Most video games star white males.

[yunabomb]

Face it, most of the major demographic are going to have trouble playing as a Muslim Black-Latino Hermaphrodite.

Seriously? Seriously?

I have absolutely no difficulty playing games where I have to play as a dude, even though I don't have a penis. I have absolutely no difficulty playing games where the main protagonist is black, Asian or otherwise non-white, even though I'm white.

Yeah, the general lack of empathy when it comes to these issues is astounding. Women and people of color do play videogames in large numbers, even if they don't represent the majority of gamers. Does their representation not at all matter?

I can't really think of any women who have a problem playing as a male protagonist. There are, however, many women who don't like the fact that most games have male protagonists and/or very few women in them.

Let's not pretend that the only reason that game designers normally make white men protagonists is because there aren't enough women and people of color playing them. This is a problem in entertainment media. In fact, the majority of people who watch movies are female, but most movies have male (often white, male) protagonists.

 

[elvor0]

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".

Just ugh... seriously, you're THAT obtuse? That's not racism, it would be racism if I actively made the decision not to find black women attractive because purely they're black, it just so happens the black women I've met don't tend to have the traits I find attractive, I mean have you ever seen a black Metalhead/punk/goth? I've seen ONE, who I did have the hots for, and she was a character in a TV show, (Vod from Fresh Meat just for the point), ignoring the punk point though, I'd be on Alyx from HL2 in a shot if she were real.

 

[OManoghue]

Oh my God, a worthless statistic that means absolutely nothing! Stop the presses! You are over sensitive to the max and should really spend your time not worrying about worthless shit.

Although if you'd like to continue to scare people with meaningless race stats then you could get a job as a social science teacher.

 

[Thyunda]

...why is it a problem that most games star white males? If there's no reason for him not to be a white male...let him be a white male. If your game is set in a country with a mostly white population, and you don't consider his race to be an important factor in his character, then make him a white male, because then you don't have to concern yourself with other aspects of the story that might involve race or gender.

Oh, and how about you don't generalise every white man as the same? I fail to see Niko Bellic on the same lines as Marcus Fenix. And Assassin's Creed? Really? For one, Altair is Syrian. He's not 'white', he's Arabic. And the rest of the games are set in Italy, featuring an Italian nobleman. It would be odd if he wasn't white. Well. Mediterranean.

CJ was black because the game was about the African-American gang culture of the 90s. Dead Island features only one white protagonist, and a sports star at that. That game was meant to show the story from four very different viewpoints. Hardened cop, Chinese (I think she was Chinese, anyway) student, troubled rapper and disgraced football player. Each of a different ethnicity and spread across the two genders.
In fact, the only characters I would pass off as 'white males' for the sake of being white males are the voiceless, faceless player avatars. BioShock, for example. The protagonist's race was of no import, and so the standard Caucasian model was used.

This thread shows a clear lack of understanding of the creative process. We are not dealing with real people here. We are dealing with vehicles for a message. If GTAIV didn't want to show off the harsh reality of America, compared to its reputation abroad, then Niko would not have been Eastern European. The reason Altair isn't a white man is because that would add another facet to his character - his ethnic difference to his comrades. Which would have been irrelevant.

See. Non-whites and women have been oppressed much in the past. Fiction is all about symbolism. A fictional heroine doing heroic things is a message that women can be better than men if need be. A fictional hero doing heroic things is an action film. The white male is a blank slate. Nothing more. So there's nothing else to see here.

 

[RoBi3.0]

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.

Screw you my Commander Shepard is a white CHICK.

I would go into a long explanation as to why this is the way it is, but I suspect that the "why" is less important to you then the outrage for the fact that it is the way it is. So in short it is the way it is. No, it isn't likely to change.

Also

Heavenly Sword
Beyond Good and Evil
Metroid Prime
Tomb Raider
Bayonetta
Portal
Lollypop Chainsaw
Mirror's Edge
Okami
Any RPGs that let you select gender.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Here's a better question. How come in every single anime i have ever seen, Japanese people don't look Japanese?

Because anime largely takes its art style from manga. One of the first manga artists, Osamu Tezuka, was heavily influenced by Disney. So, in a sense, anime is based off of Disney.

 

[Harlief]

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

Bollocks, it's probably not even a conscious decision. Creators create in their own image (or the image of what they'd like to be).
If it is a concious decision you can guarantee it's a marketing decision based on research into the target market which is largely white males.

I notice that you're not making much of deal about these supposedly racially selected characters not being female.
OMG! U r such a sxist!!!!!!!1!eleventyone!!!!!

 

[an874]

JC Denton can be black, pretty sure Shepherd can be too.

Also, looking for flamewar much?

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

Yes, but let's face facts. Character customization of this kind is a cop out and both of those characters are relatively blank slate characters. The same is true in any game where this sort of character customization is used. In fact both Shep, and Denton's default character designs are white men which voids this point right off the bat. The problem is that there are not enough non-white/male protagonists that are actual strong leading characters with decent writing behind them. At best, these other characters are almost always villains or sidekicks. You don't think it's a little insulting that there isn't more genuine diversity in gaming, and for that matter in the media at large? You don't think that imprints on and affects a public's perception of race and what roles a people of different races end up getting to have? Look up minstrel shows before you answer that question, unless you already know what those were.

 

[Digitaldreamer7]

God of war series
El Shaddai
Prince of Persia

Kratos was a Greek general who hails from Greece that would make him white. Enoch is the main character of El Shaddai is a Jewish still white and the Prince from Prince of Persia from old trilogy was Iranian and he's not white.

I was trying to think of examples of atypical protagonists as well. A Jew/greek spartan has whiter skin but he is far from the typical white (anglo american) male lead the OP was talking about. As for Kratos he is said to have dark skin but is ash white because he has been cursed to wear the ashes of his daughter and wife.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Here's a better question. How come in every single anime i have ever seen, Japanese people don't look Japanese?

Eh that is a different kettle of fish as it is an art style and not a representative of real life. They also try to make them have a general look of races as because as far as I know skin tone wise Japanese are quite pale. The large eyes is just something they like.

I think they(an anime company or conglomerate) did a poll and white people associate the characters as being white while the Japanese associate them as Japanese. So I suppose the general thing tends to work.

 

[yunabomb]

...why is it a problem that most games star white males? If there's no reason for him not to be a white male...let him be a white male. If your game is set in a country with a mostly white population, and you don't consider his race to be an important factor in his character, then make him a white male, because then you don't have to concern yourself with other aspects of the story that might involve race or gender.

Wow. You're obviously not aware of it, but this is a ridiculously ignorant statement.

 

[Thyunda]

...why is it a problem that most games star white males? If there's no reason for him not to be a white male...let him be a white male. If your game is set in a country with a mostly white population, and you don't consider his race to be an important factor in his character, then make him a white male, because then you don't have to concern yourself with other aspects of the story that might involve race or gender.

Wow. You're obviously not aware of it, but this is a ridiculously ignorant statement.

Please explain this comment.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Yeah, white privilege.... also your own cultural prejudices color your judgment. For example, Games from Asia featuring Asian protagonists that are received as white despite not being so. If you don't like it, write a letter or something. It's part of the culture and not something that a thread is going to change.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

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

Bollocks, it's probably not even a conscious decision. Creators create in their own image (or the image of what they'd like to be).
If it is a concious decision you can guarantee it's a marketing decision based on research into the target market which is largely white males.

I notice that you're not making much of deal about these supposedly racially selected characters not being female.
OMG! U r such a sxist!!!!!!!1!eleventyone!!!!!

I think the new DMC character design speaks in spade that people create in their own image. If I remember right the new Deus Ex has a similar thing going on as well.

 

[michael87cn]

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.

Assassin's Creed character isn't 'white'
Metal Gears character isn't 'white'
Legend of Zelda is a JAPANESE game, character is not 'white'
Super Mario Bros. is a JAPANESE game, character is not 'white'
Mass Effect has no set character...
Devil May Cry is a JAPANESE game, character is japanese.
ETC x 1000 . . .

Most of the other games were made in the USA so yeah... they're probably going to have white protagonists, not exactly shocking or unusual.

 

[ms_sunlight]

...why is it a problem that most games star white males? If there's no reason for him not to be a white male...let him be a white male. If your game is set in a country with a mostly white population, and you don't consider his race to be an important factor in his character, then make him a white male, because then you don't have to concern yourself with other aspects of the story that might involve race or gender.

Wow. You're obviously not aware of it, but this is a ridiculously ignorant statement.

Please explain this comment.

I can't speak for yunabomb, but the problem for me is seeing white as "default" and non-white as "other". It's not that any particular character is a white male - after all, why not? It's that almost all of them are. If there's no reason for him not to be a white male, then surely there's no reason for him not to be a black male, or latino male, or South Asian male - or indeed a woman of any race.

 

[James Mann]

Diverse races are not that important for a play character as the race doesn't make a difference to who the character is, and considering the amount of publicity anything race-related has in games, simply have the character be the standard white male makes it a lot easier than accidentally slipping into the racism pool, while trying to fit the mannerisms to the race (no, its not racist to understand that while race does not define a person, it does affect them and ignoring this would simply create the standard male character just with different coloured skin)

So yeah, for the most part Race is left out of the protagonist it isnt however abandonned with the supporting characters, and this is where the development and progression is. As better and better divrsity creeps into the support character role it breaks down from the stereotypes formed and develops better characters, from this developpers may become confident enough to create decent player characters whose race is not the standard white males, and it make no difference to the storyline but still be believable.

Although i would also like to point out that a lot of games take place in white dominated countries. So a realistic (because we all like realism) probability is that the protagonists would be white.

A lot of RPGs (such as ME as mentioned) Allow you to play as a customizable character.
Some games give you a selection of players to play as, such as the L4D series, both games have a black characters, and i would probably expect different races it shows how the design of a game limits the portrayal of race, l4d has 4 open slots, and the game must therefore create 4 characters with personalities... you can't fit the entire spectrum of races in 4 character slots. Almost every other game only has one protagonist, imagine how hard it would be to do that?

So okay.

Games where you can play as another race:

GTA:SA
GTA:4
Mass Effect (custom)
Fallout 3 (custom)
The Elder Scroll Series. (custom)
Call of Duty MW
L4D1/2
Saints Row (custom)
Dead Island
Prince of Persia

Games with different Raced support Characters:

Half Life 2
Crysis
Resident Evil 5 (no, the game isn't racist just because the bad guys are a different color this time, thats what happens when you go to a different country.)
Final Fantasy
And game set outside of the white dominated parts of the world.

 

[Lazier Than Thou]

ITT: Martin Luther King Jr. is spinning in his grave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness_%28race%29

I literally have never factored the race of the protagonist in my buying decisions, and neither have 98% of everyone else here.

That's a blatant lie and I'm going to tell you why.

I never would have played World of Warcraft if I couldn't be an Orc(not actually true, but I wanted to say it as a joke).

On Topic: This is all nonsense. Not that it's occurring but that it's a bad thing.

Are people more attracted to their own race? Yeah, it's in our genes. Human beings are social creatures, they generally need groups to survive. They're more likely to pick groups that they immediately identify with. Same goes with the protagonists of stories, movies, and video games.

White people don't really go to Tyler Perry movies, because they're specifically marketed to and designed for black people in America. This isn't a bad thing, this is a good thing. It allows people of different races and cultures to have entertainment that is far more accessible to them.

Can white people identify with black people? Absolutely. Can black people identify with white people? Certainly. Are they more likely to identify with people of their own cultural or racial background? Definitely.

You want more black people as protagonists? Get more black people as writers and developers for games. They'll be just as successful in the market place as white people. Proof? Tyler Perry is worth an estimated #350 million. http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/directors/tyler-perry-net-worth/

White protagonists in video games has nothing to do with secret racism. It has to do with a basic evolutionary psychological premise. People are more likely to group with their own kind. It's not a bad thing. It's not a mean thing. It's not a way to oppress people. It's nature.

Get over it.

 

[elvor0]

JC Denton can be black, pretty sure Shepherd can be too.

Also, looking for flamewar much?

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

You don't think it's a little insulting that there isn't more genuine diversity in gaming, and for that matter in the media at large? You don't think that imprints on and affects a public's perception of race and what roles a people of different races end up getting to have? Look up minstrel shows before you answer that question, unless you already know what those are.

Ok yes, I'll give you that there could be more diversity, and I'm quite happy to play whoever the hell the devs put as their main character so long as they're a good character, but your last statement is just making shit up.

We're not in the age of slavery and minstrel shows anymore, and I don't know what backwards bizarro universe you come from, but people are NOT that impressionable, even very young children don't make that assumption unless their parents have told them that "black people are evil!" just because characters of certain skins are in certain roles in video games, it doesn't make people think that that's how people are. Although we do still have genuine racism in society, most people are sensible enough not instantly turned into racists just because Deathwing in WoW takes on the form of a black dude when he's in human form. In fact, scrap that, nobody is that fucking stupid.

 

[Agayek]

That's not an explanation, that's an illogical excuse. The majority of people in America who don't find black women attractive, do so because of white privilege.

This is not a troll thread. Not pretending that racial issues don't exist is not tantamount to trolling.

You have no idea how sexual attraction actually works do you? There's a myriad factors, and generally the most attractive females are those most capable of child-bearing. There's a very good, scientifically supported explanation for why interracial couplings are so rare. Specifically, that the things most people of a certain race find attractive are different in other races. There's always outliers, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

It's not racism anymore than a chihuahua not wanting to mate with a doberman is.