Could This Be Offensive ?
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 ?
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.
"The most important and recognize player in the history of the country."
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I were as great as Paulo Wanchope.
I prefer playing RPGs with a lead female character
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.
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
I don't really care. Most of the games I play are japanese anyways and thus will probably NEVER feature a black main character.
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.
I r repeating myself.
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.
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.Originally Posted by White Raven
EDIT:This is usually always intentionally, because there is always people who will believe the dumb racial sterotypes.
The funny thing is, all of the games i can think of with black guys as heroes haven't been very good.
who cares what race they are! they are both human!
So if we're all human why can't games have all kinds of humans?
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.
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.
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.
They do.
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