The Portrayal of Male Characters in Video Games.

[PrototypeC]

Alright, now that that's out of the way (right?), to be honest I do find a huge lack of non-white male characters. That's not much of a problem for me though, because I find it easier to place myself in the character that way. Still, my eyes do get kind of bored of the colours peach and white after a while and I create a character that is some sort of brown. You know, video games industry, like most of humankind? My Fallout 3 character, for instance. The good, messianic one anyway, the obligatory white guy I made a "mad bomber"-type explosive psychopath as a polar opposite.

Besides race, the biggest problem I have with male characters these days is that they're all badasses, and they're all too keen to cap some people. Characters like Nathan Drake come off as psychopaths because killing doesn't effect them at all, they just keep going. They even make quips while they blow away some faceless foreigner for the umpteenth time. I mean, I'm not exactly well-adjusted myself, but it creeps me out after a while. The games industry equates how many people you've killed with how much of a "badass" you are, and I'd like to see that change. I want more potentially amoral, scared survivalists, like Daniel from The Dark Descent or James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 (both of which are horror games).

I'm sick of soldiers. Even the positive example above of Solid Snake (and the other Snakes) falls into the classification of a soldier. It's either current soldiers, former soldiers, or people with combat training equivalent to soldiers (cops, secret agents, SWAT teams, fighter jet pilots, secret "projects", rebels, etc.). This is linked to the whole idea that video games can only be combat and little else, which besides being outdated does not demand that the character be experienced at it. What's wrong with a character that picks up a gun or blade for the first time out of a need for survival and doesn't find it comes naturally?

Real soldiers can be dicks too, but in video games they're always played as the heroes no matter what atrocities they commit. This is an almost universal video game trope I'd like to see change as well.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

snip

It occurs to me I haven't talked about any specific male characters. Well, I'll see if I can't remedy that.

Kyle Hyde from Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)

You step into the (monochrome) shoes of a white, 30-something, brown-haired white male who has, by his own choice, ended his career as a police detective and left the comforts of a stable income and home to find answers for a past, personal slight. This personal mission has kept him on the road as a traveling salesman, a job that has made him worn and world-weary.

The aforementioned personal slight? His partner on the force, Bradley, sold out to a crime syndicate. Kyle chased him down to a dead end near a river, and in a fit of rage, shot him. No body was found. Believing that Bradley was yet alive, Kyle abandoned the force to find Bradley and to get some answers out of him.

That right there may sound like something you have seen before (albeit in different shapes), but rather than falling into the trap of Kyle going into bathetic monologues about how his life is so miserable in a hamfisted attempt at pulling your heart-strings, Kyle instead shows time and time again that beneath his grumpy and humorless exterior he still retains that slightly paternalistic streak that your typical "good cop" is usually associated with. Case in point: He frequently cheers up a kid whose father is often not there for his child, he is implied to make sure that a former small-time criminal is kept straight on the narrow (though I might be reading into that too much) and helps a mute amnesiac to communicate with the outside world.

The effects of this are for the most part well realised, but not without some warts here and there. Mostly it is a matter of animation, Kyle lacks a sprite where he is shown to be angry, or yelling. There is a sprite where he clearly was meant to be yelling, but it just ended up looking like he is trying to be extra clear on something. He also lacks a sprite where he makes a minor, nice smile. He has a sprite where he makes a really big smile (that often made him look too happy for the situation) and another where he makes a smug grin (that often looked a bit out of place). Nevertheless, these are only minor problems that do not break the character.

Now, I couldn't really relate to Kyle, I ain't a former cop, I don't drift from place to place looking for answers to some past slight, but I found him interesting and above all, human. Which I think counts for a lot towards making a good character.

EDIT: Added a snipped qoute of the OP to my post. REASON: I just felt my post was dangling in the middle-of-nowhere.

 

[T0BB0]

While I would like to see more diversity among protagonists, I think the more pressing issue is to make the characters themselves deeper. I don't particularly have a problem with a 30-something white male as a protagonist, as long as I get the impression that he's a real person, with a wider range of emotion than "I'm happy" and "I'm sad." Just being a prosaic "badass" character doesn't really cut it anymore... I did think Old Snake was a good change of pace though, Old people can be more badass than their young counterparts, more experience being those eyes.

I agree with this and others in saying that the problem is with a lack of well-written characters, not simply characters who look alike. That mindset assumes that the characters can continue being gruff, one dimensional gun drones and can solve the issue of equality and discrimination by rolling dice or flipping coins for ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

As a counter example, personally I found the character of Niko Bellic in GTA4 to be particularly interesting, despite the fact he is a white, brown haired 30-something. Is it because he's Serbian rather than American? No, of course not, but it does add up to his character as a whole. You can't solve the problem of diversity in games by giving your brown haired white protagonist a 'funny accent', but you can make a character interesting by building it from their history. Rockstar created a character who grew up and participated in the Yugoslav Wars. It's not something which is simply referrenced once or twice, or included in a sentence on an introduction screen, this is something that is constantly referred to in his responses, in his attitude towards his life and the things he has to do. He reflects on his experiences with his friends and family. He's believable to me because he does this in a subtle and fluid way, rather than breaking into ten minute monologues about it or never mentioning it whatsoever.

