Random: It Looks Like Activision Blizzard's 'Diversity Tool' Analysed Super Mario And Co. Years Ago

Lol I heard about that, it sounds creepy as all hell. Boiling characterisation down to a series of points doesn't seem very progressive.

This article reads like comment bait and/or satire

Can you even determine a character's sexual orientation if they're not actively involved in a relationship or pursuing another character within the game? Super Mario skin colour definitely lacks diversity though, the only darker skinned characters I can think of are certain Yoshi (which take any colour, really) and Goombas, but no human characters.

It's created by the people who bought you Candy Crush, I think I'll take this with a grain of salt

Really interesting to see the "analysis" but they only took 4 characters from Twilight Princess and the woman presenting doesn't even know Midna, she has to ask if it's Midna? She then goes to say that Midna can only see with one eye, but that's definitely not true, because Midna in her true form is not blind in one eye, it's only the mask obscuring her sight when she's in cursed form.

Great analysts, they sure do seem to know a lot about these games they analyse.... /s

Mario games generally score well for representation of turtles though, which is a small victory in a very turtle-bereft space.

It’s arguably even more diverse in its representation of turtles than the famous pizza-munching ninja series, whose protectionists are all the same general shape and have the same colour shell.

@Matty1988,

It's bait that's for sure, this is bound to get clicks and outrage.

I would like to see for once Mario is carrying weapons like Ratchet & Clank games yet still kids friendly or Mario & Luigi turn into secret agent and must use spionage skills to infiltrate the enemy places like Sly Cooper games.

The only lack of diversity I see is skin color. Sexual orientation literally does not matter in a game like Mario.

@Anti-Matter Mario carries weapons in the Mario + Rabbids game.

How do they know the characters are "presumably straight?" Ridiculous

I'm just bemused that they thought having a tool to determine diversity was avoiding tokenism - it literally is tokenism!

Yeah, the Super Mario universe isn't really the kind of thing this tool can analyze. I get it's purpose and it may work well in other scenarios, but Mario characters aren't really defined by...well, anything. It's a cartoonish and farcical world with lots of non-human characters that defy categorization like that.

Can you really apply modern analysis tools to a mushroom kingdom from the 1980’s? Doesn’t it break something? Lol

I swear Blizzard do this stuff just to distract from the union busting and sexual harassment. It’s baffling how a bunch of suits can develop a tool for ‘ranking’ different protected characteristics.

Identity politics + soulless corporate policy + software engineering = ...

If we want real "representation" (actually, I don't - I want diversity of perspectives, but I know what they're talking about), we'd enable more people to be creators, rather than bowing to extremists. This is a hilarious send-up of the shallow and formulaic nature of identity politics, though.

I guess you could argue there is a sort of ethnic diversity in Mario: green shell koopas, red shell koopas, blue shell koopas, yellow shell koopas....

@NinChocolate “ Can you really apply modern analysis tools to a mushroom kingdom from the 1980’s? Doesn’t it break something?”

Yes, it breaks my heart.

Avoid tokenism by placing culture data points in a venn diagram.

who is trolling us right now? Is it the developers, NL,the Communist party...God? Somebody is.

Yes this is exactly what lots of big business thinks about diversity, but then what do expect because it's pretty much impossible not to upset someone nowadays.

Diversity in games is to be encouraged. I loved what Guerilla did with the world of Horizon Zero Dawn for this very reason.

But can the same logic be applied to an alternate reality populated by large reptiles, tie-wearing Gorillas, anthropomorphic sentient fungi and italian-american stereotypes?

Lol, superficial diversity. You keep on ticking those boxes, Blizzard.

If the three pictured characters all had a cutscene where they shared a passionate love making session would they score higher on the diversity diagram - the one formed by the Match 3 mobile game division of Activision?

It seems like a no brainer to rank higher in this much needed diversity programme.

Yes, sure everybody wants to know what orientation the Mario crew is....not.
I play games for fun, not for diversity points.

@icomma Obvious bait is obvious.

Ugh I hate this. Like, if you want diversity in the games industry, stop telling developers they can't let their characters be queer (Twisted Fate and Graves come to mind), or to lighten their skin tone to make them more presentable (Vanessa and Lisa). Don't try and force the matter with something like this.

