Do You Care About Race in Games?

There were several pieces up this past weekend, and a resulting lively dialogue, about the role that race plays in videogames. Game|Life talks very cogently on the subject, which got kick-started by a post on the microscopiq site highlighting important black game characters. The article asks "Jade Is Black?", highlighting the role that racial ambiguity can have in making a player empathize with a title's protagonist. Writes Kohler: "Video games put the control of the main character into the player's hands. They ask us to become the character. It's easier for anybody to identify with Jade because Jade can stand in for anything. Ellis wants more black characters in video games, and Jade, if we go by the layout of his article, is his number-one favorite. It is quite possible that he felt a stronger connection with Jade than with other game characters who are definitely black. What does that say about the power of racial ambiguity? " So, do you care about race in videogames? If so, how so?

Comments

This is an issue because....?

[AikonMGB]

I don't care about race in real life, so why should I care about it in-game?

Having said that, when one thinks about different races in a game having different stats, I would venture to guess that the large number of these references to "race" are actually references to "species"; to use a popular example, a Tauren is different from a Troll in much different ways than a [African(-American)|Chinese|Japanese|Native-Americ an] is different from a Caucasian.

Aikon-

Re:This is an issue because....?

[10101001 10101001]

However, I do find it easier to relate to a character who looks like me. That is, I'm most comfortable playing a Caucasian male character.

That's funny. I find it easier to identify with characters that *are* like me. That is, I'd much quicker relate to a yellow fox or a blue armored robot than some male character that happens to be Caucasian. Hell, I even relate well to characters who aren't of my gender. But then again, I thought a major point of video games was to look beyond the polygons that represent the outside and to take a more abstract view and ingest that to be considered. After all, those textures that make that Caucasian male white could be trivially altered to make him green or the polygons altered to make him look like a her. Until there's the point at which games are actually rendered at a detail when I can no longer trivially think of the polygons as merely a hitbox or the color as merely a means to differentiate the character from the background, I'll still be left to thinking of it as a walking hitbox.

Another racially ambiguous character

[abaddononion]

This reminds of me of Kratos, from God of War. I know that he's "spartan", and all, but from the way they designed the character, both in appearance and voice, I always thought he seemed more like a black guy than a white guy. And since his skin was covered in ash to make him perma-pale, it made it even harder to be sure, for lots of the game. At least, in my opinion. Maybe others dont agree.

I thought it was a nice touch, though, all-in-all. I mean, there's a bit of "badassness" to certain black character traits, both physically and in attitude, and I think Kratos's personality is a lot stronger than it would have been if they hadnt borrowed those traits. But I have to admit, if Kratos had been modeled after Ice-T or something, I probably wouldnt enjoy the game nearly as much.

Personally, I get tired of the whole racism debate. Ive always felt this way about japanese games. I dont like it when the characters are DECIDELY Japanese. I liked Cloud (from FFVII) a lot more back when it was unclear what he was rather than now, when he has been remade into a more clearly japanese appearance. Really, unless race is a specific issue in a game's plot, I think it should be left out as much as possible, so Im all for the racial ambiguity thing.

Re:Another racially ambiguous character

[Lemmy Caution]

Race isn't about pigmentation. It doesn't have any strictly biological rationale at all. Rather, it's produced by the intersection of some genetic characteristics with history, culture, and society. It was used to legitimate slavery in the US for decades, and then to justify the creation of a two-tiered society in much of the US after the Civil War. That experience created a common culture based on a "myth" - that of (biological) race - but the cultures and communities created by it are quite real. And the difference between black American culture(s)and history and "non-racial" (but canonically white) American culture(s) and history is also quite real.

Now, this is mostly an American problem. Different conflicts exist in different parts of the world. Many videogames are from Japan, and a lot of the issues surrounding race and history become very different through Japanese lens.

There's a lot more I could refer you to - look at the literature surrounding "the invention of whiteness," which is really how very different European identities got merged into a common one mostly so that less well-treated Europeans, like the Irish and Italians, could enjoy the benefits of not-being-minorities.

