Gamers hate diversity? Bull****.

[Zantos]

I never really looked at my game collection in this sort of way until now, but excluding the create your owns and the "I have no idea what this person looks like" I only actually have 6 games that aren't white brown haired 30 some males, and none of those are human (2 horsemen of the apocalypse, a half demon, a space marine and a fire warrior). My PC games fare slightly better due to a number of indie bundles and GoG, but it's still a fairly overrepresented group.

I do kind of get the age thing though. Most of the games I own require the character to have a certain level of maturity and fitness. Now I'm not saying you have to be in the 25-40 range to fit that bill, but it's at that age where no one is surprised if you do. If you had a greying 50 year old as your protagonist it wouldn't be far fetched for him to run around with guns or swords or whatever, but at some point either you have to bring up their age or people are going to start bringing it up for you.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

The think there is a distinct difference between gamers here and gamers everywhere else. I mean we take video games pretty seriously, so we buy all sorts of shit. There are still plenty of half casual gamers that didn't buy a game console, but a CoD machine. Like the sort of people who don't keep up with video game news/reviews and just buys what looks sick at Gamestop.

They would probably just buy the white-male, man games.

And I would like to point out that most of the characters that aren't manly are either Japanese or not AAA titles anymore.

AAA and Western? Probably has a gun in his hand. Maybe a sword.

 

[DoPo]

Do we really want to remember the 50 Cent games though?

What, you want to deny black people can have their own games devoted to them? Is that it? 50 Cent wash shot, you know - he was shot 9 times. More than anybody he deserves his own games.

 

[Requia]

Really? Everything I've seen of Isaac Clarke unmasked he's sorta looked... well, white, brown haired and 30.

You appear to be correct. Not sure if my memory is bugged or it was the shitty TV I was using at the time.

 

[Batou667]

What as the last game that let you play a black lead character, without going down the character creation route?

The Walking Dead (the adventure game, not the FPS). It's a great game and I can't recommend it enough.

I take your point though; the fact that black protagonists are as rare as rocking horse sh*t and yet make up 13% of the population of the US[footnote]Can't really fault Japanese devs for not prioritising black protagonists[/footnote] shows a real discrepancy. Or do the publishers assume that black people play nothing but NBA games and GTA?

Yeah... I have a much simpler theory.

Video games in general are mostly made by males and aimed at males, so when making a game the protagonists is made male because the average male prefers entertainment starring males.

Do they? Because in this thread 'ere we have 6 pages (and counting) of posters lining up to overwhelmingly say that gender isn't usually an issue for them. Most of these posters are also male and gamers.

Perhaps the gaming industry presumes that the average gamer wants to play as an idealised version of themselves, but this isn't supported by what gamers themselves are saying.

 

[wizzy555]

Do they? Because in this thread 'ere we have 6 pages (and counting) of posters lining up to overwhelmingly say that gender isn't usually an issue for them. Most of these posters are also male and gamers.

Perhaps the gaming industry presumes that the average gamer wants to play as an idealised version of themselves, but this isn't supported by what gamers themselves are saying.

It's because marketing people have theories about how you think. Sometimes they are wrong and sometimes they are more right about people than people themselves.

Sometimes they are willing to take a risk and other times they just want to maximise the return so they will prescribe a formula they believe will sell.

 

[Quazimofo]

I'll play this game too!



Dunno

Snake

Nathan Drake

Chris Redfield

Think it might be Alpha Protocol guy Mike Thornton?




Not a clue

Norman something Heavy Rain detective guy

Sam Fisher

Default MaleShep

Starkiller from The Force Unleashed



Cole from Infamous, I think

No idea

No idea

No idea

No idea



Alan Wake

Alec Mason from Red Faction: Guerilla

Painkiller guy? Or Dead To Rights perhaps?

Niko Bellic

Frank West



That was quite fun ^_^

Darn, you're better than I. I didn't catch Alan wake, sam fisher, or the painkiller guy. Also Norman's last name is Jayden (Thanks to kitty0706 I just can never forget his name). Otherwise my answers were identical. (like, literally identical. To the very order of the "i dont know" answers)

And of course gamers don't hate diversity, though As someone above said the generic brown haired male is a bit easier to project on to since it's a good middle ground. Personally I like some diversity, but without making that the core plot point. Kinda like how in dragon age your race and background shapes interactions with a choice few people, but otherwise it's personal preference. I really liked that, since when your race becomes the key plot point, its kind of bigoted in and of itself, and often feels a little forced.

 

[J Tyran]

Prophet from Crysis 3 is black too.

Technically its Alcatraz' body in the suit in Crysis 3. Prophet's mind is somehow still in the suit, so its mentally him... and he took over Alcatraz' mind, erasing him from existence. Way to go, EA, we're playing a black Buffalo Bill. Talk about progress! Keep it up and you'll earn the Golden Poo for 2013 as well - Three-peat!

