Games with black protagonists

[Xarathox]

I am a bit confused on how a character who is "written...white and then just colored black" would act. Is the behavior of most black people so different from that of whites as to be noticeable?

That's a loaded question.

The simple answer is, yes. Different ethnic groups often produce their own set of behavioral patterns, speech, ideology and the like. We call this "Culture". A "Culture" can both exist in a far off exotic land with Elves, Orcs, Trolls and Goblins (and maybe Unicorns), or your own back yard. Then there are Sub-Cultures that exist within the host culture, but these are more like leeches. They'll usually attach to something until they suck the life out of it, before bursting from all the bloat, never to be heard from again.

 

[Lightknight]

Roland from Borderlands 1. For some reason I only see borderlands 2 listed. I'm not sure which main character from Borderlands 2 is black aside from customizeable skins. I mean, I haven't seen under Zero's mask but I thought I understood him to be a robot.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

I am a bit confused on how a character who is "written...white and then just colored black" would act. Is the behavior of most black people so different from that of whites as to be noticeable?

That's a loaded question.

The simple answer is, yes. Different ethnic groups often produce their own set of behavioral patterns, speech, ideology and the like. We call this "Culture". A "Culture" can both exist in a far off exotic land with Elves, Orcs, Trolls and Goblins (and maybe Unicorns), or your own back yard. Then there are Sub-Cultures that exist within the host culture, but these are more like leeches. They'll usually attach to something until they suck the life out of it, before bursting from all the bloat, never to be heard from again.

I get the idea of sub-cultures. It just seems that, at this point in history, most of black culture has been intergrated into mainstream culture, especially since blacks are living longer, making more money, and intergrating into predominantly white neighborhoods. It seems like some things about black culture would either be associated more with low income areas (gangster rap, and the like) than with the ethnicity. But then again I live in a area with a very tiny population of black people, so I could simply be not understanding. Also, its currently 8 am, and I didn't get much sleep, so I really hope this makes sense and isn't just the ramblings of a mind lost to madness.

 

[Sight Unseen]

If you wanted to start a list for ensemble casts then Left 4 Dead 2 has two playable black characters to choose from out of the four available, and Dead Island has one of five.

Other than that I can't think of any that haven't already been mentioned.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

Oh man, how could I forget. Charles Milton Porter is pretty much the main character of BioShock 2: Minerva's Den. Yeah, you're playing as a Big Daddy, but for all intents and purposes, he's your protagonist.

Minerva's Den Spoilers:

Spoiler

Actually it's revealed that C.M. Porter is Subject Sigma at the end, but I didn't want to even hint at the big twist. Minerva's Den is definitely one of my favourite pieces of DLC.

 

[Dragonbums]

Yikes.

Try adding woman next to black and you'll get an even more abysmal list.

 

[Xarathox]

I am a bit confused on how a character who is "written...white and then just colored black" would act. Is the behavior of most black people so different from that of whites as to be noticeable?

That's a loaded question.

The simple answer is, yes. Different ethnic groups often produce their own set of behavioral patterns, speech, ideology and the like. We call this "Culture". A "Culture" can both exist in a far off exotic land with Elves, Orcs, Trolls and Goblins (and maybe Unicorns), or your own back yard. Then there are Sub-Cultures that exist within the host culture, but these are more like leeches. They'll usually attach to something until they suck the life out of it, before bursting from all the bloat, never to be heard from again.

I get the idea of sub-cultures. It just seems that, at this point in history, most of black culture has been intergrated into mainstream culture, especially since blacks are living longer, making more money, and intergrating into predominantly white neighborhoods. It seems like some things about black culture would either be associated more with low income areas (gangster rap, and the like) than with the ethnicity. But then again I live in a area with a very tiny population of black people, so I could simply be not understanding. Also, its currently 8 am, and I didn't get much sleep, so I really hope this makes sense and isn't just the ramblings of a mind lost to madness.

No, I get you. I was being a bit (see: all of it) sarcastic in my post anyways.

Anywho, I live in the south where both ethnic groups are intertwined socially, politically, etc. It's not very often you run into a "black colored whitey" (as Lelani so eloquently put it) unless they come from a very predominantly white area, often suburban. It usually comes down to where and how they were raised, where and how their parents were raised, where and how their grandparents were raised and so on and so forth. This, of course, translates to both sides.

Sometimes you come across strange mutations, like a black guy wearing the typical baggy pants and oversized jersey with an afro driving a custom 4 wheel drive truck, blasting country music. True story, by the way.

 

[Lightknight]

Yikes.

Try adding woman next to black and you'll get an even more abysmal list.

I wonder how it compares to actual demographics.

I'm not entirely surprised though. If you're a big company spending millions on a game you want the main character to relate to as many people as possible. In the US, that's white males. As such, it isn't unethical for characters to be designed with the customer base in mind. Still, I like the way things are going nowadays where customers are largely customiseable. That sidesteps the entire conversation but that's more difficult to do when voice actors are involved.

 

[Dragonbums]

Yikes.

