Why Straight White Guys Shouldn't Always Play Games As Themselves

[DOOM GUY]

I hope to never see the day where "equal representation of everyone everywhere" takes center stage over making an interesting, fun game. Yes Lee was a good character. Not because he's black but because he's competently written and voice acted. Yes Clem is a noteworthy character. Not because she's inter-racial but because shes one of the only children characters in videogames that isn't the most annoying thing in the fucking game.

I think there's still a decent amount of developers left that actually like making fun games, so that'll probably never happen throughout the entire industry.

 

[Something Amyss]

I hope to never see the day where "equal representation of everyone everywhere" takes center stage over making an interesting, fun game.

Thankfully, as a strawman goal, it won't happen and you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

You know, the really interesting thing is that even though I am a straight white male, playing a game as a straight white character never really registered in my mind as any sort of a statement.. In fact as far as I'm concerned the gender, sexual disposition and skin color of the lead character of the games I play has been utterly irrelevant.

I play The Walking Dead Season One as a black man. I play The Walking Dead Season Two as a mixed pre-teen girl. I think nothing of it other than "Hey here's a character and this is their story, I'm gonna go ahead and enjoy what is presented here".

I play as Nathan Drake in Uncharted, and I don't think "FUCK YEAH I'm playing as a good looking super bad ass white dude that is the epitome of the male adolescent fantasy", I think "This dude is a treasure hunter, kind of a fuck up and has an OK sense of humor... alright, brain, take a break while I enjoy the proceedings".

The thing that irks me is that the only people even bringing up the race/sex/orientation argument are those who feel they aren't represented enough. That's all well and good, mind you, but why should any creator of intellectual property be obligated to write a character that is of a gender, race or orientation they are A) Not familiar with, or B) doesn't fit with the vision in their head?

You bet your ass that a good number of AAA games pander to demographics, but you know where the problem is? It's with the publishers pulling the strings of the developers and telling them what to make. It's not with the gamers.

I'd imagine the reason playing a straight white man doesn't make a statement is because it's the status quo. It happens so often it's lost meaning. What possible statement is there to be made for straight white males that hasn't been made a dozen other times a year?
It becomes up to the story, the setting, and the world the guy is in to make things interesting for me.

On second thought, I'd say that there's so many statements made by straight white guys because they're so prevalent. Sure, they all kinda look alike, but they do all sorts of things in all sorts of ways.

It's different for non straight white men because it's not very often we get to play as an LGBT character. It's rare we get to play as a person of color. It's becoming a bit more common that we can play as a woman, but it's still kinda rare.
In other words, it's rare a person that's not a straight white man gets to see a face that looks familiar to theirs. At least outside of games with character creation which isn't a perfect solution because it forces the script to be one to represent everyone, generally, which forces the personality to be universal.
We get to see someone that resembles us in a positive, heroic role that we control, and thus can shape the world.

Ya know, most LGBT characters are usually villains? Or at least people we can assume are LGBT.
LGBT situations are also presented as bad, too.

Sure we might get some token LGBT NPCs that aren't villains, scum, etc, but NPCs just don't really have the impact of plying as them, IMO.

Generally the female NPCs we get are less capable than the main character, then they need saving, then they're almost always love interests. It's a harsh typecasting.
On the flip side, when we can play as the woman, outside of create a character adventures, we rarely get love interests for some reason.

A minority seeing a minority character in a positive light makes a stronger statement because it's rare.

On your last point, I agree. I'd imagine we'd see more diversity if developers weren't forced to make things the way publishers want. they definitely aren't making game the way the people want.

Personally, I've been playing as the straight white guy so much, I'm tired of it.

 

[Batou667]

A big thing here is that there's a big difference between games where you play as a predetermined character and games where you get to make your own. There's a world of difference between playing a black dude in Walking Dead and making a black dude in Skyrim or Mass Effect - mainly that in the latter cases, not much changes, if anything at all. It's a cosmetic choice, and nothing else.

Yeah, I almost completely agree. I don't know if these are the accepted terms, but I use "character" to describe an existing person in a game world whose role you assume, and "avatar" to talk about blank-slate game people who represent way for a player to self-insert in a game or else try out role-playing somebody different (but still defined by them).

Both characters and avatars have their own values. In a narrative-driven game I'd echo the sentiment that good > diverse: I'd rather invest myself in a game with strong characterisation than empty check-box diversity, but obviously it's great when the two overlap as in The Walking Dead. In sandbox and MMO games the ability to play as "somebody like me" seems to be a lot more important for immersion and feeling included (say a character creation feature in a game didn't allow you to make a realistic-looking black character: even if accidental, that'd say something about the game creators priorities and who the game is "for".)

So yeah, it's two different types of inclusion: representation within the context of the game's narrative, and the more "meta" player-mirroring representation. The latter is a lot more personal and difficult to nail down. For example, the article writer was happy he could create a Hawaiian-looking Shepherd - great, but any meaning or enhanced immersion resulting from that was a product of the player. I could play through the game as Hawaii-Shep and be completely nonplussed as it'd be a meaningless cosmetic change for me. I wouldn't come out of the game with a deeper understanding of what it is to be Hawaiian.

