174: What if the Player is Black?

[babyblues]

Looking for a non-stereotyped black character in GTA games or Saint's Row is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Like I've said, There are plenty of black characters that aren't stereotypical. If you want to find them, play western-style RPGs. You can create black characters without cornrows and afros in them too.

Captain Anderson-Mass Effect
Lucas Simms-Fallout 3
Garth-Fable 2
Eli/Alyx Vance-Half-Life 2(not an RPG, I know)
Every single Redguard-The Elder Scrolls series
Jolee Bindo-Knights of the Old Republic

I can't help but think this article was written hastily(or perhaps, in ignorance) with the intent of simply provoking a reaction. These are well-known games, and even a little bit of research or experience would have uncovered them. If I were completely ignorant of games, after reading this article I would think that every single video game gives nothing but racist portrayals of black people, which simply is not true. It might sound insensitive of me, but if the portrayal of blacks in fictional video games really matters to you all that much, change the types of games you play. RPG characters generally have more depth than games that center around shooting/violence. I mean, what do you expect from Saint's Row, honestly?

 

[Cyclomega]

Smokescreen> I live in Europe, thanks I know enough geography, now if I may sound stiff and blunt, learn to read.

 

[Smokescreen]

@Cylomega: Spain is Southwest Europe--Google maps would be your friend here.

I believe Cylomega was replying sarcastically to Lostlevel, who said that RE4 was set in east Europe.

Oops.

Smokescreen> I live in Europe, thanks I know enough geography, now if I may sound stiff and blunt, learn to read.

How's about I read, and you not be a dick to someone who was trying to be helpful?

 

[Cyclomega]

How about not using Google is your friend (aka the internet equivalent of RTFM) then ?

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Great article, thanks for bringing to light an issue that is still causing everyone a lot of discomfort and confusion.

 

[amendele]

Well, I do agree that black people are sorta under-represented as main characters in video games. The only explanation I can offer is that it sort of reflects the thoughts of the development teams. Keep in mind that a lot of games are still developed in Japan, where black people of African descent are about as rare as white people in Barbados. Or in America, where white kids seem to fall in love with the stereotype of the dangerous black guy as a foil to their own boring, sheltered lives. If they teach you to "write what you know" in creative writing class, then these developers are drawing from their experiences with others to create the characters they think are best for the story, even if they do end up coming off as racist stereotypes to others. I'm not excusing them, but it does make sense.

Of course, in the end it all comes down to pure capitalism. The reason that some games may be portraying black people as doorag-wearing gangstas who drink malt liquor and do drive-bys every day (as long as there's no explicit sexual material, anyways. Stupid hypocritical ratings boards) is because there's an audience willing to pay for them. If you have a problem with it, then organize protests and boycotts against the developer until they agree to listen to your grievances.

Finally, looking at the list of black characters that Aaron cites (on page 3), they all come from fighting games, where the only objective is to wail on the other guy until he goes down, no matter what your character's race is. I'm not quite sure what the complaint is here, unless most black people are being shoved into Muay Thai or Capoeira fighting styles. Hell, I could make an argument that most fat people end up becoming portrayed as sumo wrestlers (E. Honda from Street Fighter) or that Russians are portrayed as stoic, evil bastards in those games (like Bayman from DoA or that Dragunov guy from the Tekken 5 pseudo-sequel) that only use Russian martial arts of Sambo and Systema. But that's an argument for another article. The developers are just using what they know, and if "what they know" is derived from pop culture stereotypes, then stop complaining and start organizing to inform them of your views.

 

[brazuca]

Well, I do agree that black people are sorta under-represented as main characters in video games. The only explanation I can offer is that it sort of reflects the thoughts of the development teams. Keep in mind that a lot of games are still developed in Japan, where black people of African descent are about as rare as white people in Barbados. Or in America, where white kids seem to fall in love with the stereotype of the dangerous black guy as a foil to their own boring, sheltered lives. If they teach you to "write what you know" in creative writing class, then these developers are drawing from their experiences with others to create the characters they think are best for the story, even if they do end up coming off as racist stereotypes to others. I'm not excusing them, but it does make sense.

