Gaming.... a "white mans" medium?

[TopherMan]

While playing Shenmue today (great game btw) I realized that Ryo is one of the first characters I've ever played in a game that isn't White.

Off the top of my head the only games I can think of that has main characters that arent White, are... Crackdown, Dynasty Warriors, Fatal Frame and Shenmue. Of course games that are based on real life people are excluded.

What I'm trying to say is why are SO many games developed from the imagination, made with the idea to have a White person as the main character?

Of course there are cases where it is hard to say the race of the protagonist... point in case are games with the following.

1. Anime Characters
2. Final Fantasy Characters
3. Games that use sprites (not all)

I feel the majority of Anime characters are ambiguous as to whether they are White or Asian. The reason I say this is because, White and Asian people have a very similar tone of skin colors. The best way to determine if someone is White or Asian in real life is by facial features and bone structure (similar enough hair that can always be dyed). But with anime characters this is almost impossible seeing as anime characters have facial features all of their own, which are unlike any 'real life' race.

Final Fantasy characters on the other hand have always seemed to be a mix of White and Asian people. Facial features and bone structures that seem to be a mix of the two races.

Anyway, do you guys agree/disagree with what I have to say? What are your comments on the subject?

[GSZX1337]

The Game OverThinker has actually made a video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhopxZqQrmo

[dsheinem]

I have a paper that's been on the back burner for ages about race in gaming...maybe I should get it going again...

[lisalover1]

The Game OverThinker has actually made a video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhopxZqQrmo

So did Extra Credits:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2175-Diversity

[Erik_Twice]

Saying that most main characters are white males requires proof. Nobody benefits from baseless especulation, specially concerning such a sensitive topic. Anyways, my thoughts on the topic:



Final Fantasy characters are pretty much generic anime style. There's not bone structure underneath the skin, they just have articulations and their facial features are a circle for face and big eyes. They are animated characters first and representations of a race second.

I mean, anime is such a simple style that "facial features" and "bone structure" simply don't exist. They are made from an oval with two squares and two lines plastered over.

There's very little ambiguity when it comes to race in anime. The default, generic character is seen as Japanese, caucasians are depicted as blonde, with blue eyes and big, pointy noses.


Without a deep research I'm sure you will find that most Japanese characters are Japanese and most Western characters are Caucasian. Probably more characters are male after disregarding those games that have a reason for it (Based on real people, older characters or based on realistic settings, for example) but how much is something I can't say without researching.


Setting aside logical reasons that influence the setting directly (Realisim, for example) there are several causes of such discrepancy:

1) Most video game designers are male and thus will tend to create more male characters. If you are going to create a person you are likely going to be influenced by people near to you and who is closer to you than yourself? The same happens in other fields, for example, in fanfiction most main characters are female because most writers are women.

2) Compounding the first comes writting about who you know. Most scientists you see in fiction are a pastiche of Nikola Tesla, Einstein and Victor Frankenstein so it's very probable they are male since they are based on male people.

3) Sexism in reality leads to most of those examples being male. How many female scientists can you name compared to male ones? What about generals? Sportsmen?

4) Audience. Now this is very much intentional and specially obvious in JRPGs. The main character is male because the game is directed towards males. Those particular males are probably otakus who are going to buy your merch if you remove some clothing from it.

5) Plain old sexism, I think it's a pretty minor cause compared to the other ones that arise from sexism but aren't sexist (Most writers being male, for example)

I have barely scratched the topic but I think it's a good start. I think it's vitally important to recognize how interconnected everything is and how treating simptoms is fruitless.

[TopherMan]

Saying that most main characters are white males requires proof.

I LoL'ed

[dsheinem]

Saying that most main characters are white males requires proof.

I LoL'ed

There are probably more Asian males in the lead across the history of games than white males. What is lacking are non-stereotyped representations of Blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, Jews, etc. That's not to say there are none, but they are historically far and few between.

[Erik_Twice]

^What he said

If you are not prepared to give proof then keep your mouth shut. You only shame people who take race relationships seriously and do their work instead of pulling "facts" out of their ass and act surprised when people call you on it.

[ZeroAX]

Cause black people are 15% of USA population and like <1% of European and Japanese population? 300 million in the US, 700 million in all of Europe and 100 million in all of Japan. Out of that 1.1 billion people only about 55 million are black (actually I doubt Europe has 20 million black people, even though a lot of them have moved to Europe, from ex colonies). So if 1 in 22 game protagonists are black then it would be a proper representation of the population. But that's only if you count games made in Europe and Japan. American games should have black leads more often.

As for the sex thing, it probably has more to do with the genres that are popular. Do you see many romantic films, where the story is about the male protagonist? Or do you see any romantic comedies where the girl is kind of a bitch, and she has to prove that she's a good person (usually the guy is the kind of an asshole who is chasing the girl).

If women bought more games or there were more games made in the genres that women like (adventure games) then we'd see more female leads.

[TopherMan]

^What he said

If you are not prepared to give proof then keep your mouth shut. You only shame people who take race relationships seriously and do their work instead of pulling "facts" out of their ass and act surprised when people call you on it.

Well if you're agreeing with his statement that there are probably more asian male leads then white male leads. Then you should follow your own advice and "get proof" or else suffer the fate of being a hypocrite.