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?"

Still far to go

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 disagree.

I had a Human Warrior in WoW named "Rick James" (after my favorite musician), and everyone kept calling me "bitch." :(

anonymity can be bad

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.

Re:anonymity can be bad

As far as I'm concerned, the world would be a much better place with a little less nationalism.

Re:anonymity can be bad

Nations are becoming less and less important as the information age gets going.
Similarily, extended families became less and less important with the industrial era.
Before that, the hometown/village.
Before that, the clan.
Each been the central social group everyone identified themselves by, each had seemed a natural constant in the lives of people and still each was replaced by the next. Currently, nation states are being replaced by continent-size cultural zones; most obviously so in Europe and South America.

You can call this unfortunate, like you can call any natural process unfortunate. Or you can realize that identifying yourself as a citizen of your country is a cultural habit, not a necessity, so the value you are losing was virtual in the first place. Other social reference groups (say your family, or your race, or mankind) may be used interchangably. And some choices give you more options than others.

In-game racism

I can't stand the smell of Orcs.

At last, a level playing field!

Totally right. Games take people without jobs and/or friends and elevate them, by the simple mechanism of "spend all day playing" to the status of powerfully equipped demigods, near-unassailable by the common man, whereas the successful, busy real-life person is relegated to a lifetime of mere mediocrity, looking up through the windows of Naxxramas at something they will never attain. Yes, gaming is the great equalizer! The mighty are brought down, and the weak are exalted.

Disclaimers:

• Yes, I play WoW.
• No, I am not a hard core raider.
• Yes, I have a real job.
• Yes, I have a significant other.
• No, she does not weight 250 lbs.
• No, I don't care that I don't have any Tier 2 set pieces.
• No, I do not live in my mother's basement. In fact, I own my own house.
• Yes, I exercise.
• No, I don't play a girl in-game despite being a guy in RL.
• Yes, my alts are still levelling.
• No, I do not subsist on pizza and chinese food.
• Yes, I can spell.
• No, I did not repeat any grades in middle school.
• Yes, I know that "ur" really means "you are" and not "your".
• No, I did not purchase any of my characters.
• No, I did not eBay any gold.
• Yes, I hate reputation grinding, but...
• No, I don't hate them as much as you do - I never played Everquest.
• No, I do not feel it my responsibility to tell people about (a) the trash greens I find while killing trolls in Arathi or (b) my life, over Ventrilo.
• Yes, I bathe at least once a day. With soap. Real soap. Not like from Fight Club.

Nothing THAT new really

This is the way it is for the major sports in America right now. While it has not always been that way, we are at a point where your skill is the only factor people are looking it. That will transpire to anything as long as the overall goal is to be the best of the best.

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

Removing race?

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...

Huh?

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...

Why do gamers feel this

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

Horde versus Alliance

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

The filter works both ways

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 don't think so.

I've got a long ignore list in WoW of players who have accoused me of being many different things (dirty Jew, gay, and much much worse) because I would not give them money or politely requested that they keep their conversations in a party environment. I'm sure eventually these players will or have already been booted.

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.

MMORG race human race

#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?)

Larry Laffer, the great uniter

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!

"anonymity of online gaming"

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.

Great...

...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!

City Of Heroes is a better example

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.

"Great Unifier." Feh.

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".

Guys play chicks all the time

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.

Oh really?

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.

What a load of malarky.

"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.

No

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.

Faulty Premise

WITHIN the gaming community, sure there is a sense of unity and people getting to know each other without ever knowing race, religion, political bias, sexual orientation or (possibly) gender.

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.

The Great Unifier?

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.

Re:Racists in WoW

So respec shadow and go melt faces in PvP. (or roll as a Dwarf like I did)

Re:Racists in WoW

If a dwarf and a night elf only had cosmetic differences and had the capacity to perform the same tasks equally well, then it would be racist to choose dwarves over night elves. But that's not the case, so this gets tricky.

If in real life, practicioners of a certain profession who are of a certain race have two magical skills unique to their race that members of other races cannot learn, is it racist to make hiring decisions based on those magical skills?

Re:Are you sure?

Those arguments are moot, actually, because only [slur]s play Doom 3.