Chucklefish Issues Apology For Voice Actor Casting Choices In Wargroove's DLC

... Seriously? Who was upset about this, really?

They literally admitted that they picked the best people for the job based on merit. They are VOICE ACTORS. You never even see them!

Unless someone can prove that there was racial bias here, the only reason a black person wasn't picked was because, apparently, the white person sounded better.

What's REALLY insulting is that they felt the need to apologize. Do people honestly think that we black folks are so thinned skin that we have to be #1 at everything or we get offended? Is that how people see us?

Inb4 Patron throws a temper tantrum.

well, good on them for apologizing, although it doesn't seem they're doing much (might as well be quoting the article at this point)
bet this comment section will be something EDIT: looks like we're already off at the races

If these voice actresses were good enough to land the jobs, they should keep them. There's a very bitter irony in people thinking they should not simply because of their race.

What is the issue?
Secondly if everyone is going to bit** about voice actors/actresses maybe it is time to remove voice over in games. (Fire Emblem had some bull s*** issue too)

@TheAwesomeBowser He's a parody account! It's not hard to figure that out.

I wonder how these people "educated" ChuckleFish? By calling them names and having a tantrum over nothing? I swear we're living in a parody.

White person - "You sound like a black guy"
Black person - "What the hell does that mean?!"

*Chucklefish hires white person to voice black guy

Black person - "That white person doesn't sound like a black guy!"

[This is all a joke of course, because we know that the only people who would complain about this being an issue are other white people]

@Kalmaro I bow to you Sir I could not have spoken my own feelings better.

@MsJubilee at least looking at the responses to the twitter post it's just disappointment overall rather than anger/crud-slinging

@SyFyTy I do what I can
@somebread Why would it, in your opinion, be good that they apologized?

@DinnerAndWine a lot of things are dragged out by news websites starting fake controversy i doubt black people are really upset about this lmfaoo

As long as the voice actors fit the characters I don't mind.

@Kalmaro YES! ALL YES!

@Kalmaro shows they're willing to make an effort to learn/progress from a flub (although given Chucklefish's history i'm not sure how much faith i have in that)
at least judging from another VA in the aformentioned tweet of their statement they are legitimately trying to widen their scope, so that's reassuring

There are A LOT of black voice actors dubbing white characters and nobody cares. Why? because what it matters is the freakin' voice!

I wish one day to see a game developer that doesn't give 2 damns and refuse to apologize to the SJWs and other sensitive brats.

@Kalmaro lol i didnt even hear anything about this either, the majority wasnt upset based on all the black nerd and nintendo groups im in

@somebread Learn from a flub? I'm not sure I follow. Did something happen before?

The way I see it, we can't say that it's wrong to hire people based on race, then get mad when we don't hire someone based on race.

@Kalmaro

That’s how democrats see you.

Wow really? If the voice actors do a good job, who cares? Here we go with people creating problems where there really shouldn't be any.

@Zach777 Trust me, I know. I got red-pilled a while back.
@kurapika163 Why would we even be mad? I'm just happy we got black people in a video game, not that we NEED them but it's cool seeing them.

Isn't the fact that this is even an issue slightly racist in itself?

@Old-Red @BenAV Yes

@Kalmaro I agree 100%. In today's society we can't so much as sneeze without having to apologize for it.

Chucklefish, in an act of obvious systemic racism, hired actors based on their skill at their occupation instead of their skin color.

@Kalmaro it's a double standard lol nobody minded Wuncler III/rummy in boondocks being voiced by Charlie Murphy and Samuel L Jackson. But it's easier to aplogize honestly when people get so offended over stuff that isn't even racist. This is why there is lazy pandering.

I applaud them for not recasting, but it’s really sad we live in an age where blacks can’t be voiced by people who aren’t black. I wonder how these people would react if they knew popular characters such as Bart Simpson were voiced by females

@Kalmaro FACTS

2020's going to look greeeeaaaat

This reminds me when one of Mr. Game and Watch’s moves originally featured him wearing an Indian headband and some random person got offended over a literal blob of pixels. His response got popular enough for some reason so they had to remove it. He even had the audacity to speak on behalf of the Indian community even though a lot of them didn’t even care about the headband.

@somebread what flub? Unless there’s racial bias (which there definitely isn’t), they didn’t do anything wrong here. There’s a reason no one’s liking your comments dude

Really? Are people that offended because they didn't hire a black guy? What about the Asian, Spanish, German, United Kingdom or whatever. This is so stupid. If you don't get the part then you weren't the right fit, sorry. This is like saying that Japanese women that play guy characters is wrong. It's Chucklefishes game and they can do whatever they want. Period.

While I respect that these voice actors were clearly picked for their talent etc... the fact that they ALL happen to be white is a bit silly. There’s not a lot of diversity really in the voice acting industry so maybe casting actors that at least match the race of the character would help encourage more actors of different backgrounds to come through. Of course, this would only really apply to human characters.

@Kalmaro @Entrr_username i mean, when a casting director for the game literally admits they took the wrong course of action, it's hard to not call it a flub :V https://twitter.com/KimlinhTran/status/1203021529404997632

@nessisonett So it’s silly that they’re all white? Bigot much?

@somebread They believe they took the wrong course eof action, sure, but that does not mean they actually did anything wrong. They just think they did something wrong when, I can assure you, 99% of black people could care less. There is no rule saying that you have to fill some arbitrary quota of people of a certain race for a your job that I'm aware of.

@nessisonett Or, the black people who audition just need to be better at their job so they get picked during blind trials. Hiring people based off race is just silly unless you're trying to be historically accurate. If this was a casting call for actors in a movie in Africa, I could understand. Voice actors for a video game... Nah.

We have been reprogrammed and re-educated. We are now assimilated into the system. Big Brother prevails.

@Entrr_username getting tired of this whole "ohh but if it was a BLACK DUDE voicing a WHITE DUDE" false equivalency; also i don't get your reply here, are you talking about ragna's VA/the casting director?
@Kalmaro ...if the people behind the (edit for specificity) casting don't get to say they went about it the wrong way, who does? additionally, going back for my third or fourth twitter dip now and indeed most of the top replies to the VA announcement weren't from white people

@Kalmaro I'm not even "red-pilled" but I agree with every lick of what you're saying here. It's something that honestly should be bipartisan imo

@somebread They can say they went around it wrong. My issue is that they are basing that thought on faulty premises. There's no reason for them to believe they did anything wrong. No one who they think they they offended is actually upset.

Instead, it's a classic case of people being offended for other people who don't even care. You will find that most black people just aren't upset about a white person voice acting them. It's a myth that we get offended by that.

@Kalmaro Remember when everyone was upset that Mario was wearing a sombrero so Nintendo had to remove it from the cover, but most Mexicans actually didn't care or loved it? This is reminding me a bit of that.

i'm glad they're finally breathing new life into walt disney's finest creation, wargroove dlc

@AnnoyingFrenzy Yeah, it's more insulting that they removed it, imo.

@BAN Not one to disagree with that sentiment, but it seems off topic in relation to this.

@Entrr_username Yes, you caught me. I’m actually really quite bigoted towards myself and have recently taken to using a Sharpie to write ‘silly white boy’ all down my arms and legs. I just can’t stand the daily pressures of being white.

It's both laughable and extremely sad they felt the need to apologize for this.

What a sad, sad world we live in where people apologize for casting the best options for roles because they aren't a specific skin color.

Edit: While we're at it, why don't we also apologize for casting a woman to voice a male. I mean, it's the logical next step.

Pathetic.

Unless some sort of discriminatory intent was behind this, they can and should defend their hiring choices. When are people going to learn that, the moment you start trying to appease ideologues, it never ends?

@Kalmaro I mean, this is the same industry that cast Laura Bailey doing an accent as Nadine in Uncharted. Granted, it was a pretty good accent and she plays the part well but if they can cast a white American in literally every role imaginable then they will. I guess it’s similar to when cis actors are cast as trans characters on film or tv, it can result in some brilliant movies like Boys Don’t Cry but if trans actors can’t even get roles as characters like them, what are their hopes in getting other roles? Since this is voice acting, the lines are a bit blurrier and I hope these people don’t lose their jobs but it’s a complex issue and if they were going to cast actors racially similar then they either should have done it in the first place or issued an apology after the fact. It’s not these actors‘ fault that they auditioned for a part open to them.

@nessisonett this comment section is kinda a huge circlej**k so try not to put too much effort in

@Ralizah An apology is never enough for these people. Poor Chuckle Fish is going to learn that the hard way.

@nessisonett The simplest solution is for the people auditioning to just be better at their roles than the next guy. No one deserves a job, you have to earn it. Being black or white or trans, etc, has no bearing on how well you can perform a voice acting job.

Funny thing is if every white character in the game was voiced by a black actor or an actor from another race then everyone would really lose their minds regardless of whether the hired voice actor was best at that role.

The simple fact is that never happens so we don't know.

@Kalmaro Honestly, I agree in the sense that true diversity should mean that actors regardless of race should be considered based on merit. However, Phil LaMarr, a black voice actor who predominantly voices black characters, put it rather nicely when he said, ‘From an artistic perspective I would love it if race didn't have to be a factor, but from a "paying-my-rent" perspective, I'm glad it does. If I have to compete for a Black male role with every Black male voice actor AND every white male voice actor, my chance of getting a job decreases immensely.’

If they don't suck then it shouldn't be a problem.

@nessisonett In other words:

"I like the idea, but I care more about paying rent right now than staying consistent with my beliefs."

Heh Heh, so many users with exactly one downvote, I wonder if it's all the same person or not.

@somebread It's amazing that with all your posts in this thread, you still haven't been able to even ATTEMPT to articulate what exactly it is that they did "wrong" in the hiring process which justifies an apology.

@mj2k18 I can't put it better than the literal casting director, dude

Well I just lost all respect for that company

As long as voice actors of color continue to get work, I don’t care who voices who. If they have black voice actors, I don’t feel they need to voice the black characters. I would like them to cast SOME black talent though.

@ALinkttPresent the employee exploitation was fine, but the apology? too far

@somebread Here's something they said that drives me nuts:

"Ideally, blind casting should work! I'm glad the team wasn't star-struck enough to overlook newer talents! But the problem lies in missing out on even better, authentic talents, due to reasons ranging from talent pools over-saturated with the privileged to socioeconomic barriers."

What? If black people wanted that role that they would have applied for it. Why is there this assumption that there's this massive community of black voice actors who are twiddling their thumbs because they just don't know about job opportunities?

It makes more sense that the ones interested did apply and, as black people are a minority and probably don't do voice acting gigs, there were more white people.

So fed up of this transparently disingenuous nonsense. No intelligent person thinks there's a problem here. This is just a very cynical group of people appropriating a once-serious cause for their personal political interests, so they can infiltrate companies and institutions.
Not buying anything else from you Chucklefish. Get a spine.

@Kalmaro For once, I truly agree with you.

@Kalmaro Agreed 100 percent as a black man myself who was upset about this? I sure wasn’t. The PC culture has got way out of hand at this point. People are just finding anything at this point to be angry or “offended”. Smh...

that is to say we made a point of not looking at profiles, back catalogues, headshots etc. and made our decision only using audition audio files sent to us.
this is how job hiring should be done; based on current capability rather than past decisions or appearance. imo it should be illegal for jobs to perform background checks beyond looking to see if the applicant is on Megan's list or where your at's equivalent there of and that should only be done by places that often deal with kids. it'd be ridiculous for a place like a bar or an alcohol shop not to hire a decent worker whose on such a list considering kids are not supposed to be in those establishments to begin with. it's also better to have the ones that are not incarcerated to have a job so they don't end up homeless and roaming the streets

@Kalmaro I agree with you a lot.

"I guess I'll just sit here until someone gives me a job just because I belong to a minority. And I'll do nothing for actually getting the job. Just exist as a minority."

Who can actually think things like that? That's a stupid way of thinking. As stupid as thinking Mexican outfit Mario in Mario Odyssey was insulting us. I personally felt flattered when they announced it.

If there aren't enough Mexican, Black, Latino, Japanese actors in North America, who cares if some White people get the job, as long as they are good in it. Who the frick cares? I simply can't stand people anymore...

@somebread That "circlejerk" is still right.

@Entrr_username why'd you delete your reply to the casting director's statement?

@somebread I deleted it by accident. Also, look at your comments and notice how they have far more downvotes than upvotes. It's clear that no one is buying your crap.

@Entrr_username you're using the site, guy, you should know you can't view your own downvotes

@Dezzy Incognito mode exists.

@Entrr_username ...you also can't view downvotes when logged out? do you not use nintendolife often

@somebread No.

This is idiotic. The Simpsons cast is all white (the principal cast anyway) and they play every ethnicity (and age) under the sun. Likewise with King of the Hill (though John Redcorn was played by an actual native American and Connie/Minh were played by Lauren Tom, who is of Chinese ancestry, as opposed to Laotian), but it's not unusual for characters to play something contrary to their own ethnicity or sex.

Also, women almost always play prepubescent boys in cartoons, or are we going to call them out for sexism too? Or is Nancy Cartwright, a now 60 something woman ageist because she also plays Maggie? Similarly, Linda Hunt played a male Chinese-Australian dwarf in The Year of Living Dangerously (she is neither male, Chinese, nor Australian) and she even won an Academy Award for the role, or are we to condemn a very talented actress as a racist, sexist something or other as well? The ongoing hypocrisy of the so-called inclusive left never ceases to bewilder, and the more we pander to their petty non-issues, the more they will campaign for the restriction of our speech (among other liberties). Enough is enough.

Remember those people blaming videogames for real-world violence, claiming they would turn kids into murderers? Who complained about satanic board games, videogames, card games and music? Who burned Harry Potter books and superhero comics? Who claimed jazz and rock and roll was corrupting our youth? Who claimed kids will imitate what they see in Looney Tunes cartoons? Who created the Hays Code and the Comics Code? Who tried to take Beavis and Butthead and South Park off the air? Who complained about cute devils getting used as product mascots? Who censored and heavily edited anime?

Meet their successors for the modern times, now complaining about everything being bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic, even where there's nothing wrong with the content, complaining about cultural appropriation even if actual people from that culture don't care or think it's great, demanding more diversity and inclusivity, throwing a tantrum over sexualized characters because they are objectfying women, never having any sense of context, demanding censorship by screechs, and cancelling people with virtual torches and pitchforks on Twitter.

@Silly_G wasn't the fact apu was voiced by a white dude (in addition to the bigger whole stereotype thing) part of the controversy there though
@Entrr_username i mean i didn't figure i would from the start, hence my first comment; it's pretty clear the type of people who comment here

@somebread : What about Carl, or Lou, or Lewis, or Uter, or Cookie Kwan, or Bumblebee Man, or Apu's wife Manjula, or their eight children (most of whom are probably played by a mixture of Nancy Cartwright and the other female cast)? Among countless others, I'm sure. Everyone on The Simpsons is a stereotype, and all of the mentioned characters were played by Caucasian people who are being targeted as public enemy no. 1 (I'm not Caucasian either by the way, but the constant disparaging of "white people" is needlessly hostile and needs to stop).

When they did an episode set in Australia, the cast was comprised solely of regulars (no Australian guests). Have they done an injustice to us? No. It wasn't malicious propaganda; it was a silly parody of many stereotypes that the rest of the world perceives of us. It divides a lot of people here, but the general sentiment is usually more favourable than not.

Why is Apu singled out? And why are our sensitivities being dictated by indignant non-comedians?

Seriously? SJW's strike again!

@Silly_G most prominent and stereotypical of them, I'm guessing (besides maybe louie but the bitterness over the mob stereotype in italian-americans seems to have died down over the years)

@somebread Also there was no employee exploitation. Nobody in their right mind would take years to finally talk about something like that. Get a life

Me: contemplates getting Wargroove

Also, me: sees this BS and decides to save a few bucks

@somebread : I was referring to the black police officer (opposite Eddie), named Lou, and Lewis (Bart's classmate). Joe Mantegna, who plays Fat Tony, is of Italian background, but the other mob characters would have been played by the regular cast.

@BENDsli This changed your mind about buying the game? All they did was apologize, even if they didn't need to. That doesn't impact anything about the actual game. Also the game was out for 10 months, did you just now hear about it or something? Get out

@Kalmaro

As voice talent myself, I agree with you as do my colleagues of color.

There’s also actors of different genders voicing the opposite gender, from women voicing boys and men in anime or in western animation like Bob’s Burgers, men voicing women.

Voiceover work to us is about avoiding these race politics because it’s all talent (theoretically).

@Silly_G then yeah, i'm assuming it's just a mix of less prominence and not being as stereotyped (like Carl shows up a fair bit, but he's just a regular dude opposed to apu); it does say something a lot of these are voiced by apu's VA though
most people handwave other white-ish races being stereotyped (ie: germans, non-aboriginal australians, italian-americans) just because they aren't exactly being discriminated against often nowadays but i dunno if i'd say that's a good thing really EDIT TO CLARIFY: i dunno if i'd say the handwaving is a good thing, not the lack of discrimination

@arekdougy The concept of having to adjust thinking/behavior/speech in order to stave off personal destruction seems off topic on a story about people apologizing for not exhibiting the accepted thinking/behavior/speech in an obvious move to stave off financial repercussions? Okay.

@BAN Using fancy sentences doesn't make you cool. Pretty certain you're the one reprogrammed

Firing people over the color of their skin? How is this not racist?

@JayJ literally nobody is getting fired?

@JayJ "Despite issuing the above apology, it sounds as if Chucklefish is sticking with its casting choices"

@Entrr_username Lmao that was “fancy sentences”? Yikes. The bar is a lot lower here than I thought.

@Severian Good on you and your colleagues.

I, personally, never want to be hired for something just because of my race. I am more than my skin color.

@BAN Why would anyone who says stuff like "stave off financial repercussions" be taken seriously?

@Entrr_username So this sounds like a lot of fussing over nothing, but still they did say how they intend to "be more sensitive to this sort of thing" which implies they might pass up people over skin color even though it is just voice acting.

Can't help but to find it ironic how all of the voice actors that the "SJW" crowd is complaining about are females, an audience that they have supposedly been fighting for.

I am 100% sure that these people that complain are from the United States where this black and white color issue seems to be still ongoing. Definitely not from Europe where black or white is the same thing and it is not discussed like something that needs constantly to be addressed. There are certainly some exceptions here too but I am proud of being European for this very reason.

@Entrr_username That’s a joke, I hope. I might seriously vomit if you actually consider THAT to be “too fancy fer my brain”.

Nice, I didn't know EileeMonty was in this game! She's pretty well known in the brony community, and it's nice to see her get some work outside of fan pony content.
As for the content of the article, Ugh, are people really raising a fuss over this? Black people voice white characters. White people voice black characters. Women voice boys and sometimes boys voice girls. Old people voice young and young voice old. It's voice acting, people don't have to look like the character they play, as long as they sound the part.

@JayJ You said that people were fired over their skin color, which was not the case since the voice lines have already been recorded at this point. It'll be a waste of time to rerecord them

@BAN It is though

@Kalmaro The funny part is the ones who were outraged at this were probably not black people, but whacko white leftists. They're racist because they believe the "poor oppressed marginalized minorities" are unable to speak for themselves and need the assistance of the whites.

@Entrr_username Are you like 13?

@SkullDragr since i've got nothing better to do: in the replies to the original twitter post, of 32 replies disappointed with the decision there were:
-15 poc (including someone recommending a bunch of voice actors)
-9 white people
-8 people who didn't have any indication of one way or the other

Outrage culture is amongst us

I'm a big fan of chuckle fish and gotta say, i'm disappointed that they issued an apology. Quality of your game goes over race, especially when then VA where cast based on samples alone and chosen because they fit the character.

@Kalmaro,I think so

I hope the tree people are voiced by real trees and all voice actors are classically trained medieval knights. The skeleton knights better be voiced by real dead people.

They should never have apologized. There's an old saying that you can't give into the demands of terrorists - it only emboldens them to do it again, and again, and again. You give this new 'offended by everything" left an inch and they'll take a mile. Plus your free speech (or remains of it).

@andywitmyer These aren't terrorists though, just stupid people who don't know how actor picking works. I highly doubt Chucklefish will truly go through with their demands anyway.

@BAN I think it could be said that your take on things would be dictating the dialogue in a specified way as well.

@andywitmyer Disagree or not, lets not conflate this with terrorism? A little hyperbolic.

Simply ridiculous. The skill of “acting” in all its forms, has turned into such a visual pandering thing in PC 2019, is lost its meaning.
Someone better tell Kratos’ voice actor, all the women that voice young male characters and Darth Vader’s voice actor, James Earl Jones, to find new gigs, because they personally don’t fit the visual description of the character they’re voicing. And I suppose they’ll to replace Charles Martinet with an actual Italian guy?
There is a time and place where race matters in acting, this is not one of them.

Samurai Jack, a Japanese character, was voiced by Phil Lamar, an African-American voice actor for years and no one complained. But casting white actors to voice dark skin characters? OH THE HEAVENS
Chucklefish shouldn’t have apologized, to those racist nitwits that is admission of guilt. Yes, race segregation is racist.

Edit. Even better example, Kevin Michael Richardson has voiced Batman, Lex Luthor and Joker, among other non-black characters. Imagine WB/DC apologizing for that casting!

@locky-mavo Actually Kratos' voice actor is safe cause he's black. And we all know how unprivileged black people are

@arekdougy @Entrr_username It’s hyperbolic, but they are people who use threats to push their political agenda, which is kind of like terrorism. The difference is they threaten to ruin their reputation instead of killing them.

@SmaggTheSmug Still extreme

WTF has happened to the world???

@harouhiko People who would have loved to be there when MLK was championing against racism but were born too late are trying too hard to find racism everywhere so they have a cause to fight against. Thankfully it seems like the public is swinging away from them and back to environmental issues again. All those people do is, ironically, introduce more racism into the world as they are dead set on pronouncing the differences between races and segregation. I mean “people of color” is just “colored people” inverted, but supposedly the former is not racism (it is).

It does seem a little odd to have black characters and cast white people playing them. Surprised so many people don’t see that!

Yeah, NO. I won't even get started on how applying such thinking to explicit fantasy worlds can border on an insult to Fiction in itself, but "white" VAs should be eligible to roles "of colour" just like VAs "of colour" should be eligible for "white" roles - all based on skill and correspondence between the voicework provided and the production vision for the character at hand. It's fair, it addresses concerns like Phil LaMarr's one quoted in the comments - and yes, the latter part of it already has iconic examples like James Earl Jones's Darth Vader. Guilt-tripping anyone into apologies over a conscious attempt at impartial pursuit of the aforesaid idea, and even into apologies over doing what websites like BTVA have done for years is silly at best but leans sharply towards preposterous.

I welcome representation in Fiction, but no kind of representation can or should be achieved by imposing quotas on Fiction. Any short-term gain on such fronts will be a pyrrhic victory in the domain which outlives multiple generations.

Oh, I love racial/religious/Fußball Posts. The comments always make my day funnier =D

Btw, where in the world would they find black people with natural green hair? Because if they colored their hair artificially it would also be outrageous with the people who not.

How pathetic. Develop a spine instead of listening to 10 angry people on twitter.

The absolute state of western game industry

Sjw culture will never be good. And ruins everything don't feed the trolls

Furthermore I'll no longer be buying chuckle fish products for caving to such nonsense

When are people going to realize that pandering isn’t the smart decision?

In Reaction Chucklefish to your apology of voice acting casting decisions. Let me tell you right here right now I believe anyone that says you can't be apart of my cultural,or paint your skin my skin color,or be apart of my community is a active hateful racist.Cultural Appropriation is not a bad thing in fact it's a good thing and anyone who tells somebody they can't do something based on your race is garbage that needs a fact check . If I want to dye my hair red I can do it if I want to paint my face I can do it .If someone isn't doing something to hate or mock another group of people it's not racist. Cultural Appropriation whether it's wearing of wig or weave with a hair color not natural to you or wearing blue jeans or eating sushi It's not racist it's people doing something that doesn't hurt anyone emotionally or physically.So Chucklefish I demand you take back that apology because I disagree with anyone thinking they can't do something because they or anyone else thinks because "I or anyone was born a certain ethnicity so I'm not allowed to do anything that someone else of a different ethnicity can do" is so very wrong. I get that your a small company but do not apologize please to what I promise is very few people who do not represent the majority of us who are All Humans are Created Equal People .They may even have good intentions but they have been given ignorant and full of prejudice ideas . Don't ever hire anyone because of thier race or sat you won't hire someone because of thier race you're an actual hateful racist if you do. If you feel a race of people is poor and you want to help them generally speaking then just hire poor people instead and you'll accomplish the same result without being racist because no one shouldn't be offered a helping hand just because you think that just because of thier skin tone they're better off. Racism comes in many forms Pride ,Hate ,Envy it's all wrong and you should look with your Brain and not your eyes and Sing Any kind of music you want no matter what group claims it's there's and no one else's.We are more than groups . And cultural appropriation is apart of who we are because we're also apart of many groups and belong to no one group.

@HeavyArmsSS rent free
@LoveEmpath i'm not sure the people at chucklefish are reading the nintendolife comments section :V

@somebread ok thanks for telling me

The world has got waaaay too sensitive, this is ridiculous. Whats next someone complaining that Bart Simpson is voiced by a female?

Why is it always the far left activist types who launch into personal attacks and name calling? For people who try to act like they care about everyone they sure seem to have it out for everyone.

@betterbygames A black voice means nothing without a black writer. Diversity isn’t something you can just add in, it’s either there from the start or it isn’t. If the writer isn’t black there really isn’t a point for there to be a black voice. With that said, I’m personally of the opinion of just hiring whatever race the character is.

@JayJ i guess throwing around SJW isn't name calling then

One doesn't even see their faces. They're VOICE ACTORS. Unbelievable how some get so triggered over non-issues. How about, oh I don't know, hiring the BEST people for the job? Skin colour is irrelevant when it's voice work.

"We apologise for not using positive discrimination."

Get lost Chucklefish, along with you sub-par Advance Wars rip-off.

the snowflake panty waste generation strikes again. so because a voice doesnt SOUND "black" enough they are in "trouble"?
"If we were blind and had no choice, would we hate each other by the tone of our voice" - Anthrax (Schism).
This is just straight up sick.

Nice. Now I want that apology for Sonic not being voiced by someone with blue spines.

For the people who didn't read the casting director's thread: She says she didn't reach out to enough minority actors. That the pool of talent was homogeneous. Having blind auditions doesn't help if the talent pool is limited to begin with.

Maybe the characters just have suntans?

I’m a voice actor, and this seems like the ball was dropped by the third party casting crew. More and more casting calls I do from Indy to bigger things will try to put disclaimers about “please only audition for this role if you are X,Y, or Z”, and that’s fine with me, and most of my VO cohorts. Is white VAs know we have a million more specific characters in things we can go for, so a POC getting a white role is not the end of our career, but a white VA doing a black or Asian, or a straight person doing a gay or trans role just removes a chance for the still talented minorities a chance for representation, which can better help younger people in those demographics get inspired to get into acting, or just get excited to see someone like themselves representatives and voices by someone like themselves. This casting isn’t the end of the world, I’m sure they are talented, but if they have POC characters in the future, you can still do a blind casting call and have a slight disclaimer to make sure characters and actors are better represented.

@kurapika163 This is resetera again. For pete's sake why do they have so much influence?

To all those whom aren't the minority or those with "White Privileged" don't talk as though you talk for those in minority. I've seen some comments here that border on StereoTyping heading towards Racism or Jim Crow mindsets. So unless you yourself truly have - what Diversity means stop making baseless comments. If you really think you have better to offer then Identify yourself and let the Public see the Real You here when making those comments.

@Nintendoforlife It's a voice, it doesn't need to "mean" anything. It's just a voice for a character.

@Duffthemonkey We don't deserve jobs any more than any other race, please stop acting like we can't work just as hard as otter people and that we 'deserve' anything, it's insulting.

The ignorance in these comments is staggering. We made so much progress then sent all up in flames over the last decade.

Here's a message for you: you don't understand because it doesn't directly impact you. Grow up you privileged trolls.

You're the very same people who are consistently misogynistic and sexist. Just because Johnson and Trump validate your contemptible leanings doesn't mean you should mistake them for 'common sense'.

Ridiculous, inflammatory non story

@kalmaro
I didn’t say minorities “deserve” Jobs more than other races, I said representation does mater to a lot of people, and that’s fine. If a character is a POC, that’s great, if the director personally doesn’t want to cast just for a POC to fit that representation, that is up to them. But I personally feel it does, and again, the industry is changing in that regard, again, at least in casting calls I’ve been a part of the last couple years, and that, to me, is just great.

I know tons of great non- white VAs who can act circles around me, and one time, I was chosen over one of them for a role that was for a POC character. The casting call gave no character picture before, and made no representation of race available, but when I saw their model, I bowed out. That was my personal choice, but my VA colleagues respected me and thanked me for it, so it does matter to people. If it doesn’t matter to you, that’s your prerogative.

The ultimate problem with this though, is when it’s all blind, casting directors tend to have voices in their own head that at least slightly match what they can do themselves, so they may unconsciously lean towards someone of their own race, it’s not on purpose, but it does tend to happen. I just hope they learn from this and future casting calls give at least a slight honor system warning of “this character is X, please try not to audition for this role if you do not fit the background”. That’s all it’s take, then the cast would be announced, and anyone who didn’t audition would never know or care.

Plus, it’s insulting to hear all the people on here saying things like “than POC should be better at voice over”. There can only be one person cast, out of usually hundreds of auditions, the final pool for top choices was probably over 20 people, all equally good for different reasons, several of which I’m sure were POC.

They were still good enough, but in the end, one fo the white really good actors was chosen, unbeknownst to the casting directors. It was unintended bias, and I’m glad Chucklefish will work on fixing that, and also glad they did not remove anyone already cast, it wasn’t on them to know if they weren’t the correct demographic to audition, that all part of a good casting call. Best of luck to them in their roles.

Since the auditions were blind, I think Chucklefish deserves a ton of slack, especially if the auditions were open. If only people who were pre-selected got to audition in the first place, the external casting management has issues that should be sorted out. Part of me thinks people are outraged mostly for the sake of being outraged, but on some level I can understand the outrage as well.

@Duffthemonkey "The ultimate problem with this though, is when it’s all blind, casting directors tend to have voices in their own head that at least slightly match what they can do themselves, so they may unconsciously lean towards someone of their own race, it’s not on purpose, but it does tend to happen."

How can there be racial bias when it's blind?

I'm sure, when you bowed out of that one job you got, you felt like you were helping those other guys but I can assure you that you didn't. We do not need your help, we are perfectly capable of getting our own jobs and it's insulting to have someone who is better than us basically say (with their actions, not saying you said this) "Here you go, you poor person of color, I'm better than you at this but your skin tone is darker so I'm allowing you to have it".

