Racial Equality in Video Games

klash2def · March 2016

Kilrain said:

When a person creates a fictional character it is typically based on themselves or someone they are close to, even without intention. Unless they are explicitly going for someone radically different on purpose then it will in fact reflect something more close to them. I know you wont like to hear it, but the reason you see fewer black characters as the "main" character is because the writer/developer either wasn't black or wasn't close enough (personally) to someone to drive it in that direction, and they probably aren't racist either.

Now when it comes to character customization I can't be sure why developers don't provide darker skin options in the games that don't. Skin tone isn't something that's difficult to implement. I do understand the frustration here because I do not like having only Asian characters to choose from in many of the Asian games. I don't call them racist for it though. Just assholes

I get the point you are trying to make, but in Asia 99% of the people are Asian.

In America there are many different races. African Americans make up the largest section of the minority group. 13% of the American Population are African American. 17% of the population..Latino.

That's a lot of people.

So when talking about other countries game developments yea you are right, they represent what they see. In asia it happens to be Asian because that's 99% of what they have. Here in America it's different. You can't tell me that these writers/developers don't know about black people..Latino people.

We aren't some outside entity, we are Americans, and if I can be frank, the country was built on the BACKS of black people literally. So to us, there is no excuse for the exclusion we are seeing in multimedia projects, especially Video Games.

Developers HERE (Western Culture) need to do a better job with racial diversity and there is no way around it.

cameltosis · March 2016

klash2def said:

Before you comment please read the OP it's going to help you understand.

Edit: I'm glaringly obviously one of maybe 4-5 black people on this site that posts regularly.. so if you are going to respond to this old thread please read the full op. I'm tired of responding to people who leave senseless underhanded comments because they have a lack of understanding of what I'm talking about.

I made a big response earlier in the thread you didn't respond to.

The tl,dr version is:

Would you rather have white guys trying to make politically correct content for black people (which history has shown us doesn't work) or would you rather have them making content they are familiar with?

Because those are your choices. Developers can't win this arguement. As you yourself said, whenever white folk try to develop content that includes black people, they still manage to offend you because it's still draws upon stereotypes. But, if they stick to what they know and are familiar with they still get criticised for leaving out minorities.

Video games are not racist. The video games industry isn't racist. To say so is ignorant of the wider picture. Video games will never be able to accurately reflect "black culture" until video games are made by people from that culture and that won't happen until problems of racism and education are sorted out at a much younger age. Go and look at virtually any technical course in any university in Europe (and probably US too) and you'll struggle to find any black people. Is it any surprise that games companies struggle to hire black people and thus struggle to accurately portray black culture and develop decent black role models?

klash2def · March 2016

cameltosis said:

klash2def said:

Before you comment please read the OP it's going to help you understand.

Edit: I'm glaringly obviously one of maybe 4-5 black people on this site that posts regularly.. so if you are going to respond to this old thread please read the full op. I'm tired of responding to people who leave senseless underhanded comments because they have a lack of understanding of what I'm talking about.

I made a big response earlier in the thread you didn't respond to.

The tl,dr version is:

Would you rather have white guys trying to make politically correct content for black people (which history has shown us doesn't work) or would you rather have them making content they are familiar with?

Because those are your choices. Developers can't win this arguement. As you yourself said, whenever white folk try to develop content that includes black people, they still manage to offend you because it's still draws upon stereotypes. But, if they stick to what they know and are familiar with they still get criticised for leaving out minorities.

Video games are not racist. The video games industry isn't racist. To say so is ignorant of the wider picture. Video games will never be able to accurately reflect "black culture" until video games are made by people from that culture and that won't happen until problems of racism and education are sorted out at a much younger age. Go and look at virtually any technical course in any university in Europe (and probably US too) and you'll struggle to find any black people. Is it any surprise that games companies struggle to hire black people and thus struggle to accurately portray black culture and develop decent black role models?

You are trying to make a point about devs not being able to -Get- black culture.. let me help you out.

