Race in games. The 800lb Gorilla?

Excuse me, fellow tropers, a serious post if you would.

Video games are a maturing art form, and one that is gaining more criticism and critique as such. However, while issues relating to women, homosexuals or transgenders, and even to some extent religion are now gaining attention, it seems that very little attention is given to the issue of race.

While negative racial stereotypes (and indeed, outright racism) exist in other forms of media, critics tend to tear them apart, and intelligent writers brilliantly subvert and explore the causes of them. I have not noticed the same happening in video games.

Name one intelligent, sympathetic, non stereotypical black character in video games. I'll wait.

Thought of one yet? Because I haven't. At best, the depiction of blacks in games is the action movie stereotype of the boisterous comedic relief character, entertaining the grizzled space marine protagonist and player with his wacky "urban" dialect. At worst, it's an outright racist caricature that one can almost see developers snickering while they created it.

Blacks seem to suffer the hardest with this. While negative stereotypes do exist in games for all people of other races, blacks are for some reason hit the hardest.

It's hard to tell if western or Japanese games are worse about this. While Japan still has the giant scary negro thing going full swing, the west seems to have it in their head that all blacks are brutal gangsters with ill fitting pants and a sideways gat.

Then there's the overt and covert racism which permeates gaming culture. That, in and of itself, is a topic worthy of discussion on it's own. Racial slurs are thrown about like articles, and many who don't display overt racism still have a "LOL SILLY NEGRO" attitude, viewing blacks the same way one would a circus animal. Look up some lets plays for the 50 Cent game and you'll see what I'm on about here.

Yet, for some reason, this is not discussed. Why? People of color play video games at a rate which I'd wager is not much lower than people of European descent, yet the media, as a whole is not one which is terribly friendly to them.

Before people get upset that I am ruining the mood, I believe issues like this NEED to be discussed. If we ignore them, they will only get worse.

So, tropers, why does this situation exist, and what do you think should be done about it?

whoops, doubleposted.

Agent Stone, Twisted Metal Black. Do I win?

Also, Donald Anderson, Peter Stillman, and Drebin. The last one's debatable, but the first's a weapons expert prodigy while the second's a bomb expert who sacrifices himself to ensure a mission gets complete.

I'd like to see that happen a little less, frankly: a lot of video games have a thing for the half decent black dudes dying first.

I never played that game, but judging from that video it looks like that's a decent character, yes.

Still, a few exceptions do not disprove the trend. For every Oliver Stone there's 50 hip hop gangstas and jive talking sidekicks.

Not just videogames, pretty much all mediums. And for every good white guys there's 50 complete morons in the medium - whats your point?

Also, Vic Vance and Seargent Johnson. T He latters not oo orignal, being an homage to Apone from Aliens, but neither were stereotypical, except for strereotypical Marine leader.

edited 10th Apr '11 4:46:34 PM by Alienation

Sergeant Foley, Lt. Vasquez, General Solomon (played by James Earl Jones in the FM Vs) to name a few more non-stereotypical people.

Nobody wants to play the mild-mannered accountant in a game.

Well, ok, somebody might.

But the rest of us want to be Duke Rambo Blaskowitz Starkiller Jones aka "the Chosen Butt-kicker" .

Louis, Coach, and Rochelle?

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

And Alyx and Eil Vance

Some Homework on the Topic:

The Mississippi Pwning 1 and 2

Extra Credits: Diversity

The Blog The Art

Can we excuse things that are completely idiotic and utterly fucking vapid and without any for of intelligent worth?

In other words, only the Extra Credits thing?

Oi, The Game Overthinker has plenty of interesting and worthwhile things to say on the topic. Just because he can be egotistical in most of his stuff doesn't mean he in all of them.

The Blog The Art

Also, Donald Anderson, Peter Stillman, and Drebin. The last one's debatable, but the first's a weapons expert prodigy while the second's a bomb expert who sacrifices himself to ensure a mission gets complete.

I'd like to see that happen a little less, frankly: a lot of video games have a thing for the half decent black dudes dying first.

Ok, so Snake has some black sidekicks who are not voice acted by Flava Flav. While that's commendable, I think what we should be asking ourselves is why Solid Snake himself couldn't be a black man. Why can't Laura Croft be a black woman?

I think society is so conditioned to see people of color as sidekicks at best that there are very few heroes who aren't the generic grizzled white guy.

And while Left For Dead has some, I'd say they don't really count as L 4 Ds plot is basically "Here are zombies, kill them." Not much room there to build a sympathetic character.

^^Considering none of the characters all of us managed to put up instantly were mentioned, not really.

How many of the characters we mentioned are playable? The ones from Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Twisted Metal Black and Liberty City Stories. How's that fit into his "no higher than 50 cent" shit?

^ Because he was based on Snake Pliskin, and she's part of the British aristocracy. It like saying "why can't Ryu Hayabusa be white"? Cause he's a ninja you idiot.

edited 10th Apr '11 5:16:10 PM by Alienation

Better yet, society is conditioned to see "of european descent" to be the tabula rasa and everything else is the deviation of the norm with their own specific traits associated with them.

The Blog The Art

I've always wondered, why exactly does the race of a character matter?

imo...it's not big a deal if theres racism in a video game...since whats racist and what's not is entirely dependant on culture. What might seem racist in one country is normal in another. Values Dissonance. Forcing them to stop portraying races like the way they are would be ethnocentric.

For america, the black community*

practically embrace the trash talking rapper stereotype(if highschool is anything to go by). In japan...they just plain don't care. They'll take a racial stereotype, and if it works in the game they're doing, they'll use it if they feel it will contribute to the enjoyment, since it's a GAME that's meant to entertain.

Now, should something be done about this? In my opinion, no. America can keep their stereotypes of blacks, since the hip hop gangsta rapping black guy is popular(look at GTA's popularity), and the black gaming community doesn't seem to have any problem about it(if they did, it'd be pretty noticeable)

For Japan, I like them for their ethnic stereotyping.

---

Also, Obligatory Resident Evil 5 video.

Notice how the people defending this game are black.

And if you look up "Resident Evil 5 Racism" in Google or even Youtube, you'll notice that the majority of people attacking the game for racism are white, whereas a lot of the defenders are themselves black.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Considering none of the characters all of us managed to put up instantly were mentioned, not really.

How many of the characters we mentioned are playable? The ones from Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Twisted Metal Black and Liberty City Stories. How's that fit into his "no higher than 50 cent" shit?

As I said, the L 4 D characters are just walking one liner machines. I'll concede Twisted Metal Black, but are you seriously citing a game wherein you play as a gangster as a positive portrayal of a black character?

Well to be fair, hip hop gangstas are kind of relevant to crime dramas like GTA and stuff. People get lambasted just as badly for trying to "whitewash" things like that.

Eli Vance in Half-Life is perhaps the second most-characterized character, while Alyx Vance, his half-black daughter, is probably the most-characterized. Neither's playable, but the main character doesn't get any dialogue at all, making Eli and Alyx the two biggest speaking roles.

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

^^^No, I'm talking about his US Soldier brother. Corruption by the environment is an example of the problems with said environment, not the character. Its clear at all points that the city itself is eating away at whats good about Vic.

edited 10th Apr '11 5:22:58 PM by Alienation

So Signed, what you're saying is that you're ok with racism so long as it entertains you?

Excuse me for being a little disgusted by that view.

...wasn't your initial challenge "name one"?

I have a message from another time...

What would change?

If Solid Snake was black, or Lara Croft, what would change about the game?

Wouldn't it just end up being the same thing, only with your avatar looking slightly different?

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander