I do not for a single second believe any attempt by Jamin Warren to appear neutral in this discussion is earnest. Jamin has a cancerous and ludicrous notion of race that is toxic to all people. Based on everything he's said in the past and onwards, I cannot believe he doesn't sympathize entirely with the "pro-diversity" minority.

' How to end racism? Stop Talking about it ' - Morgan Freeman

These people would not shock me if they said that a ww2 movie was racist because the Nazi soldiers were all white.

“Portal is a feminist masterpiece.” Geralt: I hate portals.

Let me get this straight..... He says we should embrace other cultures as is.... Then gets mad when the Polish share theirs because there are no brown folks. God my brain hurts. I need a beer.

I live in Iceland and I almost never see black people in real life. I know one black person in real life and it's the same in Poland. Americans should stop telling us that we have to be racially diverse when we clearly aren't because we did not have slaves from Africa. We don't want anything to do with your damn race war!

this is like saying that the show Vikings doesn't have enough black people

I wonder why there was no 'controversy' about Okami only having Asian characters? Japanese people made a game about their folklore featuring massive amounts Asians = a great cultural project. Polish people made a game about their folklore featuring massive amounts of Caucasians = racist lack of diversity.

Roach's teleportation is more of a fucking issue than this

I'm Indian. Witcher 3 is one of the best games of all time and I never gave a fuck what the color of anyone's skin was.

Jamin is extremely racist since he insinuates racism where there is none and denounces cultures in the name of diversity.

Game full of white skinned people --> RACIST! Game full of dark skinned people --> Fights against Racism...

Read an article on this by a guy on Polygon who agreed with the SJWs. Know what I read? This pretty much sums it up. 'I enjoyed the main character, despite him being a white male. I'm angry that other reviews don't mention the lack of ethnic diversity, though I respect those who wrote them despite them being white. I also have great praise for the developers, despite them being white and male.' It's literally the most disgusting, sexist, racist thing I've ever read. He's basically dismissing the achievements of the devs simply because they are white. What a fucking hypocritical vile piece of filth.

Witcher 2's plot actually provides a pretty nuanced and sophisticated allegory for race and how hatred and prejudice can lead to violence. But hey let's ignore that, and chastise a Polish gaming company that doesn't adhere to American quotas of diversity. Ridiculous.....

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but there will always be something to offend a feminist.

If you read the books, you will see that race (in terms of Dwarves, Elves, Witchers and Humans etc.) is a prevalent issue. Gerald disagrees with most quarrels and finds it ridiculous.

Isn't Geralt technically a minority? Yeah he's white and all, but he's a Mutated Human, a Witcher. There's not alot of Witchers around, and people often scoff at the sight of him. Some even try to pick fights with him because of the fact that he's a mutant.

"I dream of a world were people are judged by the content of their character and NOT the color of their skin" Who said that again?

I wonder if they will ever start complaining that Nazis in movies or games are always portrayed as white guys? ;)

"Hatred and prejudice will never be eradicated. And witch hunts will never be about witches. To have a scapegoat, that's the key. Humans always fear the alien... The odd. Once the mages had left Novigrad, folk turned their anger against the other races... And as they have for ages, branded their neighbors their greatest foes." -Geralt of Rivia

"There's not a single black person in the Witcher 3..." Maybe that's because it's set in a fantasy version of Medieval Europe...? Edit: Yes, I know the Ofieri exist. They're technically foreigners, though; and they were only properly introduced in Hearts of Stone. Edit 2: Apparently there were two black characters in the Witcher 3, but no matter how much I wrack my grey matter, I cannot seem to remember them. Perhaps they were merely sidecharacters, or I've simply forgotten about them. Feel free to admonish or correct me in the replies if they were major characters. Edit 3: Why did I even leave this comment here, anyways...? Ah, screw it, I'm too shallow a person to delete it and lose my precious, ego filling likes.

Oh GOD, please not that PBS Gameshow... gah... no...