(that was a joke)

Seriously? I didn't know, not played it yet just read that Prophet was the player character. Thats actually pretty ugly, almost like some kind of "blackface" bullshit except the African American guy ends up white.

 

[wizzy555]

And isn't Alcatraz dying anyway?

Americans.... There's an alien race exterminating mankind and they are more concerned about a black man saving the world in a white man's body.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

c) Its more of the matter of Prophet wiping out the existence of Alcatraz, sort of like how that one character in, IIRC, The Matrix: Revolutions gave up his body so that Agent Smith could exist in the real world. Except that the guy in the Matrix did it voluntarily, whereas Alcatraz is basically being murdered. Him and Prophet aren't working in conjunction in one body - Prophet is completely dominating everything, and for all we know, the conscious of Alcatraz has been wiped from existence.

Sorry to go off topic, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't give up his body willingly. Agent Smith possessed him in the Matrix using his hand-torso-black-goo trick, and then picked up the ringing phone in the Matrix that was intended for the guy he just possessed, in order to download himself into the body.

I think. Umm. I might be remembering it wrong, but I can't really imagine a guy voluntarily giving up his mind and body to an evil AI.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Here's the revised image:

Suddenly, the state of gaming doesn't look quite so gloomy and homogenised, does it? Yes, the "brown-haired, 30-something male" is still represented, but to imply that this archetype is a requirement to sell a game, or that "gamers won't buy a game whose protagonist isn't a male power fantasy!", is bunk.

Leaving the non-human characters aside, almost all of the characters in this picture are still white males. So I'm not sure what you're trying to point out here.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Firstly because despite being a gamer for the past 20 years I can't name half of the characters in it,

I get the distinctest impression you aren't keeping up with current things enough to make a good analysis of this.

and secondly because I strongly suspect it's a cherry-picked selection of protagonists which doesn't particularly reflect the most popular games or characters.

Isn't that what you did to counter the argument? As much as I love your optimism, a lot of those character weren't made in this last gen or even the prior, the top image's were. That's what the image was trying to say, and if anything you just strengthened it's argument but showing how great game character diversity used to be.

 

[scorptatious]

Hey, we're not sure about the bird. You're being sexist assuming it's male! ;P

I think the Red Angry Bird is a woman. Just saying.

Actually, I'm pretty sure Rovio themselves confirmed that the Red Bird, and most of the other birds, are indeed male. The only female birds are the White Bird and the Pink Bird.

...

Yeah, I've been playing too much Angry Birds. >_>

 

[MXRom]

I'm not sure that it's gamers that hate diversity but that devs are afraid of diversity. Trying to pitch something different to their publisher overlords sends them into panic mode and they have to crack open the BIG BOOK OF GENERIC STUFF and slap something together before their masters have a meltdown.

You get a little more freedom when the protagonist isn't a set character(Shepard, Dragonborn) , or you never actually see his face(Jack from Bioshock).

 

[Batou667]

If the same cherry picking used in the original demotivator was used, it wouldn't be too hard to make one of only female protagonists, or only nonhuman protagonists.

Thankyou; somebody who gets my point! The original list is completely cherry-picked and the only reason it's "self-evident" that brown-haired white guys are everywhere is because that's how they've presented the data. (And I say again; who the f*** are half of the dudes on that list? I recognise five of them. Chris Redfield, Shepard, is that the Max Payne 3 version of Max, Nico Bellic, and Frank West.)

Give me 20 minutes and I could whip up a similar chart filled with examples of violence and bloodshed to "prove" that the current state of gaming is desensitising kids to violence. Or I could carefully find 20 big muscular guys to "show" that games are full of over-masculine imagery that is damaging teenage boys' self-esteem and causing eating disorders. It's easy to prove a point when the wind of public opinion is blowing your way and you have the luxury of picking data that matches your hypothesis.

i dont think the original poster is trying to paint gamers in a bad light, which is what OP seems to think, what with the defensive reaction to it. i think the point is that the poster is trying to say that the gaming industry is not diverse enough and relies on cliches - no matter how cherry picked the original picture is, you cant deny that is a lot of 30 something white guys who pretty much look the same.

In truth I have no idea what the intent was behind the original image, but I know that it gets wheeled out on these forums at least a couple of times a week, usually in the context of "Games these days aren't progressive or inclusive, and here's an image to back that up. QED." I agree that the videogame industry is built on clichés and tropes - and the "rugged, attractive everyman" is just one such cliche.

Ryu? He's not really the 'protagonist' of Street Fighter, just the most well known of the ensemble cast.

Yeah, I ummed and erred about that one, but Ryu is pretty much the "face" of Streetfighter - he's a character associated with the brand in a way that other fighting franchises like Tekken and Mortal Kombat just don't have.

Look, I think you're kind of missing the point. No-one is saying there weren't colourful protagonists back in the day. There were. In fact, that's the reason are complaining now. Because games made now tend to revolve around the white, 30yo male lead character more than games made ten or twenty years ago. That's the issue people have.

Even that seems like a bit of an unfair generalisation. Here's the current Top 20 game chart:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/apr/15/top-20-video-games

Of the 20, 6 are team sports, MMOs, party games or sims, and under our criteria so far those are discounted. The rest are comprised of the following protagonists: Two females (if we count Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth as the "main" character, albeit not the player character), an Italian plumber, Sonic the Hedgehog (not current game characters, eh?), two sets of Lego protagonists, a couple of faceless soldiers (Master Chief and the Sniper dude), a mixed-race golfer, some monsters, and just four of our "ubiquitous" brown-haired macho men. And Baird from Gears Judgment is actually a blond....

and secondly because I strongly suspect it's a cherry-picked selection of protagonists which doesn't particularly reflect the most popular games or characters.

Isn't that what you did to counter the argument?

No cherry-picking involved, guv'nor; I went through the list of best-selling games on Wikipedia and posted images of their protagonist in descending order, starting with the most popular. It's not even a list of the all-time best-selling franchises (though if it was, Mario would still be in first place) - Mario gets first place purely on the strength of Super Mario Bros sales on the NES, likewise Sonic from his first Megadrive/Genesis game. My point is, brown-haired 30-something white guys aren't what the kids love - or at least, they don't love the games they star in.

 

[VanQ]

If this thread woke me up to anything at all, it's the fact that a portion of these very forums don't recognize most of the 20 most recognizable and popular characters in gaming over the last 3 decades. Either they don't play games or they're extremely young. I'm honestly disappointed at how few of them know Crash Bandicoot and Pacman when they see them for God's sake!

 

[Ikasury]

===.== as if the obvious 'lack of female MCs' isn't enough *lays face on desk*

honestly i felt F!Shep was a better rep for Mass Effect as a whole, the M!Shep was just way too... 'generic'... like period, and the F!Shep to cover was a lot more interesting, just to look at, see red hair! actually HAVING hair! XD but... ugh... yea, just looking down my list of games i've recently got:

Injustice: Batman (white guy in tights)
Bioshock Infinite: Dewit (White guy i never really see...)
Aliens: Colonial Marines: Dewinter? (so depressing, i played Xenos on multi anyway and ignored 'story mode')
Ni no Kuni: Oliver!! (a little red haired... white boy -.- least he has 'hair' and its 'red')
Boarderlands 2: pick one: chick, midget-mexican, generic-white-guy and Zero... whatever Zero is...
Zone of the Enders HD: well one's 'brown' with white hair? is that still caucasian? its anime-style, its hard to tell?
Dishonored: whatshisname... i don't know what he looks like other then 'mask' but his arms suggest 'white' and context suggests 'dude'~

so... hrm... just going down my stack of games next to the Tv, primarily 'white' and 'male', with the only 'deviations' being a multi-pick-MC... hrm...

*Hugs Parasite Eve* it will be okay~ Remember Me will come out soon~

 

[Imp_Emissary]

If this thread woke me up to anything at all, it's the fact that a portion of these very forums don't recognize most of the 20 most recognizable and popular characters in gaming over the last 3 decades. Either they don't play games or they're extremely young. I'm honestly disappointed at how few of them know Crash Bandicoot and Pacman when they see them for God's sake!

Actually, I think they are trying the game with the first picture with all the white guys. At least the ones I saw were.
That said, I did think they meant the newer one at first.

 

[Auron]

OT - I could only name Niko Bellic(who's Ukrainian by the way.), Frank West, Red Faction guy, Snake and Shephard. And I only know West because of MVC.

Prophet from Crysis 3 is black too.

Technically its Alcatraz' body in the suit in Crysis 3. Prophet's mind is somehow still in the suit, so its mentally him... and he took over Alcatraz' mind, erasing him from existence. Way to go, EA, we're playing a black Buffalo Bill. Talk about progress! Keep it up and you'll earn the Golden Poo for 2013 as well - Three-peat!

(that was a joke)

Seriously? I didn't know, not played it yet just read that Prophet was the player character. Thats actually pretty ugly, almost like some kind of "blackface" bullshit except the African American guy ends up white.

He becomes a virtual entity in Crysis 2 but recovers most of his humanity by the end of the game. While the body was originally Alcatraz the DNA was rewritten and meshed with the Aliens so by the end he looks like Barnes again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3bMXMMXfa5g#t=129s

I've linked the video at a spoiler free point just for the sake of it by the way.

We've also never seem Alcatraz, I do miss Nomad though it's really fucked up that they killed him off-screen and made the series lose all sense and downgraded the open world design to fit consoles and so on...

 

[J Tyran]

made the series lose all sense and downgraded the open world design to fit consoles and so on...

Never bothered with the series after Warhead, shame that Ubisoft can make a better Crysis/FarCry game than Crytek can. It all it cost was a 0.5% loss of graphical fidelity.