Columnist Deems Enslaved Racially Insensitive

[FinalHeart95]

Wouldn't a racist be the only one to see "Monkey" and instantly think about black people?

 

[dragonburner]

Life is fulll of little pricks. Monkey is hardly tan, and enslaved is hardly a game based around any kind of historical slavery. End of story

Monkey isn't tan, but he has a point.

Monkey- Typical racial slur
She is essentially controlling him against his will. I only played the demo, but it seems to me like they become friends throughout or something. It does seem to say slavery isn't bad or something to that nature.

I don't know. That's just what I think.

 

[Falconcry]

right a few things wrong with Kyle Harvey's article; firstly, from the way the writer describes the opening scenes, the enslavement of monkey is in no way racially motivated in fact the way it is portrayed monkey is put accross as a prisoner what kind i.e. political or criminal is not made clear so the innocence of the character cannot be determined therefore anything about him can only be guessed at and the other character Trip appears to be part of the crew(at least) of the ship that was carrying monkey so they're unlikely to be best friends, so a prisoner and jailor relationship is far more obvious than say one of racial dischord; second point to say that this kind of game shouldn't be made in this kind of culture is a bit naive, seeing as many movies have had this premise, lets see off the top of my head, "Running Man", "Gamer" "Crank1,2 & 3" the idea of an antagonist having the protagonist over the barrel of a gun with their life in the balance is niether uncommon or unfathomable, what better barganing chip than a life.

this is a badly written artical which has arguments not even backed up by the facts the writer presents.

 

[UtopiaV1]

177 people agree - This Kyle Harvey guy is full of shit.

Monkey is a racial slur, sure, but I don't think it applies when the person called Monkey isn't black.

And mentions of slavery are racially insensitive are they? How the hell are they going to teach history in schools if they can't use the word 'slavery'. As horrible as the practice is, it's a part of human history, and if you start getting caught up in not being able to use certain themes and ideas in art (like computer games), well, you can see where I'm going with this.

The argument to end it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s

 

[ethaninja]

Oh ffs, this just proves the point I was trying to make earlier. When do people get over themselves?

 

[timeadept]

By that logic, shouldn't this game also be anti-Semitic, because Jews were once slaves?

I do wish people in the media would actually play a game (or, in this case, read the book it's based on as well, which it sounds like the author hasn't even heard of, or at the very least they clearly aren't aware that Journey To The West is the inspiration behind the game) before making any assumptions about its content and accusing it of doing something it clearly doesn't do.

i haven't even played the game, i watched one review on it and it's apparent to me what the game is about, this isn't even about playing the game this is just plane laziness at the very least.

 

[copycatalyst]

I haven't played the game, so I don't know the details, but if this game's "premise alone raises enough eyebrows to warrant a serious debate," then I say "Good!" What's wrong with a game being a medium to provoke thought and debate? And it's not like the game is saying "Hey guys, slavery is awesome!"

 

[Sonicron]

Wonderful. Another example of misdirected political correctness running rampant. You know what, Mr Harvey? If this is all you got from the game you missed the point. I suppose we should count our blessings that video games as a medium are, at least for now, protected under the first amendment. God help us all if the Supreme Court should rule against us come November - twats like you will be able to scream the very idea of a game into oblivion before it even hits development if anything about it offends your ludicrous standards of moral decency.

 

[Tydanubus]

This game is clearly racist against robots!

 

[Therumancer]

The problem is that racism is pretty much dead in the US, and the Western First World for that matter.

You are very fortunate that you apparently live in an area where you can go through day to day life and believe this to be true. But I assure you, racism is alive and well in the US. Having lived the majority of my life in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and now living in Durham, NC, I see it quite frequently.

All I'll say is that I worked 10 years in casino security, with that time split between casinos on two differant Indian reservations. I also tend to be a militant, a cynic, and an extreme pessimist. If I believed racism existed as anything but a tiny fringe, I'd be all over it a lot more frequently than I am as a matter of course.

Then again a lot of it might be simply on how we both interpet racism. I for one consider racism and bigotry two seperate things. Reality also being what it is, with differant subcultures, I believe a conflict can wind up being divided along racial lines without it actually being racist.

See, racism is when a group of people believe in the superiority or inferiority of one race compared to others as an intristic state of being. Truthfully not being a racist tends to lead towards bigotry where due to everyone having the same capabilities, people can expect the same kinds of behaviors ideals of conduct of others that they expect of themselves. While they can end of seeming similar, I believe there is indeed a distinction.

Being casino security is not an action packed job like in the movies. Despite what the casinos in an "Oceans 11" might seem like it's by and large a dog and pony show. Things are interesting occasionally, but it's largely a rut job like anything else.

