Electronic Arts had “proper communication plan” when they announced ‘Battlefield 2042’’s first non-binary character.
Tulay McNally, the video game developer’s director “really appreciated” the work done by those involved with the launched Sundance -the first genderfluid character on their 2021 offering - about how to respond to people on social media.
She told Wired magazine: “I really appreciated that the producers and the community manager reached out and said, ‘We want to make sure we have a proper communication plan in place when we are revealing the character.’”
Tulay added: “What really matters is that we have a strong character design and a meaningful story to tell to make it authentic, cool, and accepted,”
She cited the Sims 4 - who recently unveiled plans to allow players to change their characters pronouns - as successful example of working updates into the game under “a loose framework of guiding principles” to make them more inclusive, particularly from a gender perspective.
Tulay said: “It's really a loose framework of guiding principles and design philosophies that we customize to our engagements with each game team,”
“Some other game teams may be more at the beginning. They may need a bit more support, education, and hand holding.”
Tulay outlined her belief that Gen Z “play differently” and want their video games to come from an organisation with a visible social conscience.
She said: “They play differently.”
“They want different things from companies. They want companies to be good to their developers, and they want companies to take a stance on social issues, for example.”
