Team NINJA Social Media Updates for DOA6

[inochinagi]

@human013 - yes, I did read it. I just re-read it too. I maintain what I said.

I was gonna leave this reply at just that, but I found a way to edit this and make it another long post Ok, this is what he said:

The only thing we NEED more of in DOA is dark/darker skin fighters, both male and female.

and this was your response to that:

As for the diversity thing, I get where people are coming from, but why does DOA need to do that?

Maybe I read it different from you, but I didn't read RetroMe's post as saying "DOA needs this". Although, you could make an argument that it does and why it does (to keep competitive with other games that are doing it, to increase chances of interest in other regions, so that they could expand their audience, etc). Both of yours and his comments actually can be argued to be incomplete thoughts, actually. We need it in order for what? DoA doesn't need it in order for what? I could say "DoA needs to put more PoC in to keep me interested", for example, but I personally wouldn't say that because it wouldn't be true, it's just an example for my point. I could say "It would be helpful for DoA to have more PoC or more diverse characters in general in order to help keep my interest", that would be true coming from me.

Anyways, again, is it fair to single out one person's comment and paint the rest of us with it? I upvoted it because I generally agreed with it, but I wouldn't have worded it the same. Hopefully I've made my point clear by now. If this reply looks ridiculous to anyone, it's only because out of all the things I said in the last comment, this is the only thing you focused on. The other thing in your reply just leads me to believe you're not really reading everything we're saying properly. I think we're on the verge of going in circles here.

 

[Onryoki]

I actually do think a game like DOA should have more nationalities. The game revolves around a world tournament. Not every new character has to be Japanese or a little girl, I do wish DOA would be more diverse but who am I kidding? They don’t even let the characters wear a different costume.

 

[werewolfgold]

Like I said before, each game has it's own vision for their game.

And sometimes, the vision is fucking stupid. lol

If you eliminate any and all context, then sure. SamSho should likely have exactly the same ratio of nationalities/races as DOA. But, since context is a thing, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Now, clearly, the only context TN is concerned with is do otakus want to put it on body pillows and fuck it, and they're free to go with that. Doesn't make it any less stupid given the context of their game.

 

[RetroMe91]

To clarify my original post, I used the term POC because it was the best term to simplify saying other nationalities, including nationalities we are missing or have a lack there of, including, but not limited to, black, Hispanic, South American, middle eastern, eastern Asian, Pacific Islanders, and more... I didn’t realize me saying this would become such a hot topic. I really meant we, as and audience, not we as the company that makes DOA. Do I want an actually dark skinned, black female character? Yes. I stated that. I personally think darker skin is beautiful and that it’s not fair to the audience who plays DOA and has been asking for more representation/nationalities since DOA5’s release.

Just because DOA has become and anime fighter, doesn’t mean it needs to follow in anime’s footsteps and have an all white/Asian cast of characters. If they made a black female character and followed an anime archetype, I am sure she would sell. I’m not asking them to make a POC character and then make the whole game into a POC fighter. I’m not asking them to nerf everyone else and buff Zack and Lisa.

I’m just asking for a little more diversity in skin tone. Why is that such a big deal? why are there so many fragile flowers in this community. If we aren’t bitching about every single tweet this company tweets, then we are ripping each other apart over what individuals into he community would like in the game they play.... I would love it if we had an openly lgbt character too, so would you like to get at me for that as well?? Sorry to hurt some people’s fragile sensibilities. *eye roll*

@human013, have fun dissecting and ripping this apart. I’ll catch up to it when I care.... *eye roll*

@inochinagi, thanks for getting what I was putting out and not making it such complicated issue.

 

[SaihateDYNAMO]

People have become so brainwashed to the point where they’re actually defending the lack of diversity in media, yet alone in a videogame about an international martial-arts tournament. It doesn’t matter what country, continent or planet something was made in because it’s 2020 and there’s no excuse to explain how uncommon POC are in video games (and media in general, but let’s stick to games for now), especially when it comes time to portray them in a positive light.

As for the diversity thing, I get where people are coming from, but why does DOA need to do that? It's a Japanese game created by Japanese people with a story revolving around a Japanese setting designed for a Japanese audience. Developers have their own visions and ideas for their game. Not everything needs to be about POC. People need to look at the audience each fighting game is catering to. How big is Tekken and where is it popular? How big is DOA and where is it popular? What about BB, GG, UNIEST, DBZF, GBFVS, SF, SG, or any other game?

So what you’re saying is that adding characters that aren’t the usual Asian and white races will alienate international audiences, who are most likely not Asian and white themselves? And that they would be turned off at the possibility of a game’s roster having more than like 3 token minorities? It’s backwards thinking to assume that people can’t resonate with characters outside of their race/skin tone. Most of the characters that I and other brown-skinned POC have been seeing on our screens all our lives do not have brown skin yet we’ve all been able to like and appreciate them, so if others can’t do the same for the inverse then that’s their problem. Also please say sike after you claimed that “not everything needs to be about POC” because you are thinking extremely selfishly. I’ll leave it at that.

But you’re right: Japanese people technically don’t owe us anything when it comes to diversifying their media but you need to be reminded that Asian and white people are NOT the only people in the world, nor are they the only ones worthy of being video game characters. As a black person, I will say that the older I get, the more and more annoyed i am towards how rare black men and women are in video games and anime, let alone fighting games, which are my favorite genre... so what is wrong with wanting characters that look more like me? I don’t think you truly understand what that feeling is like if you’re really out here undermining the importance of adding non-white, non-Asian characters in video games. Even Western-developed games are nowhere close to being as diverse as they should be because diversity-wise, it’s pretty much the exact same, so you can’t say that we need to look at western developers for diversity. Are you aware of the amount of mainstream western video games out there with middle-aged white men as the protagonist? It’s TIRED.

 

[zoo]

imagine if Lisa didn’t exist would DOA even be around? I think fighting games would just vanish

 

[DestructionBomb]

imagine if Lisa didn’t exist would DOA even be around? I think DOA would just vanish

Fixed. But yeah, Ryu Hayabusa spearheaded the operation to make DOA actually relevant (Itagaki's actual take by the way, yes you can ask him despite Kasumi is the main character), and Lisa was the breakthrough for diversity.

 

[inochinagi]

@DestructionBomb don't know if its that simple, lol, but yeat I'd say they were definitely important to the series (also is there a reason no one brings up Zack? If it was just him he'd just be a token, is that why?). If that image of the tweet from itagaki being pissed about Lisa being lighter in DoA5 is real, then I think that's a pretty clear indicator that some clear thought and attention to detail was put into her implementation into the series. Why was she brought in the way she was and even treated like a big deal with the way she was revealed and made a poster girl for two different entries (both DoAX and DoA4)? Japanese people don't care about diversity and trying to reach into wider more international markets? Looking at how she's treated recently just makes it all seem like something I just imagined, lol. I think taking her out of what is, in a way, her series (DoAX, she's the original Venus girl!) just because she was last in a Japanese-exlusive poll, I think that totally goes against why she was created in the first place. But then, you can argue, they already decided to not bother anymore with the western market for when it comes to DoAX, anyways... that's a whole other can of worms.

 

[Onryoki]

I think Tekken is stiff gameplay wise but I have to admit that to me Tekken has the most diverse roster of the fighting games in general. They have Brazilian characters, Native American characters, black, asian, white, Hispanic, Middle Eastern characters. I don’t get why people act so rebellious when people request characters that are so called “minorities” (funny how POC are considered minorities when there are more POC than white people). Most of the time when I see black characters they’re often clowns or heavily stereotyped. It’s 2020, it shouldn’t be some sort of taboo to have non white or non asian characters in fighting games and media in general. It’s not the end of the world if we get more POC to appear in fighting games.

