Just thinking about how Pixelberry is “all about” diversity and yet they treat their players of color and WLW/MLM players in a way that basically puts them in the backseat compared to white and straight players.
Oh but then. THEN. Then some of the players kiss Pixelberry’s ass and defend them. “They have LGBTQ and people of color working with them!!!!!! They can’t be bad!!!!!!!!” Keep kidding yourself, I guess. They need to try way harder.
A good start would be giving players equal love interest ratios in books. Two male love interests in this book? Cool, great, love it, but you need to make two female love interests as well.
Three male love interests? Well, if you made three male love interests, you can make three female love interests too. No excuses.
And stop paywalling the female love interests! I mean, look at Sabina compared to Cassius, Antony, and Syphax in ACOR. I didn’t pay any diamonds and basically spent no time with Sabina and learned nothing about her. Meanwhile the plot basically revolved around the three male LIs.
Another great start? Instead of the Forced White Male (Usually Blonde!) LI™️ that is present in basically every book, why not give us...drumroll...a Literally Any Other Race Male LI!
Or...or...if you reaaaaally want to shake things up...give us a Forced Female LI a few times. Like, wow, what a concept. One that ISN’T gender customizable (I cannot name a single gender customizable love interest I even remotely enjoyed) because we all know Pixelberry writes the stories to only make sense if the LI is male. And they almost ALWAYS mess up the pronouns and stuff. Like...she gently brushes a lock of hair out of your face with his hand as you softly stroke her beard. (Not an actual thing that happens in any books but it might as well be.) What the fuck is that, Pixelberry?
ALSO. I’m just now remembering the Ahmed Khabbaz fiasco during PTR’s original airings. In chapter two (I think) Ahmed states that he is Muslim and does not drink because of this. Then...in the next chapter (or next two, I forget), he brings up how he’d probably be DRINKING BEERS WITH HIS TEAMMATES if he hadn’t joined MC and the crew. And THEN. Pixelberry fucked up again within the next few chapters, except this time, he ACTUALLY DRINKS. And as a final insult to injury, Pixelberry didn’t even correct these errors immediately. I’m pretty sure it took about a week or two until they finally updated the chapters to fix these inconsistencies. Almost like...haha...almost like they were using Ahmed’s religion for diversity points and didn’t actually care enough about it to make sure they didn’t fuck it up! Hahaha! Performativism!
Basically, ugh. You all know this, but Pixelberry has failed us time and time again. WLW/MLM and players of color are being forgotten in favor of straight white players. The LGBTQ players like myself will be getting another kick in the gut tomorrow when My Two First Loves comes out. “Want to romance a girl? Too fucking bad! Get outta here!”
