Could This Be Offensive ?

[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

[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[img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]. 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 [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]s 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.