Square Enix Responds to "Racist" Deus Ex Character
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
I was playing that game with a friend a few days back, and we did that 'slow, disbelieving look at one another' thing when I initiated a conversation with that colourful personality.
I'm not one for gratuitous political correctness, but that sho' was a bit fucked up, suh.
I'm not one for gratuitous political correctness, but that sho' was a bit fucked up, suh.
Why not? Is it because it's a big Hollywood production and DXHR is a lowly video game peasantry that should never be compared with film since - as the infallible Roger Ebert said - video games CAN NEVER BE ART!Logan Westbrook said:
No, the comparison is fair.
It demonstrates that you can have black characters in a fictional work, speaking the way many real African Americans do, without being branded as racist. It is WHAT they say, not HOW they say it that matters.
Films gets such a free reign while video games are considered an acceptable target for any supposition. Look at how the media reacted to an incredibly tame love scene in Mass Effect. Got the console labelled the "SeX-Box". This double standard stifles creativity in a growing medium.
So a black person acts like how a black person is likely to act in real life, and that's called racist?
It's ONE CHARACTER! ONE! Every other character, even in fucking china, are at least partly deep and realistic. Of all the fucking games to call racism on, you do it on this one?
It's ONE CHARACTER! ONE! Every other character, even in fucking china, are at least partly deep and realistic. Of all the fucking games to call racism on, you do it on this one?
People need to learn to lighten up, the developers gave all characters of all races various accents, most are stereotypical, some are probably the voice actors speaking normally.
Unless they actually went and got voice actors from all over the world to record voice acting in their normal accent then all the voice acting is based on stereotypes.
Not everybody from certain states or counties or regions talks the same, they just have stereotypical features in the way they speak which voice actors can use to speak in that accent.
Bottom line - Almost ALL voice acting in EVERY MEDIUM is based on stereotypes.
Unless they actually went and got voice actors from all over the world to record voice acting in their normal accent then all the voice acting is based on stereotypes.
Not everybody from certain states or counties or regions talks the same, they just have stereotypical features in the way they speak which voice actors can use to speak in that accent.
Bottom line - Almost ALL voice acting in EVERY MEDIUM is based on stereotypes.
The game has much bigger problems than that. Racism in a videogame is par for the course, anyway.
The industry better watch it though, you're little jabs at African Americans is gonna bite you in the ass one day. And the bigots on the game sites can't keep sweeping it under the rug.
The industry better watch it though, you're little jabs at African Americans is gonna bite you in the ass one day. And the bigots on the game sites can't keep sweeping it under the rug.
The way she talks may be a bit exaggerated, but it's still around. People DO talk that way. It's more a southern thing i think, though not nessessrly exclusively so. And it may be a bit exaggerated, but that may be the vault of the voice actor not knowing how to properly pull the accent off.
Wow, way to put words in my mouth; you should get a prize for that. It's frankly a little ridiculous that you would level that accusation at someone who writes about videogames for a living.Treblaine said:
But to answer your question: No, it's not because The Color Purple is a film, it's because The Color Purple is a film set in 1930s Georgia that looks at the racism, discrimination, and social repression that African-Americans faced at the time. Yes, it's a work of fiction, just like Deus Ex, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.
How many racist characters does a game have to have before it's a problem?ultimateownage said:
I don't mean this as an attack, just a question.
Sorry Greg Tito, but I am gonna call foul on you here. It's not the accent that she speaks in. It's the fact that she speaks in that accent while having black skin and DIGGING THROUGH THE FUCKING GARBAGE FOR SOMETHING TO EAT! How can you claim to have a balanced view of this situation while completely neglecting to mention this obvious point?
When was the last time you saw a white person in a video game say something like, "well gosh durn, lemme jes put on mah ten gallon hat and put mah rabbit stew on the faihre then we can go hunt down some gay cahples, god bless amen" ???
