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Have you ever felt uncomfortable playing a character of a different skin color?
- Thread starter Spring-Loaded
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mcz117chief
Member
If it is human then I have no trouble with race, skin, ethnicity, etc. I don't, however, like to play as aliens, I always pick human if at all possible.
Bananajama
Banned
Nope
Its a game
Its a game
ninjablade
Banned
I bought and beat tomb raider on ps4, but honestly can't get hyped for a game where the female is the main character. For example the game with robot dinosaurs looks amazing, my hype would be through the roof if it was a bad ass looking male character.
EdibleKnife
Member
I'm black so I've rarely had the choice since I started gaming. Since I've played as another ethnicity for so long, the idea of playing anything different isn't uncomfortable at all.
User 73706
Banned
Why?
uncleniccius
Member
Out of interest.. why?
I'm a white male, but I really like having diversity in games and often try and make characters that aren't male/white when I play RPG's since most games do have a very, very similar type of character.
That fact makes Horizon more interesting to me.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
I don't feel uncomfortable playing as robots, anthropomorphic animals, literal piles of goop, gods, a floating hand above the world, why he hell would skin color make me uncomfortable?
It depends entirely on the game. If it's a story about a specific person, I couldn't care less what race or gender or whatever that character is. If I'm supposed to have alternatives, and the protagonist is pretty much just a placeholder, I'd like to have the option to pick and choose, but even then, I'll end up playing with different setups most of the time. In that sense, playing as CJ in San Andreas wasn't an issue, because the protagonist was fully intended to be black, and much of that game would have made a lot less sense if he had been eg white.
Uncomfortable is the wrong word, as it is more an issue of choice in general.
Uncomfortable is the wrong word, as it is more an issue of choice in general.
Shadowhaxor
Member
The better question is why the hell would you? The majority of us play damn near every game as a different race when we play a game. It's not like there's an abundance of races to select when playing a game, unless it has a create your own character mode in it.
Not sure why you even asked this question.
Not sure why you even asked this question.
Never, though I did feel uncomfortable with CJ like those you mention in the OP. Not because of his skin colour but because he said things that I never would have. His character was really, really different to my own and he had little character of his own. He mostly went around saying "fosho" to everything people requested with rather strange enthusiasm. In contrast, Franklin is my favourite GTA5 character.
IncognitoPanda
Member
No. Then again, there's a difference between make-your-own characters and preset characters. With preset characters, it's like any other story, like a book or a movie, so I just want to know this persons story. Because it isn't mine. In Saints Row, I created a character that was partially black, because being a white dude seemed weird. That might be some underlying racism, but I don't care, I loved my character. Female characters tend to be great too, imo. Also, can't stop the train baby, WHOOOO!
Forearm Star
Member
I wonder what it would be like to have this problem.
Would I sit through the entire game thinking " this game would be so much better if the main character resembled me"
That's strange to me I always take the story and game for what it is.
Would I sit through the entire game thinking " this game would be so much better if the main character resembled me"
That's strange to me I always take the story and game for what it is.
I have brown skin so I've been playing as someone with a different skintone almost all my childhood until character customization hit.
I really don't mind it as long as the character I'm playing isn't a homicidal maniac. Probably why I was turned off from games like Kane & Lynch or GTAV.
I really don't mind it as long as the character I'm playing isn't a homicidal maniac. Probably why I was turned off from games like Kane & Lynch or GTAV.
EdibleKnife
Member
If some recent post on this board and the video are any indication, you'd be surprised at how badly some people might be put off by the idea
Lord British
Member
Not in the slightest, but in a character creator I'll usually make a white dude, as I am a white dude. :/
PIMPBYBLUD
Member
I'm black and it doesn't bother me although I would like to see more devs choose a different racial/ethnicity for the main characters in general.
Sure. I made an Asian lady in Saints Row 4 as well as Kanye West.
I liked playing as Dom in Gears of War.
Dudley is my favorite Street Fighter.
Bruce from Tekken Tag 2 is my man.
My favorite Class in Final Fantasy is Black Mage.
I'll stop. But in all honesty I'm happy to play diverse characters.
I liked playing as Dom in Gears of War.
Dudley is my favorite Street Fighter.
Bruce from Tekken Tag 2 is my man.
My favorite Class in Final Fantasy is Black Mage.
I'll stop. But in all honesty I'm happy to play diverse characters.
