Racism in the Gaming Industry

Is there racism in the gaming industry? Absolutely. Take a look at your games. RPGS. platformers, shooters and etc. How many games are starring pretty clean cut white boy and opposed to Cole Train from Gears of War? Not a even ratio, right? Hell go back over 20 years and you'll see the same thing. That whole Resident Evil 6 controversy wasn't shit.

So, is the industry racist? Yes and no. I think the racism lies more on the consumer than the developer. Mom and Dad want to buy little Jimmy a game for his birthday, what game do think they're going to pick? Some Final Fantasy Sephiroth looking muthafucka on the cover or big nigga with a gun, I'm gon' kill everybody and fuck yo' wife Cole Train on the front?

Developers know this. So they make what's going to make them money. They only care about one color and that's green. Once in a blue moon, a character of color get's their own title. Assassin's Creed 3 was the first in like 7, maybe 6 years. And sorry, sports games don't count. I really shouldn't have to explain why either.

And as wrong as this sounds, I think a series that's called Grand Theft Auto should only star black or Latino guys. Yeah I said it.

 

True story!

People are thinking that colored people are going paranoiac about this but this is true! I already said it but just look at Jeffrey Mcwild!! "Mcwild", in french it is translate as "Mc Sauvage", like "savage", and he is looking like a fucking gorilla or something! All chest beating and this and that! First time I saw him I was pretty chocked!

This has got to change someday, I'm a mixed guy and I can't even imagin to see someday a heroes looking like me, because most of them are white, and if the game designers pick a colored guy, it will be a 100% black or yellow or anything!

So when I wanted to play Fallout I had to pick a latino guy which was the closest thing to me, but was not even looking a bit like me...

This is trully sad...

 

Black Eileen FTW

 

What happened in RE6? I thought it was RE5 people were upset about?

I don't think Jeffrey's surname was on purpose. It is a Japanese company that produced it quite a while ago - they think English sounds amazing no matter what word it is. I play games no matter who the main character is. I cant think of more than 5 games where the main character is Chinese but I don't really look at games for role models...

 

Oh, yeah RE 5. My bad. Doesn't matter, they're both boring as hell anyway.

 

This is not about having only colored people in games from now on, it's just about caring a bit about them!

And if you look closely at Japanese entertainment industry black people are either clowns, gay or big brutes. And every once in a while there is one actualy cool, but compared to the incredible amount of ridiculous ones this is nothing!

But I won't choose a game only because of the hero's color!

 

A good exception would be Alyx from Half-Life 2 imo. She's half black (I think?), and even though she's not exactly the hero she's one of the better characters in any fps as far as I'm concerned.

 

Not Racist.

The RE5 debacle made the media portraying the issue seem more racist than anything in the actual game. White people can shoot white people all day apparently but black people can't shoot black people :/

If you look around there's also not many videogames starring women or children or people that are physically disabled or homosexuals.... you could go on forever so I think it's dumb to isolate racism.

Videogames as a whole need to mature but often the finger can be pointed at the consumers and the media, look at the clusterfuck that happened recently when the Tomb Raider trailer suggested someone might have touched Lara inappropriately. That kind of thing would be a non issue in most media but because it's a videogame it was a massive problem.

@Vick Vega - Cole Train is a bad example, he's never been the main star nevermind been on the cover of any game in the series. He's always been the token black guy.

 

I don't think games are racist. There are just more white guys in the front than other races. Every final fantasy there is an Asian dude, FF13 had a black guy in the main role(kinda thought it was a LITTLE raciest they automatically gave him an afro though), Gears has Cole(main role in Gears Judgement), Halo had SGT.Johnson. I feel though Japenese games don't make other races aside from Japenese correctly sometimes. Capcom made El Fuerte in Street Fighter soooo stereotype and borderline racist, Black people are brutes or clowns as La Muerte said and they are always the worst of the stereotype...

 

It's weird because I was so into this MMORPG whilst I was at uni and then I tried to get one of my friends to play it and when I showed him the website the first thing he said was "Oh why can't you play as a black person?". I was like, "WTF, it's a game!" but in the end he refused to play it because he couldn't play as a black character (but he does play as Kage instead of Jeffrey?!)... It never crossed my mind that race/appearance/gender was an issue (for video games).

