Games with black protagonists

[The Almighty Aardvark]

So, I was talking with a friend and we were trying to come up with a list of all of the games with black player characters. Here's what we came up with:

Saints Row
GTA: San Andreas
50 Cent
The Walking Dead (I think? I haven't played this but I've seen some screen shots)
Prototype 2
The Suffering
Crysis 3 (kind of)
Starhawk
Blade

...Now I might be crazy but there's seems to be a teensy bit of stereotyping there.

Not looking for a controversial discussion (I can't see how it would even turn into one with this), but what games am I missing? I'm hoping that this list is far less bleak than it's currently looking

EDIT: List has been updated. Also some clarification I'm mainly looking for games with the main protagonist being black, not including ensemble casts

 

[Luca72]

It's pretty bleak. And Walking Dead is the only one that manages to escape black stereotypes (though in the other games they're mostly part of the gag I guess). I honestly didn't even notice the lack of black protagonists until The Walking Dead. Kind of refreshing, since I'm a short-haired white male in real life and that seems to be all I get to play as in my games lately.

I guess we could include all those games that let you customize your character to appear black while still having an obviously white grizzled antihero voice like in Deus Ex.

 

[Nonomori]

Don't get your hopes up too high. It's very rare with the exception of games that has character creation, or multiple characters to choose like Dead Island or Far Cry 3 Co-Op. Even so, the white guy (or white girl with very large breasts) will probably be on the cover.

For me, it's really hard not noticing. I live in the country with the largest black population outside Africa. We're also the fourth largest consumer of games in the whole world.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Here's a list of some games that have black protagonists:

Prototype 2
House of the Dead Overkill
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2
Killer 7
The Suffering
Jet Set Radio
No More Heroes 2
Resident Evil 5
Dead Island
Saints Row
GTA: San Andreas
50 Cent
The Walking Dead

And that's not to mention all of the games that have character creators that allow you to make a black character, and the games that don't really have "main characters" (like fighting games) which have black characters.

So yeah, this isn't exactly a huge list, but it's what I could think of.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Unreal 2 is the only one I can remember playing.
Edit: oh and Prototype 2.
bah ninja'ed on the second one.

Edit 2: on second thought, Crysis 3, well its Prophet' personality.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Emett from Starhawk, which I admittedly know only from the Unskippable of it.
Niobe in Enter the Matrix.
All of the Blade video games.

Lots of protagonists with ambiguously brown-ish skin like Jade in Beyond Good and Evil, but I see where you're coming from in how most of them are relegated to the role of generic angry badass... which to be fair happens to caucasians almost as much.

 

[Nonomori]

Lots of protagonists with ambiguously brown-ish skin like Jade in Beyond Good and Evil

I always thought she has a light tan. Like Tetra in Wind Waker.

 

[Lilani]

I guess we could include all those games that let you customize your character to appear black while still having an obviously white grizzled antihero voice like in Deus Ex.

Personally, I don't like to include these when it comes to tallying up any video game character minorities, whether they be racial minorities or female. While it's nice of them to include characters generic enough to be customized, as you said they're still designed with a white default template in mind. While Commander Shepherd can be any color you want, they're still going to sound like a white man or a white woman.

I only count them as "a game with a black person" or "a game with a female" if the character was MADE to be black or female. As you pointed out with the Walking Dead, they escaped the typical black stereotypes, and they did that through good writing. They wrote with a black character in mind, but they still approached him as a real person. He wasn't written and acted white and then just colored black, he's got a history, he's got his own way of speaking, and his character is merely augmented by his race, not defined by it. Just like any other person's race augments them in some way. While writing a real person sounds easy in theory, it's apparently tricky enough that many miserable failures have been produced.

And while I appreciate the option to be any race or any gender in Mass Effect, their diversity was achieved by making the character just generic enough to pass as an "everyman" or "everywoman." Not by actually designing the character with that specific race or gender in mind.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Mainly I was looking for games with a definitive main character, since when you have an ensemble of playable characters the chance of having a female character or a black character rises quite a bit. Probably because they can still populate the majority of the options with white characters or male characters. I might make a second list for those. I'll add some of the others to the list though

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I guess we could include all those games that let you customize your character to appear black while still having an obviously white grizzled antihero voice like in Deus Ex.

Personally, I don't like to include these when it comes to tallying up any video game character minorities, whether they be racial minorities or female. While it's nice of them to include characters generic enough to be customized, as you said they're still designed with a white default template in mind. While Commander Shepherd can be any color you want, they're still going to sound like a white man or a white woman.

I only count them as "a game with a black person" or "a game with a female" if the character was MADE to be black or female. As you pointed out with the Walking Dead, they escaped the typical black stereotypes, and they did that through good writing. They wrote with a black character in mind, but they still approached him as a real person. He wasn't written and acted white and then just colored black, he's got a history, he's got his own way of speaking, and his character is merely augmented by his race, not defined by it. Just like any other person's race augments them in some way. While writing a real person sounds easy in theory, it's apparently tricky enough that many miserable failures have been produced.

And while I appreciate the option to be any race or any gender in Mass Effect, their diversity was achieved by making the character just generic enough to pass as an "everyman" or "everywoman." Not by actually designing the character with that specific race or gender in mind.

While I'm definitely not counting customizable characters, I don't actually think it is that much of a problem not writing a character specifically for a race. Particularly in Mass Effect which takes place in the future for all we know racial prejudices may have disappeared by the time that it started. I can understand somewhat when you're dealing with realistic modern settings, but I still don't think it's that much of a problem. Although even in modern settings race isn't something that necessarily needs to come up for that character. In terms of ethnicities I agree with you a bit more, since cultures would likely have a larger impact on your personality.

