Then Kain and Raziel from Legacy of Kain also fit that bill. Last of their respective kinds, one a vampire and the other a soul-eating wraith, persecuted and slaughtered by the Sarafan Inquisitors.
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Black, Minority and Ethnic Leads in Videogames
- Thread starter Lego Boss
- Start date
Then Kain and Raziel from Legacy of Kain also fit that bill. Last of their respective kinds, one a vampire and the other a soul-eating wraith, persecuted and slaughtered by the Sarafan Inquisitors.
Jameson Locke represent.
New lead in the Halo franchise and one of the playable characters in Halo 5. He already styling on Chief with his dope as fuck armour and crew.
The industry is woeful when it comes to representation but I'm glad one of my favourite studios is taking the right steps. Halo also features a lot of women and Hispanic characters.
In Halo Reach we also had Emile, whose face we didn't see, but whose concept art revealed he was black.
New lead in the Halo franchise and one of the playable characters in Halo 5. He already styling on Chief with his dope as fuck armour and crew.
The industry is woeful when it comes to representation but I'm glad one of my favourite studios is taking the right steps. Halo also features a lot of women and Hispanic characters.
In Halo Reach we also had Emile, whose face we didn't see, but whose concept art revealed he was black.
Teuoxton
Member
But he's also a male in Hong Kong (it has a 53.2% female population as of 2013). That makes him a statistical minority yes? Assuming this site is legit of course.Wei Shen isn't a minority character as a person born in Hong Kong doing an undercover mission in Hong Kong
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-gender-age.php
Damerman
Member
Aside from the fact that a video game can be whatever it wants, i think video games especially can lend themselves to conduct the greatest social experiments. If you look at a game like Tomorrow Children, the game puts gamers in a kind of communism simulator... It's about building a city together and defending it together. The statistics that could come from such a game would be staggering if players gave out information about their background to the developers.
I definitely think games havent reached their full potential in that regard. Heck, if rockstar could let us know if franklin or micheal or trevor was the most played character and share the feedback they got in regards to a diverse cast, it would definitely be valuable information. Even durring the press coverage before GTAV's release we had conversations about why people considered a female bank robber "unbelievable". During that time i learned about a lot of female criminals IRL. There are so many aspects of the game industry that work as social experiments.
Wei Shen isn't a minority character as a person born in Hong Kong doing an undercover mission in Hong Kong
Edit: Unless OP meant it as "Minorities as seen in a from the perspective as someone who lives in a country where the majority is white" ?
Within the context of video game characters, anyone that isn't White is a minority.
And Asian people as well I'm so happy halo does a good job with this
I can't believe I forgot about Halo in all this.
Reach had a pretty neat cast with Noble Team as well, with Emile, Jun, and Kat.
WrenchNinja
Member
I remember listening to the bombcast and them not understanding why people kept pronouncing his name differently. I guess it's impossible for people with generic western names to understand this thing cause it affects you throughout your life in your interactions with western dudes and people from your own culture
Damerman
Member
Agreed.
Video games are supposed to be whatever their creators want them to be. They can be as close or as far from realty as any other creative medium.
BumblebeeCody
Member
I'm partially Indian where the hell is my representation!? I think developers are racist towards me.
Gonna be honest, I don't care.
Gonna be honest, I don't care.
User 73706
Banned
Halo in general is pretty awesome about being set in a post-racial human society. Regarding our social construct of race, anyway; extra-species space racism is pretty common, to the point of there being actual, factual old bible-thumping space racist religious fundamentalists... that are aliens.
nomorenick
Banned
It's about mechanical apartheid not racial apartheid if I remember correctly. What you're saying is extremely irrelevant.
Massive Duck. C.M.
Banned
Hmm...this gives me an idea
If you're a console gamer, sure.
imrblankie
Banned
That's the first time i've heard this and if true is very disappointing to say the least, though I still adore Lara Croft
Can't believe I left out Jun. He was on Noble Team!
Then there is also Tanaka. Couldn't tell you where she's from, she might be half Asian, but she has the surname so I guess she counts, right?
The Last Wizard
Member
First post should've been "cant relate"
Yup, yup, and yup.
Shit, even before Telcam.
Halo is awesome.
And another one I forgot. For whatever reason my first thought of her is still from the comic.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
THat was the case. The early previews definitely addressed her as Lara Cruz.
If you look at the first designs, she doesn't look very stereotypically British.
Damerman
Member
Slightly off topic, but related... But the same situation happened in the film gravity starring sandra bullock. The director wanted selma hyack to play the role but he was told a latina engineer with a hispanic accent isn't believable. The specific words were "mexican in space" isn't plausible.
Ain't that some shit.
You think a Black character dealing with themes of apartheid would be extremely irrelevant? Just listen to this from 15 minutes and forward. if you don't think it would work.
Enlighten me please.
It's true. It's on Wikipedia even:
Damn
spindashing
Banned
You're incorrectly using the term racism. People in Poland are predominantly white. They go anywhere else in the world and they can still benefit from the societal privileges of being white people. They are discriminated against by other white people, because of their nationality, not their race. It's like people derailing talk of actual racism by saying "I'm Irish, so don't tell me about racism", when they've long assimilated into whiteness and suffered oppression not based on race, all of a generation ago.
The outlines of this OP are quite clear, and it feels like you're trying to make it all about white people having it hard too. I think you might be missing the point.
Someone like Geralt isn't a minority, wether in his game, in respect to real life, or outside of Europe. His fantasy powers have themes of being a minority, but this would be another thread altogether. Nico is white,and as such, is yet another number on the extensive list of males in the video game status quo. Great character,yes, but you have your representation in spades.
SolidSnakex
Member
It would've definitely been different. Lara being British actually played a major role in why she became so popular. For awhile she was all over UK papers and magazines.
The time splitters games are a tresure chest of diversity since they usually have hundreds of playable characters (that's not hyperbole either, TS 2 has over 120, TS 3 has over 200).
Specially Time Splitters 2 (your main lead is a black man named Sgt Cortez, but since the plot involves quantum leap styled time travel you also play as many other ethnicities through the game's single player) and Time Splitters 3 (you play the whole game as Cortez without the body changing gimmick), since the game also includes several modes where you do arcade styled missions outside the campaign, they basically have all sorts of leads covered, there is no way you can play this game's multiplayer and not find someone you identify with.
Specially Time Splitters 2 (your main lead is a black man named Sgt Cortez, but since the plot involves quantum leap styled time travel you also play as many other ethnicities through the game's single player) and Time Splitters 3 (you play the whole game as Cortez without the body changing gimmick), since the game also includes several modes where you do arcade styled missions outside the campaign, they basically have all sorts of leads covered, there is no way you can play this game's multiplayer and not find someone you identify with.
Regarding Wei-Shen its interesting how the plot still dealt with the fact that he has an american citizenship despite being born in HK, he is still mistrusted on the basis of being an outsider despite being a local boy. He is still a minority even when he isnt.
And yeah, the Mafia 3 protagonist is mixed but the plot is taking into consideration the one drop rule so as dar as white society is concerned he is still black, I wonder if the black gangs will be racist at him?
All those gray names, folks feeling treatened.
And yeah, the Mafia 3 protagonist is mixed but the plot is taking into consideration the one drop rule so as dar as white society is concerned he is still black, I wonder if the black gangs will be racist at him?
All those gray names, folks feeling treatened.
User 73706
Banned
Jun (and Kat; they both have the same home planet!) are Space Slavic (their homeworld was colonized by people of primarily Slavic descent), and Tanaka is half-East Asian, half-African.
I do wish that Tanaka had her hair un-straightened in H5G's rendition of her, though I can (kinda sorta not really?) excuse that as being limitations of the rendering tech or hair regulations in Spartan helmets.
Crimson_Gold
Member
I was making a joke about what Huckabee said about the military. I should've put a smiley or something.
I truly want to see more diversity in games. I feel like we will see more indie titles breathe diversity into the industry. The major publishers and devs play it too safe and often stick to tropes when they do attempt to have some diversity.
imrblankie
Banned
God dammit. Studio meddling is the worst.
Some studio execs are just wild with their racism tbh and im not even surprised.
Tons of PC games are Asian, so tons of games have Asian characters. And most games don't have human characters in the first place. The white male stereotype is most prevalent in North American and European AAA titles.
By the way, I'm sad that this thread is a bit late on this, but everyone should check up on this project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/113093954/invisibility-blues-exploring-race-in-video-games
Alebrije
Member
Made a thread about a video games course , it includes themes like race stereotypes in videogames , so maybe some of your will find it interesting
The course will be held by Bioware at the university of Alberta and Coursera.
Link
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1096254
The course will be held by Bioware at the university of Alberta and Coursera.
Link
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1096254
Sadly.The black guy dies in the end. Typical.
Lol, typical would had been if he died 1st in the first 5 minutes. He lasted the whole game.
Dimitri LH
Member
Not sure if already mentioned, but I liked Sahz in FF XIII. Loved the family man/father figure of the group thing they had going with him. He felt the most human when compared with the rest of the cast.
My girl Tanaka a twofer then? Jackpot.
So Jun isn't actually Asian at all?
She is half Asian you see her dad in evolutions.
Fable has been a horrible offender for the white main character. But fable legends is redeeming it self greatly. They could have used someone other than Sterling on the cover, but hey he's bi-sexual so that's a good start.
nephilimdj
Member
Shadowman is insanely well written for a comic/game, you don't see many games that star Africans with actual African accents.
http://shadowman.wikia.com/wiki/Michael_LeRoi
http://shadowman.wikia.com/wiki/Michael_LeRoi
Razzorn34
Member
We're looking for leads, not supporting characters. Not to mention that Sahz as a whole is nothing but a walking stereotype.
How popular and wide-spread do you think these Asian PC titles are in the Western video game culture and market? Are they all available on Steam? Are gaming journalists reporting on these Asian PC titles and covering them? Do a lot of reviewers play them and write about them? Are they heavily marketed and disseminated? Are they present at trade shows and conferences? The thing is, the White Straight Male character is the dominant position of video games characters in the Western games culture and market. That has been heavily researched and corroborated. Just go to a Gamestop, look at E3, go to Metacritic, check out IGN and Gamespot's coverage, etc.
I don't get your "video games don't have human characters in the first place" comment, especially since it lacks any substantiation.
SillyEskimo
Member
This thread makes me realize there are a shitload of minority characters in video games.
What about Vale?
She looks ethnic.
And, if you can clarify, what about Jorge? I never got the impression he was white. I though he Hispanic, or perhaps Hungarian.
Cassie Cage was the most prominent of the quartet and can probably be defined as the game's hero, but Mortal Kombat X's main characters included Chinese Kung Jin, African-American Jacqui Briggs, and Japanese/Thai Takeda.
Yuri Volte Hyuga from Shadow Hearts is of Russian/Japanese descent.
If we count sexual minorities than the lead of Tales of Zestiria, Sorey, is all but confirmed to be romantic with his friend Mikleo.
Yuri Volte Hyuga from Shadow Hearts is of Russian/Japanese descent.
If we count sexual minorities than the lead of Tales of Zestiria, Sorey, is all but confirmed to be romantic with his friend Mikleo.
loaf of bread
Member
Far Cry 4