Videogame Characters "Lack Diversity," Study Finds

[HobbesMkii]

So as I understand it people use entertainment media (where real life hasn't trumped it in the hypothetical example) to make abstract valuations of things as good or bad relative to other things.

That's pretty solid. I maybe wouldn't use that exact language. "People use" makes it sound like a voluntary thing, whereas I think it's a largely involuntary process of learning. Our minds absorb the abstract valuations that entertainment media provides. And then real life helps also shape it, but to varying degrees. For example, if your (we're assuming for the sake of argument that "you" is synonymous with "white") only contact with black people was the media representation that black people are criminals (let's say you only look at media from the 20s), a black person holding open the door for you at a restaurant one day wouldn't change the belief that blacks are criminals too much. But if you were lost in the forest with a black person and you and that person had to rely on each other for survival, it might be a life changing, prejudice-reversing event.

I mean, that's all semantics, really, but phrasing is important to avoid misinterpretation (look at the problems arising in this thread from "Latinos play games at higher rates" and "Latinos play more games." Williams, in his study, assumed them to be synonymous phrases, they aren't).

 

[ElTigreSantiago]

Ever heard of custom characters? I bet they didn't take that into account.

Or how about multiplayer? Sure, Marcus may be the single player character, but you can play as Dom, Cole and Kim in multiplayer. And if you're playing an FPS, does it really matter? All you see is a gun and usually a gloved hand carrying it.

 

[Anarien]

Frankly, I find this to be bullshit silly. Not to be racist, but what about the part of them being able to afford these games in their weekly budgets in the first place? Also, what part of America were they doing this study? I hardly see any Hispanics or Latinos at the Rock Band or Guitar Hero kiosks where I'm living. Admittingly, Indiana is a bit further north of the border, but still...

Kids will play these games no matter what, and they will still know whether they're black or white or Asian or Hispanic. Society won't let them forget that, except in videogames ~.~

On the subject of female protagonists, what about Samus, or Lara? What about Chell? This whole thing is silly. Its like when they say that female PCs give young girls the wrong impressions about themselves. Its a game, not a life simulator; its an escape, not the real deal. Any argument to the contrary is ridiculous. At least you can turn videogames off.

Alright, got that out of my overly-opinionated system.

Hi, Hispanic female here who's been gaming since around age 3. Where to begin with this?

First of all those comments insinuating Hispanics are not able to afford games and "the border" are blatantly racist, despite your little "not to be racist" addition. Your exposure is apparently limited. Also, you may not know someone's ethnic background just by looking at them.

One factor is that the Latino population skews young. Another is that we are big tech adopters. (There are studies and data for these, if you care, just google them. I don't have time right now.)

Most player characters are an ideal of some sort. However, you can find a greater variety among male game protagonists, partly due to the sheer number. (But even these are still overwhelmingly white.) And as this whole topic shows, media can have an influence on people's self identity. So no, arguments to the contrary aren't ridiculous.

You can turn anything off, but that doesn't mean its influence disappears. For example, there was a study involving women and fashion magazines and after reading the magazines, their feelings about themselves became more negative, and the effect lasted some time.

The answer isn't merely "don't read fashion magazines", because there are other images and messages in the media that reinforce those same negative feelings and unless you lock yourself into a room someplace, media affects you. It is apparently similar with games. And the Clark doll test findings.

 

[Del-Toro]

I'd say this is quite simply a case of a psychologist who hasn't done anything important with his degree, and so decided to get his name out there by accusing the video game industry of being a tool of the white man. It's quite simply not even worth considering.

Where has he ever accused the video game industry of anything? You're jumping the gun and falling from the window behind it, all he's providing is a statistic of 150 game across 9 platforms with all ratings, nothing more nothing less. How accurate this study is, that's debatable, but no where has this man ever blamed or accused the industry of racism or hate, just a lack of "variety" which is true.

