269: The Pasty White Person Is King

[Mr.Squishy]

I have four words: Why does it matter?

Of course, I'm of the opinion that the creative minds that originally fostered an idea should have the last say on it and hence decide what to put and what not to put in games. That's kinda what Bioware has gone for, and looky.

Cue the honking of "STFU white boy"

 

[chuckwendig]

I've never played the Sims before, but how can they sound white? I know they speak gibberish that everyone calls Simlish; does that sound phonetically similar to English, or something?

Glad you liked the read!

As for the voice -- they just sound... I dunno, like dorky white folk. You can't choose a voice that doesn't sound like a white American. It's gibberish, but even gibberish has an accent, an intonation. Though, I might just be sensitive to it?

-- Chuck

 

[Valencrow]

Not to nit pick at your article Chuck, but Dragon age does offer a full range of skin colors and a face editor feature almost as deep as the Sims.

Also I fully agree with you on the humans of WoW. They really do need more options to make them seem more diverse.

 

[Rhino of Steel]

what really annoys me is when they have a black character in a game just to tick a box eg Sahz from FFXIII, or the sergent from Bad Company 2. I really felt when seeing these characters that the dev team just thought "ok, lets put in this black guy, ok, done, everyone else can be white as usual". I rather that game developers put in characters of different races because they wan to, not because they feel obliged. Also, i'd like to play as a Hispanic main character in a shooter. Merely a whim though

Going by the name alone, Pvt. James Ramirez from MW2 is likely Hispanic but that may be assuming too much. Plus he was probably the more minor of the playable main characters.

I have to take exception to the Fable objections. So what if the peasants are white. There have been a number of major NPCs in the series who were not. In the original there was Thunder, Whisper, and Maze who are all very important to the plot. Fable 2 has Garth, the Hero of Will, who is from Samarkand which seems to have a Silk Road/Middle Eastern connection much like Albion has with England and several unique weapons are said to be those of Samarkandian Heroes. There may be more but I can't think of them at the moment, point being the setting of Albion in Fable and Fable 2 isn't completely white and I doubt Fable 3 will be either.

I just have a hard time with the objection to the fantasy setting in general. Generally ethnicities in such settings will stay in their particular region with a few exceptional individuals with a strong heroic/villainous/mercantile bent will go into foreign lands. That really isn't all that different from what happened in history in societies where long distance travel was either too difficult or expensive.

I get it, it is a fantasy so you shouldn't be shackled to the real world examples, especially when you include dragons and werewolves and other magical creatures. But often the designer wants to use the ethnicities to show different cultures like Samarkand in Fable or the Qunari in DA:O (and since you ask where the Moors are in Dragon Age, the Qunari are the closest equivalent. They are basically giant horned Ottoman Turks. Also, not humans since, you know, horns.). It is a handy visual guide to figure out what that NPC will be like since you can tell right away they are from that particular culture. The Sci-Fi games you were touting do the same thing but generally make them aliens rather than just a different ethnicity.

 

[The Great JT]

Sadly, I think this is going to continue. Because who are most games being marketed to? 17-25 year-old white people.

I would love to see a game where the main character is a black person and not acting stereotypically, but it looks like such is not going to be as long as whitey is the primary target of games being made.

 

[Ferricyanide]

Since it doesn't seem to have been addressed, the Qunari in Dragon Age are supposed to be analogues of the Seljuk Turks. (You can figure this out pretty easily when you learn about their long-time conflict with the Byzantines Tevinter Imperium, their use of cannons, and them being on the receiving end of several Crusades Exalted Marches.)

Incidentally, the Rivaini could probably be considered as the Moors of Al-Andalus. Attached directly to Antiva, but with Qunari culture, with some Dalish mixed in... Yeah, I was surprised they went into that much depth.