Hi. I'm Polish. I think you're mostly right, but also that you've missed the mark a little bit in that you're right but for the wrong reasons. The thing you don't seem to understand is that Slavic people, for the most part, do not identify with white people elsewhere in the world. When we see a WASP in a film or a game, that is not one of us. We're not generally racist toward other peoples, white or otherwise. God forbid. We respect them. But we feel distinct from them. We have historically welcomed and respected foreigners of all races and beliefs, and we still do, as long as our guests have similar respect for our own culture. Our ancestors didn't trade in slaves for at least a thousand years, or make them work in plantations, or reap the benefits of their work. In fact, we ourselves have the dubious honor of being the origin of the word 'slave' in roman times. In short, I don't feel we owe other races anything, certainly not representation in our literature where it doesn't make sense. In western literature and cinematography we feel just as underrepresented and stereotyped as Blacks or Hispanics. Can you name, in western film or reasonably popular literature, one character of Polish origin, with a Polish accent, or even with merely a Polish sounding name that was presented in a positive light? That wasn't fat, a criminal, uneducated, a slob, or corrupt? No? Me neither. Just being white is not nearly enough for us to think, ah, yes, all these media are about people like us. No. It doesn't work that way. You won't hear much complaining about it though, as we simply create our own media for our internal consumption, and so, don't care what characters Americans put in their movies. Western whites may or may not have a debt towards the blacks, it's not for me to say. The problem is, some people seem to be lumping us together with western whites, merely because our geographical latitude gave us the same amount of skin melanin as them. So yes, CD Projekt publishing a game filled with white people is, at least from my perspective, *exactly* like Sega filling a Yakuza game with Japanese people, or Kiro's Games filling Aurion with black people. That people of color, instead of celebrating the fact that there's finally a good product to represent Slavic culture, seem to expect us to shoulder the perceived western sin in _our_ media, just because we're white, was a rude awakening for me, and quite ludicrous.

Nifgardian male: 'beats the ever living hell out a a female' Geralt: 'walks up to him after killing the patrol' Nifgardian: w-what are you doing!? Geralt: killing monsters

My boyfriend showed me this channel and I stumbled upon this video. He loves the Witcher games and introduced me to them as a way for me to see more into my culture. I find it amusing that Jamin backtracked on saying it was amazing to see Poland's culture and everyone can enjoy it, to "oh but the lack of races." We are Polish, this is our history, our lore, what did you expect?

Not to mention The Witcher is a series that encourages you to look beyond the physical appearence: See the goodness within so called "monsters" and "nonhumans" ( Regis, Zoltan, Yarpen, Borch Three Jackdaws, Iorveth, all of the trolls to name a few ). I mean Geralt of Rivia... BOOK SPOILERS ..dies defending nonhumans, yet people still has the nerve to call this game racist? Has this Jamin guy at least read about the fucking plot of The Witcher 2? Iorveth's character arc? The more you push agendas in your creative works, the more you hamper your creativity. Diversity for the sake of it doesn't help anything at all, ever.

Isn't telling a person that they HAVE to put different races and sexualities take away the creativity of that person?

If there are too many whites in the Wticher, there are too many blacks in GTA San Andreas.

People forget the difference between historical accuracy and historical authenticity. The witcher isn't at all historically accurate, but it is historically authentic.

"the main character is a male witch" wait what ? well somebody clearly hasnt played the game

I just remembered that the Succubi in this game have dark skin. Controversy over

Thank god witcher wasnt made by an American studio

The "But dragons!" Argument is stupid. Magic creatures are REQUIRED for the plot, people of color, are not. (Except for the toad mission in stone hearts.) Which is a good example of how using race as a thematic/story building element is not racist!

If there was a triple A game, inspired and set in a beloved Central African work of fiction, where it respected and romanticized it's cultural heritage, it would be hailed as a fantastic example of refreshing diversity. The Witcher series, is that theoretical game, except instead of Central African, it's Polish. And since Polish people are white, then it's not diverse.

does he not realize the Witcher basically takes place in Europe?

i am African and so inlove with the game have played it 3 times hahahahah

In a sane world, Witcher would be getting awards for anti-racist agenda. It shows a very realistic portrayal of racism in societies, from various angles, and with full sincerity. Showing all of its rights and wrongs and giving you the opportunity to react to it quite often. The metaphor of racial struggles, being excluded, rejected or persecuted are HUUUUGE in that game. Bigger and better made than in anything I played so far. Witcher 3 is probably one of the most valuable games to anti-racists. Which kind of reinforces the point, that people like Jamin or the other dude are actually racist themselves. They never played the game. They never got soaked into that world to see what the whole story stands for. They never gave it the opportunity to deliver its anti-racist message to them. All they're looking at is the very surface. By the way, good job with the channel. Good ramblings to keep me occupied while I work on my own racially insensitive games ;)

