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Gears of War reinforces casual racism
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 11th April 2008
Morgan Gray of Crystal Dynamics claims Cole Train does nothing but reinforce casual racism.
In comments made during an interview with MTV, Morgan said that the Cole Train character in Gears of War was nothing more than black stereotype.
"I am sick of playing the average white dude character. I’m just done with it. And I’m sick of playing a black stereotype," Gray, who is currently working on Tomb Raider: Underworld stated.
"There's no reason that Marcus Fenix in Gears of War couldn't have been a black guy... Cole Train on his own, no harm no foul. But what is Cole Train? Cole Train is basically like every other effin’ black character in a video game. Like here comes the urban stereotype...Where is this 1990s - not even 2000 - black slang, where does this fit in this futuristic world that doesn’t even take place on Earth? They go really far to do a lot of fictional justifications for this culture that they’ve built, and they go right back to this urban stereotype for the black character."
Gray was quick to point out that his comments were not an attack on Epic and said that he did love the game utterly, but that the lack of thought served only to reinforce casual racism - "It’s almost like, 'Cue the drum beat, here comes the black character.'"
Gray also levelled some blame towards Japanese developers, saying that black people were nearly always portrayed as ultra-hip 70's pimps or straight-up thugs.
Whether you subscribe to Gray's views or not, you have to admit that he makes an interesting point - black characters are very much a minority for most games. Tell us what you think in the forums.
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Comments (35)
As for black people being stereotyped...seriously, dump the chip. Anyone seen an italian-american in a game in the last 5 years who doesn't talk about his mamma's meatballs, come from sicilli, and run a crime family? Or a scientist that doesn't wear a white coat, speak like a dotard, and have glasses? Or a fat chick? Has anyone met a ****ing fat chick in a game like, evar?
Games is about stereotypes because they're easy to work with, we're all familiar with them, and they save the gamer actually thinking. Since there's been a continual process of dumbing down alongside the rise of the console, of course this is to be expected.
Yup, quite a few these days, in Bully you even snog one.
Many scientists in Half-Life don't wear labcoats and glasses - Kliener and Magnusson are deliberate stereotypes, but Mossman, Eli, Gordon and Breen are all normally dressed.
Jade in Beyond Good and Evil is a photojournalist who is sometimes said to be black - though I think she looks more multiracial personally.
Just off the top of my head.
COD4, bit where you storm the news broadcasting office, black dude cuts the broadcast, says 'let's get some real music on', and plays gangsta rap.
seriously the devs missed a golden opportunity to subvert prejudice by playing pantera or something.
gears and cole? i guess they have an arguable point in saying that they're on a planet completely unrelated to earth, but then you have to walk the line between sufficiently alien yet sufficiently earthlike, in order to maintain both player suspension of disbelief and emotional engagement.
Almost every game stereotypes every race, from the nerdy white kid with glasses solving puzzles and whatnot (think Bernard in Maniac Mansion) to the buff Latino man with the inexplicably Cuban accent roughin up the eses. "Casual racism" is an idiotic term--why not just call it what it is: stereotyping? Because it doesn't sound as good in a media bite? Racism will not end until the word ceases to hold meaning entirely in society, and with people making up new uses for it...it's just never going to go away.
Unless we wake up as an enlightened society tomorrow, I don't foresee stereotyping going away anytime soon. Everyone bases their view of the world on their past experience, and 90% of them aren't even aware of it. I'm with Spec on this one. So long as they're there, use them. Exploit them. Make them so outrageous they become funny. But telling people not to use stereotypes in games, or even complaining about it? Hell, how do you imagine I look as you read this? Need I say more?
No...
Alyx is just a incredible hot looking game chick. And she can sing too.
and yes... see below
She is. Azian, her mother, was Asian (but never in the game) and Eli is
whiteblack. :pHalf-Life is a perfect example of showing relateable heroes though. HL has a varied cast of races, roles and types. There's Kliener the nerdy white guy, Alyx the minxy mechanic, Breen the white oppressor, Adrian Shepherd the white army dude...and yet, my favourite character is still Barney. He's just a regular guy who gets carried along by the events around him and I can relate to that more than I can relate to Army training, Engineering and robotics know-how or doctorates in multiple sciences.
chalk me down as being agnostic when it comes to race, tbh. as far as i can see there are an equal number of black and white people in my area, yet i know more white people who act gangsta than black.