He's accusing the industry of preferential treatment of whites and of ignoring other demographics, it might not be obvious, but that is what he's doing, he's also pointing out that most minority characters perpetuate a stereotype, which is to suggest a signifigant prejudice within the industry, so don't try and defend this sensationalist PC asshole.

 

[Del-Toro]

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. "
And yet I hear talk about race. I am colorblind to race. If you treat me good, I'll treat you good, if you treat me like crap, I'll treat you like crap. Seriously I know people have said in this thread that ignoring race is a problem but let me ask you this. How is judging people on the content of their character a bad thing? It's saying bad people are bad and good people are good. The skin color has nothing to do with it.

That's how I try to be, it doesn't matter what race you are, if you give me no reason to be hostile I remain amicable, regardless of faith or creed. Of course being white I will apparently never live down the wrongdoings of those who came before me and have to hear PC bitching for the rest of my days.

 

[Alex_P]

Hey folks,

Usually, when you feel the urge to explicitly say that you're not trying to be racist, it means that the thing that you just posting is actually racist.

-- Alex

 

[Jumplion]

I'd say this is quite simply a case of a psychologist who hasn't done anything important with his degree, and so decided to get his name out there by accusing the video game industry of being a tool of the white man. It's quite simply not even worth considering.

Where has he ever accused the video game industry of anything? You're jumping the gun and falling from the window behind it, all he's providing is a statistic of 150 game across 9 platforms with all ratings, nothing more nothing less. How accurate this study is, that's debatable, but no where has this man ever blamed or accused the industry of racism or hate, just a lack of "variety" which is true.

He's accusing the industry of preferential treatment of whites and of ignoring other demographics, it might not be obvious, but that is what he's doing,

Which is quite true, however many exceptions there are. All this man is providing is statistics, however debatable it may be. There is a problem with proper representation of other cultures in games, whether it be stereotypes or just "they're the enemy!" stuff. If we want this to go away, we have to address this head on, not just give a knee-jerk reaction of "HE SO STUPID! THERE NO PROBLEM!!!" and start to think about this.

he's also pointing out that most minority characters perpetuate a stereotype, which is to suggest a signifigant prejudice within the industry, so don't try and defend this sensationalist PC asshole.

Most of the minority characters are shown as stereotypes, but never once has he "suggested" this of meaning that there's prejudice, all you're doing is putting words in his mouth so you can say that you're right. He's just pointing this out, he is not accusing anyone of anything, and if he was he's in the right to do so.

Just because "Video Games!" and "Bad stuff!" are in the same sentence does not mean that it's just sensationalist Jack Thompson stuff. In fact, we should welcome these studies, these studies mean that the industry is getting some recognition and in turn with that we get to know what exactly we should do to make this a more respected medium. We can't keep on getting defensive every time "Video games" and "Racism/Obesity/Murder/ect..." get put in the same sentence, these can be legitimate problems.

Racism (Stereotypes, portrayal of ethnicity), obesity (too much inactivity, relating with video games), and murder (video games can stimulate the brain (though if the guy murders because of a game, he was already near the edge)) are all problems we have to deal with, and if we ever want this industry to grow up we have to address these issues head on instead of assuming every other guy saying "This Video Game raises concern" is the next Jack Thompson.

 

[Zefar]

It goes like this in games.

Killing white people in any kind of way possible = Fine, not a problem.

Killing a black guy = uh oh, people are going to throw the racist card at us now.
So they try to do it without a black guy. Uh oh to few black people in the game making it racist.

Make it like 50/50 but it will STILL be wrong for people. Killing black people just doesn't seem right for this world. They still think they are too weak to handle it due to whole slave thing.

GTA series have done this but all they got was shit for it. Like "This game teach you to kill Chinese people" or something silly.
Wouldn't it be MORE true to claim every game is meant to kill white people? :/ Seeing that we are the biggest victims in the game.
But we just don't care, so why do people so much about the black guys? :/
In games, white guys have played like every single role there is. No matter how bloody evil he is. In fact the evil guys tends to point toward the white guys in this section. I can't just name ONE last black boss in a game.

