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This is my first part of the Gaming: series of posts.
Cruelty and unfairness because of race or colour still happens in the real world, but is always trying to be prevented. Fines, even jail sentences are dished out to ‘racist’ offenders. You would never have thought that unfairness because of your religion would occur in the gaming world, would you? Well the truth is is that it does.
Although racism doesn’t happen 100% wise in the gaming world, there is still unfairness that goes on. It is very easy to spot actually, and I would have thought this topic had been brought up before. It’s mainly based in the characters. Try and think of one main character that isn’t white (so that leaves Indian, African, and Asian). There’s none is there – Zelda, Link, Mario, Peach, and Lara, all prime examples, are white. So therefore if there had to be one main character in a new game my money would go on him/her being white.
Although main characters are white, there may be some exceptions in ‘side kick’ characters like those in beat ‘em ups or as bystanders, because if there wasn’t, I’m sure videogame producers would be taken to court to withgo racism charges, like Tekken, ISS or WWF Smackdown for example. Even though that has been said, there is still a larger amount of white ‘side kick’ characters than black.
What also baffles me is the fact that the majority of games developers are Japanese, like Nintendo. So why don’t they make their (main) characters Japanese? Take Link from Zelda, he looks American/British, yet Japanese developers – Nintendo, made the game. White might be thought of as the ‘neutral’ race, which is also wrong, but even so, this doesn’t give an exception to make everyone white really, does it? No.
I’m not saying that from now on everyone created for a game should be either fictional (like Crashy B), or a colour other than white, black, because quite frankly, I think this would be boring. What I am suggesting, however, is that the colours should be more balanced, and games should include perhaps more coloured characters. I’d prefer to be a hard, black man, than a white one, because I personally think they look better. If things like this happened in real life, and someone was left out of a game like football, because of his race/colour, not only would that person feel really unhappy, but the people behind the game would be due for a scrape with the law. So why don’t the likes of Nintendo, Rare, or Acclaim appear in the courtrooms for this? Is it that people don’t care what the characters look like as long as the game is good? I don’t know, but I for one would like to see the whole race gaming unfairness thing sorted out a bit fairer.
If you have different views, whether they’re for or against, do tell, I feel like a good argument right about now!
Anyway - thanks for reading,
Namo.
Right, time to get up from this chair and see if my legs still work after 2 hours of not using them. CHHHRRRK. Nope.
Cruelty and unfairness because of race or colour still happens in the real world, but is always trying to be prevented. Fines, even jail sentences are dished out to ‘racist’ offenders. You would never have thought that unfairness because of your religion would occur in the gaming world, would you? Well the truth is is that it does.
Although racism doesn’t happen 100% wise in the gaming world, there is still unfairness that goes on. It is very easy to spot actually, and I would have thought this topic had been brought up before. It’s mainly based in the characters. Try and think of one main character that isn’t white (so that leaves Indian, African, and Asian). There’s none is there – Zelda, Link, Mario, Peach, and Lara, all prime examples, are white. So therefore if there had to be one main character in a new game my money would go on him/her being white.
Although main characters are white, there may be some exceptions in ‘side kick’ characters like those in beat ‘em ups or as bystanders, because if there wasn’t, I’m sure videogame producers would be taken to court to withgo racism charges, like Tekken, ISS or WWF Smackdown for example. Even though that has been said, there is still a larger amount of white ‘side kick’ characters than black.
What also baffles me is the fact that the majority of games developers are Japanese, like Nintendo. So why don’t they make their (main) characters Japanese? Take Link from Zelda, he looks American/British, yet Japanese developers – Nintendo, made the game. White might be thought of as the ‘neutral’ race, which is also wrong, but even so, this doesn’t give an exception to make everyone white really, does it? No.
I’m not saying that from now on everyone created for a game should be either fictional (like Crashy B), or a colour other than white, black, because quite frankly, I think this would be boring. What I am suggesting, however, is that the colours should be more balanced, and games should include perhaps more coloured characters. I’d prefer to be a hard, black man, than a white one, because I personally think they look better. If things like this happened in real life, and someone was left out of a game like football, because of his race/colour, not only would that person feel really unhappy, but the people behind the game would be due for a scrape with the law. So why don’t the likes of Nintendo, Rare, or Acclaim appear in the courtrooms for this? Is it that people don’t care what the characters look like as long as the game is good? I don’t know, but I for one would like to see the whole race gaming unfairness thing sorted out a bit fairer.