White people who pretend to be black don't count as human beings.
10 megabucks says this guy Morgan Grey is white.
Problem is people just latch on to this stuff. Oh noes a stereotype! Ever thought why a stereotype is a stereotype Mr Grey? I'm pretty sure he's living in a bubble if he things all black people are hotshot lawyers and no black person speaks in the "90's way" anymore. What's this about the future? They're on a different planet for christ's sake, they should be speaking moon latin and look nothing like they do. I wish people like this would just shut up. Complaining about petty things like this is the exact reason why racism won't go away, even though they're trying to be nice by being politically correct, they just draw more attention to the racial differences. When I watch the RE trailer, I just see a guy fighting off zombies.
Yeah there are games that enforce stereotypes, but there are also games that don't, just like how all games aren't art. Some are masterpieces, some are just cool doodles, some are just awful.
Also, if people like Morgan Gray would just shut the hell up about stereotypes and racism, both would've be gone soon.
Morgan Gray is black.
The whole point of the interview series is that it is looking at black people in the industry, hence interviewing Morgan and N'gai Croal. It's a follow-up to a set of interviews looking at women in the industry.
OoooOoops... I meant GTA: SA instead of GTA 4
Only if you play it on Casual difficulty. If you play it on Hardcore or Insane difficulty, it will reinforce Hardcore Racism and Insane Racism, respectively
:D
Having said that, I think my fave black character from any game was taurus from interstate 76 and he was straight of a blaxploitation film. But then again that game was SOO00oo 70s.
/me rocks in chair
just some quick off the cuff thoughts
peace
fatman
You cast a black guy as the sterotypical, inner-street gansgter; you get slated for racism/stereotyping. Cast an Asian as a brainy math geek or triad member, you get slated for racism/stereotyping. Cast a native (North) american (or is it indian, Christ, I dunno anymore!) as the "wise" and prophetic elder, you get slated for racism/stereotyping.
Swap it around a bit and cast a black guy as the rational, all-knowing, well educated scientist, the asian as the dumb ass and the native american as the gangster, and you get slated for trying to "break the mold" and give a token role that would otherwise be _out_ of "stereotypical" character. :/
Until people just relax and stop being so ****ing PC about race issues and giving it so much attention, it'll never change.
Sums things up pretty well imo.
Oh, wait. No. Retardation. Sorry, the two are so similar these days..
You see, that sounds like racism
Oh and one game that gets equality points.. HL2, yeah Valve!
You can't tell me that StarCraft didn't use stereotypes to create some of the most beloved characters in all of gaming. There wouldn't be stereotypes if people didn't fill them. Just because 5 black people out of 100 don't like rap doesn't make saying "black people like rap." a racist statement. It's true. Just because SOME blacks don't doesn't make it a false statement.
I'm a skinny white gamer kid that listens to techno. Oops! I just got trumped by a stereotype =(
RE5 does show an awful lot of black zombies, but the thing is set to be in Haiti (not so sure of this since i haven't really kept up to date on the game) where I'm pretty sure that at least 90% of the population must be black. I live in the Dominican Republic so we share an island, therefore I have been in contact with them my whole life and I can't remember of a single time when I have met or seen one who wasn't black. I know that there must be a certain amount of Haitians that are not black, but the vast majority of them are and therefore the stereotype is that Haitians are black. Nothing wrong with this.
I'm latin and it's no secret to anybody that the reputation that we have in most countries is that we are criminals. Does this offend me? No, because the reason for this is that most latin people living in other parts of the world are the ones who didn't get the best of educations in their home countries and left (most likely illegally) so they started doing a bunch of @#$%*! up things just like many other non-latin people do as well and that's why I don't feel offended when I'm playing San Andreas or any other "hood" game and I see another latin character robbing a liquor store.
I think all people should just ease up on the matter and quit being so touchy.
Read the article - they do call out Barrett as the worst example. The man has zero brains and a gun for a hand.
And Resident Evil 5 is set in modern day Africa, not Haiti.
I smell a possible comeback for Blacula!
http://braincrack.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/poster-blacula.jpg
Plus, it being a trailer means that the developers have to try and create an atmosphere and give you a sense of what's going on without giving away too much information, but still keep the watcher interested and wanting more. In N'gai's defense, he did say he was going to reserve judgment until he actually plays the game. If only more people were as open minded as he.