This game had so much Polish culture... and i'm Polish, this game made me feel at home... and is my favorite game of all time. :) The female characters have polish personalities too, :-)

basically hes being racist against poland saying it isn't worth being some learned about just because poland is white. before WWI my family got out of Poland. do you know why? Because Poland was getting its ass handed to it by every country around it. Poland was attacked for centuries as a lesser people. Poles may be "white" but my ancestors were as harmed by racism as people of other skin colors. Poles have been pulled off their land and killed in genocides, but no they are white so it doesn't matter. hell until about 35 years ago poland was again under the control of a foreign nation.

Wait what? I looked at the title of video and was so confused. It's was set in 14 century Europe, of course it'll be a sea of snow flakes. As a black dude even I swear people are just trying to fine things to complain about. But I do remember seeing a black Succubus who was fine af.

The Witcher is progressive as fuck. The main character fucks like a champ but respects women. He understands "no means no" Remember the run in with that one Succubus. Also remember that one mission where he saves a women from rape then just walks her home. End of mission. Oh and the cross dressing gender fluid straight elf.

14:34 He even gets witcher name in polish wrong ."Wedmak" is in russian . "Wiedzmin" in polish .

You know you could almost compare Witchers to Police Officers in the sense that they are constantly being spit at and almost abused but when the normal people are in trouble they call for police or in Geralts case they call for a witcher.

Here's a game that realistically depicts racism and has diverse characters. tHerE's nOt EnoUgH DiVerSiTY aNd It'S rAcIsT

Oh My Goodness. Oh My Gosh. I think we've gone full MacIntosh. *Oh My Goodness. Oh My Gosh. I think we've gone full MacIntosh.*

"You can see his cover photo depicts him and his many fans." Your best joke.

If you look at a piece of media and think "There must be more people of x race in this." I have bad news for you. You're a racist. The race of the characters is unimportant to anyone who isn't racist because they can empathise with people regardless of their skin colour. The only way to end racism is to stop caring about race. Unfortunately for Jamin that would end his career. Vested interests maybe?

It was a similar story for "Kingdom Come: Deliverance". "Your game needs more black people." "Well, it's a painstaking historical recreation. There were historically almost zero black people in the entire country at this point in history. So we're not including black people in this production purely for realism." "YOU RACIST!" They even said the game's portrayal of the Cumans was racist because they're "depicted as barbarian savages only". The game is played from the perspective of a man whose family and town the Cumans f*cking massacre in cold blood (as they did in actual history). Why would he have a balanced opinion that some of them are lovely people?! He wants revenge on them for an actual historical reason. And not only that, despite this he even remarks several times that they are "civilised" people - that's pretty damn tolerant, considering they killed his family. It's so f*cking dumb - these arguments are completely from ignorance. As a white person, if someone made a game set in northern Africa, I would legitimately be offended if white people were represented as the majority because they aren't. It would be racist for the devs to imply tons of white people were in northern Africa in 1300 AD just for the sake of "diversity". I wouldn't care if white people were not included at all in such a setting. That's realism. People need to stop confusing historical authenticity (or even just locational authenticity) with racism or bigotry. These people are so simple minded and, ironically, racist.

I'm Polish myself and I haven't seen alot of games about Poland or Polish culture

Someone should install security cameras and guard posts near MLK's grave. The mount of rolling he's doing in his grave and the gyroscopic forces that are the result of that may be enough for him to propell himself out of the ground and into orbit. Poor man.

Tell me, what is more racist than discrediting one of the best games of this generation, perhaps of all time, solely based on skin color?

Thank fuck he is gone

Like for the witcher 3 being best on PC.

So witcher 3 does technically have black dudes, they just live in another country/continent...

In my second play through I ran into a character called Salma. She was a succubus who is dark skinned and I think is from Zarikania.

Yet no one talks about lack of diversity in Wakanda Panther or what ever that movie was called.

