Racism in videogames

[Faithless]

Have you noticed this out of such videogame titles as --

Kung Fu, Warcraft 3, Shadow Warrior and Grand Theft Auto 3.

He told AFP the games feature evil gangsters, all of them non-white, who "function as narrative obstacles to be overcome, mastered or ultimately blown to smithereens by the white hero."

...
"Some say (racist stereotypes in games) is terrible," he said. "Other people in the games community say, 'Lighten up, it's a game, you don't have to worry about political correctness.'"

Canadian researcher: Popular video games stereotype Asians (http://technology.inq7.net/infotech/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=10971)

Agence France-Presse | Last updated 09:30pm (Mla time) 07/21/2006

VANCOUVER, Canada -- Some popular video games promote racist, negative stereotypes of Asians that would be unacceptable in other forms of media, says a Canadian researcher.

Robert Parungao studied four of the best-selling games designed and published in the United States during a 20-year span: Kung Fu, Warcraft 3, Shadow Warrior and Grand Theft Auto 3.

He told AFP the games feature evil gangsters, all of them non-white, who "function as narrative obstacles to be overcome, mastered or ultimately blown to smithereens by the white hero."

Sexism and violence in video games have become hotly controversial topics recently in the United States.

But while blatant racism is not tolerated in mainstream films or television, Parungao said that in video games "it's below the radar."

Parungao, who did the study as his thesis for an honors sociology degree at the University of British Columbia, and is himself an avid gamer, said it has had mixed response.

"Some say (racist stereotypes in games) is terrible," he said. "Other people in the games community say, 'Lighten up, it's a game, you don't have to worry about political correctness.'"

A fifth-generation Canadian of Chinese and Filipino ancestry, Parungao said that with video game sales at about 30 billion US dollars worldwide -- making them more popular than movies -- negative stereotypes matter.

He admits that not all games, or game publishing companies, promote such stereotypes, but said racism is rife among many of the most popular games, which are designed and published mostly in the United States and Japan.

"These aren't just kids' toys, these are representative of our society and they teach us."

Parungao's study is one of the first to look at racism in video games, said Richard Smith, a specialist in technology and society at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

"We've heard about sex and violence, but I can't remember hearing about racism in video games," said Smith. "The most insidious thing about racism is when people accept it. Studies like this help create consciousness."

Smith, however, cautioned there's no academic consensus that violence and sexism in media impacts on real-world attitudes, and said the impact of racist images will be hard to measure.

"This is new territory," said Smith. But he said because games are interactive they may have more effect on a player's real-life behavior than television or film, "being that you're much more engaged with it -- or it could have the counter-effect."

[CBC guy]

Er, anything in the street fighter series. Dhalsim (remember him?) WAS funny, I admit, but damn if I was east indian it would be quite offensive. Chun Li wasn;t so bad, but she did cultivate the "China girl" thing, and E. Honda.... LOL

[Powerful T]

Chun Li wasn;t so bad, but she did cultivate the "China girl" thing...

Careful. She lurks on these forums.

[VV o n g B a]

racism is there, but some developers have evolved their treatment of asians.

the portrayal of nick kang's character in "true crime: streets of la" was decent up until the "good" ending where it became a bs battle w/ some mystical chinese dragon crap. oh and of course he knew kung fu.

"jade empire" had an all asian cast and had some stereotypical characters. but it balanced out b/c the rest of the game was full of other asian characters that were pretty normal (for a game at least). oh but of course, the way u advanced ur character was to teach him/her new styles of kung fu. obviously.


"guildwars: factions" is another game w/ a mostly asian cast. besides mixing up various chinese and japanese names/monsters (prolly intentionally), it has pretty fair treatment of asians. one main npc is an asian monk, but in this case, monks are healers and he's got plenty of girls after him. there's a profession/class that is basically a ninja, but it's named assassin. there's no kung fu and no geishas.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

The stereotyping of East Asians present in video games is nothing compared to that faced by blacks and Hispanics, especially when compared to other forms of media. This is probably b/c a lot of games were in the past made by Japanese companies even though there are and increasing number of manufacturers and new companies of course in Europe and North America now. At the very least, there was more broad representation of East Asian characters in a variety of different roles whereas in the past, Hispanic characters were virtually nonexistent, and blacks were mainly either portrayed as boxers, thugs, or reggae sensations. Only in the past few years or so has there been an introduction of even the existence of SE Asian or Native American characters, and even then they are the epitome of stereotypical imagery. As for South Asians, aside from Dhalsim as a yoga master, I can't think of a single one.

