Britain in videogames

[RagTagBand]

I think that the only way they're poorly represented (as opposed to underrepresented) is that "Britain" or "England" is synonymous with "London" as if all English people talk like Captain Price (cockney) and they all hail from the East end.

I would love to see a game where you fight through the streets of Birmingham, or where a character is from Newcastle (i'd love to see how people react to the geordie accent)

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

America just doesn't generally seem to understand Britain very well but I can't really blame them since practically all of my American knowledge is from TV shows, movies, games, etc. and Britain doesn't produce very much of that stuff. To be fair, there are actually some fairly iconic British characters that others have already mentioned, Lara Croft is an obvious one. I'm sure there are also plenty more Brits in games than people from other European countries like France or Spain.

 

[Jacob Haggarty]

I haven't really played any games that treat British people badly. Though I've played plenty of games with British people in them. You know who is REALLY being treated badly in video games? The Russians. Video games always have America fighting Russia for some reason, and of course America wins. The only game I can think of where everyone is equally treated badly is Destroy All Humans.

BAM! This is the answer.

But yeah, it's not so much we're treated badly, it's just we're hardly ever treated.

I was particularly gutted when fable 3 came out in north america first, despite lionhead studios being literally 20 minutes away... I know they store them in warehouses and such, but surely we should get first dibs, what with them being in out country and all.

But in all honesty, as silentjay says, it's the russians who get the worst treatment. For every game that portrays them as the good guys (or at least morally gray, see metro), there are about five games in which they are souless bastards, hell bent on taking over the world under the rule of some cookie cutter ruler of stalin, slurred speech as they cling to a fuck off big bottle of vodka, and speak in hilariously bad accents. Most of these games are call of duty, or from the ever paranoid Tom Clancy.

 

[Tharwen]

British companies (Lionhead, Games Workshop, Core Design etc.) tend to produce British characters.

There are just more American developers, and they have a tendency to use the accent as a gimmick.

 

[Alfred Chicken]

No One Lives Forever is very British indeed, albeit in an Austin Powers kind of way.

 

[Jacob Haggarty]

where a character is from Newcastle (i'd love to see how people react to the geordie accent)

I want to see that, that would be all sorts of funny.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Britain gets them before Ireland. Shut your nasty gob.

No, but seriously, it's Australia that gets the short end of the stick. Everything is released there last.
I am pretty sure Ireland actually shares release dates with Australia for some reason. I remember being annoyed that Ireland was right fucking next to Britain and still we had to wait however long for Fable 2 and 3. I could be wrong, though, I barely pay attention.

Anyway.

Britain (or should I say England) is used pretty rarely in all foreign media. I guess Americans don't want limeys stinking up the place unless it is for a villain or something. Sometimes we'll be lucky enough to get a character who is Scottish, and thankfully he'll only be Scottish incidentally. Welsh is almost unheard of.

Try being Irish and having them consistently mangle the accent. Half as many appearances, fucking ten times as grating.

 

[XHolySmokesX]

Britain doesn't have the biggest game industry, and it's dwarfed by the american industry.

I guess the fact there are far more american made games, than british made games shows why most games have american voice actors and why the british are not portrayed accurately in said games.

How was fable for britishness?

 

[Shodan1980]

Ummmm the lack or representation of Britain really doesn't bother me. We're a tiny country in the ass end of Europe that used to dominate the world, but now we're just another Western country with a cultural influence disproportionate to our population, though still relatively minor. We've just as much right to be represented in games as Italy or Greece by that reasoning, I think we do fairly well with regards representation in that case tbh. I got ninjaed with Lara Croft but she's one of the icons of gaming that helped to make it the mainstream industry that it is. What more could you want?

 

[ChupathingyX]

And anyway, was Resistance: Fall of Man set in Britan? I remember some contrevercy over some church or something being represented in that game.

The only games that i know of in which Australia is even MENTIONED in any real sence is Team Fortress 2 and C&C Tiberium wars and its expansion pack.

Yes Resisatnce: Fall of Man is set in England and all of the major characters are British, except for the main character, Nathan Hale, who is American. Also at one point in Resistance: FOM a British soldier mentions that he is considering swimming to Australia to avoid the conflict. Also, in Resistance: FOM and Resistance 2 numerous intel documents state that many British people were evacuated to Australia and since then the country has become crowded in the cities and riots have broken out.

In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, the Executive Operations (ExOps) headquarters briefing room is located somewhere in Australia as the opening cutscene shows +10 UTC time which is pretty much the eastern side of Australia. Also one of the main characters, Fiona Taylor, is Australian.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Dragon Age: Origins contains a vast majority of British characters, in fact almost any game set in a meadevil time period is bound to. Really the only thing I hate with games and films in regard to British characters is them always being the evil guy. I mean if the game is going to have someone evil and British then why can't I be the one playing him?