 

[DestructionBomb]

@DestructionBomb don't know if its that simple, lol, but yeat I'd say they were definitely important to the series (also is there a reason no one brings up Zack? If it was just him he'd just be a token, is that why?). If that image of the tweet from itagaki being pissed about Lisa being lighter in DoA5 is real, then I think that's a pretty clear indicator that some clear thought and attention to detail was put into her implementation into the series. Why was she brought in the way she was and even treated like a big deal with the way she was revealed and made a poster girl for two different entries (both DoAX and DoA4)? Japanese people don't care about diversity and trying to reach into wider more international markets? Looking at how she's treated recently just makes it all seem like something I just imagined, lol.

The message from Itagaki regarding Lisa is in fact real yes, and the Zack being a token thing wasn't even his own idea. His own idea from Zack was the whole Dennis Rodman thing. Hence why it becomes a sensitive topic as to why DOA goes through such a dilemma. You have to blame DOA for that one.

An example of SaihateDYNAMO's genuine frustration, can you blame him? I mean who's to blame? the answer is obvious. DOA.

 

[KasumiLover]

I think Tekken is stiff gameplay wise but I have to admit that to me Tekken has the most diverse roster of the fighting games in general. They have Brazilian characters, Native American characters, black, asian, white, Hispanic, Middle Eastern characters. I don’t get why people act so rebellious when people request characters that are so called “minorities” (funny how POC are considered minorities when there are more POC than white people). Most of the time when I see black characters they’re often clowns or heavily stereotyped. It’s 2020, it shouldn’t be some sort of taboo to have non white or non asian characters in fighting games and media in general. It’s not the end of the world if we get more POC to appear in fighting games.

That's part of the reason why most Japanese games don't make many black people, since on today's day and age and with selective outrage the general people are very sensitive and very critical of how their people are repped, especially in games since making a black person even remotely stereotypical will be a cause for negativity. Mortal kombat and Tekken and SC(with zasalamel) generally do a good job at making their black or African American characters very well done in how we want our people to be presented(although I wish they'd stop with the dreads and low fades and twisted hair since their are black people with different styles besides the typical afro styles) and games that do make their black people clowns or weird(Balrog and that Jamaican guy in SFV and Zack in DOA)usually make them more as comic relief type characters without being offensive or stereotypical which is why they get a pass.

I generally think most games stray from black people in games unless they know they can do is justice like SC and Tekken do since they've always been very careful with how they portray minority groups, that's why they changed Zafina's old costume because originally it was overtly sexualized and the Saudi arabian culture didnt like that and Miguel had his original T6 outfit canned post T6 since it was a straight up bull fighter costume. It's just all about execution since i myself as a black guy don't like how most blacks in games are shown tbh, I feel like they always do us dirty or make us very linear in terms of how we act and look

 

[DestructionBomb]

Then Leroy came and had the biggest impacted sales in T7 very close to Geese according to Harada.

In truth, not every JPN developed games but majority of them yeah. Harada is more broad about it and open to it.

 

[inochinagi]

Well, I if nothing else, I think it's at least pretty clear that pretty much 9/10 of us wouldn't just mind but actually want more diversity from DoA, no need to even put it to a poll, lol.

@KasumiLover Good point about how Japanese devs might think of it as too big a risk to even try, though. I can see how Zack can be seen as just a clown, but personally I've always felt he struck a good balance between the macho and goof stereotype rather than subscribing to one or the other. Plus, making him the Muai Thai character rather than a boxer or something, lol, but then Tekken did that too, but I like Zack way more than Bruce. I've always liked him, but I can see why he can be seen as problematic. But DoA being typical of most fighting games with their ridiculous stories and characters, you can argue a lot of the Japanese characters themselves are very stereotypical and full of tropes. That's why I'd rather just like to see them keep trying. But then, I'm someone of an Indian background and I love Dhalsim, lol (dude named after an Indian resturant in Japan XD).