[Martino]

Looking at the state of gaming today, is it really a surprise that racist imagery ~ either racial caricatures or outright in-yer-face xenophobia ~ appears in computer games?

Games were once based on stylised environments where everything was exaggerated: at one time it meant cartoon-like worlds and characters, whether you're talking Sonic the Hedgehog or Streetfighter; black characters appeared, but whether they were bad guys or good guys (as in Streets of Rage) they tended to look like Ronnie Coleman.

Now we have 'ultra realism' with lush graphics its even worse, because those blobby sprites have been replaced with increasingly detailed caracters like Marshall Law, set in hugely detailed game worlds. But how is this technology being used? To depict big boobed women wrestling or upping your stats of a 50 Cent lookalike so that your character is better at pimping and killing.

Crimes and carnage are now 'good': Hitman, Manhunt, The Getaway etc. all feature graphic acts of murder; even 'historical' FPS now allow (encourage!) you the player to kill Germans, Vietnamese, Japanese & Arabs who are recognisably German, Vietnamese, Japanese and Arabic people.

Racism is there, right at the front of it all, but alongside a lot of other crappy attitudes to humans in general.

Some countries do occasionally ban a game, but the whole industry needs a strong international regulator to stamp down hard on racist two dimensional characters who really appear in games for the most shallow and dangerous of reasons - to allow people to play out their fantasies.

[VV o n g B a]

Some countries do occasionally ban a game, but the whole industry needs a strong international regulator to stamp down hard on racist two dimensional characters who really appear in games for the most shallow and dangerous of reasons - to allow people to play out their fantasies.gotta disagree w/ u. u sound like lieberman or clinton. they sound like they wanna squash the entire creative process in videogames. games should be treated no differently than movies and books. if u see something that pisses u off enuf, u protest/boycott/sue. u don't get lawmakers involved and dictate to filmmakers what they produce. u make it so that it's in the developers' own interests to not produce objectionable material. whenever lawmakers talk about games they seem not to have ever laid their hands on a controller before. they legislate on something they understand NOTHING about.

some "expert" testified before congress that pacman was 64% violent. PACMAN. there are few gamers that want congress anywhere near games.

[Arex]

Kung Fu's protagonist was white? I don't think so. According to the always-correct wikipedia, the game, known in Japan as Spartan X was based on a Jackie Chan film by the same name.

That technicality aside, I guess there are some pretty racist recurring videogame themes out there in some of the more popular games. GTA 3 had a white guy taking on all of your typical ethnic gangs--the Italians (but they're white), the Chinese triads, the Yakuza, the Jamaicans, the Mexicans, etc. I don't remember if the white supremacists were represented though.

And those Mario games--what's up with all the turtle hatred?

[Martino]

gotta disagree w/ u. u sound like lieberman or clinton. they sound like they wanna squash the entire creative process in videogames. games should be treated no differently than movies and books. if u see something that pisses u off enuf, u protest/boycott/sue. u don't get lawmakers involved and dictate to filmmakers what they produce. u make it so that it's in the developers' own interests to not produce objectionable material. whenever lawmakers talk about games they seem not to have ever laid their hands on a controller before. they legislate on something they understand NOTHING about.

some "expert" testified before congress that pacman was 64% violent. PACMAN. there are few gamers that want congress anywhere near games.

The fact is the industry needs a regulator, since it has patently failed to regulate itself. But the emphasis is on international, not the whims or prejudices of a national regulator or politician. The industry needs a body that can stop programmers using their 'creativity' to disseminate racist and gratuitous imagery.

[Player 0]

There are two good examples of Asians being tough guys.

In Quake 4 there are several Asian marines, usually medics or technicians, but that's really better than being regular soldiers as they can heal you and fight just as good as if they had green armor on.

In Star Trek elite forces 1 and 2 the demolitions specialist is a tough, bulky Asian guy, i forget his name though, but he is an important member of the team, one of the characters commented that he fought like a Klingon once, and for those of you who aren't into Trek, that's a very good thing.

[Martino]

There are two good examples of Asians being tough guys.

