Could Racists become the new Nazis in video games?

[Misterian]

Okay, I know there have been a lot of World War II games out there, though I haven't played many of them myself, I noticed that those games, along with a handful of non-WWII games, have been known to frequently portray Nazis as the main villians, heck, Skyrim gave us the Thalmor, who are essentially Nazi Elves, that's quite a devastating combination.

But then, Bioshock Infinite got released and had to do something that I think is quite a rare thing you could do in games, instead of Nazis, the game has you fighting racists.


Now I should that I never understood bigotry or racism, and I mean not ever. And a part of me admittingly doesn't want to understand it. And everyone I know whom I've talked about with gave me the same response; "There's nothing to understand about racism! it's just about people being dicks (pardon my language) to others just for their skin color and nationality just so they can feel better about themselves."

Now you could say that means I can't speak for the bigots on their side of the whole thing, but when I played Bioshock Infinite, I never felt the least bit bad about shooting down the racist Colombians (well, their police and military anyway), in fact, I always felt quite pleased with myself whenever I do so, and I'm caucasian!

Which in that sense, I guess makes me (perhaps ironically) prejudiced against people who are prejudiced. Maybe it's from how I developed this ingrained permenent dislike and incomprehension from my family, school, and neighbors who I know are also very anti-racist (heck, I heard once that most of my entire family tree is of mixed race), or maybe it's my partial Irish ancestry (and I know that many Irish-Americans used to also face considerable prejudice quite a while ago).

But either way, I felt genuine satisfaction with fighting racists in video games, yet aside from Bioshock Infinite, along Mass Effect 3 (with fighting Cerberus), and to certain extent the Dragon Age games, I don't think I've seen many games where you do battle with racists.

Does anyone here know of any other games that have you fighting racists? do you think it might, or at least should, become a more common thing?

 

[Lieju]

Aren't Nazis generally presented as racist, which they were?

I'm not generally a huge fan of how racism is portrayed in media, when it's used as a short-hand for 'bad guy'. Racism is complicated, and I don't think representing them as cartoonishly evil helps to fight racism.

People have reasons for believing what they do. They might not be based on facts, but it's easy especially to look back in history and go 'people sure were evil/stupid back then!'

Portraying people as racist is an easy way to make them antagonists, they don't need a spedific reason to be jerks to you, they do it because of your race/species.

 

[Jamash]

What about racist Nazis, or Neo-Nazi racists?

Say what you like about Zombies and infected victims being the staple antagonistic cannon fodder in lots of games, at least they're not racist and attack all people of every race and creed without prejudice... but I digress.

Video games need enemies, enemies who are a force of Evil in order to justify the Biblical levels of slaughter and ultra-violence you inflict on them for fun, action packed gameplay purposes.

In games where the staple undead/cannibal/demon brands of easily recognisable and justifiable Evil is inappropriate, then the next best thing is Racism and extreme Prejudice, which is the next best form of Evil, an easily relatable Social Evil that can be branded onto enemies in order to make you feel good about murdering them and playing the game (Terrorists are also good substitutes for Magical Evil for similar reasons).

Although you can read a lot into the labels and stigmas attached to video game antagonists, I don't think it really goes much deeper than the simple fact they need to be branded with some obvious form of Evil in order to justify the player's actions in normal gameplay and Racism, or being an anti-Racism vigilante, is a easy get out of jail free card for murder-em-ups in contemporary settings.

In GTA IV: The Lost and Damned, by labelling your rivals, The Angels of Death MC, as Evil Racists (brought to your attention via a text informing you to look at their web-page), and also by having a black guy as one of your closest friends in your gang, it made all the actions undertaken by the player a lot easier to tolerate, although in reality The Lost are also despicable scumbags with all the drug-dealing, murdering and criminal activities they partake in, but at least they're not Racist Scumbags unlike the Angels of Death, so they're the good guys.

I wouldn't be surprised if the inclusion of lots of White South African mercenaries Far Cry 2 was partly to empower the player with a sense of justice and make them feel good about all the slaughter they inflict upon everyone in the UAC... after all everyone knows White South Africans are Racist, every single one of them, so it must be OK to kill them all.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I really don't think anything should become a common theme because then they become boring as shit, if you take theme X solely to fit into a market slot then you should not be designing anything, rather consider a career in accounting.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Aren't Nazis generally presented as racist, which they were?

