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[Lego Boss]

I'm doing some research on videgames of the 1980s and for all of the furore that we say now around videogames not having enough black/ethnic minority leads, games of the 1980s seemed to have them more prevalently.

Granted, this seemed to be the case more in games with two-players (Streets of Rage for instance), but there were plenty of other games, (such as Smash TV) which allowed for different races to lead games and this is embodied particularly in sports games (Hyper Sports, Daley Thompson's Decathalon, Frank Bruno's Boxing, PunchOut (Tyson was the lead here, irrespective of the puny puncher you played).

So, with Mafia 3 having an explictly black lead, is it true to say that the games industry is turning the corner, or in fact was there not a corner to be turned in the first place?

Personally I like the idea of playing games outside of the safe confines of the west (e.g. Sleepy Dawgs) and having a different lead makes it all the more interesting.

What are your thoughts?

 

[TheDanger]

GTA is doing alright.

 

[finowns]

Mafia 3 has a black lead? I didn't know this.

Also, OP I vaguely remember a similar thread from some time ago, it might be helpful to you.

 

[ApharmdX]

There's always been one here, one there. We're not at any turning point, no way. 95% of video game protagonists are still white, probably, and 70% are male?

 

[Vishnu]

GTA is doing alright.

Not really, they are all terrible persons ingame.

EDIT: Just got that we are talking about quantity, not quality, or something.

 

[kurahador]

GTA is doing alright.

Yeah...they're all bad guys.

 

[Ninja Dom]

We're currently in Off-Topic.

 

[PayOffWizard]

GTA is doing alright.

Forgetting someone?

 

[Apt101]

I was surprised when I fired up inFAMOUS: Second Son and the lead was a take on modern native Americans, without them being heavy handed about it or stereotyping him. He was just a young guy in Washington state who happened to be NA. I thought that was real progress.

 

[Lego Boss]

OK. First time I've posted a new thread AND . . . .

I put it in the wrong place!

 

[A Link to the Past]

My issue with a lot of black protagonists in games is that often, the games they are stars of are games about crime. I'd just like to see a game, basically like Zelda or like Mario or like Metroid, that stars a black person without giving them a criminal record!

I was surprised when I fired up inFAMOUS: Second Son and the lead was a take on modern native Americans, without them being heavy handed about it or stereotyping him. He was just a young guy in Washington state who happened to be NA. I thought that was real progress.

inFAMOUS: Second Son is a pretty great example of representation of POC, yeah. Not the best game (still good), but it's cool that they thought to include a protagonist from an ethnic group even less represented in gaming

 

[Fury451]

Ubisoft is all about this. It never seems token or stereotyped either to me, though some of the characters can be blandly written, their ethnicity or skin color is never exploitative for it's own sake.

Assassins Creed had Altair

AC3 had Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor

AC: Liberation had Aveline de Grandpre

AC: Freedom's Cry had Adewale

And the AC: Chronicles games have a lead from China (a woman also), and a lead from India.

Far Cry 4 has Ajay Ghale as well.

 

[Pinko Marx]

Not really, they are all terrible persons ingame.

EDIT: Just got that we are talking about quantity, not quality, or something.

A character can be a terrible person and still be a good character.

 

[Funky Papa]

Blade from the much forgotten but still amazing FPS SiN was one of the first substantial non-white leads I can remember.

He was kind of a high yellow bruh until SiN: Episodes (honestly, I always thought he was mixed), but who cares?


Then there's also Shadowman and Turok.

I think we are long over due for a Shadowman reboot, btw.

 

[Indrid Cold1]

The terribly underrated Prototype 2 has a black main character, James Heller. Such a fun game.

 

[Fury451]

Blade from the much forgotten but still amazing FPS SiN was one of the first substantial non-white leads I can remember.

He was kind of a high yellow bruh until SiN: Episodes (honestly, I always thought he was mixed), but who cares?


Then there's also Shadowman and Turok.


I think we are long over due for a Shadowman reboot, btw.

Great choices- I forgot about SiN. And yes...Shadowman was really quite ahead of the curve; is love to see that revisited with current tech.

