Most video games star white males.
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Posting in a troll thread.
... Just thought I would join in:
Is a character having a low/high melanin content in their skin or the presence or absence off a vagina hurt anyone?
No?
Then everyone get off it.
... Just thought I would join in:
Is a character having a low/high melanin content in their skin or the presence or absence off a vagina hurt anyone?
No?
Then everyone get off it.
Again, less oppression does not mean absence of oppression. And I live in the US. Men are not forced to sign up for national service, so fuck me, I can tell you've grown up somewhere else. Oh dear, now I guess I can completely dismiss your views!Thyunda said:
You can follow a few interesting links here [http://lattenomics.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/do-women-really-get-paid-less-than-men/]. In particular:Dr. Witticism said:
This is the single biggest problem with the "women get paid less than men" theory: it requires that misogyny is stronger than capitalist greed.
Yeah, right.
To me complaining about lots of games having white males as main characters is like complaining about every video game character in history being right-handed.
It doesn't really effect the gameplay at all (except maybe in some rare cases in RPGs), so why does it matter?
It doesn't really effect the gameplay at all (except maybe in some rare cases in RPGs), so why does it matter?
Well, I don't know how one can come to a concrete conclusion either way. When you can empirically measure the two, let me know what the results are.Sentox6 said:
I don't feel like going into all the other ways that women are treated as "less than" men. We all know the arguments. We all know the counter-arguments.
I've lost interest. But hey, thanks for not answering like a jerk. I appreciate your respectful tone in the absence of agreement.
(Witticism Out)
No, but if World War III broke out and suddenly America was in need of manpower (it's highly unlikely, of course, but the capacity is there), you would be hauled off to fight a war that you may or may not believe in, and the women of your country will be safe at home, with their comfortable jobs.Dr. Witticism said:
There is no oppression of women. At least not in polite society. Human traffickers are another story, but again, the main reason women are so valuable as slaves is because somewhere along the line in the past, men took charge and handed women between them. We'd be in the same boat if women had done the same. Hell, I'm sure somewhere, at some point, there's a guy being traded between women at gunpoint.
Oppression was the result of the Nine Years War. The Teutonic Knights were built on oppression. The Jews of Nazi Germany were oppressed. Slavery is the most famous example of oppression. Overtly preventing women from holding status was oppression.
People these days...you'll cry oppression at anything. WOMEN GET PAID SLIGHTLY LESS THAN MEN! THIS IS OPPRESSION!
Just shows off total ignorance. Oh, and then there's the people who claim that the white men are now oppressed. Pft. Not at all. Though there is an interesting scrap of truth to that argument. It seems that in an attempt to show equality and tolerance, a man slapping a woman is considered socially abhorrent, but a man punching another man in the face is considered a fair fight.
Pretty sure the game developers weren't expressing hatred towards non-caucasian when they were making white male protagonist games. So no. Not racism. and I'm not bothered by it.
Also, I'm not a white male.. if that helps my argument.
Also, I'm not a white male.. if that helps my argument.
Most videogame players are white males.
Its called "targeting an audience" and its how main stream games market themselves to ensure that a large number of people buy them.
But if you truly feel that strongly about this subject wither make your own games or get a group together and petition the companies. Think of the forum like space. No one can hear you scream and thats the sad truth.
Its called "targeting an audience" and its how main stream games market themselves to ensure that a large number of people buy them.
But if you truly feel that strongly about this subject wither make your own games or get a group together and petition the companies. Think of the forum like space. No one can hear you scream and thats the sad truth.
As others have said, it's just marketing. Majority of gamers are white males so majority of protagonist are white males. Of course the gaming community is growing to be much more diverse, but at the moment white males are still the majority.
If anything I see more people complaining about girls being in games then there not being enough. Most of the time when girls are in a game, people jump to claim that they are sex symbols and being used to fulfill some sexual fantasy, mostly because the majority is... Well you get the point.
Personally, I've never really cared about race or gender in a game. My favorite genre is horror, a genre in which games featuring female leads arr 50/50 to male leads. For every Harry Mason there's a Heather Mason. For every Chris Redfield, there is a Jill Valentine. For every Edward Carnby, there is a Miku Hinasaki. Though maybe that says something...