I'm not generally a huge fan of how racism is portrayed in media, when it's used as a short-hand for 'bad guy'. Racism is complicated, and I don't think representing them as cartoonishly evil helps to fight racism.

People have reasons for believing what they do. They might not be based on facts, but it's easy especially to look back in history and go 'people sure were evil/stupid back then!'

Portraying people as racist is an easy way to make them antagonists, they don't need a spedific reason to be jerks to you, they do it because of your race/species.

I would agree with that.

Also, for the narrative of your game, the extent of the racism in its world makes a difference, obviously. A fictional species who wants to wipe out another makes for a better bad guy than your average Fox News presenter.

 

[GladiatorUA]

They could if our geopolitics suddenly became really really boring. There is Russia, Middle East, a lot of Asia to draw the "inspiration" for bad guys.

And "racist" is a vague term. Some cultures are racist. Japan is to some degree racist/xenophobic as a purely mono-racial culture with history of isolationism and not getting along with "outsiders".

So probably not, unless "racism" suddenly gets a face.

 

[dscross]

Nazis were racists.

 

[Bad Jim]

I'd say that generic racism is too weak a motivation, and that killing people for their opinions is just as bad.

If some fool was mouthing off racist opinions and I shot him, you'd probably say I'd gone way too far. I'd go to jail for it. If I had shot a Nazi or two while fighting in WW2, I'd be a hero.

The Nazis were not only racist, but were murdering on a massive scale, and also bent on world domination. The Nazis ticked every box on the villain checklist.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Not really. Racism, nasty though it is, is a regular occurrence. Thanks to the way the brain works and societies in general formed, it's more or less a built in feature that is at least largely possible to override. What's more, what it fundamentally represents, classification of people based on obvious traits, isn't necessarily bad until certain other conditions are met (for example, ascribing negative traits to an individual who would be in one racial group based purely on their membership of that group or, alternately, doing the same with positive traits) but even here you have a lot of grey area to play with. By and large though pointing to what is little more than a psychological phenomena that everyone has to some degree and saying that it's similar enough to the Nazis that such people could be used as fodder you remorselessly and brutally murder is a hell of a giant step.

 

[ghostrider409895]

I think just having people being racist isn't something that should encourage or justify gunning down waves and waves of people. I understand some portrayals can seem quite infuriating, and considering that it is a videogame where a person can do as they please, it does seem reasonable to take them out. However, just racists are not on the same level - in my opinion - as Nazis. The Nazis were racist, but they also acted on it with horrible acts far beyond just saying cruel words. Now, (not having played Bioshock Infinite) I know that those in Columbia did force the Irish into a laborer position and I recall the fair where you could throw a baseball at a mixed couple in the game trailers. That is one step further than just being a regular Archie Bunker.

I think - in summary - that Nazis are on a much worse level than just racists given the acts they did following up on their own racism. Just having a hateful group of people isn't really a driving force to mow down waves and waves. I think that is an interesting point to include in a game as it does exist and does add a mindset to deal with and navigate around in game. However, that being the only driving force for slaughter isn't enough unless the racism does extend into doing things such as lynching or worse.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

But then, Bioshock Infinite got released and had to do something that I think is quite a rare thing you could do in games, instead of Nazis, the game has you fighting racists.

But either way, I felt genuine satisfaction with fighting racists in video games, yet aside from Bioshock Infinite, along Mass Effect 3 (with fighting Cerberus), and to certain extent the Dragon Age games, I don't think I've seen many games where you do battle with racists.

I think you've rather misunderstood Bioshock Infinite. You weren't fighting racists because they were racist, or anything like that. You aren't fighting the Columbians for any kind of justice, and even when you fight them to help the Vox, you're really only helping the Vox to further your own ends.

Halfway through the game you fight the Vox and you see them commit just as many atrocities as the Columbians did. The Vox kill unarmed civilians, scalp city officials, and generally just pillage and destroy and revel in their new-found power.

The funny thing is, most of the Colombians are just normal people. Sure, they're racist, but it's not like most of them are cartoonishly evil (though some of them are). When you walk around and just listen to people's conversations they aren't so much racist because they think that other races are inherently inferior, the people of Columbia are just afraid, and want their city to be peaceful and safe, whatever the cost, even if it means horribly subjugating everyone but themselves. They're racist out of fear, not hatred. So it's kind of messed up that the OP gets so much pleasure from killing them.

 

[Brian Tams]

I never really liked the portrayal of every nazi being complete in line with Hitler and his beliefs. In fact, some of the soldiers fighting didn't care for Hitler, but rather saw it as their civic duty to defend enlist in their military. Even as misguided as that is, I can find a small amount of respect for people who do that. And of course there is the matter of the "Nazis" who were told essentially at gun point that they can either die where they stood, or put on a uniform and go fight in the war, where even the 1% survival rate (or whatever it was) was better than their odds at that moment. Its something that irks me about the portrayal of a lot of Confederate soldiers during the Civil War; no, not every single one of them wanted to keep slaves (in fact, most of the confederate soldiers were not slave owners as they were too poor. Rich slave owners generally bought their way out of the war.) What I'm getting at is that reasons for fighting in a war rarely reflect the ideals of the countries that command the armies. War is complicated, and we shouldn't try and simplify it.

So, i guess what I'm trying to say (as I frantically try and get on topic) is that I don't agree with any decision to simplify a complicated issue, such as racism and why people are racist. Feeling good about killing racists is not healthy.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I'm not generally a huge fan of how racism is portrayed in media, when it's used as a short-hand for 'bad guy'. Racism is complicated, and I don't think representing them as cartoonishly evil helps to fight racism.

Same. I think it dilutes the discussion and gets in the way of addressing the real issue. A good example of how the complexity of prejudice and racism can be dealt with in the media that I've recently found is Star Trek 6: Undiscovered Country (I only just started looking at the series, so it's all new to me), but most movies just add "racist" to the list of qualities of any bad guys if they want to make them seem more evil.
But in a way, racists already do occupy the same position as Nazis in the media. It's perfectly acceptable to hate both and represent both as cartoonishly evil. This is because the media, at least the really big ones like film and television, have always been about simplifying everything to appeal to the LCD.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Thing is, racism is a very fine line, if someone is yelling to the high heavens that they are a Nazi, then it's easy to label them as a villain. However, most people who are labelled racist will try to deny the claim because they may not see themselves as racists. The term racist is a label one gives to the other, just like how you won't find many villains claiming to be the bad guys in fictional stories, someone has to usually tell you the dark lord is evil, he will just say he wants to take over the world as he sees fit.

I may have gotten off topic a bit, but racists aren't some huge force in the world like the Nazis of WWII, they exist of course, but in less of a harmful fashion than an entire country trying to take over the world. Besides, Columbia in Bioshock was meant to be just a bunch of radicals you can gun down with reckless abandon, not just the Founders, but the Vox Populi in later parts of the game.

 

[KOMega]

Racists become the new Nazis? So... slightly less racist nazis?
That might be a step backwards lol.

Anyways, I generally like it when there is a grey and grey world so if the main character were on the opposite side of the fight it'd still feel justified.
If I want a group of people to mindlessly kill without a second thought... well, if I wasn't going to give it a thought later, why give it a thought now?

If it's one of those days where I just feel like going into my nearest game and just be a general dick to everyone than I will be. I won't be thinking "Is it right for me to lob explosives like party confetti?" I'll be thinking "I bet these explosives will make everything pretty!" and go on a rampage because that's what save states are for
Prototype levels of cathartic murder-fun.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Unless you are talking KKK, your average modern day racists don't form into racist groups, armys or corporations.

Video game enemies typically need to be part of the same faction, not just a group of random people who have the same view.

Which is why Nazi's are easy because they are all just the WW2 German army.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

I always have to slightly re-evaluate my hatred for racists in games like that. Mostly since I have talked to a few White Nationalists/"racial realists" over the internet, and while their views tend to be batshit insane, some of them are genuinely nice but misguided people. Also, racism is a anomaly in the modern world, you have to defy common beliefs in society to get there, but in the past... not so much. Racism was assumed, and its hard to hate people because they weren't a radical visionary who redefined their society. Of course, once you get to Nazi levels of racism where you start trying to slaughter races you don't like most any sympathy goes out the window. I don't really care why you are mass murdering innocents, so much as I care that you are mass murdering innocents, and I don't care if you are the most racist bastard on Earth or a absolute egalitarian, once you cross that threshold you are evil.

 

[wulf3n]

What I find interesting is how easy we hate "Nazis" when compared to the atrocities committed by a lot of the western world Slavery, Colonization etc. they're really not any worse than the rest of world.