So, how come there arent many minority main characters in videogames?

i mean are developers scared of latino's, blacks, asians etc? are they not marketable enough for mainstream? Gamers dont care about playing characters of different race but it seems the developers do.

what are your thoughts?

I on the other hand care very deeply about where a main character comes from. It has to make sense! In Prince of Persia the character is of arabic origin ... makes sense. In GTA IV the character is russian ... which is part of the story ... it makes sense.

On the other hand ... in Doom your character is a futuristic marine. In most games youre just a Generic "person" or soldier or whatever. Why make them Latino? Theres no reason to. When the origin of a character makes a difference to the story then make them whatever is appropriate... when it doesnt matter then you make them the same race as your main consumer base, and whats wrong with that? (unless youre the japanese .. then you make them white, with lilac hair and emerald eyes)

There are plenty of games these days though that dont have a typical main character. In fact most games ive played lately let you design your own character and have plenty of options to make them whatever race you want (in fact most dont even have to be human :P)

Genia

Minority gaming leads are minorities because, as in real life, minorities are minorities. Paladin_King

i mean are developers scared of latino's, blacks, asians etc? are they not marketable enough for mainstream? Gamers dont care about playing characters of different race but it seems the developers do.

what are your thoughts?

Minority gaming leads are minorities because, as in real life, minorities are minorities. Paladin_King

/logic

I 2. Fear, The worst event a game company can think off when putting a minority character in a game is " What if we offend people, What if we've made him stereotypical and get in trouble with it" Getting the stamp as racists because of a game is something no game developer wants, Rockstar nearly got one over a certain line said in Vice City which they thought was harmless. However There's been more and more minority main characters being introduced into games and there will probably come even more in future games.Treflis

exactly. People are more afraid of offending PC advocates than the actual people PC advocates are advocating for. Inevitably, when you make a character of a minority race, people look at them as some sort of representative for that race rather than simply as a character in a game. When Barret was in FFVII there were a lot of letters written to a lot of people about how "Black people don't talk like that!" Well, Barret did - drop it - it's a character, not a political statement. Oddly enough you run a greater risk of offending someone when you portray a minority than when you don't.

Someone above implied that Italians are minorities. I've only ever heard someone say that once before and i just wanted to say thanks, because quite frankly I'm tired of being lumped in with the rest of you pasty white people.

I on the other hand care very deeply about where a main character comes from. It has to make sense! In Prince of Persia the character is of arabic origin ... makes sense. In GTA IV the character is russian ... which is part of the story ... it makes sense.

Genia

Niko is Serbian, not Russian.

for those who will scream racist when the lead isnt minority:

Step 1: look at your own nose

Step 2: stick out your tongue

Step 3: slap yourself in the head vigourously until you dont care

Which planet am I on? Did Grand Theft Auto San Andreas never exist? Grand Theft Auto IV?foxhound_fox

I don't think that one counts, since most European ethnicities automatically get filed under "White".

This is a non issue for me. I don't really care about what race the main character is. All I care about is if the game is good.

People really need to get over this race thing.

I don't think that one counts, since most European ethnicities automatically get filed under "White". Video_Game_King

Not to sound racist but I've never cared for games with minority leads. Then again I also don't care for games with the typical macho, bald white guy as the hero.istuffedsunny

Me neither. I wouldn't like it if a company thought about coming up with a lead from a different race just to market that game among those minority.

Some points, some as explanation and some as contradiction:

1. They are called "minorities" for a reason. There are less of them (at least in the area in question).

2. They'd rather avoid any controversy or stereotype people might perceive in a character even if it isn't intended.

3. Resident Evil 5. That's not exactly the same thing you're talking about, but look at all the controversy there was over that. Set a game in Africa and then you see why nobody ever does.

4. There are lots of games with Asian leads. Granted, most of them are in an Asian setting. That makes sense though, right?

5. According to MSNBC, "Roughly 80 percent of video game programmers are white, according to preliminary results of an International Game Developers Association survey of some 6,000 in the industry. About four percent of designers are Hispanic, and less than three percent are black." Maybe the more pertinent question is why there are so few Hispanic and black game programmers.

6. Niko

7. Western RPGs where you get to pick where your charcter looks like. I guess that's a bit of a stretch, but still...

8. Beyond Good and Evil, which is a great game that nobody played because it got buried beneath all of the other stuff that came out around the same time.