But keeping in mind where these designs are coming from, Japan being the country that it is, sometimes it's really interesting to see what they can come up with or how right they can sometimes get things when it comes to characters based on concepts that are likely foreign to them, except from probably what they've seen on TV/movies. Lisa could be painted as just another sexualized dark skinned woman, but at the same time she's also an intelligent scientist and a luchadora. I actually wish they'd go deeper into the characters' stories and backgrounds some day because you could easily turn what doesn't seem to make sense into an interesting backstory that does make sense. Why is Lisa a dark skinned American woman with the last name Hamilton but does lucha libre and seemingly knows spanish (just based on her title names)? Maybe she's a mixed race Puerto Rican?

 

[SaihateDYNAMO]

imagine if Lisa didn’t exist would DOA even be around? I think fighting games would just vanish

I mean... if Lisa didn't exist only Zack would be there and to me it would be offputting seeing only one brown face in a roster of like 30+ characters, which is technically the case in like every fighter except Tekken. That's called being a token character and I think """minorities""" deserve better representation than that. If Lisa didn't exist my #1 newcomer priority would be to get a black girl in the game. Yet here we are, and Lisa exists yet my #1 wish still is to get another POC character in DOA. Is that everyone's experience/way of thinking? Of course not, and I respect that, but I don't see the problem in saying that I think that we need more than just 1 black and 1 ambiguously-brown character in a sea of whites and Asians in what is supposed to be a international fighting game tournament. It's all based on context. If the game took place in feudal Japan or something that would obviously be an unrealistic expectation, but it doesn't. It's all over the world, so why can't the actual playable characters reflect that a bit more instead of just the stages, is all I'm saying. If DOA had no black people I would still be playing it... hell I play tons of games with none but I think it would be nice to see them in more games.

If some of you guys don't like me saying some of this, oh well. I said what I said. I'm definitely not being problematic by stating that there is a severe lack of characters that share my skin tone because that is literally the case; I'm not the type of person who's hush mouth about that kind of stuff lol. It's just such a disproportionate ratio to the point where it feels like POC does not exist sometimes so I'm glad that some baby steps are being made in other series, but there's definitely a ways to go.

That's part of the reason why most Japanese games don't make many black people, since on today's day and age and with selective outrage the general people are very sensitive and very critical of how their people are repped, especially in games since making a black person even remotely stereotypical will be a cause for negativity. Mortal kombat and Tekken and SC(with zasalamel) generally do a good job at making their black or African American characters very well done in how we want our people to be presented(although I wish they'd stop with the dreads and low fades and twisted hair since their are black people with different styles besides the typical afro styles) and games that do make their black people clowns or weird(Balrog and that Jamaican guy in SFV and Zack in DOA)usually make them more as comic relief type characters without being offensive or stereotypical which is why they get a pass.

I generally think most games stray from black people in games unless they know they can do is justice like SC and Tekken do since they've always been very careful with how they portray minority groups, that's why they changed Zafina's old costume because originally it was overtly sexualized and the Saudi arabian culture didnt like that and Miguel had his original T6 outfit canned post T6 since it was a straight up bull fighter costume. It's just all about execution since i myself as a black guy don't like how most blacks in games are shown tbh, I feel like they always do us dirty or make us very linear in terms of how we act and look

You're right, one false step when it comes to making a black character TOO stereotypical would turn some people off, but you blame them for being sensitive though? Remember when most black characters were either boxers, played basketball, etc etc? There's more to us than just those basic "black people bad and tough!" stereotypes. There's all sorts of unexplored personalities, styles, and stuff that simply haven't been explored yet, so the potential is there, there's just a lack of interest/care, sadly. Like I said, though, small steps have been made lately!

---
I'll stop for now since some of you probably feel I'm doing the most with the topic at the moment lol, I just think this stuff is important!