In Quake 4 there are several Asian marines, usually medics or technicians, but that's really better than being regular soldiers as they can heal you and fight just as good as if they had green armor on.

In Star Trek elite forces 1 and 2 the demolitions specialist is a tough, bulky Asian guy, i forget his name though, but he is an important member of the team, one of the characters commented that he fought like a Klingon once, and for those of you who aren't into Trek, that's a very good thing.

Incidental characters and Quake skins. They're not going to counter-balance the lack of decent lead characters, or help us move on from Asian characters who are only good at putting their foot in your face - even decent game characters like Shenmue and, er, Parappa the Rapper have to learn karate in order to progress in their respective games.

Gaming needs to be more colour-blind in deciding who can or can't be the central character/hero, what he/she can do, and who/what the opposition should represent.

[VV o n g B a]

The fact is the industry needs a regulator, since it has patently failed to regulate itself. But the emphasis is on international, not the whims or prejudices of a national regulator or politician. The industry needs a body that can stop programmers using their 'creativity' to disseminate racist and gratuitous imagery.the game industry already has a regulator: the ESRB. so far they're most famous for battling the rather insignificant hot coffee mod in gta: san andreas and the nude skin mod in oblivion, but there is regulation.

but i'm not sure why u think games deserve a special category of regulation. do u see any other form of media thats regulated in the way u describe? yeah, games don't have a great track record, no argument. but "birth of a nation" was one of the early successes of the film industry and no one makes films like that anymore. no game i've seen really even approaches that type of blatant racism. the racism in games is more a product of ignorance and stereotyping than developers pushing a racist agenda. it doesn't demand regulation, it demands education.

the most racist/stereotypical games tend to be fighter arcade games b/c the developer can give at best a few seconds of screen time for a new player to choose what character to use. in a sense, they must reach for instantly recognizable characters and so they go for stereotypes. marshall law is instantly recognizable as bruce lee. balrog, if he retained his original name m. bison, is instantly recognizable as mike tyson. that's weak design, but understandable given that they weren't thinking on a level of sophistication that required exclusion of stereotypes. but designs progress. as much as we still see stereotypical portrayals, i've listed a few games that contain asian main characters and/or abundant asian characters that, for the most part, give fair treatment to asians. rpgs tend to give better treatment b/c they actually have time to flesh out characters during a long story (or else are made by asians themselves but i'm not counting those).

but in time, i think even fighting games will progress in how they portray characters. take the character maxi from the soul edge series. he's a lot like bruce lee in fighting style, but looks like elvis visually. u don't need to continually put out stereotypical characters b/c players become more sophisticated. they begin to associate fighting styles instead of requiring the lowest common denominator visual cue.

[Martino]

the game industry already has a regulator: the ESRB. so far they're most famous for battling the rather insignificant hot coffee mod in gta: san andreas and the nude skin mod in oblivion, but there is regulation.

Mmm, 'the game industry already has a regulator ... but there is no regulation.' In other words, you're saying it doesn't have a regulator, right?

And I don't think an organisation that represents just the USA and Canada really rates as "international".

I think you are missing my point entirely. Giving games 'ratings' like parental guidance on DVDs isn't going to stop people making games with strongly negative racial images, just as the rating system on DVDs doesn't stop film makers making movies with offensive characterisations. Strong regulatory bodies do, on the other hand, stop outright racist movies being made and distributed.

The game industry now is bigger than the movie industry, and people probably spend more time in front of their console than they do siiting in cinemas. You're underplaying the impact that game design and visuals can have on people. Just as TV is being pressured to cast more 'minorities' into bifgger screen roles, the multi-billion dollar international games industry needs to be pressured into not using unimaginative, easy to use/recognise gaming characters.

Bottom line for me is that, if you see racism somewhere, in whatever form, you can't hope it'll just sort itself out.

But hey, each to their own. 'Nuff said here.

:cool:

[Arex]

While I think blatantly racist imagery and themes have no place in videogames or other forms of popular media, I don't know that increased regulation by the government is the way to go.

Video games, like movies or TV or theater, are simply another form of speech and expression. Granted, they are interactive and people often spend more time fixated on them than they would a film or other form of entertainment. But that doesn't mean we need to start heavily restricting the type of content that people can create or buy, if that's what they really want to do. There are far too many grey areas to start drawing lines as to when a game is acceptable and when something oversteps the line and should subject the creator to involuntary civil or criminal penalties (existing civil and criminal laws aside).