WHOA THE POLISH PM GAVE OBAMA THE WITCHER 2?! THAT'S AWESOME!

As "a person of color" I hate being confronted with this issue if there is none ! racist pieces of utter shit who search and dig deeply for problems (in this case make them up ) are running around and killing the neutral standards just as much as people who don't belief in them. When I first played the Witcher 2&3 only the thought "wow this game represents a lot of diversity!" Never came skin color to my mind until I heard people complaining about it . This is the first video I've seen by Rags and I really celebrate his take on the matter ! Great Job !!!

So... this is a game full of "old" European folklore, myths, culture influence, and somehow it should be full of other races? whats next? complaying that Dynasty Warriors dont have african, mesoamerican, or european ppl? This is Absurd! If there is a underlaying culture signature in a media, makes no sense to portrait different races. Just like Marvels Thor movies should not have a black norse god...

I have to admit that, as a European, more specifically French, I am getting extremely tired of and annoyed with the tendency of Americans to superimpose their own history and issues onto us. We are not the US, our relationship with race is radically different, with even more differences between European countries because we are not a freaking monolith. Just the same, "whites" are not a monolith, so I would appreciate for the white-guilt-ridden and minority-with-a-chip-on-their-shoulder Americans to keep their crazy ideas to themselves and leave our history and folklore alone. For people who constantly criticize the US for being an imperialist, colonizing power, they sure do seem to think that everyone is just like them, with the same culture and thought-processes.

I'm gonna make a little red riding hood game except instead of the wolf I'm gonna have it be black, trans, gay and disabled

As a black man I can honestly say WHO THE FUCK CARES?! What happened to the days when we just played games for enjoyment and the story? I swear these people will find anything to complain about now. "This game doesnt have enough women, this game has no dark skinned people, where are the people with red/blue/green hair, I dont feel properly represented in this game!" It's not meant to represent you! Just shut the hell up and enjoy the god damned story and let the creators be free to create their game without all the damn complaining that you didnt get your way. If you want a Witcher 3 experience with black/mexican/asian people then make it your damned self.

it's one of the most ethnically "eastern european" games in existence, you cannot avoid their culture in this game. it is not a universe where racial variety exists, geographically or culturally, and the notion that it needs to be is even more racist. would people be going crazy if there was a fantasy videogame about native Africans in the 1400s, and there werent any whites? fuck no. (you pretty much said this in your vid as i typed this last bit). funny part is it's generally not the minorities or "offended" groups who are the ones acting so victimized

This guy would complain about all the Japanese people in Persona 5

1. there are no dragons in witcher 3, it is explained that they are actually draconids. 2. there are blue people in witcher therefore its not racist. case closed.

Geralt could be a black guy and these people would still find a way to make the game seem racist.

My cat seems fascinated by your avatar, must be the glasses

Loved the lindybeige “shoutout” at the start

I'm Asian and fucking love this game!!!!!!! Fucking best game ever!!!!!!!!

I had to unsub from from PBS game show when he started comparing Anita Sarkeesian to Rosa Parks in importance.

He proabably doesn't even know where Poland is located

Would it explode his argument too much to point out that Poles are Slavic and not Caucasian, and were subject to genocide and ethnic cleansing by the Nazis during WW2, leading to the deaths of 2.7 million ethnic Poles and the same number again of Polish Jews, because Hitler decided they were _not_ white? Or is that just not the same level of fursecution as people sometimes saying mean things about you on the intertoilet? Also the amusing thing about this is that Jamin is an American man telling people from a historically persecuted minority culture that they need to adjust how they present their own folklore to better suit the sensibilities of a dominant culture. Isn't that, um, cultural appropriation? :D

I'm polish and Witcher 3 has a polish cultural background and therefore there isn't a lot of black people as in Poland there was NO slavery!

I wonder what is more "fantasy". Witcher 3, or this jokes reality?

And from the future, the makers of the show based off the Witcher did this very thing this tool Jamin advocates for. It is worse for it. Locations have no sense of identity. Ironically in their unending quest for diversity, they made every location and group of people homogenous. Most characters thrown in that are of other races stick out as out of place and are forgettable. Characters move through town and cities that all look the same because every town has blacks, whites, asians, whatever. It looks like a typical American town instead of the exotic world it is supposed to represent with people that have a unique culture that war with one another all the time.

