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earlymornings · 2 years

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yes! i definitely see where you're coming from! inazuma is exaggerated in some aspects, or is at least more rooted in fantasy. however, giving hoyoverse feedback like "the ending of this arc was rushed" isn't going to change much because it seems more subjective than objective. i've heard a lot of people actually praise the inazuma quests because it places more emphasis on the lore that will appear in sumeru and fontaine. honestly, it can go either way, and it would actually be interesting to see other players do analyses, comparisons, and breakdowns of the lore so far!

additionally, like you said, liyue has received more content because it's based on china, and i want to expand on this! one thing i want to add is that the company is celebrating its culture, and with yunjin, she and her opera were released around the new year (released on january 6th). we also get lantern rite every february. even in hoyoverse's other games, such as tears of themis, there are special events coordinated around chinese holidays (e.g. lunar new year), so if anything, it's more about highlighting chinese culture. holding every other region to the standard of liyue is unreasonable because it is unrealistic for hoyoverse to execute. mondstadt and inazuma are nowhere close to liyue, so we shouldn't expect much more with the 4 unreleased nations. however, just because nothing else will be as show-stopping and spectacular as liyue, it doesn't mean that hoyoverse should carelessly handle other countries' cultures.

for instance, in the most recent fatui interlude teaser, there was a brief nudge towards russia's custom of giving time off if a significant figure passes away. even small references like these not only provide so much more depth and engagement, but they are also explicit acknowledgements of specific cultural influences. i personally think this is much more manageable - and allows for more creative liberties and freedoms - for hoyoverse, so i think comparisons like this are worth bringing up in feedback and criticisms.

thank you so much for your input because it definitely got me thinking! :D

regarding sumeru...

hi friends! this is my quick take on what's happening with hoyoverse, the general design of sumeru, and the stream of racism allegations that have resurged recently. i think it's worth trying to analyze why hoyoverse designed sumeru the way it looks like so far (and because i want to add my two cents to the discourse lol).

here are some context:

hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company

sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and middle eastern countries* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)

we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update

here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:

the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions

the lack of diversity

the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser

in order to address these concerns, i think it's important to think about hoyoverse and the stances its employees have on this issue. this does not mean i am playing devil's advocate or excusing the company's ignorance, but i think it's critical to understand the potential root causes.

because hoyoverse is based in china, their standard of diversity is much, much lower compared to that of other countries, such as the US and canada, which experience decades worth of immigration and are known as melting pots. coupled with east asia's internalized colorism and xenophobia, mainland folks simply do not get much exposure to POC. this means two things. first, they might not understand why global players are so adamant about POC representation and diversity – the developers may not even know how to go about bringing diversity because what they think is diverse is different from our understanding. second, hoyoverse will prioritize its east asian, particularly its chinese, fanbases, and let's be real, any character that's not flour-pale will not be as popular with the latter.**

the lack of popularity then becomes a financial issue for hoyoverse. hoyoverse generates a large portion of its money from the wishing system. it's thriving because so many people whale for 5-star characters and C6-ing them. if hoyoverse's largest community stops pulling for characters, they won't be able to keep up and maintain high quality with future productions (both for genshin and other games).

i promise y'all that there are at least a few designers and staff members in hoyoverse who want diversity in the same way that we do, who want unique characters with intricate lore, and who are willing to put in the effort. but at the end of the day, they are just designers and many of them will be forced to revise darker-skinned character drafts.

besides literal money, another currency that hoyoverse is limited to is time. one thing that i think hoyoverse hasn't disappointed fans in is the consistency of the game. there is always new content, and even during its hiatus in response to the shanghai mass quarantine in may, they provided mini events and extended the banners to make it more accessible for F2P players. while having constant releases is wonderful and retains interest, that means quality will be compromised in other aspects.

in this case, it means the design and intention put into sumeru. to elaborate, by design, i don't just mean character designs (though this is debatable because the community has a pretty bad habit of hating new characters, especially 5-stars, but then growing to love them) but also the geography, architecture, and personality of sumeru.

as sumeru is marketed right now, its concept is that it is a collage of all the aforementioned countries and their respective cultures. unless sumeru is separated into geographical sections to represent the distinct cultural influences, to mish-mash these countries' religions, peoples, and traditions together is disrespectful and reinforces harmful monolithic stereotypes.***

sumeru will be a literal game-changing region because it has so much information to bring: in-depth lore, the dendro element and everything that entails, etc. this is a pivoting point, so that's why it's frankly saddening and anticlimactic for hoyoverse to not put in the effort. i understand that in update 3.0, we will only be getting a taste of sumeru, so while it's hard to judge the production of the region with the limited information we have right now, it's important to push for diversity and representation while we still can and also give hoyoverse time to make the necessary changes correctly.

to summarize: i don't think hoyoverse is being intentionally or actively racist. i think it comes from a place of ignorance, so i personally think it's better to approach this problem with constructive criticism than to send hate messages to hoyoverse staff members who work so hard regardless. if we don't tell them why and what they're doing is wrong, then the game developers won't know how to resolve the concerns. furthermore, sumeru hasn't officially come out yet, and what we have seen in the teasers will be more refined and polished in the released product. i don't think we need to panic or retaliate, i just think we should remind hoyoverse so that they don't put representation on the back burner.

as for solutions, sending messages through different media platforms, emails, etc. has worked in the past (e.g. during genshin's 1st anniversary).**** but it doesn't stop there. just like every other region released so far, sumeru isn't just limited to the 3.0 patch; we will continue getting content for it for the rest of the game, so unless we see results, we have to be consistent with the feedback. that looks like continuing to send messages until we see tangible, permanent change, not being complacent in the lack of POC representation, and more.

i probably missed a lot of great points out there, but this is all my last brain cell can come up with. please repost and add your own thoughts because the more ideas, the better! (if you want to repost this onto other platforms, just make sure you credit me!!)

hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!

*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused.

**this is not to say that all south asian or middle eastern individuals are darker-skinned, but it's crucial to push for change to help gamers who are tan, brown, and black. this is especially important to do with games as popular as genshin impact because it can cause ripple effects.

***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072

****i know another method that has worked has been leaving a bunch of bad reviews in app stores, but i don't think it's applicable right now since we know so little about sumeru. if the problem persists, sure, but i think sending bad reviews right now just antagonizes the situation even further.

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earlymornings · 2 years

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ok, some more thoughts were thunk.

i want to focus this follow-up more on possible solutions than analysis. for those who haven't read the other convos under the original post, i am a relatively new player to genshin as i joined in patch 2.6, so i may not know the full stories behind previous hoyoverse/mihoyo incidents which i will be referring to.

i alluded to genshin's 1st-year anniversary celebration previously, and i dug up some more info as to why and how changes were effectively made. many people provided feedback on forums, surveys, emails, etc., but another large factor that played in to this success was genshin's content creator (CC) community. there are tons of streamers, youtubers, and content makers in general who are partnered with hoyoverse. being apart of the CC community means they may participate in beta-testing, have earlier access to patches/banners, receive merchandise, etc.

during the anniversary celebration, content creators were outraged. they pushed back really hard, criticized hoyoverse in videos and streams, and repeatedly voiced out their disappointment over other social media platforms. when a company's partners are explicitly expressing anger, the company will definitely know by then that something needs to change.

only two of the content creators i watch have spoken up about sumeru. one of them, known as bwaap*, spoke up about it (during a twitch stream, i believe) from their perspective as a POC and experienced backlash, immediately receiving hate comments (including racial slurs) in the twitch chat and genshintwt community. this situation is disappointing for a few reasons. first, none of the other content creators who are friends with bwaap are speaking up for him. their inaction speaks for itself. second, the lack of empathy really shows how, instead of engaging in productive discourse, we choose to hate and blame BIPOC instead.

i understand that video games are meant to act as a form of escape, and many don't want to think about current news, politics, and real life. i, too, play genshin because it's distracting and allows me to relax. but we have to acknowledge that this escapism is a privilege and only accessible to some of us - and let me explain why with a personal example. i am a chinese american and am pretty pale even for east asian standards. i've always admired genshin's design, especially its original soundtrack and characters, so when i first saw the leaks for sumeru, i was beyond happy! i didn't even consider skin color or historical accuracy - i was just delighted to see new characters. so the question is why didn't i notice? why didn't i consider the lack of versatility and representation? because these anime characters look like me and that's normal and great for me. but when i was talking to my friend, who is a tan indian-american genshin player, he explained how he built a subconscious emotional tie to kaeya because he is the only non-white male character in the released cast.

POC players will subconsciously and consciously realize they don't fit in. all the flour-pale characters and NPCs do not look like them, and there is no one in the genshin world who will look like a POC. when you already struggle with identity issues in the real world, it's difficult when a hobby that you enjoy also reminds you that you are not going to be represented, that people do not care to represent you. it's even worse when non-BIPOC folks tell you to "stop politicizing everything." i'm not sure if i'm wording this in the best way possible, but for folks of color, our very existence is already politicized. you cannot stop us from "politicizing" a video game when race/gender/sexuality/etc. are things we just notice instinctively. many players aren't even criticizing genshin with the intent to politicize the game; we just want to bring up that there is literally no diversity in the genshin world and that should change.

regardless, having more representation in genshin won't hurt. in fact, it is a win-win situation for everyone; there is more diversity, and all fans will get to play a variety of unique, versatile characters, in terms of both design and play style.

pushing for representation requires efforts on all fronts.

send constructive feedback to hoyoverse through all possible outlets (surveys, forums, discord, emails, etc.)

tell your favorite content creators to speak up about the issue! message them with strong arguments and concise language. content creators don't have to make a video essay, but they can definitely spend a few minutes explaining why sumeru's design should improve.

empathize. we need to empathize with all players and the genshin impact team under hoyoverse. if we listen to each other, we are bound to find viable solutions that are realistic for hoyoverse staff and are satisfying for the global fanbase.

this went on for a lot longer than i thought it would, but as always, if you have any more thoughts and ideas, please comment and/or reblog! if you want to post this thread on another site, please credit me!!

update: i got my first kazuha! but i also want my beloved yoimiya ;-; the pain of being a f2p player smh,,,

*here is the link to bwaap's twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bwaap

regarding sumeru...

here are some context:

hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company

sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and middle eastern countries* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)

we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update

here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:

the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions

the lack of diversity

the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser

hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!

*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused.

***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072

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earlymornings · 2 years

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sure, to each their own. the reason behind my original post is to disagree with the literal hate hoyoverse has been getting, especially with the way genshintwt is responding to sumeru. when you tell someone that they're racist, unless it's super obvious like the other party saying a slur or something, you need to explain why. in this case, just based on our discussion alone, this is a more nuanced situation.

we can get more philosophical, but capitalism literally festers off of racism. it's not something i conceded or agreed on; it's a fact. they don't release darker-skinned characters because east asians won't pay for them. you can argue that hoyoverse is being racist, but by that logic, i think it's the fanbase being more racist because they dictate what the company does based on their reactions. if the east asian fanbase went off the rails with xinyan and kaeya like they did with raiden shogun, i'm sure there would be more skin tones in the leaks by now. here's the thing: hoyoverse prioritizes their revenue over everything else. if that means sacrificing representation, they wouldn't mind. that doesn't mean they don't care about representation or having unique character designs in general. it doesn't mean their hired artists hate tan or black or brown people. it just won't get them money because a majority of their fanbases won't pay for these new characters. same reasoning why people aren't making as big of a fuss about hoyoverse being misogynistic. we can easily argue why a lot of the female characters are sexualized and fetishized, but this argument isn't nearly as explosive because there's a common understanding that the reason for their exposed clothing is because that sex appeal gets them money and interest from male-identifying players. again, that doesn't mean we think this sexualization is ok, but unfortunately, it's a marketing strategy and it sadly works.

