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Gaming While Black

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I just hope in the last of us part 2 a black character survives.

I had always hoped
Elie and Henry should have had an adolescent thing before Left Behind came out, just to shit on the POS who hated on the brothers cause they were negros. Riley came along, but then she left in the blink of an eye
 
One of the biggest issues I have with customization in so many games is the lack of understanding on how many different tones there are for darker skinned people. I can't fucking stand the "ashy brown" tone I often have no choice but to settle for. Then there's Pokemon with the single black skin tone that's too dark to match my own complexion, with the lightest one before it being a tanned person...
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I can atleast understand Japanese media, cause they have like 1% Black people in the whole country, and they are usually scared of us through stereotypes and shit(not to mention there are a few shitheads there that spoil the perception of the whole bunch)

But western games really have no excuse not to be inclusive. It feels like you can only really get some customization if your playing a basketball game, which is sad in of itself.
 

Fotos

Member
I mean I'm white and I can never find a correct skin tone/ hairstyle in a character creator.

Also, I wouldn't say that fandom is necessarily anti-black. I think demographics play a bigger part in this than anything. If say 90% of the people who play the game are Asian/White, odds are the Asian/White characters are going to be more popular. I mean it's kind of the same thing in a game like 2K. I'm White but I know I'm playing a game where most of the people in it are black. There are less white haircuts and they just look weird on your character and I can't really get a right skin tone. In 2K16 you're even put into a black family no matter what race you are. I just keep playing the game and don't really care. Obviously I would always want games to have more options for everyone but I understand why it's like that.
 

killatopak

Member
At least the blacks are still present in a game. Where's the indians, south east asians and middle eastern people who aren't portrayed as bad guys?
 
3 hair styles + bald. So true.

Like, Do devs not know about the black hair style barbershop chart?

qcZldkn.jpg


Just give us these or cuts from any of the other 20 style charts out there.
 

Reset

Member
At least the blacks are still present in a game. Where's the indians, south east asians and middle eastern people who aren't portrayed as bad guys?
Can't even think of a single brown main character.

Edit: I can't even think of a brown side character in
a video game. :|

Edit2:Forgot about fighting games. But for single player eh.
 
Well at least we have black characters. 2nd largest population in the world, yet the Indians are MIA from video games.

yeah man, at least we got that. we should think about both sides, what about the struggles of white men that can't relate to characters that aren't white men or non-people?
 

LionPride

Banned
I mean I'm white and I can never find a correct skin tone/ hairstyle in a character creator.

Also, I wouldn't say that fandom is necessarily anti-black. I think demographics play a bigger part in this than anything. If say 90% of the people who play the game are Asian/White, odds are the Asian/White characters are going to be more popular. I mean it's kind of the same thing in a game like 2K. I'm White but I know I'm playing a game where most of the people in it are black. There are less white haircuts and they just look weird on your character and I can't really get a right skin tone. In 2K16 you're even put into a black family no matter what race you are. I just keep playing the game and don't really care. Obviously I would always want games to have more options for everyone but I understand why it's like that.

2K is also one of few games where I can make my character look like an actual black person with an array of hairstyles, facial hair, and other stuff that I don't get to do in video games. Trying to make a black guy in DA:I? Nope. Had to go with a lighter black female elf with a short haircut to even come close to being happy with my character.

At least the blacks are still present in a game. Where's the indians, south east asians and middle eastern people who aren't portrayed as bad guys?

So why do people feel the need to get upset in threads about black characters instead of making threads airing their grievances instead of waiting on the sidelines and tryna to pounce
 

antibolo

Banned
Being Japanese is no excuse really though. They pull from cultures other than their own all the time. Look at Castlevania, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, etc.

I was mad disappointed when I looked up the hairstyles in Sun & Moon and the only black hairstyle they had was cornrows. And why was that shit spoilered? I thought that was a spoiler for the game.

Japan is a mostly single-race culture, any concept of racial representation issues in fictional media is totally alien to them.
 

Kthulhu

Member
At least the blacks are still present in a game. Where's the indians, south east asians and middle eastern people who aren't portrayed as bad guys?

Prince of Persia? Assasin's Creed 1? Indivisible? Shantae?

Edit: also give Indivisible your money here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indivisible-rpg-from-the-creators-of-skullgirls#/

Not saying that excuses the lack of representation, but there are games out there.

Japan is a mosly single-race culture, any concept of racial representation issues in fictional media is totally alien to them.

There are white people in anime, manga, and games all the time. It's not that rare.

Hell, Attack on Titan's cast is almost entirely white.
 

AngryNeox

Neo Member
I feel bad for laughing at that second tweet.

I had a friend and a youtuber I watch complain about how their is only really one black skin tone as an option in Pokemon S&M.

Link to the youtuber: https://youtu.be/bbApZJwfLxo?t=166
Yes I also see no difference between the "white" and the "asian". I mean yeah, the second option could be counted as white too and vice versa but I can imagine considering their default eye- and hair-colors they are supposed to be the "average" white and asian.
 
Can't even think of a single brown main character.

Edit: I can't even think of a brown side character in
a video game. :|

Edit2:Forgot about fighting games. But for single player eh.

Lee is the first to come to my mind.

Does Fran from FFXII count?

just remembered Cj, mafia 3 guy?, ZoE 2, that marlo brigs game, 50 games not sure I can remember anymore.

but yeah CC's assume black people will be happy with like 2 hair styles or forced to use others and they've been shafted forever in games.
 

notaskwid

Member
I can atleast understand Japanese media, cause they have like 1% Black people in the whole country, and they are usually scared of us through stereotypes and shit(not to mention there are a few shitheads there that spoil the perception of the whole bunch)

But western games really have no excuse not to be inclusive. It feels like you can only really get some customization if your playing a basketball game, which is sad in of itself.
Try 0,05%
 
The second one really reminds me of Pokemon. I'm a darker skinned Mexican and I wish I could chose a skin tone closer to Hau's color, as the third darkest skin tone in Sun/Moon is kind of ugly due to how ashy/cold it is.
 

Galang

Banned
All I wanted was an afro in Sun and Moon. Mirror B got one! Why cant't I?

*Cries in corner*

I'm not at all bothered by a lack of diversity in Japanese games because of their culture, you draw what you see after all. I was however pleasantly surprised by how diverse the denizens of aloa were compared to past games. It really felt like they were trying this time around. I feel hairstyles is a complaint that will be addressed as things continue to improve. However, western games have no such excuse in this matter.

I don't excuse the majority of japanese games at all, especially from the bigger companies. A game like Pokemon that has just as big of an audience worldwide shouldn't be so pathetic with its choices. It was extremely insulting that X/Y managed to release WW with the skin tone options it had. There's no excuse for that. Sun/moon is clearly better all around, but it's just not good enough for me anymore. The options we have at all are just disheartening either way
 

Kthulhu

Member
Yes I also see no difference between the "white" and the "asian". I mean yeah, the second option could be counted as white too and vice versa but I can imagine considering their default eye- and hair-colors they are supposed to be the "average" white and asian.

There are characters that are explicitly white, to the point where it's stated.

226602.jpg


Girls on the far right and two on the left are supposed to white.

High-School-DxD-4-season-release-date-1.png


Girls with blonde, red, and blue hair are supposed to be white.

And those are just from harem anime. I could go on.
 

antibolo

Banned
There are white people in anime, manga, and games all the time. It's not that rare.

Hell, Attack on Titan's cast is almost entirely white.

Well yeah that's my point, Japan doesn't care because for them there's no socio-political baggage tied to racial representation.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Seeing all those images makes me seriously disappointed in character creators. There are some really wonderful styles there. Video games need to figure out a way to let players essentially sculpt their character, including the hair, or move to more slider levels of detail for the hair (texture, thickness, styles, etc.). It's amazing how much control I remember having in some character creators for the size and placement of facial features and body parts, yet I didn't have that for hair apart from some already pre-made styles and color.

But I also haven't messed with a character creator in a while, so maybe things have changed. This thread makes me think otherwise, though. Most recently, I started Divinity: Original Sin, and the hair options there were really disappointing.

Because hair is the hardest part to model. Remember how Pixar spent years developing the curly hair for Merida in Brave? Remember how shitty all that hair tech in The Witcher and Tomb Raider has been? Remember why we had so many bald space marines?

We're years away from being able to customize hair styles the way you want, and even then it'll probably be janky as all hell.
 

Kthulhu

Member
Well yeah that's my point, Japan doesn't care because for them there's no socio-political baggage tied to racial representation.

That's not necessarily a good thing.

48b7b80ffa62e81a0308b73db9b7e8be.jpg


Edit: Plus they totally do, it's just not shown in pop culture very often. China has a similar problem.

TBF AssCreed3 was so bad I wish that it never had a native-american protag.

I'm also native-American, before anyone gets any ideas.

I hate that the Assassin's Creed that I personally hate the most takes place in the US, as a US citizen. I was so hyped that an Assasin's Creed would be during the Revolutionary War, especially from the perspective of a native american character.
 
And here I am wondering if GTA V/GTAO ever added afros yet.

GTA V definitely has some afro hairstyles for Franklin.

