Most video games star white males.

ms_sunlight

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PhiMed said:
I think that's a terrible idea. When the protagonist is fully customizable, he/she/it loses their CHARACTER. Quick... who's your favorite Mass Effect character? I guaran-fucking-tee you didn't just say "Shepard". Wanna know why? Because Shepard has to be a boring wet blanket in order to fit everyone's idea of who that person should be. Bioware games have their place, but I'm glad there are games that don't adopt that model and actually tell a concise story.
On the other hand, quite a lot of us who play as FemShep are very attached to Commander Shepard; it's a rare occasion for us to be a female action hero with real agency and personality. Plus, Jennifer Hale's performance as the voice of FemShep is just that good.
 

kurupt87

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LilithSlave said:
Either skin colour is a nothing issue, so cosmetic changes like Sheperd's and Denton's are fine; or, skin colour is indicative of an ethnic minority who live a life that is different to the majorities because of it.

One of those can be written by the white guys who write video games, one of them can't (unless you want stereotypes coming out of your arse). You want more black characters, you need more black writers.
 

MLionheart

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Mass Effect is a bad example but I guess default Sheps are white.
Assassin's Creed is a bad example though. Altair is arabic and Ezio is...Latino? Are italians in the latino dempgraphic? I don't know. Unltimately this makes Desmond mixed race.
Mario and Luigi are also italian. Sterotypically even.
Also, now that good graphics are available protagonists from Japan are look pretty japanese.
Of course, you're correct for the most part.
If it bothers you right to companies with your grievances. This isn't the kind of thing complaining about on a gaming forum will help with. You'd likely need alot of signitures though e;se you may get overlooked.
 

Drunkfather

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LilithSlave said:
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.
I find this statement a bit funny. So using your logic, I must be homophobic since I am a heterosexual? I can help but laugh at your flawed logic. I think most people will agree that people do not choose their sexual preference. One does not simply decide what is and is not attractive. Your argument could be applied to anything; i.e. you don't like fat people because fat women are unattractive to you. I'm not sure your circumstances, but you might learn something by taking a few sociology courses or maybe a human sexuality course...
 

Omnific One

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xXxJessicaxXx said:
Omnific One said:
Most gamers are white males... it's called appealing to your demographic.
Yes but don't you think that's damaging creatively.
Nope, not unless the publisher forces it on the developer. If it's the developer's choice, it's probably because most game developers are also white males.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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Omnific One said:
xXxJessicaxXx said:
Omnific One said:
Most gamers are white males... it's called appealing to your demographic.
Yes but don't you think that's damaging creatively.
Nope, not unless the publisher forces it on the developer. If it's the developer's choice, it's probably because most game developers are also white males.
Well yes...but don't you see that it maybe limits the scope of creativity in gaming that they are playing it safe and making practically the same guy because of demographic?
 

DioWallachia

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s69-5 said:
This just in, discrimination against white males is still discrimination, OP.

Also,
DasDestroyer said:
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.
Ooh. Big conspiracy. Hey everyone, developers are RACIST and discriminate against WOMEN because they try to cater to their target demographic...

fuck. Sometimes, I forget that feminazi's still exist...

Hey OP, you know what? Most shows aimed at kids have underage protagonists... OMG! Call the human rights comission, that is clear AGEISM!
AGEISM??? THE BASTARDS!!!!! I KNEW IT WASNT THE VIDEO GAMES, IT WAS THE TV ALL ALONG WHO CORRUPTED OUR CHILDREN BEHIND OUR BACK WHILE I WAS HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH MY SECOND FAMILY!! MY GOD, THE VALUES THESE DAYS ARE HORRIBLE AND INNAPROPIATE.

Darth_Dude said:
Zyxzy said:
I find the "male" part to currently be the most problematic. It is unnervingly difficult to find a non-sexualized female main character who isn't Samus Aran.

Though, video gaming is still probably better than Hollywood in the whole "white male main character" regard.
What about Alyx Vance? Or that photographer woman from Beyond Good and Evil?

And I dispute your claim that video games are better than Hollywood in representing other races. Hollywood is lightyears ahead of the games industry, you just have to look at actors like Will Smith, Eddie Murphy and.....