The terribly underrated Prototype 2 has a black main character, James Heller. Such a fun game.

Also a good one.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Jade from Beyond Good and Evil was a rare WOC game lead.

Shame the sequel doesn't seem to be happening.

 

[A Link to the Past]

A character can be a terrible person and still be a good character.

Yeah, but it's just so common that black people get put in violent roles when they're the protagonist. There are obviously exceptions to this, but that's a lot of the black protagonists that we see in games.

 

[lucebuce12]

For all the shit the Assassin's Creed series gets, they've had 2 black protagonists, one of them being a woman as well.

They've also had an Italian, a Welshman, an Arabian, an American, a male and female Englishman/woman, an Irishman, a Chinese woman, an Indian and a Native American.

 

[SillyEskimo]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_black_video_game_characters

Here's a pretty extensive list of just black characters.

 

[Nokagi]

Lee from season 1 of the Walking Dead was really good.

 

[ldcommando]

 

[Apt101]

Lee from season 1 of the Walking Dead was really good.

This is a great example. They treated that character like a human male and not some walking pop culture idea of what a black man is "supposed" to be.

 

[Toa TAK]

Ubisoft is all about this. It never seems token or stereotyped either to me, though some of the characters can be blandly written, their ethnicity or skin color is never exploitative for it's own sake.

Assassins Creed had Altair

AC3 had Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor

AC: Liberation had Aveline de Grandpre

AC: Freedom's Cry had Adewale

And the AC: Chronicles games have a lead from China (a woman also), and a lead from India.

Far Cry 4 has Ajay Ghale as well.

Yeah, I've always held up the Assassin's Creed games in high regard for this. I wonder what and who they're gonna explore next...

 

[Aaron Strife]

My issue with a lot of black protagonists in games is that often, the games they are stars of are games about crime. I'd just like to see a game, basically like Zelda or like Mario or like Metroid, that stars a black person without giving them a criminal record!

I wonder if it has to do with Nintendo being based in Japan and thus not very concerned with black representation, but it's rather unfortunate that they have hardly any black characters considering how well they seem to represent women, at least.

Every Nintendo-published Wii U game that came out in 2014 lets you play as at least one female character.

 

[captainpat]

So, with Mafia 3 having an explictly black lead, is it true to say that the games industry is turning the corner, or in fact was there not a corner to be turned in the first place?

lol, no we've have tons of black videogame characters involved in crime.

 

[Ledhead]

Delsin from Infamous SS is aboriginal

 

[Oogedei]

I'm doing some research on videgames of the 1980s and for all of the furore that we say now around videogames not having enough black/ethnic minority leads, games of the 1980s seemed to have them more prevalently.

Granted, this seemed to be the case more in games with two-players (Streets of Rage for instance), but there were plenty of other games, (such as Smash TV) which allowed for different races to lead games and this is embodied particularly in sports games (Hyper Sports, Daley Thompson's Decathalon, Frank Bruno's Boxing, PunchOut (Tyson was the lead here, irrespective of the puny puncher you played).

So, with Mafia 3 having an explictly black lead, is it true to say that the games industry is turning the corner, or in fact was there not a corner to be turned in the first place?

Personally I like the idea of playing games outside of the safe confines of the west (e.g. Sleepy Dawgs) and having a different lead makes it all the more interesting.
What are your thoughts?

I do think that the game industry is turning the corner in some regards but this process just began. I don't know about the game industry in the 80s but nowadays it is more common to condemn the lack of diversity and this is a good thing. However it is a long path and black protagonist are often still portrayed as stereotypes. Furthermore, the American gaming industry has to realize that ethnic diversity means more that just the portrayal of black and white Americans. For some reason it's just a black/ white discussion for most of the time.

 

[Lego Boss]

lol, no we've have tons of black videogame characters involved in crime.

Isn't the fact that a black lead can be portrayed as amoral or unethical possibly a good thing?

I mean, political correctness would dictate positive alignnment here, but having a criminal lead from a different ethnicity supposes some kind of equality?

 

[captainpat]

Isn't the fact that a black lead can be portrayed as amoral or unethical possibly a good thing?