How is that a good things? We don't NEED representation in jobs or anywhere. We just need people to be hired based on their skillset. You should be happy that your VA skills are so good, not feel bad because you're better than someone else.

@DK-Fan there is a game developer like that, theyre calling Running With Sissors ^_^

This is so stupid. Only the voice matters here not to mention it's based on fantasy. Basing the casting on someone's skin colour is actually discriminatory where it's not required.

@kalmaro

You put a lot of words into my mouth here, and didn’t even accurately digest what I said, but I realize I did throw a lot down there.

I didn’t think I was helping anyone, I personally felt I was not an appropriate choice for the role. I’d be lying to say I wasn’t glad when they decided to go for another actor who was a POC for the role after though.

And again, as I already said, voice acting doesn’t just choose the only person perfect for the job, and the rest suck. I’ve cast for some shorts before, and I can tell you have stressful it is to have 10+ people that are all perfect for the job, I’m not better than the POC I was up against in that role, it pretty much came up to a dice role for the casting director between me and several other people. I wasn’t giving a hand out to someone not as skilled as me, I stepped aside, and another person just as good for the role took my place.

And for the unintended bias from a blind casting? There are tons of psychological papers written on the subject that when several people are perfect fits for jobs, the person hiring often times goes for someone closer to their own background, not maliciously mind you, they just do. It’s a lot to read, but still interesting if you have the time to do any reading on it.

You seem unmovable on your position as well, so if anything I’ve said to you has helped give you any food for thought, that’s fantastic! If not, cest la vé, to each our own. I’d rather not continue, as I don’t want us to devolve into simply name calling out of our our experiences and passions being unable to see from one another’s point of view.

Hope you have a great rest of the day!

@Duffthemonkey There is no reason why you would not have been appropriate for the role, unless they specifically said they only want someone of a certain race applying.

I'm sorry you feel like you should have done that, have a nice day.

This is really getting out of hand. They did absolutely nothing wrong. They picked the actors solely based on talent not their race. To avoid bias they even didn't look at the actors! There's plenty of characters voices now of different races and genders than the actors that portray them. Racism can go many ways. Those that this offended are the actual racist ones since they judged entirely on a persons race!

If a person is say southern and wears the flag of the confederacy they are obviously racist right? Not at all. Some people will be offended though and accuse said person.

I'm more upset Eileen Montgomery (a.k.a. EileMonty) is getting cut! I've been following her since I found out she voiced Laylee in "Snakey Dealings," as well as Tiny-Box Tim in "Mini-Boy Mark," among other voice roles.

I would say they are doing a better job to address this issue far more then others whom I would give less credit for. They came out but should've posted before this got hot in the internet and stated we choose the candidate based on their ability to voice over. But state that this was in no reflection of bias or stereotyping of minority at large. If they did that I think this would be more a oh well they admit to it let's move on and do better.

@GameOtaku "If a person is say southern and wears the flag of the confederacy they are obviously racist right? Not at all. Some people will be offended though and accuse said person."

Do you actual understand the history behind that flag and what it meant? It wasn't a Rebel flag (Let's Get this FACT straight) it was to maintain the status quo "Slavery" that was the economic driver in the South. Have you actually talk to a Black human person whom lifespan experienced this? I highly doubt you have otherwise you wouldn't be making a baseless comment.

@Kalmaro Keep up the red pilling brother 👍

@SwitchForce I would question why they even felt the need to address this. There is no real issue and they did nothing wrong.

All they did was get everyone upset. We have black people who feel like they are being treated like they are insecure and white people who are offended on behalf of the black people.

Who did this actually please?

@somebread So, you have no idea. Got it. I asked YOU specifically what YOU think they did wrong. There's a difference between actually believing you did something wrong, and apologizing because you think you have to for PR purposes in order to appease the "woke". I apologize to my clients all the time to make them feel better, even though I know I'm in the wright and they're in the wrong, just so I can maintain their business. The fact that you can't even articulate what they did wrong in a BLIND audition, speaks volumes.

Problems? I see none.

@betterbygames - Here we go with the personal attacks. You lefties are so easily triggered. Are you going to alert our employers next, try to get us fired?

@Kalmaro Yes, that is how they see people who are not 'privileged'
Be it gay, Latino, black, female or whatever flavour of the month gender/pronoun you use, you can never rise above and beyond the power of the great white patriatchy unless these nobles souls help you overcome your superficial traits that define you as a whole.

Sadly in the eyes of most SJW activists (the people who are offended by this, not the one who make actual strides in equal treatment) to apologize is admiting you did wrong, and wrongs can never be forgiven one can never make amends.
Hulk Hogan is proof of that, some still see him as clan robe wearing, lynch mob rallying racist because he said something stupid in low point of his life.
It cost him his Hall of fame spot which hurt him dearly because that was his whole legacy basicly.
He has been reinstated 3 years after the incident but some people feel like he should've been banned for life.

@imananjidesuka Racisim and StereoTyping knows no Country Borders. And now that everything is connected that is no excuses.

@khululy really, hey I liked the Hulk and he was my favorite wrestler besides Andre the Giant and I was a minority and during my younger days watched it in glee.

@khululy "beyond the power of the great white patriatchy unless these nobles souls help you overcome your superficial traits that define you as a whole."

This is the line where it crosses into White Privileges thinking they can help when they actual hurt more. They should join those community and then help them not thinking they are helping them. This is just like the "Indian American" story where only the white noble people could help civilize those savages. This is why the USA is still in Denial of it's founding and sorted History and still don't admit to it.

@SwitchForce Yeah but most wrestlers, while didn't like it, forgive him because they saw it as a fluke by him but Vince Mcmahon saw this as a good oppertunity to get Hulk Hogan and do some virtue signaling on the side. It's quite a dirty busines that WWE.
Andre was a good wrestler and a tragic figure, god bless his soul.

@khululy I still liked the old time wrestler but not those that would damage another just to further their career. That's the saddest part they don't get paid alot unless your famous but heck I like all those beat me up and I'll beat you up. That was enjoyment for me. I still miss those days though.

What people miss here it's ACTING it is pretending to be something/someone who they are not.
Otherwise you would need a real serial killer to play a serial killer in a movie. Need cannibal tribe get some real man eaters on set.

A voice actor like Rob Paulsen great as he is, rarely gets cast into a roll of a big man with a deep voice, why? because he does not have a deep voice.
But Keith David voices Bolo in Final space, he is a titan, couldn't they get a titan to voice his role?

Do all dark skinned charaters in fictional worlds need to sound like they either speak in Ebonics or have clear African accents?

@Kalmaro I never said it did. It seems illogical to hire someone of a different race to act as another. I do, however, agree with your points for pretty much any other job except for acting. Imagine they made a live action Overwatch movie and just casted who they thought was best regardless of race. Wouldn’t a White Sombra, Black Mei, and Hispanic tracer make you go “huh that’s kind of odd casting”???

I guess this is a company to avoid then. Sick of all this quota and representation nonsense. Pick the best people for the job and nothing more.

@Nintendoforlife Irrelevant as that is a live action movie and not just voice acting. When you go live action then its required you look the part as well as sound the part (Unless your character is never really seen like Darth Vader). Here, all that matters is sounding the part.

@Nintendoforlife If we're talking a live action film then I would think it's odd, but I wouldn't be upset or offended. They clearly would just be changing things up.

In this situation though I don't see a problem, not for voice acting, where how you look doesn't matter.

A lot of good points have already been made on this issue, and I’ll add my two cents.

First, I am glad that Chucklefish is keeping the current voice actors. They got the job; they did the job; and they should not be punished. I also appreciate how Chucklefish had a blind interview to try to make an unbiased decision.

I don’t know why the Twitter users were specifically angry, but my take on this situation is that the casting can be interpreted as an issue with systemic racism. This means the casting director or company were not actively racist but that some decisions and actions may have made it more difficult for a person of color to get the job. As you said, @Duffthemonkey, there have been several studies that show we naturally prefer what is similar to us, and while this may make more sense for an in-person interview, the same can go for a call-in. I also agree with @Duffthemonkey that the external casting management team may have needed to do little more legwork. In creating a short-list of voice actors, ideally they would have included a diverse group of people, at least one that is representative of the applicant pool. Being that most acting is subjective, it is hard to imagine not a single black actor/actress would have made the shortlist. Why this is important gets into a long discussion on privilege and opportunity, so I’ll just say equal opportunity (another dreaded term for some) is key in ensuring diversity is respected.

@Nessisonett brings up another issue faced by minority actors/actresses. Phil LeMarr’s comment is not contradictory. There are more “white” roles out there (meaning the character is intended to be white) than minority roles. “Color-neutral” roles (where race is irrelevant) are not as numerous, and we have seen public outcry when a previously-white role goes to a person of color (Mary Jane in the new Spider-Man, Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch). If the proportion of minority-to-white roles in media reflected the diversity in our population, we would be more hopeful that the best actor/actress would get the role and all minorities would still be appropriately represented. However, if minorities are faced with fewer role options (minority or color-neutral roles), they have to compete that much harder to get a role compared to a white actor/actress who has several more opportunities.

I’m not saying we have to shoehorn minority roles into movies or games, nor am I saying that the color of your skin should give you a leg up on others. I’m saying that the cards are sometimes stacked against minorities. If a film has 8 white characters, 4 characters which can be of any ethnic background, and 2 roles for people of color, a white person will have more opportunity to secure a role than a black individual.

Lastly, I’m not here to change anyone’s mind or chastise you for your opinion. I just hope this adds another perspective.

@Kalmaro I’m curious why do you think that video game characters are even made different races? I am of the opinion that it’s done to differentiate the background of the characters and thus how they are in the present. If you have every single character regardless of race voiced by a white person where is the difference found? Your opinion would make more sense if every character was something abstract like blue or green. But they specifically asked their artists to draw a black character because they wanted a black character.

@AnnoyingFrenzy So essentially you are ok with selecting people purely based on race even in the face of a better performance when it comes to live-action.

Maybe Chucklefish need to apologise harder. That always works.

@Nintendoforlife For movies where the role is dependent on race, like 12 Years A Slave, yes. However, you're argument in this case is false-equivalency. What goes into making a live action adaptation is completely different than voice acting roles for a video game. You have to focus on making the adaptation true to the source material. However, there are characters whose race doesn't matter for the context of the story and therefore those roles should be based on the skill at the position; see Aquaman or Little Mermaid. Now I think we all agree that the voice for Kratos in God of War was brilliant, but gasp that was a black American voicing a white Greek man!

@Nintendoforlife And they got a black character, the art is right there. There's no need for anything else.

@AnnoyingFrenzy Ok I guess that’s fair enough

@Nintendoforlife Hope you have a fantastic rest of you day!

@SwitchForce
No it's not. There were other factors that led to the civil war. Slavery just happened to make it a moral crusade rather than the other reasons (taxes, more government control). I'm southern, I wear (not all the time) the flag on shirts like one has all the major southern generals and it. I'm not racist I even have friends and acquaintances of different races, we don't always get along or see eye to eye but I don't treat anybody any differently.

A lot of the complaints about this sort of thing comes down to coincidence. That and the fact that information is so much more available than it was years ago. It's hard to put a face to the voice actor. But now we have IMDb and other resources.

I am livid.

I am shaking.

I am literally about to go into a convulsive shock.

Chucklefish.. HOW DARE YOU. This choice of individual for this part is, quite literally, beyond racism and bigotry and a new word would be needed to fully encapsulate how hateful, insane and racist this is.

What. The. Actual. F*ck. I literally can no believe something as hideous and vile as this could even happen, what's next? I am crying. I am that upset right now. I am in shock.

@arekdougy I legitimately don’t know what that means.

@Entrr_username Idiot. You realize we’re on the same side, right?

Fake outrage wins again, I'm sure some very capable VO lost a job because of this crap, just not in this case

American outrage culture is so tedious and tirring.

@GameOtaku Sorry to say, It was and will always be about "Slavery". Take that out and the Southern States would have no economic driver. The South was using unpaid forced Labor and would not have the economics Prosperity in the past without those labors. The South during that time was mostly a Agriculture Region and need labors.

"I'm not racist I even have friends and acquaintances of different races, we don't always get along or see eye to eye but I don't treat anybody any differently."

No one is really calling anyone a "R" word. But these tried and busted lines are the reason why the History of the USA roots are never really vetted out. People just don't want to see how it came to be and accept they benefited from it at the cost of others.

