digital racism: multiculturalism in gaming | PIXELS OR DEATH

When I started pitching this idea I thought about all the negative connotations that we humans have when it comes to people and things being different. We?re afraid of change, sort of like a more fleshy Star Trek villain, we discriminate, murder, pillage, create genocide and do all sorts of other disgustingly terrible things based on the idea that you either:

1. Are a different colour
2. Speak a different language
3. Wear different clothes
4. Worship some other heavenly figure

And no; I?m no multi-cultural specialist, I?m a simple minded, early 20?s British gamer, but I?ve played my fair share of video games and by geezus do I know what you kiddos like to talk smack about!

There?s been countless times before when I?ve said things like ?Gamers are all brothers in arms? ?- and I honestly still stick by this, and not because I?m part of that movement where we belittle those who don?t play games or those that only play Facebook games.? Gaming is?not only something that we can discuss and do together, but it?s also our way of connecting.

It?s an amazing form of media where I can quite happily sit in my bungalow, in middle-class England and play with some nice chap sitting in his 43 floor apartment in busy, exotic Tokyo.??We might not speak the same language when it comes to verbally communicating, but we both know what our objective is, we both know what the other one wants and if we?re working together, then we?re both quite happy to use gestures and basic pieces of language that are known worldwide. Doesn?t that kind of thing make you smile? The idea that, ??Hey, that guy has no connection to me outside of the fact that we?re both here, playing games together and enjoying ourselves!?

Doesn?t that bring a warm, inviting shiver to your spine?

Obviously with that warm, loving feeling comes some negative aspects ? such as approximately 50% of the online community being filled with absolute ass hats. The kind that you?d quite happily boil alive based on the fact that they still find jokes about women being in the kitchen hilarious and their only definition of tea bags?doesn?t?derive from a tasty warm beverage. There?s no getting away from this, this is probably one of the biggest downfalls when it comes to online gaming: prejudice.

But is this something we should always shy away from? Would online gaming be much more effective if we went down the route of Nintendo, where no communication or identification is available? (Aside from Mario Kart which provides regional location upon introduction) Or do we let our online games run free? Developers such as Capcom are quite happy to let gamers know where other players are from by adding giant flags to each player?s name, prime examples of this can be found in titles such as Lost Planet 2, Resident Evil 5 and Monster Hunter; but does it make much of a difference? In personal experience I?ve never found there to be any racial slurs thrown around in any of these games, all use a match making system, all allow voice communication ? are people who play Capcom titles simply more intelligent and much less likely to voice opinions about racial differences? Or is it merely a coincidence?

Outside of the online gaming community can racial issues arise? But of course, the gaming industry can allegedly even spawn real life racial issues; Recently CVG.com reported that psychologist Chris Ferguson had said the recent attacks in Oslo had lead to racist remarks in real life.??More he had specifically said that the presumption that people of Caucasian skin colour need video games to make them do acts of evil, is racist towards those of other ethnic origins, such as the African and Asian communities, who ?are just presumed to be bog standard mental enough to pull a gun on innocents.

You can find that specific article here. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/313628/blaming-video-games-for-real-life-tragedies-is-racist-suggests-psychologist/

?

Within mainstream gaming you can see some obvious racial preferences; Here?s a quick test ? Name me five mainstream titles with a coloured hero.

Go on, can you do it?

Nope, me neither.? Now name me five mainstream titles with Caucasian heroes? Easy right? Excluding titles that give you character creation such as Fallout, Mass Effect, Brink and?several other titles, there aren?t any real options to play as black or even Asian characters ? The same can be generally said for females too, but that?s a whole different bucket of worms.

In conclusion we can?t just blame the media for these things, sure certain games might seem somewhat biased towards specific cultures and ethnic groups, but at the end of the day, developers are just people too, albeit people with different opinions and such.? The cause of any prejudice is much deeper, we simply cannot put everything down to media, especially Games (which are probably the most innocent media when it comes to such a topic)? And yes, mentioning the Resident Evil 5 fiasco will get you a swift slap, If you still honestly think it?s racist to kill African Zombies then you really need to get on up and over that ? I personally think it would have been ten fold more racist If they?d made every one in Africa white.? And why were there no complaints when we killed the Spanish in Resident Evil 4? As a generation we need to decide what?s truly bad and what?s just being made to look bad for a bit of attention and something to squabble about.

In retrospect; Can we still consider things such as not having heroes from other racial groups racist?? Or is it simply a design feature within a specific game?? We can?t literally say ?You?re neglecting a specific culture, so you?re racist!? ? we don?t say the same thing about other mediums, generally speaking at least.? No one ever told Tolkien, J.K Rowling, H.G Wells or Douglas Adams that they were horrible racists because none of their key characters weren?t from a different ethnic background, unless you count non-fiction ethnic backgrounds such as those from the Mines of Moria or the Forests of Lothlorien, in which case I say there needs to be more Dwarves!

Source: http://pixelsordeath.com/features/positives-and-negatives-of-racial-differences-in-the-gaming-industry?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=positives-and-negatives-of-racial-differences-in-the-gaming-industry

paleo bac batman the dark knight rises batman the dark knight rises devil bane spice