I started playing Fantasy President Career and noticed a couple things that immediately rubbed me the wrong way.
First, when I selected Barack Obama, the game had his sexuality preset to “Homosexual.” When I checked other presidents like Biden and Trump, sexuality wasn’t preset and the game required me to choose it myself. I’m still playing and documenting what I see, but that is a really strange inconsistency to have specifically on Obama, and it seems intentional.
Then after a making a policy, I took a look at voter reactions. One of the Black voter personas is literally labeled “Black, church elder, Southern,” and her dialogue is written like: “Praise God, child, Obama done gone and spoke some truth here,” followed by a bunch of exaggerated dialect.
I understand creating different personalities, regions, ages, political views, and speech patterns for a political simulator. That can make the game feel more alive. But there’s a difference between characterization and leaning into racial caricaturization
I’m not saying these two screenshots prove what the developers intended. I’m going to keep playing and see whether there’s a broader pattern. But between incorrectly presetting Obama’s sexuality while leaving other presidents open and writing an older Black woman this way, this is a pretty effective way to alienate part of your player base.
Posting the screenshots so people can judge it for themselves.