Do you prefer protagonists that have the same race and nationality as you?

[Ramare]

I care. But even though I'm a white American male, I actually prefer it if the character I'm playing isn't likewise. If they're English, Russian, hell, anything other than American, they get bonus points. I have no problem playing as them, but I like playing as other nationalities. The two nationalities I mentioned are high on mt list, of course. Hell, even being a bland white American, if they are also female, would still count. Because they're different. I really don't want to play as Jake Dynamite, or John Fist very much, even though the industry seems to think otherwise.

Hell, my favorite character is Niko Bellic. And he's Serbian.

Being of a different race, however, does matter. I hate aliens, and sci-fi games in general. If my character is a plain human, but with a tail and odd ears slapped on for the hell of it, I couldn't give less of a shit. Unless of course, the hair color on said tail 'n' ears doesn't match their other hair color...then shit will hit the fan. Reptilian races are rather odd, but fine. I guess. Full-on beast-type races will be met with knife-and-pistol type opposition; but as long as the character(s) doesn't(don't) suck, I'm okay with it.

But the main point is if the character is actually interesting, like Alex Mason, in the most recent and second best (In my opinion, of course.) title in the Call of Duty series: Black Ops.

 

[EllEzDee]

I don't really care what race they are, though it's getting stupid the amount of aryan patriotism-spouting muscle bound characters wherever you look.
In RPGs, i usually seem to go for someone who looks like me, albeit muscle bound. And bearded.

 

[RatRace123]

Well, in games with a make your own character thingy, I usually mold characters in my image, unless the default is better or I'm playing as a female.

So, yes I guess.

 

[Georgie_Leech]

Given that a lot of games I play are filled with Elves, Halflings, Gnomes, Dwarves, etc., I don't run into it much. One odd aspect for mine though is that the humans I make tend to be considerably more... Irish than I am.

 

[CManator]

It's not an issue I've given much thought to but it all depends on the game and how well developed the character is. For example, I enjoyed playing CJ in San Andreas, but I dont even need to play a 50 Cent game to know how cringe-worthy it would be. If it's a choice between multiple protagonists I'll often choose the female, regardless of race, if no females available i'll go with the white male. In character creation games like Oblivion I usually go with non-humans or red-haired females.

So while I don't usually choose different ethnicites when given a choice, I'm not bothered at all if I'm forced to play one. I usually choose females or nonhumans when I can so I have no problem playing as something I'm not, but I'm not sure why I don't choose other races/nationalities. But no i don't think they should be exclude from games. Again they should be well developed and not just token stereotypes who are only there for the devs to feign diversity.

However I do hate it when a different race is included and all of a sudden it becomes a big deal. GTA San Andreas was a good example. People complained that GTA 3 and VC had white protagonists so they made a well developed black one for SA and it got flamed for it! All because he murdered people! What do you expect a GTA character to do, Promote peace and fart rainbows?

Back on topic though yeah I'm all for more diversity. America is not the center of the universe and needs to stop being portrayed as such. And I say that as an american.

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't care what race or nationality they are.

 

[EllEzDee]

I'm British. I suppose i prefer playing as such, but i'm quite used to playing as an American.

I always get giddy when Brits are in American games/films though - Like Call of Duty!

It was very nice of them to include us in their rendition of World War 2. Very nice indeed...

 

[nekoali]

Nope, I play with characters of any race and nationality. Honestly, I get bored with the same usual muscle bound, thick necked super soldier of the week heroes in most games, so I like it when games have variety in characters. Like Mirror's Edge or Beyond Good and Evil.

In games where you get to make your own character, my usual first and default character is a lot like me. Caucasian, female, redhead. But after that I make different variations to see what options there are in the game. I stick with female though, I don't feel as invested playing male characters... lack of identification with them.

 

[IamQ]

Race I don't care about, but I wouldn't mind playing as a Swedish character in a game.

 

[Crapster]

Not really. Most protagonists are my race and nationality though, so it doesn't really matter...

 

[supermariner]

when it comes to games i usually dont care whether i'm playing an american, an australian, a chinaman, a frenchman ... whatever

BUT
i do have that little bit of secret love for british protagonists
not necessarily for patriotic 'we brits are kicking ass in this game' reasons
but due to recognising the voice actors and being pleasntly suprised by it
Fable 2 is the classic example for this

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I don't care either way. As long as the person is interesting and the game is good. I mean shit, I had a blast with Mirror's Edge, and Faith is a woman and Asian.

 

[Linakrbcs]

I'm not too bothered about race and nationality, since I play mostly fantasy rpgs which are full of strange races anyway, and race really seems insignificant compared to species. I do tend to play female characters though when given the chance

 

[Pikey Mikey]

I would say Yes, because it would be a refreshing change, I would like to play a great game where the protagonist (or if you can control the antagonist instead) is a Swede. I don't think I've seen a single game that has that, except Mercenaries 2, but that doesn't count, altough I would enjoy almost any character. I would like one of the following: A russian (accent), an irishman (accent), a german (accent) and so on, as previously stated, I don't mind the nationality or "race" of the protagonist or any character if the game is good. "Variety is the spice of Life".

 

[2xDouble]

Unless the game is set in a specific universe (aka the "real world") nationality doesn't matter.

Race, on the other hand... wait, no, it's also universe-specific. I'll happily play Tauren or Sylvari over Human in a fantasy game. In "real world" games, I've found too many ridiculous stereotypes. I'd rather play a boring white guy who gets the job done than (for example) a black guy who's only character trait is "blackness" (I'm looking at you Barret and Sazh from Final Fantasy). I'd rather play a character than a stereotype any day.

Maybe if we see some more positive models of other human races (like Call of Duty. say whatever you want about the game, they represent race well without beating you over the head with it), I'd be more interested in them.

 

[Gypc]

That did occur to me. However, I didn't include gender because...

a) It's been discussed many times before.
b) I already know that many people don't particularly like playing a character of the opposite gender.
c) There are loads of games with female protagonists. (Although admittedly not as many as there are males.)
d) It's never particularly bothered me. (For example, my Commander Shepard is female.)

a) True, but I'm a noob and I missed it.
b) True in some cases.
c) Wet sucks. (And really, my main problem is that most female protagonists are unrealistically busty etc. in order to pander to a male demographic as well.)
d) Me either, but I wanted to raise the issue. I now see it probably wasn't necessary.

 

[thejboy88]

I don't mind what race or nationality they are, but when I play a game where I create the face of the character, I usually make them look like myself, so that would make them the same race as me by default. So most of my games have a white, brown-haired blue-eyed player character. Hope no-one has a problem with that.

 

[Woodsey]

Well no, since as you said they're all American.

I'd probably prefer to play a Brit, but only because it'd be something different. I don't really care what race, sex or nationality the character is as long as they're well-written and interesting.

 

[beniki]

Not really. Depends on the game.

Nationalities never bother me, so long as they get the accent right, or at least consistent. That Dragon Age bard annoyed the hell out of me because I couldn't tell what she was going for. On the other hand, Tali from Mass Effect had a consistent voice that I found incredibly sexy. And her knees were on backwards.

Given a choice of races, I'd always pick the pointy ears or bipedal cow, simply because humans are dull in comparison.

That said, if I'm making a character, it will invariably be a white male. Because, you know, that's me, but more bad ass. With rippling muscles instead of flab. And a moustache.