Players are demanding more dark-skinned characters in Genshin Impact – berate the developers

On July 21, 2022By Garmin Philip

genshin-impact-new-characters-tighnari-dori-collei-dendro-sumeru

Genshin Impact patch 3.0 introduces the Sumeru area. The area may have been inspired by the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt and/or South Asia. So far, some characters for this region have also been released and leaked, but some fans do not like them at all – they are not representative of the countries.

what is the situation Genshin Impact includes different areas in their world Teyvat, which are based on different countries of our earth and their cultures. So far there are the following three:

Mondstadt: Germany
Liyue: China
Inazuma: Japan

Now the Chinese developers Hoyoverse want to publish the Sumeru area in the latest update and that should probably be based on South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and/or Egypt.

Appropriately, they have already posted 3 new playable characters and a trailer. But some players now feel that the characters don’t adequately represent those countries and cultures – they’re too white or pale. They even go so far as to say that the developers are racist.

Genshin Impact: Trailer about the land of Sumeru and the mystical element Dendro

Players criticize: Sumeru characters are not representative

What’s the criticism? The fans think that the characters, Tighnari, Collei and Dori are all too pale. Especially with Tighnari, the outcry was great because he has a classic Arabic name (via Twitter).

Some artists have even redesigned him and given him a darker complexion (via Twitter).

People in these countries should have a darker skin color, say the players and insult the developers as racists. So far there are only 2 heroes who have a darker skin color and that is not enough with almost 50 characters.

The characters in question look like this:

Genshin YouTuber involved in racism debate

The YouTuber AsianGuyStream tried to describe the situation a little differently in his video and to explain to people where the “real problem” lies. He also said that he doesn’t think the developers are racists, just simply culturally ignorant.

According to him, they take many things from the culture and implement them in the game, but the characters don’t look appropriate – that’s harmful and hurts people who come from exactly that region.

As an example, he cites the characters from Liyue, who look completely Chinese and represent Chinese culture quite well.

AsianGuyStream then said that one should imagine that the developers are not from China but from America. If individual heroes from Liyue were to be blond, have blue eyes and be as pale as the Sumeru characters, this would certainly bother the players.

You should put yourself in the shoes of the people whose country, people and culture are being represented so that you can better understand the people who feel hurt or offended by this.

You can watch the full video here:

What could be the reason that there are hardly any dark-skinned characters?

Fans are speculating as to why Genshin Impact isn’t bringing characters with dark skin.

Three explanatory models clearly emerged:

In China, white skin is considered the ideal of beauty and the developers want to make money with their game. According to this, dark-skinned heroes would mean less sales since China brings in the most profit (via Twitter).
AsianGuyStream and other players say that China lives very isolated from other countries and hardly any foreigners are seen there. You just don’t know what such people look like.
The developers are racist (via Twitter).

Leaks show even more characters from Sumeru

Are the players’ criticisms heard? That remains to be seen. Each region typically spawns around 15-20 characters, so there’s still plenty of room for heroes with different skin tones.

There are even leaks from trustworthy leakers that show other upcoming figures: Almost everyone there is white again, there is little diversity to be seen.

Leaks about characters and NPCs from Sumeru