Black Protagonists in Gaming: A Black History Month Special

Prime + writes: "Black characters in video games aren't difficult to find if you look hard enough. But to some extent, a rare gem to discover is the well-rounded and positive black protagonist. Characters within entertainment are generally a means of identification and more creatively, personas that enhance one's experience on various social fronts. Social–in this case racial–awareness in the game industry hasn't quite reached the level of say, the movie industry, and that is understandable, seeing how it is a younger business in comparison.

My concern is this: black characters in games habitually range from stereotypical to non-existent. In addition, black gamers consume a great deal of the medium and are a vastly growing and contributing demographic in the community. Why not create and implement characters that are actually relatable or who boast innovative societal behaviors?"

[Hiruma Youchi]

black history month special! lmao yall wrong for that. them comparasion still accurate tho.

[Yi-Long]

... not just smart/interesting/cool/funny/s weet/strong black guys, but also asian, hispanics, european, whatever.

I'd love to see a GTA game set in an asian city starring an asian guy. I'd love to see Ninja Gaiden without the stereotypical big-boobed OTT blonde 'bombshell' (who I dont find attractive AT ALL).

That doesnt mean I dont want white people in my games, but just seeing a bit more variety and imagination when deciding upon the characters in a game would be most welcome. I LOVED Niko in GTA4 for instance (and didnt care 1 bit about CJ in GTA San Andreas bwt), and Gordon Freeman in Half Life showed the main guy in a shooter didnt have to be a muscular beefcake, but could also be a nerdy guy with glasses. Faith in Mirror's Edge is also a fine example of the developer being a bit more original in their pick of a lead character, and it pays off.

So this shouldnt JUST be about more black people in videogames (although obviously there are too few, and too often they're pretty stereotypical), but about more variety overall, so not just the big cool white guy and blonde babe, but a fair representation of society as we know it.

Not to mention fat people btw. How many times do we see those in videogames in a normal way!?

Edit: How is Fable 2 btw? Can you also create/design yourself as an asian/black/hispanic character!? Or are you just white no matter what, unless you turn very 'evil'!?

[TruEve]

I wrote this article and I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said. I want to see more diversity in games period, but since this is a black history month article that's solely what I focused on. Thanks.

In Fable 2 your character is defaulted to a white male or female. Though your character's weight will change depending on what you eat. And of course the good and evil deal.

[DarthTigra]

Very good article.

[Dimitri]

When is the White History Month ?

[okcomputer]

March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December and January.

[Sitdown]

my job shut down for 4 hours during the inauguration....and at the end we had a chance to reflect. One of the things I said, is that I hope with Obama being president of the USA, that it will cause us to go back and consider the history of our country. The history that is founded on soooooooooo many minorities. I remember in my AP US History class in high school, and the only little blurp about African American's was talking about slavery. You heart about the Emancipatio Proclamation...but you do not get the depth of information with regards to Lincoln not necessarily wanting to sign it...but being forced into a corner. I think if the roots of the USA was properly explored, there would be no need for black history month.....as all history will be properly explored every month. Besides, I think knowing the roots of our country, helps to determine exactly how big out tree can get. And having more minorities in game playing positive key roles......would be a sign of us considering the other branches on the tree. Well dag, didn't mean to get into that rant...haha

On a lighter note, I was playings Gears 2...and my wife was like, why the black guy got to be like that...hahah.

Edit: Dimitri..haha, I didn't even answer your question. I would have to ask...why does there need to be a white month, there are already white years, decades, and centuries.....just research "white privilege". Or just a quick example...explore the controversy behind the "flesh tone" crayon.

[NWA TA]

Hahah I love that comment.

This was a very good article.

[The Great Melon]

@Sitdown
It is nice to know that there are people like you. Bubbles to you for you thoughtful comment.

[Dimitri]

@Sitdown

White privelage ?? Very funny especially these days, you find total idiots coming at developers from CAPCOM that they made a rasist game because you shoot black zombies. A group of black people found it very offensive.

But when Japanesse made a RE where you kill white zombies that was OK and fine with black people that played the game.

Thats all I got to say.

[Sitdown]

Just because a group of black people claimed Capcom was racist, that does not refute the existence of "white privilege"....what group does not have those who can at times be hypersensitive and look to make a mountain out of a mole hill. But even then, I could easily say that difference is..in most Resident Evils (at least the ones I played) it was white people shooting zombies....the difference here, is that now its not primarily black characters shooting black zombies, but whites shooting black zombies. Yeah, I know that can be a stretch...but I am sure that there are those who think in those terms. And you say it's very funny these days?.......well that's interesting, cause I don't see the humor in salaries that are still skewed towards white males. I don't see it funny that when you look at the population of those who play basketball ball in the NBA, and then consider the percentage of minorities coaches......at some point I believe that its not just because there are not any qualified minority coaches out there? I mean there has to be something more to it right?....or either the NFL would not be abiding by a policy that requires teams to at least interview one minority for a head coaching positions. Next you will be trying to convince me that racial profiling doesn't exist either? How many times have you had to go to another store because there was no personal care products that were designed with you in mind?

@The Great Melon
Thanks...I shall return the favor. Bubbles to you.

[unicorndeathcamp]

gta sa ,afro samuri, shadow man, state of emergency,louis from L4D, TONS of games where you can create your own character.

i dont think there needs to be an special exception just cause your a color, if anythign your asking people to recognize cause your a different color, when in reality you want everyone to treat you equal.

EDIT

wurider, dont be a moron.

[Wurider]

Here come the racists!!!! Here come the racists!!!!!!!!!!!

[Foxgod]

Dont mind a black hero in a game, but do hate it when its associated with hip hop or other ghetto themes.

[TheTwelve]

Yeah...I'm more into black characters that aren't stereotypical. Hip hop is certainly a part of our culture but that's not all.

As an RPG lover, would love to see more black characters in RPGs, but that's a problem with the entire fantasy genre as a whole.

Wonder what would happen if a black person was the main character of an RPG...hmmmm

12

[Foxgod]

It could work if he was a tribal kind of guy, or a redguard as in Morrowind.

It certainly should not be rapper stuff tho.
In non fantasy games i prever a black guy to wear a suit and talk pollite rather then baggy pants and a dialect that no human can possibly understand.

The black guy in FF13 is a step in the good direction, but they should give him a normal hairdoo, instead of that disco doo.

Problem with hip hop is that its heavily related with crime and poorness, i dislike rednecks for the same reason.

So its time to show more civilized blacks in the media, and less hip hop.

[TheTwelve]

Ah, yes...the Redguard were cool.

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[Shinro]

Hugo from suikoden III

he was one of the three main characters you get to play, and in the manga version of the game he is the main main character.

http://gensopedia.duefiumi....

[Tony P]

The Redguard are probably my favourite fictional black race. Probably because they're so diverse due to Bethesda's painstaking involvement in sweeping back story for all of Tamriel. And I think that's a good cue for future games to take.

Twelve, the only guy I know as a black RPG protagonist is Cyrus from the TES Adventures: Redguard.

[frictionini]

no mention of crappy 50cent or soulja wutever...

guess they are the antagonist of all gamers haha

[NMC2007]

Resident Evil 5!! Plenty of black people there. lol.
Also, if there were a black RPG protagonist the game wouldn't sell and the targeted audience wouldn't like it, kinda like chicks who always complained about female protagonists being slutty and whatever but then SquareEnix gives them a game that has 3 meaningful and cool female leads in Final Fantasy X2 and they hated it to death.

F em, F em all.

[kewlkat007]

Even celebs are getting their own games now...but how many are Good Guys is the question>? and how are they portrayed?

Another thing to is, there are many games such as Fallout 3 and others that lets the gamer create their own character, in which I think most games should implement.

Then you might have problems with a lot of Pre-Mastered Cut Scenes/FMV.

[pixelsword]

...I was going to talk about race and sex in gaming, but this article is pretty good and detailed, so I won't even try to step on it's toes; although I was going in another direction.

Meh, I'll do a write-up on resistance 2's foibles instead.

:/

*trashes article*

Where's my teapot?

:D

[Stationfan]

what about all the sports games, its mostly black men

[kewlkat007]

.

[04soldier]

I too would to see more diverse characters in todays up & coming video games. I really enjoyed Carl Johnson from San Andreas. It made me feel like I was in a Menace 2 Society/Boyz in the hood movie.

Creating our own avatars to let the player represent his or herself is a step in the right direction; but I would like to see more game developers break from the politically correct society and create games that are developed for ethnic characters. I.e. Rockstar North's CJ Gta:SA.

edit: StationFan , Sports games don't really count because these athletes have no depth. And they're portrayed only because they are good at their profession.

[Sayai jin]

It would be be nice if there was more diversity in gaming characters. Games where you can create your own characters are one thing, but if you look at the big blockbusters they are usually one race. With that said most video game developers are white so they create characters in their own or similar images. Vica versa, I think the same would be done if the majority video game dev's were of a different in race.

Speak up people, as gamers our voice is getting stronger and stronger. These companies are listening to what we want.

[user3915800]

Terrible b@llshit, bottom line its that this is all pretend crap, no one gives a sh!t about black, yellow, brown and any other color in between. There is 3 races mongolian, caucasian and negroid. So, if you are black you are f@cked, if you are mongolian you are semi f@cked and if you are caucasian most of you are hypocrites. Thats my summary of the races. No go play with your wii-wii.

[Gr81]

As it stands the so called "Black Protagonist" is just as limited as the spectrum of blacks in hollywood; Gangsta talk, pist off at the world, bad ass. While this alone doesn't disturb me, the fact that this is the extent of the characters does. There is no spectrum, that is what needs to change. As long as this is the exclusive portrait of the BP we are limiting our potential. This goes for all minorities as well.

[LeShin]

I'm definitely for more diversity for main characters in games. I thought Nick Kang in the first True Crime game was a brilliant Asian character! I was pissed they didn't make another True Crime game with him in it (going round that city with Snoop Dogg as a secret playable character was fantastic too)

I'm trying to think of a black character I really like in a game that ISN'T stereotypical, it's hard. Carl Johnson in GTA San Andreas (though, some aspects of his character might be seen as a stereotype but since it was set in the hood, I'll let it slide :)) was ok. Barret in FFVII got very deep when it got to the whole adoption of Marlene, how his hometown hated him, how he lost his arm and his best friend dying (Man I miss FFVII's storytelling!). Also, Drebin in MGS4 was really well done! His character was very enigmatic. You never knew where you were with him. Great character!