Most video games star white males.

[LilithSlave]

Yes, that includes the ones made in Asia.

Uncharted
Gears of War
Crysis
Assassin's Creed
Metal Gear
Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.
Deus Ex
Mass Effect
Max Payne
Hitman
Kane & Lynch
Devil May Cry
ect. x 1000

Surely I am not the only one disturbed by this.

 

[DasDestroyer]

The average gamer is a white male, and most white male gamers prefer to play white males. Hence the most profitable strategy is to make your game start a white male.

 

[LilithSlave]

Race isn't really a big issue in games, a characters personality and motivations are much more important than race.

If race doesn't matter, then why are most video game protagonists white males?

You claim that race in video games isn't an issue. But the racial and gender disparity says otherwise.

 

[LilithSlave]

No, I'm not! There are other people saddened by the white privilege in the video game industry.

 

[LilithSlave]

Maybe not you, and maybe not that you notice.

But developers tend to make games about white males.

"Racism" is not just the action of a random klansman or something. It's a far reaching social problem.

Edit: Oh, you want sources? Here you are.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/video-games-dominated-by-whites-3561/
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17819-video-games-need-a-more-diverse-cast-of-characters.html

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

If race doesn't matter, then why are most video game protagonists white males?

You claim that race in video games isn't an issue. But the racial and gender disparity says otherwise.

The post above yours...

The average gamer is a white male, and most white male gamers prefer to play white males. Hence the most profitable strategy is to make your game start a white male.

... explains exactly why most protagonists are white males. That's pretty much it, in a nutshell.

Catering to the majority audience is just good business, and the gaming industry IS a business. If you want to see a major shift in representation with main characters, then you need to also see a major shift in the distribution of your audience.

 

[LilithSlave]

Racism is more than "actively discriminating against people". It is social systems like white privilege.

In fact, not seeing racism as anything outside of the behavior of an individual tends to the the sign of white privilege.

Racism isn't dead, not in the slightest. In fact, in today's society, most people don't realize they're being racist, that they're supporting racism, and that a standard is racist.

I said names. name me people that...

1. matter

Everyone matters. What kind of ridiculous statement is this. You don't have to have Barack Obama making a "big deal" out of something for it to matter.

 

[LilithSlave]

Most movies are about white males

Last I checked, this was a forum section about video games.

Seems a very typical white privilege thing to do to shift the blame so that something racist suddenly becomes irrelevant.:/

That's bullshit and you know it. You think the standard citizen believes that whites people are better than black?

On some subconcious level? Yes.

As en masse you find people who claim to think that they find black women unattractive and a myriad of racist notions that contradict their claim that "I'm not racist" and "I don't think any races are any better than any others".

Thing is, that most people don't realize that they hold racist notions. And white privilege tends to erase the idea from their minds that society might be racist.

 

[LilithSlave]

Making a white protagonist in a video game isn't racist.

The tendency for video game developers to make protagonists as white is racist.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

If race doesn't matter, then why are most video game protagonists white males?

You claim that race in video games isn't an issue. But the racial and gender disparity says otherwise.

The post above yours...

The average gamer is a white male, and most white male gamers prefer to play white males. Hence the most profitable strategy is to make your game start a white male.

... explains exactly why most protagonists are white males. That's pretty much it, in a nutshell.

Catering to the majority audience is just good business, and the gaming industry IS a business. If you want to see a major shift in representation with main characters, then you need to also see a major shift in the distribution of your audience.

I can't accept this as being some kind of conscious cost-effective strategy designed to maximize revenue. But rather from a lack of creativity.

Also these "profitable strategies" tend to lead towards creatively bitching out and generating carbon-copied "safe" content. Which I think many of us agree to be a disappointing aspect of the gaming industry. Unless you're a fan of carbon-copied "safe" content.

I don't see this as some kind of subtle racism issue or white-privilege, but rather a disappointing lack of creativity.

At least that's what I think.