Wow, I’m surprised that no one in the comment section has taken the bait thus far, I was convinced this was going to be a controversial one.

On the topic of diversity, it isn’t really something I care about in a Mario game, but for those who do care, I would think more a more racially diverse cast could work. I’m not suggesting anybody should be replaced, as Nintendo has enough problems fitting all the characters they do have into Mario games, but I’m sure the change would be appreciated by some.

However, it’s important to acknowledge how difficult implementing this change would be, as Mario’s ice cream land doesn’t exactly lend itself to realism. Sexual alterations would also hard not work, because the only romantic interaction that takes place in the Mario games is between Mario and Peach. I think at the end of the day, Nintendo could just keep doing what they’re doing with Mario and nobody sensible would bat an eye.

@LimitedPower I would love to know where you found out the canonical sexual orientation of Toads

They made Daisy slightly darker in the new Mario golf game

I generally tend to enjoy playing as non-human characters in any game with a wide selection of playable characters. I almost never gravitate toward characters that look like me or represent my demographics. If there’s a dinosaur or robot, that’s the one I’m picking.

The 'Diversity Tool'. By now every workplace has one. Wait we're not talking about a person.

My genetic disorder is not represented in any form of media. Therefore I can not relate to or enjoy any form of media/entertainment. I feel so much sadness and self pity because my life is empty at not being able to consume movies and games. If only someone superficially looked like me in pop culture, then my life would be complete and I'd be happy.

I hate this. It’s one of the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

I think presuming all the Mario characters to be straight is absurd, especially considering that Peach kisses Toadette in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.

All I know is that unless a game has the entire diagram entirely filed out, I simply can’t enjoy it.

/sarcasm

"Internal staff at the company are not happy about the tool, stating that such an approach belittles diversity and diminishes it to a mere 'dystopian' checklist."

Welcome to modern day media. Diversity is absolutely a checklist in most big budget movies and TV shows, probably in video games too, and not just at Activision. Sure there are examples of organic diversity in the media, but for every one of those, there are 20 works that have to make sure they meet their quota.

I understand that people feel under represented, but do such people feel any better when the representation they get is so blatantly disingenuous? I can't imagine this current representation of diversity that we see throughout modern media is any more satisfying than the lack of representation they had felt before this modern shift.

This isn't the first "diversity tool" I've heard of in the industry. =P

Saw some screenshots of this on Twitter and it was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. No wonder Activision has so many problems. You could tell the girl speaking about LGBT+ representation in Mario was completely winging her presentation as she went. It was like a bad high school PowerPoint some student made overnight with no thought into it because they knew the assignment was stupid.

The worst part, though, was a slide about racial diversity that shows a 3D render of a black tribesmen character who looks so stereotypical it made a white Christian Conservative like me cringe. Like, you can't make this stuff up. I think Bobby Kotick must have specifically curated the. PNG files they used in this presentation, because no one else could have done such a bad job.

@Royalblues I get what you're saying, and I don't disagree with the sentiment, but Min Min is a Chinese woman.

@Royalblues At the end of the day, Nintendo is a business. Many other big name companies are just businesses. If they believe that adding diversity to their media will bring in more money, they will do it. It will never be out of the kindness of their own hearts.

That being said, the ARMS comparison in smash is a little odd to me. Min Min is statistically the most popular character from ARMS so it makes business sense to add her over Twintelle, and she is canonically Chinese. Does that not count as at least some some sort of diversity or does diversity only apply to darker skin tones?

@Royalblues You're right and I agree.

Once again never in my life as a person of color myself did I let diversity decide if I'll buy a game or not.
If the game/movie has white characters in it, so be it, if it has black characters, so be it, if it has asian characters, so be it. I play for fun and escapism.
@Royalblues only thing wrong is your way of thinking. If you look at a roster and that's all you think off is their skin color.

@CANOEberry Casting pearls before swine a bit, your opinion is too high value for an article like this. It goes without saying that diversity of thought is sadly not a primary concern to the vast majority of people playing modern Activision games (or those commenting in good faith on articles like these, as if this tool deserves to be taken seriously). They will buy every focus-grouped committee-designed cookie cutter product these companies push out and praise them for their "boundary-pushing" cast of cynical corporate tokens long after this tool is forgotten and replaced with an even worse 'solution' for this non-existent problem, and yet they will continue to wonder at the end of the day why video games just don't seem to be as good as they used to be.