 

[Woodsey]

I'm going to sound like typical BNP racist, but I think this is the first article the Escapist has had made me want to whack the writer round the back of the head. While I accept that character generators could be tweaked to try and represent more specific racial characteristics, the insistance that black people should be in middle ages UK settings because of the Moors is really stupid.

You support the BNP, or you're just saying that's what you sound like?

And like he said, Fable's hardly an accurate representation of the time (what with all the magic and stuff); you may as well have varying races if you're going allow character creation, since there were various races at the time anyway - not many, but they were still there.

Not to mention that we're playing in a place (well, someone is - I can't bloody stand Fable) that takes influence from Middle Ages England (or whatever they're going for now), we're not playing an historical representation like in Assassin's Creed.

 

[Plinglebob]

I'm going to sound like typical BNP racist, but I think this is the first article the Escapist has had made me want to whack the writer round the back of the head. While I accept that character generators could be tweaked to try and represent more specific racial characteristics, the insistance that black people should be in middle ages UK settings because of the Moors is really stupid.

You support the BNP, or you're just saying that's what you sound like?

Thats just what I sound like.

I realise as others pointed out I did miss the point a bit, but its supposed to be a fantasy world based on Britain in the middle ages and by the authors logic that means you can stick anyone you like of any race in there and its fine because "Its just Fantasy" Now how about someone creates a similar fantasy world based on Japan during the 16th Century. Would there still be the same complaints if the character creator only let you use faces based on a Japanese/Chinese template?

 

[MaVeN1337]

"Of course, the muffin-headed Sims all sound the same: like some white goob suffering from aphasia after he was kicked in the head by a cranky mule."

Fuck right off.

First you complain that videogames let you create black characters, but somehow this is insufficient? Then you go on to say something so racially motivated, generalised, and wrong. I'm astounded that Escapist published this, it's utter tripe.

Ninjafied. I couldn't agree more.

 

[Continuity]

Nice article and good points, however things are the way they are for two main reasons IMO, game developers want the people who buy the games to identify with the protagonist, and although I don't have any figures I'm willing to bet that 95% of game purchases are by white Caucasians. Personally I have no problem identifying with non-Caucasian characters nor do I have any problem playing as the other sex, but there are certainly gamers who do have these issues... just look at some of the almost racist stuff Yahtzee comes out with in his reviews.

Secondly they want the characters in game to be attractive...
I'm sure you've noticed (almost) all the protagonists in games are very attractive - where am I going with that? - simply this, many white people don't find people of other races as attractive as other white people, that's probably because this is what the media has force fed us but there it is.

So that's two pretty good reasons why things are the way they are, what's the reason for games companies to make any big change? the markets where other races than white dominate are saturated with piracy.

For the record I'm part Indian so I can't really be described as "pasty white", just so you know where my perspective is coming from.

 

[wildcard9]

Anybody remember Prey? The last FPS from 3D realms? It stared a Cherokee protagonist skeptic about his tribe's mysticism who uses said mysticism to thwart aliens. I don't know how...delicately they handled the American Indian culture. Can anybody comment?

 

[MooseHowl]

I've never played the Sims before, but how can they sound white? I know they speak gibberish that everyone calls Simlish; does that sound phonetically similar to English, or something?

Glad you liked the read!

As for the voice -- they just sound... I dunno, like dorky white folk. You can't choose a voice that doesn't sound like a white American. It's gibberish, but even gibberish has an accent, an intonation. Though, I might just be sensitive to it?

-- Chuck

Absolutely, gibberish derived from English speakers will sound a bit like English. I try to associate that with language, though, not race. I'm guessing it comes from living close to Vancouver (in Canada) most of my life, actually. There are tons of Asian-looking folks around here whose families have been in Canada far longer than my somewhat Norse-White one has. All with Canadian accents in wide range of voices you wouldn't expect. I know of one or two comedians that get a lot of funny material from the incongruity of it, actually. Hallo, sah, I'sa Ching Wan, is berry good to meet yooo- Nah, just kidding. My name's Dave! Howdy!

I think what I was getting at (thinking as I type, here!) is that it's another "racism catch" when voices get associated with racial/ethnic stereotypes, even when the cultures being stereotyped are frequently the ones spreading them. Like Big Black Man With A Baritone or Japanese Teen With A 6 Year Old's Voice (...made by an actor over 25). A short asian guy can have a deep voice, too... or a chainsmoker's gargle. White stereotypes are all over the place, too, like Boisterous Ambiguously Prussian/Russian Guy (see: The Heavy).

But if it's language thing, that's understandable, because someone's native language really does shape the way they make noises. That's what accents are all about, after all.

I think I'll go track down some Sims youtube videos later, to see what they sound like.

 

[ImpostorZim]

I didn't realize this was such a problem. I remember reading an article here on the Escapist about stereotypes in gaming and I think that could definitely be more of an issue. As for not being able to make a black character or asian character? I'm guessing that's because most of the people working in game development are staggeringly white males. I'm of course referring to the games that were mentioned above, because as soon as we consider the fact that the developers could be japanese, this doesn't even seem to be an issue. I wonder if japanese gamers feel offended because all of their main characters have bright eyes and blonde hair.

 

[Falseprophet]

I facepalmed at the beginning of Fallout 3 when I decided to make my character Asian. Then I see my father for the first time, and he's clearly Northern European. Did I take completely after my mother?

Fantasy does have one thing in its defence that you didn't really mention

Modern fantasy is massively influenced by tolkien who was well white and wrote his story as such. The it's based on medieval England excuses goes a bit further than credited to portra other races as merchants and foreigners is mostly fair though I'll give you there should be the odd moor.

Even Tolkien had the Easterlings and Haradrim. It's hard to tell if he was basing them on real-world cultures, but they were darker-skinned than the Westron peoples most of the main characters came from. Unfortunately they all fought for the villains, but they were there.

And yes, Tolkien was hugely influential on modern fantasy. But there are other influences: the Conan stories had characters of many races. They show all of Robert E. Howard's 1930s Texan prejudices, but they existed. How about Raymond Feist's books? His protagonists are still overwhelmingly white, but a lot of the important supporting characters from early on are black, and there's an alternate world of Japanese-Aztecs. That's the other thing, game designers: you don't have to stick to medieval England for everything. It's fantasy. You can have anachronisms like polytheism in a medieval society, or female warriors--oh wait, you already do that.

(Interestingly, Dragon Age is one of the few fantasy settings I can think of where a society based on England actually had its monarchy work like England's. Most fantasy settings seem to prefer the French system, where the monarch is absolute and to hell with what the other nobles think.)

 

[Gunner 51]

An interesting article, but there is a reason for why most folks in RPGs are pasty white folks.

It is based partly upon medieval England. Which didn't exactly have a diverse number of races and creeds in it. (At least from a skin-tone point of view.)

Even Indian spices probably would not have been discovered until Tudor times. Most of these games seem interested in a Yorkist / Lancastrian time-frame which was a century earlier than this.

So in order to maintain political correctness, the devs had shoe-horned in the whole choose your race thing. I can see how you see that cramming in races like this could be seen as patronising and condescending - but I've not heard a single complaint about this from racial equality lobby groups demanding action on this.

I guess what I'm trying to say in that last paragraph is - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

I don't really understand why people are trying to refute this article as pointless whining. The fantasy games mentioned are far from realistic and acting like other races exist and being able to see and play them more often would not ruin a game. I've seen plenty of games that take place in a fantasized version of real history periods and places but they still show other races with various unique features all over. Is it realistic? No. Does it ruin anything? No.

It's nice playing as someone that looks like you and doesn't stick out in the game world like a sore thumb. I also don't buy that it would be that hard to add other races to games when developers these days will go into asinine detail like making every feather on this monster look different. Saying it's a moot issue just kind of proves that you really aren't willing for change in this area. It bothers a good number of gamers so it needs to change.

