Remove stereotypes of Native Americans

[Azarilh 1]

Copy-pasting from my enbyfriend from Discord:
"So, me and my girlfriend @Azarilh have recently started playing. We were rlly excited to finally have found a free to play indie game that is also co-op. Howeverly, we were pretty disappointed to see the heavily stereotypical and innaccurate representation of Native Americans in the game. I am not here to attack anyone if they disagree with me, but I feel it would be better to take out the Native American characters from the game (make them not Native) or revamp them entirely.
Especially since some of them seem to be hostile towards the player for no apparent reason, I think they should be peaceful unless they are provoked."
 

The Natives are represented with stereotypical clothes and tents. Everything about them is obvious stereotypes of Native Americans.
I'd say it's a bit insensitive.

[Deadeye_Rob 908]

Just curious, but which elements of the Native American set do you find stereotypical?

As for hostility I'd put forward the case that pretty much all NPC's with the exception of merchants are to be considered hostile. This includes a very diverse selection of cultures and denominations. There are Spanish Conquistadors, Indo-European hunters, Ancient Romans, Nordic tribesmen and even the odd loon who wears a cactus for a helmet! I would not say that the Native American culture have been deliberately assigned as a hostile encounter based on any stereotype. If that were so, then we should consider removing all NPCs, which wouldn't help the gameplay at all!

The point I'm trying to get at I suppose is that Ylands encourages players of all races, creeds, religions to build a boat, get out there and meet each other. Considering that this is probably the first time a point such as this has been put forward, I would argue that its relevance within the playerbase either doesn't enter their minds or isn't worthy of positive action to review. 

I do appreciate your comment, but to bring about sweeping changes to a very well established game based on perceived cultural appropriation/stereotyping could lay a very dangerous precedent that would invite too many strongly held beliefs which would damage the spirit of Ylands.

[anna_svecova 375]

On 7/5/2023 at 10:39 PM, Azarilh said:

Copy-pasting from my enbyfriend from Discord:
"So, me and my girlfriend @Azarilh have recently started playing. We were rlly excited to finally have found a free to play indie game that is also co-op. Howeverly, we were pretty disappointed to see the heavily stereotypical and innaccurate representation of Native Americans in the game. I am not here to attack anyone if they disagree with me, but I feel it would be better to take out the Native American characters from the game (make them not Native) or revamp them entirely.
Especially since some of them seem to be hostile towards the player for no apparent reason, I think they should be peaceful unless they are provoked."
 

The Natives are represented with stereotypical clothes and tents. Everything about them is obvious stereotypes of Native Americans.
I'd say it's a bit insensitive.

Thank you for your kind words and your comment. We definitely never meant to offend anyone. Everything in the game is heavily stylized and inspired by real cultures definitely not a literal interpretation of them. At the moment we do not plan to remove them. We will however talk about your concerns with the team and see if there is room for improvement.

Thank you for your time and feedback
Let us know if you need or want to know anything else.

[Wagvli 3]

As a member of the First Nations, I think having us in there is awesome. The only issue with it is just lack of diversity in clothing. Maybe (when/if given the chance because I know this is hard/long work for yall and it takes time) add a few basic clothing styles for natives, from forest, desert, everglades, to mountain styles. I can see how people would see the ones already implemented (Maya, Inuk, and Plains native clothing) as slightly stereotypical (because most people only know of those 3 groups and assume all natives dress the same). Just a little more variation with LESS feathers, because really only the Plains Tribes are "feather nuts" (respectfully) and maybe some better braid styles (the pigtails look a little janky, and a single ponytail braid would be awesome). Besides that I love what yall are doing and this is definitely the BEST game I've ever played. Cuddos 😌