A Criticism of Race Portrayal in Games

Joystiq points out (and comments incitefully on) a two-part examination of African-American roles in videogames on the site Black Voice News. Series author Richard Jones takes the videogame industry to task for the numerous poor images that young black people have to compare themselves to. He singles out Carl Johnson, the protagonist of GTA: San Andreas as an example. Jones also acknowledges that 'the video game industry is all about money', pointing out the unfortunate lack of black designers and illustrators in the industry to sway the creative choices of publisheres and developers. He gives a call to arms to black players, saying they should focus some of their passion on the skills required to make games. They'd get rich, he says, and work to reverse some of the negative stereotypes that non-whites are subject to in games. The Opposable Thumbs blog takes a critical look at his argument, offering up another side to the story. While it's obvious that Mr. Jones doesn't have a great grasp on the games industry itself, he would seem to make a few valid points as well.

We need more?

[CRCulver (715279)]

Look, the greatest game of all time already has a black protagonist: Shaq-Fu. I mean, after encountering that masterpiece, how could you ever want to play any other game?

huh?

[nomadic (141991)]

The Opposable Thumbs blog takes a critical look at his argument, offering up another side to the story.

And in that blog we get this line:

His argument falls apart, though, when you consider that almost every game in recent memory that has you taking on the role of a character allows some sort of racial customization.

Which honestly, is a ludicrous assertion. MAYBE if you limit "taking on the role of a character" to RPGs, but most games have you taking on the role of a character, and most of them don't allow any customization whatsoever.

Re:

[xenocide2 (231786)]

Probably the best way the Opposable Thumbs author could have countered the article was a response in kind. Where Jones cites GTA, present an equal and opposite anecdote: Beyond Good and Evil. Failing that, maybe point out the interesting distinction that you can customize everything about your character in San Andreas except the color of his skin, and the implications. Jones's main argument is that blacks spend too much time playing games and not enough making them. Becoming a game developer is a bad career

inciteful comments

[1u3hr (530656)]

If anyone else had written it, I might think that "comments incitefully" was a clever pun. But as it's Zonk, I'm afraid it's more likely a Malapropism.

Gordon Freeman, anyone?

[ScentCone (795499)]

I mean, everyone knows he's Indo-Afro-Latino-Cau-freakin'-castic. The only thing he's not is Laplander. What we need are more Laplander game designers. Then we'd be playing some reindeer games, man.

Re:Gordon Freeman, anyone?

[jb.hl.com (782137)]

Cau-freakin'-castic

Caucastic? Is that like some brand new description of Charlie Brooker [wikipedia.org] or something that I haven't heard yet?

"He's caustic...he's sarcastic...he's CAUCASTIC!"

It doesn't matter who develops it

[HappySqurriel (1010623)]

Look at rap music ...
For the most part, Rap music has the worst portrail of black people and it is created (for the most part) by black people ...

Simply having more black people in the industry is not going to change how black people are represented in games

GTA:SA might be a bad example....

[wolfemi1 (765089)]

...seeing that it is the fourth game in a series where all the other anti-hero protagonists have been white guys.

I'm not saying that the GTA series is a good role model, but I don't see how it is inherently racist that the PC is a black man.

Re:

[El_Muerte_TDS (592157)]

I'm not saying that the GTA series is a good role model

Now there's an understatement.

The last 3 GTA games (GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas) was paroday games where they tried to apply as much as cliche's and prejudice things into the game. It's probably the worse example for any serious virtual world real world analysis.

They might start with the music industry first....

[EWAdams (953502)]

African-Americans play a BIG role in the music industry, unlike the game industry, so you have to wonder why so many of them persist in portraying themselves in such a negative fashion there. Gangsta rap has been the worst thing for race relations since the acquittal of the cops who beat up Rodney King -- and for the most part it's not white musicians making it.

Re:

[l4m3z0r (799504)]

Gangsta rap has been the worst thing for race relations since the acquittal of the cops who beat up Rodney King...

Gansta rap predates the Rodney King fiasco by a number of years.

How about random/user-defined populations?

[mattr (78516)]

I've been wondering recently with people talking about race in games why the games can't be adjustable. Although I've most recently played games on the Wii that seem to let you create different race individuals, apparently many do not let you do that. It would seem useful to allow the user to adjust things to look like his or her community, or like a different community. It could be done by parents, or just for fun. When I was a kid we had Wizardry II (Apple ][) and IIRC you could select Dungeons and Dragons style races like dwarf, mage, etc. Ultima and the rest of the genre too. I didn't realize games created roles for kids to look up to, but certainly I was looking in the Wii selection for faces that I wanted to be. I had lots of fun doing it but actually they ought to provide more combinations, it took a while to find one I really enjoyed "being".

Re:

[mikesd81 (518581)]

I would assume the reason is that's a lot of coding to add that feature. And is it really a worth while feature? Most games I play that are shooter games are based on a movie or based on a story where changing the character doesn't make sense.

Yeah, Elves are not as cool as people think

[Timesprout (579035)]

And are Orcs really soooo bad?

Previous Games

[warmgun (669556)]

In the first GTA3 you were an unnamed white hoodlum in NY. In the second, you were an italian mobster in Miami. In the third, you're a black gangbanger in LA. The series plays on stereotypes and nothing is sacred. In all of them, all races were equally depicted as villains. It really isn't fair to decry their depiction of African Americans unless you include their depiction of homosexuals, hippies, latinos, bikers, cops, jews, lawyers, etc...

The GTA games have always had a heavily satirical slant to them, and anyone who has actually played the games would be able to tell you that.

FF7 Berret Quotes

[Arakageeta (671142)]

Post Final Fantasy 7 Berret quotes here. I'll start: "But that's for Marlene's schoolin'!"

Minorities

[digitrev (989335)]

The biggest problem is that racial minorities are just that. Minorities. As such, most games are geared toward the majority. Which, in North America, is your white middle-class suburbanite teen. And the only thing that a lot of them know about minorities is the stereotypes. It's so much easier to make money feeding on people's preconceived notions that worry about educating them.

The real solution? Dilute North America so far that we all become one race.

I can't but think

[mikesd81 (518581)]

that we get 2 articles about this in one month because it's February [wikipedia.org]..second /. article here [slashdot.org]

I personally never noticed in a game about shooting thugs what their race are. It's a shame that racism still exists. Even the blatantly biased commercial for the superbowl about Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith. What really keeps racism alive is these arguments about it. How many people have played Max Payne or Dead to Rights and really take notices of the color of the digital skin of the guy you're shooting? The links in the summary surely will open up heated debate. In the article "Psychologists agree that if your race is always the thief or killer, then after a while you start to think that's how you should be, or you think that's how your people are." ... Well, what about in games like Dead To Rights where the white cop just goes through the street shooting people? So does that make white kids think they should become vigilante cops?

I'm not saying that Mr. Jones is incorrect. I'm saying it's how you are raised. You can't just blame things on games and movies. Society needs to change and become more acceptable. Take a lesson from Star Trek.

One good example - Guild Wars Nightfall

[ReverendLoki (663861)]

The latest chapter of GuildWars, Nightfall, is set in a Northern African inspired area of the GW world, has quite a few positive black and vaguely Arab/Mediterranean characters. Now, as the protagonist in an RPG, you get your standard character customization, but it seems to me they included more options for the various ethnicities one would expect to find in North Africa (then again, it may just be me; of course, I also thought the Factions chapter included more Asian ethnic options as well, which is appropriate given the Asian theme of that chapter). So, you don't have to be a black character, but a number of your comrades, allies and such are, and are cast in the role of hero alongside your own in a fantasy setting. And the thing is, none of them are really ethnically stereotyped, and if you're not paying a lot of attention, it's easy to overlook while playing. In short, I really like the way they handled it in game.

It's a Good thing...

[IBitOBear (410965)]

It's a good thing that the first four GTA games weren't about some white guy....

Oh wait...

And of course the Arabs and Persians and Jews all get off scott-free because they control the media...

Of course the gay characters are _never_ stereotypes...

And the "sex workers" of the world are always portrayed in the most positive and even-handed light possible...

And the "spics" and "rice burners" were perfectly valid and even-handed portrayals of racial norms as well...

(And we all know that cops are just corrupt dealers and killers with legal enforcement powers that can be convinced to leave you alone if you change your clothes or drive your bike through just the right spot in the local mall parking lot.)

I don't hear this guy protesting the treatment of and message presented to the youth of any _other_ "minority".

ENOUGH WITH THE EMOTIONAL STUBBED TOES ALREADY!

The sad fact of the matter is that GTA wasn't portraying "black people" as anything, it was portraying the "black gansta stereotype" and it was _even_ somewhat even-handed since the main character was "acting against type" by trying to straighten out a mess as much as make one.

And before you re-stub your emotional toe on the word "stereotype", please keep in mind that every non-proper noun _IS_ a stereotype. Teacher. Cop. Politician. Meter Maid. Brother. Sister. Nun. Clerk. Priest. (etc od nausium). Every single damn one of those words come with a precompiled message and set of expectations. That's all a "stereotype" is. "Baseless racial stereotype" is a different concept all together.

The actual problem is that the "gangsta" movement has deliberately manufactured a stereotype that someone doesn't like, but this is being hoist on their own petard. Heck, the members of that self-created group probably thought the portrayal was totally cool.

You cannot save people from their own damn selves, nor should people who make a bad image for themselves garner sympathy.

As far as the "game makers", well, they know that a game based on the law-abiding middle-income family guy from suburbia, who goes to work and pays bills on time and attends a baseline church and plays a friendly game of poker once a month with "the guys" WOUDL MAKE A TERRIBLY BORING VIDEOGAME.

I'd say "They tried to make a good game, so sue them" but I am sure somebody somewhere with a bruised medula would do just that.

And P.S. I didn't like or play the game when my roommate brought it home because _NONE_ of those stereo types interested me. I kind-of liked Vice City because the soundtrack was interesting and the action wasn't skewed beyond the empty plot of Miami Vice. But I didn't whine about the game much either, except when it was interfering with me using the TV for something valuable. (I'd say "like NASCAR or Pro Wrestling" but I fear the irony would be lost on the stupid and someone would take that seriously and dub me "raciest" without regarding context, so let me put "watching firefly" here instead.)

Re:

[IBitOBear (410965)]

Where exactly did I say "two wrongs do make a right"? Where did I even hint at that.

I'm pretty sure I said "no wrongs make for a complete failure of marketability".

I'm also pretty sure that I said that people who cherry-pick their outrage from within a complete festering scab of outrageousness are not worth taking seriously because selective rage about something no worse than the background noise was crying wolf in a crowded theater full of sheep... or maybe not that last one...

I think it _would_ be safe

Are you sure?

[Uukrul (835197)]

and all asian people go kung fu fighting.

In my games when japanese girls fight agains enourmous tentacled monsters they don't go kung fu fighting. I think my games aren't stereotyped.

Re:

[ergo98 (9391)]

Race is a social construction. The term race is itself "racist"...

There are different cultures, obviously, and also different skin colours and other superficial appearances.

Are you for real?

Humans migrated across the globe in an era when separating meant limited or no contact (or breeding) with groups elsewhere. Specialization to the environment -- basic evolution-in-the-small --, and traits being exaggerated through group inbreeding, measurably changed each group in ways much greater than skin color. Some

Re:

[silentounce (1004459)]

It's the identification of races that is the problem. Most people differentiate the races based on skin or hair color, facial features, body proportions, etc. But in reality you may have more genetically in common with someone who looks dramatically different from you than someone who shares your external traits. That is a proven fact, and that is one of the reasons that most scientists reject race classification. You are correct that some people are dominant in athletics, some are dominant in intellige

Re:

[swordgeek (112599)]

Funny story that your post brings to mind.

About a decade ago, I lived in the US (Southern California, to be specific). I said something about an Oriental friend to a coworker whose grandparents had been born in China and brought to the US when they were infants. He immediately got offended at the use of the term "Oriental," and said that I should use Asian-American. After I pointed out to him that the subject in question wasn't actually American, I asked him what was wrong with the term Oriental. To the bes