Poll: Red Dead Redemption: No Controversy?

[RobCoxxy]

Thats how things were in 1911 Mexico....it was a pretty bad place back then.

Nail on the head. It wasn't called the "Wild West" for the sunshine and bunnies.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Let's not put any bigotry where there wasn't any. I personally didn't see any difference in the characterization of Mexican characters over any others. I found that most characters, in fact, were written in such way way that made them come across in an assholish way, which is befitting of the setting.

 

[Boba Frag]

There WAS controversy.

But it was over the ability to net an achievement for throwing a hogtied woman on the tracks.

Did they take that out or leave it in?

I'm sorry, but I find that hysterical!

 

[Zenn3k]

Honestly, they weren't portrayed any better or worse than ANY racial group has EVER been treated in a rockstar game.

Rockstar goes out of its way to parody stereotypes for humor value, and honestly, they pick on everyone. So no, they weren't treated unfairly, they were treated just as fairly as everyone else.

 

[MrJoyless]

Honestly after the Mexican revolution there was a massive leadership struggle and power vacuum that left the people very much to the benevolence of the army / whomever was in the area

i think this aspect of a very hard time in Mexican history was portrayed with a bit of artistic license but was allround historically accurate

 

[mrmostlymittens]

I hate this PC crap...

 

[magicmonkeybars]

It'll be a sad day when I look to a video game like RdR for any kind of acurate information about anything let alone Mexicans.

 

[Something Amyss]

They were Mexican bandits. Set in an Spaghetti Western setting. Of course they weren't going to have redeeming qualities. What? Did you expect long back stories of how they weren't hugged enough as kids or were beaten for letting the tamales get cold by their dad who was a drunk?

Yeah, but they were Mexicans. Poorly portraying Mexican dictators and criminals as bad people means you're portraying all Mexicans as bad people!

...Or something.

I mean, seriously, MArston didn't really run around meeting up with many good people in any part of the game. But he was there because of a revolution.

Revolutions are generally filled with horrible people on both sides. The people being overthrown are generally monsters overthrown by other monsters. I like the way it seems Reyes becomes a harsh dictatorial leader, because it fits the general theme of the revolution: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

 

[Something Amyss]

Horses are the real victims in RDR. I mean, they're treated as basic slave labour, and herded around like...Like animals!

 

[Cavan]

Sure, if you deliberately ignore every american character upto the point where you get to Mexico then you can claim some sort of unfair prejudice of Mexico alone.

But if you were awake for the rest of the game you might have noticed some less than flattering things happening everywhere else..such as the 4.6 attempted assaults on women in towns per minute.

Or the fact that everybody you meet in the whole of America is trying to kill you or steal your horse.

Or the fact that 86% of the American population are hookers with the remaining men walking around being drunk looking for said women of easy virtue.

Or that the people you end up working with are: a necro, a swindler, a hugely prejudiced drug addict, the FBI who make betrayal into an art form...etc

The entire game is supposed to be bleak and somewhat unforgiving..most of the side missions are depressing(involving violence/tragedy or just things you might not want to put in a game..like bringing a man his wife back hogtied against her will?) and America is probably worse purely because you spend more time in it looking at how bad it's all supposed to be.

So you tell me..are the Mexicans anymore unfairly portrayed than anybody else? Pretty much the only people you're supposed to like in that game are Bonnie and your extended family, and even that can be argued.

 

[manaman]

As a Mexican, I wasn't offended.

Same here. Until the OP brought it up I never even thought about it. Still not offended either and posting reasons why would be a bit redundent since many posters before have already posted the same.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Well, all the politicians in game, or politicals in general, are generally slimy individuals. The general lesson seems to be that politics and government always impose themselves, and its the regular people who suffer. Most of the Mexican "peasants" you meet are generally nice people, like Luisa and her family, or just the general NPCs.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

The characters in Mexico are pretty much meant to be dirty slime-balls (A nod to the corrupt politics surrounding Mexico after their separation from Spain.)Every tried hanging out with the general population in the game? They acted no differently from the Americans. At least not that I could see. Heck, I could argue that they were a tad bit more polite and upstanding then those in New Armadillo.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I suppose I'm the only one who could find the guy called 'Irish' as the most offensive, stereotyped character in the game.

Not exactly something I enjoy being associated with my country, to be honest.

At the same time, it's a video game.... and over looking the absolutely dire and utterly shit Irish accent that the voice actor thought somehow earned him his paycheck, I thought he was pretty funny.

I thought he was hilarious, personally. Besides, he always seemed to be playing it up, to get away with shit, and that he was smarter than he looked. The character might not have been Irish at all.

They did a similar thing in GTA IV, when you kill an enemy of one of the Irish mobs, who has the most hamtastic Irish accent ever. Later they refer to him (either in conversation or in the news, can't remember) as not even being from Ireland.

 

[The Rascal King]

Hold on, 'imma let you finish but I just gotta say that Total Overdose had the most stereotypical view on Mexicans of all time...and it's still not all that bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D_PMDc5cc0&feature=related