-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Game pubs & devs should put black women as protagonists immediately (READ OP)
- Thread starter Vela
- Start date
It's strange how characters who aren't Caucasian have to be contextualised to be a protagonist.
Except Queen L. Croft, who should be in every game tbh.
Except Queen L. Croft, who should be in every game tbh.
I'd like more diversity in games. Sometimes I notice though in movies/TV/games that instead of putting a specific PoC type in their work, they'll put in a generic woman of unknown race, and it comes off as them wanting to be able to say that have diversity or a PoC without moving too far away from safe and white.
As much as I loved Remember Me I can't help but feel like she leaned heavily towards that trope. (If you can even call it a trope?)
Does anyone know what I mean? Sorry if my phrasing or language is off. It's hard to find the right way to express this phenomenon.
As much as I loved Remember Me I can't help but feel like she leaned heavily towards that trope. (If you can even call it a trope?)
Does anyone know what I mean? Sorry if my phrasing or language is off. It's hard to find the right way to express this phenomenon.
Wow, people posting examples that were already mentioned in the OP they didn't read. Totally didn't see that coming.
Completely agree, OP. It's the biggest reason In the Valley of Gods has my interest, especially since they're trying to get natural black hairstyles done right.
Completely agree, OP. It's the biggest reason In the Valley of Gods has my interest, especially since they're trying to get natural black hairstyles done right.
If you want to offer a non-American view on diversity, feel free to do so. No one is saying you can't.
There's nothing wrong with someone speaking of things from their view. A black person should be able to say they want more black representation without it being assumed that they are automatically saying to ignore all other marginalized groups. Same for any single group of minorities.
If you think the discussion being had is great, then don't derail it as many people have done.
Last edited:
This is a game I really enjoyed, despite the flaws.
It'll never happen but I'd love to see another remember me.
One of the issues with video games that holds the medium back, artistically, is that its always been culturally bland; there hasn't been much cultural value to take away from games like there has been with movies, TV, books and comics. Bringing in more perspectives and telling stories that are less lowest-common-denominator will do nothing but breathe more life into the creative side of games.
Gaming is still a youngish medium, think of it being at where Hollywood films where in 1945ish.
Big AAA games are also highly polished, focused tested and 100+ developer projects.
Independent games will lead first with AAA catching on, much like Hollywood is finally starting to catch on that "diversity" isn't the kiss of death to your product.
This is super cool.
This is actually something I'd really like to see in character creators. I'm always struggling to find hairstyles that work for my black create-a-characters in games that aren't the typical afro and cornrows.
How about we just allow the player to create their characters and customize their appearance? For all of the problems the game had, Mass Effect: Andromeda even managed to alter the appearance of family members based off of the player's appearance. If BioWare can pull it off, why can't (read: won't) do it?
It should be the norm at this point.
It should be the norm at this point.
The main reason why I bought Prey was because it had Morgan Yu, an Asian American protagonist. Finally someone who looked like me! It's a good example of diversity since the plot of Prey itself isn't necessarily an "Asian American" story or experience. The protagonist might as well has been white and it wouldn't change a thing.
So what does? Acceptance? I will never accept race as something we cannot look past.
Answered like one post later by me dude. Why do you need to look past it like its in the way.
Do I have to explain this again because it was depressing enough the first time.
Games should certainly strive to feature more people who aren't white and male as their protagonists, including black women. Hopefully we'll see more diverse games down the line, but publishers certainly seem to be more diligent in their diversity efforts.
We shouldn't look past race (or culture), we should embrace and celebrate it.
I said nothing about culture. We need as much culture as we can get. The point of looking past race/skin color, in my head at least, is so we can all realize the things we have in common, thus coming together. In theory. Shit never happens like that though, I'll admit, but I still feel like we should though. Better than seperating off into camps like it seems like some of us are doing right now.
Agreed. Unless a game airs a specific character who has been seen before and has a known look I don't understand why all games don't offer a gender choice and a variety of ethnicities for the player (cost of recording go for lots more of options is a tiny hurdle for many games)
As a black man, I'm proud of my skin and my hair when it comes to physical attributes. I would consider it part of my culture.
I think it's pretty unrealistic to think people will ever be "colorblind" so it's better to embrace what makes us unique while celebrating what we have in common and practicing love and acceptance for all, which... granted isn't so easy either but I find it more realistic than people just not seeing color or race.
I think the thing is with thinking being color blind will solve racism is that we live in a society where racism is a big problem and so saying you don't see color or race often amounts to just ignoring the problems people face because of racism.
