The Philosophy, Art, and Social Influence of games
dsheinem
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Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by dsheinem Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:30 am

I am pretty sure that the reason I continue to read Kotaku is because they feature thought provoking essays on the culture around games instead of just simply reviews/previews/news like most other game sites. In any case, there's an interesting essay up right now by Evan Narcisse where the author laments the plight of black characters in games, arguing that we need a wider representation of expereince and - specifically - something approaching what he calls "Black Cool".

What I want, basically, is Black Cool. It's a kind of cool that improvises around all the random stereotypes and facile understandings of black people that have accrued over centuries and subverts them. Black Cool says "I know what you might think about me, but I'm going to flip it." Dave Chappelle's comedy is Black Cool. Donald Glover is Black Cool. Aisha Tyler is Black Cool. Marvel Comics's Black Panther character is Black Cool. Their creativity is the energy I want video games to tap into.


Here's the full essay: http://kotaku.com/5897227/come-on-video ... rrassed-by

When he starts pointing the finger quite appropriately at the lack of racial diversity in industry leadership positions (and in hiring practices more broadly), I can't help but think about something like Herman Gray's work on blackness in the history of TV and how for decades it was white producers and writers creating black characters on TV. There are some interesting parallels, to be sure. Here's a link to one of his best known pieces, if you are interested: http://www.sendspace.com/file/639vnr

What do you make of Narcisse's essay?
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by Stark Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:56 pm

I agree that every implementation of a black character seems to be a caricature in video games. It's like they're all Robert Downey, Jr. from Tropic Thunder. A white guy saying "This is how black people sound, right?"

To me I think this stems from a lot of game developers being caucasian and occasionally someone pipes up and says "should we put a black person in here, you know, diversify?" It just comes off so shallow. I'd rather they just not have the black person that has no soul in there, then do that.
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Erik_Twice
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by Erik_Twice Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:08 pm

I think that this approach to race or gender is instrinsically flawed because it looks at ideas found outside the games to explain them from the inside. For example, claiming Vance from Half Life 2 doesn't count because she's a sidekick and there are already many sidekicks.

What this approach does is add mistake over mistake and then try to make sense of it, which is incorrect as each game will probably have different reasons for including or not black characters and not all are applicable.

A better way to explain my point. You could make a generalization about how women are represented in driving games and surely OutRun and Need of Speed will come out as examples when neither can be compared to the other, they are not additive.

I'm explaining myself very poorly well, I just don't want yet another "Bechdel test" that doesn't understand the whole.
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by MrPopo Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:59 pm

While I haven't read the article, I would like to point out that on the topic of underrepresentation, black people make up 13% of the country. If at least 1 in 8 prominent characters is black then they are well represented numbers wise. And I wouldn't expect that number in games from Japan.
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dsheinem
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by dsheinem Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:09 pm

MrPopo wrote:While I haven't read the article, I would like to point out that on the topic of underrepresentation, black people make up 13% of the country. If at least 1 in 8 prominent characters is black then they are well represented numbers wise. And I wouldn't expect that number in games from Japan.


I think that one chief complaint is about the kinds of depictions, and the variety (or lack thereof) of representation in the existing set of characters. I didn't see the article as one calling for "more black characters", just "more diverse black characters."
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by Menegrothx Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:40 pm

Can any one think of a single mainstream video game where Americans are actually the bad guys? Or Indian characters, Russians/Muslims that arent bad guys etc.

No, no and no. Too many elements of caricature in each, I'd say, and they're all sidekicks

What I want, basically, is Black Cool. It's a kind of cool that improvises around all the random stereotypes and facile understandings of black people that have accrued over centuries and subverts them. Black Cool says "I know what you might think about me, but I'm going to flip it." Dave Chappelle's comedy is Black Cool..

So Sheva from Resident Evil is a caricature, but Dave Chapelles comedy isnt? Pretty much everything that I have seen from Dave Chapelle, even Robin Hood and men in tights, is more or less focusing on the fact that he is black. Yes, he might use stereotypes and subvert them, but still a lot of the humor comes either from differences between Black and White American culture or from the fact that he is black. He is funny and he does his thing well, but the focus always seems to be on differences between blacks and whites, black culture and the fact that he is black, which contradicts this statement
Enough white characters exist in video games for a variability of approach. That's simply not true of black

When I think about "more diverse black characters in video games", I dont think of characters who just scream IM BLACK YALL with the way they behave and talk, im thinking of characters that blend in with the rest of the characters. Like Eli Vance from Half Life 1&2.

MrPopo wrote:While I haven't read the article, I would like to point out that on the topic of underrepresentation, black people make up 13% of the country. If at least 1 in 8 prominent characters is black then they are well represented numbers wise. And I wouldn't expect that number in games from Japan.

Although the fact that black people make 13% of the US population, that does not mean that they make 13% of the active gamer population. And video games are a big business nowadays, so things like consumer research are becoming more common, which might also have an effect on character design etc.
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by neilencio Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:14 pm

Sorry if anything I say comes off as unPC, most of my knowledge about the different cultures came from mass media so it's probably wrong, or skewed at best...

...but isn't the reason for a lack of diverse characters because the african-american culture (at least, mainstream one) is represented by artists who aren't really that diverse? Like, take one of the supposed stereotypes that they complain about (the bling wearing, ebonics-talking african american, for example), and then look at their most popular artists.

I'm not saying that there are no other representatives of african-american pop culture other than the stereotypical ones, I'm sure there are more diverse choices out there, but the ones that are more exposed to caucasians are the stereotypical ones (and is it really the fault of the caucasians? It's not like they are the ones buying all the albums of the african american artists).
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by MrPopo Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:41 pm

Menegrothx wrote:Can any one think of a single mainstream video game where Americans are actually the bad guys? Or Indian characters, Russians/Muslims that arent bad guys etc.

I can think of several Japanese-developed games like that, but I can't think of any American games like that. Which isn't shocking, when you consider that most people don't tend to show themselves in a bad light.
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by Menegrothx Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:42 pm

neilencio wrote:
I'm not saying that there are no other representatives of african-american pop culture other than the stereotypical ones, I'm sure there are more diverse choices out there, but the ones that are more exposed to caucasians are the stereotypical ones

In most European countries there arent that much black people. And in many of them, a large number of them are first generation immigrants, or children of them who arent old enough to make a cultural impact yet, so they dont really have much of an influence on popular culture so far. Quite many game studios are nowadays in Eastern Europe - the area with the smallest amount of third world immigration in Europe. And Japan goes with out saying. Cant really comment on how the situation is in Australia.

So many of the current game developers outside of US got their picture of black people almost exclusively from American mainstream media. There are/were more diverse white characters in many of the shows and movies that I recall watching. And by that I mean that white people are jocks, nerds, goths, skaters etc. They all have their individual identity. Black people are just black people. You dont see black people listening to heavy metal, playing video games or doing science. They just do black stuff and listen to black music and they all look the same.
That is the picture that I got from American movies and TV shows when I was growing up, and I doubt I am the only one. Sure there were some black characters that stood out, but generally there was just "that black guy" with out much of a personal identity.
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Re: Tired of talking gender? Let's tackle race!

by GigaPepsiMan Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:08 pm

There was a well written black character in indigo prophecy, I suggest you check it out.
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