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Games As the Great Unifier
OGX writes "In this racially divided world, who or what can step up and bridge the gap among people? Oddly enough, the answer comes from pop videogame technology. The anonymity of online gaming has made personal characteristics secondary to a game skill set. Michelle Dalrymple explores how online gaming vaults the issue of race in this editorial at OGX." From the article: "The computer/video console acts as a filter, extracting out any issues of race and placing emphasis on how quickly one can respond by selecting the correct button. Let's take a look at how this plays out in the online gaming world. As with any MMOG - character selection is core to the game play, and while one may have a skin color choice, usually appearance is tied to some imaginary 'race,' an arbitrary figure generator pulled from fantasy and folklore. It gives the idea of race a whole new meaning. What do fellow gamers care what race you the player really are, as long as your elf ranger or human mage can complete the task?"
If this was really the case, why do I see so many racial slurs being thrown around in an average game of Counterstrike, not to mention the nearly ubiquitous use of "gay" as a pejorative.
I made the mistake of rolling an Night Elf Priest. I've had difficulties joining raiding guilds because I'm not a dwarf.
Don't tell me there's not racism in MMORPGs.
I had a Human Warrior in WoW named "Rick James" (after my favorite musician), and everyone kept calling me "bitch." :(
Execute? [Y/N] _
The increase in anonymity caused by the Internet, online gaming, and other technology is going to greatly hurt our great country. We are increasingly becoming so diverse that we having nothing in common, nothing that binds us. More and more people are less and less willing to sacrifice for our country. There are many cases where anonymity is a good thing, but there are also many downsides to it as well.
I can't stand the smell of Orcs.
Disclaimers:
I just fail to see the significance of this in regards to games online. I would venture to say it is a non issue because:
1) You know the person as they present themselves to you online and
2) It does not matter since you are judging by skill, not race or anything trival like that
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
Honestly, how can anyone say that online games unite people?
Play any game online and you are bound to be called a queer, faggot, nigger, spick, chineese farmer, etc. by someone called HitlerNazi69.
Are you sure? I can't tell you how many Half-Life 2 VS Doom 3 arguements I've heard.
That's odd... from my experience there's MORE racial slurs and degredation in online games than elsewhere in society.
There also seem to be a disproportionate amount of schoolgirls...
In this racially divided world,
Which world is the submitter in, exactly? The one I'm in seems fine.
It's really hard to read and process an article like this when you disagree with the very first phrase in the very first sentence...
Comment of the year
need to be bigger than they are...they want to be this movement that somehow changes the world. Hint, it just isnt gonna happen. Gaming is not some noble endeavor that is unlike anything else that has ever happened. it is pure enjoyment, leave it at that
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
Personally I think that online games seem to foster racial discrimination in all types. In fact, they even encourage people to go out there and hurt others simply because of their race. This, "PVP" mode where humans are pitted against Orc's and Gnomes against Taurans is to be abhorred. I say that all races should be free to coexist in peace and tranquility while we fight the real enemies: Ragneros.
Ira
While the "filter" of anonymity allows people to associate and congregate who might otherwise not (due to race, culture, religion, political inclination, gender, sexual orientation, whatever), it also serves to dissociate you from your online avatar. You play someone else online, but you are still pretty much the same person when you leave the computer. Just because your characters and avatars online can fight side by side or even competitively in a friendly manner does not mean that you are a more tolerant and compassionate person when you stop playing and go back to "real life". You'll still be relatively the same person, with the same prejudices, same cultural upbringing, and same outlook on life. I'm not claiming that personal change can't happen due to gaming, and I think it can bridge the gap to understanding one another in a few extraordinary cases, but so can any other means of communications with a level of anonymity and neutrality.
I've played a few MMORPGs in my time but, generally, my experience is that there are three player types. The offensive, who's lack of identifiability makes them think they can do what they want.
The passive, who keep to themselves or their guild. They tend to accept people who accept them. The vast majority of people lie in this group.
The aggresive. They are active. Tend to help people whenever they can. And they really do find ways to be involved.
The real reason people seem to 'get along' so well? There isn't even a fraction of lifes 'drama' running around in the virtual world. The worst thing that can happen to you within the confines of an MMORPG is that you miss out on some kind of loot, or you're late for/miss an event. If you can get worked up over that then you really must learn to chill out.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
#1) MMORG designers work carefully to balance each of their races. It's not like a MMORG would design a "KALB" race where the characters automatically get aggro'ed by the town guards, earn a half share from all kills and are randomly barred from the forums for bullshit reasons.
