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Update, December 6, 3.53pm:
Chucklefish has responded to the criticisms levelled towards it for casting white actors for non-white characters in Wargroove. It acknowledged that the reveal was, “insensitive and poorly communicated” with regards to the underrepresentation of non-white voices in the industry. “We sincerely apologise for the harm we have caused,” said the developer, and it explained how it conducts its casting process. It works with an external casting management team to collect a pool of candidates for a character. Then, blind auditions mean that Chucklefish’s “own unconscious biases” are circumvented when listening to the audio files with no other information about the auditionee. “We appreciate everybody who took the time to share their concerns and educate us,” it said.
Original story, December 6, 1.15pm:
Chucklefish, developer of fantasy turn-based tactics game Wargroove, has been criticised for casting white actors to voice non-white heroes (via Resetera).
Wulfar, Errol and Orla, and Vesper are three new commanders coming to the game in the Double Trouble DLC. Adrian Vaughn, Eileen Montgomery, Vivien Taylor, and Jessica Straus were revealed to be the voices of the characters, and the Wargroove community were unhappy to see that the non-white commanders are portrayed by white actors. Chucklefish is accused of whitewashing the DLC cast and players have expressed their disappointment with the announcement.
“Absolutely nothing against the VAs, as I’m sure they’re happy to have landed the gig. But damn, it can’t be that hard to diversify,” said one commenter. Voice actor Sean Chiplock summarised the problem with voice acting and representation in video games in his response to a separate conversation. “POC actors get excluded from auditions for ‘white’ roles with concerning frequency, but the same isn’t true for white actors and POC roles,” claims Chiplock. In this case, Chucklefish selected the best auditionee for the character, but if it didn’t open the casting call to a diverse roster of actors, then the odds were against non-white candidates from the get-go. At the time of writing, Chucklefish has not responded to the complaints levelled at the company.
Chucklefish has landed itself in hot water for the second time now. Earlier this year, it was condemned for allegedly exploiting “hundred hours of work” of volunteer Starbound developers. “Regardless of any contracts signed, it’s massively unethical to allow workers to contribute huge amounts of content for no pay when you, the ostensible leader of the team, are walking away with millions of dollars in personal revenue share,” one former developer stated. Chucklefish denied the accusations and requested that those who feel aggrieved, “discuss their concerns with us directly.”
Wargroove is out now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
