Over the last few years, there has been a sharp rise in abuse directed at game developers and the actors who appear in their works. One of the most high-profile recent examples saw Final Fantasy 14’s Sena Bryer, who plays Wuk Lamat in Dawntrail, receive death threats online. However, there have been countless other instances involving actors from Resident Evil, Baldur’s Gate, and, most recently, Ghost of Yotei.
While some studios, like Ubisoft, which offered psychological and legal support to its developers who faced abuse in the wake of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Square, which says it will take legal action against harassers, are taking a stand, many others, unfortunately, don’t offer the support development teams and actors require.
Despite two of gaming’s most prominent developers taking action, speaking to TheGamer, Baldur’s Gate 3 actor and performance director Aliona Baranova says that she feels studios still need to “do a bit more to protect the cast.”
Aliona Baranova Admits To Receiving Homophobic Abuse Online, And Feels Companies Need To Protect Their Actors More
Speaking at a recent event, Baranova detailed some examples in which actors find themselves in the firing line of unsavory abuse.
“If a series has been rebooted, and a black or an Asian actor is taking a role that, in the past, has been played by a white actor, that person needs to be protected because they are going to receive a lot of hate online,” she said. “I spoke to an actor who appeared in Rings of Power and Baldur’s Gate 3. They received so much abuse online, and the studios can step up and speak to those fandoms and say, ‘Please, do not abuse our actors. This is the choice we made in casting, and it’s never okay to do that.'”
Of course, it hurts to get hate online for just being yourself, whether as a person of color, a queer person, or whatever it may be.
Baranova, who herself is in a queer relationship with her Baldur’s Gate 3 co-star, Jennifer English, admits she has faced homophobic abuse online. She said that while she doesn’t blame them, “the studios could do a bit more to protect the cast, because they don’t get abuse targeted at them as much. And they’re a big company,” adding, “We’re ourselves and it hurts. Of course, it hurts to get hate online for just being yourself, whether as a person of color, a queer person, or whatever it may be.”
Here’s hoping more studios take note and step up to the plate like Ubisoft and Square Enix.
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Engine
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Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full cross-platform play.