I'm sure there would be a gigantic amount of racist cards thrown a game that had one and I'm talking about a real evil person too. One that like kills half of the world population for FUN. Stuff like that.


I for one don't give a damn if my character is black or white in a game. If I have the option it'll be white because I'm white and I'm trying to make myself in the game.
I don't have this superiority complex where I think white are better than black people. No I think we are humans and should be judged as such.


For me story and gameplay matters in a game. Not the color of the skin. If anything I find that robots are the BETTER ones in this case.
I started playing Probotector on the NES which is Contra but with fucking robots. It was just awesome.
Then they released Super Probotector which is just Contra 3 but with the same robots.
MegaMan X series made robots look even cooler. FF7 had those gigantic super robots weapons.


In the end I don't think it even matters. We got black people in BF2 but no one seemed to care at all. We did thou want a female medic. Gameplay wise it's not gonna improve.

They are thou certainly welcome to try it out. But as long as the public throw racist cards at them they are going to pull it back.

 

[Jumplion]

GTA series have done this but all they got was shit for it. Like "This game teach you to kill Chinese people" or something silly.
Wouldn't it be MORE true to claim every game is meant to kill white people? :/ Seeing that we are the biggest victims in the game.
But we just don't care, so why do people so much about the black guys? :/
In games, white guys have played like every single role there is. No matter how bloody evil he is. In fact the evil guys tends to point toward the white guys in this section. I can't just name ONE last black boss in a game.

Honestly, if you think about it, white people being killed in games gets just as much publicity as the black ones. After all, when Jack Thompson calls video games "murder simulators" he isn't say it'll teach us to murder black people, he's saying it'll teach us to murder. This is just over-generalizing it. (And I'd like to point out with RE5 thing which I know people point out, it's not that there were Africans were in the game, it was how they were depicted. Look into that.)

It's just that black people in games tend to get more "Woe is them!" time because, well, they're a minority. And we don't want to piss them off, now do we? _>

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Um, gotta say.

Who cares?

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

[annoyinglizardvoice]

You know what's even better than diversity? Not giving a shit about what colour someone is.

I agree. You must notice difference before you can discriminate against it.

I personally don't see why people need to be playing characters that look like them. I grew up playing a skiny blue hedghog after all


More games with a choice of how your character looks and less pointless stereotypes would be the best way to correct any problems that could be occuring due to the similarity of characters.

 

[McMarbles]

My two cents:

1. I don't want quotas... I just wanna know why, in 2009, one year after we elected a black man president, the default video game hero is still a white guy?

Did Nathan Drake HAVE to be a white male? Why couldn't Dom have been the hero of Gears? He actually had more of an emotional connection to the story, if I understand correctly. Why couldn't Kratos have been from Carthage? They were pretty badass there.

2. When the point is that the overwhelming majority of game leads are white males, saying "...well, what about Conspicuous Exception #1 and Conspicuous Exception #2?" does not negate that point.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

But I like my homogeneous interchangeable, grizzled, short brown haired, Caucasian male in grey interchangeable space armor!

 

[Gerazzi]

._.
WELL Game Developers have a snowball's chance in hell to have you play as an old person and have it be popular.
and it not be MGS4.

So instead I'll point out the obvious: I didn't notice, and I don't think many other gamers did either.

 

[Oolinthu]

Well, you see, some people - like me - refuse to see black people, latino people, white people and so on. All I see is people. I do not care about the colour of skin or the culture, it doesn't bother me in any way.

Really. How convenient for you.

However, it doesn't mean that there should be some kind of an idiotic "quota" on "diverse" characters in gaming, movies, and other forms of media. In some cases, it's expected to logically see just one colour of people if you're going to judge them by colour.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Required insertion of "minority figures" for the sake of diversion is wrong, especially when it can go against the original artist's plans. There shouldn't be a token black guy/white guy/asian guy in every video game, depending on who's the majority.

