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[Xavien]

Malcolm rocks!

So does Dr Eli Vance

and by default (since shes the offspring of a white mum and a black dad)

Alyx Rocks.

What was this thread about again?

 

[Forceatowulf]

Holy Shit I forgot all about Shaq fu. :lol

 

[fernoca]

heh heh........... were you around the IGN and gamefaqs boards when the first shots of GTA SA were released? Pfft... you'd be surprised at how many shallow and ignorant video gamers there really are. Really, some of the posts and threads I read concerning CJ's race were just horrible. Utterly horrible.

Yeah, that's another thing.
I'm from Puerto Rico, and even in the year 2007 people (in the US) are surprised that I have "access to the internet" ..and "electricity"...
My aunt went to a convention in the US a few months ago, she was one of the speakers and the other people in there were not schocked by what she said..but rather, because someone from Puerto Rico had: money to buy an airplane ticket, university...to study and like what happened with me: electricity..

Oh well...the reactions to CJ back then were priceless.

 

[Rorschach]

heh heh........... were you around the IGN and gamefaqs boards when the first shots of GTA SA were released? Pfft... you'd be surprised at how many shallow and ignorant video gamers there really are. Really, some of the posts and threads I read concerning CJ's race were just horrible. Utterly horrible.

You don't even have to go that far. The latest main character got negative remarks as well. "I don't want to play as no terrorist Muslim!" when everyone thought he was of middle eastern descent. Though, you could tell from the Russian accent that he was probably Russian.

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

what about master chief?

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Still not main...

 

[Xavien]

OMG, Master-chief = Denzel Washington!?!?

 

[underfooter]

Mario is Italian, the guys in Dynasty Warriors are asian. What does it matter anyway?

 

[KingJ2002]

yea... it's all demographics.

anything that comes out of japan you'll find the main characters japanese and the antagonists your usual obnoxious, stereotypical "foreign devils"... it's vice versa for american titles with the usual black hero being in armed forces, sports, hip hop oriented or in a gang.

videogame art does not have to imitate the stereotypes of life..

 

[Moose]

REDGUARD!!!

is it bad i made my oblivion redguard, well... white? :-\

 

[Proelite]

 

[Smiling Bandit]

Another typical US problem nobody else gives a shit about. Huh huh, we need ethnic diversity, all races must be represented equally although of course there are no races bla bla bla!

 

[Ronin]

Errr...

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

Mario is Italian,

Chad Warden says he's Mexican.

 

[White Man]

While not a main character, we should not forget Square's early steps forward in gaming civil rights:

Also, Jesus was jewish.

 

[CastleBravo]

Don't know if he has been mentioned yet.

 

[Speevy]

I asked whether Master Chief is black in another thread. Someone said he's white according to the novels.

And the guy in Mass Effect is so white.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Errr...

Well, you can make him black if you want.

 

[Blackace]

Also, Jesus was jewish.

So was Sammy Davis Jr.... I see a pattern here

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

A lack of black people developing games, is partly a reason. That being said, who is to say that we would make black characters? I think that there are a lot of underlying reasons as to why we don't see them, and quite frankly, I think a lot of them suck: marketing, cultural ignorance, etc... I also find it sad that everytime we have this conversation, I can only think of maybe 3 Black characters that aren't stereotyped, and I actually give a shit about. Two of them are from Half Life, and one is from Killer 7. Hell, Alyx Vance and her father, aren't even playable, but, they are written into the story far better than 99 percent of the other black characters in games. I mean, if they aren't thugs, then they are the meaningless characters, whom are also stereotyped, that appear to do one thing, and vanish from the scenery.

:lol @ Cole, Jax, and Barret being mentioned. It happens all the time too. They aren't main characters, and they are as stereotyped as you can get.

I could go on with this, but, I would probably be beating a dead horse. A little variety would be ****ing nice. *sheds a tear for the girls in Fear Effect*

 

[White Man]

So was Sammy Davis Jr.... I see a pattern here

Sammy D J was a convert, though. I don't think there were reform jews in the old days. If your mama wasn't one, you were screwed.

 

[starchild excalibur]

You don't understand what I'm getting at. Generally you'll find that any type of main character coming out of a studio is either going to be whacky ass japanese, or a stereotype of any given race, usually lightly modelled after a movie star/sports player/something of the sort. It's not just limited to black characters. If anything, black people don't really have it that bad. Infact at this stage im having troubles recalling many games where i play something other than a faceless hero or a 18 year old japanese student. Anyway, these guys need a mention -

Hl2-ep1 - Alyx (not sure, someone correct me if she doesnt fit)
Those spawn games - Al Simmons...albiet being a dead guy and all
Men of Valor - Dean Shephard
That guy from Shadow Man
Akuji

That's not true at all. There are TONS of Japanese and caucasian male leads that aren't wacky/ludicrous stereotypes at all:

Gordon Freeman
Leon from Resident Evil 4
Solid Snake
main dude from Lost Planet
main dude (Drake?) from Uncharted
James Earl Cash from Manhunt
instantly pop to mind, and there are numerous more.

and even those that are based on stereotypes or clichés like Max Payne or Jimmy (from Bully) are at least fleshed out in interesting ways. Out of the, what, 5 or 6 black leads mentioned in this thread, only two of them (Garcian and the main character from Shadow Man) are actually interesting in some way. Again, like just about everyone else in this thread, it's not a big deal to me. But the fact is that there is a dearth not only of lead minorities in games, but minorities that aren't unnecessarily loud, muscular, and one-dimensional.

It's not exactly a mystery why a lot of Japanese media gets railed on for having supposedly racist characters like in LocoRoco when they (and American developers to a slightly less extent) rarely produce games that are the least bit eclectic in terms of the races they present. Again, it's not like I'm calling for some mandate for games to look like those politically correct (white boy, asian girl, black boy, wheelchair girl) Lucky Charm commercials, but it'd certainly help in making games more interesting overall.

And this probably doesn't help either:

heh heh........... were you around the IGN and gamefaqs boards when the first shots of GTA SA were released? Pfft... you'd be surprised at how many shallow and ignorant video gamers there really are. Really, some of the posts and threads I read concerning CJ's race were just horrible. Utterly horrible.

I remember reading the numerous racist comments that were floating around when the first screens of San Andreas were released. Most gamers, I would assume, are fair-skinned (either caucasian or east asian) males and therefore minorities or females as leads just don't cut it, which is pretty ****ing sad.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

What the hell is the deal with all this Rick Astley/Rickroll shit that's been going on? Where did this start?

Anyone?

 

[fernoca]

Don't know if he has been mentioned yet.

Pics doesn't work..but is Jax..he was mentioned ..but..
Liek I said earlier, even though he's black and even had his own game (which sucked)..he's not the "main" character of the MK games.

 

[Blackace]

Sammy D J was a convert, though. I don't think there were reform jews in the old days. If your mama wasn't one, you were screwed.

I will bring you back one of these from Akihabara when I make my trip to Seattle

 

[White Man]

I will bring you back one of these from Akihabara when I make my trip to Seattle

Just make sure you also bring some dirty panties from one of them vending machines.

 

[Blackace]

Just make sure you also bring some dirty panties from one of them vending machines.

I will get the bargin ones with the skid marks..

 

[Vyer]

Something I've noticed...

You know what's harder than finding a black main video game character?

A black (or anyone from most minority groups) person in a group photo of a development team/game studio.

Not saying there is any malicious intent behind that at all, but time and time again I just notice that it tends to not happen very often.

 

[Pudding Tame]

Game developer Jimmy T. Greek says:

"Simply put, the processing power isn't there yet to render the extra leg muscles of a Black main character without the game dipping below 30 fps."

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Who cares?

Yep.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Couple of things:

This is why I love Avatar-based gameplay. (i.e: Creating my own character and going through a game). My favorite games are the one where I am the protagonist.

Second, the answer to this thread is Shadow Man. The original Shadow Man was one of the greater games I played in the N64/Dreamcast Generation and it featured a black character that wasn't a typical stereotype. Garcian from Killer 7 is a close second.

 

[starchild excalibur]

Actually I'll add Vic Vance to this thread:

edit: when did image shack links become banned?

 

[CastleBravo]

Something I've noticed...

You know what's harder than finding a black main video game character?

A black (or anyone from most minority groups) person in a group photo of a development team/game studio.

Not saying there is any malicious intent behind that at all, but time and time again I just notice that it tends to not happen very often.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It just seems that there is only a very small number of African Americans working in the video/computer game field. I certainly can't think of any "big name" Black developers or even any less "famous" Black developers. I don't know why that is.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

I'm going to have to agree with the fact that there aren't many black people doing gaming development.

Seriously, the only prominent black game developer/producer I can remember off the top of my head is Derek Smart.

 

[Blackace]

Seriously, the only prominent black game developer/producer I can remember off the top of my head is Derek Smart.

Jason Hall

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Oh, also.

Adding Sports figures is ridiculous. Sports Cover people are determined by their performance primarily, not race. It just so happens that for the primary sports played in videogame Form (Football, Basketball, Golf, and sometimes baseball) the pre-eminent players are black. If football were a white dominated sport in terms of performance, Black athletes would rarely get the lead.

 

[Proc]

 

[FormulaOne]

Let the infighting begin...

 

[CastleBravo]

:lol :lol :lol

I almost spat beer on my monitor!

 

[Ronin]

Don't know if he has been mentioned yet.

Thats from Silverhawk. :lol

 

[username12]

What about the Canadians?

 

[KingJ2002]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this game.

**** rickrolled

now i cant get the song out of my head!

 

[Tieno]

 

[CharminUltra]

Isn't Master Chief black?

 

[tribal24]

Isn't Master Chief black?

i thought that to

 

[The Frankman]

Barrett from final fantasy 7
That guy from dino crisis 1
3 guys from resident evil 2, code veronica and zero

Final fantasy 8 also had a black guy.

Let me break this down if it wasn't already:


Barret: Mr. T portrayal, very stereotypical
That guy from dino crisis 1: Yeah I think he was kinda cool.
3 guys from resident evil 2, code veronica and zero: Well actually more than 3.
RE1:

Spoiler

Head was munched off in cutscene.

RE2:

Spoiler

Died helping Leon, had to decap him.

RE3:

Spoiler

Actually appeared in two scenes due to choose you own adv style... dies in both

REC:VX -

Spoiler

Enrico gets eaten by giant worm, spat out, and dies.

FF8: Don't remember it.

But you notice a pattern here? Why couldn't devs make heroes like Jade in Beyond Good and Evil

 

[Vic]

Isn't Master Chief black?

nope, he's a Nicaraguan

 

[tribal24]

Let me break this down if it wasn't already:


Barret: Mr. T portrayal, very stereotypical
That guy from dino crisis 1: Yeah I think he was kinda cool.
3 guys from resident evil 2, code veronica and zero: Well actually more than 3.
RE1:

Spoiler

Head was munched off in cutscene.

RE2:

Spoiler

Died helping Leon, had to decap him.

RE3:

Spoiler

Actually appeared in two scenes due to choose you own adv style... dies in both

REC:VX -

Spoiler

Enrico gets eaten by giant worm, spat out, and dies.

FF8: Don't remember it.

But you notice a pattern here? Why couldn't devs make heroes like Jade in Beyond Good and Evil

the final fantasy 8 one is raijin i think thats his name

 

[Tieno]

Isn't Master Chief black?

No, he isn't. He's very white (hardly has any sunlight) and I believe he has (red?) hair and freckles.

edit: wikipedia
. The novels describe Master Chief out of armor as a tall, ghostly pale man with short military-style hair, freckles, and a blank yet sorrowful expression. Master Chief is voiced by Steve Downes in both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, and Downes has been confirmed to be returning for Halo 3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_117

 

[The Frankman]

Unless I missed something Jade also may be the last black main character in a game that was any good (Nov 11, 2003). I mean Urban Choas STUNK. It was so bad I know I'm misspelling Choas intentionally to show my disgust.

Anybody have anything more recent?