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A bit of dangerous thing to do is discuss Racism, my best and longest running friends are both racist who love to joke about the fact that there is a race of people who aren’t white. If you mock the acne problem one of them suffers he will respond, “It isn’t fair you pick on me because of my looks.” The irony in that statement is incredible and maybe one day I’ll point it out to him. Now naturally I don’t hate racists (considering these two happen to be my friends) but I’m far from racist, I see no problem with dating a black woman (in fact I have) and I see no problem if a black man/woman takes charge of the country. Colour doesn’t tell me if the guy walking down the street is going to mug me or not, just as the way a woman looks won’t tell me what sort of person she is.
Women in fact are enjoying (well should be) the decline in sexism that is slowly occurring throughout the world. This being a gaming forum will of course have me relate to games. Every Resident Evil title will have a main character featuring both genders, Pokémon now comes equipped with both sexes and characters such as Lara Croft, Joanna Dark and Samus Aran (the latter has been around a while) can all stand by Mario, James Bond and Indiana Jones as pioneering characters of the game industry. I still question some small sexist problems in games, Resident Evil was one of the first games to feature both genders as a main character but why is it Jill Valentine gets a gun to start with whilst Chris only has a knife? And why in the sequel does Clare have the pleasure of the best weapon (Rocket Launcher) whilst Leon has to deal with pitiful items? So there is still many sexist issues to be addressed but with the dawn of this new generation comes a new respect for the female gamer, and the role models they have. So whilst the ladies are having their problems addressed with there is another overlooked part of gaming, racism. I now set you all a task to find for me a black action game character that is from the imagination of the designer and not copied from a film (a.k.a Blade).
Difficult isn’t it? Mike Le roi (Shadowman - Acclaim) is the best I could think of, who is in fact taken from a comic book. More to the point though he is also a troubled man who had his entire family killed because he couldn’t pay of a debt from a gang of thugs. Sounds like the perfect role model the gaming industry has created for black people doesn’t it (Note: sarcasm doesn’t work in text)? What other games do black people appear in then? Why of course black people appear in beat ‘em ups all the time, but here we have again a major problem, why is it the majority of dark coloured characters appear in fighting games? Is it because the majority of black people run around beating people up? Ok I’ll quit these rhetorical questions for the moment. The industry whether they’re aware of it or not depicts the black man as either a man with a disturbed and troubled past or a guy who’ll beat you up at the nearest opportunity. Are game developers aware how many children play games? And how they are affecting them? Whilst playing Resident Evil I soon discovered the token “black guy” who occasionally appears in the games gets killed every time. Yet why is it the black characters are simple “token” characters to add to the body count? Why aren’t they the main characters?
Could films have a direct influence over this? I watched Jurassic Park 3 the other day for the first time and I knew it wouldn’t take long for the black pilot to be eaten, and I wasn’t disappointed. Yet this happens frequently in films, the black guy is either bad or is good but dies relatively quickly. Nevertheless movies are slowly edging away from the racial prejudice they’re famed for, as more and more black men are becoming main characters in films. The use of “men” is an important one; it is as if coloured people will constantly live a less developed life than white ones. Whilst games and films have finally acknowledged white females as the heroine rather than the eye candy, black men have only just reached the same state. How long will it be before Black Women take the leading role? Oh yes god forbid the idea of a leading character in a computer game being both female AND black that is surly ridiculous? And as stupid as my statement maybe you’ll find it even harder to think of a black female character in a computer game PERIOD yet alone as a main character. The only one that springs to mind is Jacqueline from the WWF (or WWE) games.