If you have different views, whether they’re for or against, do tell, I feel like a good argument right about now!
Anyway - thanks for reading,
Namo.
Right, time to get up from this chair and see if my legs still work after 2 hours of not using them. CHHHRRRK. Nope.
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I thought Sonic was blue?
Anyhow, my view on this is that developers just want to make games that sell, so they code in white leads for the 'human' characters, because the majority of the gaming market is caucasian, presumably?
I don't think it would matter to me whether my lead character is black/white/yellow/red/orange, as long as it fits in with the gameplay it's ok either way.
Political correctness in the gaming industry has never been something that has been properly addressed, and I hope it remains that way. If games were to be politically correct, then the following would vanish overnight:
Games where you shoot people
Games where you break the speed limit
Games involving pure fantasy
Games where you hit people
Games involving war
Sega Bass Fishing
Games where you spray your colours on walls
and the following games would never get to appear
Bloody Tails: Foxhunting Sim
Moby Dick: Whale hunting Adventure
Jesus Wept: RPG where your main character has to convert as many Jews as possible to Christianity before the time runs out
Break Neck: Pit Bull Bite 'em up
NYPD Black and Blue: Take people into custody and get points for however many injuries you can inflict
The fact that we currently have Unreal Tournament and not a Foxhunting Sim, indicates to me that the gaming industry finds war is acceptable, but hurting furry animals isn't. And we can have Soul Calibur/Mortal Kombat/Tekken, but we can't have them with policemen as lead characters in them.
But because the gaming industry deals in fun and fantasy, there's NO reason why they haven't brought out games like this in the past, except for the fact that the huge majority of gaming community would find it utterly distasteful and probably wouldn't buy it.
Because the gaming industry's main source of income is the 25 and under age group, with a huge chunk of that being made up of 8-16 year olds, they do in some way self-regulate their games' content, because that latter group are very impressionable and so developers tend to steer clear of the politically incorrect games that they are quite capable of making. Because, to be honest, it would harm their sales in the long run.
Anyhow, my view on this is that developers just want to make games that sell, so they code in white leads for the 'human' characters, because the majority of the gaming market is caucasian, presumably?
I don't think it would matter to me whether my lead character is black/white/yellow/red/orange, as long as it fits in with the gameplay it's ok either way.
Political correctness in the gaming industry has never been something that has been properly addressed, and I hope it remains that way. If games were to be politically correct, then the following would vanish overnight:
Games where you shoot people
Games where you break the speed limit
Games involving pure fantasy
Games where you hit people
Games involving war
Sega Bass Fishing
Games where you spray your colours on walls
and the following games would never get to appear
Bloody Tails: Foxhunting Sim
Moby Dick: Whale hunting Adventure
Jesus Wept: RPG where your main character has to convert as many Jews as possible to Christianity before the time runs out
Break Neck: Pit Bull Bite 'em up
NYPD Black and Blue: Take people into custody and get points for however many injuries you can inflict
The fact that we currently have Unreal Tournament and not a Foxhunting Sim, indicates to me that the gaming industry finds war is acceptable, but hurting furry animals isn't. And we can have Soul Calibur/Mortal Kombat/Tekken, but we can't have them with policemen as lead characters in them.
But because the gaming industry deals in fun and fantasy, there's NO reason why they haven't brought out games like this in the past, except for the fact that the huge majority of gaming community would find it utterly distasteful and probably wouldn't buy it.
Because the gaming industry's main source of income is the 25 and under age group, with a huge chunk of that being made up of 8-16 year olds, they do in some way self-regulate their games' content, because that latter group are very impressionable and so developers tend to steer clear of the politically incorrect games that they are quite capable of making. Because, to be honest, it would harm their sales in the long run.
Well, here's my views.
Most of Britain is not racist but more inclined to a certain race. For example, you're describing your new girlfriend to someone. If she's white, you just go straight into the description of other features such as hair colour, height, figure and ...... other obvious attributes. If she's black however, the first thing you say is "Well, she's black, nice hair........" you see? But just because you don't have to say she's white does that make you racist? No. The fact is in Britain, America and Japan, whites are the racial majority so that's the main subject. For example, when speaking you wouldn't say "My girlfriend has nice hair, my girlfriend has brown eyes......", you'd just say "She has nice hair, brown eyes, perfect body......." etc. You don't need to define a majority.
