I just read through a very interesting article on Kotaku.com about race, how it is depicted in video game design, and how non-white gamers experience gaming culture. Go read it here:
Minority Report: The Non-White Gamer’s Experience
I found it especially interesting to contrast the way a black character is depicted in the games “Left 4 Dead” and “Gears of War”. Two very different characterizations.
What do you think?
September 17, 2009 at 11:13 am
I think it’s good if it’s done right. I am playing through Half Life 2 right now, and one of the characters is, from what I gather, half black. I think it’s a good example, because they don’t make a big deal like “Look! We have a minority in our game!”
Overall, I think done respectively like in HL2 is good… but I don’t care for playing along side an over-the-top stereotypical black character in Gears.
Just my two cents.
September 17, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I am guessing you are talking about the character Alyx in Half Life 2. She is indeed mixed race and I agree that they did very well with that character. Incidentally, both Half Life 2 and Left 4 Dead are developed by Valve. I think those guys really know what they’re doing.
September 28, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I have mixed feelings. I agree that more nationalities should be put on the forefront of games, however doing so just for the sake of it doesn’t seem right either. I think that when it is forced it often leads to characters like Coletrain from Gears of War (though I must be honest, he is my favorite of those Gears characters because he’s fun and not brooding the entire time).
I think it has to start at the designers. Perhaps that could be a forum held at a convention, just to remind them “oh ya, not all the characters have to be white.” When I write, I usually write white characters but the past year or so (with these very issues in games coming out) I’ve tried to shy away from the stereotypes and instead make my characters more eclectic. It takes awhile to reformat your brain to think like that but once it’s done you don’t even think about it.
Now the only problem I can foresee is for example that some within the black community (I can’t seem to find the post anymore) that thought Louis from Left 4 Dead was too “white washed”. While another contingent in the community are saying they don’t want characters like Coletrain from Gears. This leaves the designers stuck in a hard place because it’s a lose, lose.
Thoughts?
September 28, 2009 at 9:33 pm
That situation you describe in the last paragraph is concerning. It seems there is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation that arises from the issue being so tied to perception and subjective interpretation. I’m not really sure what to do about that.
October 23, 2009 at 3:18 pm
[...] war, left 4 dead, louis, race, white by Vagary Awhile back I commented on Tylor’s article Race and Gaming over at The Restless Ones. I thought perhaps I’d write in a little bit more detail what I [...]