When was the last time you saw a white person in a video game say something like, "well gosh durn, lemme jes put on mah ten gallon hat and put mah rabbit stew on the faihre then we can go hunt down some gay cahples, god bless amen" ???
Yeah i dont think there is anything racist about someone having an accent. >_>
What next the scottish complaining 'cause a pale skinned ginger has a thick accent?
What next the scottish complaining 'cause a pale skinned ginger has a thick accent?
"OMGZZ SUM1 HAZ AN ACCNET! CREATORS MUST BE RACISTZ!"
Evan Narcisse, how can we develop characters with personalities if they have no accents and no quirks, they'll be dull and vanilla
Evan Narcisse, how can we develop characters with personalities if they have no accents and no quirks, they'll be dull and vanilla
This statement is so incredibly genius and correct that everyone should now bow down to Sylveria. NAO!Sylveria said:
No sarcasm, I'm serious! As I've found out, people who are offended by 'racial stereotypes' are often more racist themselves than those who make jokes. Of course, an exception would be to those kind folks in the KKK, etc who make actual statements...
I don't consider it a number, more of a ratio. There must be hundreds of black people in the game, so only having one of them being slightly racist is a pretty good ratio. One almost-racist character, which is really just portraying how people may likely talk in real life, out of hundreds and then you pick out that one character only says something about how sensitive that person is. It's not like they're all going around eating chicken and watermelon.Logan Westbrook said:
I think it has a lot to do with lack of education/research on the subject, and a lot of script writers don't help the situation. I remember auditioning for a era film earlier this year where all the black characters talked that way (You be, I is, etc), but when I asked a fellow actor if his lines for the grand wizard had any similarities in vernacular (which they most likely should), he told me "Nope, perfect English". Needless to say, I turned that movie down. A lot of script writers seem to half-ass their research, and one of the only film scripts I've seen that tried to keep in mind that most southern white and black people of the time spoke about the same is "O Brother, Where Art Thou" by the Coens. Scripts can be social powder kegs if the writers get lazy.
Yes, it's over the top (and strangely tones way down as she keeps speaking), but given that literally every other black person in the game speaks normally (NPC and Main quest), I fail to see it as racist.
But enough of that, how DARE he say is racist! I speeeeel mai dreenk, but he is not care then!
Yes, it's over the top (and strangely tones way down as she keeps speaking), but given that literally every other black person in the game speaks normally (NPC and Main quest), I fail to see it as racist.
But enough of that, how DARE he say is racist! I speeeeel mai dreenk, but he is not care then!
Sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth, I was just being a bit speculative for emphasis.Logan Westbrook said:
I hear what you are saying, but do you mean that it's OK to have these accents only if you are making a commentary specifically on racism?
Or are you saying these accents only existed in 1930's Georgia? Because many will testify that residents of Detroit even today speak with such inflections. It's not racist to hear such accents either in real life nor in fiction... PEOPLE ACTUALLY SPEAK THIS WAY!
If a work of fiction is all the similarity there is, I say that is similarity enough.
:\ I never even met this character. Sort of glad, the actress they got to do the black characters' voices sounds oddly masculine. Not that she does a bad job, or anything, but it sure does sound weird--like she's about fifteen years older than the character speaking.
What term do you propose instead? Nationalityism? Not a word. Nationalism? Something different. Xenophobia? That's fear of all people of a different nationality to your own, not of one specific nationality. Hiberniphobia? But we're not talking about the fear of the Irish, only their inaccurate characterisation.Cain_Zeros said:
I'm happy for racism to refer to the discrimination of more narrowly defined ethnic groups that are not necessarily races, where the discrimination is of the same sort usually referred to as racism. I don't understand the reluctance to allow the meanings of words to change over time, as they have always done; it seems like an apologist move to me.
When anyone makes a point similar to yours ("Islamophobia is not racism" is a common one) it seems to me like their implication is "it's not racism, therefore it's not as bad as racism."