@Royalblues I will agree that Nintendo's efforts could be better in the long-run as the only more diverse characters exist only in Fire Emblem and ARMS, with Smash only having it as skins. Hell, I would've gladly taken Claude over Byleth in Smash, but that's just because I'm team Golden Deer all the way and Byleth has no substance. But I digress.

Edit: The thing that bothered me is looking at skin color as the only measurement of diversity. There are so many different cultures and nationalities that exist within similar skin tones, and it just feels weird to discredit all that because they happen to look similar in a stylized artstyle. Street Fighter is the best example of this, as you brought up.

I love how Liberalism has proliferated to such a degree that all entertainment cannot be evaluated or created based on how fun it is or how it can provoke thought, but on how well it promotes the Liberal Capitalist cult doctrine.

@duffmmann "I understand that people feel under represented, but do such people feel any better when the representation they get is so blatantly disingenuous?"

It's a double-edged sword.
On one hand, algorithmic inclusion generated to please a board of directors doesn't feel great.
On the other hand, if you start from 0, you can't multiply by it. At least imperfect representation can be improved and built upon.

This is just horrible. I’d use stronger language, but “family site” and all...

If Nintendo pursues this tokenistic rabbit hole (and I understand that they’re not responsible for the “analysis” cited above), I will likely damn well give up this hobby completely, stopping short of retro stuff. A Japanese company producing a series of games about Italian plumber brothers in a world populated with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures and other people of ambiguous ethnicity is the pinnacle of diversity and multiculturalism. The fact that certain people are now hell-bent on construing every innocuous expression of affection for other cultures as somehow “racist” is offensive and a complete insult to actual victims of discrimination.

As someone who ticks off a number of boxes on the evergrowing list of tragic “diverse” demographics, I have never felt more misrepresented and maligned.

And to echo @Arkay above, I could care less about the ethnicity of people in the media that I watch/play, but I increasingly find myself switching off when the insidious rhetoric of identity politics rears its Medusian face.

That's kinda messed up against Italians to claim they're not "diverse". These people are confused and don't know what the hell they're on about.

I genuinely think true diversity (rather than tokenism or stereotyping/pigeonholing) is important in media reflecting the real world, and it's something I am actively pushing for in real tangible ways in my work in the film industry. In my most recent high budget project, I actually took a pay cut and reduction in budget for other things because I felt strongly that a film set in New York should have background extras and extended cast that actually represents what people in New York truly look like (it's far easier and cheaper to just accept whatever comes from an extras agency and not specify, and the default is 20-30, white, conventionally attractive. Not because of any true bias, but because these are the people trying to break into the industry and who have the free time and disposable income to be able to take time off at a moment's notice).

However, saying characters are "presumably straight" is SO stupid and potentially damaging because it implies that a character is only lgbtq+ if they either have some sort of romantic or sexual plotline, OR, more likely if they "look gay" or whatever.

My favourite colour is pink. I like things with cute cartoon characters on. I'm British and have an RP accent and I have worked with actors for decades so some perceive me as being a "lovie". When I was a teenager I apparently "walked like a girl" and have tried to teach myself not to, though I dislike the concept. I often use emojis when I type online as I'm concerned people won't understand the intent or emotion behind what I write 😅 I go to the gym and work out a lot, I like to keep fit and look good. I don't drink beer, I have zero interest in football. I have gay friends, bi friends, trans friends and relatives and will proudly and happily support them at pride events, or by wearing rainbow and trans badges etc. Baring all the above in mind, I am a cis straight male, with zero romantic or sexual interest in anyone other than stereotypically feminine women, and have only ever dated women.

If I were a character in a game or movie and my character had no romantic or sexual plotlines and went just on my appearance and mannerisms, would this supposedly progressive method rank me as "presumably straight"? Probably not. Assuming someone is straight or gay or whatever by appearances alone is patently ridiculous to me.

Similarly, my partner often has all kinds of cool alternative hair colours and styles - really awesome multicoloured designs from an ultra talented industry stylist. To me, she looks really feminine and attractive - like a living mermaid or anime girl. But many people assume she is a lesbian. Because of her hair. I don't get it.