No matter how much I hope I just can’t see the next resident to the mushroom kingdom to be anything but a green Dinosaur or a white male. A game world like Hyrule (The legend of Zelda) is filled with many different species including water people and giant talking rocks, yet throughout the entire adventure you won’t find one black man, not even in the desert worlds. So take note Capcom, if you’re looking for a new hero for Resident Evil 4 (5) try and make it female and black, to set a precedent for millions of others and make the future a better place.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
Women in fact are enjoying (well should be) the decline in sexism that is slowly occurring throughout the world. This being a gaming forum will of course have me relate to games. Every Resident Evil title will have a main character featuring both genders, Pokémon now comes equipped with both sexes and characters such as Lara Croft, Joanna Dark and Samus Aran (the latter has been around a while) can all stand by Mario, James Bond and Indiana Jones as pioneering characters of the game industry. I still question some small sexist problems in games, Resident Evil was one of the first games to feature both genders as a main character but why is it Jill Valentine gets a gun to start with whilst Chris only has a knife? And why in the sequel does Clare have the pleasure of the best weapon (Rocket Launcher) whilst Leon has to deal with pitiful items? So there is still many sexist issues to be addressed but with the dawn of this new generation comes a new respect for the female gamer, and the role models they have. So whilst the ladies are having their problems addressed with there is another overlooked part of gaming, racism. I now set you all a task to find for me a black action game character that is from the imagination of the designer and not copied from a film (a.k.a Blade).
Difficult isn’t it? Mike Le roi (Shadowman - Acclaim) is the best I could think of, who is in fact taken from a comic book. More to the point though he is also a troubled man who had his entire family killed because he couldn’t pay of a debt from a gang of thugs. Sounds like the perfect role model the gaming industry has created for black people doesn’t it (Note: sarcasm doesn’t work in text)? What other games do black people appear in then? Why of course black people appear in beat ‘em ups all the time, but here we have again a major problem, why is it the majority of dark coloured characters appear in fighting games? Is it because the majority of black people run around beating people up? Ok I’ll quit these rhetorical questions for the moment. The industry whether they’re aware of it or not depicts the black man as either a man with a disturbed and troubled past or a guy who’ll beat you up at the nearest opportunity. Are game developers aware how many children play games? And how they are affecting them? Whilst playing Resident Evil I soon discovered the token “black guy” who occasionally appears in the games gets killed every time. Yet why is it the black characters are simple “token” characters to add to the body count? Why aren’t they the main characters?
Could films have a direct influence over this? I watched Jurassic Park 3 the other day for the first time and I knew it wouldn’t take long for the black pilot to be eaten, and I wasn’t disappointed. Yet this happens frequently in films, the black guy is either bad or is good but dies relatively quickly. Nevertheless movies are slowly edging away from the racial prejudice they’re famed for, as more and more black men are becoming main characters in films. The use of “men” is an important one; it is as if coloured people will constantly live a less developed life than white ones. Whilst games and films have finally acknowledged white females as the heroine rather than the eye candy, black men have only just reached the same state. How long will it be before Black Women take the leading role? Oh yes god forbid the idea of a leading character in a computer game being both female AND black that is surly ridiculous? And as stupid as my statement maybe you’ll find it even harder to think of a black female character in a computer game PERIOD yet alone as a main character. The only one that springs to mind is Jacqueline from the WWF (or WWE) games.
No matter how much I hope I just can’t see the next resident to the mushroom kingdom to be anything but a green Dinosaur or a white male. A game world like Hyrule (The legend of Zelda) is filled with many different species including water people and giant talking rocks, yet throughout the entire adventure you won’t find one black man, not even in the desert worlds. So take note Capcom, if you’re looking for a new hero for Resident Evil 4 (5) try and make it female and black, to set a precedent for millions of others and make the future a better place.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
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I agree totally with everything you said, although i think that in some games a black hero would have been the worst choice.
Take GTA3 for example. Already abused by some people (e.g. the press) because it supposedly encourages crime, imagine the reaction it would have got if the main character was black! It probably would have been banned, and the press would have had a field day, spouting all sorts of crap about video games promoting violence, crime, racism and anything else that's wrong with today's society.
Oh, and i can remember a black main character in a video game - Mr. Game And Watch. ;-)
Take GTA3 for example. Already abused by some people (e.g. the press) because it supposedly encourages crime, imagine the reaction it would have got if the main character was black! It probably would have been banned, and the press would have had a field day, spouting all sorts of crap about video games promoting violence, crime, racism and anything else that's wrong with today's society.
Oh, and i can remember a black main character in a video game - Mr. Game And Watch. ;-)
Well, I still don't think Kojima was being rasict by doing this because most of the *MAIN* characters were every race except from asian.
I'm still sticking with my opinion that game characters are created to suit the game the best they can, and with this creation developers are not being racist! I stress...they are NOT!