 

[LetalisK]

Personally, I don't like to include these when it comes to tallying up any video game character minorities, whether they be racial minorities or female. While it's nice of them to include characters generic enough to be customized, as you said they're still designed with a white default template in mind. While Commander Shepherd can be any color you want, they're still going to sound like a white man or a white woman.

Conversely, I made a white basketball player in NBA 2K13. The post-game press conferences are quite hilarious. Even if my character was black it'd seem over the top.

 

[Lilani]

While I'm definitely not counting customizable characters, I don't actually think it is that much of a problem not writing a character specifically for a race. Particularly in Mass Effect which takes place in the future for all we know racial prejudices may have disappeared by the time that it started. I can understand somewhat when you're dealing with realistic modern settings, but I still don't think it's that much of a problem. Although even in modern settings race isn't something that necessarily needs to come up for that character. In terms of ethnicities I agree with you a bit more, since cultures would likely have a larger impact on your personality.

I agree that in the future racism as we know it should be "gone," or at least changed in a way we have yet to experience (IE Ashley's problem with alien races), but I don't think that necessarily means it will be a colorblind future. I think different cultures will still exist, and I think people will define at least some aspect of themselves by their race one way or another. Also, while it makes a nice excuse, Mass Effect makes the mistake of assuming that the default race of the "colorblind" future is white. Depending on which projection you go by, it seems our future culture is either going to be dominated by Hispanics or the Chinese[footnote]See Firefly for a good example of this in action.[/footnote], so to say that Mass Effect's universe has "solved" racial and cultural prejudices by giving everything a top coat of caucasian, western culture is just a bit ethnocentric, and inaccurate.

A culture taking aspects from certain races doesn't necessarily have to be stereotypes. Perhaps if hispanic influences become dominant, the traditions of quinceaneras become more ubiquitous, or perhaps the Day of the Dead gains prominence over Halloween. Or like Firefly certain words and phrases become a part of the culture's common tongue. This isn't necessarily "racial" influence so much as cultural, but certain cultural traditions are more dominant among certain races and ethnicities, so sometimes these things just come hand in hand.

I feel like this post is all over the place, so I'm just going to summarize: Yes race doesn't need to "come up," but culture is greatly influenced by forces and traditions that are more common among certain ethnicities than others. In a universe like Mass Effect, while it may be "colorblind" and simply ignore race for the most part, the universe itself is still modeled after western society, as though assuming the world is going to make it that far into the future without the cultural tides shifting. While a good idea in theory, it's still rather ethnocentric to assume all of the traditionally western/caucasian trends, notions, languages, values, and traditions will remain intact and ultimately become the "default" culture of the brighter, unprejudiced future.

Conversely, I made a white basketball player in NBA 2K13. The post-game press conferences are quite hilarious. Even if my character was black it'd seem over the top.

Yikes, I can only imagine, lol.

Captcha: oontz oontz. Going out to a rave, captcha? Be sure to grab me some glow sticks!

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Well, there's Shadowman. A pretty great game that has aged surprisingly well for the PC and PS1 (much better on PC, though). It has a really awesome character actually. An immortal, soul-taking, voodoo-warrior who travels the underworld. In the world of the living, known as Mike, his backstory doesn't fall to racial sterotypes. He's a good guy who got into some trouble looking out for his younger, ill brother (which then led to him being turned into the Shadowman - taker of souls, lord of Deadside). Hmm, such badassness, I'll have to replay that game now.

Spoiler

While I've never played it, the second game looks like complete shit, and lacks everything that made the first so great. But, it still features a black protagonist, so add that one to your list as well.

 

[Genocidicles]

How about Urban Chaos?

You play as a black woman.

Spoiler

You got to play as the grizzled homeless looking guy for a couple of missions, but it was mainly the woman.

I don't know if it's any good or not. I remember it being good, but I was quite young so that might just be nostalgia. I haven't played it in a while.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

I don't think Saints Row counts because of Character Customization unless protagonist does not have to mean playable character.

 

[StarkillerisDead]

Aliens vs Predator in the Marine campaign. Good example of a non-stereotyped one too

 

[silver wolf009]

Soul Calibur 3's plot centered heavily around Zasalamel, who is black.

While he is an antagonist to basically everyone else in the entire game, since it's a fighting game, he does have his own story, where he is a good guy. And antagonist or protagonist or whatever, he's an awesome character. He manipulates EVERYBODY. The two swords of good and evil, their wielders, good seminarians, evil monsters, kingdoms and empires, time itself, all just so he can get what he wants.

 

[Evonisia]

I don't think Saints Row counts because of Character Customization unless protagonist does not have to mean playable character.

The default Saints Row 2 Protagonist (he can be seen on the box art, and in all the loading screens which feature the Protagonist) is Black.

 

[silver wolf009]

Aliens vs Predator in the Marine campaign. Good example of a non-stereotyped one too

That is true, I had forgotten about that. It's one of those things where the game just sort of goes, "Oh by the way, no big deal", since it springs it towards the end of the game.

It's really well done actually.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

they kind of give an option for 4 different characters, but left 4 dead 1 and 2 both have black protagonists as one of the four you can choose from (louis and coach and rochelle respectively)

I know cloud is the main dude in ff7, but i always loved barret, his mannerisms were always funny to read and he had a good heart.



storm from x-men?

shit otherwise i dont know of many game protagonists besides the list you have...