Sure, but there needs to be a large variety of portrayals to go with it. All I'm saying this isn't new ground for how black characters are portrayed

 

[ldcommando]

also:

[IMG]https://images-eds-ssl.xboxlive.com/image?url=8Oaj9Ryq1G1_p3lLnXlsaZgGzAie6Mnu24_PawYuDYIoH77pJ.X5Z.MqQPibUVTcJ1uKU9.SAoSlbpmPVPSFMrk2AgXRmtlb6P4brJUgNMNLqeyZzvOYn7pf3ZT1Y0ToSIlD1ell2H0.mPLqGL_7fFTbtnv7yVvM1aTyE2EVd1I1kot.TtWOyujv61S2wy6fplBDJwpD1RtHvTaqQ8cMsTM7ilFqPKkkaZ6iOMnrRfw-&format=jpg[/IMG]

 

[Mass One]

You bring up mafia 3 but he's white as much as he is black and most people don't see it until you point it out. Even then most black protagonist are typecasted into crime roles.

 

[TheDanger]

Yeah...they're all bad guys.

um did the OP say they have to be good guys?

This is a great example. They treated that character like a human male and not some walking pop culture idea of what a black man is "supposed" to be.

Didn't he

Spoiler

murder someone before the walkers came along?

 

[Dereck]

What is ethnic?

People use the word for certain things and I feel like it rarely ever means what it's being used for.

 

[EscoBlades]

Ubisoft is all about this. It never seems token or stereotyped either to me, though some of the characters can be blandly written, their ethnicity or skin color is never exploitative for it's own sake.

Assassins Creed had Altair

AC3 had Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor

AC: Liberation had Aveline de Grandpre

AC: Freedom's Cry had Adewale

And the AC: Chronicles games have a lead from China (a woman also), and a lead from India.

Far Cry 4 has Ajay Ghale as well.

Shao Jun (China) and Arbaaz Mir (India)

 

[Mesoian]

What is ethnic?

People use the word for certain things and I feel like it rarely ever means what it's being used for.

In this case? Not white.

 

[ldcommando]

What is ethnic?

People use the word for certain things and I feel like it rarely ever means what it's being used for.

non-white

 

[That1BlackGuy]

For all the shit the Assassin's Creed series gets, they've had 2 black protagonists, one of them being a woman as well.

They've also had an Italian, a Welshman, an Arabian, an American, a male and female Englishman/woman, an Irishman, a Chinese woman, an Indian and a Native American.

Yep one of my favorite things about Ubisoft.

 

[Htown]

 

[Oogedei]

In this case? Not white.

What about protagonist like Niko Bellic from GTA4?

 

[Apt101]

um did the OP say they have to be good guys?



Didn't he

Spoiler

murder someone before the walkers came along?

Crime of passion if I remember correctly. Not a racial thing.

 

[ldcommando]

also:

 

[Super_Cobra]

I'm Hispanic and I really don't care what color the protagonist is. All I care about is a good game.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

I'm Hispanic and I really don't care what color the protagonist is. All I care about is a good game.

Good for you!

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Never played it though.I just know the MC is a black woman.

 

[Fury451]

Shao Jun (China) and Arbaaz Mir (India)

Appreciated- I haven't actually played any of the Chronicles stuff myself yet so I didn't know the names offhand.

 

[EscoBlades]

I'm Hispanic and I really don't care what color the protagonist is. All I care about is a good game.

Well some people care about these things, and are discussing it here. Maybe don't derail the conversation. The thread title was pretty clear.

Appreciated- I haven't actually played any of the Chronicles stuff myself yet so I didn't know the names offhand.

No problem. Also, Arbaaz Mir is the father of Henry Green, due to appear in Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Though not a protagonist, he's a major character in the game.

 

[ldcommando]

one more:

Spoiler

sunset

 

[Vlitra]

Starhawk's Emmett Graves. It was a pretty cool game.

 

[imrblankie]

Lee from season 1 of the Walking Dead was really good.

Don't forget Clementine is a poc, I know way too many people that ignore that and call her white.