Oh my God. You're right, I started this post with the intention of proving you wrong, but the more I think about it, the more I realize just how small the number of non White protagonists are, (Apart from the Big movie stars ie. Will smith)
Movies began their existence around 1889 i believe so they had pleeeeeeeeeeeny of time. However, that doesn't mean that they have casted black people on a mayor role so early, remember that society was a ***** all the way up to this days to other races (albeit less frequent today, obviously)

Besides, if the developers dont make lots of games with a non white because they fear that something "different" may scare people away. Remember, the media has been to ignorant and too cruel around video games to the point that even having a black protagonist in a game about killing other people that just happen to be white may lead to this logic "the black man kills people like a psychotic, therefore the game is telling the player that only black men will kill like a depraved monster. THIS GAME IS RAAAAAAAAAACIST!!!!!!!!"

If society is THIS stupid and paranoid then its hard to care for your job or even have video games with more plots revolving around politics and the ability to explore ideals more freely. But of course, doing that its may lead to flame wars, isn't it?? where was the last game that the Nazis weren't portrayed as Always Chaotic Evil instead of, you know, human beings in a situation that could happen to anyone???
 

Aurora Firestorm

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Ah, the never-ending conflict: should we make important characters non-white just so we can claim we're not racist, or should we go with whatever our gut instinct is?

I'm white, and most people I happen to know are white at least in part, so I imagine all my characters as white. I'm also terrified that if I were to write/whatever a black/etc. character, I would screw it up, or accidentally draw on a stereotype, and suddenly the internet starts pulverizing me. I wonder if game developers are worried about writing what they don't know due to these reasons. If this discussion alone is enough to flare tempers, what happens if they accidentally, I don't know, make the Asian guy good at math or something? Do people start screaming STEREOTYPE and throw bricks through the guy's windows? I wouldn't put it past the Internet to do that.

Frankly, "assume positive intent." Don't assume people are malevolent dicks. Assume that they don't mean to offend you. It's probably true.

With that said, in the end, I guess this is my question. Would it have mattered to Mass Effect if Commander Shepard were white, black, Asian, whatever? If not, why do you care if he's white? Because you want to see people tallying marks on a board saying, "Whoops, we've used three white protagonists and two black ones, we need another black guy." Doesn't this sound just as trivializing as making six white guys just because that's how you imagine your basic human template?

The only way that having a huge number of white protagonists stifles creativity, is if your game wants to dabble in racial conflict. The only way that it will shaft players, is if your player is really intent on seeing a character of the same demographic as he/she is due to "I can identify better with the character" reasons.

There's no answer to this. One side will scream 'WHITE PRIVILEGE' if you don't make minority characters; the other will scream 'TOKEN RACIAL MINORITIES ARE DISRESPECTFUL' if you do. And not every game can make a big deal out of what race the main character is, so most racial differences become token...
 

Aprilgold

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LilithSlave said:
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.
totally heterosexual said:
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.
God this is annoying. NAME ME ONE PERSON WHO IS A FAMOUS NAME IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY! Its not racist, since there are plenty of characters who are both protagonists and main characters who matter quite a lot. Also, the games come from Japan and as such a large portion is also going to be white from when games were mainly ported over from Japan. And a large chunk of White Males play games.

Barret from Final Fantasy 7 played a big role in the game and he was black.
CJ was the protaganist of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, you could also go out on a whim and say that all the characters that matter are mainly black.
Thats also why your Partner in Resident Evil 5 is both a playable character, black and a decent bot, because Resident Evil 5 is RACIST!
Eli Vance from Half Life 2 matters a shit ton to his story.
50 Cent is his own protagonist in his game, so is his game racist?
Sonic's Blue, so he could technically be any color under that fur you want him to be.
The first Saw game you were playing as a black guy, its not racist.
In Cave Story you play as a robot, but so it is a diversity of characters there, you can also pretend that Quote is a black man on the inside, if you want. But hes just a robot.
Counter Strike Source has a latino as a playable skin, good enough for you?
Dungeon Defenders lets you make your characters black if you want.
In Magicka you can pretend that all 4 wizards are asian or latino or black if you want.
Left 4 Dead games star two black guys, Louis and Coach and neither are very annoying and are quite intriguing characters.

Seriously, look at that list, for every Nathan Drake there are always 9 more characters who are not straight up white guys.


Zyxzy said:
I find the "male" part to currently be the most problematic. It is unnervingly difficult to find a non-sexualized female main character who isn't Samus Aran.