On the subject of why whites are more featured in games, well, there is a PS2 game with a black lead but I can't remember what it is. It's probably because in America the racial majority is IC1 so maybe developers code IC1 leads because they are afraid racist Americans (there are more than you'd expect) would buy the game. On the other hand, look at Dead or Alive. In this series almost all the characters are Japanese and there is also one black character. Arguably, one black (African) character is not enough but in a Japanese title with Japanese characters it begs the question "Why IS there a black character in there?". Well, the answer is, as you say, it's more politically correct to have a black person in but you should also ask "Why WOULD there be a black person in?". After all it's a Japanese title with a very Japanese theme.
Maybe the simple answer is we just don't know and it's all a set of coincidences. I think that in this, the 21st century we will be increasing to see more and more black people in games. In answer to your question "Why are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mario, Luigi, Princess, Toad, Link, Zelda etc. all white?", well, here's a suggestion. Racial "equality" has only been attained very recently, I think it was the 80s. maybe developers were just getting their heads round equality at the time and had already started the franchises.
One last thing, it's a well-known fact that minority groups are far more racist than whites.
Most of Britain is not racist but more inclined to a certain race. For example, you're describing your new girlfriend to someone. If she's white, you just go straight into the description of other features such as hair colour, height, figure and ...... other obvious attributes. If she's black however, the first thing you say is "Well, she's black, nice hair........" you see? But just because you don't have to say she's white does that make you racist? No. The fact is in Britain, America and Japan, whites are the racial majority so that's the main subject. For example, when speaking you wouldn't say "My girlfriend has nice hair, my girlfriend has brown eyes......", you'd just say "She has nice hair, brown eyes, perfect body......." etc. You don't need to define a majority.
On the subject of why whites are more featured in games, well, there is a PS2 game with a black lead but I can't remember what it is. It's probably because in America the racial majority is IC1 so maybe developers code IC1 leads because they are afraid racist Americans (there are more than you'd expect) would buy the game. On the other hand, look at Dead or Alive. In this series almost all the characters are Japanese and there is also one black character. Arguably, one black (African) character is not enough but in a Japanese title with Japanese characters it begs the question "Why IS there a black character in there?". Well, the answer is, as you say, it's more politically correct to have a black person in but you should also ask "Why WOULD there be a black person in?". After all it's a Japanese title with a very Japanese theme.
Maybe the simple answer is we just don't know and it's all a set of coincidences. I think that in this, the 21st century we will be increasing to see more and more black people in games. In answer to your question "Why are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mario, Luigi, Princess, Toad, Link, Zelda etc. all white?", well, here's a suggestion. Racial "equality" has only been attained very recently, I think it was the 80s. maybe developers were just getting their heads round equality at the time and had already started the franchises.
One last thing, it's a well-known fact that minority groups are far more racist than whites.
It seems to be the age old marketing arguement of 'we create games for the mass market based on the people who are going to be buying them' This, at least in the UK and America, is not necessarily going to be simply a white male audience, although I would imagine that this makes up slightly more than 50% of the market. The arguement goes (and I'm not agreeing with it for a minute, just stating it) that games creators want their audience to be able to connect to their characters. Why this means the character has to have a white face I don't know.
There are a few games characters that aren't white males. Although there are the 'token' female white characters, there are also a few male black characters (shadowman is one that springs to mind) but obviously not as many as there could be. The Japanese have always written for a western market in their games, but in doing so, they seem to have the idea that it's a mainly white population, which is wrong.
Is the idea of having more white characters than others wrong though? Well, in the long run you would hope that black, asian and other types of character appear more frequently in games, as there is the need for representation of real life in most games, but it was always going to be slow going.
What surprises me more is the lack of black characters in European created games. I'm sure this will be rectified in the future, but again it seems slow coming. Perhaps writing to the companies with this suggestion is the best course of action? They may not notice or even be aware than there is a problem there in the first place, which is often the case.
There are a few games characters that aren't white males. Although there are the 'token' female white characters, there are also a few male black characters (shadowman is one that springs to mind) but obviously not as many as there could be. The Japanese have always written for a western market in their games, but in doing so, they seem to have the idea that it's a mainly white population, which is wrong.
Is the idea of having more white characters than others wrong though? Well, in the long run you would hope that black, asian and other types of character appear more frequently in games, as there is the need for representation of real life in most games, but it was always going to be slow going.