Of course, in the end it all comes down to pure capitalism. The reason that some games may be portraying black people as doorag-wearing gangstas who drink malt liquor and do drive-bys every day (as long as there's no explicit sexual material, anyways. Stupid hypocritical ratings boards) is because there's an audience willing to pay for them. If you have a problem with it, then organize protests and boycotts against the developer until they agree to listen to your grievances.

Finally, looking at the list of black characters that Aaron cites (on page 3), they all come from fighting games, where the only objective is to wail on the other guy until he goes down, no matter what your character's race is. I'm not quite sure what the complaint is here, unless most black people are being shoved into Muay Thai or Capoeira fighting styles. Hell, I could make an argument that most fat people end up becoming portrayed as sumo wrestlers (E. Honda from Street Fighter) or that Russians are portrayed as stoic, evil bastards in those games (like Bayman from DoA or that Dragunov guy from the Tekken 5 pseudo-sequel) that only use Russian martial arts of Sambo and Systema. But that's an argument for another article. The developers are just using what they know, and if "what they know" is derived from pop culture stereotypes, then stop complaining and start organizing to inform them of your views.

Amem, but... Due to some trouble regarding this Capcom showed us that woman. And RE5 was cosidered racist!!! (not for showing that woman,who happens to be Chris partner, don't know her name, but for killing africans and stuff)
I belive in due time, when the gamer audience expends to more than the white young male, what's happening now, games will be more sensitive about this particular issue.

 

[Smokescreen]

How about not using Google is your friend (aka the internet equivalent of RTFM) then ?

How about giving me the benefit of the doubt, instead of assuming I'm gonna be a dick to you?

All you had to do was say: I was replying to (x) and I would've said: D'OH! and sorry, and it would've been done.

Not everyone on the internet is out to fuck you.

 

[goodman528]

I would hate video games to go down the road of political correctness, i.e. you have to have a realistic non-offensive black character in the game. I'm not white, and yes it would be nice to make an avatar exactly like me, but if it means the filling the ranks of the soldiers in WWII with a rainbow of colours, I would rather not have it.

Games just need a good storyline, the color and culture of the characters should reflect the society of the game developers, because you are best at writing what you know best, i.e. your own experiences and dreams. Otherwise you just end up making junk no one can identify with.

 

[Cyclomega]

How about not using Google is your friend (aka the internet equivalent of RTFM) then ?

How about giving me the benefit of the doubt, instead of assuming I'm gonna be a dick to you?

All you had to do was say: I was replying to (x) and I would've said: D'OH! and sorry, and it would've been done.

Not everyone on the internet is out to fuck you.

OMG somebody's been unfriendly to you on teh tntarwebs... Now hop on the WAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance...

 

[Smokescreen]

How about not using Google is your friend (aka the internet equivalent of RTFM) then ?

How about giving me the benefit of the doubt, instead of assuming I'm gonna be a dick to you?

All you had to do was say: I was replying to (x) and I would've said: D'OH! and sorry, and it would've been done.

Not everyone on the internet is out to fuck you.

OMG somebody's been unfriendly to you on teh tntarwebs... Now hop on the WAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance...

Uh, no. I was trying to be pleasant, and made a mistake-that I was embarrassed about and would've apologized for if you'd given me the chance.

Why you're not willing to cut me some slack is beyond me, but your attitude is there for all.

 

[HotKakes]

Three characters that came to mind while reading this article were

Doug Rand from Ichigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit
Drebin from MGS4
Hammond from Dead Space

Doug and Hammond were two characters that I felt had positive traits with varying degrees of stereotype and/or cultural influence. Drebin on the other hand is hard to point out in terms of him being a racist character or not. What the hey, I'm just trying to help add on to the list.

 

[Mullahgrrl]

I'm quite astonished that no-one has yet mentioned Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, but then again it's a testament on how few actually played it.

