Gamers hate diversity? Bull****.

[scorptatious]

I really don't see why this kind of thing is such a big deal to be honest. I mean, I guess there could be more varied protagonists, but so long as I actually like the character in question, I don't really care what he is.

Of course, I'm white and have brown hair so what the heck do I know huh?

Also, writing off mother fucking Big Boss just because he's a white, brown haired 30 something protagonist and lumping him in that group is a huge disservice to him.

 

[J Tyran]

What as the last game that let you play a black lead character, without going down the character creation route?

Isn't the main character of The Walking Dead black? So that would make...two games. WAIT! If you in include the 50 Cent games, that's 4 in total. Come on, isn't that diversity?

Should have remembered The Walking Dead, so shame on me for that. Do we really want to remember the 50 Cent games though?

Dead Space. Though they hid that from the player so...

Really? Everything I've seen of Isaac Clarke unmasked he's sorta looked... well, white, brown haired and 30.

Not as somebody who thinks it is great for diversity, but The Walking Dead and Prototype 2. If side characters who are also playable count then Gears of War. If games with no story count then Left 4 Dead 1/2 and Team Fortress 2.

Not a large selection.

Prototype 2? *Goes to Google* Well son of a *****! Well played Activision.

Prophet from Crysis 3 is black too.

 

[Nexxis]

Dead Space. Though they hid that from the player so...

Really? Everything I've seen of Isaac Clarke unmasked he's sorta looked... well, white, brown haired and 30.

I think Requia is talking about the player 2 character from Dead Space 3. I forgot his name, though. He was black.

OP: The poster that the OP created kinda makes me miss the old days. I Sucked at games back then, but I found them fun and colorful and varied. Now that the big companies are more focused on feeding off the successes of other games in an attempt to appease "core gamers" (which I don't believe exists; it seems like it's just a title to make a specific niche of easy-to-sell-to players feel special), it's become a brown/grey homogenized mess, IMO. Well, at least there's the Indie and mobile market to keep an eye on. A small win, I suppose.

 

[Zantos]

I never really looked at my game collection in this sort of way until now, but excluding the create your owns and the "I have no idea what this person looks like" I only actually have 6 games that aren't white brown haired 30 some males, and none of those are human (2 horsemen of the apocalypse, a half demon, a space marine and a fire warrior). My PC games fare slightly better due to a number of indie bundles and GoG, but it's still a fairly overrepresented group.

I do kind of get the age thing though. Most of the games I own require the character to have a certain level of maturity and fitness. Now I'm not saying you have to be in the 25-40 range to fit that bill, but it's at that age where no one is surprised if you do. If you had a greying 50 year old as your protagonist it wouldn't be far fetched for him to run around with guns or swords or whatever, but at some point either you have to bring up their age or people are going to start bringing it up for you.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

The think there is a distinct difference between gamers here and gamers everywhere else. I mean we take video games pretty seriously, so we buy all sorts of shit. There are still plenty of half casual gamers that didn't buy a game console, but a CoD machine. Like the sort of people who don't keep up with video game news/reviews and just buys what looks sick at Gamestop.

They would probably just buy the white-male, man games.

And I would like to point out that most of the characters that aren't manly are either Japanese or not AAA titles anymore.

AAA and Western? Probably has a gun in his hand. Maybe a sword.

 

[DoPo]

Do we really want to remember the 50 Cent games though?

What, you want to deny black people can have their own games devoted to them? Is that it? 50 Cent wash shot, you know - he was shot 9 times. More than anybody he deserves his own games.

 

[Requia]

Really? Everything I've seen of Isaac Clarke unmasked he's sorta looked... well, white, brown haired and 30.

You appear to be correct. Not sure if my memory is bugged or it was the shitty TV I was using at the time.

 

[Batou667]

What as the last game that let you play a black lead character, without going down the character creation route?

The Walking Dead (the adventure game, not the FPS). It's a great game and I can't recommend it enough.

I take your point though; the fact that black protagonists are as rare as rocking horse sh*t and yet make up 13% of the population of the US[footnote]Can't really fault Japanese devs for not prioritising black protagonists[/footnote] shows a real discrepancy. Or do the publishers assume that black people play nothing but NBA games and GTA?

Yeah... I have a much simpler theory.

Video games in general are mostly made by males and aimed at males, so when making a game the protagonists is made male because the average male prefers entertainment starring males.

Do they? Because in this thread 'ere we have 6 pages (and counting) of posters lining up to overwhelmingly say that gender isn't usually an issue for them. Most of these posters are also male and gamers.

Perhaps the gaming industry presumes that the average gamer wants to play as an idealised version of themselves, but this isn't supported by what gamers themselves are saying.

 

[wizzy555]

Do they? Because in this thread 'ere we have 6 pages (and counting) of posters lining up to overwhelmingly say that gender isn't usually an issue for them. Most of these posters are also male and gamers.

Perhaps the gaming industry presumes that the average gamer wants to play as an idealised version of themselves, but this isn't supported by what gamers themselves are saying.

It's because marketing people have theories about how you think. Sometimes they are wrong and sometimes they are more right about people than people themselves.

Sometimes they are willing to take a risk and other times they just want to maximise the return so they will prescribe a formula they believe will sell.

 

[Quazimofo]

I'll play this game too!



Dunno

Snake

Nathan Drake

Chris Redfield

Think it might be Alpha Protocol guy Mike Thornton?




Not a clue

Norman something Heavy Rain detective guy

Sam Fisher

Default MaleShep

Starkiller from The Force Unleashed



Cole from Infamous, I think

No idea

No idea

No idea

No idea



Alan Wake

Alec Mason from Red Faction: Guerilla

Painkiller guy? Or Dead To Rights perhaps?

Niko Bellic

Frank West



That was quite fun ^_^

Darn, you're better than I. I didn't catch Alan wake, sam fisher, or the painkiller guy. Also Norman's last name is Jayden (Thanks to kitty0706 I just can never forget his name). Otherwise my answers were identical. (like, literally identical. To the very order of the "i dont know" answers)

And of course gamers don't hate diversity, though As someone above said the generic brown haired male is a bit easier to project on to since it's a good middle ground. Personally I like some diversity, but without making that the core plot point. Kinda like how in dragon age your race and background shapes interactions with a choice few people, but otherwise it's personal preference. I really liked that, since when your race becomes the key plot point, its kind of bigoted in and of itself, and often feels a little forced.

 

[J Tyran]

Prophet from Crysis 3 is black too.

Technically its Alcatraz' body in the suit in Crysis 3. Prophet's mind is somehow still in the suit, so its mentally him... and he took over Alcatraz' mind, erasing him from existence. Way to go, EA, we're playing a black Buffalo Bill. Talk about progress! Keep it up and you'll earn the Golden Poo for 2013 as well - Three-peat!

(that was a joke)

Seriously? I didn't know, not played it yet just read that Prophet was the player character. Thats actually pretty ugly, almost like some kind of "blackface" bullshit except the African American guy ends up white.

 

[wizzy555]

And isn't Alcatraz dying anyway?

Americans.... There's an alien race exterminating mankind and they are more concerned about a black man saving the world in a white man's body.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

c) Its more of the matter of Prophet wiping out the existence of Alcatraz, sort of like how that one character in, IIRC, The Matrix: Revolutions gave up his body so that Agent Smith could exist in the real world. Except that the guy in the Matrix did it voluntarily, whereas Alcatraz is basically being murdered. Him and Prophet aren't working in conjunction in one body - Prophet is completely dominating everything, and for all we know, the conscious of Alcatraz has been wiped from existence.

Sorry to go off topic, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't give up his body willingly. Agent Smith possessed him in the Matrix using his hand-torso-black-goo trick, and then picked up the ringing phone in the Matrix that was intended for the guy he just possessed, in order to download himself into the body.

I think. Umm. I might be remembering it wrong, but I can't really imagine a guy voluntarily giving up his mind and body to an evil AI.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Here's the revised image:

Suddenly, the state of gaming doesn't look quite so gloomy and homogenised, does it? Yes, the "brown-haired, 30-something male" is still represented, but to imply that this archetype is a requirement to sell a game, or that "gamers won't buy a game whose protagonist isn't a male power fantasy!", is bunk.

Leaving the non-human characters aside, almost all of the characters in this picture are still white males. So I'm not sure what you're trying to point out here.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Firstly because despite being a gamer for the past 20 years I can't name half of the characters in it,

I get the distinctest impression you aren't keeping up with current things enough to make a good analysis of this.

and secondly because I strongly suspect it's a cherry-picked selection of protagonists which doesn't particularly reflect the most popular games or characters.

Isn't that what you did to counter the argument? As much as I love your optimism, a lot of those character weren't made in this last gen or even the prior, the top image's were. That's what the image was trying to say, and if anything you just strengthened it's argument but showing how great game character diversity used to be.

 

[scorptatious]

Hey, we're not sure about the bird. You're being sexist assuming it's male! ;P

I think the Red Angry Bird is a woman. Just saying.

Actually, I'm pretty sure Rovio themselves confirmed that the Red Bird, and most of the other birds, are indeed male. The only female birds are the White Bird and the Pink Bird.

...

Yeah, I've been playing too much Angry Birds. >_>

 

[MXRom]

I'm not sure that it's gamers that hate diversity but that devs are afraid of diversity. Trying to pitch something different to their publisher overlords sends them into panic mode and they have to crack open the BIG BOOK OF GENERIC STUFF and slap something together before their masters have a meltdown.

You get a little more freedom when the protagonist isn't a set character(Shepard, Dragonborn) , or you never actually see his face(Jack from Bioshock).