To be honest, I think when games do diversity just for the sake of it, it totally breaks immersion. My prime example is Dragon Age: Inquisition. I've played all the DA games multiple times, and for the most part really enjoy the series. For those who don't know though, it's a fantasy game set in a "middle ages Europe" type place. The country you're in during the first game, Ferelden, is dominated by white people and the few tan people in the game are from another country. You return to Ferelden in Inquisition, and during the prologue of the game there's a bunch of soldiers lining up to help shoot an oncoming demon... and suddenly I see a black guy. Just... out of nowhere. White-dominated land, haven't seen any black people in the whole series that I can remember, but suddenly "here's a random black person in this totally white kingdom!" It was sorta jarring cause it confused me, and it broke my immersion. Bioware totally drunk the SJW kool-aid on both Dragon Age and Mass Effect. They even seem to have changed previous lore in regards to a woman who crossdresses as a man. I'm all for diversity, but when people want to ruin art because of it, or force artists to change their works, then that is going way too far.

Witcher 3 is one of my favorite games. Played the whole thing twice already, and I never even thought about race while playing. People who notice these things are the true racists.

As a black gamer myself, I think this PC race in gaming bullshit is such a crybaby, nonissue that it actually holds gaming creativity back rather than expand upon it as people like Jamin would have you believe.

My daughter didn't even know she was white until Sesame Street told her that people are different based on skin color...

If a character need to have the sane skin color or gender as you for you to relate to them, you don't have any personality besides your race or gender.

Race is not defined by skin color... The game has many diff races, but they all happen to be of the lighter skinned verity, but you also have to think where the game is based...

Let's make a fantasy game about slavery in the USA and add a ton of Asian and European slaves for diversity. Do you think, Jamin would agree?

I still play this game and its good. It gives you a feeling of old European folklore. The different races was interresting and there is some elements of racism in the game, specially towards withcers. I wouldnt like to play a game about African folklore and see a bunch of white people everywhere. Something many people are tired of is when the West changes ancient African history and make pharao and Queens look like Britney Spears and Christian Bale, that is a big insult to African history. Every people have their own story to tell, let them tell it.

“This is a troll from zerrikania... his names Bart” god I love the Witcher with it’s funny names, I personally love trolololollol the patriotic redanian troll

Obviously Jamin has never visited Poland. The world is not America. If you go to Poland or let's say Bulgaria, the chances of you meeting a person of color is very slim. So it is no surprise if you are a person of color in countries like that that you would be stared at by many. Since it is a Polish game made from Polish folklore they don't need to put people of color. The game is diverse as it is. The same applies to other countries that make games, movies, animations and so on. My country for example has a project called "Golden apple". That is an animation ( that will be shown on Cartoon Network - hopefully) that will feature Bulgarian folklore and it will most likely also not have people of color, except maybe some mythological creatures. It doesn't need to because it will be incorrect - reading Bulgarian mythology will show why.

Diversity isn't important, but it is neither good, nor bad. It's a creative choice, implemented by the creators. The creators vision wins, and morons can't pick and change what they want, just because they get triggered over the smallest things.

Imagine if there was a game that depicted American folklore during the late 1700s

The “Zerrikanians” in Hearts of Stone are actually Ofieri.

Next up , Asian movies dont have racial diversity , just how insensitive are ninja movies without black/brown skin coloured ninjas ;O !

As someone who lives 10 minutes away from a old fort let me tell you this. Jamin and his cronies are the perfect example of Americanism. Ironically in their quest to seem enlightened and to have a good grasp on the world, they reveal that they have a very skewed and filtered worldview. As stated above I live near a fort. This fort which is called Bohus fästning or "the Fort of Bohus in English" was built in the 14th century. This fort has bounced around between three different nations during it's existence. Initially being built by Norway then following the treaty of Kalmar was transferred to Denmark-Norway and then finally it was ceded to Sweden. The reason why I bring this up is because unlike a lot of american buildings which have been built in the last 300 years. There are thousands of relics of an older time in most European nations, they serve as a constant reminder to us that our nations have history. American history unlike most European history is not full of tales of monarchs and despots, queens and wenches. It's full idealistic rebels and revolutionaries. That's not bad thing in of it self. But it becomes important to understand that the oppression these people talk about, our ancestors lived through that. Growing up surrounded by kids from Sweden, Denmark, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Former Yugoslav countries it taught me that people are more alike than these people would have you believe. When i got hit by a kid from Turkey did i think he did because he was from Turkey? No, I just thought he was a dick and punched him back. Skin colour in modern secularised countries is in most respects obsolete. Keep it up Jamin push race relations further back with your snake oil BS.