I think this is really an issue for some, but not a majority of games. It's interesting how GTA:SA simply wouldn't make sense if the lead character were white, but otherwise nothing else were changed. Same with Vice City. Insofar as racial identity is part of overall identity, a blithely "color-blind" approach doesn't work in games that are set in contexts where specific identities are part of characterization.

a take on second life's color

[fred fleenblat]

http://www.theregister.com/2007/01/30/lily_white_a nd_not_loving_it/

FF8 makes up for FF7

[Mprx]

I'd agree that Barret of FF7 is a poorly implemented stereotype, but FF8 has one of the best black characters in any game with Kiros. Although he's only playable in the Laguna flashback scenes, he's smart and capable, and most importantly does not "play the race card" or in any way call attention to his race. His scenes were some of the best parts of the game.

Re:FF8 makes up for FF7

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Barret is NOT stupid. Will people pleas get a clue about the Japanese culture before they start pointing the race card around? More often than not it's the translation which adds "blackness" to a character rather than the original Japanese script.

Barret acts no different than a lot of white anime characters. I've seen more money hungry brutes coloured white than I have black infact.

Take Gaido from Super robot taisen Original generation. In Japanese he speaks normally and doesn't stand out at all, yet in the Atlus translation he has a jamacian accent. Absolutely no reason for this other than Atlus decided it.

Is Gaido a black steriotype or is it just a shitty translation? Maybe if we discussed Bo Bo Bo we'd have issues, but Barret isn't one of them.

Re:Of course I do!

[the_humeister]

Aren't "dwarves" and "elves" technically different species? Why is every other fantasy role-playing game guide calling them "races"? To me, "race" implies intra-species variations. Unless dwarves and elves really are the same species?

Invisible Messages

[realityfighter]

For the most part, gamers think of their games as completely hermetic fantasy worlds that don't interact with reality. Of course, in hindsight we see that there are many real world influences on the content of our games - just like when we look back at the Science Fiction of the 1950s and 1960s. So for the most part, people don't see race in games because they're usually treated the same way we treat race in the real world. In 20 years, when we have different opinions and habits with regard to race, a racial message will probably be far more evident.

On the other hand, when we see a game that approaches race differently from us - for example, the Left Behind game that gives evil/"unsaved" characters Arabic names - we see a clear message. So most people here will claim that, while some games certainly have racial elements, their games don't.

Re:Play the Race Card

[ScentCone]

Why would it matter unless your some racist punk

Yeah! Or, if you're some twit that doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're" - causing some people to think that maybe it's never about race, but about culture. Some cultures emphasize things (like articulate communication) that are hugely helpful in some pursuits, and others emphasize other things. Obviously your culture doesn't sweat the details of whether or not the people you're bitching to can actually parse your words in a useful way. But, hey, to each their own. Just don't get cranky when people make snap judgements about your character when the equivalent of visual cultural indicators (in this case, the way you communicate) immediately dispose people to thinking less of you. It's not racism, it's culturalism... and (hint, here!) it pretty much always has been. For much of human history, race has been a pretty good indicator of cultural affiliation. Those days are pretty much completely gone now, obviously. So instead, you just watch what people do (or whether they care to differentiate between the possesive "your" and "you're," the contraction of "you are"). Screw skin pigment... do you play characters that match your culture? I'm honestly asking.

Re:Of course I do!

[nottestuser]

I'm reminded of South Park season 4, episode 8 "Chef Goes Nanners". You missed the question and in the process answered it better than anyone could have hoped for.

Re:I'm definately racist

[Venerable Vegetable]

I played a racist character in Everquest for a while, which to my surprise genuinly upset people.

I played a dark elf and would not team with any of the light races, except in some cases when they clearly were evil. But even then, I would act racist to for example ogres and trolls, making clear that I despised them and considered them inferior, while in contrast being moderately respectful to other dark elves.

Almost every day someone would send me a private message complaining about my racist attitude, and many a dwarf was surprised to get a friendly reply which explained that I was roleplaying.

I thought it was rather strange that even though we were playing characters, and I am obviously not a dwarf-hating dark elf in real life, a lot of people couldn't accept racism in the game. Maybe it means that there is something good in humanity. Or maybe just something silly.

