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Why is is that all the heros in games are usually big, muscular white blokes with unlimited supplies of ammo?
I have yet to play a "realistic" game where a person of minority ethnic origin is the main character. I'm not talking Mario jumping about on platforms, I'm talking those real-life type games, where you take on a role of a real person and stick to it.
There are plenty of Japanese or American characters, a few British (Lara Croft maybe), but what about African? Indian? Aboriginal? Surely we will open up new playing experiences if we start to include the character and culture of these races in our games?
I'm not saying developers are being deliberately racist, not at all, it's just playing the same stereotypes can be boring, uninspiring, and dull to be honest.
Discuss...
I have yet to play a "realistic" game where a person of minority ethnic origin is the main character. I'm not talking Mario jumping about on platforms, I'm talking those real-life type games, where you take on a role of a real person and stick to it.
There are plenty of Japanese or American characters, a few British (Lara Croft maybe), but what about African? Indian? Aboriginal? Surely we will open up new playing experiences if we start to include the character and culture of these races in our games?
I'm not saying developers are being deliberately racist, not at all, it's just playing the same stereotypes can be boring, uninspiring, and dull to be honest.
Discuss...
Page:
You can't win. You have a black guy people would complain.
Racism as well as a whole bunch of 'isms' that fall under the 'politically correct' way of thinking are fine.
But what do they have to do with gaming?
Shooting people is wrong, swearing is wrong, racism is wrong, sexism is wrong, but if you think I'm going to play Duke Nukem with the lead character as an unemployed single parent from Calcutta who's best weapon is a rapid fire paintball gun and who shouts 'Sorry old bean' as she strafes her way through each level you've got another thing coming.
Gaming environments that AREN'T meant to reflect the real world shouldn't have society's politics enforced on them.
Gaming environments that ARE meant to reflect the real world should.
But what do they have to do with gaming?
Shooting people is wrong, swearing is wrong, racism is wrong, sexism is wrong, but if you think I'm going to play Duke Nukem with the lead character as an unemployed single parent from Calcutta who's best weapon is a rapid fire paintball gun and who shouts 'Sorry old bean' as she strafes her way through each level you've got another thing coming.
Gaming environments that AREN'T meant to reflect the real world shouldn't have society's politics enforced on them.
Gaming environments that ARE meant to reflect the real world should.
WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> Why is Spyro purple? What about the minority of yellow
> dragons with purple spots?
I did say realistic games n'est pas?
> I'm sure no developer has sat down and deliberately
> thought "Ooh, no - we can't have a black man as
> our central character!"
I also said I'm sure it wasn't like that...
> ONI for PS2 has an oriental female lead character,
> Shadowman has a black male lead, and there's also
> another PS2 game which features a black female cop as
> the lead... though the name of the game escapes me at
> the moment.
Great, three games out of a back catalogue of how many?
> It is in my view a percieved racism that simply
> doesn't exist.
I'm not saying this is deliberate, but wouldn't it be nice if people could open up their minds to new cultures and religions being portrayed in games?
You ay you don't care, yet you obviously do because you list 3 games which contain such characters, so you must have taken notice...
I'm not say "lets be PC", I'm saying, lets broaden the spectrum of gaming content. Lets include some new stuff that hasn't been done before, not new 3d grpahics, or AI, or sound, but culture, religion, stuff like that...
> Why is Spyro purple? What about the minority of yellow
> dragons with purple spots?
I did say realistic games n'est pas?
> I'm sure no developer has sat down and deliberately
> thought "Ooh, no - we can't have a black man as
> our central character!"
I also said I'm sure it wasn't like that...
> ONI for PS2 has an oriental female lead character,
> Shadowman has a black male lead, and there's also
> another PS2 game which features a black female cop as
> the lead... though the name of the game escapes me at
> the moment.
Great, three games out of a back catalogue of how many?
> It is in my view a percieved racism that simply
> doesn't exist.
I'm not saying this is deliberate, but wouldn't it be nice if people could open up their minds to new cultures and religions being portrayed in games?