GTA started out as a british thing. The guys who make it are white brits. When they created GTA San-Andreas and GTA V you know what they did?

They went to Compton california, Watts California, East Los Angeles, and lived ate and breathed with black and latino people to get the right atmosphere and stories for their game. They went and hired black and latino people, some of them current and former Gang Members.. they did everything in their power to make an accurate portrayal of the gang culture in Los Angeles. This was probably not the favorite option of things to do but in the end they created true art and they nailed it.

Although GTA portrays a "Gang Culture" stereotype for the masses, it was still very accurate of how it actually is for Minorities from those types of communities.

Now let's go a step further. Because GTA is something based in "realism" and "Gang" culture seems to be the only type of black culture white devs think should happen in video games.
(PS Gang Culture wasn't created by us)

Fantasy Games. Games where you have Orcs, Elves, Imps, Dragons, Knights, Paladins, Half Orcs, etc..

Why is it in those settings do we only see white people? Why can't Knights be Latino? Black?

How come those stories aren't written? This is what I'm talking about. To me there is no excuse because in creative writing which is what most games are, you can write in any character you want. I find it amazing that in a fantasy game you have all of these incredible races to learn about but when it says "Humans" it's a white male. Racist? Idk but it's no question insensitive to ALWAYS be this. This was the choice made in writing.

You are trying to say that black people aren't written in because of lack of understanding of our -culture- by white people, but that implies that game devs are only making games that are culturally accurate.

If that were true there would be no Knights vs Dragons types of games because who's culture is that? Whose culture was based on Knights or Paladins who wield some great healing magic against large Dragons to save the princess and the town? None of that is real. It's made up.

EDIT: also your tagged on part about "Decent Black Role Models" .. please we have plenty of black role models.. I never once wanted games to give me a role model. My role models are real people. Some black some not. As far as video games, I want to see more people with my face be represented. It's not about anything else. Its simple actually. Write black/latino characters in lead roles. Its that simple. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

klash2def · March 2016

BTW: I do appreciate the people who are actually trying to have an open mind/conversation about this. The ones who came in here and got mad, blocked me, paint me as a bigot/angry black man..all because I was making valid points about this issue need to wake up and curb their racism fast.. the world has changed a little bit while you were sleeping.

The main change is that people with no voice before kinda of now have one and spark conversations like these in hopes of creating a better version of this thing called life for others in the future.

klash2def · March 2016

Here is another example of what I'm talking about.

Image: http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news/94087/_1447388238.jpg

So... you cast Gerard Butler as lead in a movie about the Gods of an African Race of people? So you are saying.. wait.

You cast 95% white people in a movie based on something that happened in Africa? AFRICA.. Wait.

Wait.

Okay... so there is no race issue. "Nobody is doing this on purpose it's just because white people dont understand black culture" according to some people in this thread.

Anybody remember that horrible Dragon Ball Z movie? How do you cast a white male as Japanese Goku?

This is what i'm talking about.. things like this. Guess what we will never see happen?

Nobody is going to mistakenly make a "Black Superman" movie.

Nobody is going to on accident make Captain America black in a movie.

If those things happen it's on purpose so that leads me to believe that things like ABOVE are also on purpose.

This is also true in video games.

Write better characters with more diversity! NO EXCUSE!

Kilrain · March 2016

klash2def said:

cameltosis said:

klash2def said:

Before you comment please read the OP it's going to help you understand.

Edit: I'm glaringly obviously one of maybe 4-5 black people on this site that posts regularly.. so if you are going to respond to this old thread please read the full op. I'm tired of responding to people who leave senseless underhanded comments because they have a lack of understanding of what I'm talking about.

I made a big response earlier in the thread you didn't respond to.

The tl,dr version is:

Would you rather have white guys trying to make politically correct content for black people (which history has shown us doesn't work) or would you rather have them making content they are familiar with?

Because those are your choices. Developers can't win this arguement. As you yourself said, whenever white folk try to develop content that includes black people, they still manage to offend you because it's still draws upon stereotypes. But, if they stick to what they know and are familiar with they still get criticised for leaving out minorities.