Seeing as how most game devs are white/japanese dudes I get why they shy away from this to an extent. I'm sure many feel out of their depth. I mean a general rule of thumb is to write what you know, people usually do that by default subconsciously. Would people rather have fewer black women in the medium or more that are created by white/japanese men with a high margin for doing some foolish shit inadvertently? I can see an argument for, that it doesn't really matter, that you can easily have a black female protag and her identity doesn't need to matter in the games context. But i can also see why people wouldn't want white/japanese men being the primary representatives of a group they aren't a part of. The main take away is that their should be more black female devs so this isn't the monkey paw decision it is currently.
I mean if you count their representation sample..... that seems about right?
Also red color was a popular color to use in anime which I think influenced some designs later.
That's because you're trying to look past race. Race, however, is intrinsical to culture.
I too think the whole point of promoting diversity is that this promotion will help everyone to see more races (and their cultures) represented on a vehicle of mass communication, thus allowing more people to better perceive races different than their own (and allowing for the people belonging to the race being displayed to feel like they also have a place in these communication vehicles, instead of feeling like they don't belong to these vehicles since every protagonist is of a different race and culture than their own).
Last edited:
Those of you that want to find more Black women developers, you can find them here: https://twitter.com/blackgamedev
And suddenly I'm interested in Red Dead 2, despite it seeming incredibly daunting.
OP
OP
Too we won't get to play as one of them.
Instead we are stuck with Whitey McGruffin for the billionth time. Seriously it's so incredibly boring
Imagine literally anybody else as the protagonist of RDR2 and it would've been soooo much more refreshing. Black woman cowboy? Native American cowboy? Mexican cowboy?
For real. I kinda feel like RDR are a bit cowardly for playing it so "safe".
OP
OP
Yeah exactly. Calamity Jane anyone? I can't even name a cowboy game that doesn't have the same dude again and again - whether it is GUN, the two prior Red Dead games,Call of Juarez, Outlaws.
I guess John Ford, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne really did a number on what type of people can be cowboys in Westerns
Since in the past they have been shown to create a decent black character for a game series about crime.
Some people just don't care about race and cultural differences - positively or negatively. If a game features a straight white dude, they're like "whatever". If a game features a Jewish lesbian of Inuit heritage, they're like "whatever". In either case, they're just looking for common human experience to be the pull.
I don't think that's a point of view that ought to be discouraged.
Multiplayer I would expect.
I'm fine with the campaign being from that perspective.
I think it's perfectly fine to discourage people to disregard race. People's races are part of their historical identity, and to disregard race is to ignore history and deny people the entirety of their being.
I made a similar thread in OT regarding Latino representation in media. Only Latino I could come up with in video games was the dude from Just Cause. It's fucking sad.
So more Latin@s also please!
So more Latin@s also please!
We're clearly using two different interpretations of the word "colorblind", which is more or less where the conflict arises to begin with. To me, being colorblind means not taking a personal investment in the particulars of cultural identities - it does not mean invalidating peoples' experiences (some of which arise through race) or denying reality altogether.
Literally working on it...
Thank you :) Current recent Tweet from this feed is actually from my co-writer, a woman of colour. We're creating a game which has two black protagonists, one of them a woman.
Thank you :) Current recent Tweet from this feed is actually from my co-writer, a woman of colour. We're creating a game which has two black protagonists, one of them a woman.
Good shit! I'm interested in seeing where this goes. As a fellow game dev, I wish you the best of luck :)
Sure why not? I'm a little bummed right now the only black woman as a protagonist I can think of right now is from a first person game. (The irony.)
I'm not entirely sure I want to entirely rely on Japanese and white developers handing us out representation to begin with. Like all black gamers I've been friends with have been wanting representation for so long from these people and we've only ever gotten breadcrumbs. These super homogenous studios couldn't also give us a story that deals with a genuine black experience too. I'm hoping for some of these indie black studios to get at least Cuphead or Shovel Knight status and eventually AAA status so we can have something that of our own that reaches a lot of people.
It's crazy how we have well-known black creatives and black businesses in every other entertainment industry I can think of, but there's jack shit in video games. There's no Issa Rae, Tyler Perry Studios, Motown Records, Denzel, Rihanna, Zhane, nothing.
It's crazy how we have well-known black creatives and black businesses in every other entertainment industry I can think of, but there's jack shit in video games. There's no Issa Rae, Tyler Perry Studios, Motown Records, Denzel, Rihanna, Zhane, nothing.
