I see you finally got wise and made a statement, Pixelberry. The only problem is that the content on your app doesn’t reflect anything this post claims to stand for.
Quite frankly, I could spend all day describing the unacceptable treatment of the black characters in your stories. Seeing as our real life situation is terrible enough, let’s just hit the highlights, shall we?
Your most recent indiscretion involves none other than Rafael Aveiro of Open Heart, an Afro-Latino man who you sidelined and then wrote out of the narrative completely in favor of giving more screen time to a white male despite the fact that he already had an overwhelming amount of screentime in comparison to every other love interest in the story.
Another notable case is that of Shane Parker of Platinum, the MC’s best friend and optional love interest. When the player promises to attend his film screening that is important to him instead of attending the knockoff Met Gala and later optionally stands him up, Shane is portrayed as bitter and unsupportive by the narrative. In addition, he also suffers because the other two love interests have a bigger role in the story and consequently receive more content.
As if those scenarios weren’t damning enough, your treatment of black characters, but especially black woman, who aren’t love interests is ABYSMAL.
Let’s revisit Open Heart. Aurora Emery, a fellow intern at the beginning of the story, is immediately placed in an adversarial position to the MC. She is also targeted by the main group for the egregious crimes of being good at her job, being related to a woman in a higher position than her and not being instantly friendly to the MC. She is later made to apologize for these things and has been consistently made to do so as of the most recent chapter (Book 2, Chapter 9). Ellen Thompson of Wishful Thinking is put in a similar situation.
Kiara of The Royal Romance is consistently villainized for showing interest in a popular love interest (Drake Walker) and is made fun of and referred to as weak for being traumatized.
Xanthe of A Courtesan of Rome is made to be yet another black female rival to the default white MC for no discernable reason and has a black scholae owner and a freed black slave (who is a love interest that they make sure to tell us is illiterate) sell her into what we now know as human trafficking because she was, once again, mean to the MC.
Ava Cunningham of It Lives In The Woods, who was featured in your sad excuse of a Black History month roll out, is given an absentee mother and an inconsiderate father. In addition, she’s determinantly made to deal with the trauma of having her close friend (the MC) killed with her personal weapon.
In addition to the tone deafness involved in the treatment of the characters above, your MC is almost always coded to be white. This makes the playing experience extremely uncomfortable for black players in the following scenarios:
An older white man sticking a gun in the main character’s face
the inability to sympathize and be mentored by black women in the workplace (Aurora Emery, Ellen Thompson, Xanthe to an extent)
being told that a black Desire and Decorum MC’s mother was going to be sold if she didn’t stop seeing Vincent
The Veil of Secrets MC being forced to be rude to Scarlett following the affair
Having a paywall to save a Ginny, a black child, from slavery
Being referred to as the help in The Nanny Affair
High School Story: Class Act immediately being accused for injuring another student without proof
every bullying scene in It Lives In The Woods
Enduring Brian Crandall’s verbal abuse in High School Story
the Mother Of The Year MC only being able to call Vanessa “kinda racist” when she referred to a potentially black child as a guttersnipe
So when you make these posts during times of unrest and include statements like, “We see you. We hear you. We stand with you,” it comes off as disingenuous and insulting to the intelligence of black Choices players everywhere.
You wanna stand with us, PB? Then start in the office. Examine the way that your characters are treated and the circumstances we encounter. Make changes to these issues and be smarter and more considerate going forward.
Then, and only then, can you say that you hear, see OR stand with us.
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