Try adding woman next to black and you'll get an even more abysmal list.

I wonder how it compares to actual demographics.

I'm not entirely surprised though. If you're a big company spending millions on a game you want the main character to relate to as many people as possible. In the US, that's white males. As such, it isn't unethical for characters to be designed with the customer base in mind. Still, I like the way things are going nowadays where customers are largely customiseable. That sidesteps the entire conversation but that's more difficult to do when voice actors are involved.

I can see that.
I don't see much people in my demographic playing videogames anyway.
It hardly bothers me anymore. And besides, it's all about baby steps right?
Right now I'm just rooting for the female part of the group. And maybe when I'm too old will my demographic come in.

Nothing to really make a stinker about...at the moment.
I assume once said target is big enough people will start to complain. It all happens eventually.

 

[Bad Jim]

Yikes.

Try adding woman next to black and you'll get an even more abysmal list.

Jade from Beyond Good and Evil?

Her ethnicity is a bit vague though. I'd say black is plausible, but I can't be certain.

 

[AITH]

Def Jam Vandetta has quite a few

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Glad someone said Aliens Vs Predator. That's one that goes forgotten alot.

But really the only ones have been named already, and all I could think of was Aliens, Starhawk, Crackdown, Walking Dead and 50 Cent (lawl)

 

[Not Gabe Newell]

The Walking Dead: 400 Days recently had a black protagonist: Russell

Then you have games where the player can CHOOSE to have a black protagonist, a la The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc.

 

[Silverbeard]

So, I was talking with a friend and we were trying to come up with a list of all of the games with black player characters. Here's what we came up with:

Saints Row
GTA: San Andreas
50 Cent
The Walking Dead (I think? I haven't played this but I've seen some screen shots)
Prototype 2
The Suffering
Crysis 3 (kind of)
Starhawk
Blade

You can add almost any Bioware game to this list ('cept those Sonic ones and Jade Empire). They have player-made protagonists; black characters can be created. Try Knights of the old Republic too.
Theoretically speaking, XCOM Enemy Unknown allows the player to recruit black infantrymen as well. The player entity is of an undefined skin type.

 

[Lightknight]

I can see that.
I don't see much people in my demographic playing videogames anyway.
It hardly bothers me anymore. And besides, it's all about baby steps right?
Right now I'm just rooting for the female part of the group. And maybe when I'm too old will my demographic come in.

Nothing to really make a stinker about...at the moment.
I assume once said target is big enough people will start to complain. It all happens eventually.

In the end it has to be considered financially worth their time to do. In games where you can choose from a list of characters there is almost always multiple race options and both genders present nowadays and that is right for the developers to do.

In games where there is only one character they typically mimic the majority of gamers. I may also consider this an ethically sound decider. This isn't the same as hiring an individual because of the color of their skin, this is creating a product with the customer base in mind.

You've got to understand, as of 2010 the numbers are tremendous. White or European individuals make up 72.4% of the US population. Next closest group is Hispanic or Latino at 16.4% but 8.7% of that group is also categorized as White or European

(Example of White/European hispanics:
Alexis Bledel [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexis_Bledel_2008.jpg]
Cameron Diaz [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CameronDiazJune09.jpg]
Martin Sheen [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheen,_Martin_(2008).jpg])

So the actual next closest that wouldn't consider themselves white would be Black or African American at 12.6%. 7.7% of the hispanic category and Asian Americans are less than 5%.

So I guess if you're making an avatar that is representative of your customer base it'd be white every time unless the character is established as something else. This is assuming that the main character's appearance can alter the projected revenue of a game. I don't know that it does and that's not a fair assumption. I think back on the games where I've played as a black, hispanic, asian, female individual and it hasn't done anything to impact my enjoyment or excitment for the game. If it's a good game I'll give it a shot. I wonder if other people are like that in aggregate though.

FYI, I should speak on female gaming demographics. People are currently using that latest study to show that 47%/53% is the ratio of girls to males in gaming. However, not only does the study itself have incredibly loose interpretation of gamers, but less than half of the respondants on that study even claimed to be planning to buy at least one game in the coming year. That means that less than half the respondents are the target market for people selling games. Furthermore, the increase in numbers can easily be contributed to an increase in phone gaming which would appeal to some companies but not AAA developers on consoles. Finally, as of 2010, 80% of female console gamers owned a Wii as their primary system. Males were at 41%. Doing math on the basis that the male/female ratio that year was 60%/40%, you can deduce that less than 20% of the female gaming demogrpahic would have been considered part of the AAA gaming demographic and there's no evidence that this number would have necessarily changed. Not only that, but we have no idea if the genders even express the same distribution regarding favored gaming genre. Personally, my wife prefers shooters and RTS games. But what about the agreggate of gamers? I love RPGs, am quite good at shooters and only enjoy the particular RTS games (Warhammer 4000 and Warcraft RTS' always caught my interest for some reason). My first girlfriend, however, couldn't even bear to shoot a gun at me in Halo (whoa was she timid) but hit up Age of Empires like there was no tomorrow.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Personally, I don't like to include these when it comes to tallying up any video game character minorities, whether they be racial minorities or female. While it's nice of them to include characters generic enough to be customized, as you said they're still designed with a white default template in mind. While Commander Shepherd can be any color you want, they're still going to sound like a white man or a white woman.

Conversely, I made a white basketball player in NBA 2K13. The post-game press conferences are quite hilarious. Even if my character was black it'd seem over the top.

Yeh...

I would really appreciate a few voice options on those games. As it is, my player is someone I laugh at. That voice is horrible... It sorta sounds like John Mayer at times.

 

[Dragonbums]

I can see that.
I don't see much people in my demographic playing videogames anyway.
It hardly bothers me anymore. And besides, it's all about baby steps right?
Right now I'm just rooting for the female part of the group. And maybe when I'm too old will my demographic come in.

Nothing to really make a stinker about...at the moment.
I assume once said target is big enough people will start to complain. It all happens eventually.

In the end it has to be considered financially worth their time to do. In games where you can choose from a list of characters there is almost always multiple race options and both genders present nowadays and that is right for the developers to do.

In games where there is only one character they typically mimic the majority of gamers. I may also consider this an ethically sound decider. This isn't the same as hiring an individual because of the color of their skin, this is creating a product with the customer base in mind.

You've got to understand, as of 2010 the numbers are tremendous. White or European individuals make up 72.4% of the US population. Next closest group is Hispanic or Latino at 16.4% but 8.7% of that group is also categorized as White or European

(Example of White/European hispanics:
Alexis Bledel [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexis_Bledel_2008.jpg]
Cameron Diaz [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CameronDiazJune09.jpg]
Martin Sheen [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheen,_Martin_(2008).jpg])

So the actual next closest that wouldn't consider themselves white would be Black or African American at 12.6%. 7.7% of the hispanic category and Asian Americans are less than 5%.

So I guess if you're making an avatar that is representative of your customer base it'd be white every time unless the character is established as something else. This is assuming that the main character's appearance can alter the projected revenue of a game. I don't know that it does and that's not a fair assumption. I think back on the games where I've played as a black, hispanic, asian, female individual and it hasn't done anything to impact my enjoyment or excitment for the game. If it's a good game I'll give it a shot. I wonder if other people are like that in aggregate though.

FYI, I should speak on female gaming demographics. People are currently using that latest study to show that 47%/53% is the ratio of girls to males in gaming. However, not only does the study itself have incredibly loose interpretation of gamers, but less than half of the respondants on that study even claimed to be planning to buy at least one game in the coming year. That means that less than half the respondents are the target market for people selling games. Furthermore, the increase in numbers can easily be contributed to an increase in phone gaming which would appeal to some companies but not AAA developers on consoles. Finally, as of 2010, 80% of female console gamers owned a Wii as their primary system. Males were at 41%. Doing math on the basis that the male/female ratio that year was 60%/40%, you can deduce that less than 20% of the female gaming demogrpahic would have been considered part of the AAA gaming demographic and there's no evidence that this number would have necessarily changed. Not only that, but we have no idea if the genders even express the same distribution regarding favored gaming genre. Personally, my wife prefers shooters and RTS games. But what about the agreggate of gamers? I love RPGs, am quite good at shooters and only enjoy the particular RTS games (Warhammer 4000 and Warcraft RTS' always caught my interest for some reason). My first girlfriend, however, couldn't even bear to shoot a gun at me in Halo (whoa was she timid) but hit up Age of Empires like there was no tomorrow.

Again, I understand the whole ethnic demographic. Black people in general tend to make up a...pretty small demographic of the gaming crowd. (The ones that aren't into the NFL games anyway.)
It's something that I've long since accepted. If I gnashed my teeth about it all the time, I don't think I would be playing videogames right now.
Of course that is the reason why character customization games have so much appeal to me.
The indemnification of white though is pretty interesting for folks who aren't necessarily "white" so to speak. However that will lead to a very different topic not related to this one.


For me, as a female personally I tend to enjoy platformers open RPG worlds, adventure games, the occasional party game (and by party games I mean Mario Party because all the other ones tend to suck) and games with a good story.

The only shooter I have played and thoroughly enjoyed is TF2. Mainly because they don't take themselves seriously and the art style is pleasant to look at.

I guess...aside fro the TF2 part I fit the stereotype of what games woman tend to play on a day to day basis. However I have no problems with playing your average COD shooter type games. They just don't interest me is all.
On that note, I don't think the game industry should cater to the female demographic specifically, however it doesn't hurt to slowly make those games appealing to them. They are in the long run, one of the last few demographics the game industry hasn't really affected.
Nintendo got it with their Animal Crossing game seeing as how they claim in Japan a lot of the buyers were women, and games like Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls understood it. To what extent, I'm not quite sure but if the ME3 trailers featuring FemShep were anything to go by it seems that they are aware of them to the point to try to get more in.

Also "Girl Games" need to burn in a fire forever. They...are just really, really bad.