And please, please keep your comments civil! This piece was not posted to cause controversy!
I sincerely hope my comment isn't interpreted as an attempt to cause controversy, I mean everything I say in the most civil manner possible.
I think one of the biggest issues with perceptions that are present when commentators discuss the issue of perceived lack of racial diversity within the Witcher 3, or even the series as a whole is the fact that said commentators tend to unconsciously lump people of white skin as simply being a part of the same, culturally humongous whole, wherein no part can meaningfully differentiate itself due to the virtue of sharing the same skin colour. This is seen in the above (though it's a fairly mild and measured example) linked article with:
"No, I would not levy the complaint of overwhelming
whiteness at The Witcher III and CD Projekt Red though it's
true in abstract." emphasis added
Specifically, this is observed by commentators when discussing the racial majority of a primarily white population within the Northern Kingdoms/Realms, and to a lesser extent, the Skellige Islands.
The major issue with this is that commentators ignore the fact that culture, especially within a European/Polish context (though I would argue that this applies universally), IS NOT solely made up of or determined by skin colour; Polish culture is not simply defined by their skin colour and thus indistinguishable from any other white-skinned population on the globe, but is instead defined by their own unique language, culture, history, myths and a thousand other political idiosyncrasies that make up a person's cultural identity. The Witcher 3, far from being dominated by yet another bland facet of a culturally humongous white group indistinguishable from any other white representation from any other game, is instead a love letter and a celebration of the uniqueness of Polish culture, and Slavic identity and mythology. A representation of a culture that, relatively speaking, doesn’t enjoy much of a presence within wider, Western popular culture; A Polish person living in a country like, say Australia, could easily see themselves as not having any meaningful representation within Australia's or even Western popular culture in general because, despite ostentatiously sharing a similar skin colour to the prevailing cultural representations within these countries, they possess a very different cultural heritage and identity to those involved in these portrayals within that country.
A Polish developer should not be condemned for exploring the nuance and richness of their own culture (which again, has little to no representation within wider popular culture and is easily considered a minority in a wider context), any more so than any other developer should be criticised for making a work that primarily explores and features the idiosyncrasies of their own culture, or even the culture that they set out to explore (it doesn't necessarily have to be their own culture after all).
I think it's a wonderful idea to make more of an effort to promote more cultural diversity within gaming; I'd personally love to see more games explore cultures and issues pertaining to say, the Persian region or the Indian Subcontinent (one of the reasons why I'm rather fond of
Unrest, despite it's fairly lacklustre C&C and mechanics). But we need to recognise that rather the Witcher series being inadequately representative of any cultural minority whatsoever, that it is instead an incredible example of a game that explores a criminally unrepresented (at least relatively within wider pop culture) culture and mythology (Polish and Slavic respectively), and thus broadens the overall cultural diversity within gaming as a result. Successful attempts to broaden cultural diversity in gaming will stem from further attempts like the Witcher 3; games which serve to act as a celebration of a unique culture and it's nuances, exposing this to the wider world and community and not by simply engaging in racial and cultural tokenism, which some of the more zealous commentators are suggesting to be acceptable (it's not and never will be), as well as by not dismissing a unique minority culture simply due to the fact that they share certain physical characteristics with others.
Am I suggesting that games should simply feature one culture and no others, leaving other games to that in their stead? No and yes; Real world history and cultures has been heavily molded by the interactions between different cultures and systems, a fact that is seen in the Witcher 3 with the war between the North and Nilfgaard. However, suggesting that simply chucking an 'asian or two' (i.e. tokenism) into the Northern Realms would somehow constitute a meaningful promotion and exploration of racial diversity, and the interactions between different cultures is simply not the case because it does not do justice to any of the cultures involved, either to the Slavic population of the Northern Realms or the tokenised elements in question.
To sum it up, the article is a fairly mild and measured take at a topic that's been bubbling away for a while since The Witcher 3 has been released, but it makes the same basic mistake regarding what defines a culture, and fails to recognise the Witcher 3 as an incredible expression of Polish culture and identity, rather instead seeing it as part of an indistinguishable, humongous white cultural whole.
PS: Happy New Year’s everyone! Here's to a good year of RPG's!
