Could This Be Offensive ?

[Dreddz]

That there are hardly any Black Main characters. There are alot of supporting characters that are black, but there are hardly any Black main characters. I can only name one game that has a Black Main character, Shadowman.
There are some others, but they are because there games have been made from movies. I dont think these should count.

Opinions ?

[Cz]

The general perception (incorrect though it may be) is that gamers are young, white and male. The way developers see it, white guys want to play as white guys, because game developers think their audience are morons. This is the same logic that goes into the creation of female characters with skimpy outfits and improbably large breasts. It's something that will hopefully change over time, but for the moment we're stuck with it.

[crono_logical]

I prefer playing RPGs with a lead female character :p

[White Raven]

GTA: San Andreas is another game with a black main character, but it's injust to say that video games are racist to just the blacks. Nearly any other minority in North America and Japan are hardly found at all in games, let alone as side characters.

[edczxcvbnm]

I never noticed...but knowing that the black man is getting the video game "shaft", it has put my heart at ease. That or insert you own racist remark :D

I don't really care. Most of the games I play are japanese anyways and thus will probably NEVER feature a black main character.

[~SapphireStar~]

I remember Shadowman, he was awesome. And I asked the same question afew weeks ago to my boyfriends mates (all work in a computer game shop) to see what they thought. They couldnt care less either, they said I might as well complain about the token black guy in movies.

[KentaRawr!]

Personally, I think it's just because of the "difference" between white and black people. But it's all in the mind. I wouldn't say it is intentional that black people do not appear in video games often, but rather it is because of how we percieve things. There is some sort of "difference" in our minds between white and black people. I mean, when you imagine a black person, you probably don't imagine them acting and/or talking the same way you do (Assuming you are white). Unless you actually try.

I don't think about it much though. I don't think it's intentional or meant to be offensive. Rather it's just how we think.

[Shiny]

GTA: San Andreas is another game with a black main character, but it's injust to say that video games are racist to just the blacks. Nearly any other minority in North America and Japan are hardly found at all in games, let alone as side characters.
True. Almost any game that has a black lead, or any other minority as the lead is usually some stupid urban crime game (i.e. the whole Grand Theft Auto Series is racist). Personally I think it's time for American game developers to start portraying minorities in a better light, because the country and gamers are extremely diverse these days.

EDIT:This is usually always intentionally, because there is always people who will believe the dumb racial sterotypes.

[Erdrick Holmes]

The funny thing is, all of the games i can think of with black guys as heroes haven't been very good.

[leon123]

who cares what race they are! they are both human!

[Shiny]

So if we're all human why can't games have all kinds of humans?

[TheAbominatrix]

GTA depicts people of all races being heavy criminals... isnt San Andreas the only one with a black lead? Wasnt um... the one before, whatever its called, lead by an Italian?

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the reason stems to Japan... I mean, look at their anime. Pretty much all their forms of media have heavily Asian characters or heavily white characters, with very little in between. Not out of racist recents I wouldnt think, but just because there simply arent a lot of other races in Japan.

[Raistlin]

I think most of it just stems from, as Ashley said, that there aren't a lot of other races in Japan. I'm white. If I made up a person in my head, the default skin color would be white, simply because that's what I am. Anything else would take conscious thought. This does not make me racist, but simply that my mind perceives myself as the norm or the default.

In the US, it's probably because the target audience being perceived as 15-25-year-old white males. But in Japan, I think it's just the status quo.

[Shiny]

Yeah, but this person is not just talking about Japan I believe they were talking about games in general (all over the world). And yeah the other one was with an Italian which was pretty sterotypical against them and Asians. And in San Andreas the game is not only mocking blacks, but Mexicans as well. Let's just face it, the gaming industry hates minorities.

[edczxcvbnm]

So if we're all human why can't games have all kinds of humans?

They do.

[TheAbominatrix]

Yeah, but this person is not just talking about Japan I believe they were talking about games in general (all over the world). And yeah the other one was with an Italian which was pretty sterotypical against them and Asians. And in San Andreas the game is not only mocking blacks, but Mexicans as well. Let's just face it, the gaming industry hates minorities.

The point we're making is most games come from Japan, hence the reason why their games dont have people of other races.

As I said before, GTA games have people of all races in them and commiting violence, as well as people of all races being victims. Take from that what you will. If you're looking for racism, it can be found whether it's there or not.

[Shiny]

They do.
Haha, where? Because there is absoulutely no diversity in popular games that don't focus on urban crime.

[Lychon]

So if we're all human why can't games have all kinds of humans?