Video games are not racist. The video games industry isn't racist. To say so is ignorant of the wider picture. Video games will never be able to accurately reflect "black culture" until video games are made by people from that culture and that won't happen until problems of racism and education are sorted out at a much younger age. Go and look at virtually any technical course in any university in Europe (and probably US too) and you'll struggle to find any black people. Is it any surprise that games companies struggle to hire black people and thus struggle to accurately portray black culture and develop decent black role models?

You are trying to make a point about devs not being able to -Get- black culture.. let me help you out.

GTA started out as a british thing. The guys who make it are white brits. When they created GTA San-Andreas and GTA V you know what they did?

They went to Compton california, Watts California, East Los Angeles, and lived ate and breathed with black and latino people to get the right atmosphere and stories for their game. They went and hired black and latino people, some of them current and former Gang Members.. they did everything in their power to make an accurate portrayal of the gang culture in Los Angeles. This was probably not the favorite option of things to do but in the end they created true art and they nailed it.

Although GTA portrays a "Gang Culture" stereotype for the masses, it was still very accurate of how it actually is for Minorities from those types of communities.

Now let's go a step further. Because GTA is something based in "realism" and "Gang" culture seems to be the only type of black culture white devs think should happen in video games.
(PS Gang Culture wasn't created by us)

Fantasy Games. Games where you have Orcs, Elves, Imps, Dragons, Knights, Paladins, Half Orcs, etc..

Why is it in those settings do we only see white people? Why can't Knights be Latino? Black?

How come those stories aren't written? This is what I'm talking about. To me there is no excuse because in creative writing which is what most games are, you can write in any character you want. I find it amazing that in a fantasy game you have all of these incredible races to learn about but when it says "Humans" it's a white male. Racist? Idk but it's no question insensitive to ALWAYS be this. This was the choice made in writing.

You are trying to say that black people aren't written in because of lack of understanding of our -culture- by white people, but that implies that game devs are only making games that are culturally accurate.

If that were true there would be no Knights vs Dragons types of games because who's culture is that? Whose culture was based on Knights or Paladins who wield some great healing magic against large Dragons to save the princess and the town? None of that is real. It's made up.

EDIT: also your tagged on part about "Decent Black Role Models" .. please we have plenty of black role models.. I never once wanted games to give me a role model. My role models are real people. Some black some not. As far as video games, I want to see more people with my face be represented. It's not about anything else. Its simple actually. Write black/latino characters in lead roles. Its that simple. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

Remember in my first comment where I stated, and I'll quote,

When a person creates a fictional character it is typically based on themselves or someone they are close to, even without intention. Unless they are explicitly going for someone radically different

This is what I was talking about. These British guys wanted to create something so radically different from what they were accustomed to they had to go out of their way to learn about it first. Which is awesome, but not everyone is trying to create something they don't know as much about. They go with what they know instead. I'm currently creating a platformer and the main character is white. Not because I'm biased, but because I just did. No thinking required.

Yes this country is far more diverse than China or Japan, but that doesn't mean every person or any for that matter that is developing a game has any of that influence that I was referring to earlier.

The "Gods of Egypt" example makes sense to complain about. Either the director is a racist or complete moron. Obviously someone (many someones) didn't do any damn research whatsoever.

What you should do is find more obvious examples, like the Gods of Egypt movie, in gaming and use those for your arguments. Just claiming someone is racist (I can't remember if you explicitly called someone racist, forgive me if you didn't) because they didn't include a specific race or made them to much of a stereotype (your Barret example, I thought he was awesome btw) isn't going to raise any flags and will more likely be ignored. People will be far more receptive of it if they have obvious proof.

klash2def · March 2016

Kilrain said:

klash2def said:

cameltosis said:

klash2def said:

Before you comment please read the OP it's going to help you understand.

