Why Straight White Guys Shouldn't Always Play Games As Themselves

[FieryTrainwreck]

This is why I take a very different tack with media when I want change: if it has something I don't like in it, I don't buy it. And I encourage others who agree with me not to buy it. And if it does have what I want, I buy it, and encourage others to buy it. When I learned that Watch_Dogs had certain misogynistic tropes I absolutely despise, I cancelled my pre-order immedately, and encouraged others who shared the same viewpoint to do the same. When I learned that Far Cry 4 wasn't going to feature Yet Another White Guy saving the Noble Savages, but rather someone actually from the region where it was set, I pre-ordered it and encouraged others to do the same. Sure, Watch_Dogs sold well, but maybe not as well as it could have otherwise, and I did the same thing with Brink - as did many others - when they revealed that despite having several billion customization options (literally) for your player character, not one of them would allow you to be female, and that game sold terribly.

This is how you impact the system. Prop up the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you don't. Vote with your wallet. Don't ***** and moan and attempt to tear down existing companies or business models because they don't happen to cater to you. GROW the market instead of trying to shift it.

So I can see why people blog railing about the problems of a given source of media; spread signal to noise, and cost publishers money, i.e. what they actually care about.

I think these issues long ago reached a saturation point of diminishing (to put it lightly) returns. The first time I saw an article about ethnicity or gender with respect to video games, I was fascinated. Now? These takes are everywhere - and they're tired. Especially with all of the strides the industry has clearly made in these areas. Outside of the very limited and narrow thematic/aesthetic scope of AAA games (which are the way they are for decidedly different reasons), people have plenty of options in gaming today. If you can't find something you don't like, you probably aren't a gamer at all. And if you're mad that everything or most things aren't for you? Welcome to the fringe. A lot of us have been here for over a decade now, and we're here for any number of equally valid and unfixable reasons.

 

[SquidSponge]

Nice points made, I guess, I can't disagree on the principles. It might be relevant if I'd even once in my entire life met someone (including white, straight, cis men) who actually had any problem with playing a character of race/sexuality/gender/[other demographic trait] different to their own in a videogame. However, I have yet to see evidence of the existence of such people in statistically-significant numbers, so as far I can tell such people only exist on Tumblr - and now the Escapist I guess - and happen to be made of straw.

Next topic please.

 

[K-lusive]

As a straight white man I am often out of my comfort zone playing other straight white men.
I am unable to identify with Macus Fenix', Alex Mercers, Altair's (Ezio is inferior) or CoD/Battlefield Cannonfodder-grunt #7239.
Not all white straight men are equal, we're not single-minded ants.

 

[fenrizz]

See, we Irish folks weren't even worth ENSLAVING.

Now now, that's not true.
We (vikings) we're quite happy to enslave you Irish folk.
Don't sell yourself short

 

[Weaver]

What an awful headline.

The implication that straight white men only play as - and only want to play as - straight white men is is ridiculous. Likewise the subtext that it's okay for any other gender or ethnic group to exclusively play themselves in games is equally absurd.

Japanese gamers, for example, are perfectly free of this criticism and it's totally fine if they only play male Japanese characters in Japanese games because they aren't white and thus should never have to experience anything else.

Articles like this always seem like such projecting, I've never experienced acting differently just because of the race or gender of the character I play as

Myself as well. This does seem a case of the OP going "I was so afraid of being an angry black man that everyone else must have felt the same way". I dunno, that really seems like his own personal perspective and problem on the matter. I didn't feel that way when playing the game at all. In fact, it didn't even register to me that the game was supposedly "progressive" for having two black main characters until the internet said it was. The thought never even crossed my mind.

Maybe it's from growing up in my multicultural paradise of Southern Ontario, but race means about as much to me as someones hair colour.

 

[odinzeus]

I'm a slav,I want to play play western game as slav.
Why are we always villains in their games? It is so oppressive.Oh wait...I remember...I don't care.
I found it funny that other people are saying to "the white menz" to get out of their comfort zone,when they are whining about how they want to play as themselves.
If you ask me I want to play more an alien,animal or another creature.
Humans are fucking boring,no matter their sexuality,race or gender.I want a new experience.We all need to get out of our comfort zones.
I want to plays Mass Effect as elcor or volus,god damn it.
But I don't see articles like that sadly.No race/gender baiting in that.

 

[Random Fella]

God that thread title is misleading to the point of the article.
I see no problem with the basis of the article, stating there should be more female/other racial heros to look up to, but the end of the article seems like it was written by some very closeted white person that knows nothing of how things work in real life. 'people in my life have to confront this all the time'. Give me a bloody break