Maybe the game setup helps build his character more: You get to experience what Niko is like when he's taking a friend out for a drink or a game of pool. Some see these points as irritating distractions when you're driving between missions, with the interrupting phone buzzing away with a "My cousin! You want to go bowling?" but I found them to be excellent character development points by listening to their conversations to and from the destinations. Unfortunately most people I know at the time saw it as simply "less fun than Saints Row 2"

 

[Kotep]

There's also the issue of male characters that aren't the protagonist. Off the top of my head, I can think of only a few games that freely use female mooks the same that they use male mooks. FFX-2 did, I know, and the TES games given their nature are usually content to randomize up plenty of female enemies for you to fight. But in most games, generic enemies will be male, which speaks to two biases: the inclination to think of male as 'default' (as a deviation from the default requires an explanation while the default doesn't) as well as males being expendable; because their emotions aren't important, it's fine to kill them indiscriminately.

 

[ElPatron]

Because people under 30 have a lot of training and experience.

And Niko is of Slavic origin so he is not the typical Hollywood "American white male"

Not only do females get laden with two problems, but I would also say that the lack of portrayal is bigger a problem than poor portrayal.

Good luck with that. Move one inch into the wrong direction, and your development team is called "sexist" or "misogynist".

 

[ElPatron]

He is white. Anyway, tell me where it mentions American in the image?

It doesn't, but it obviously implies that there is a stereotype.

Niko breaks away from the Hollywood "American" stereotype that people must play as Americans.

Since when has "training and experience" ever stopped a character from being interesting? You could have a rookie on his/her first day on he job and still have it be fun and interesting.

Because an inexperienced Niko Bellic would have never been in the war, would have never had a reason to seek revenge, no reason to live in America and his ability with firearms would be awful.

My personal experience tells me that if there is a teen/young adult there will be whining and bitching. If there is a thirty-something character, he is experienced, street-wise, more rugged, he will be a lot more cynical and pessimist towards life. He will also be colder and more detached to the people around.

It's hard to make a "teen is forced to grow up" story if you compare it to "turning the chaotic neutral anti-hero into a lawful-good character" trope.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

Not only do females get laden with two problems, but I would also say that the lack of portrayal is bigger a problem than poor portrayal.

Good luck with that. Move one inch into the wrong direction, and your development team is called "sexist" or "misogynist".

I think you misread my post a bit. That said, I do get the point you are trying to make.

 

[ElPatron]

snip

I am bringing up Americans because let's face it - most protagonists "have" to be Americans. That's what spawned Lara Croft, the dev wanted the opposite of an American male and came up with a British female.

I think I had my dose of teenage angst back in Metal Gear Solid 2.
Let's talk about Raiden. He was a child solider. Frankly, despite being a newbie in the field he has as much experience in warfare as a 30-year old. Replace Raiden by a 30-year old and it's basically the same game. His age doesn't affect his abilities in the game.

Am I going to play a game just to see (pardon my expression) "kids having their balls drop"? I'm sorry, but I had enough of that when I was a teenager myself.

I prefer a "neutral" white guy that can pass as a normal person than a token black guy going "AWW HELL NAW, MOTHERFAKA!" because we all know how good writing teams are at creating that kind of characters. Or an Asian guy who is good at martial arts because he's Asian and they are born with it... in their blood... or something.

 

[ElPatron]

Not all young people have to be angsty to the level of raiden and to be honest I would rather have another Raiden than yet another Nathan Drake or Cole McGrath.

Another Raiden would be rage-worthy while another Nathen Drake would be a "meh" at best.

It's the good thing about the neutrality of those established characters. You're hardly going to offend anyone.

Videogames are escapism. If I am forced to play as a character who is less experienced and powerful than me... I feel I could do it myself in real life. Heck, in Harry Potter the kids are younger than me, but I can't cast spells.

If I wanted a Max Payne 3 with a 20-year old Payne without a reason to be an alcoholic and no experience in the Police I could just buy a ticket to Brazil and start taking out the trash myself - I fill all requisites.

 

[Bobic]

I kinda think that Niko Bellic should be replaced on that pic. Yeah, he's a brown haired 30 something white male. But he's also Serbian, which I think makes him more unique than those other dudes. An ex-soviet countryman really stands out against a sea of white american male protagonists.

Here's the $64 question: How does he feel about that?

Knowing Niko Bellic, mournful.

 

[Bobic]

Knowing Niko Bellic, mournful.

That's it?

Hey, you want a lengthy analysis of Niko Bellic's feelings of being surrounded by Americans, contact GTA4's writer.
You want a short snappy answer, contact me.

 

[Bobic]

Hey, you want a lengthy analysis of Niko Bellic's feelings of being surrounded by Americans, contact GTA4's writer.
You want a short snappy answer, contact me.

No need to get so defensive. The point I'm trying to make is that shit that happens to someone is not characterization. How they feel about it is. Saying that Niko is Serbian is not characterization. How he feels about being a Serbian expatriate is. Saying that he fought in the Serbian civil war is not characterization. How his worldview is colored by that is.

And saying that a character has brown hair, is white and is male, is not characterization. It's almost as if all those guys having similar genotype doesn't make them the same.

And I wasn't being defensive, I was joking. Apparently not very well, but joking nonetheless.

 

[Ryotknife]

well, there is one advantage to an american protagonist....its a blank slate. It can be any race, with pretty much any cultural or religious affiliation.

afterall, i think white people about to become a minority (in terms of # of people)in the US pretty soon.

that said, i generally dont care about what my character looks like (as long as it doesnt go into the extreme and break the immersion) but am more interested in the character itself.