Heroscape: Age of Annihilation is here! Back it on Haslab!

[Master Roshi]

Originally Posted by Majora's Incarnation

Not to restart the debate but the words "woke" and "mob" have no place in a design discussion, reading that is upsetting when this whole thread was supposed to be an exciting place for the current updates.

I see what you're saying because people need to maintain a respect for other people's perspectives without strawmanning them.
I think there should still be a place for people to describe their frustration if it relates to the game. If the discussion veers towards criticizing cultural elements themselves without it pertaining to how Heroscape is designed, then that's innapropriate for the nature of this thread.
The people who explain what they don't like to see in games, such as the two women in the video, have an impact on what is and isn't implemented. We already see that happening though the caution that the developers for Heroscape have expressed. Its only fair for someone with a differing perspective to have their say as well, because that too might impact what Hasbro puts in the game.
Why should the critics of historical units be enabled to impact game design, but those who are more lenient with game contents shouldn't?
The developers should be aware of what potential buyers think, complementary or critical, and correct or incorrect.

What bothers me is people who haven't played Heroscape are having an impact on the game through their complaints about other games, whereas the actual players, as far as I've seen, have expressed a desire for historical units. Yet Hasbro will be stepping on eggshells to not upset them; so I think it's appropriate for Hasbro to know that certain Heroscape players will also be upset by the exclusion of historical units that ten or more years ago would have been an obvious inclusion.
No one has to accept new Heroscape just because it's Heroscape. And they can choose to not support it if they feel it has gone down the wrong path. Now, is anyone here calling for the cancelation of Heroscape because they're favorite historical character isn't included? No. However, will there be people that aren't even dedicated Heroscape players calling for the complete cancelation of Heroscape because XYZ historical figure was added? Its certainly realistic that would happen, hence the heavier emphasis on sci-fi and fantasy. If game companies have already opened packaged games to swap out content that has offended people for having been included, will Hasbro open packaged games to add in infantry from an old empire when Heroscape fans complain about their exclusion? Absolutely not, and the reason is that even if we complained about that, it wouldn't be with the threat the we want Heroscape canceled or that the developers are prejudiced. I think that disparity between how the two sides could potentially respond is important to take note of.

With that being said, we should be careful not to be insulting to those who are concerned about sensitive content. It makes sense to me that there are units that would be bad to include. Adding SS soldiers, even for Utgar, would clearly be distasteful and I don't think it ends there. As someone else pointed out earlier, I think it would be wise to avoid anything later than the 19th century to avoid figures whose actions have impacts that are still seen today. I used to think it would be fun to add in modern US marines, but now I can see how that would be problematic to some people so I'm fine with their exclusion.
The fundamental problem is that warfare itself is going to always entail wrong, oppressive, and tyrannical actions, because if both sides were just and empathetic they wouldn't be solving their conflict through killing each other, so there's always going to be atleast one bad guy. This fundamental problem is going to haunt any design choice that includes people from an actual event that happened, because you're either saying "We can add them because they were the good guys in the war" or "We can add them because their actions were primarily neutral" or "We can add them because what they did wrong is irrelevant to the game we're making" to which all choices will have critics. There are still people in Russia who think Stalin was a great leader, so people's opinions about history go in every direction which the developers will have to keep in mind.

Overall, any discussion here should pertain to the development of the game. And if something negative is said it shouldn't be pointlessly destructive or single-minded.