#2) Show me a 1/2 elf, 1/4 dwarf, 1/8 orc and 1/16 sprite and 1/16 centaur character and then we'll be a little closer to an apples to apples race discussion. (Is the character stronger because he's part orc or is it just chance?)
He has struck out with black chicks, asian chicks, white chicks, latina chicks, almost scored with a person pretending to be a chick. He is the model gaming citizen!
Monstar L
XBL has really unified the world...For just $49.95/yr people of all races, creeds, and colors can now come together and treat each other like total shit.
This kind of stuff is getting really old. Why bother infusing so much philosophical bullcrap on something thats really so obvious? This article says that computers dont let you physically see the person you're interacting with. Gee, thanks.
To top it off, its just plain wrong. Has this person ever actually played a game online? Anonymity does not lead to people acting rationally and fairly, its leads most to acting like 12 year old racist fucktards, end of story.
Example: I joined a game on battle.net with 2 other players (blizzard can censor these if they choose) named "niggrplease" and "urmomatemyfeces." You can bet they were both mature, accepting adults.
Example: I remember in WoW beta some guy asked for 8 silver and when someone else wouldnt give it to him he called the guy a "jewbag bastard" in general chat to a couple dozen people.
...now if there were no correlation between race and the likelihood of being in a high enough economic class to afford an online gaming habit, the world's problems would be SOLVED!
In WoW, you start by choosing a race. It's race that defines what faction you're aligned with (Alliance or Horde) and what classes you have access to. Even though they're fantasy races with no (direct) relation to real-world ethnicities, you're still forced by "genetics and culture" into certain roles in the overall story.
In CoX, you start with a simpler choice: Hero or Villain. A far more fundamental conflict than anything that arises from ethnicity. From there, you choose your archtype, origin, and powersets. These provide diversity strictly within the confines of game mechanics. It's only after you've chosen the CoX equivalents of faction, class, weapons, and skills that you get to that amazing character creation sandbox.
Now, anything goes. (Within the bounds of good taste and Marvel's copyright lawyers, of course.) Here, you can adopt any image you like. Project your fantasies, tell a story, show your sense of style, or just hit Random All and take whatever obnoxiously silly costume you get. You can even contradict the game-related choices you made before. There's nothing to stop you from speccing a Magic Stalker (think Night Elf Rogue), then creating an 8' tall industrial-looking robot for a toon. Or you can just stay in character and make a ninja.
In any case, you don't get any preconceived notions of race or racial stereotypes. (see also: Rastafarian Trolls.) In CoX, you're as likely to see green, blue, or metallic gold skin as you are white or brown. In CoX, you are what you do, not how you look, moreso than any other prominent MMORPG out there.
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Well said, and I agree with you 100%. The only real racism I see is people declaring other people racists.
Comment of the year
You wanna see great unification? Visit a PvP WoW server. The only great unity is that the hundreds of skeletons laying on the ground after a huge world PvP event look alike (mostly).
Characters die messily and unfairly dozens of times a day because they're the wrong race in the wrong neighborhood. It's no more unified than real-life race relations, except that there's less social inhibition on race murder and hate crime, because "it's just a game".
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Well, the irony is that while a lot of people believe that internet anonymity allows people to be "assholes" (without ever really explaining WHY people's behavior heads south without supervision), I'd argue a more subtle point: with true anonymity, people have much more of a chance to behave AS THEY REALLY ARE.
In that sense, it reinforces theory of implied social contract; without the immediate coercive ability of the group (through the simple mechanism of individual recognition and following consequences), people may act in any way that they want. Without the 'smoothing' of one's egoist impulses by the compulsion (actual or implied) of the society around them, people feel free to shout "FAG" in circumstances where in real life they'd face at least ostracism if not outright punishment.
But the moment that the character begins to have some intrinsic value, that is, once the investment in the character and the character's relationship with the community has some value - you see less unjustifiably bad behavior. In WoW, this has proven itself out - by the time characters reach 60, you see much less dicking around. Who remains the main antisocialists at 60? Rogues, who as a particularly solo-capable class arguably LEAST need the goodwill of other players in endgame. Hunters, for the same reason but perhaps a lesser degree.
-Styopa
Most players, especially those in the MMO markets, have long ago stopped caring what "skin" the player is wearing and worried about their skill level.
Heck, many of the female toons you see in games are played by guys who are either A) titilated at playing a female toon and dressing it, or B) tired of looking at a guy's ass in third person view.
So it isn't like this story is anything close to a new viewpoint on the subject.
Side note: "race" in the context of fantasy games really boils down to what we would call "species" in reality. I suspect the main reason for using the term "race" is because it sounds more old-fashioned and less scientific.
