CRank: 5Score: 11990

Racism in games... Really?

I bumped into the story of a man pointing out that he thought L4D2 is racist (you know because of the awful fact that there is a ethnic zombie in the game). He also pointed out how Call of Juarez is a racist game because one of the characters was an confederation soldier (so everyone living in the southern states of U.S during Civil War must be racists).

Racism is a serious issue but I think we have gone overboard in thinking of what is racist. This issue caught my attention during release of Far Cry 2 where some enemies were black. There was some talk about how it was offensive. There was a big article at www.gameplayer.com.au/. In this article there was a lot of talk how the game was racist. I got so upset I had to join their site to leave a comment on the article. The article claimed that the game was racist even though the ratio of white and black enemies is about 1:1.

Now I cannot understand in what possible way the game was racist. You killed as many white as black people, there were white and black people plotting on the both sides of conflict and the only ones people who helped civiliances were black. Infact all the people (except Jackal) who take advantage of the situation are white.  The game takes place in africa! I think it would be rather racist if in game which takes place in africa there would be no black people.

Now it seems that L4D2 is racist because some of the zombies are black. So the game takes place in U.S, in the so called "melting pot of world" and there can be no black people in it. I think that would be racist. I could understand that the game was racist if you could kill the black zombies in some more evil and gruesome way, or that all of them would be black and white people would be killing them. But it doesn't go that way.

I hear racism only in one context only, that white people are racist. Now if we can only kill white people in games it is not racist, it is just normal. It doesn't matter if the character is mexican, black, white or indian, it is normal to kill white people.

Once a opinion poll maker asked me what kind of attidude I had towards ethnic people, I told him I don't have attidudes towards ethnic people, I only have attidudes towards people. I think it is time to stop speaking of black, white, red, caucasian and African American people, and start talking about people.





II Necroplasm II5439d ago (Edited 5439d ago )

We need to stop the black on black crime! but killing a white man is just fine...

Defectiv3_Detectiv35438d ago

Can't believe how blown out of proportion this topic is, but in all honesty, that's racism in a nutshell. And the people on this message board are just as guilty because the way the react to it.

One guy says something, who is obviously misguided, then next thing you know you have 20 more people following in his footsteps, only taking the opposite position.

Everybody is acting like this person's opinion has become the general consensus, when that couldn't be any further from the truth. The truth is, that although we accuse him of being oversensitive, which is probably correct, the fact that everyone feels the need to respond in such a way is also a form of overreacting.

This all stems from like one random guys view he posted in a blog, and to think of all the articles that have been posted in response to it(which wasn't even a stimulating article in the first place), I can't help but feel everyone is being a little too sensitive.

TheBand1t5439d ago

I've stabbed, shot, ran over, and blew up black, white, Asian and Hispanic people on a daily basis in video games.

It's never once crossed my mind, or the minds of my friends, whether they be white, black, Hispanic, Asian, or otherwise that it was racist. It was just a game.

The only people racist here are the people who are causing the 'It's racist' BS in the first place.

socomnick5438d ago

Yup like Professor. Gates Jr of Harvard.

RockmanII75439d ago

Video games are racist to aliens.

xino5438d ago

But

Bring more black people into gaming, stereotype Square Enix should GTFO! And More games from Epic!

keysy4205438d ago

the problem is black on black crime. beides that res5 got the same crap for dipicting africa as a bunch of zombies. racisim in america have made this such a touchy issue. me i feel its a game so when the ballad of gay tony comes out and i go around beating the hell out of homo's does that mean the dev's hate gay ( maybe LOL) but that shouldnt be the case.
This is the same serneio with 6 day in fallujah its just too close to real topics. from what i learned in dev class is that you stay away from real life events or issues.
you think people complain about racism in a game think about this.make a video game and not include one girl and then make a sqeual and still not include a girl. see your sells decline women who play video games want to see women in video games. leave them out and their a huge problem.
point is the video game industry is touchy on what you can release because its usually violent,very violent, and people get attached to their characters (atleast good ones)so if something bad is happening the player feels it more.

One of my dream game plays on this

Defectiv3_Detectiv35438d ago

Black on White crime is higher than White on White crime, but that does pale in comparison to Black on Black crime. The problem that I have w/ these racial arguements is all too often they omit societal factors, such as, if you were to study a group of people from the same income gap, you would notice that it is more influential to behavior than race. I think, often times, races role is overstated.

On the topic of Racism in games, however, I think it is sad that we only question such a thing in regards to black people. What about the gun-toting terrorists in COD? I think the way they portray arab people in COD is far worse, especially the way they are always spewing something in Arab that is probably meant to be taken the wrong way.

Show all comments (13)
70°

Red Dead Redemption 2 Needs 60FPS Update Before GTA 6 Arrives

Bawal from Tech4Gamers writes "Red Dead Redemption 2 is still incredibly popular today, and it's a shame it hasn't received a 60FPS upgrade for consoles yet."

Read Full Story >>
tech4gamers.com
ocelot0710h ago

Kind of wonder why they can't release a patch for 60fps. I don't expect a native ps5 just a patch to allow the original PS4 version run at 60 on ps5. They did it for the red dead redemption remaster.

isarai1h ago

It needs far more than 60fps, better resolution, fix the trash checkerboard rendering that somehow makes 1440p look worse than 1080p, fix the input lag, and fix the wack HDR implementation.

sagapo1h ago

Yeah, the HDR is terrible, made me wonder why the dev’s even bothered.

Rutaprkl34m ago

Rockstar's gonna do jack s*** about it

80°

Canceled Cyberpunk 2077 Expansion Titled 'The Moon' Has Leaked Online

Files from an alleged canceled expansion for CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077, titled The Moon, have leaked online.

Read Full Story >>
twistedvoxel.com
shinoff218319h ago

Spent so much time having to fix the original game they didn't make it to this.

50°

Hands-on with Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure | SideQuesting preview

Sliding right into our D(rea)Ms with the new game from Furniture & Mattress

Read Full Story >>
sidequesting.com