But to answer the question, do I care about race in games, I'd say: no, except when my character has stereotypical attitude or dialog. But that's not strictly related to race. I find it very hard to indentify with a character if he keeps talking in a way that I would not.

Oooh THAT Jade

[fuo]

I guess Jade is a black name, because Jade in MK3 was black too (i think) and looked kinda like her.

Racial Ambiguity and Sci Fi

[softwaremud]

I think that the ambiguity in "Jade" reflects a change in racial attitudes and also a change in marketing. Many companies are tapping into multiracial and biracial characters because they often appeal to a larger audience.

• From the article: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02/jades_black_ra c.html#more
• "Jade was black?"
• "I always thought of Jade as an arab."
• "I always thought she was supposed to be of Eurasian descent."
• "I thought Jade was asian."

Whenever somebody choses a character in a video game and plays that character, I agrue, in some level that they are identifying with that character. I mean you control that character's actions, you die when that character dies etc. so there is at least a little bit of your time and attention and perhaps even emotion invested into that character. Each of these people thought that Jade was a different race/ethnicity because in their mind, their hero character is represented by somebody they are more able to identify with "an arab", "of Eurasian descent", "black", etc. This is positive. Wouldn't you rather chose who your hero's are instead of accepting what somebody tells you who your hero is?

As a side, I think that there are more racially ambiguous and multiracial characters in sci fi and fantasy because the idea that "mixed" is the future. I think that this can be a bit of a double-edged sword. While think its good to have positive media images of mixed-race people, i think that sci fi can leverages stereotypes create characters.

Example #1:

George is stronger than normal humans, but savage and primal because he is half and half human.

This example is common, and there's not too much wrong with it. But how many people feel that there is a large leap between this first example and this next one:

Example #2:

Take something like the Jade character above. Jade does math better than the average character because she's asian and runs faster because she's black. This ties into to stereotypes. 1. Asian people do math well. 2. Black people run fast.

Hey- for the second example these are both positive stereotypes, why do I bring it up? Positive stereotypes can be just as negative stereotypes. This description degrades the character's performance to a characteristic of race. Maybe the jade character does math well because she has a PhD and runs fast because she ran track and field. This form of stereotyping for multiracial characters is often called "Hybrid Vigor" or "best of both worlds". The flip side of it is "Hybrid Degeneracy" or "worst of both worlds". In the end, video game characters, just like people, and should be judged and evaluated as individuals- not races.

Blacks over represented

[king-manic]

It's a undisputed fact that Black people are over respresented in media. Black people make up 12.12% of the US populace according to the last census. They make up 20% of all media characters/talking heads in media according to some studies. This occurs because Asians of all sorts are under represented (1% of charcters 5% of the pop). Hispanics as well but not as severely. I do imagine that the quality of this over representation is poor.

Yes I do, sah!

[ozphx]

Rainbow Six: Vegas would be nothing to me if I couldnt play co-op as the black guy. Only the black guy can hold a machine gun in one hand, and a glock in the other, while hiding behind a blackjack table and "capping asses".

The game would be 15% less fun if I had to use the aforementioned arsenal as a white dude.

Ditto GTA: San Andreas. If you weren't playing CJ, you'd be stuck with some lame Eminem-like wigga. That would just plain suck.

If you're going to do it...

[RealmRPGer]

Do it because it's what FITS. I hate it when developers just throw in some black dude or something just to make minority players happy. But by saying this, I am insinuating that a 'generic' character is therefore white. This is somewhat true. A generic character should fit in with the surroundings, and so if the game cast is primarily white, he should be white. If it's primarily black, then it's more fitting for a generic character to be black. But since games aren't about the ordinary if you're going to grab from outside the norm, you might as well go all out. Barrett is probably one of the most memorable black characters because he's so extreme. Perhaps I'm hitting a stereotypical vein here, but Jade is perhaps the perfect example of mass culture views. Jade seems 'off' because he's not what we typically expect a black person to be. This isn't necessarily wrong, but if a developer puts a black character in a game just to be diverse, then that's missing the mark. Give him some personality.