Edit: I'm glaringly obviously one of maybe 4-5 black people on this site that posts regularly.. so if you are going to respond to this old thread please read the full op. I'm tired of responding to people who leave senseless underhanded comments because they have a lack of understanding of what I'm talking about.

I made a big response earlier in the thread you didn't respond to.

The tl,dr version is:

Would you rather have white guys trying to make politically correct content for black people (which history has shown us doesn't work) or would you rather have them making content they are familiar with?

Because those are your choices. Developers can't win this arguement. As you yourself said, whenever white folk try to develop content that includes black people, they still manage to offend you because it's still draws upon stereotypes. But, if they stick to what they know and are familiar with they still get criticised for leaving out minorities.

Video games are not racist. The video games industry isn't racist. To say so is ignorant of the wider picture. Video games will never be able to accurately reflect "black culture" until video games are made by people from that culture and that won't happen until problems of racism and education are sorted out at a much younger age. Go and look at virtually any technical course in any university in Europe (and probably US too) and you'll struggle to find any black people. Is it any surprise that games companies struggle to hire black people and thus struggle to accurately portray black culture and develop decent black role models?

You are trying to make a point about devs not being able to -Get- black culture.. let me help you out.

GTA started out as a british thing. The guys who make it are white brits. When they created GTA San-Andreas and GTA V you know what they did?

They went to Compton california, Watts California, East Los Angeles, and lived ate and breathed with black and latino people to get the right atmosphere and stories for their game. They went and hired black and latino people, some of them current and former Gang Members.. they did everything in their power to make an accurate portrayal of the gang culture in Los Angeles. This was probably not the favorite option of things to do but in the end they created true art and they nailed it.

Although GTA portrays a "Gang Culture" stereotype for the masses, it was still very accurate of how it actually is for Minorities from those types of communities.

Now let's go a step further. Because GTA is something based in "realism" and "Gang" culture seems to be the only type of black culture white devs think should happen in video games.
(PS Gang Culture wasn't created by us)

Fantasy Games. Games where you have Orcs, Elves, Imps, Dragons, Knights, Paladins, Half Orcs, etc..

Why is it in those settings do we only see white people? Why can't Knights be Latino? Black?

How come those stories aren't written? This is what I'm talking about. To me there is no excuse because in creative writing which is what most games are, you can write in any character you want. I find it amazing that in a fantasy game you have all of these incredible races to learn about but when it says "Humans" it's a white male. Racist? Idk but it's no question insensitive to ALWAYS be this. This was the choice made in writing.

You are trying to say that black people aren't written in because of lack of understanding of our -culture- by white people, but that implies that game devs are only making games that are culturally accurate.

If that were true there would be no Knights vs Dragons types of games because who's culture is that? Whose culture was based on Knights or Paladins who wield some great healing magic against large Dragons to save the princess and the town? None of that is real. It's made up.

EDIT: also your tagged on part about "Decent Black Role Models" .. please we have plenty of black role models.. I never once wanted games to give me a role model. My role models are real people. Some black some not. As far as video games, I want to see more people with my face be represented. It's not about anything else. Its simple actually. Write black/latino characters in lead roles. Its that simple. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

Remember in my first comment where I stated, and I'll quote,
When a person creates a fictional character it is typically based on themselves or someone they are close to, even without intention. Unless they are explicitly going for someone radically different

This is what I was talking about. These British guys wanted to create something so radically different from what they were accustomed to they had to go out of their way to learn about it first. Which is awesome, but not everyone is trying to create something they don't know as much about. They go with what they know instead. I'm currently creating a platformer and the main character is white. Not because I'm biased, but because I just did. No thinking required.

Yes this country is far more diverse than China or Japan, but that doesn't mean every person or any for that matter that is developing a game has any of that influence that I was referring to earlier.

The "Gods of Egypt" example makes sense to complain about. Either the director is a racist or complete moron. Obviously someone (many someones) didn't do any damn research whatsoever.