@SwitchForce If I'm not mistaken, slavery wasn't too profitable. Largely due to the slaves not wanting to work (go figure) and being expensive to maintain. I could be wrong on this but I recall looking at some info Dinesh D'Souza put out on the topic.

@GameOtaku Slavery was the main factor for the Civil War. There were other factors too, sort of, but slavery was the biggest driver.

It was such a massive factor that, even after the war, they couldn't immediately end slavery since that would have started the fighting all over again, it had to be done slowly over time.

What a brave new world - and stunning too. This shouldn't be an issue - until you make one out of it. Getting upset about the SKIN COLOR of a voice actor for a fictional character.

Absurd. Who cares?

@Patron I seriously hope you are a troll.

@Scollurio someone said they were a parody at the start of the thread, although parodies are intended to be funny

Sad to see Chucklefish apologize here when they did nothing wrong and no legitimate issue existed.

I read this this thread. I read this entire thread. And in this journey I have noticed one question remains unanswered.

We can all agree that we would like to see racism abolished and people hired by their merits and skill, yes?

So for the life of me why. Can't. We. EVER. Get passed. Hiring. Based. Off. Race?!

Literally I am absolutely certain anyone who is serious about this couldn't care if Idris Elba voiced a Dirty Harry cartoon if we knew it was good enough. But as soon as it feels disjointed the other way we get the pitchforks. What should be happening is people should be encouraging more black VAs to get on these lists and strut their stuff, not disparage others because they didn't match.

For a thread that @Kalmaro sure as hell shut down in a senteance, this place sure got the legs on it.

All those people who cry double standard act like they don’t know what minority means.

@brandonbwii But there IS a double standard, I'm not sure what you mean.

Why do only black people pull the race card

Now I want apology from Sony Santa Monica!

Maybe the voice actors identify as black.

Oh no, not SJW in action -.-

Kratos from God of War has been voiced by a black man since the PS2 era. This ain't exactly new, kids. Anyone offended by this obviously has not been gaming very long and needs a serious reality check. Fun fact: Bart Simpson and Ash Ketchum are voiced by women. SHOCK!

Get a grip people. Chucklefish has nothing to apologize for.

The problem with the internet is that it's a sledgehammer, and an indescriminate one. A sledgehammer is a fine tool when you need to knock down a wall. It's a crap tool for most other problems.

I don't fault Chucklefish for apologizing here, even though they did nothing wrong, because everyone's afraid of the sledgehammer when they see it. And they did nothing wrong - even if you believe that they should have hired minority VAs for minority characters, the agency they hired to find them VAs is to blame for not bringing forward minority choices. Is that systemic racism? Maybe it is, but even if the sledgehammer could solve systemic racism (hint: it can't), Chucklefish isn't the right wall to knock down.

@Kalmaro SJW's doing what they do best... find anything and everything they can to complain... it's oppression olympics at its finest!!!

@Onion And what a good job the Ash voice actor does. While I haven't watched Pokemon since the first series or 2, I only found out about a week ago that he was voiced by a woman. Do I think there should be an apology to all the male voice actors for that? No, in fact it makes me appreciate it more that I couldn't tell the difference.

Live by the Tumblr die by the Tumblr

@brandonbwii I am a white guy, compared to asians I am a minority. So what?

Oh come now, this is getting a little out of hand.

Honestly the fact that fictional characters in a fantasy world with tan skin are automatically associated with being black is a little suspect in itself. It might at least be understandable if it were in a real world setting, but this is silly.

Samurai Jack is voiced by Phil LaMarr, a black man. Darth Vader, who is Anakin, a white man, was voiced by James Earl Jones. By these people’s logic I should be outraged that they’re not voiced by people of the correct ethnicities despite giving awesome performances.

And I guess I should also be angry that Thanos isn’t voiced by purple people or that that Joker isn’t voiced by actual clowns. Who cares about how good performances are anyways? Appearance ALWAYS matters. /s

As a black man myself, I don't see what the problem is. Some of the coolest non-black characters have been voiced by black people (like Darth Vader, Goliath from Gargoyles, Kratos of God of War, etc.) because of merit. I don't see why the color of the drawn character's skin has to match the voice of its human voice actor.

It should be a non-issue, but identity politics cause so much BS these days I shouldn't be surprised a ruckus was made. Sigh.

@Kalmaro You can’t complain about things like this being a double standard when people like me only make up 12% of the population. Also all the people using the term SJW would likely be just as upset if a black guy voiced a white character.

@brandonbwii I can certainly cry double standard because my being black has nothing to do with this. There is nothing wrong with a black man voicing a white character or vice versa. Why would that even be an issue?

There are so many other cases we can play the race card, this isn't it.

@Kalmaro I agree. I’m mostly playing devil’s advocate. I do like there to be plenty of opportunities for poc out there but Chucklefish did nothing wrong in this instance. There are opportunities elsewhere.

@brandonbwii I would absolutely love there to be more black people in different positions.

I think people forget, though, that we are a minority. It doesn't make sense that half the positions are full of us when there's not that much of us to begin with.

What we should do is focus on kids and let them know about the opportunities oit there for us. Instead of them thinking "Whelp, McDonald's is hiring..."

@Kalmaro For me, the idea is visibility in entertainment. It doesn’t matter to me here because it’s voice work. An example are superheroes. I want people to love black superheroes as much as they do white ones, yet only recently have black superheroes become mainstream.

@brandonbwii I'm trying to think of black super heroes on the silver screen... Blade?

@Kalmaro Black Panther of course, Steel, Spawn. Unfortunately that Cyborg looks like it’s been canned.

So, by doing the auditions blind they got the right people for the job, and still the SJWs complain.

@Kalmaro What really pisses me off is that Goro voice actor has only two f#cking arms! Don't even get me started on the voice actors behind the Toy Story movies. Ken was voiced by a man with a penis!!

As a fish who is physically incapable of laughing, I object to the company's name.

Has anyone read the excellent novel "1984"? It looks like Mr. Orwell accurately predicted humanity's ridiculously censored and easily offended future.

Congrats Humans, you suck.

@betterbygames Why'd you delete your account and your comments? That's a shame.

Nuke this damn planet from orbit. If something as completely inconsequential as the actor who voices a cartoon character in some video game is enough to literally make you cry, immediately donate your body to medical science.