If anything I see more people complaining about girls being in games then there not being enough. Most of the time when girls are in a game, people jump to claim that they are sex symbols and being used to fulfill some sexual fantasy, mostly because the majority is... Well you get the point.
Personally, I've never really cared about race or gender in a game. My favorite genre is horror, a genre in which games featuring female leads arr 50/50 to male leads. For every Harry Mason there's a Heather Mason. For every Chris Redfield, there is a Jill Valentine. For every Edward Carnby, there is a Miku Hinasaki. Though maybe that says something...
You sure you don't just want to stop right there? 'cause all you're doing is ringing the same bell that been rung by millions of ignorant sheeple before you. Look at this differently, you're a business owner, and your biggest and bestest person in sales/marketing/etc. finds out she's pregnant, but you've got the largest merger/client/etc. you'll ever have coming in soon, so you've got roughly six months until you lose her for another six to eighteen months, depending on unions, state, drive, and all the wonderful things that go into that time. Now you can't just drop her from this buy or whatever because she's the only one that can run with this to the end with you coming out as far up as you can. But this job is going to take longer than the six months you've got her for, so you have to get someone to cover the job where she takes off and then you get left in the wind. You still have to pay her a certain amount, which is fine, except for that little thing called a budget, and according to federal regulations, you can't drop her from the roster without the risk of being sued for the ownership of your company or whatever, but you still have to let some people go to pay for that one person to get what they're "entitled to", so you drop three guys with kids and tuition and all that to pay for her, because you let the older guys take early retirement a year before to keep those three guys you just let go on at the company.Dr. Witticism said:
Basically what I'm saying is you're only seeing half the picture, or a quarter or eighth, besides, if you're above the age of six and live anywhere you can get internet, which you obviously can, the world is GRAY, not black and white as we assume it is up until that point, there's always another angle to look at this kind of stuff.
I'm pretty sure i'm not alone when i say this, but the race of the character doesn't really matter in most games; for instance:
-If it's and FPS then the race of the character doesn't particularly matter, bullets kill non-discriminately...
-An RPG see's you playing as whatever race you make your character to be, even cats if that so takes your fancy.
-Racing games have a tenancy to assume that it is just YOU driving the car, unless your playing formula 1 and you really get an insta-boner over being Lewis Hamilton...
The only time you should be bothered about the race of a character in a game (or any other interpretation of media) is when you have a bias against the race you seem to be criticizing.
Which for the most part is construed as Racism.
-If it's and FPS then the race of the character doesn't particularly matter, bullets kill non-discriminately...
-An RPG see's you playing as whatever race you make your character to be, even cats if that so takes your fancy.
-Racing games have a tenancy to assume that it is just YOU driving the car, unless your playing formula 1 and you really get an insta-boner over being Lewis Hamilton...
The only time you should be bothered about the race of a character in a game (or any other interpretation of media) is when you have a bias against the race you seem to be criticizing.
Which for the most part is construed as Racism.
There is really no reason to be disturbed by this any more so than white males being prevalent in movies.
I'm am going to go out on a limb and say that a majority of developers are white males. It is always easier to design a character akin to yourself.
In addition, white males are common, so a character that isn't is assumed to be different for a reason other than the devs just wanting it to be that way.
As a continuation of that, pallet swapping a character from white to something else JUST for the sake of saying "Hey look, we're different!" is by no means a good thing.
And finally, as another said, a majority of gamers are white males. Games are meant to put us in a characters position. Many people cannot do that with someone who is not their race. Therefor, it is easier to sell games with white male protagonists.
I'm am going to go out on a limb and say that a majority of developers are white males. It is always easier to design a character akin to yourself.
In addition, white males are common, so a character that isn't is assumed to be different for a reason other than the devs just wanting it to be that way.
As a continuation of that, pallet swapping a character from white to something else JUST for the sake of saying "Hey look, we're different!" is by no means a good thing.
And finally, as another said, a majority of gamers are white males. Games are meant to put us in a characters position. Many people cannot do that with someone who is not their race. Therefor, it is easier to sell games with white male protagonists.
The wage gap is a myth. It's been disproven time and time again. http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/ba392.pdfDr. Witticism said:
Women are not oppressed.