What you should do is find more obvious examples, like the Gods of Egypt movie, in gaming and use those for your arguments. Just claiming someone is racist (I can't remember if you explicitly called someone racist, forgive me if you didn't) because they didn't include a specific race or made them to much of a stereotype (your Barret example, I thought he was awesome btw) isn't going to raise any flags and will more likely be ignored. People will be far more receptive of it if they have obvious proof.

I gave several obvious examples in this thread.Here is another..

Call Of Duty Black Ops Series (they added a character creator and all the choices are white)

https://youtu.be/nOrU-tIrJdI?t=318

male/female option but they are all white in the main story.. dont see point of character creator.
Series has never had a lead that wasn't white.

Diablo 3

5 classes 4 humans and 4 white characters not counting the templar who is also white.

Image: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1587755/select_class_800.jpeg

There are hundreds more. I dont need to keep proving it, all you gotta do is play the games.

Edit: If you read my op, i never once called any developer or company, racist. I said to add more diversity in games and stay away from stereotypes to do it.

klash2def · March 2016

Says a lot that I'm only getting people saying to me that there is no problem.

Says a lot that I'm only getting people defending WHY there is no diversity.

The fact that you are defending lack of diversity lets me know that you see it, and you know its real.. but instead of dealing with it, openly admitting that its wrong.. and facing it, im getting people saying there is no issue and here is why there is no diversity.

Its very frustrating because the proof is there to see..but people here want to deny that.. they dont want to see it as an issue because they dont know how to have that conversation.

I don't have to keep proving what Im saying..stop asking me to prove it, i already did and the proof is in the games.

Find me 10 games with a lead character that isnt white.. I will wait. Thats your proof.

Why are people constantly denying this issue, does it really make you that uncomfortable? Listen just because it makes you uncomfortable does not mean it isnt real and isnt worth being brought up. Its valid, this isn't just my opinion, this is very factual with evidence and it makes me more uncomfortable than you could ever be about it.

But look at me, Im the token black guy on this site trying to plead my case about race relations in video games to a bunch of white guys who grew up with dungeons and dragons. Maybe they will never see my issue because its not them that's affected

So i'm talking to a brick wall.

I bet if it were reversed.. and black/latino people were the only human you saw in video games and every now and again you get a sprinkle of a white guy, you would be livid and prob not even play video games at all. It would be an issue then.

klash2def · March 2016

klash2def said:

Kilrain said:

klash2def said:

cameltosis said:

klash2def said:

Before you comment please read the OP it's going to help you understand.

Edit: I'm glaringly obviously one of maybe 4-5 black people on this site that posts regularly.. so if you are going to respond to this old thread please read the full op. I'm tired of responding to people who leave senseless underhanded comments because they have a lack of understanding of what I'm talking about.

I made a big response earlier in the thread you didn't respond to.

The tl,dr version is:

Would you rather have white guys trying to make politically correct content for black people (which history has shown us doesn't work) or would you rather have them making content they are familiar with?

Because those are your choices. Developers can't win this arguement. As you yourself said, whenever white folk try to develop content that includes black people, they still manage to offend you because it's still draws upon stereotypes. But, if they stick to what they know and are familiar with they still get criticised for leaving out minorities.

Video games are not racist. The video games industry isn't racist. To say so is ignorant of the wider picture. Video games will never be able to accurately reflect "black culture" until video games are made by people from that culture and that won't happen until problems of racism and education are sorted out at a much younger age. Go and look at virtually any technical course in any university in Europe (and probably US too) and you'll struggle to find any black people. Is it any surprise that games companies struggle to hire black people and thus struggle to accurately portray black culture and develop decent black role models?

You are trying to make a point about devs not being able to -Get- black culture.. let me help you out.

GTA started out as a british thing. The guys who make it are white brits. When they created GTA San-Andreas and GTA V you know what they did?

They went to Compton california, Watts California, East Los Angeles, and lived ate and breathed with black and latino people to get the right atmosphere and stories for their game. They went and hired black and latino people, some of them current and former Gang Members.. they did everything in their power to make an accurate portrayal of the gang culture in Los Angeles. This was probably not the favorite option of things to do but in the end they created true art and they nailed it.

Although GTA portrays a "Gang Culture" stereotype for the masses, it was still very accurate of how it actually is for Minorities from those types of communities.

Now let's go a step further. Because GTA is something based in "realism" and "Gang" culture seems to be the only type of black culture white devs think should happen in video games.
(PS Gang Culture wasn't created by us)

Fantasy Games. Games where you have Orcs, Elves, Imps, Dragons, Knights, Paladins, Half Orcs, etc..

Why is it in those settings do we only see white people? Why can't Knights be Latino? Black?

How come those stories aren't written? This is what I'm talking about. To me there is no excuse because in creative writing which is what most games are, you can write in any character you want. I find it amazing that in a fantasy game you have all of these incredible races to learn about but when it says "Humans" it's a white male. Racist? Idk but it's no question insensitive to ALWAYS be this. This was the choice made in writing.

You are trying to say that black people aren't written in because of lack of understanding of our -culture- by white people, but that implies that game devs are only making games that are culturally accurate.

If that were true there would be no Knights vs Dragons types of games because who's culture is that? Whose culture was based on Knights or Paladins who wield some great healing magic against large Dragons to save the princess and the town? None of that is real. It's made up.

EDIT: also your tagged on part about "Decent Black Role Models" .. please we have plenty of black role models.. I never once wanted games to give me a role model. My role models are real people. Some black some not. As far as video games, I want to see more people with my face be represented. It's not about anything else. Its simple actually. Write black/latino characters in lead roles. Its that simple. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

Remember in my first comment where I stated, and I'll quote,
When a person creates a fictional character it is typically based on themselves or someone they are close to, even without intention. Unless they are explicitly going for someone radically different

This is what I was talking about. These British guys wanted to create something so radically different from what they were accustomed to they had to go out of their way to learn about it first. Which is awesome, but not everyone is trying to create something they don't know as much about. They go with what they know instead. I'm currently creating a platformer and the main character is white. Not because I'm biased, but because I just did. No thinking required.

2 things :

What's so radical about creating a story based on somebody who has a different skin tone than you the creator?

You do realize you can rewrite any story in the world and make the main character a POC right? The story stays the same.. you dont need tons of research unless you are about to do something that plays off a stereotype and you're going for realism.

For instance, could Nathan Drake be black? Would it be different if he were simply latino? How? Its the same game right? What about Cloud Strife? Why wasnt Barret a loud talking angry white guy using stereotypical slang? Could cloud not have been black ? What changes the story if so?

Exactly my point.

klash2def · March 2016

Grunty said:

I can only speak for myself Klash2def. I have only experienced bigotry based on my caucasian ethnicity a couple of times. But bigotry is only the basis for racism. Those bigots weren't in a position to have the power needed for racism.

I do have my prejudices based on skin color/ethnicity. I am aware of them and I try to minimize them. Hopefully those who have responded to you will some day make the effort to do the same.

There are not enough black characters in games who just happen to be black.

Be well.

Kilrain · March 2016

1. I already explained why characters in a story end up the way they do, you are the one ignoring it for your own agenda. - What you are asking people to do is deliberately change something or pay attention to one detail just to satisfy you. Do you seriously want someone to change the color of a characters skin out of pity? Really? Think about what you are saying. You want black people to be the main focus of a game? Make one. It's like me complaining that Tyler Perry never puts a white person in his movies. It just doesn't make sense.

2. When it comes to character creation scenarios I agree that there is no reason and developers need to think about that. UNLESS IT'S A PART OF THE LORE.

Now, I realize you don't care what I have to say so unless you want to actually discuss using logic then this will be my last post on the matter.

klash2def · March 2016

wow just wow. I answered your points and you respond as if I didn't answer them and then accuse me of having some type of agenda..

stop with this agenda bs. I dont have one and im not going to tell you again. read my op. All im doing is pointing out something that's been there.

You asked me to show you more examples. I did. You said bring more proof.. I fucking did.

You have nothing to say about any of that and just like the other guy try to flip it as if Im not answering points and I'm asking for some type of pity for black people.. get the fuck outta here. Nobody needs or wants your pity. This isn't about me this is about what I said it was about in the OP. Racial Diversity In Video Games. The LACK of it.

This shit is very true.. wtf you mean, If I want black people to be the focus of a game then make one..

So basically If I cant make the game I want to play.. then I cant talk about the issues I have in other games.. especially when it's regarding something like race.. then if so EVERYBODY on this website needs to stfu and stop bitching about mundane shit like "UI is too big" "PVP is broken" "More quests" "Open world" "I want sandbox" just shut up.

white people get so uncomfortable when black people talk about race to them. Its incredible it's as if you harbor the guilt of your ancestors.

I didn't ignore shit I told you how wrong your statement is and WHY it makes no sense.

This isnt about ME and that underhand racism shit you are doing by trying to flip my concerns as ME being the one with some type of racist agenda.. not the real actual issue.. but ME having some type of agenda.. its why black people just dont speak up because its a lost hope when you are talking to a room full of white people who also happen to be insensitive to racial issue because white privilege is real.

Im sure everything Im saying is going to be ignored and you are going to say some more bs about me being the one with the issue.. youre not even addressing the issue.. but addressing the fact that I have an issue with the issue.. smfh. Then telling me WHY my issue exsists as if I should just accept it.

also you mentioned tyler perry.. you realize why he hires mostly black actors? Because those black actors do not get the same opportunities as white actors. That's the only reason why. That's all im going to say about that.

Its amazing that you can sit here and pretend like there is no issue with race. You can pretend all you want and try to flip it on me to be something that Im not but at the end of the day it doesnt change anything I said.. everything I said was factual as fuck. You or anybody else has yet to dispute shit when I throw facts at you.

It's amazing.. you ask for facts, proof, I give it, and then you ignore what I said as if I never told you then write some bullshit about me having a agenda.. so because I just proved my theory to be true.. you say I have an agenda? What agenda? I'm not getting shit out of having this conversation with a bunch of white males who have no idea why I would be even bringing up race in the first place with video games.

The only thing I learned from all of this is that there are a lot of closet racist on this website.

I know this because instead of you investigating what i said.. taking a look at all the evidence I presented to back my theory about racial exclusion in video games, I get attacked and forced to defend WHY i even think that way.. dog I dont have to explain this shit to you. Either you get it or you dont.

Either you understand what equality is or you dont.

klash2def · March 2016

Kilrain said:

When a person creates a fictional character it is typically based on themselves or someone they are close to, even without intention. Unless they are explicitly going for someone radically different on purpose then it will in fact reflect something more close to them. I know you wont like to hear it, but the reason you see fewer black characters as the "main" character is because the writer/developer either wasn't black or wasn't close enough (personally) to someone to drive it in that direction, and they probably aren't racist either.

Now when it comes to character customization I can't be sure why developers don't provide darker skin options in the games that don't. Skin tone isn't something that's difficult to implement. I do understand the frustration here because I do not like having only Asian characters to choose from in many of the Asian games. I don't call them racist for it though. Just assholes

@Kilrain since you forgot what you said let me remind you.

I answered you already with this.

klash2def said:

I get the point you are trying to make, but in Asia 99% of the people are Asian.

In America there are many different races. African Americans make up the largest section of the minority group. 13% of the American Population are African American. 17% of the population..Latino.

That's a lot of people.

So when talking about other countries game developments yea you are right, they represent what they see. In asia it happens to be Asian because that's 99% of what they have. Here in America it's different. You can't tell me that these writers/developers don't know about black people..Latino people.

We aren't some outside entity, we are Americans, and if I can be frank, the country was built on the BACKS of black people literally. So to us, there is no excuse for the exclusion we are seeing in multimedia projects, especially Video Games.