She is green.

 

[shadow skill]

I asked a simillar question a while back and I see some of the same responses in this thread as well. You can read my thread here. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.51275#351658] I think it comes down to developers simply being ignorant and/or lazy, things that are considered stereotypes really only become problematic when a character lacks any kind of depth. It takes some degree of effort to make characters that are not flat. (It's how Kojima can get away with his female characters in the MGS games. Especially MGS 3/4 none of the female characters were flat period.) I can point to purely technical aspects of games and demonstrate the kind of laziness that leads to the entire cast of Gears of War or that homosexual character (His name escapes me.) in Enchanted Arms. Half the time if the developer includes southpaw stick settings he or she forgets that at the minimum the actions assigned to the face buttons and the Dpad should be switched around! I really can't count how many times I have played an FPS on a console where the dev didn't even so much as look at the button mapping and apparently expects anyone playing with the southpaw stick setting to take his or her thumb off the right stick in order to reload a weapon.

It's no surprise then, given the kind of idiocy on display, that people of Arab descent are often terrorists (A motif that goes back at least twenty years if you look at movies.), black people tend to be cast as muscle bound oafs or gangsters, (Let's leave intentionally satyrical games like Saints Row, and GTA out of this.) and of course barring a few notable exceptions is never the player character. Have any of you noticed the tendency for black characters that are not necessarily leading characters within a story to die? It's actually become a bit of a running joke with my brother and I to see how long the lone black character survives.

 

[Varchld]

"Imagine if all Irish-American people were portrayed as drunken, fighting fools throwing up into their pot of gold. That's pretty much what we're dealing with here."

That would make a pretty cool character

But seriously, fighting games like tekken and Mortal Kombat are so full of poor character design, Kano I heard was meant to be Australian, he's got a half metal face and is the crudest most unagreeable type of character in the game for me.

But the issue does extend through the majority of other games.
Other forms of media like the film and music industries have influenced the game designers overlooking this but I do think that it is being considered more and more.
In Mass Effect the character's superior officer is black and I "think" the character creation isn't too bad for making various ethnic appearing characters.

I just looked through my collection of games and most are either RTS' or like civilization where there is no avatar :/
And after looking around for more games to cite, I lost my train of thought ><

 

[nekolux]

Well in world of warcraft , warhammer and i think AoC you're allowed to have a black skinned character. Those are mmorpgs of course so the level of customization is wider.

 

[Tomw1812]

When people say "african american" when refering to black people seem to forget the fact that not all black people live in america with african origins, i have a friend here in britain who is of carribean origin and he is actually offended by the term african american if used towards him, that's why i just say black.

I'd also like to add that I don't think there are many hispanic or asian characters, there are probably a few but i can't think of any (mainly because i've only been a serious gamer for the past six months)

 

[broadband]

the TF2 demoman is a black scottish cyclops, he is no gangsta, he is a lunatic (well pretty much the whole TF2 cast) drunkard.

i remember someone in the forums saying that Eli Vance was like some sort of videogame version of Morgan Freeman

 

[Littaly]

A well-written article on an issue most don't bother with that is destined to be drowned out by whining fanboys desperate to defend their precious pasttime. I feel bad for the author.

I can accept being called a fanboy in a lot subjects, but to be honest I have just barley finished the first disc of FF7, and I can't say I'm that en thrilled by it at all. I guess I'm making even more fool of myself now..

Anyway, I do see your point, I was just trying to shed a bit of optimism on the subject ^^

 

[NeedAUserName]

wasn't the main character of gta: san andreas spending most his time trying to get away from the ghetto and live the good life? And didnt he actively complain about all the violent shenigans he got into throughout the story? And wasn't the Grove street familys anti-drugs? Having said that, the rest of them were the worst of the black sterotypes and i can't think of any other black characters that were remotely positive.

Yes, but that is why GTA:San Andreas was possibly the greatest game ever made ever, ever.