Tag: POC

Diverse Games to Keep an Eye Out for in 2022

Diverse Games to Keep an Eye Out for in 2022

Published on by Blerdy2 Comments

Hey there Blerdy Tribe, it’s a brand new year and there have been some huge strides within the gaming community. Indie games are becoming more prominent, with more mainstream sites covering them much more frequently than they have in the past. But, for me the most exciting is the shift towards more visibility for traditionally underrepresented groups in games! Don’t get me wrong, there is still a ways to go, but, I’m happy to see that there has been an effort to create more representative games and a lot of that has to do with a diverse creators stepping in to create games that reflect their own experiences, identities, and cultures.

As a Black gamer I am always on the look out for diverse games, so once again I did a call for games with planned 2022 release dates that feature characters and stories centered around often underrepresented groups–and as always the community provided!

Thank you to everyone who sent me their projects or shared the tweet–you guys are the real MVPs! So, I spent some time shifting through all the responses and checking out game pages for this post and y’all I am excited for all of these games! If you’re like me and you’ve been craving more diversity in your games, this is the list for YOU!

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Diverse Games to Keep an Eye Out for in 2021

Published on by Blerdy8 Comments

Hey Blerdy Tribe! It’s a brand spankin’ new year and you know what that means… new game releases!! But, if you’ve been around for awhile you know that there is one thing that I look for in my games: REPRESENTATION! As a black female gamer, I am always on the look out for games created by and featuring characters of color and of course that sweet, sweet LGBTQIA rep! The gaming community is made up of all sorts of people, so don’t you think the games we play should be representative of the people that play them? Well, I do! And I’ve made it my mission here at Blerdy Otome to create a space where we celebrate diverse games and creators. Every Monday I spotlight one game that tell stories centering on characters of color or from the LGBTQIA community.

But, this week I wanted to shake things up a bit by not just spotlighting one game, rather I wanted to bring attention to several diverse games making their debut in 2021! However, I am just one person, so I did an open call on Twitter for diverse indie games set to be released in 2021… and boy did you guys come out in full force!!

The response was overwhelming! Thank you to everyone who sent me their projects or shared the tweet–you guys are the real MVPs! So, I spent a week going through all the responses and checking out game pages for this post and y’all I am excited for all of these games! If you’re like me and you’ve been craving more diversity in your games, this is the list for YOU!

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Melanin Friendly Otome Games & Visual Novels

Published on by Blerdy6 Comments

I’ve written about the importance of representation in media quite a few times in the past, I even have a post series dedicated to talking about inclusion and diversity in nerd culture. Most recently, I wrote a post about diversity (or the lack there of) in otome games and after penning the post an indie developer friend of mine reached out to me about the topic. We had an awesome discussion about the depiction of people of color in visual novels and the importance of wholesome representation. She even gave me some insight into the difficulties some content creators have when crafting characters of color in their games, a perspective I hadn’t considered. I’ve seen quite a few polls and surveys floating around about the content of western otome games and visual novels, many of which have sections dedicated to gauging player interests in diverse characters.

I love that there is an open dialogue about diversity in games, especially in romance themed games since there is a noticeable disparity in the number of otome games that feature black and brown characters in major roles. However, I’ve heard through the grapevine that there are a handful of developers that have been saying that they don’t include darker skinned characters in their games because they “look bad” or aren’t as attractive as non black and brown characters. Some people have stated that it’s harder to create characters with darker complexions using the anime art style common in otome games… and hearing that is really heartbreaking. On some level, I feel like this is just a carryover of colorism, and the notion that dark skinned individuals are not as attractive as lighter skinned individuals (which is not the case at all). But, on other levels, it’s less an issue with darker characters looking bad and more a case of an artist needing more experience depicting characters of color.