Developers HERE (Western Culture) need to do a better job with racial diversity and there is no way around it.

Where did i ignore what you said.

Where did i not give you evidence of what Im saying.

I dont need to give you anymore evidence, go read my posts, i've given TONS of evidence that fully back my theory. Each time i've done that, I've gotten people like you attacking me trying to twist my words and make it seem as if I have some other "agenda"

WHAT IS THIS AGENDA YOU KEEP REFERRING TO? WTF??

IF SPEAKING UP FOR WHAT I BELIEVE IS RIGHT IS HAVING SOME ULTERIOR MOTIVE THAN I GUESS SO??????

*kanye shrug*

Are you really that bothered by the truths of what I'm saying that you'd rather pretend it isn't real because you dont like facing THAT reality? Its real. Maybe I'm the first black person to tell you something like this, who knows but just because you dont understand it, because like I said a lot of you seem to have this white privilege thing going on, just because you dont understand.. does not make it less true. There is far too much evidence. I'm not giving you anymore. Its there and you know it's there.

My only goal by even mentioning any of this was to raise awareness of a issue that NOT just myself has noticed. But many others. Over the years anytime a black person mentioned it, they got attacked for doing so, but guess what? You can attack me all you want.. I'm a very strong person, I did several tours in iraq during the 8 years I was in the Marines, so I can take this internet bullshit..

BUT you will not silence me by trying to flip and twist my words.. I will not allow you to try and pretend like my issue shouldn't matter to ME.. I will not let you pretend that YOU dont see what Im talking about after I just gave you clear evidence.

At the end of the day this was just an observation and I got attacked for it then forced to prove my shit, when I did that, you boys got real quiet on the facts part of my delivery and tried to flip what i was saying into something else that had nothing to do with shit I was saying.

I had people bring up oscars, game development in africa, tyler perry and beyonce. I broke down each one of those bullshit detractions with valid evidence to support my own theory and you still pretend as if I didn't do that. So I'm done. Im also done with this site, Its toxic as fuck and Its sad to see that many of you are actually closet racism waiting to unleash on the first POC to mention anything about race to you.

Look how quickly people attacked what I said. Only closet racist react like this.

White males respond on mmorpg.com to a Black Male's theory about Racial Exclusion of POC's in Video Games.

"Make your own game if you want black people in it"

"Black people aren't written in because this isn't africa."

"Most people who play video games are white"

"There is no racial issue it's all just the media agenda"

"The oscar thing was bullshit because there wasn't one black actor who had a oscar level performance."

(My favorite) "Here is why you dont see black people in games often. Not enough black xyz"

"There is no racial issue in video games you just have an agenda"

This is what I had to deal with. Fuck all racist people on earth, I hope you get help. If you are reading this and have a issue with me caring about racial equality then you are a closet racist so fuck you too.

Closet racism is just as bad no actually worse than open racism because at least I'd know to stay away from you if you were honest about your prejudice.

Po_gg · March 2016

klash2def said:

GTA started out as a british thing. The guys who make it are white brits. When they created GTA San-Andreas and GTA V you know what they did?
[...]

My favourite piece is Vice City since I love the '80s, but man I really liked SA... Radio Los Santos, with JulioG

"every day is Dre day on my show, man" Same goes to Axl in K-DST.
Rockstar raised the radio stations to a whole new level with SA, Vice City had great collections of the '80s (especially V-Rock, cool radio), but SA was much more into place.

The gang wars mechanic wasn't my favourite though, took away too much time from the story and the casual play of riding around, exploring or just simply having fun. Maybe that was my only issue with the game.
The area was huge, CJ's story was great and nicely written (and with lots of references to movies during the way

), there were bikes, hot coffee (khm

), cardio system, arcades... a really good game indeed.

Vaross · March 2016

Seeing as this thread was necro'd from a month ago and has devolved into back and forth bickering, I'm leaving this closed.

Howdy, Stranger!

Racial Equality in Video Games

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Racial Equality in Video Games

Comments