Valve Responds to Racism Accusations

[Lord Beautiful]

In the event that Willie Jefferson happens to be reading this, look here.

gh5v4f jhnm98hg

See that? I just rubbed my face against my keyboard, and even that makes more sense than you.

 

[scrape]

Valve is one of least "racist" developers I've ever seen, and their characters some of the most diverse. Hell, the Orange Box should've been called the "Black Box" (I am being facetious). The main heroine in Half-Life 2 is biracial, her father - the old mentor character - is black, several of the resistance fighters are black, the heroine from Portal is Asian (I think)... does the guy complaining about racism just want there to be no black people in games at all? Wouldn't that be racist too? Besides, I think the zombie virus is equal-opportunity.

 

[Zhalath]

Oh, so they'd rather that players go on rampages through hordes of white zombies? Isn't that racist, to have the only targets be white?
There's no way to "please" everyone. I think Valve should stick to their guns, and not cave in to these petty arguments.

Plus, I don't want delays in LFD2 because of "racial issues".

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Another one of these claims? Geez when will game devs get a break with this kind of stuff..it just seems that every time a games features a white guy as the main character or if a person your shooting at is black the game is racist? Let's break down the claims and make some sense of these:

Resident Evil 5- Set in AFRICA so yeah there's gonna be black people there it would make sense if Africa was populated by all white people

Left 4 Dead 2- Set in New Orleans a city where the majority of the population is black and like the first one a main character is black

i.e Louis form number 1 and "Coach" from number two.

Call of Juarez- never played the series so i cant say much there

 

[dalek sec]

In the event that Willie Jefferson happens to be reading this, look here.

gh5v4f jhnm98hg

See that? I just rubbed my face against my keyboard, and even that makes more sense than you.

I would have gone with something other than my face for this guy but your point still stands. I'm getting so damn sick of everyone crying about racism in games these days.

 

[LeeHarveyO]

Yeah black people live in New Orleans so do white people. I don't see the problem

 

[Razorback0z]

Resident Evil 5 was set in Africa. Are they going to put a bunch of Chinese people? Same concept with New Orleans. It's like putting lions in Antarctica.

*Puts on fire suit*

So your against lions in Antartica ??

That is the most blatently lionist statement I have ever heard. Lions should be free to go whereever they like without having to worry about being discriminated against by people like you.

 

[Cado_Deus]

Racism is only racism if the person being accused is actually racist. CoJ was set during the Civil War, of course there is going to be a Confederate Flag! Jeez! In GTA: San Andreas you played an African American and killed some white people, wouldn't that be considered racist? People should just leave games alone, they are one of the few areas less affected by the economic stress that has everyone. Let them be!

 

[lizards]

of course if anybody that has skin that isnt white that dies its instantly a fucking racist game devolper honestly i think that people who make these claims disprove the theory of natural selection and since that has failed they need to be hanged to prevent them from breeding

 

[bluepilot]

Perhaps in games we should have `multi-ethnic` zombies. And before we kill them we could have `multi-ethic zombie day` where we can celebrate the rich diversity of zombie culture and emphasise that while zombies may have different coloured skin and traditions, all zombies are equal.

There is a time and place to tackle the racist discrimination that happens in society. Zombie ethnic distribution in computer games is not one of them.

 

[Razorback0z]

Racism is only racism if the person being accused is actually racist. CoJ was set during the Civil War, of course there is going to be a Confederate Flag! Jeez! In GTA: San Andreas you played an African American and killed some white people, wouldn't that be considered racist? People should just leave games alone, they are one of the few areas less affected by the economic stress that has everyone. Let them be!

Almost...

The legal test for a claim of being racially villified is actually only that the victim feels vilified. So you can be guilty of racism, even if your not a racist.... if the person you interacted with feels that you racially villified them.

Just like Im feeling right now about you...

My people will be in touch with your people..

 

[SebZero]

L4D2 shouldn't have any black zombies, as they reflect the inaccuracy that black people are allowed to live in the U.S.

Waaaait.....

 

[Juraz]

Who ever said this was racist needs to be tied to a post and have 13 tonnes of spaghetti on him.

 

[j0z]

You all are racists, the game is racist, and you all should be ashamed!

I kid, of course.

"with several of them who appear to be African-Americans."

...
*eyetwitch*
"The racial makeup of the city was 67.25% African American, 28.05% White, 0.20% Native American, 2.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 3.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race." - Wikipedia, on New Orleans.

The fucking majority is black.
How does including them make it racist?
If anything, the opposite should be true!

I honestly cannot fathom the stupidity that goes on in the mind of this man.
Jesus Christ. Seriously.

I keep re-reading the article to make sure I didn't make some sort of reading comprehension error.

I have to agree, there should be MORE black zombies than white zombies.
This guy is a freaking loon.

 

[BlackIronGuardian]

Okay, the game is set during the Civil War with characters fighting for the Confederacy. There are going to be fucking flags.

The other game is set in New Orleans, where there are black people. If people are turning into zombies, and some of those people are black, you are going to get black zombies. Why is this so hard to understand?

 

[KimMR251]

Ugh, I haven't even read the responses, but why is it always the race card? Can we not just play a game and have fun with it without someone complaining. Okay sure, there are "different races" in games, but seriously, is this what people look at when playing a game? Clearly, someone has missed the fun if this is all they can rant and rave about.

It will come to the point where anyone is afraid to make anything and the only product that will arise from any developer will be so laden with extraneous crap that we'll all forget what the hell the game is really about -_-

People who point out, "this game is racist," is pretty guilty themselves of being racist, as some have already pointed out. Way to go for ruining it.

 

[YuheJi]

Weird... I thought Valve has done a good job with the race issue thus far with L4D2, making the races of the survivors match more closely to the demographics of the area. I don't really get the basis of blogger's attacks.

And Call of Juarez is set in a specific setting, one that includes the Confederate flag.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

He's an attention whore. Leave him to rot in his own crazed mindset.

 

[shinder]

its only racest if you think it is , so there for the writer who did the acussing is the racest one out of it all.

 

[Del-Toro]

1. The Confederate flag is hardly a symbol of hate, The Confederate States of America was not formed because the white people there hated blacks, their economies relied on slave labour so they had a lot to lose financially, at least the movers and shakers did, those who actually fought in the war generally joined to protect their homes and families from Union retaliation, which I believe to have been a story point in Juarez, and was the case for Robert E. Lee. The hate started afterwards, they probably felt that the blacks were just staying around to spite them, one thing led to another and now we have the KKK.

2. Of course their are black zombies in a zombie game set in New Orleans, if that weren't possible the whole post Katrina Kanye West thing wouldn't have happened. As for RE5, well, it's Africa, there are alot of Africans in Africa, they tend to be black, so I would imagine that in a horde of African Zombies there would be quite a few black victims.

Knowing is half the battle folks, his accusations of racism, at least the ones I am aware of, can be easily explained away by a little bit of history or logistics based logic.

EDIT: To any former EGM customers, do any of you remember that one letter that claimed Rock Band was racist? The next issue had only two of apparently many responses calling the jackass out. The grounds for the accusation was that the game kept true to it's namesake and only had rock music. How was this racist? Apparently only white people listen to Rock music and other races were jilted because no rap or soul music was included, and therefore black and hispanic people were discriminated against.