 

[Skaven252]

I played Oblivion as a Redguard (despite being one of those cis white dudes) to get poison immunity. That's pretty much the only effect race has in Elder Scrolls games.

But yeah... when I was totally new to the game, unaware of the things to come, and approached a town, and suddenly an Orc started talking to me (ie the game zoomed on a weird looking face all of a sudden) I admit to being so racially prejudiced to the bone, that my first reaction was to get startled, "gah! What the hell is that?!"

 

[Autumnflame]

Yes making assumptions about people is the best way to bring them around to your way of view.

For shame people say you should experience stories outside of your own gender,sex and race.

when they have no idea that i and many others do this on a regular basis.

Picking alternates to yourself wont make for a better story.
The better story comes in the writing and acting. not the genders, races, sexualities they are part but shouldnt be a characters defining trait

 

[MrFalconfly]

You want me to play a game where the player-character is "outside of my comfort-zone"?

Alright. Is there even a game where you play as Colonel Fuckhead from the 3rd Waffen SS Panzerdivision? Because if there isn't then I'm fairly certain that whatever "socio-political" character you can come up with is within my comfort-zone.

Be it male, female, hermaphrodite, Caucasian, African (Egyptian or Nubian or whatever), Asian, Native American, Middle-Eastern (Palestinian, Iraqi, Iranian, whatever), Indian, Aborigine, Christian, Mormon, Muslim, Jew, Hetero, Homo, Bi, Trans, whatever.

As long as the story is engaging, and the gameplay is fun I'm gonna play it.

 

[blackrave]

You want me to play a game where the player-character is "outside of my comfort-zone"?

Alright. Is there even a game where you play as Colonel Fuckhead from the 3rd Waffen SS Panzerdivision? Because if there isn't then I'm fairly certain that whatever "socio-political" character you can come up with is within my comfort-zone.

Not exactly, but there is something pretty close
ZOG's Nightmare
Please don't.

 

[MrFalconfly]

You want me to play a game where the player-character is "outside of my comfort-zone"?

Alright. Is there even a game where you play as Colonel Fuckhead from the 3rd Waffen SS Panzerdivision? Because if there isn't then I'm fairly certain that whatever "socio-political" character you can come up with is within my comfort-zone.

Not exactly, but there is something pretty close
ZOG's Nightmare
Please don't.

Christ on stilts.

I was only joking. I didn't know there were people, actually idiotic enough to make a game like that.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Ya know, most LGBT characters are usually villains? Or at least people we can assume are LGBT.
LGBT situations are also presented as bad, too.

*ehem* ...Bull.

Didn't you also say that JRPGs are much better with diversity than all of our filthy "western" RPGs? Even though there doesn't seem to have been a single JRPG released this year that allows you to play as a black character? (excluding dark souls, which is more heavily influenced by western RPGs than anything else)

Hell even upcoming JRPGs seem to have you play as the same, semi-anime cast of vaguely white/asian characters.

LGBT characters being villains? Are you just joking? The closest to anything you described is Anders from DA 2, and he's more conflicted than anything else. Only reason the LGBT situations can be presented as "bad" with Anders is because it seems like you can't even be a nice guy to him without him wanting to jump your bones.

But the much beloved Leonardo DaVinci from the AC games was all but outright stated to be guy. Ezio's response? Essentially: "I approve."

Mass Effect has had "Lesbian" options from the beginning and recently added gay romances in the third game. Nothing wrong depicted about LGBT there.

FFS it now seems weirder if an RPG doesn't include at least one gay romance than if it did. We've had homosexual relationships in RPGs since freaking JADE EMPIRE.

Much better diversity than the west is NOT hard to do. It really isn't. It's like a car with 4 wheels can run better than a car with no wheels.
When was the last time you heard a japanese company say "We're not including women because it's too hard?"
It seems quite the opposite.

You talk like I said the Japanese companies were perfect at diversity. I'd never say that coz it simple isn't true. But hey, if you wanna talk character creation, Fantasy Life is coming up. Tomodachi Life? Frankly I hate using character creation as a way out coz it limits the character's personality a great deal.

Why's it gotta be limited to JRPGs?

Koei's Samurai Warriors 4 is allowing you to re-color characters. I don't know how far it goes for skin tones, and I know it's not the greatest option, I admit, but it's a lot farther than most western companies. PLUS there's mercenary mode allowing create a warrior which might allow enough customization to allow a more familiar character. Koei's decent at character creation.

Dragonball Xenoverse is -finally- letting you make your own character with gender select among Nemekians, Majins, and half-breed saiyans. Odds are skin tones are going to be there, but I can't promise anything. Not only is that a milestone in a Dragonball game, IMO (With gender select anyhow), it's a damn sight farther than Ubisoft went, and I'd think Ubisoft is bigger than Bandai-Namco.

As towards my point on LGBT not getting great representation,
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A few examples from a few companies (well, largely one company, Bioware), some NPCs don't make for great representation in my book. Especially when companies take steps back from it.