It ain't race, it is culture

[SmallFurryCreature]

In games I usually play with a darker skin for the simple reason that white skins generally just don't look too good. (am I the only one who in NWN1 had all females with light skin look like they had a 5 o'clock shadow)

I also often play a female, for no other reason then that I prefer the look.

But what I mainly play is "me". For instance I rarely take the romance options for the female character I play because either they are stupid or as a hetero male that is a bit to close to being gay and we can't have that can we? Why if I felt for that hunky piece of man meat and melted away in his strong arms.... Right, who is up for some rugby. Just us men, groping each other on the field Damn...

In the first two GTA you played probably a non-descript white guy. Later that turned into an italian and finally a black guy.

But in these cases it is more then a skin. I play my olive skinned female woodelf as a chaotic good "lesbian". In these GTA games I am the mafia italian and the gangmember black guy. There is NO option for me to play the game except as in these roles. Well except not to play.

As a non-criminal, the role of a mafia gang-member is already a bit of a stretch. I do not have a fantasy about being a criminal at all and certainly not with the background of the GTA criminals. The mafia member in Mafia (pretty similar game in many ways) was however sympathetic to me.

The black dude? Sorry, zero connect. Nothing he does (and the game asks me to do) agrees with me. He is scum with not a single redeeming value. Worse, he ain't even very good at it.

The problem is that you ain't even allowed to think you are playing the bad guy. I liked Tie-Fighter (until it dragged into you being sorta the good guy after all because there was an even bigger evil then you), when you were serving the empire fighting that rebel scum. I happily play the nazi side in a WW2 game but don't expect of me to see them as anything but soldiers serving one of the greatest evils.

It is not about black/mafia culture either in GTA. In NWN2 they make a whole point about religion and those who do not believe in a god or only fake it are said to go to a form of hell after their deaths. Well FUCK THEM. My religion is nothing and so be it. I am playing a role and that does not involve kowtowing to some beard in the sky, even if in that universe they are real.

I will not play a religious freak.

But did I not enjoy the GTA games? As a movie, yes. I played them as watching a movie. Perhaps that may have been the idea and I am just wrong in thinking you have to be the character. But it was one of those movies were you do not care if the hero dies, and perhaps even cheer as he buys the farm. The anti-hero if you like.

I am quite certain that people who want "blacks" in video games do not want them ala GTA. Or maybe they do.

Am I just an idiot for wanting to play a character I can agree with? Just ask your average male to play a homosexual. Lesbian? SURE, but MALE homosexual. EEEEEEK!

It is offcourse typical that the article talks about blacks when there are so many more races and for that matter many more underrepresented groups. When was the last time you played a lesbian jewish asian hermaphrodite. Oh, yeah, last week. God I love NWN2.

Deus EX (both versions) gave you a choice of skin color (but not sex)allowing you to choose your race. Provided you wanted to play from a small selection of the genetic variation of either africa, europe or asia. For instance, no aboriginals or indians etc etc.

It also made the barest of impact on the game. So why was it there? The apperance of PC correctness as you say. Keep it.

Do I care about race in a game, no, it is just a skin. But the person I am supposed to be in that game got to be something I can indentify with. That I cannot identify with the black gangmember in GTA has nothing to do with his race. If the game had been set in japan with an asian gangmember it would not have connected for me either.

it is WHAT the character does that matters, not wich texturemap has been applied. Mmmm, perhaps actions should be more important then apperances in games. Nah, if that worked we would have it in real life already.

Re:Vapid - Look it up

[flyingsquid]

You know, I hate political correctness as much as anyone, but I've honestly got to wonder: am I the only person who found Starcraft to be offensively racist? The SCV pilot is the only black unit, he's the lowest on the totem pole, and he's a dumb, nose-picking, menial laborer of a negro. Short of having him pick cotton instead of mine crystals, I have a hard time imagining how Blizzard could have possibly made a game which was more backwards, stereotypical and offensive towards black people.

But what about the expansion pack? They had that black Ghost! He's no stupid menial laborer. So that's a positive portrayal of black people, right? Whatsisface, Duran... traitorous, backstabbing, double agent Duran. OK, nevermind. I'm not saying we need the Supreme Court to order a quota in video games or anything, but would it have fucking killed Blizzard to have a single, positive portrayal of a minority?