Last edited:
You have my answer OP: Game pubs & devs should hire black women immediately
And once some people show me that the Industry is diverse I'll shut up. For me the main issue is there. And don't say that it's a start or that it's already a good thing. Yes but no. It's a good thing so privileged people can feel relieved but having black actors (women or men) in movies never changed things.
We don't need to be f*cking entertained, we need food, home, health, education and equality! And to offer this to minorities we need money, not just virtual representations of black people which for the most part are made by non blacks.
Black Panther is cool but instead, make black kids read Martin Luther King texts and you'll see the difference.
Stop believing this will resolve things, it's just to calm people down while nothing changes for real.
12,5% blacks in the US. Even Google is not on par and don't tell me they don't put a lot of money to make it look like they care about people and else.
Yeah I'm angry in all these topics.... because reality is a lot not like many of you think. Vote, this is the first real thing you can do for change. (please).
And once some people show me that the Industry is diverse I'll shut up. For me the main issue is there. And don't say that it's a start or that it's already a good thing. Yes but no. It's a good thing so privileged people can feel relieved but having black actors (women or men) in movies never changed things.
We don't need to be f*cking entertained, we need food, home, health, education and equality! And to offer this to minorities we need money, not just virtual representations of black people which for the most part are made by non blacks.
Black Panther is cool but instead, make black kids read Martin Luther King texts and you'll see the difference.
Stop believing this will resolve things, it's just to calm people down while nothing changes for real.
12,5% blacks in the US. Even Google is not on par and don't tell me they don't put a lot of money to make it look like they care about people and else.
Yeah I'm angry in all these topics.... because reality is a lot not like many of you think. Vote, this is the first real thing you can do for change. (please).
It's pretty much a life simulation with some WarioWare-esque style of gameplay where you have to complete weird and wacky jobs with a time limit of 5 seconds before quickly moving onto the next one. The goal of the game is to get enough money to pay your rent at the end of the week while also managing your mood, this can be done by spending the money you earn so there's very much that emphasis on daily life simulation in an urban sprawl + money management to make ends meet. It's that kind of game that you can pick up for 5-10 minutes each day a la Animal Crossing. I've been posting bits of it here and there, right now I'm working towards getting a vertical slice up and running, establishing *some* sort of a social media presence and making the UI look pretty :)
I think the biggest problem I'm facing right now is actually finding an artist to work with. I've got a good idea of how I want my characters to look like but my drawing skills are just awful and I don't know where to look. Also I want to present the story through comic style cutscenes like Gravity Rush but that's a tall order, especially for a solo dev who doesn't have an artist working with them.
Anyways, OP is 100% correct, we need more black devs in high spots if we want to make a change and while the indie scene is doing well in that regard, AAA is seriously lacking.
The thing I dislike is that most games that do black women as lead only go as far as making then half black and in terms of facial features they are pretty much European looking with a tanned skin.
Nilin in Remember me and Aveline in AC:Liberation are exactly that. The only other game with a proper black lead that I can think of is Dishonored 2 Death of the Outsider and you never see Billie's face in that. You don't even see the colour of her hands as she wears a glove and her other arm is mechanical. The only reason people even know she's black is because of the cover and seeing her in other Dishonored game
Imo the only minority that gets a somewhat decent representation in gaming (apart from Black men) are Asian men/women, and that's most definitely due to a thing gaming/anime community has with asian women and ninjas/martial artists.
Nilin in Remember me and Aveline in AC:Liberation are exactly that. The only other game with a proper black lead that I can think of is Dishonored 2 Death of the Outsider and you never see Billie's face in that. You don't even see the colour of her hands as she wears a glove and her other arm is mechanical. The only reason people even know she's black is because of the cover and seeing her in other Dishonored game
Imo the only minority that gets a somewhat decent representation in gaming (apart from Black men) are Asian men/women, and that's most definitely due to a thing gaming/anime community has with asian women and ninjas/martial artists.
Last edited:
And like half of the games we play come from Japan. I still feel like representation for black guys is still trash.
Last edited:
A sequel with nadine as the player character and Chloe as sidekick could be fun.
TLL was a blast, one of the best uncharted games imo.
Mixed people are a thing, and they struggle with their identity because of those notions. Not black enough to be black, not white enough to be white. Not proper black, nor proper white, and when there's some of them as lead in video games, they're only "fakes". Don't do that.