Tell me, how exactly is a character any less "token" because it's a member of the majority than if it's a member of a minority. It seems to me like there's a required insertion of white male leads, not any other way around. I know it's difficult for you, but try thinking with just a bit of sophistication. I'll say this one more time: No one said anything about quotas, or about required token characters for every game, or about inserting minority characters where it doesn't make sense to. Just that there should be greater representation of other people. In most cases, there's no compelling reason why the character should be any demographic or another.

I think it is exactly WRONG to look at someone and see a black person, or an asian, or a white person. All you should see is just a person. One's race or culture shouldn't be a benefit or a punishment for anyone, ever, both in real life and in games.

You're telling me you wouldn't mind if, from this point forward, every important character in every game you played was now black, bar none? You'll forgive me if I don't believe you. I think you and I both know that as it stands, one's race or culture is a benefit or punishment.

Would I boycott games or other forms of media? No, again, I really don't care. I do not believe that my character has to represent myself, especially in a made up fantasy world that doesn't have to be a complete copy of Earth with added magic. And in the end, I don't see how one's color of skin is supposed to somehow represent you or even be something to be proud/ashamed of.

The same way as do a political party, a sexual orientation, a designation as a "gamer" or "geek", a home town/state, favorite activities, preferred music, etc. It's a part of your identity - a fundamental part.

I see the idea of enforced diversity as something wrong, to put it in one sentence.

No one's said anything about enforcing anything.

So, whatever.

Then why'd you bother posting?

 

[redsoxfantom]

less than three percent of videogame characters were "recognizably Hispanic," and of those that were, all were non-playable supporting characters.

Umm, Gears of War? Dominic Santiago? Who compiled this list of the "top 150" games that Dmitri Williams would miss out on something as obvious as that? Unless he didn't play co-op, there is no excuse for this omission.

 

[Nifty]

Well Dmitri Williams is right, the industry does lack diversity but he should've stopped right there though because that identity formation problem doesn't actually exist. If it did, it would happen no matter the ethnicity of the character because the player isn't playing themselves as the game's plot isn't subjective.

 

[salamarian]

Just out of curiosity, how are the games where you can choose you're own race classified. In saints row does the main character count as any race because you can be all of them?

 

[Anarien]

You know what's even better than diversity? Not giving a shit about what colour someone is.

I agree. You must notice difference before you can discriminate against it.

There is no problem with noticing difference. "Difference" isn't a dirty word. And you can bet that you notice difference. It's wired into us all as humans to try to make sense of our world. But like I said, noticing difference isn't inherently a bad thing. I find it suspiciously amazing that so many people here claim to be beyond all this.Making negative value judgments and/or associations based upon those superficial differences is where problems arise. This also includes internalizing images and developing negativity about your own group.

If a black kid sees black characters only as criminals and athletes (in games, movies, or TV), then that kid may internalize those images as being some sort of limitation and not strive for something more. A sort of 'this is how I am seen, so why bother?' A greater variety in representation can offer more realistic images.

I personally don't see why people need to be playing characters that look like them. I grew up playing a skiny blue hedghog after all

There is a difference. These studies tend to consider games that have human characters. Playing as Sonic or Pac-Man is obviously fantasy. But you as a (presumably) white male, have had plenty of opportunities to play a game and see 'yourself' in some form. There are many game protagonists who resemble you even if the hedgehog doesn't. That's what so many are ignorant of here.

See my above post regarding White Privilege.

More games with a choice of how your character looks and less pointless stereotypes would be the best way to correct any problems that could be occuring due to the similarity of characters.

This part is good. However, the storyline may not provide for this. Or you wind up with an silent PC (say, a Revan) and other characters acting differently toward you than if you had designed your character as __________ instead of __________.