also, something that i think you're misunderstanding is that i'm not trying to absolve east asians and hoyoverse from their problems. i think there's a fine line between active and unintentional racism, and this situation is the latter. i don't think i articulated this argument as well in my original post, but hoyoverse should've done an infinitely better job with sumeru, yet there are other reasons that could've caused their faults. for example, time. the employees at hoyoverse are literally constantly releasing content and are pressed by fans to hurry up, so a possible operational problem is that they simply don't have staff who can put in the time to do the research. it's probably hard to imagine that such a successful company would have insufficient staff to do basic reading and research, but there's also a lot more work that goes into graphic landscaping than we think. for example, getting accurate history and culture would require reaching out, possibly calling, emailing, messaging individuals native to south asia and SWANA. they might want to reach out to professors or researchers, who are also busy, and that could lead to scheduling conflicts. just based on liyue, we can tell that fitting real-life references and influences within a fictional world's lore is very difficult and time-consuming. unfortunately, hoyoverse doesn't have the luxury anymore to put in meticulous, detail-oriented work because so many players have a bad habit of speeding through all the content and then demanding for more.

yes, there are still racist underpinnings, but saying that racism is the sole and only cause behind this entire situation is an over-simplification. regardless, my whole post was to prove why hoyoverse is being inadvertently racist, and i'm glad we agree on that!

regarding sumeru...

here are some context:

hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company

sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and middle eastern countries* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)

we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update

here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:

the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions

the lack of diversity

the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser

hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!

*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused.

***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072

#genshin impact #genshin #hoyoverse #mihoyo #sumeru #sumeru leaks #genshin sumeru

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earlymornings · 2 years

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Genshin impact is so painful now

I love this game to death, the open world and its lore, the dragons, the gameplay, and the land of liyue reeled me in. And ofc Kaeya was one of the major reasons I started playing. I've been playing the game like maybe a month since it was released. So, like the launch era (yes I take pride in that it was the best era).

Mondstadt was an amazing introduction, to the familiar buildings of Germany. And the beautiful design of the culture mixed with the signature of genshin's design made the characters brilliant. Now the first story event (reconciling stars??) made me heavily excited about all the lore that was hidden ingame.

When I got to liyue I was glued to the game, forever, I thought. This was china from a whole nother perspective for me as a Moroccan. And to see such an elegant (not heavily sexualized) character like Ninguang in that cutscene. Yo, I fell in love. Childe was cute too, but then the man that got me everything or anything related to excitement and admiration came upon us. Zhongli. Oh, he was the package, with a beautiful outfit reminding u of the Chinese culture as it has its own modern genshin signature twist. Stunning. It's such characters that get me obsessed with games. Next to all of the intricate details and lore plus gameplay.

To finish off, Inazuma. That was one beautiful region, from the flora to the architecture. The temples and that beautiful quest. Ayaka's design is by far one of my favourites. Her design has her culture written all over it and it's beautiful. In Inazuma, we have so many characters inspired by their Japanese ancestry and it looks stunning and recognizable.

But then the sumeru leaks dwindled along. I was super excited for sumeru, that was my downfall.

After seeing these 3 beautifully represented cultures i was so naïvely excited for Sumeru. And thats expected right, i was rightfully excited to see the beautiful culture of the middle east, north africa and SEA being equally represented like the other three.

But thats when i heard al haitham an important arab figure whose name is now being occupied by a white buff tech man with a fandom who couldnt even pronounce his name right and call him habibi ?

ATTENTION: REPRESENTING. SWANA

Unrecognizable. In no way was the representation of Sumeru as intricately thought out as with the other regions. We have been colorised, orientalized and sexualized once again.

I'm gonna start with the one hurting me the most, Dehya.

(Listen i only heard her name and i was so excited to see my culture in this game i was jumping and ecstatic to see representation--- wait she is a cat girl warrior tf)

Dehya's name is inspired by Dihya, the name of an Amazigh Algerian military queen (Kahena). So quite a name to live up to. The Imazighen (us North Africans) barely get any representation as it is. And when we do, we become drawn out as barbarians or savages (for example another "name" for us is Berbers which the Romans called us).

Now what does Dehya look like huh? Yes indeed she has been revealed to be some warrior cat with an wild and savage look. And as an amazigh i hoped to see at least a little of our beautiful culture respresented. Yet i didint recognize any cultural aspects in comparison to litteraly any character in this game.

While we actually wear alot of beautiful jewelry! And we also have beautiful tribal tattoos, and Dihya herself is such a stunning figure to take refrence from.

But instead we get practically nothing. So we are now standing up for her. And yet there are people complaining against us saying that sexualization happens to every character. But Dehya is litteraly oversexualized on such a level that no cultural aspect is recognizable nor a point of interest.

Look im aware of the sexualization of female characters in games especially in gacha's. And its mostly the reason why i dont play alot of them. Yet in genshin its more mild and the design still upholds cultural aspects. Like with Inazuman characters; https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/o7eifv/inazuma_characters_design_analysis_spoilers_for/

And alot of Liyue characters;

This is why i ask of the bare minimum. To analyze and take interest in the amazigh culture. So Dehya's design could be oh so much more elevated and still badass. Because we as well would love to see a badass cat warrior with actual amazigh tattoos, clothes and jewelry.

Unfortunatly she isint the only problematic character.

Nilou, is an Persian dancer. Whilst having culturally accurate horns from the Sassanian period and a burst move from the gorgeous Persian dance. She has still been sexualized and orientalized. Dancers have always had their stomachs covered. Its culture, it's beautiful. By exposing the belly it's unrecognizable as Persian and becomes mixed with the Arab belly dancing outfit. If they want to sexualise her that badly then exposing the belly is the worst move- it erases the culture, it mixes with another culture, it sexualizes and orientalizes. It becomes a problem.

(Cr: demonscallme on twitter)

Tighnari, an amazigh name supposedly Moroccan. With ears from the fennec an animal from the western desert. Other than that his outfit and design is all over the place. In genshin they are more than capable of making modern day clothing mix with cultural themes. Yet this is not working at all. Nothing is recognizable nor representative of anything amazigh nor arab. Its just a jumbled mess. Disappointing in comparison to the modern clothing and cultural mixture of design with for example zhongli.

Dori is the worst of all the characters. She is orientalized and sexualized. No one encounters representation except seeing a fucking joke. She has no cultural aspects that are recognizable instead she is the spitting image of an orientalized character. They have a huge region and countries with countless cultures to take interest in. Yet they went with none and followed stereotypes. Her clothing is also grossly sexualized for a child model. It's disappointing how we are being spat on, our cultures are being treated like a joke.

Now a major argument against anything related to the word orientalism had been "it's fictional".

Stereotyping and racism are stated under orientalism. When we say it's racist, stereotyped, and so orientalized it is wrong, it should not be spread around as if it's nothing. It hurts to see and it's disrespectful. So we SWANA deserve just like the german, Chinese and Japanese to be respected and upheld with the same input into our designated region. This game isin't so fictional anymore.

Colourism, all characters until now are pale. Not denying it. We have in the swana region, people of all colours. If u are gonna represent characters from that region we expect different skin tones. To be recognizing oneself is an amazing experience. And it would be representing swana perfectly. It does not hurt it only embraces. That's why we are speaking up about this. Look I'm willing to wait, to take this back, the moment we get a broad set of people from different skin colours. Its not hard to do, it does not contradict anything. So why are people still pressed? Aren't we supposed to break free from the stupid standard of the pale is elevated. There are white Arabs yes, I'm not saying we can't have any pale characters. But with a region as broad as the swana region. There are bound to be some different skin tones and that should not be ignored.

To conclude,

we want to have equal input into our region as there has been done with the previous three. We want people to see our beautiful cultures. And above all, we want to be respected. Yes, we cannot have everything, but it does not hurt to try. It does not hurt to speak out. And you who are against this notion, you are not achieving freemogems out of this. You are not changing our minds. You are not the only one in the world. Broaden your perspectives. For the sake of an exceptional game.