You ay you don't care, yet you obviously do because you list 3 games which contain such characters, so you must have taken notice...
I'm not say "lets be PC", I'm saying, lets broaden the spectrum of gaming content. Lets include some new stuff that hasn't been done before, not new 3d grpahics, or AI, or sound, but culture, religion, stuff like that...
Why is Spyro purple? What about the minority of yellow dragons with purple spots?
Let's not start bringing this PC crap into the gaming arena, please!
The colour and gender of a game's central character has never even entered my mind - it is what it is (male/female/black/white/human/alien/cyborg/dragon), and I just get on and play the game.
And that, in my opinion, is as it should be. No offence to the original poster, but if this sort of madness starts getting into games as it has in everything else, then it too will be ruined.
"You can't release this game!"
"Why not?"
"It has no black/white/oriental/hispanic people in it!"
I'm sure no developer has sat down and deliberately thought "Ooh, no - we can't have a black man as our central character!"
ONI for PS2 has an oriental female lead character, Shadowman has a black male lead, and there's also another PS2 game which features a black female cop as the lead... though the name of the game escapes me at the moment.
It is in my view a percieved racism that simply doesn't exist.
Let's not start bringing this PC crap into the gaming arena, please!
The colour and gender of a game's central character has never even entered my mind - it is what it is (male/female/black/white/human/alien/cyborg/dragon), and I just get on and play the game.
And that, in my opinion, is as it should be. No offence to the original poster, but if this sort of madness starts getting into games as it has in everything else, then it too will be ruined.
"You can't release this game!"
"Why not?"
"It has no black/white/oriental/hispanic people in it!"
I'm sure no developer has sat down and deliberately thought "Ooh, no - we can't have a black man as our central character!"
ONI for PS2 has an oriental female lead character, Shadowman has a black male lead, and there's also another PS2 game which features a black female cop as the lead... though the name of the game escapes me at the moment.
It is in my view a percieved racism that simply doesn't exist.
It's a good point, but one that I feel has a simple answer.
How many aboriginals do you know that play games?
See?
Games characters are designed to appeal to the target audience, or relate to the actual developers. So that's why Japanese games (FF series etc) has Japanese style characters, and a game like Duke Nukem has a big cigar smoking, quip telling white bloke as the main character.
Not being funny, but how many PS2's do you think have been sold in India, or Africa or any of the other places you mentioned?
Not many, I'll bet.
How many aboriginals do you know that play games?
See?
Games characters are designed to appeal to the target audience, or relate to the actual developers. So that's why Japanese games (FF series etc) has Japanese style characters, and a game like Duke Nukem has a big cigar smoking, quip telling white bloke as the main character.
Not being funny, but how many PS2's do you think have been sold in India, or Africa or any of the other places you mentioned?
Not many, I'll bet.
Why is is that all the heros in games are usually big, muscular white blokes with unlimited supplies of ammo?
I have yet to play a "realistic" game where a person of minority ethnic origin is the main character. I'm not talking Mario jumping about on platforms, I'm talking those real-life type games, where you take on a role of a real person and stick to it.
There are plenty of Japanese or American characters, a few British (Lara Croft maybe), but what about African? Indian? Aboriginal? Surely we will open up new playing experiences if we start to include the character and culture of these races in our games?
I'm not saying developers are being deliberately racist, not at all, it's just playing the same stereotypes can be boring, uninspiring, and dull to be honest.
Discuss...
I have yet to play a "realistic" game where a person of minority ethnic origin is the main character. I'm not talking Mario jumping about on platforms, I'm talking those real-life type games, where you take on a role of a real person and stick to it.
There are plenty of Japanese or American characters, a few British (Lara Croft maybe), but what about African? Indian? Aboriginal? Surely we will open up new playing experiences if we start to include the character and culture of these races in our games?
I'm not saying developers are being deliberately racist, not at all, it's just playing the same stereotypes can be boring, uninspiring, and dull to be honest.
Discuss...
Page: