Barrat in FF7 is the black leader of a politically driven underground resistance movement fighting an evil corporation, led by white a white guy with red hair. You play a blue eyed, blonde haired protaganist in a game made by japanese people.
Coach and Rochelle and Louis from the L4D series are portrayed as perfectly normal people, Louis is wearing a shirt and tie, not hip hop gear and Coach is a positive male role model offering encouragement to the other chars, Rochelle speaks normally and looks like any other woman in the south of America.
While every corporate evil madman or evil scientist is a white, rich, supergreedy nutjob. I'm from north east England and I am always dissapointed to hear the "British Accent" portrayed in games, in reality the accent in England changes in nearly every city, quite drastically .
It's not racism it's because not every game developer has time to take a course in political correctness. Alot of them are white yes, not for any particular reason it's just that way atm, so they make white leads because they identify with white people? when India starts developing games you will see more Indian protaganists. Did you ever play Afro Samurai? have you ever watched The Boondocks? Played Defjam Fight for NYC?
Cole train is not an intentional charecture of black sports personalities he is simply the culmination of a writer's experience of male black football personalities from his only source, the modern media, the news, the sports channel, films, people he has met. Prejudice is hard to avoid when you want to include a character from a place or race, with which you have had little experience.
You wish game developers would be a little more culturally aware? Well first go fix the portrayal of ethnic minorities in modern media and when you've done that go give lectures on how not to accidentally alienate the very culture you are trying to emulate.
There is a line you have to draw otherwise you will end up ruining peoples artistic vision in the name of political correctness. Forcing people to deal with culture they are inexperienced with will ultimately create more accidental prejudice
Is it possible alot of game developers neglect ethnic minorities in their game from fear of getting it wrong and being viewed as prejudice? Gambling with setting your lead as a half chinese, half tibetan midget women is asking for trouble you might aswell call her "Su Mi" and watch your PR turn rotten like an underground cavern of farts.
Over reaction does more to segregate us than anything else. Many people become resentful of this forced sense of "white guilt" because a minority of our ascendants were dickwads. I know many people who are afraid to describe someone as black incase people think they are racist.
Prejudice exists because it is impossible to glean every nuance of a persons culture in the time we have. It exists because of misperception or misinformation and because not everyone can gain the same insights as you gain when you are part of that culture.
What I'm saying is you can't expect everyone to be culturally aware, you can only hope to avoid such accidental prejudice through education. Some people don't have the experience, some are ignorant, they both still have the right to make games and will be judged individually.
and perhaps a prodominantally white games dev team should not cast a black lead because thats just a big pot of accidental racism waiting to happen, not many are willing to pay for culture consultants either.
The problem is infinitely more complex than you think and saying "hey why aren't you making a black lead?" is probably the stupidest racist comment I've heard in a long time. If you want an accurate depiction of whatever minority its best that the minority in question handles the writing/storyline or someone who is PROVEN to be culturally aware.