When I play characters, I just imagine they're from another world... you know... nobody is going to swing blades that are bigger than them around and summon lightning attacks in the real world. I don't understand the need to play as someone of the same race as yourself? I played the new Tomb Raider and loved it. I'm not female (nor English) but I still had fun playing through the adventure.

I don't think anyone is out there to offend anyone. So I don't think the gaming industry should be branded racist. Suggesting GTA should be only a certain background is silly as there are gangs everywhere in the world.

By entertainment industry, are you referring to stuff outside of gaming now? I don't watch enough variation of Japanese media to know. But I used to watch a lot of animes and I can't remember any where the black person was portrayed as a "clown, gay or big brute" but do remember some where they were pretty awesome characters.

Chi

 

I agree with Feck. You can't isolate racism. There are too many other things in video games that cater to all walks of life.


I have seen some games that portray blacks as intelligent and clean cut. In the splinter cell series Lambert is Fisher's boss and is an intelligent guy. Also in the game X-men Legends 2 Storm and Bishop are portrayed as clean cut. And in the halo games Sgt. Johnson is seen as a stand up guy.

 

Have you played Judgement?

He had more of a role in Gears 2 & 3 and the campaign focuses on Paduk and Sofia more than any other character. Just because Dom and Marcus aren't around doesn't mean Cole got auto bumped to the top, he's still a supporting character.

Also, Cole is pretty much your sterotypical videogame black guy. I wouldn't read too much into race issues in the series but him and immigrant Dom hardly give the games credibility in regards to ethnic diversity.

 

Haha sorry but your friend is a bit of a douch! But noticing that there is a lack of openness about colored character is not something bad. And like I said I wouldn't choose a game depending on this! I feel more close to a character that is thinking like me than a character that is looking like me. This is why I said that people often see it as a paranoia thing, but it's not, it's just a fact, it doesn't distruct me inside but it kind of bother me sometimes.

And guys I got to remind you the meaning of racism, it's not only hating on an ethnic group, but it could be overliking one or just despising an other! Racism could be both positiv or negativ! So when 90% of the heros are white it kind of suggest that there is a bit of racism in the creating process, either if it's for commercial reasons or anything.

Yes by entertainement I'm talking about how black people are depict in japanese cultur most of the time, and those character are often likeable despite that they are stereotypes! Chocolove (shaman king), Barret Wallace (ff7), Fire Emblem (tiger and bunny), Zack (dead or alive) even Killer Bee from Naruto which is a character I really like is a big stereotype rapping every time he wants to say something. And their favorit black americans are(or use to be) Bob Sapp and Biz Markie... But most of the time doesn't mean every time!

 

Before those existed Adam (Streets of Rage), Skates (Streets of Rage 2) and I thought Barret was cool! Zack is... Zack!!! Jax (? Mortal Kombat).

 

Well, women are portrayed more in there own series. But they're totally objectified. Big tits and ass. Sexualized and so on. I mean, just look at Dead or Alive. The new Tomb Raider is a step in the right direction. The old Laura Croft was all titts. And hell they didn't put a woman in gears of war until the third damn game.
And Cole Train...He's a football or thrashball player, always yelling slang incoherently, "OH YA BABY" I mean how black did they want the guy to be? Pissed me off

 

Well, I give the Japanese a little leverage with race. You have to realize that when it comes to most foreign countries, the most they know about other cultures is what they learn from watching movies. So, they're concept of other cultures is sometimes warped.
Barlorg from street fighter use to look like a black face character. Big red round lips. In all their illustrations

 

I'm Chinese and when I was a kid, I moved around the country a lot due to my parents work, etc - so I have also lived in areas where it wasn't as "multi-cultural" as London so I know... I've been to schools where I (and my sisters) were the only "foreign" student. Everyone else was white. What I found was that they weren't racist (there were racism people but those are usually the uneducated drunks, etc...), but ignorant. Some questions they asked might seem racist at first when really they are just trying to find out more about me and Chinese culture.

I always give people the benefit of the doubt, it's when they are blatently being derogatory or being a bastard then it's like "yeah, this guy is a dick".

Chi

 

Uneducated seems more appropriate than ignorant maybe?

 

I don't know why, but Baynetta reminded me of this. In Platinum games defense It was in good fun and the not to be taken serious.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sexism is over

 

Most racisim stems from ignorance of the other person.