 

[relevantcore]

I think the use of the SAS in Modern Warfare was pretty cool. In fairness I can't think of any games where we're portrayed badly, we show up well in all the ones I've played with main characters that are British. All, what, four of them?

What about Killzone?
Sure they weren't ACTUALLY British, but they had the accent!
And the ties with Nazi's which i found odd.

I remember in Yahtzee's review where he called this prejudiced, but that's like saying "canuck" is a racial slur. British people really haven't been oppressed or discriminated against throughout history, in fact, I think spent a lot of time doing that to other people.

 

[oden636]

Also being British I dont think we are overlooked by the video game industry. to my knowledge we dont have many British based companies that produce games so our influence is small in comparison, I cant remember if Fable is British based but if it is then thats the most British game i can think of.

Also i like the British Stereotype as i do love tea =D

 

[TheModWolf]

Australia features in video games as either crocodile dundee rip offs or....that's it.

Britain is usually lumped in I agree but you guys do get easily the best character in Reach, Jorge. I'd take that.

 

[Richardplex]

I'm also British, but I also realise there are 196 other countries, and that they can't be equally represented.

 

[TrevHead]

We dont get as bad a deal in video games as we do in films with Starwars dooming us to be the bad guy for the rest of eternity. What I really am sick of seeing is all the American patriotic modern FPS games that seeing the statue of liberty is a instant turn off.

Here is a couple of games with Brits in them.

Lots of racing games have stages in the UK. (with Codemasters making racing games)
Theres that early Ps2 Driver/ GTA clone thats set in London
Doesnt BF3 or MoH3 have a London episode in it?
Killing Floor PC (Left for Dead set in London)
ARMA2 (Expansion Pack) British Armed Forces PC

TBH I think we will be seeing less and less big budget games with British voice actors in them as the UK gaming industry hasnt faired too well this last 3-4 years. With the likes of EA, Ubi and Activ buying up game studios and IPs and shipping them abroad to places like Canada where they gat big TAX breaks (The UK was supposed to get its own TAX break but this government cockblocked that).

Not everything is doom and gloom as all the Japanese Publishers are now using UK studios as a means tomake western flavored games. SquareEnix now owns EIDOS and all their IPs, Capcom owns many UK / Euro studios. Sega own Creative Assembly (total war) plus football manager.

So I expect some games from them in the future will atleast use British voice actors

 

[Richardplex]

Also being British I dont think we are overlooked by the video game industry. to my knowledge we dont have many British based companies that produce games so our influence is small in comparison, I cant remember if Fable is British based but if it is then thats the most British game i can think of.

Also i like the British Stereotype as i do love tea =D

I honestly feel like Britain has the best stereotype, and the only stereotype I'd want to fulfill. And now you've mentioned it, time to have some Earl Grey tea.

 

[JWAN]

I'm British and i've always felt that Britain and British people are straight-up ignored in videogames and with these crappy release dates we get it always feels like we're just being lumped in with 'the rest of the world'. Hardly any individuality.
Maybe we just are.
Hell! We're even treated badly by are own countries game studios! (i have reason to beleive, correct me if i'm wrong)
So, what do you escapists feel about this? Do you agree or think that perhaps i should stop moaning and just suck it up.
Perhaps i'm delusional.
Please reply.

Yea Britain seems to get the raw end of the deal.

Gandhi said that you should be the change you wish to see in the world. Get in touch with the game studios!

 

[Akiada]

Off the top of my head there's:

- Killing Floor (Set in Britain with British protagonists.)
- Both Modern Warfare games (Look at the track record the Brits compared to the Americans ffs - they basically do everything while America struggles to not get it's ass beaten any harder than it already is)
- Both of the Rainbow Six: Vegas games feature a British squadmate (Michael, I think was his name) who uses an LMG
- ARMA 2 has an entire DLC/mini-expansion dedicated British military forces
- One of Counter Strike's Super-friends line-up of SpecOps units is the British SAS
- Wasn't one of the Resistance games set in Britain? I never played the game but remember a big wuss being made over their use of some Church over there.
- Company of Heros features a full faction for the British

And so on and so forth. Really you guys get a lot more face-time than a lot of western nations that aren't America. How often do you see the French portrayed favorably (or much at all) in video games, eh? And 90% of Germans that show up as video game characters are nazis.

 

[The Droog]

Britain itself appeared in the last level of the Soviet Campaign in the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Although this probably reinforces the OP's argument since you were technically invading it. ;-)

Does The Getaway count?