Developers create a game with the pure intent of delivering a good experience for gamers and obviously to sell well, not for their own racial beliefs/opinions!
I rest my case.
I'm still sticking with my opinion that game characters are created to suit the game the best they can, and with this creation developers are not being racist! I stress...they are NOT!
Developers create a game with the pure intent of delivering a good experience for gamers and obviously to sell well, not for their own racial beliefs/opinions!
I rest my case.
Why do I always have to be caught out and corrected!
:( *bows head in shame*
:( *bows head in shame*
PoSh KiD wrote:
> Did you see Hideo Kojima put in ANY asian character in MGS2...NO!
Actually... yes!
The enemy soldiers, though they wear balaclavas, feature many Asian characters... check the name tags!
:-)
> Did you see Hideo Kojima put in ANY asian character in MGS2...NO!
Actually... yes!
The enemy soldiers, though they wear balaclavas, feature many Asian characters... check the name tags!
:-)
Racism Shmasism. It's all a load of rubbish!
You've really got to go back into history; to when blacks were slaves and whites were free to understand what Wookie was on about with the lawsuit thing. Time has gone by and black people have found their rights, but there still seems to be a little 'thing' separating races when they go to a different country.
But still, it's all a part of life now and nobody could care less. I still have a feeling that when developers think of a game character for their game, they think of the type that would suit the game best. Did you see Hideo Kojima put in ANY asian character in MGS2...NO! This is evidence enough that racism does not exist in games.
You've really got to go back into history; to when blacks were slaves and whites were free to understand what Wookie was on about with the lawsuit thing. Time has gone by and black people have found their rights, but there still seems to be a little 'thing' separating races when they go to a different country.
But still, it's all a part of life now and nobody could care less. I still have a feeling that when developers think of a game character for their game, they think of the type that would suit the game best. Did you see Hideo Kojima put in ANY asian character in MGS2...NO! This is evidence enough that racism does not exist in games.
True, but I don't believe it's intentional. It's a similar issue with the sex of lead characters - the majority are male.
I think it's all down to who's coding the game. We know that most game developers are male, and most gamers are male too - hence most lead characters are male. The most obvious exception to this rule is Lara Croft. Similarly, most characters in Japanese games have an oriental or anime look to them - obvious exception being Mario.
I don't know how many black game developers there are, but I don't recall seeing many in the photos I've seen of various development teams.
I agree that there is a lack of non-white/oriental 'heroes' in games, but I couldn't label it as racism. It's probably not even something that developers think about when they design a game. Maybe they should, but I don't believe the fact that they don't is down to racism.
I think it's all down to who's coding the game. We know that most game developers are male, and most gamers are male too - hence most lead characters are male. The most obvious exception to this rule is Lara Croft. Similarly, most characters in Japanese games have an oriental or anime look to them - obvious exception being Mario.
I don't know how many black game developers there are, but I don't recall seeing many in the photos I've seen of various development teams.
I agree that there is a lack of non-white/oriental 'heroes' in games, but I couldn't label it as racism. It's probably not even something that developers think about when they design a game. Maybe they should, but I don't believe the fact that they don't is down to racism.
Good point wookiee. Nevertheless I find the absence of the black guy as the "hero" has a damaging effect on society and the stereotype that all blacks are criminals! This is the game industry not Eastenders, a bit of fair representation would be nice.
Not really related to games, but...
We saw some old family friends earlier this week who we hadn't seen for a while. They still live in London, and told us a very short story which I found quite astounding.
The wife of this couple has a problem with her shoulder, and went to the doctor - who happens to be black.
When she walked in, he said to her, "Hello, Mrs. _____ - I must say it's nice to see a white face for a change."
Reverse that situation, and I guarantee you'd have an instant lawsuit on your hands.
We saw some old family friends earlier this week who we hadn't seen for a while. They still live in London, and told us a very short story which I found quite astounding.
The wife of this couple has a problem with her shoulder, and went to the doctor - who happens to be black.
When she walked in, he said to her, "Hello, Mrs. _____ - I must say it's nice to see a white face for a change."
Reverse that situation, and I guarantee you'd have an instant lawsuit on your hands.
Mate? or their name?
wen you meet a coloured person, apart from there name how do you address them?, i feel uncomfortable callin them a negro
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