 

[human013]

And sometimes, the vision is fucking stupid. lol

If you eliminate any and all context, then sure. SamSho should likely have exactly the same ratio of nationalities/races as DOA. But, since context is a thing, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Now, clearly, the only context TN is concerned with is do otakus want to put it on body pillows and fuck it, and they're free to go with that. Doesn't make it any less stupid given the context of their game.

So what is it about DOA's context that makes it not fine for it to do what it does but for SamSho it's completely fine? Is this about the world tournament thing again? The tournament that is basically a front for experiments involving Japanese ninjas and characters? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the ninja's story is the main and most important story for DOA is it not? DOA's story began with the ninjas and everything that matters in the series stems from it. The tournament is just a side thing. It's just like the World Series not actually having the entire world participate in it.

Just because DOA has become and anime fighter, doesn’t mean it needs to follow in anime’s footsteps and have an all white/Asian cast of characters. If they made a black female character and followed an anime archetype, I am sure she would sell. I’m not asking them to make a POC character and then make the whole game into a POC fighter. I’m not asking them to nerf everyone else and buff Zack and Lisa.

I’m just asking for a little more diversity in skin tone. Why is that such a big deal? why are there so many fragile flowers in this community. If we aren’t bitching about every single tweet this company tweets, then we are ripping each other apart over what individuals into he community would like in the game they play.... I would love it if we had an openly lgbt character too, so would you like to get at me for that as well?? Sorry to hurt some people’s fragile sensibilities. *eye roll*

I love this community so much. LMAO at that first sentence and the random exaggerations are quite fun to read. Well, since you think any conflicting view means being fragile or whatever I'll leave you with this since you're now moving onto LGBT for some reason; GBVS has Ladiva and this is her.

The roster also has characters like Metera, Lancelot, Percival, and incoming characters like Narmaya and Belial. The game is filled with hot guys and hot girls. Both males and females were going crazy for the characters at the Granblue festival last December. This is Narmaya btw.

Think about the audience the game aimed for. I'll give you a hint. In GBF, this character just had a Valentines Day event that was trending on twitter and is already more popular than the other Valentine's Day events in the past.

What does that say about the audience GBF wants? Compare that to the audience DOA aimed for. From the original DOA to now.

So what you’re saying is that adding characters that aren’t the usual Asian and white races will alienate international audiences, who are most likely not Asian and white themselves? And that they would be turned off at the possibility of a game’s roster having more than like 3 token minorities? It’s backwards thinking to assume that people can’t resonate with characters outside of their race/skin tone. Most of the characters that I and other brown-skinned POC have been seeing on our screens all our lives do not have brown skin yet we’ve all been able to like and appreciate them, so if others can’t do the same for the inverse then that’s their problem. Also please say sike after you claimed that “not everything needs to be about POC” because you are thinking extremely selfishly. I’ll leave it at that.

Take it however you like. Spin it however you like.

But you’re right: Japanese people technically don’t owe us anything when it comes to diversifying their media but you need to be reminded that Asian and white people are NOT the only people in the world, nor are they the only ones worthy of being video game characters. As a black person, I will say that the older I get, the more and more annoyed i am towards how rare black men and women are in video games and anime, let alone fighting games, which are my favorite genre... so what is wrong with wanting characters that look more like me? I don’t think you truly understand what that feeling is like if you’re really out here undermining the importance of adding non-white, non-Asian characters in video games. Even Western-developed games are nowhere close to being as diverse as they should be because diversity-wise, it’s pretty much the exact same, so you can’t say that we need to look at western developers for diversity. Are you aware of the amount of mainstream western video games out there with middle-aged white men as the protagonist? It’s TIRED.

Assume whatever you want but please take a moment to consider the things I've been saying this whole time. The audience the game wants to cater to, the creators, and what they have in mind for their creations. For example, are you going to go into GBF and tell people that game needs more POC too?

(also is there a reason no one brings up Zack? If it was just him he'd just be a token, is that why?).

The thing about Zack is I like his fighting style because it looks brutal but I just don't like goofy characters. He's in the bin along with Faust, Xiba and Dampierre.


As for Tekken, how big is the game? How early did it add POC into the roster? What did the creator have in mind or envision when creating Tekken? Ask yourself the same questions for DOA.

You guys love to praise Itagaki but from DOA1-4 what did he do in terms of POC? Why didn't he add them? What was his vision for the game? When did he add a POC into his game?

 

[DestructionBomb]

I mean... if Lisa didn't exist only Zack would be there and to me it would be offputting seeing only one brown face in a roster of like 30+ characters, which is technically the case in like every fighter except Tekken. That's called being a token character and I think """minorities""" deserve better representation than that. If Lisa didn't exist my #1 newcomer priority would be to get a black girl in the game. Yet here we are, and Lisa exists yet my #1 wish still is to get another POC character in DOA. Is that everyone's experience/way of thinking? Of course not, and I respect that, but I don't see the problem in saying that I think that we need more than just 1 black and 1 ambiguously-brown character in a sea of whites and Asians in what is supposed to be a international fighting game tournament. It's all based on context. If the game took place in feudal Japan or something that would obviously be an unrealistic expectation, but it doesn't. It's all over the world, so why can't the actual playable characters reflect that a bit more instead of just the stages, is all I'm saying. If DOA had no black people I would still be playing it... hell I play tons of games with none but I think it would be nice to see them in more games.

If some of you guys don't like me saying some of this, oh well. I said what I said. I'm definitely not being problematic by stating that there is a severe lack of characters that share my skin tone because that is literally the case; I'm not the type of person who's hush mouth about that kind of stuff lol. It's just such a disproportionate ratio to the point where it feels like POC does not exist sometimes so I'm glad that some baby steps are being made in other series, but there's definitely a ways to go.


You're right, one false step when it comes to making a black character TOO stereotypical would turn some people off, but you blame them for being sensitive though? Remember when most black characters were either boxers, played basketball, etc etc? There's more to us than just those basic "black people bad and tough!" stereotypes. There's all sorts of unexplored personalities, styles, and stuff that simply haven't been explored yet, so the potential is there, there's just a lack of interest/care, sadly. Like I said, though, small steps have been made lately!

---
I'll stop for now since some of you probably feel I'm doing the most with the topic at the moment lol, I just think this stuff is important!

Your post is genuine. Don't worry about it.

 

[inochinagi]

You guys love to praise Itagaki but from DOA1-4 what did he do in terms of POC? Why didn't he add them? What was his vision for the game? When did he add a POC into his game?

Uhhh... (doesnt matter what you think of them)

At this point I really think the only problem here is that you don't read things properly. You keep asking questions that have already been answered or brought up before you even asked. SamSho's context? 18th Century Japan. And even then, the first game even had Gen-an, lol, but seriously, at least now taking recent steps to add in more diverse characters. What's the point in arguing that the ninja-DOATEC side of the story is more important than the world tournament side? Both can be important. Even if you were right, DOATEC is run by and employs non-Japanese people, including Lisa.

If KT intended DoA to only be made for a specific Japanese audience then they would have done the same thing with DoA6 that they did with DoAX3 and kept it within their region. Since they still see a good part of DoA's market to be outside Japan then they'd be wise to consider some more non-Japanese ideas again, wouldn't they? You're also bringing up the word "need" again, we're talking about what we want here. Granblue looks like its already doing a much better job of catering to everyone, or at least a much wider audience than DoA is.

I should have done this before, but..

How big is Tekken and where is it popular?

Huge. Everywhere.

How big is DOA and where is it popular?

Not huge. Nowhere

 

[zoo]

We should probably end this tbh it’s not going anywhere. Think most of us would welcome a more diverse cast so let’s just leave it at that. After all this has like nothing to do with the thread topic lol

 

[Derock]

Mortal kombat and Tekken and SC(with zasalamel) generally do a good job at making their black or African American characters very well done in how we want our people to be presented(although I wish they'd stop with the dreads and low fades and twisted hair since their are black people with different styles besides the typical afro styles) and games that do make their black people clowns or weird(Balrog and that Jamaican guy in SFV and Zack in DOA)usually make them more as comic relief type characters without being offensive or stereotypical which is why they get a pass.

I generally think most games stray from black people in games unless they know they can do is justice like SC and Tekken do since they've always been very careful with how they portray minority groups, that's why they changed Zafina's old costume because originally it was overtly sexualized and the Saudi arabian culture didnt like that and Miguel had his original T6 outfit canned post T6 since it was a straight up bull fighter costume. It's just all about execution since i myself as a black guy don't like how most blacks in games are shown tbh, I feel like they always do us dirty or make us very linear in terms of how we act and look

1st bolded: What's wrong with that? There are black/African American people this day that has those hairstyles, although with afros, that need to be kept, IMO. We're not in the 70s where that style was popular. (I always do low fades because I have Indian hair that grows every week if unchecked). Straight or nappy, it represents us to give uniqueness.

Let's go through the list here of black-skinned fictional fighters: Balrog, Mike (SF 1), Birdie, Dee Jay, Jax, Jade (even though she has Asian looks, she counts), Jeffrey, Duck King, Bob Wilson, Jonathan Blade, Bruce, Cyrax, Heavy D!, Lucky, T..J. Combo, Maya, Sean, Dudley, Elena, Eddy, Zack, Kai (MK), Grace, Jane, Boman, Geralt, Urien (counted him because he does have melanin), Tracy (Battle Arena Toshinden series, from the looks of it, I think she's Black/African American) and her older sister Rachael, Tau, Atuhua, Seth (KOF), Marco, Rob Python, Jaques Ducalis, Vanessa Lewis (VF), Lisa, Christie (Tekken), Angelica (Samurai Shodown), J (Samurai Shodown), Raven, Pullum (counts even though she's Arabian), Rouge (Power Stone, also counts as Arabian), Gunrock, Zasalamel, Cerebella, Ms. Fortune, Jacqui, Laura, Nelson, Banderias, Zarina, Menat, Master Raven and now Leroy.

(I might add Potenkim, Ramlethal and Bullet because they have melanin as well. There may be more characters...) but anyway, these characters may be stereotypical (looking at Balrog and Rob Python from Buriki One) and some maybe weird looking (Tracy has blue hair!!!) but I won't put their hairstyles as their defining part of their designs and personality. Most of the characters (Jeffrey, Vanessa, Christie, the Ravens, Zasalamel and Leroy as examples) can have their customized for your liking.

2nd bolded: you mean Dee Jay, and he's not really weird... well, besides smiling a lot, as he's a happy Martial Artist who is a musician. (Only thing is he's really unpopular because of his gameplay, ever since his debut in Super Street Fighter II).

 

[KasumiLover]

Well, I if nothing else, I think it's at least pretty clear that pretty much 9/10 of us wouldn't just mind but actually want more diversity from DoA, no need to even put it to a poll, lol.

@KasumiLover Good point about how Japanese devs might think of it as too big a risk to even try, though. I can see how Zack can be seen as just a clown, but personally I've always felt he struck a good balance between the macho and goof stereotype rather than subscribing to one or the other. Plus, making him the Muai Thai character rather than a boxer or something, lol, but then Tekken did that too, but I like Zack way more than Bruce. I've always liked him, but I can see why he can be seen as problematic. But DoA being typical of most fighting games with their ridiculous stories and characters, you can argue a lot of the Japanese characters themselves are very stereotypical and full of tropes. That's why I'd rather just like to see them keep trying. But then, I'm someone of an Indian background and I love Dhalsim, lol (dude named after an Indian resturant in Japan XD).

But keeping in mind where these designs are coming from, Japan being the country that it is, sometimes it's really interesting to see what they can come up with or how right they can sometimes get things when it comes to characters based on concepts that are likely foreign to them, except from probably what they've seen on TV/movies. Lisa could be painted as just another sexualized dark skinned woman, but at the same time she's also an intelligent scientist and a luchadora. I actually wish they'd go deeper into the characters' stories and backgrounds some day because you could easily turn what doesn't seem to make sense into an interesting backstory that does make sense. Why is Lisa a dark skinned American woman with the last name Hamilton but does lucha libre and seemingly knows spanish (just based on her title names)? Maybe she's a mixed race Puerto Rican?

1st bolded: What's wrong with that? There are black/African American people this day that has those hairstyles, although with afros, that need to be kept, IMO. We're not in the 70s where that style was popular. (I always do low fades because I have Indian hair that grows every week if unchecked). Straight or nappy, it represents us to give uniqueness.

Let's go through the list here of black-skinned fictional fighters: Balrog, Mike (SF 1), Birdie, Dee Jay, Jax, Jade (even though she has Asian looks, she counts), Jeffrey, Duck King, Bob Wilson, Jonathan Blade, Bruce, Cyrax, Heavy D!, Lucky, T..J. Combo, Maya, Sean, Dudley, Elena, Eddy, Zack, Kai (MK), Grace, Jane, Boman, Geralt, Urien (counted him because he does have melanin), Tracy (Battle Arena Toshinden series, from the looks of it, I think she's Black/African American) and her older sister Rachael, Tau, Atuhua, Seth (KOF), Marco, Rob Python, Jaques Ducalis, Vanessa Lewis (VF), Lisa, Christie (Tekken), Angelica (Samurai Shodown), J (Samurai Shodown), Raven, Pullum (counts even though she's Arabian), Rouge (Power Stone, also counts as Arabian), Gunrock, Zasalamel, Cerebella, Ms. Fortune, Jacqui, Laura, Nelson, Banderias, Zarina, Menat, Master Raven and now Leroy.

(I might add Potenkim, Ramlethal and Bullet because they have melanin as well. There may be more characters...) but anyway, these characters may be stereotypical (looking at Balrog and Rob Python from Buriki One) and some maybe weird looking (Tracy has blue hair!!!) but I won't put their hairstyles as their defining part of their designs and personality. Most of the characters (Jeffrey, Vanessa, Christie, the Ravens, Zasalamel and Leroy as examples) can have their customized for your liking.

2nd bolded: you mean Dee Jay, and he's not really weird... well, besides smiling a lot, as he's a happy Martial Artist who is a musician. (Only thing is he's really unpopular because of his gameplay, ever since his debut in Super Street Fighter II).

Didn't say anything was wrong with it xD it just gets old seeing black characters with the same hair type as if weaves, perms, and different hair textures don't exist. Same with characters in DOA who all seems to have straight hair if it's long. You'd think Helena or maybe Rachel or Marie Rose would have wavy hair or something but nope, besides the sidelocks or layers if its short, none of the characters seems to have remotely curly or wavy hair unless you count certain styles like Nyo's pinned up hair and Tinas's loose hair as wavy. And tbh I don't see Lisa as black, she's simply a dark skinned Latina in my eyes. Same with Christie in tekken, her fans on Twitter act like since she has an alternate afro hairstyle in Tekken 6 that makes her black but I don't see her as that, she's just a Brazilian with darker skin. If afros suddenly made someone black in games then alpha 152 is black too since she gets an afro in her doa5lr last Halloween dlc


And I have naturally afro hair if it grows out but I keep it short so I look more "balanced" in since my Indian curly kink texture shows better shorter

I think the best repped black characters overall imo is Elena in SF since she dresses traditionally African and is a great showing of our carrying personality and I also like Dudley and Zasalamel and Master Raven and that one black girl in Rumble Roses named Aisha since she had variation to her Appearnace and her personality was actually likeable despite the fact she was a very vain bitch in the original game when a black girl actually voiced her iirc