Jade Empire's a Bioware game. Bioware's progressive about these things. I'm glad for them being a beacon of light in a Dudebro western world.
Honestly, outside of Dragon's Dogma (via Capcom), and Bioware games I don't know any game off the top of my head where the character you play as has LGBT romances.

 

[faefrost]

I think if ever we would be able to look at the actual data we would not be surprised to learn that a vast number of straight white guys, if not an outright majority play as big breasted pointy eared blue girls with tails. But then again, that probably could technically be considered their "comfort zone"

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Much better diversity than the west is NOT hard to do. It really isn't. It's like a car with 4 wheels can run better than a car with no wheels.
When was the last time you heard a japanese company say "We're not including women because it's too hard?"
It seems quite the opposite.

You talk like I said the Japanese companies were perfect at diversity. I'd never say that coz it simple isn't true. But hey, if you wanna talk character creation, Fantasy Life is coming up. Tomodachi Life? Frankly I hate using character creation as a way out coz it limits the character's personality a great deal.

Why's it gotta be limited to JRPGs?

Koei's Samurai Warriors 4 is allowing you to re-color characters. I don't know how far it goes for skin tones, and I know it's not the greatest option, I admit, but it's a lot farther than most western companies. PLUS there's mercenary mode allowing create a warrior which might allow enough customization to allow a more familiar character. Koei's decent at character creation.

Dragonball Xenoverse is -finally- letting you make your own character with gender select among Nemekians, Majins, and half-breed saiyans. Odds are skin tones are going to be there, but I can't promise anything. Not only is that a milestone in a Dragonball game, IMO (With gender select anyhow), it's a damn sight farther than Ubisoft went, and I'd think Ubisoft is bigger than Bandai-Namco.

As towards my point on LGBT not getting great representation,
<youtube=XdmJXHJLZ6M>

A few examples from a few companies (well, largely one company, Bioware), some NPCs don't make for great representation in my book. Especially when companies take steps back from it.

Jade Empire's a Bioware game. Bioware's progressive about these things. I'm glad for them being a beacon of light in a Dudebro western world.
Honestly, outside of Dragon's Dogma (via Capcom), and Bioware games I don't know any game off the top of my head where the character you play as has LGBT romances.

So one eastern RPG allows you to change clothes and you're hoping skin color as well. Also a Dragonball fighting game allows you to create a character too. So they're more diverse than western games.

<youtube=wcIfRtEvNus>

Even Grand Theft Auto has a character creator, that isn't a new thing nor exclusive to eastern games. I asked for specific examples where this "diversity" is forced on the player like so many people are hollering for in western games. Can you name even three eastern games, made in the last year, where the main character is black. Not a character "option", the main character, the protagonist you're primarily playing as, is a black man.

If anything, I'd say you just proved your own bias against the west. You want us to bend over and cater to your needs but when it comes to eastern games it's just "Nah, they're perfectly diverse! I can... wear different clothing colors! ...Maybe... uh... er... maybe change my skin color too. They haven't said."

Hell, breaking that "one year" rule, the only black character I can even recall in a recent eastern game is the token black teammate in Final Fantasy XIII who was...

Spoiler

...

"clearly" an embodiment of enlightened views on people of color.

Secondly. No. No linking 15 minute videos and saying "There's my answer". I want you to specifically list games where being gay is outright depicted as bad. Where gay characters are considered horrible and you have to escape from LGBT situations because it's a terrible thing.

Oh! By the way, lets look on those precious eastern games and see how they depict homosexual charac--

<youtube=787L15r8mNY>

No. As much as a supposed "problem" this lack of diversity in western games are, eastern games are worse. WE are more diverse than they are. This semi-weaboo idea of "Man, the east is GREAT! Even their games are more tolerant and diverse than the west!" Is just bull crap.

So please. List every eastern game you know of in the past year where you play primarily as a black person or someone who can't be described as white or asian looking (catboys or other "semi-human" races that happen to be white don't count). Now, since that'll most likely be impossible after that list every eastern game you can think of where there is at least ONE black or dark skinned member of your party.

After that, please do what I mentioned above and list at least three games where gay people are negatively depicted for being gay and you must escape or "survive" LGBT experiences.

Again, why's it gotta be limited to JRPGs? You won't answer anything on that, so why should I bend over backwards to please your demands on a list? I don't keep track of every last game that comes out, but I do try, and I do keep up with the mainstream games which helps keep me ticked at the industry.

Character customization, and gender select is pretty wide spread in eastern games, and I'd take that over not having it at all, and being forced to play as a straight white guy almost all the time.

I can't even think of a within the year western game where you primarily play as a black man with no option, nevermind an eastern one.
GTA doesn't even hold up to the rest of the terms in the paragraph. Online is character creation, thus playing as a black man is an option. Offline you can't beat the story mode only playing as Lamar, and even then, he's an option.

Hey, you're not even telling me why it has to be limited to JRPGs, so why do I gotta go through the effort of making a list?

I'm not dumb enough to believe any section of the industry has diversity perfect. I know it, in general, has a long way to go.