playing this game are of the ages 15-18 and are politically aware If a player sees a lack of representation in skin color or facial features, then they're right to bring it to the attention of the game's developers.
She's not bringing in modern politics, she's requesting a skin tone/facial that reflects her ethnicity and she got a positive response from KI via Sparck. I don't see why a "kid's game" shouldn't address issues of race if there is a perceived lack by players; most of the "kids" playing this game are of the ages 15-18 and are politically aware If a player sees a lack of representation in skin color or facial features, then they're right to bring it to the attention of the game's developers.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what she is doing as this, to my knowledge, has never been an issue in all the years I have been a member and player of this game.
If reflecting ethnicity, skin color, facial features, and gender choices are the deciding factors of whether or not to play a children/family-friendly game, then perhaps those concerned with these issues should find a game that will cater to those issues.
Just a question -- How do you know that "...most of the 'kids' playing this game are of the ages 15-18 and are politically aware?" I am interested in where you found this information.
For me and my family and I imagine for thousands of other players, we enjoy this game for its beauty, simplicity yet challenge, fun, friendships, ability to help others, and wonderfully interesting story lines.
I relate to this struggle of limited options from the core game functions. In spite of this, I myself have created a non-binary wizard using the options in Magic Mirror. It's akin to Minecraft, where you can pick the Steve or Alex model, but don't necessarily need to identify to the gender the model is. Some may use the Alex skin simply because itis more sleek and less bulky. I see this in Wizard101. With the new faces that seem more androgynous and varying hair lengths for both models, I was successfully able to create a non-binary wizard named Devin (one of the four names that can be used by either model) and you cannot tell straight away I had used the boy model to create him. I used Face 12 (with the circular glasses) and the Stalwart Guardian (ponytail hairystyle) for reference.
Hi all! There's been some great points made here about diversity, a topic we fully support in having.
As developers, we are doing what we can in the game to make sure everyone is content and happy with the options the game presents for their own roleplay and identity interests. This will be expanded up in the future as we can adjust the game's original mechanics.
For now, I'm going to close this discussion. There were several additional posts coming in that started to move the discussion away from the game and into some unsafe territory. If you'd like to continue to discuss those finer details, please feel free to do so on unofficial channels.