So really, the whole RPG race = RL race (ethnicity/nationality/ancestry) is somewhat silly. As you say, it's apples and oranges.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
It's pretty easy to ignore those too poor to afford the technology to play these games. You never see them online, so why should they matter. There is always that divide between the have's and the havenot's.
In all my travels as an adult, I have never been to a place more laden with racial slurs than in online gaming. We all wear different skins and are anonymous, but such anonymity causes some people to feel they can spit out whatever racial bullshit they feel like saying.
It is really sad and reduces the quality of gaming.
"There is one avenue of harmony that seems to pervade all people, regardless of race, color, creed and ethnicity. It is a unifying factor that calls to it men and women, young and old, from every stretch of the nation and the world beyond. It is the world of games - particularly video/online games."
Except the vast majority of gamers are white males. I like how the article writer's counter to this is that IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND MOVIES, there are a lot of non-whites playing video games... interesting metric there.
And except that most online gaming communities are fuller of racist swears than any real-world place I've seen - probably mostly from bored preteens trying to get a rise out of people by saying Something Naughty, but still.
And except that as soon as any actual evidence of race or ethnicity comes into the mix - as soon as people find out someone is gay or female or black or whatever "IRL" - you're stuck with the same old racial stereotypes and assumptions again. Usually amplified because of the aforementioned intolerant attitude of gaming communities.
What do fellow gamers care what race you the player really are, as long as your elf ranger or human mage can complete the task?
They don't care because the elf rangers and human mages apparently pay $15 a month to be stunlocked for hours at a time.
I honestly cannot understand the fascination with a game where the player is beset with a chronic lack of basic control over their own character.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Side note: "race" in the context of fantasy games really boils down to what we would call "species" in reality.
The common definition of "species" merely requires that different species can't interbreed to have kids which themselves can have kids. So the case of a "1/2 elf, 1/4 dwarf, 1/8 orc and 1/16 sprite and 1/16 centaur character", would at least imply that dwarves, orcs, sprites, and centaurs are the same species. If the character in question can have kids, elves join said species.
However, the fact that only a small percentage of the country and world are playing video games makes this a very inaccurate sampling of data.
The real dividing line is money. Only those with enough money to afford a gaming system or a PC (plus internet connection, software, subscriptions, etc.) are able to enter this idyllic utopia of faceless, raceless, borderless virtual worlds. Granted that nearly all races are represented in the gaming world, but many of them may be exceptions of typical members of their race. This points to where the real racism occurs -- in the workplace.
Growing up in Texas shortly after integration, my small town had its own share of strife and tension. Now in Dallas, a black person is warmly welcomed compared to someone of Hispanic decent. Indian and Asian peoples are ostracised in the technical community because of offshoring, though the people here have nothing to do with that. This is most apparent in workplaces (who gets what jobs), and less apparent in personal settings (shopping, restaurants, sporting events, fairs, etc.). People don't seem to care about race; businesses do.
When the people doing all the cooking, cleaning and landscaping can afford to have a computer and get into World of Warcraft, then maybe we can start talking about the great melting pot of MMO's.
I'm not quite sure I believe this to be the case as most people have experienced in forums, games, comment threads and other such internet environments, the internet seems to relieve people of their moral burdens. I have been called every name in the book for every race. Some people feel that if they are uncertain of what race you belong to they will call you derogatory names from each race until they get a reaction from you. Its one of the main reasons I stopped going online for Xbox live (Xbox). I got tired hearing 6 year olds calling my friends and I a random racist comment + swear word all while asking for some chocolate milk (This really did happen, I though it was just a cliche) when you beat them.
My dad also has experienced this same thing on Everquest. A group member, whom he played with for more than 6 months, asked him his race and he answered truthfully. From that point on this other player has gone out of his way to avoid my dad and will not talk to him. Maybe thats my dad's fault for even thinking about divulging that information but its a shame when they were truly a good team. Its also a shame that we might have to think about not saying who we are because we may suffer for it.
One of my Dad's characters is a Erudite. a black mage like character (I don't play EQ so I'm not sure). When he created the character he was greeted by people with such choice phrases as "N***** lover", "Look at the coon", and such. This wasn't expected from people who routinely play as elves, cat people, ogres, trolls,etc. Lets not even get started on creating a character with an Arab sounding name.
Has this situation gotten better. Yeah it has, as companies force real world consequences on these virtual accounts people have second thoughts about abusing online anonymity. We the player may not know who you are but Sony and Microsoft do. I think that we see less of this action as people get banned for saying inappropriate things. I personally have had a much better experience with Xbox Live on Xbox 360 than on Xbox but that may be due to not wanted to get the serial number for your $300-$400 dollar console banned from live.