I personally think a lot of people are answering the question wrong. I'm guessing most are actually thinking
"it wouldn't bother me"
Instead of
"I've always or occasionally tried playing around with different skin toned characters"
The vast majority of human player characters are white so I'm confident many gaffers never experienced the difference in playing a darker skinned character.
CJ had the best lines.
"How are you allowed to drive if you're blind?"
"What kind of license you got? Fishin' license?"
"Did you steal your license?"
"Are you a professional moron or just a gifted amateur?"
ninjablade
Banned
Probably my middle eastern roots, I'm not really sure. it's just very difficult for me to get hyped for a game anyway, graphics, world, and main character have to be appealing, especially the main character has to look bad ass to me, like snake, geralt, wolverine, ryu, and mitsurugi, kinda like playing with toys as kid.
Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
Considering my fitness level, playing as hyper athletic characters is far more incongruous to me than playing a character of a different race or gender.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Never. Part of the deal with video games is you can do all the things you can't in real life, like be completely different people.
Dr. Black Jack
Member
Nope. I usually make a female character with skin darker than mine when given the choice.
nigDASTARDLY
Member
I'm black, and no not at all. Like most of us said, we're used to it.
And if I'm being totally honest, I get MORE uncomfortable playing black characters in games anyway. I don't self identify and most depictions of black character are so off and inappropriate I'd rather just stay away completely.
If I can create my own character, especially in Bethesda games, I tend to create a female (alien, elf, orc, or some other non human) character or outcast.
I guess that means something? Lol
And if I'm being totally honest, I get MORE uncomfortable playing black characters in games anyway. I don't self identify and most depictions of black character are so off and inappropriate I'd rather just stay away completely.
If I can create my own character, especially in Bethesda games, I tend to create a female (alien, elf, orc, or some other non human) character or outcast.
I guess that means something? Lol
Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
The zeitgeist amongst many white kids at the time was anti-black racism very thinly veiled by an apparently innocent dislike for hip-hop. As a white guy and a hip-hop fan since childhood, I remember the disdain received from white friends that I was somehow a cultural traitor.
San Andreas was seen as yet another example of black popular culture taking over, and those kids (and I'm sure adults too, but I wasn't one at the time) felt threatened.
thewhitehawk
Member
It bothers me not being able to customize a character in a game in which character customisation seems like an obvious choice, like in Rust, but on the other hand, I also think that what they did was neat and a welcome change from status quo.
But no, I have absolutely no issues playing a game as a character of a different skin colour. In the list of things that might turn me off from playing a game, skin colour is near the very bottom of that list.
But no, I have absolutely no issues playing a game as a character of a different skin colour. In the list of things that might turn me off from playing a game, skin colour is near the very bottom of that list.
I'm white and I cared negatively when I played a black man, a white woman or a black woman.
Even when your model is randomized and you die and see that you've been playing as a black guy the entire time, who cares? I'm playing that character, not myself.
People take themselves way too seriously or care about categorization.
EDIT: People seem to bring up San Andreas a lot, so I'll share this too: I never felt like the game wasn't "immersive" and from start to finish, I bonded with the protagonist.
Even when your model is randomized and you die and see that you've been playing as a black guy the entire time, who cares? I'm playing that character, not myself.
People take themselves way too seriously or care about categorization.
EDIT: People seem to bring up San Andreas a lot, so I'll share this too: I never felt like the game wasn't "immersive" and from start to finish, I bonded with the protagonist.
Onimusha78
Member
Nope. Play as a white guy or something that isn't human in 80% of the games I play and have no issue. Whether white or black though, I'd prefer not to identify with the character I'm using to shoot somebody in the face 
montopolis
Banned
As a Latino, when I play games with a white character, I pretend that right before the game I got approved for a bank loan with low interest rates. When the game ends I pretend my character will join a country club by other means than becoming part of the cleaning crew.
Seriously, it is all part of the story, when i play as a Franklin or Nathan Drake its all fantasy. Just like in movies.
In character creation I make characters that are similar to me.
I would like to see latinos in games that dont talk like Rico Rodriguez.
Seriously, it is all part of the story, when i play as a Franklin or Nathan Drake its all fantasy. Just like in movies.
In character creation I make characters that are similar to me.
I would like to see latinos in games that dont talk like Rico Rodriguez.
No. I could never understand a situation when it would be an issue, unless it was a glaring oddity to the character's background, but at that point it's a storytelling problem and probably the least of the game's problems if that slipped thorugh QA. I normally mixed things up in create a character for RPGs to keep it fresh. I never got rolling out the same character each game.