Games do have all kinds of humans, but they are by no means equally or even proportionally distributed. It's something which is affected by biased traditionalist customs which predominately favor caucasians for the lead roles in film and interactive entertainment. This does not necessarily signify racism against certain minorities, and in most cases it probably has nothing to do with it. As a good deal of history shows, traditions and beliefs are modified and refined with each successive generations so perhaps one day racism, bigotry, and bias towards race will be lessened to insignificant levels.

-LYCHON

[edczxcvbnm]

Haha, where? Because there is absoulutely no diversity in popular games that don't focus on urban crime.

I will just use Metal Gear Solid

They had a black woman, a Fat guy, old black dude, a vampire, chinese woman, russians, south african woman and more. I would say that one game series is pretty diverse.

Sports games also have a high level of black althletes in them :D

[Shiny]

I will just use Metal Gear Solid

They had a black woman, a Fat guy, old black dude, a vampire, chinese woman, russians, south african woman and more. I would say that one game series is pretty diverse.

Sports games also have a high level of black althletes in them :D
Yeah only sports games really. I'm talking about games that actually have a minority as a lead character and hero. Like Prince of Persia. There really isn't many... And I know y'all love the fat guys, but they don't count in their own racial group. :p

[edczxcvbnm]

But we didn't say anything about race in the case of what I said. Lets review...shall we :D

who cares what race they are! they are both human!

Then responded with

So if we're all human why can't games have all kinds of humans?

All kinds of humans is not race. It is fat, short, young, old, nationalities, and everything under the sun.

I played the semantics game on this one.

[Shiny]

Damn edczxcvbnm you is a tricky one.:mad: (Look at that grammar!)

[Big D]

Virtually every game I own has a significant character who's black. The only exceptions are various FF titles, aside from VII and VIII.

[Markus. D]

well, FF games arent really classed like that anyway, its more Oriental in appearance.

[Lionx]

I prefer non human or humanoid characters rather than human ones. So nyah!!! A better question is why are almost all main characters humans ;o Besides that we are all humans.

[DeathKnight]

I prefer playing RPGs with a lead female character :p

ditto! It just feels better, you tend to go back to it more and more...it happens a lot in games like SSX and rpgs and fighting games...YES...fighting games. That's why I love FFX-2 so much, you play as Yuna...second time in a FF you've been able to play as a female and it was great. Don't get me wrong I like tough-ass characters like Auron and Tidus and Squal and such but cute babes like the ones cl_out has on his sig kick butt.

[Madame Adequate]

True. Almost any game that has a black lead, or any other minority as the lead is usually some stupid urban crime game (i.e. the whole Grand Theft Auto Series is racist).

GTA I, II, III, and Vice City all had white leads. Only San Andreas has black people in lead roles, so in actuality it's probably racist against whites, unless there is in fact a 4:1 ratio of white:black criminals.

[DeathKnight]

Yeah only sports games really. I'm talking about games that actually have a minority as a lead character and hero. Like Prince of Persia. There really isn't many... And I know y'all love the fat guys, but they don't count in their own racial group. :p

Prince Of Persia is a GREAT series! It uses a character who's not causcasian and it uses him WELL! I love that game.

And God of War is another GREAT game! The guy who's Greek looks someone-what brownish skin (human form).

But I'd like to see more games use brown skinned characters and no they don't have to be stereotyped (personality-wise) in any way. There are more rpgs that could use a great brown skinned character.

And I'd like to say that when I say brown skinned character I am not JUST targeting african americans, I'm targeting all of those who are brown skinned*raises hand*which includes: Latinos/Hispanics, SouthEast Asians, group of arabs, Indians, and Africans. It's a LARGE group if you ask me.

[MecaKane]

In the original Command and Conquer the nod missions were in Africa and there was only one black guy ever! And we had to kill him! :eek:

And yah, it's been awhile since I played God of War but Kratos didn't exactly look like a white guy.

And GTA isn't racist, it would've been racist if every black npc was either in your gang or, along with every spainish npc, started shooting you on sight.

[Erdrick Holmes]

And GTA isn't racist, it would've been racist if every black npc was either in your gang or, along with every spainish npc, started shooting you on sight.

Lets do a little check-list on that, shall we.

GTA main character is a black guy- check
He does nothing in the game but commit crimes that can get people hurt, arrested, mained, or killed.- check
Last I heard almost every other black character in the game is just like him-Check
They had to reedit the game later on to make it 'Hatian Friendly' if memory serves (if I'm wrong let me know on this)- *pending check*
Bad game STARRING an ethnic stereotype- check

Anaylsis- Racist game

Umm, by the way, does anybody know if Master Chief from the Halo series is black or not? I haven't finished 'Halo Fall of Reach' but I heard under that Cyborg suit of armour he's a black guy.

