Here Is Why Dustborn Will Fail

In the last 12 months, Dustborn has released three trailers. The first received 1 Thousand likes and 7.8 thousand dislikes. The trailer that followed received 1.1 thousand likes and 5.6 thousand dislikes. Lastly, we had a trailer with 759 likes and 7.3 thousand dislikes. For many, the first question will likely be, what the hell is Dustborn? Secondly, why is the reception towards the game so poor? The answers to these questions will lie in the description of the game. When asked during an interview, “Where did that idea start out and what were some of the inspirations during the early days of making the game?“ The creators of the game responded by stating,

“We wanted Dustborn to be an evolution of the work we did with Dreamfall Chapters: a third-person adventure with a strong cast of diverse characters, in a vibrant, deep and original world, with some adventure-game mechanics and lots of branching dialogues and stories. But this time we also wanted to include combat-action, with a narrative twist that stays true to our storytelling heritage. And there’s also a bunch of features connected to the idea of weaponised words, and how words have the power to change the world.

The idea behind Dustborn’s setting and characters was also influenced by a series of political events that deeply affected us all, beginning in the summer of 2016, and continuing until…well, today. As game developers, we wanted to tell a story that felt relevant and thematically timely, with a cast of characters that could more accurately represent our player base and the setting, and to hopefully have some positive impact on the world…in addition to being an entertaining game.”

Why People Hate Dustborn

There are likely a few phrases that stood out immediately. They state that they want a strong cast of diverse characters. Then, they mention weaponized words. Lastly, they mention political events during the summer of 2016. For non-Americans, they are referring to the era of President Donald Trump. We can start with the first statement regarding diversity and inclusion. Over the years, this word has carried a lot of hate and is now at a boiling point.

Most people do not associate DEI with a diverse cast of characters. They think of poor character design and weak, boring stories. Unfortunately, in most cases, they are correct. DEI might include a diverse cast, but it excludes most gamers. When developing a game, your audience is not women, black people, or gay people. Your audience is gamers. There used to be a time when the term gamer included everyone. No matter what religion, sex, or country you are from, when you turn on your console or PC, all of that disappears, and you become a gamer.

Yes, sometimes it can become toxic, but no one cares. The moment you put race, sex, or sexual orientation in front of the word gamer, the divide starts to happen. It would be wrong to say that DEI is killing a game because it has a diverse cast. Having a diverse cast of characters in a video game is fine. However, those behind the DEI creations are not. Things always go wrong when your focus is DEI and not the story. Again, we are all gamers. Not black gamers, white gamers, men gamers, and women gamers. Just gamers. When you have to talk about how diverse your game is and how brave you are for doing it, then it is already too late.

The Dustborn Problem

The publisher behind this game is Quantic Dream. In the spirit of DEI, I reviewed their website and looked at the studio. More importantly, I wanted to see who worked there. Then, I also looked at the studio that created this game. They are called Red Thread Games. Both publisher and studio are as white as day, mostly filled with men. When people say that DEI is nothing more than pandering for profit, are you starting to understand why?

It is a bunch of white dudes and girls in a room patting themselves on the back about how inclusive they are. None of them will step aside for DEI in the workplace. I want to be clear about a few things, though. There is nothing wrong with a diverse cast of characters. I find shows like The Walking Dead back in the day and the House of the Dragon now absolutely amazing. Do you know why no one is calling that DEI? Because the story is great. The producer and director did not come out to have a press conference about how awesome they are for inducing women or gay people or black people.

They just cast who they think will be able to bring the story to life and focus on building something great. Studios like Rockstar and Riot have many Black protagonists in their games. DEI is not the issue, in my opinion. The motivations of the teams behind them are. They are nothing more than a large corporation with a pride flag in June in America while selling their products on the other side of the world to people who advocate for killing those same groups.

Conclusion

In the end, I would be shocked if anyone truly had an issue with diversity in video games. I am sure they exist, but the margins are too small to discuss. People object to the message behind the letters. These are not some black-led or female-led studios trying to tell a story that highlights their experiences. It is, in most cases, a bunch of white people paler than I am jerking each other off about how stunning and brave they are because their lead character is a black woman.

She is not included because of her strong personality, because the story demanded it, or simply because they wanted a cool design, which they came up with. No, it is because everything is racist, but not them. They are different and will ensure you know it by announcing it to everyone at every opportunity. They won’t tell you about the story when you interview them about their game. They will tell you about how diverse their cast is. Keep in mind that it is how diverse their game cast is. Not their studio. That is filled with nothing but pandering white people.

If you call it out, they call you racist or sexist. Some of them go as far as to call black people racists who disagree with what they are doing. I want to make it clear. Diversity in video games is fine. Include as many people as you can and tell the best story that you can. However, it is important that we appreciate the studios that focus on story and have a diverse cast and call out studios that focus on making their cast diverse as a shield in the absence of a good story.