What surprises me more is the lack of black characters in European created games. I'm sure this will be rectified in the future, but again it seems slow coming. Perhaps writing to the companies with this suggestion is the best course of action? They may not notice or even be aware than there is a problem there in the first place, which is often the case.
Ö=ResŒvilfan=Ö wrote:
I don't think they'res
> anything wrong,racist or sexest in video games.
Yeah, but that depends on what kind of a character you are. Are you nice and friendly, or are you a bully? By saying that there is nothing wrong, racist or sexist just shows that you don't care about these subjects.
I don't think they'res
> anything wrong,racist or sexest in video games.
Yeah, but that depends on what kind of a character you are. Are you nice and friendly, or are you a bully? By saying that there is nothing wrong, racist or sexist just shows that you don't care about these subjects.
that's not true, In tekken they aren't all white. they're japanese,American,African,english etc and someone was on here a while ago saying women aren't right in games like lara or sommin like that well Jun,michelle,claire redfield,Jill valentine and that copper from silent hill seem to be doin just fine
but what are we supposed to do make a game divided equally into types of people like men,women,hippies,goths,punks,
I don't think they'res anything wrong,racist or sexest in video games.
but what are we supposed to do make a game divided equally into types of people like men,women,hippies,goths,punks,
I don't think they'res anything wrong,racist or sexest in video games.
Namostar wrote:
Racism would be if there was a 'beat the black' mode in a game where what you do is just beat the hell out of a defencless black person.
**********
I'll be honest with you and say that made me laugh. But does this mean i'm racist? No... I'm not. But you see how something so simple COULD trigger a racial debate and take the videogames industry to pieces.
I don't like racism, and it shouldn't be around, but in a world where children can have sex at 16, and 10 year olds are taught about sex in school, would you expect any less?
Game
Racism would be if there was a 'beat the black' mode in a game where what you do is just beat the hell out of a defencless black person.
**********
I'll be honest with you and say that made me laugh. But does this mean i'm racist? No... I'm not. But you see how something so simple COULD trigger a racial debate and take the videogames industry to pieces.
I don't like racism, and it shouldn't be around, but in a world where children can have sex at 16, and 10 year olds are taught about sex in school, would you expect any less?
Game
Well it's not really racism, just unfairness. Racism would be if there was a 'beat the black' mode (sorry if that may sound offensive) in a game where what you do is just beat the hell out of a defencless black person. That would be racism. It just unfair that people other than whites are not as included as much as whites.
Oh, and Joanna would be a posh white woman, because she was made by Rare, an English videogames producer.
And I'll be careful not to through the word 'racism' around to much, because it could mean things that weren't intended.
Oh, and Joanna would be a posh white woman, because she was made by Rare, an English videogames producer.
And I'll be careful not to through the word 'racism' around to much, because it could mean things that weren't intended.
WARNING: SOME OF THE FOLLOWING POST MAY OFFEND SOME PEOPLE. IF YOU HAVE ANY ACRIMONY TOWARDS THIS POST, TELL THE WEBMASTER. I AM NOT RASCIST JUST SHARING A VIEW
*********
I don't think games are racist, but I also don't think they're racically equal.
You don't see games characters call each other 'p***s', 'nigers' or 'limeys' although, as Namo said, coloured characters, let alone lead characters, are few and far between.
I think the reason it hasn't been addressed is because it doesn't effect what games are supposed to do. Whether the lead character be white, black, asian or even hispanic, gameplay isn't effected and the degree of fun stays the same.
I don't think it is a problem and it certainly isn't a threat to the industry...
Gaming Racist? - NO
Racial Equality in Gaming? - NO
You could look at it in 1000 different ways. From my point of view, there isn't anything wrong with the industry. But that is JUST an opinion and NOTHING more.
GAME
*********
I don't think games are racist, but I also don't think they're racically equal.
You don't see games characters call each other 'p***s', 'nigers' or 'limeys' although, as Namo said, coloured characters, let alone lead characters, are few and far between.
I think the reason it hasn't been addressed is because it doesn't effect what games are supposed to do. Whether the lead character be white, black, asian or even hispanic, gameplay isn't effected and the degree of fun stays the same.
I don't think it is a problem and it certainly isn't a threat to the industry...
Gaming Racist? - NO
Racial Equality in Gaming? - NO
You could look at it in 1000 different ways. From my point of view, there isn't anything wrong with the industry. But that is JUST an opinion and NOTHING more.
GAME
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