You do realise that posting a link to a paper by a conservative think-tank pushing their own agenda does not count as Winning The Argument, right?Lazier Than Thou said:
You do realize that posting a rebuttal that doesn't address the argument in question and attacking the source of the information while not in any way showing they're wrong does not count as an argument, right?ms_sunlight said:
Never said it did. You're the one cherry-picking citations to support extraordinary claims here. Even a quick web search on the term "gender pay gap" will show that the mainstream view is the gender pay gap is real, and there is a multitude of evidence for its existence. Although there is considerable argument about exactly how it comes to be, and figures vary greatly from country to country, it's real. Authoritative sources such as actual published government statistics, peer-reviewed academic research and reputable news sources (e.g. BBC or The Economist) will show you it's there.Lazier Than Thou said:
So, in this thread, we started off with we don't have enough non-white leading characters in games. Sure, that would be fine if it was left there, but the OP is actually trying to pass off that not being attracted to a black person is racism. Protip: Its not, you're attraction depends on so many things that it can't possibly be racism unless you said something along the lines of "i'd fuck her, but she's black so i'd probably catch something" in which case you would be both racist and a massive fucking tool.
Then the OP gets asked about whether its racist that some films have all black cast members while the people producing the film are also all black. OP dodges the question and tries telling us that its irrelevant and that asking the question is us dodging the question, very sneaky.
People, this thread is spiraling into chaos, multiple warnings and bans [edit] abound (i forgot to add that word). I suggest we get to the lifeboats *flies away*
Then the OP gets asked about whether its racist that some films have all black cast members while the people producing the film are also all black. OP dodges the question and tries telling us that its irrelevant and that asking the question is us dodging the question, very sneaky.
People, this thread is spiraling into chaos, multiple warnings and bans [edit] abound (i forgot to add that word). I suggest we get to the lifeboats *flies away*
Whites make up 63% of the population in the USA in 2010...
Most games portray a main character who is some sort of soldier/warrior/ect... A role primarily held by Men for various reasons including upper body strength, and overall mass, and also depending on the society being portrayed it can also be a traditionally male role.
The purpose of a video game that is portraying a character is to make a character who matches the world they inhabit. If the game involves a military character in the United States then it makes perfect sense for a character to be a white Male as their ethnicity makes up over half the population in general and most combat roles are handled by men. It's really just simple probability.
Games that DO portray women do not portray women that adhere to the norm of their society. It portrays women who are gifted in some way to overcome their physical disadvantage be it in the form of an advanced technological suit coupled with badassitude (Samus) or a portal gun (Chell).
Games that portray existing characters have to deal with the fact that many of these existing characters may have been created many years back when minorities occupied even less of a % of the american population.
As for foreign made games that feature white protagonists... (let's use Devil May Cry as an example) The protagonist of a game has to match up with the environment they are living in. So in a game taking place in a gothic horror setting with castles and such it really wouldn't make too much sense to have a japanese protagonist as that's not really their part of the world so they needed a foreign main character and it's really not a surprise that they made that character white. (Asia doesn't have many black people)
Most games portray a main character who is some sort of soldier/warrior/ect... A role primarily held by Men for various reasons including upper body strength, and overall mass, and also depending on the society being portrayed it can also be a traditionally male role.
The purpose of a video game that is portraying a character is to make a character who matches the world they inhabit. If the game involves a military character in the United States then it makes perfect sense for a character to be a white Male as their ethnicity makes up over half the population in general and most combat roles are handled by men. It's really just simple probability.
Games that DO portray women do not portray women that adhere to the norm of their society. It portrays women who are gifted in some way to overcome their physical disadvantage be it in the form of an advanced technological suit coupled with badassitude (Samus) or a portal gun (Chell).
Games that portray existing characters have to deal with the fact that many of these existing characters may have been created many years back when minorities occupied even less of a % of the american population.
As for foreign made games that feature white protagonists... (let's use Devil May Cry as an example) The protagonist of a game has to match up with the environment they are living in. So in a game taking place in a gothic horror setting with castles and such it really wouldn't make too much sense to have a japanese protagonist as that's not really their part of the world so they needed a foreign main character and it's really not a surprise that they made that character white. (Asia doesn't have many black people)