I think the current system (in the US and Canada) is more than enough. Game publishers voluntarily go through the ESRB to get a rating which, as far as I can tell, most major retailers require before they will put the game on shelves. This alone keeps the most blatantly objectionable and offensive material out of the mainstream and out of the view of the public. If some asshole wants to create a game where he runs around as a skinhead and his goal is to kill as many minorities as possible in as brutal a fashion as possible, and he wants to sell it to his fellow skinheads, or anyone else fucked up enough to buy it, I don't think anything should keep him from having the ability to do so. I think he deserves an ass-beating, but he should have the right to do that without fear of civil or criminal penalties. And, the fact of the matter is, he's not going to reach a very wide audience with that kind of game.

I agree game publishers could sometimes do a better job of filtering out offensive material and of not relying too much on dated stereotypes, and the ESRB might be wise to factor racially insensitive/offensive imagery into its game ratings. But I'd much rather accomplish that by increasing public awareness to effect changes in the way the industry regulates itself, than have the government--which is obviously out of touch with the mainstream (or at least my own personal beliefs)--step in and dictate what is and isn't okay for publishers to create and for gamers to consume.

Just as I wouldn't want to legislate an outright ban on the use of racist caricatures in movies, no matter how offensive, I similarly would not want the same for video games or other forms of interactive media. Much better to educate people on tolerance than to impose it upon them.

[VV o n g B a]

Mmm, 'the game industry already has a regulator ... but there is no regulation.' In other words, you're saying it doesn't have a regulator, right?i said there is regulation and a regulator. they just haven't done much regarding racism so far. this international body u speak of... i've never heard of any equivalent in any other medium. hollywood, mumbai and seoul don't submit their movies to any internationally recognized body for approval, so why should games?

u say games are more immersive than other media. has a game ever made u cry? the only games that have even tried to engage emotions are non-controversial rpgs and most of those were japanese. i don't know if thats a flaw in the medium or flaw in the developers, but movies tend to impact me more than games. books tend to impact me more than movies. but maybe its just me.

[LaiSteve66]

Where's the racism in WC3?

[didu]

^^ lack of asian looking heros?

[Banana]

You have the Orc Blademaster. He's psuedo-Japanese.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

And those Mario games--what's up with all the turtle hatred?

Although this may be pushing it, the Mario and Luigi characters themselves can arguably be considered to be ethnically-demeaning caricatures of Italians with their exaggerated accents, mustaches, and large fleshy noses - i.e. harmful imagery that can be traced back to times when Italian and Jewish immigrants were phenotypically distinguishable from earlier white immigrant groups in American society. For better or worse, this never stopped me from playing any of the games though.

[Azn Retribution]

I read his paper...horrible.
exceptionally horrible for a graduate paper.
Its not even freshmen comp material.

His method of selection with regards to samples was extremely flawed and didantic at best.
His criticism were often assumptions or flawed and without substance.

There is racial stereotypes and racism in videogames.
That is a easy thesis to prove. His research and supporting arguments are laughable.

What this individual did was manage to screw up what should have been a insanely easy paper.

Seriously it astounds me.... this is graduate level writing with High School level reasoning and methodology.

God help us all.

[VV o n g B a]

extremely flawed and didantic at best.erm...yes. did u mean didactic or pedantic? :wink:

[Azn Retribution]

erm...yes. did u mean didactic or pedantic? :wink:

err... It was my ultra elite way of combining the two terms into a new paradigm of criticism in literature.

[jkygogo]

There is also racism in World War 2 based games I think since they say "Jap" on these. I know it was used in those World War 2 contexts, but I still don't appreciate hearing such racist comments.

It seem that Japanese people are the only ones who it's ok to call them a racist terms such as "Jap". I've heard it in movies and now in the World War 2 videogames. Terrible.

[Banana]

Well, in Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2, the Americans refer to the Germans as "Krauts."

[LaiSteve66]

Well, in Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2, the Americans refer to the Germans as "Krauts."

Slurs against White people don't count.

[Player 0]

In COD2 i noticed that German voices were more high pitched than in the first one, that seems somewhat anti-German to me.

[Flow to Live]

Slurs against White people don't count.

why not?

[LaiSteve66]

why not?

Whites have no PC protection.