On the other hand as part of that rut job, Security Officers are called in to do things like escort terminated employees out of the building. In such situations routine complaints are made about racism in connection to the firing. It falls upon Security and/or Suerveillane to investigate such claims in many cases, not because of any great love for the people involved, but for the simple principle of protecting the butts of our employer in case such an allegation was ever to be pursued. I will tell you flat out that in a place that is wired to the absolute gills 99% of the time when investigated it turns out to be absolute bunk, and a disgruntled ex-employee groping for any weapon they can get true or not.

The point here is not that racism does not exist at all, but that it is a tiny fringe behavior. As someone who has been part of investigations into such matters, and who has spent many long, boring hours observing people who didn't realize it for various reasons, when I am speaking here I am not doing so from the perspective of someone who has exactly been sheltered (quite the opposite as there are things I can never un-learn, or un-know sadly). Of course a big part of the problem here might be in differant interpetations. A lot of people tend to expand the definition of racism into things that I do not think it applies to. I hold to a very specific, literal definition. You'll find far more bigots than racists, and bigotry is a whole differant area of discussion.


Of course I've said more than I should already, since I'm certainly not going to argue too much with the Senior Editor of The Escapist.

 

[Jumplion]

I'm not g oing to go into RE5's potential racism, though I do think there were some undertones *SHUT UP SHUT UP!*

Anyway, this guy is talking complete BS. I bet you anything that he hasn't even played a single second of the damn thing, it's completely out of context. I'm playing the game right now and I can't find any hit of "racial undertones" in this.

If the character Monkey was big lipped, talked like a "gangsta", and ate watermelon and fried chicken, then yeah, I'd see his point (though that's an extreme example), but the whole point of the game is that it developers the relationship between Monkey and Trip despite the odd situation. It's really played on subtly, at least moreso than other games out there, and it's great that Trip isn't sexualized in any way and the characters emotions bounce off each other.

I'm probably giving it more credit than it deserves, but I'm really enjoying the game so far, and this guy is talking straight out of his ass. If I was being extremely lenient, I might see his point, but he's going to have to do better than "His name is Monkey! And he's enslaved!"

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

coulda made Monkey Asian and then it woulda fit better with that Monkey King legend thing with the staff and...yeah but then he probably wouldn't be so big

Careful; they'll label you racist for implying that all Asian people aren't big ;-)

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Well, he's a douchebag.

 

[Latman2k]

Hate when African-Americans think they are the only people to be slaves, when they don't really realize they are kinda late to the party, when it comes to be the subjugated people.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

This reminds me...

Remember when L4D2 was called racist for having black zombies....and they snapped that guy in half....

These people that ***** seem to have time + money to:
1.Buy + Purchase these games/media
2.Time+Money to drum up the war bands for another raid...

 

[Loonerinoes]

If it hasn't been posted yet...

 

[Electrogecko]

"African American-focused NBC news website Grio has posted an opinion piece on Ninja Theory's Enslaved that questions its racial sensitivity."
I've got some news for this website.
You're premise is much more racially insensitive than this game. In fact, ever mentioning the concept of racism is racist. Would it not be racist if Monkey was explicitly white?.....and you compare Monkey's skin to a black person's with no provocation?......and the game is racist?.......dumbass.
Aside from that, how the fuck is this game racist to anybody but monkeys? (even though he's apparently named, at least partially, for his climbing skills) The concept of slavery isn't even racist- it's just inhumane. Kinda like war....ya know?....like in all those shooting games.....

 

[manaman]

You know how two people can look at a random design and see different things in it. A cloud for example. One might see a bunny another might see their great aunt Mipsy.

So yeah, we should probably ignore claims like this unless they have a real argument behind them.

 

[latenightapplepie]

No. Just no. Not even a nice try, I'm afraid.

 

[The Brocken]

I hope they don't uncover early artwork depicting a dark or black skinned character concept for Monkey. Although I doubt such a thing would even exist and if it did, the team would have burned all evidence of it in order to avoid a huge shitstorm of controversy.

if anything he would have been Asian since the book is from china........
mind goes off point...........
want to put in a joke but i think it would be in poor taste so i won't say it......

Let me guess, "Why am I not surprised a black man didn't read something?" It's kind of funny but we should both feel bad.

On topic: I read through the "article" and I could make a case for this being the guy's first piece. First off is the article itself, of course. It's always a nobody who goes shit-stirring like this, and the guy was probably being impatient, like most new writers are. Second off is his terrible, terrible grammar. The title is one of the worst I've ever seen, "Is 'Enslaved' video game racially insensitive?" I can tell what the article is about and everything but goddamn, dude. All you needed was a 'the' and it's not like they ration out words. Finally, and I think this is the most obvious, is the total absence of anything resembling research. Some people have stated that you could invalidate his whole argument by checking the back of the box. He posted a scan of the box. At the top. You know, before the words. I rest my case.