There is a demand for more diverse games, heck, this past weekend someone used the search term ‘otome games black girl friendly’ to get to my site and I’m gonna be honest with you guys, it made my whole weekend! As more people start playing otome games (and romance visual novels) the demand for more inclusive characters and narratives will only rise and those who stay stuck in their ways are really limiting themselves. So, for the person that searched for black girl friendly otome games and for the folks that think “darker characters look bad” here are a few Melanin Friendly Otome Games and Visual Novels!!

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Melanin Monday: Black Folks Killin’ It in the Oscars

Published on by Blerdy2 Comments

Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and NPCs, out there it’s Monday, and that means another Melanin Monday post!! I know its been awhile since my last Melanin Monday post (I’ve been slacking off), but, for those of you just joining the party, here’s a little refresher. Melanin Monday is a bi-weekly post series that I started for Black History Month, where I talk about Black and Brown skinned characters in anime, manga, video games, etc., but you guys loved it so much I decided to continue it!

So, in this week’s Melanin Monday post, I wanted to talk about the Oscars… Yeah, I know, I’m not the only one talking about the Oscars, everybody is talking about the Oscars right now. But, after not one but two Black-led superhero films managed to not only snag quite a few Oscar nominations, but, also WIN awards… well, let’s just say that is grounds for celebration. But, that wasn’t all, the 2019 Oscars was a triumph for women and people of color as well, with films like Roma and BlackKklansman snagging quite a few awards last night.

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[Melanin Monday] So Is It Just Me or Did They Kill A Lot of Black Folks in Infinity War?!: A Rant

Published on by Blerdy7 Comments

If you happened to stumble upon this post by accident, this will be the last spoiler warning before I start my rant… I will not apologize to anyone that knowingly reads beyond this point and gets spoiled for Infinity War, that’s on you boo.\

infinity war.jpg

So I joined droves of moviegoers in seeing one of the most anticipated superhero films to come out this year, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. Ten years of planning and 19 films have lead to this sort of final act in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved Infinity War, it had everything I could ask for in a superhero film: all the heroes (minus Hawkeye and AntMan, they got put on the bus for this one), action, suspense, witty banter, and one of the biggest emotional sucker punches so far this year. It was an almost perfect film and I applaud Marvel (read: Disney) for pulling it off, if you’d asked me back in 2004 if I thought Marvel would have the monopoly on superhero films, I’d have probably laughed in your face and bopped you on the head with my homemade wand and pulled off on the Hogwarts Express back to Harry Potter-ville.

*** Infinity War Spoilers***

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Melanin Monday: Why We Need Quality Representation- A Short Rant

Published on by Blerdy5 Comments

Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, it’s Black History Month once again and with it comes the revival of Melanin Monday, the post series where I talk about the representation of Black and brown characters in pop culture. While I mainly focus on the nerdier side of the pop culture spectrum, from time to time I will cover more personal posts about my experiences as a Black nerd.

This started as part of Black History Month 2017, but you guys liked it so much that I decided to keep it going, albeit rather sporadically. However, for the month of February I will try to post one of these every Monday.

This week I didn’t really have anything planned since this post coincides with my OWLS Blog Tour post, and I am notorious for waiting until the last minute to do anything… So rather than focus on a particular form of media, I’m just going to talk about the importance of representation in general… as a rant.

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Melanin Monday: Why We Need Black Panther

Published on by Blerdy10 Comments

I recently saw Thor: Ragnarok, and while I think it is one of the better films to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, though I will admit a lot of that had to do with the tone of the film, rather than the actual plot (but that’s a discussion best saved for another day). In fact, I absolutely love the MCU, the good, the bad, and the ugly (I’m looking at you Hulk and Incredible Hulk), but there is one film that I am looking forward to the most from the MCU… and no, it’s not Infinity Wars Pt 1…. I mean, I am, that shit looks like it’s going to be epic, but even more than that, the film I am most looking forward to is Black Panther!

I still remember the first time I saw the teaser trailer, it literally gave me chills, hell, I still get chills every single time I watch this trailer. Don’t get me wrong, T’Challa is not the first black superhero to grace the silver screen (and God willing, he won’t be the last), but Black Panther has something the Blade franchise, Spawn, and of course the comedies like Blankman and Meteor Man never quite seemed to capture with their Black super hero leads. Don’t get me wrong, each film mentioned above, has it’s merits, but each one is missing a bit of that inherent Blackness that makes Black Panther stand out as something truly revolutionary.

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Melanin Monday: Otome Games/ Visual Novels Featuring Black & Brown Characters

Published on by Blerdy9 Comments

Hey, hey all you wonderful Heroes and Travelers out there it’s Monday, and that means another Melanin Monday post!! For those of you just joining us, Melanin Monday is a  bi-weekly post series that I started for Black History Month, where I talk about Black and Brown skinned characters in anime, manga, video games, etc., but you guys loved it so much I decided to continue it!

Since this is an otome game blog, I figured at least one of these Melanin Monday posts should be about Black and brown characters in otome games/visual novels. So I compiled a list of games that featured characters with darker skin tones. This isn’t a comprehensive list of every game with dark skinned characters, but it does the trick for now. Also, most of these titles are English language visual novels since they tend to feature more characters of color than Japanese otome games… but, that’s a discussion for another day.

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Melanin Monday: My Top 5 Favorite Black Male Anime Characters

Published on by Blerdy5 Comments

Hey, hey all you wonderful Heroes and Travelers out there it’s Monday, and that means another Melanin Monday post!! For those of you just joining us, Melanin Monday is a special weekly post series that I started for Black History Month (I might be persuaded to continue the series, if interest is high enough), where I talk about Black and Brown skinned characters in anime, manga, video games, etc. Last week I switched things up a bit, with an op-ed like piece on the negative portrayals of black characters in anime and I’m not gonna lie, it wound up being pretty ranty! So for this week’s post, I wanted to transition to something a bit more chill…

Two weeks back I spotlighted  My Favorite Black Female Anime Characters; five phenomenal women of color that I felt everyone should know about… Well, this week, I’m giving the fellas a chance to shine. These fierce fellas know how to take care of business! Because I think all the men on this list are fantastic, this won’t be a ranked list, I love them all equally!!

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Melanin Monday: I Am Not Your Stereotype- Racial Representation in Anime [Part I]

Published on by Blerdy23 Comments

Hey, hey all you wonderful Heroes and Travelers out there it’s Monday, and that means another Melanin Monday post!! For those of you just joining us, Melanin Monday is a special weekly post series that I started for Black History Month (I might be persuaded to continue the series, if interest is high enough), where I talk about Black and Brown skinned characters in anime, manga, video games, etc. Last week I did a Top 5 List of My Favorite Black Female Anime Characters and this week, I’m gonna do things a little differently…

As a Black nerd, it’s hard to find strong characters that look like me in the media, more times than not people of color, especially African American people are cast as criminals, villains, or worst of all hurtful stereotypes. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen my people used as the butt of someone else’s joke and quite frankly, it pisses me off! Even my beloved anime, as progressive as it is, has some rather questionable black and brown characters… So, for this week’s post, I wanted to look at the various ways anime portrays people of color, both the negative and the positive portrayals. This post wound up being longer than I originally intended, so I decided to split it into two parts! Part I focuses on the negative stereotypes and Part II which will go up on the last Monday of the Month will focus on the more positive depictions of POC in anime.

*Disclaimer: I realize that this is a touchy subject for some people, but I want to let you all know right now, that while comments are welcome, I will not tolerate any personal attacks or overtly nasty comments. If you can’t discuss this post in a respectful and civilized manner, then keep your hands off the keyboard… I promise you I will not be very forgiving of anyone that uses my comments section as such! 😀

Continue reading “Melanin Monday: I Am Not Your Stereotype- Racial Representation in Anime [Part I]” →