9. Prince of Persia

10. Some movie license and musician license (e.g. 50 Cent: Bulletproof :P ) games

11. Sports games. Now I'm just being stupid obviously as they just base them on the actual players.

12. Mostly, I think it really just comes down to it being white people that usually design the characters (in the U.S.) and them not wanting it to look like they are making some sort of statement about another "race." As soon as they pick another race, inevitably someone will look at it and wonder what their motivation for that particular race was. There is no particular reason for them to choose another one unless the setting calls for it, and there are possible drawbacks in how it might be perceived if they do. Some people said that Jar Jar Binks was intended to be racist. Think about that. It's hard for people to claim someone is racist against themselves.

South eastern Europeans are definitely not "white".foxhound_fox

Anyway there aren't many minorities in games because they are...duh..minorities. It's more logical to make a game with a white lead as it will target the biggest audience. So unless there is some good reason gameplay/story wise for having minority lead it just doesn't make much sense to include it. Better that than include minority just for the sake of it (like having black people in fantasy games for example, it just doesn't make any sense most of the time)

Especially since most developers in US and Europe are white and it's easier to design character from your own and your colleagues race.

My bad ... Niko is indeed Serbian (I havent actually played the game...yet).

I think the fear thing does have a lot to do with it as well and its a damn shame. Its funny how easy it is to get offended by it though. Im of eastern european stock and sometimes find stereotypical russians/eastern europeans, as well as stereotypical brits (where I live now), to be extremely annoying in films. It really can ruin a film or game if a character seems too cliched and it can also cause quite a lot of offense if youre the offendable type. I think its only natural. Its also only natural to use stereotypes though.

So bottom line is ... we should all just lighten up already.

Genia

[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]
South eastern Europeans are definitely not "white".AdrianWerner

Anyway there aren't many minorities in games because they are...duh..minorities. It's more logical to make a game with a white lead as it will target the biggest audience. So unless there is some good reason gameplay/story wise for having minority lead it just doesn't make much sense to include it. Better that than include minority just for the sake of it (like having black people in fantasy games for example, it just doesn't make any sense most of the time)

Especially since most developers in US and Europe are white and it's easier to design character from your own and your colleagues race.

Indians are white because they're Arians. Arabs are Semits and not Arians therefore they're not white.

[QUOTE="AdrianWerner"]

[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]
South eastern Europeans are definitely not "white".gamingqueen

Anyway there aren't many minorities in games because they are...duh..minorities. It's more logical to make a game with a white lead as it will target the biggest audience. So unless there is some good reason gameplay/story wise for having minority lead it just doesn't make much sense to include it. Better that than include minority just for the sake of it (like having black people in fantasy games for example, it just doesn't make any sense most of the time)

Especially since most developers in US and Europe are white and it's easier to design character from your own and your colleagues race.

Indians are white because they're Arians. Arabs are Semits and not Arians therefore they're not white.

While the race is distinction that's purely cultural and based on tradition, not on any real-world basis. It comes from the Bible and three sons of Noah , which were considered the fathers of black, white and yellow race, there is no no basis for making up more races aside from revisionistic attempts)

[QUOTE="gamingqueen"][QUOTE="AdrianWerner"]Actualy they are, so are arabs and people in India.

Anyway there aren't many minorities in games because they are...duh..minorities. It's more logical to make a game with a white lead as it will target the biggest audience. So unless there is some good reason gameplay/story wise for having minority lead it just doesn't make much sense to include it. Better that than include minority just for the sake of it (like having black people in fantasy games for example, it just doesn't make any sense most of the time)

Especially since most developers in US and Europe are white and it's easier to design character from your own and your colleagues race.

AdrianWerner

Indians are white because they're Arians. Arabs are Semits and not Arians therefore they're not white.

While the race is distinction that's purely cultural and based on tradition, not on any real-world basis. It comes from the Bible and three sons of Noah , which were considered the fathers of black, white and yellow race, there is no no basis for making up more races aside from revisionistic attempts)

I believe in that. Because there are people who actually tracked down the improvment of the three races through out history and they didn't base their facts on the bible.

I believe in that. Because there are people who actually tracked down the improvment of the three races through out history and they didn't base their facts on the bible.

gamingqueen

The big problem with races is american thing, in Europe nobody from Spain or Turkey will wonder what race they are: they will say they're white.

While in US the scars of racism are so deep plenty of people try to revise the racial distinction or remove it entirely, which is silly, because there's nothing wrong with this distinction from cultural perspective, there's nothing racist about it and it actualy reinforces the equality ( I mean really..one has to be retarded to claim some Noah sons were worse than the others, unworthy human wouldn't get on the ark in the first place)