It's not that I get offended on my behalf if people assume I or my partner is gay, because that's nothing to be ashamed of were it true. But I do think it's offensive to assume someone's sexuality or romantic interests based on their appearance or mannerisms, it just enforces stereotypes and creates division, which presumably is the opposite of what well-intentioned diversity considerations are trying to fix.

And yes, I'm aware that's a stupidly long post based on my annoyance someone would assume Peach or Daisy's sexual orientation. Its Mario. They bake cakes and kiss each other on the nose. That's as far as it goes people. And let Birdo be whoever she wants to be! She's cool. 😋

Company: I represented you in my product!
Me: I didn't ask for it, but I guess that's coo-
Company: Give me your money now.

Not again... Please stop this?

@LoveRose_428 I mean, lots of people who play video games care about diversity. heck, some of them work (and/or have worked) for this very website. so 🤷🏽‍♀️

I would say Mario is well represented when it comes to characters colors, unless you only count the humans. There are lots of non-human characters in various colors 🤷‍♂️

@LoveRose_428 Use the contact button on the bottom of the site. You will likely get an answer within a day. Better than asking in the comment section and get your new comment deleted for discussing moderation.

@icomma You shouldn’t pretend to know what the reaction should be, clearly you don’t have your finger even on the pulse of this community.

@thesilverbrick in the above example of Overwatch - the Engineer clone scored high marks for being older and differently abled. But didn't score high because it was a stereotypical caucasian dwarf ;_;

do better Blizzard. We need a Latinx Gem Grabbing Dwarf that lives to be 500 and makes machines guns.

@nessisonett King made this, not Blizzard.

@Anti-Matter they do have weapons in Mario and rabbids!! But that’s not your typical Mario game!!

I like this site's writing style and increasingly open leaning more and more. This is pretty funny.

Twilight Princess did have a pretty good cast, but their diverse characters never really occurred to me until now. Besides Ganon, in previous entries... it is pretty white, I guess?

If you believe they don't do this in movies, shows, tv ads, ads you see on your phone wherever your clueless.

@icomma Because it is being forced down my throat? I just want to play games and I'm not interested in social and racial issues of American people.

@Zorox88 As someone who is in the film industry and currently producing a high budget superhero movie with people from a major company I can tell you that it absolutely does happen, but it goes both ways and actually leans slightly more towards the conservative, sometimes to the point of absurdity. Apologies for the rant, this isn't aimed directly at you, but for anyone who thinks these kinds of things, I see these opinions shared widely and I feel I have enough real world experience to explain why they are only half true and I think some might find the nuances interesting from someone with decades of experience with this to be able to speak on these things.

Nowadays there's a lot of wanting to be seen to be diverse, progressive and socially inclusive, because it's popular with the youngest generations who are aware of these social issues and will approve on social media. It gives talking points for Western late night tv appearances or daytime chatshow hosts to crow over how wonderful it is that things are moving in the "right direction".

That's what some people on the right consider the "woke agenda" - though I can tell you from every meeting I've ever had it's motivated by money not altruism, when you are talking blockbuster-style movies with budgets in the tens or hundreds of millions. If they can be seen to be "the good guys" it can be very profitable, especially from younger demographics, who will become the majority as time progresses and people get older, and also who are the most vocal on social media and in turn generate a lot of free publicity and clicks from legacy media organisations - whether pretending to approve or be outraged, it's actually all just for clicks/views.

On the other hand, there is an equal amount of the exact opposite, anti-"woke" and very conservative - for example: I've seen first-hand that films with all black casts, or all female leads (even in the same franchise or series) will get a lower budget, being actively discouraged or even blocked by many of the most powerful people. Progressive ideas will get shot down or asked to be minimised, again, failure to agree will result in significant budget cuts, or going straight to digital instead of a theatrical run, or being released only in a small number of countries rather than worldwide all resulting in less profits. I've heard first-hand people very high up in most big studios use language that would be extremely shocking to many people.

That's what some people on the left consider the "institutional racism", "patriarchy", "conservative agenda" etc etc. Again, it's nothing of the sort, it comes down to money. Reality is that when you are making huge budget mainstream films for a worldwide audience, these people want money from China, India, Saudi Arabia, etc, both from the producers who put up the money as part of tax sheltering investment groups, and from the sales to those territories who are enormous.

Incidentally, the "negative" outrage from the more right/conservative leaning outlets actually is a very positive thing for supposedly "woke" media as it gains lots of free attention, but mostly only angers people who would never have paid for the product in the first place, and the outrage makes people who disagree want to support it even more. There's a reason why most left and right wing legacy outlets are owned by the same small groups of investment capitals, they feed into each other and one wouldn't be half as profitable without the other to make people "pick a side" they want to support. If you truly want to damage something in the media that you perceive as "woke" OR "racist" etc, don't complain about it or campaign against it, ignore it, and vote with your wallet by not buying it. The second you go on social media and yell about how much you are not going to buy it, a hundred other people who disagree with you suddenly get a strong urge to buy it to spite you because you see each other as enemies fighting a culture war rather than humans with different beliefs and preferences choosing what to watch.

(pt2: What the real "conspiracy" is)

Truth is, as far as the top level of commercial properties, like blockbuster movies or triple-A games, there are limitations if your product is not superficially "woke" enough to get brownie points, but just as many, if not more limitations if it's TOO fundamentally progressive making it considered a financial risk to a larger worldwide audience.

Absolutely zero conspiracy other than the richest people in the world (who are the only ones who can risk hundreds of millions of dollars to make a film that size and market it around the world) want to maximise their profits, and that means pandering to both the extremes of right and left, and governments and sensibilities from countries who are both very progressive, and extremely conservative or even draconian. It's not a conspiracy of political ideology, its capitalism gone awry with too few people holding the power, an ever-shrinking middle class, and realising that the way they keep the divide between rich and poor it is by splitting the poor people into groups and making them believe each other is the enemy - right v left, men v women, black v white, Christian v Muslim etc is ultimately a tool to divide and conquer, blinding people from the fact their ideals are being used to exploit people on both sides for profit whilst distracting from the real "bad guys".

The real way to be "woke" is to not buy into the bull and not pick fights with fellow humans over minor differences in beliefs, preferences or ideology. Don't want to watch a movie that doesn't fit your world view? Sure! Don't watch it. If enough people don't watch it, they won't make another one. If people do watch it, you are clearly in the minority, but that's okay - everyone is different and everyone has the right to their beliefs and preferences, as long as they also allow others that very same right.

(pt3: Personal experience and real examples)

I personally hold a lot of progressive beliefs, and many would describe me as left-leaning, though I personally dislike labels and putting myself on any specific side. I just think of myself as loving everyone and thinking everyone should be treated equally and given the same rights and freedoms, including freedom of speech and freedom of beliefs.

When I used to make little indie movies that went straight to dvd or festivals I could make whatever I wanted. In 2014 I got the opportunity to start to develop a blockbuster-style project for a major company, which was super exciting... but ever since that day I've been fighting with red tape and endless meetings and "cooks stirring the broth" style stuff trying to finally get permission to make the film I want to make without compromising my own artistic integrity or even personal morals. I'm never told I'm not allowed to include certain things, I'm just told that every time I do, the budget gets cut, I take docks in pay and profit shares, the film will get released in less countries etc. Its a constant balancing act.

If you think that Hollywood has a massive progressive agenda and wants to greenlight every film about a disabled black trans woman superhero who is a Jewish orphan raised by Islamic fundamentalists but learns to combat her mental health issues through interpretive dances about the dangers of M&Ms wearing stilettos, I'm afraid that's far from the case.

I took a pay cut because I wanted to make sure that the extras in a city scene included "normal" looking people with a wide variety of ages, body types etc. I wanted a black character as one of the leads and on the poster and was told to "keep that for the sequel once the franchise is established". I had SIX meetings about me not wanting the lead male and female characters to kiss at the end because apparently "women won't watch a film if there's no romance" (!) The actual people with the money and power are far from progressive, they just pay minor lip service to it when it's profitable to do so.

I don't believe any of those things I mentioned are crazy woke agenda or even particularly progressive, nor am I pandering to "the current thing", to me they are just representative of real life. I can only give all these examples online without jeopardising the film because I eventually lost patience with that (un-named!) company and moved to a different one, again resulting in me, personally potentially losing several million dollars from combined retainer and backend - and I'm far from rich so that money would have been very nice. But, especially being that it's hopefully the first in a franchise of films and spin-offs, I want to build something that I can live with and still be proud of decades down the line, and hopefully new generations will enjoy. And that, for me, means looking towards the future and seeing what the world will be like then and what's best for future generations, rather than compromising my vision and beliefs to maximise the profit immediately right now for a quick buck then moving on.

wHoA gUYS lOoK tHeY’rE W O K E

I love how they complained about diversity in a game made by primarily Japanese people. That's just how the Japanese tend to portray people in their games and anime. It's also not surprising that a culture that's pretty homogeneous wouldn't have a very diverse character range. Lately they have worked harder in being more diverse, too.

Do we really need a program now to create characters? This new generation if pathetic!

@Anti-Matter Try Super Mario RPG!

@RareFan It's the Care-Bear generation, what do you expect? Okay, I'm going back to my protected bubble, now! Ta-ta!

I don't care who/what the characters are, just make games fun. Everyone is too worried about offending someone and it ruins the enjoyment.

I still fear this kind of stuff is counterproductive.
I, for example, live in Germany, someones skin color was never something I thought much about. Some people look like this, others like this.
I treated anyone the same, regardless of skin color, without this ever being a topic and that seemed to be pretty much the norm over here.

Now this whole diversity thing in media has become so big, that it is next to impossible to not get antangled in the discussion, at least if you are active on the internet.
I know this is different from place to place, but from my perspective over here, the whole problem barely even existed until those who tried to solve it, made it huge.
I wouldn't be surprised if the amount of racism against blacks, for example, actually rose because of this, because it is now a "thing" and some people take any excuse to do horrible stuff.

Talking diversity in the mushroom kingdom doesn't make much sense to me in the first place, btw.
The world doesn't have that many human character in the first place. And 4 of them are directly connected to each other, so that diverse skin colors between them would be unusual.

And sexuality is not even a topic at all, for most characters.

@Royalblues
Ganondorf isn't white either.
Besides, of these 80 characters, many are not even human. Those don't really count.
Also pretty sure you have some more options through skins.

@RareFan No we don't need it. At best its a curiosity that will be forgotten in a few months. At worst sjws will weaponize it. Devs are free to make their games as diverse or not diverse as they wish.

I honestly don't understand the 'tool'

@LEGEND_MARIOID The TL:DR is, its a program to remind you of how "diverse" a character is, while you are making a game.

From what I have read about it, the tool is a program that tells you how "diverse" it is compared to the norm. From the official announcement, they said they wanted to create it because around 80% of playable characters are white men. This program tells you how "diverse" a character is. So its sounds like straight white young men are considered the least diverse, were as for example a game about a old black lesbian grandma could potentialy be seen as more diverse, maybe even without other human characters in the game. Would not suprise me if they added something to say that ecchi female character designs somehow would me less diverse than non-ecchi ones.

@Matty1988 How else is NL supposed to report this. Blizzards decision to develop this, access it on Nintendo characters and then report the findings publicly sounds like bait in and of itself.

Whoa. I guess my previous comment wasn't Disney enough. Allow me to rephrase.

I hope the person who started the fallacy that all games should represent every possible worldview to be successful be stricken with forever-buffering online video streams.

@LimitedPower If you want somethibg other than a boring straight white guy, I can recomend checking out the Senran Kagura games

@LimitedPower You changed your comment, you initially said they were asexual. I know the difference between gender and sexuality.

@LimitedPower You're right. I didn't. I was referring to the broad conclusions the existence of such a tool leads to.

Also, by "people," you probably meant "the loud minority."

@LimitedPower Nice accusation, or at least expected. I'd be delighted to know what part of my comments indicated this "hate" and "insecurity" you seem to be so sure of.

@LimitedPower You said they were asexual before editing your comment which is why I replied to you in the first place but either way the more I engage in talk about the sexual preferences of Toads from Super Mario the more I can feel my brain smoothing over so whatever

@calbeau Alright, I’m just gonna be the bigger person here and walk away now. You clearly seem more concerned with flaming and baiting others than actually discussing the topic of the article.

———

To generally reiterate my thoughts in regards to said article, I think there is a lot of good that can come from emphasizing diversity in games, but I agree with others and even those in the video who bring up the issue of just aiming for diversity points. It needs to be authentically and naturally integrated for it to feel earned!