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earlymornings · 2 years

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these are some other great discussion points! i will continue to add my thoughts here, so 1) take these with a grain of salt and 2) i might not get to everything. by the way, nothing i say is meant to be taken personally - we're just having a productive conversation!

i was not a genshin player until patch 2.6 (i also do not play honkai), so i have no idea about what happened with xinyan's release. but what i do know is that xinyan is one of the least popular characters, in general, and is also one of the least used, given abyss stats. part of this is definitely fueled by players' internalized racism and colorism, so i think hoyoverse is trying to avoid this from happening again. especially since players have been complaining that recent 4-star characters like kuki shinobu and heizou are too niche and have terrible team comps, even more than before, i think hoyoverse is trying to come up with appeasing 4-star characters. that means skin color and lore will not be their priority; skills and meta will be what they care about, and they'll probably pair great skills with a relatively generic design (read: flour-pale anime style). hoyoverse, at the end of the day, is a business, and they will cater towards their biggest earners.

many of your points on hoyoverse's forum and the genocide don't prove how hoyoverse is being racist. instead, i think it points out that people in general are racist. discriminatory folks on the forum are no different from haters and trolls on twitter or instagram. out of a population of more than 1.4b, i would expect there to be intentional racists! but that also goes on the flip-side where there are activists and allies in the mainland and other east asian countries. if hoyoverse gets rid of hate comments directly, that would also cause concern for censorship, which is already always a possibility since hoyoverse is a chinese company. if we want to address those racist comments, we need to report them and their user(s).

regardless if it's intentional or not, racism and colorism exist in east asian culture because of these countries' histories and connections with western colonialism and imperialism. for example, in korea, one of the most visible yet subtlest signs of colonization is double eyelid surgery. this surgery was invented by an american plastic surgeon who wanted asian women to look more like western white women. east asian people, especially women, are constantly reminded that they should be more like white women, which is why bleaching creams and anti-skin darkening products are so popular. many consumers of these products don't even buy them because they are racist or support racism; they simply want to fit in because everyone else around them is getting double eyelid surgery and/or are pale as hell. deconstructing internalized -isms of any kind is difficult to do, especially if you live in places that teach next to nothing about race, gender, sexuality, etc. coupled with the fact that these countries are simply not as progressive as/more conservative than the US or canada are, it'll be decades before we can even see changes in political rights or educational materials. another example i know off the top of my head is that korea still struggles with feminism - they've shunned kpop idols for reading "feminist" books. also, it's popular for english to be taught in korean schools, and some of their elementary and middle school textbooks literally include the n-word and define it as "friend." again, these little children aren't being racist; they're being taught racism without even knowing what racism means.

racism and colorism are intrinsic parts of east asian culture, and when someone is being discriminatory, it's usually not done with malice or hate. while that is not to say we shouldn't do anything about it or not talk about it, what i do think we can do right now is recognize the difference in attitude towards ethnic diversity and representation, and work towards having a more comprehensive understanding.

i also didn't know where to put this, but in my opinion, conflating a country's people with its government isn't accurate, especially in countries where their political systems aren't democracies.

regarding sumeru...

here are some context:

hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company

sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and middle eastern countries* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)

we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update

here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:

the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions

the lack of diversity

the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser

hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!

*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused.

***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072

#genshin impact #genshin #sumeru #sumeru leaks #genshin sumeru

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earlymornings · 2 years

Text

regarding sumeru...

here are some context:

hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company

sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and countries in SWANA* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)

we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update

here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:

the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions

the lack of diversity

the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser

hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!

*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused. edit: thanks to @najmaviper for pointing this out, but a decolonized term that is often used is SWANA. you can find more information at the initiative's website: https://swanaalliance.com/about#:~:text=S.W.A.N.A.%20is%20a%20decolonial%20word,contain%20and%20dehumanize%20our%20people.

**this is not to say that all individuals from south asian or SWANA are darker-skinned, but it's crucial to push for change to help gamers who are tan, brown, and black. this is especially important to do with games as popular as genshin impact because it can cause ripple effects.

***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072

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