Sadly the GTA Online hairstyles are incredibly limited in this area, there's like 1 dreadlocks, 1 cornrows, and then 9 billion straight shiny white people hairstyles.
 

antibolo

Banned
That's not necessarily a good thing.

48b7b80ffa62e81a0308b73db9b7e8be.jpg


Edit: Plus they totally do, it's just not shown in pop culture very often. China has a similar problem.

Well I never said it was a good thing, actually. But I can see how my initial statement can make me sound like I was defending them.
 

shoreu

Member
When Japanese people don't care about you in their games. and it's impossible or very hard to make a black guy in their games.

When your only hairstyles are fade(a shitty fade at that), dumb ass fro, bald, shitty dreads, and ugly ass box

when you have to better at games like WoW because you'll be a stupid fucking n***, hic or something else derogatory

When you have to over compensate in Games like overwatch because you'll get blamed for the smallest shit.

When you can't give your character an ass or change more of the facial features to resemble you own in the character creator

This one applies to pretty much every minority. but when the default character of your race is never the one on the Box art or in the commercials

When your white friends think it's cool to say nigga and that's ghetto af because you've been cool for a while.

When Devs try to make something for black people, Chinese people or anyone else it's pandering. But when it's a generic white dude it's just the norm. "for marketing reasons" and that just cool
 

GLAMr

Member
I'm a white dude, and I find the writing of black characters terrible, particularly the use of the N-word. I find I can tell if a script is written by a white person by overuse of the N-word. I would love to hear some input on this matter from an African American perspective, or fictitious representations of other ethnic groups.

Side note: I love having my multinational rainbow-coloured team in the Xcom games. It's also great how each country has people of varying skin tones and appearances.
 

RRockman

Banned
Can't even think of a single brown main character.

Edit: I can't even think of a brown side character in
a video game. :|

Edit2:Forgot about fighting games. But for single player eh.

I guess if you count the gundam games there is

Loran Cehack

1082690-loran.jpg
,

Sanders

terry_sanders_13432.jpg


Rachel Ransom
fJDQ2.png


are a few that come to mind. There are more in gundam stuff as a whole however.

as far as original games I can only think of

Prototype 2: Heller

L4D: Louis, Rochelle, Coach

Pokemon: Kiawe, Olivia, Marshall, Lenora, ORAS!Team Aqua leaders

right now. I think 4 of those were leads or co-lead characters.
 

sensui-tomo

Member
I've been long waiting for a black woman in a FF game or a JRPG with multiple ones in general. Doubt Square would do it, so looks like I'm on my own for seeing that happen.

doesnt Fran(FF12) count or is she not black ?( i've always thought her that way but i wouldnt know others viewpoint on her. ..... outfit doesnt help though)
 
I don't excuse the majority of japanese games at all, especially from the bigger companies. A game like Pokemon that has just as big of an audience worldwide shouldn't be so pathetic with its choices. It was extremely insulting that X/Y managed to release WW with the skin tone options it had. There's no excuse for that. Sun/moon is clearly better all around, but it's just not good enough for me anymore. The options we have at all are just disheartening either way

I'm really hoping they introduce a color slider in the next installments.

And it would be really nice if they didn't use remakes as an excuse to temporarily remove customization options.
 

SlimXx

Member
dai123.jpg


Though I still had to use a catch-all hairstyle that was used for all sorts of NPCs, including white males...
 
Can someone give me an example of the romance thing? I don't think I've ever seen that.
The only one I can think of is San Andreas with CJ and Catalina.

Well yeah that's my point, Japan doesn't care because for them there's no socio-political baggage tied to racial representation.

Your missing our point which is they're very selective when it comes to putting in people outside of their own race which is majority of the time white. Like we said they seem to put white folks in all the time, but black characters are sparse.
 

RRockman

Banned
I'm still waiting for this hairstyle. Pretty much non existent.
b1013a056a6c65e4b802acde21c96389.png


No clown afros don't count

I'm sorry but this would be HARD to anime effectively. The guys and gals who worked on BRAVE made a huge deal about the hoops they had to jump to master coily springy hair. Perchance in a hand drawn game?
 

flkraven

Member
All I wanted was an afro in Sun and Moon. Mirror B got one! Why cant't I?

*Cries in corner*

I'm not at all bothered by a lack of diversity in Japanese games because of their culture, you draw what you see after all. I was however pleasantly surprised by how diverse the denizens of aloa were compared to past games. It really felt like they were trying this time around. I feel hairstyles is a complaint that will be addressed as things continue to improve. However, western games have no such excuse in this matter.

I'm sorry but this is a bullshit excuse. "The Japanese are ignorant so it's fine but westerners should know better". Dude, everyone should be held to the same standards.
 
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