Discussion: The lack of racial diversity in video games

[MelodieOctavia]

It always struck me odd that you hardly ever see people of varying races in video games.

In any given RPG, you walk into any given town, and there is no one there besides white and/or Asian people. Why is this? Why are game developers so hesitant about including black, or hispanic, or anyone else of varying nationality? This does not just apply to RPGs, but to all genres. (not including sports)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Note: I will not hesitate to request a thread lock if this gets out of hand, so keep it clean.

 

[Fudge]

I agree. I never really cared or noticed it, but now that you bring it up, there isn't much racial diversity in video games.

 

[_Chaz_]

I've noticed this quite often. It's everywhere but no on ever says anything.

This is where non-human characters come into play, no one can complain.

 

[PeregrinFig]

Really, the way I think of it is, most games are made in Japan, and how many black/hispanic people do you see walking around Tokyo? Western-made games tend to have more diversity in general, though not always.

 

[Acetic Orcein]

I know what you mean!

But I think many games aren't really set within our world!
So maybe what we deem as white/black people etc generally won't exist within the realms of that game. If that makes any sense? Like... in their in game world, our concepts of racial diversity can't really be applied, since they have their own races. Occasionally you may see a tan person? But yeah.

I do know exactly what you're saying, and I admit it is really nice to see ethnically diverse people within video games. I don't think games developers really consider ethnic diversity though unless the game is going to be set in our world. It's just easy to think of everyone as exactly the same perhaps?

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

I presume you have not yet played Pokémon Black/White?

 

[prowler]

I care for the gameplay.

Not for the color of the NPCs skin.

 

[Blood Fetish]

Two words:
Shaq. Fu.

 

[Terminator02]

this is the same, if not more so for women in video games, although women are harder to create than just different races... (different way they walk, different clothes, etc.)

Edit:

I care for the gameplay.

Not for the color of the NPCs skin.

+1

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Two words:
Shaq. Fu.

why oh why did you have to reference one of the most puketastic games in all of the known universe?

 

[injected11]

I recall laughing quite hard when Capcom put black, asian, and latino infected into Resident Evil 5, and suddenly everyone shouts OMG RACIST. Every single RE game up to that point, you shot nothing except white zombies, which the exception of Marvin, a single black cop in RE2 who ends up zombified and gets his own cutscene before you kill him.

 

[Wabsta]

I recall laughing quite hard when Capcom put black, asian, and latino infected into Resident Evil 5, and suddenly everyone shouts OMG RACIST. Every single RE game up to that point, you shot nothing except white zombies, which the exception of Marvin, a single black cop in RE2 who ends up zombified and gets his own cutscene before you kill him.

This.

I guess game developers think, if we just don't do it, we won't get any QQ.

 

[monkat]

I....don't really care....

I think part of it (at least with stylized characters) is this.

I would have no problem playing as an inebriated latina and her black clown friend - it really doesn't matter.

Especially if they're hot.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

What about Yoshi?

Surely green skin counts for something...

 

[Blaze163]

Shut up, fool.

But seriously, I don't really care. What difference does it make if characters are black or white? It's not like it'd make any difference to gameplay. I'm not going into games thinking 'wow, I hope this will be racially sensitive'. I for one play games to escape reality, where such things are a constant worry. Example, when I was in school a black kid was giving me a load of abuse. I told him to fuck off and stop being an arse hole, and the head teacher yelled at me and called me a racist. I tried to explain that I called him an arse hole because he was being an arse hole. Being black had nothing to do with it, he was just an arse hole. But once the race card is played it stays on the table and nobody would listen to me. All I did was defend myself against some stupid kid trying to cause trouble, and I get slapped with the racist label.

As for the RE5 'controversy', I don't get why everyone got so uptight about the trailer. It's not even the most racially insensitive part of the game. That comes later on when you're fighting tribal black people throwing spears at you. All you'd need there is a burning cross and a bucket of fried chicken and you have the most racially insensitive picture ever conceived, surely?

But why get so upset about the colour of a person's skin? Surely you should judge by what's on the inside? I try not to let anything other than a person's actions colour my views of them. If you're an arse hole, I'll call you an arse hole. I don't give a fuck what colour you are.

 

[BlueStar]

Had to laugh at Custom Robo Area, hundreds of NPCs, only one of them black and he's a criminal.

 

[MFDC12]

I recall laughing quite hard when Capcom put black, asian, and latino infected into Resident Evil 5, and suddenly everyone shouts OMG RACIST. Every single RE game up to that point, you shot nothing except white zombies, which the exception of Marvin, a single black cop in RE2 who ends up zombified and gets his own cutscene before you kill him.

not to mention people did the same with left 4 dead 2! haha

 

[Paarish]

Ive always questioned this. When was the last time you saw an Indian protaganist?

 

[BlueStar]

Ive always questioned this. When was the last time you saw an Indian protaganist?

Prey

Oh, alright, I know that's not what you meant.

 

[Rydian]

Turok? =D