Although my one problem with the article is the whole, "even if you make your characters look a certain race they still sound like this one," argument of another problem with character customization. In most cases, yeah it kinda ruins player made characters. Then again there are people like me who even though I'm black I've been told countless times I sound white. If I tried to recreate myself and there is some "black woman voice" to the model, it won't seem like a little me anymore. That's a whole other deal though and me being nit picky.

Good article overall.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Then again there are people like me who even though I'm black I've been told countless times I sound white.

Now you mention it, you type white as well.

*runs*

 

[Stefan Eriksson]

Personally I am finding this to be one of my axes to grind, but from the opposite perspective.

I find people complaining about this issue are *deliberately* not getting the point.

Now I do not know where the author grew up, but my guess would be somewhere across the pond (aka not Europe or Asia or Africa, but America). The reason I get this feeling is because of the lack of understanding of our (European) cultural and historical heritage and don't understand that our history is vastly different than America's history.

Basically I find it about as annoying when someone puts (or agues for putting) an "African" or "South American" character in a place where he or she culturally do not belong. Before anyone gets all rallied up by this, I mean "does not belong" in an historical context. And yes, this includes Fantasy. Modern western Fantasy is based on the European myths and legends after all.

A fantasy setting like Dragon Age, that takes place on an "European" continent, is not a racist setting because almost none of the NPCs are black. I almost feel like I should put a "duh" at the end of that statement, because it is that self-evident to me.

Look at it turned around: If the Fantasy setting was based on Native American or Inca mythos, wouldn't it annoy you if there was several Celts and a few Teutonic knights running around?

Now there are games the skirt the line, or even cross it; the Resident Evil game where you as the "great white savior" goes to Africa to kick zombie butt for example. There is nothing wrong with a Caucasian person killing African zombies, but neither is there any real reason *what so ever* to bring in a white person *at all* instead of letting the hero be one of the people living in the area to begin with. I really think the developers of that game dropped the ball hard by not making the main character an African man or woman.

For the record, I am Swedish, in case someone wonders.

 

[My1stLuvJak]

I'm glad that this topic is being brought up - I've tried changing gender/race in these kinds of games before, but found that the representation was more than a little off. The 'coat of paint' that keeps being brought up is a valid point - choosing between characters while only changing skin tone and only skin tone seems pretty lazy, to me.

 

[Solusumbra]

i am currently going to school in an effort to get into the industry one way or another, and as an avid game player as well, it has frequently occurred to me that there does seem to be little ethnic diversity (just as it has often occurred to me that there seems to be little ethnic diversity in many popular media).

after thinking about it, i have come to this conclusion: developers produce games in a way that not only their audience can relate to them, but that they can relate to as well. this might mean that a white or asian heavy developer demographic isnt going to produce many black, indian, arab, or other main characters and such (though whether thats a practical business practice? meh).

for example, as an artist i have never made a character that was anything other than white. why? i have absolutely no problem with black people or any other race. perhaps it is because i make characters as a reflection of myself? if im paid to produce a black character, i will have no problem doing so, but i somehow dont imagine myself having much empathy with this character. is this a person failing? i dont know (and it honestly doesnt keep me up at night).

i have resolved to make the characters i will make. if that means i make a cast of "pasty white guys", so be it (though, thinking about it, i can think of some very good places to mix in some diversity, and i will)

for whatever reason, i have heard of very few (if any) game developers that are anything other than white or asian (not artists or 3d modelers, the guy who makes all the decisions. the directors). if there are any, ill be glad to acknowledge them, but as it stands, they are certainly in the minority. i dont know why that is, but until it changes, i think we will continue to see a white-heavy character roster (i may be wrong. i am, after all, not a pro analyst).

as for games with custom character creation....that strikes me as lazy. but once again, meh.