Lol if Warren was less ignorant and spend more than 5 minutes writing that show he would know that Andrzej Sapkowski's books (Witcher is based on these) explore the racial subject really well (the whole human versus other races background stories) and from multiple angles (no, humans are not always the main racist or genociders...). Even in Witcher 1 and 2, racism is constantly part of the world story. Also as partly pointed out Poland is hugely a HOMOGENIC country and its culture have hardly any non-white characters in legends and stories. Sapkowski's books and CD Project games are based on that content. I suppose someone bias gets in the way of doing his job, right? I'm Polish and I see no reason why Polish culture, one of the best Polish modern writers and a Polish games company should pander to the forced "equality" culture. Don't get me wrong, everyone deserves his right for equality and freedom of speech, but don't expect special treatment.

The funny part of this is historically eastern Europeans were fairly looked on by the Western Europeans. Hell were do they think the word slave comes from?

they're not Caucasian, they're European.

I agree totally... I don't even know any black gamers who have a problem with "ethnic diversity"... actually the Witcher 3 is has some of the best social commentary on race relations. Not only do they show the oppression but also the evil deeds done to the oppressed by the oppressors and (surprisingly) vice versa. It's easy (relatively) to show an oppressed ppl. But to actually depict the horrific acts done to (and in some situations by) those ppl is another level of clarity. And it not shying away from these terrible things is forcing us to look into a mirror. "Being a Witcher is basically walking around in a predominantly white neighborhood" - me in my head while playing. Keep in mind I'm a 6'8 300lb black guy so White ppl (especially those not used to encountering us, and a few pro-Trump assholes) are shocked/taken aback by my presence and some are even angry/disgusted by it. So I really identified with Geralt. If you think it isn't racially sensitive pay attention to Radovid and his ban on magic users and then ban on non human races... what recent events do those sound like to you?

The moment when the Mages escaped from novigrad so the witch hunters started to go after the dwarves, I actually thought the witcher got TOO PREACHY about race and racism.

"Portal is a feminist masterpiece" Meanwhile Tomb Raider, Metroid and playing as FemShep exist.

"witcher 3 is my fav game" *gets zerrikanians and ofieri mixed up*

The Lindybeige reference made me very happy.

Fun fact, in Witcher 3 there are even references to polish 19th century poetry. The ritual performed by the goat liking priest was ripped straight from "Dziady". You hear it and say " holy shit, that was a set-book!"

Let’s establish some basic facts. The Witcher book series is set in a fantasy world modeled on the medieval world. The story of the Witcher 3 is set in the part of the medieval world that constitute Europ. In this world other lands and civilisations exist that resemble other parts of the medieval world where other races live. Unlike the modern world people that lives in far away lands did not have means of traveling great distances and even if they did it was impossible for them to stay as they did know the language. Long travel was painfully slow, extreamly expencive so people did not venture that far, with few exeptions for example merchants or armies. That said people from distant lands that lived on different continents with differen bioma with extreme climate did not just exist everyware and they didn’t have virtually any chance or reason to travel to these far away regions. So other civilisations, ethnicities exist in the world of the wither but they live in far away lands which for the most part had no reason and resources to make such a jurney with few exeptions. The whitchers tackles the problem of prejudice and discrimination agains people who look different and even towards monsters and what constitutes a monster. The Witcher is discriminated and people have their prejudice about Withcers just like they discriminate and have prejudice against other races, all monsters and eve other nations/civilisations. What bothers me the most is that the real problem of prejudice and discrimination is being watered down to skin colour and not a deaper problem of people not being able to look at other people (or creatures ) than threw theorism of differeances and similarities. These people totally discard the real problem of us against them tribal mentality and the prejudice and discrimination this always entails. This is the main problem that is the root of all discrimination and it should be addeesed.