[escobert]

Personally, I think it's just because of the "difference" between white and black people. But it's all in the mind. I wouldn't say it is intentional that black people do not appear in video games often, but rather it is because of how we percieve things. There is some sort of "difference" in our minds between white and black people. I mean, when you imagine a black person, you probably don't imagine them acting and/or talking the same way you do (Assuming you are white). Unless you actually try.

I don't think about it much though. I don't think it's intentional or meant to be offensive. Rather it's just how we think.


what?

[fantasyjunkie]

To be honest, I never paid any attention to the color of the main character. Carl Johnson is black(GTA San Andreas) but it didn't make any difference to me. I think most people just don't care either way. But as someone said in an earlier post, every character I've played in an RPG I have chosen a female character :D :D :D

[MecaKane]

Lets do a little check-list on that, shall we.

GTA main character is a black guy- check
Ok, you got that one right. I suppose they could've done the street gang theme with an cathloic white people, imagine how realistic that would've been!

He does nothing in the game but commit crimes that can get people hurt, arrested, mained, or killed.- check
Same with every other white main character in the series, they're games about criminals and crime. Has nothing to do with race.

Last I heard almost every other black character in the game is just like him-Check
Once again, it's about crime and criminals, every asian, white, black, polish, mexican, etc character is a criminal. Has nothing to do with race.

They had to reedit the game later on to make it 'Hatian Friendly' if memory serves (if I'm wrong let me know on this)- *pending check*
That was pussy-liberal bull/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif. And also in Vice City, see the Cuban gangs and Hatian gangs didn't get along so the Cubans wanted you to kill the Hatians who they were fighting. And on the screen as the mission statement it said "Kill the hatians." Has nothing to do with race, other than the fact that criminals don't like other criminals of a different race.


Bad game STARRING an ethnic stereotype- check
Bad game - no. Starring a stereotype? That's nothing new to any facet of entertainment. Ever hear of The Godfather? An Itailian who's in the mafia! Terrible, just terrible!

So you've got 1 out of 5 right.

[ljkkjlcm9]

uhm, can we also note that most games come from Japan.... how many black japanese people do you know?

THE JACKEL

[Madame Adequate]

GTA main character is a black guy- check

GTA 1 - You're a white guy. You go around commiting crimes, electrocuting people on train tracks, and commiting acts which could easily be considered terrorism for no motive other than personal gain.
GTA2 - You're a white guy. You go around commiting crimes, electrocuting people with some funky gun, and commiting acts which could easily be considered terrorism for no motive other than personal gain.
GTA3 - You're a white guy. You go around commiting crimes, killing people with a flamethrower, and commiting acts which could easily be considered terrorism for no motive other than revenge.
GTA Vice City - You're a white guy. You go around commiting crimes, cutting people up with katanas, and commiting acts which could easily be considered terrorism for survival at first, and then personal gain.
GTA San Andreas - You're a black guy. You go around commiting crimes, running them over with extremely large vehicles, and commiting acts which could easily be considered terrorism to keep your brother and gang safe and get revenge on whoever killed your mother.

Oh, look at that, GTA by far shows white people as the mindlessly violent ones and shows black people in, if anything, a sympathetic light. At no point I can think of in the first four are you being forced into action by your closest living relative being held prisoner.

[MecaKane]

Oh, look at that, GTA by far shows white people as the mindlessly violent ones and shows black people in, if anything, a sympathetic light. At no point I can think of in the first four are you being forced into action by your closest living relative being held prisoner.

Oh yah, that too. CJ had apparently gone straight when he was on the east coast! Only got into the gang /xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gifs to save his family for jesus sakes! :o

[dirkdirden]

becuase you have to follow the races steriotype.

and white people have less of a steriotype than any other race of people.

Mexicans have even fewer than blacks. When was the last time you played a mexican as the hero.. I can't think of any.

[Zante]

I dont find it offensive that the majority of characters are white. Honestly, I dont care what race the character in a game is, as long as the game is good.

[Shiny]

GTA I, II, III, and Vice City all had white leads. Only San Andreas has black people in lead roles, so in actuality it's probably racist against whites, unless there is in fact a 4:1 ratio of white:black criminals.
Yeah I know. That's why I said the whole series is racist. And uses extremely cliche sterotypes like Italian guidos in the mafiosa (sp?), black thugs, white rednecks, Chinese laundry mat workers(...no comment), dirty Mexicans, etc. The list goes on. The game is really freaking racist, but mostly towards Italians, blacks and Mexicans. However, that's a different story. All in all, I think the gaming industry is really young and still needs to develop which I think things will be better for gamers in the future. The gaming industry need time to improve, it's still not up to par with the movie industry when it comes to diversity.