Though, video gaming is still probably better than Hollywood in the whole "white male main character" regard.
I agree, your probably not looking Hard Enough but there are some out there. Past Laura Croft's rack lies a much better feminist then Samus. Its true, I should know, I beat all the games because of her character.
 

Zyxzy

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Blablahb said:
And white privilege? Please read up something on what discrimination actually exists. Whites and men in particular are the group most discriminated against of all in most western countries,
That is easily one of the most unlikely statements I have ever heard and I won't be believing it without evidence.

Darth_Dude said:
Zyxzy said:
I find the "male" part to currently be the most problematic. It is unnervingly difficult to find a non-sexualized female main character who isn't Samus Aran.

Though, video gaming is still probably better than Hollywood in the whole "white male main character" regard.
What about Alyx Vance? Or that photographer woman from Beyond Good and Evil?
Yes, there is at some, very noticeable ones, but for about half the population that's not a very representative amount.
 

MattRooney06

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To be fair you could say the same thing about nearly anything, there are more white Movie stars, musicians, fictional characters and a lot of other stuff

At the risk of sounding very racist (hope it doesn't seem that way) Black people are a minority in this world, it's not like game developers are saying

"we can't have a black protagonist, that would be an awful idea"

It's just that the majority of there audience will find it easier to connect with a white protagonist.

For example, in Left 4 Dead, I am not a grizzled war veteran, nor am I a biker, so the only two characters i could really connect with were Lewis and Zoey...although Zoey is a girl...and Lewis is black....not that it was a problem, it just made it difficult to connect with them

Besides there are plenty of Black protagonists in video games
 

orangeban

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So, I'm seeing two arguments in this thread:

1) Race doesn't matter, developers are just going with what they know

and

2) Race does matter, and developers are making games that appeal to their mostly white audience

Seems like some contradiction there.

Anyway, I can actually asnwer both these points with rebuttal:

1) If race doesn't matter, why not make a black protagonist? If the developers are just going with what they know, then surely that demonstrates an inherent racism, the assumption of white as default.

2) If race does matter, then surely a developer could design a game with a black protaganist in order to appeal to a black audience. There is money to be made in the idea.
 

Omnific One

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xXxJessicaxXx said:
Omnific One said:
xXxJessicaxXx said:
Omnific One said:
Most gamers are white males... it's called appealing to your demographic.
Yes but don't you think that's damaging creatively.
Nope, not unless the publisher forces it on the developer. If it's the developer's choice, it's probably because most game developers are also white males.
Well yes...but don't you see that it maybe limits the scope of creativity in gaming that they are playing it safe and making practically the same guy because of demographic?
Well, as soon as Amazonians start developing games, that might change, but it takes more minorities and women getting into the field to change that. I don't need to hear minorities and women complain about it, when they could remedy it by actually getting jobs in the sector. And we all know that females and minorities tend to be very creative, so just get involved.
 

orangeban

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Omnific One said:
xXxJessicaxXx said:
Omnific One said:
xXxJessicaxXx said:
Omnific One said:
Most gamers are white males... it's called appealing to your demographic.
Yes but don't you think that's damaging creatively.
Nope, not unless the publisher forces it on the developer. If it's the developer's choice, it's probably because most game developers are also white males.
Well yes...but don't you see that it maybe limits the scope of creativity in gaming that they are playing it safe and making practically the same guy because of demographic?
Well, as soon as Amazonians start developing games, that might change, but it takes more minorities and women getting into the field to change that. I don't need to hear minorities and women complain about it, when they could remedy it by actually getting jobs in the sector. And we all know that females and minorities tend to be very creative, so just get involved.
Oh, so it's the minorities faults that they aren't well represented?

Listen, these developers with the privileges that make them choose white/male/cis/het as the default character design are the ones at fault here. It is hardly unreasonable to expect that the people who are acting on their privilege to correct their own privilege. Blaming minorities for not correcting the privileged is just silly.
 

Blunderboy

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I'm loathe to add to what is clearly a troll thread and I suspect this point has been raised already along with many equally pertinent points, but I'm pretty sure that Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is Syrian. You know, not white.
 

Robert Ewing

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So?

Most Japanese games have a Asian, Japanese protagonist.

Most Brazilian games have a Latino, Brazilian protagonist.

Most German games have a White, German protagonist.

Most American games have a White, American protagonist.

And some games even let you chose! I don't think it's a problem with racism, it's just the geographical location in which the game was produced, and budget, time and imagination restraints on main character design...