discussion There are no POC video game characters. Surprised?

[bijonse]

1 hour ago, youreyesgocold said:

I’m pretty sure she’s half Indian right? I did a quick Google search and it seems she’s Indian on her fathers side. But I don’t remember where I learned this or where it was discussed in-game. 

i just googled and found the same thing. yeah next time they should do that for a mainline game not the side character 

[Negev]

This Queen says hello

 

[Vitaly]

You've been playing the wrong games for that kind of expectations 

 

Try Tekken next time. They got everyone.

[Аshanti]

[Robert]

They are under-represented but there’s still plenty great games with POC characters. I also don’t think anime characters are necessarily intended to be white either (with the sole exception of Bandit Kieth).

 

 

 

 

[Fetish for MiMi]

King of Fighters or Street Fighters have many asian characters 

[Aristide]

5 hours ago, Pheromosa said:

theyre not even asian either, or latin 

Wrong. Mario is Latin (Latins are originally from Italy).

Edited August 22, 2022 by Aristide

[tiagol88]

 

One of Square-Enix next big bets and the face of their new IP (even if the writing looks bad, lmao).

 

Miles Morales as well.

 

Naughty Dog's next game is supposedly going to have a main character that could be black. They were doing mocap and asking for POC a while ago. Not sure if for their new IP or The Last of Us online game they are doing tho. 

 

But you're right that there's still work to be done in this area. 

[Pop culture]

[Both Sides Now]

You’re right. Especially in early video games.

 

Mass Effect had quite a diverse cast and the main player could be any colour. 

[Reginald]

 

  

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by Reginald

[Oxy]

 

 

 

 

But as a gamer, i can speak that identity politics aren’t a priority since the gameplay, graphics and storyline come first. 

[Specter]

...there are HUNDREDS of games at this point with prominent PoC characters. I play a lot of (SP) games and though there is 1000% a diversity problem in gaming (both in terms of representation and core audience), this has been getting better LEAPS and bounds as time goes on (pretty much the only thing getting better in the **** stained industry that is gaming, tbh ).

 

Forget just characters, I'll name the games I've played where the protagonists are PoC. Off the top of my head obviously. Many of these are AAA titles too, which is even better in terms of reach, marketing etc.

 

Deathloop, Crysis 2, Spiritfarer, Remember Me, Left 4 Dead 1/2, Ghost of Tsushima, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Bright Memory: Infinite, Mirror's Edge (series), Shadow Warrior (series), Mortal Kombat (no lead here, but still), AC: Origins, Darksiders III, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Raji: An Ancient Epic etc. The list goes ON, and keep in mind this is just me randomly sorting through the mental games list I have in mind at the time of posting.

 

To reiterate - the gaming industry is a **** stained dark crevice of the world where to be PoC, a sexual minority, a woman (or a combination of the three) is HELL - both to work in, and to be around. However, objectively speaking the only thing games have *non-debatably* gotten better at (aside from graphics and tech, obviously) is diversity. Whether you think it's "forced" or as a result of a very cynical approach to diversity (such as this) is besides the point, the truth is it is getting a lot better. I do however wish there was more representation of LGBTQ+ and neuro-divergent characters, however.

[Jynx672]

OP doesn't consider Japanese people to be POC I guess. Typical SJW!

[Adam’s Eve]

5 hours ago, BGKC said:

@Walk_Away21 

[Adam’s Eve]

3 hours ago, Negev said:

This Queen says hello

 

This legend 

 

The amount of hate she got from stinky, straight, white males 

[Adam’s Eve]

[Taylor Sniffs]

Astra, Reyna, Phoenix, Jett, Sage, Yoru, Neon, Raze, sweeties

[WERKER]

 

 

 

ICONS ONLY

[youreyesgocold]

2 hours ago, Phantom said:

I do however wish there was more representation of LGBTQ+ and neuro-divergent characters, however.

THIS would have been a much better thread. To this day we have male breeders complaining when there’s even a hint that the PC in some new AAA title is lgbtq. “Why does it matter??? Stop shoving politics in my game!!” as if they haven’t spent hundreds of hours in other games being macho men and saving women, sexualizing them, having romantic storylines with them, and even degrading them as prostitutes etc. How is that not political???

 

Its similar to the movie industry and how people complain when even 1 lgbtq character shows up, but even worse because in games you feel like the PC is “you” so to speak. These rats who complain can’t fathom the thought of playing pretend in someone else’s mind for a few hours.

[The7thStranger]

We're really going to ignore CJ from Grove St. ?

[TaggedGalaxy]

[jordanjm]

 

Clearly the OP couldn't be this silly and think there were none. They must have a homework assignment and were too lazy to do their own research. 

Edited August 22, 2022 by jordanjm

[Frogger17]

8 hours ago, youreyesgocold said:

You’re still wrong though… Digimon Adventure (season 1) explicitly states that the characters are Japanese and that the events happening in the “real world” are set in Japan. It uses real locations in Japan as settings for those events. In season 2 (Adventure 02) they even go out of their way to have an international tour where they meet digidestined from across the world (including ones who are white from Europe and America). In the American localization all of these are still true, but obviously as a children’s show they tone down some of the cultural references, have the characters speak English, and change their names. The characters in the dub still live in Japan and are Japanese though. Maybe their race doesn’t come through obviously in the animation, but that can be attributed to the art style. It’s not intentional to make them look or be white. 
 

OT -

In the latest Uncharted, the leads are women of colour. Just because the franchise started with Nathan Drake doesn’t mean he’s the only character to be a lead. 
 

Whether intentional or not, people will assume they're white, just as I did when I was a child, which is my whole point. They can set it in the busiest city in Tokyo if they like, but if the characters have light-colored eyes and blonde/red/whatever hair, people will default to white anyway, so screaming that they're technically Japanese will do nothing for mainstream audiences.

[youreyesgocold]

4 minutes ago, Frogger17 said:

Whether intentional or not, people will assume they're white, just as I did when I was a child, which is my whole point. They can set it in the busiest city in Tokyo if they like, but if the characters have light-colored eyes and blonde/red/whatever hair, people will default to white anyway, so screaming that they're technically Japanese will do nothing for mainstream audiences.

The mainstream audience watched them travel to America and Paris and meet white people in the international tour. One major character (Mimi) is written off as having “moved to America”. Even in the theatrical movie they travel to Colorado and meet a white character named Willis   

 

It was literally screaming at you if you actually followed the show, maybe you just didn’t have the attention span to notice. And as I said, if it’s the art style on first impression that’s ambiguous then it’s not the fault of the animators that people automatically assume everyone is white. You could say the same about literally any animé. The difference in this show is they explicitly mention it multiple times.
 

But anyways feel free to continue to disagree. That doesn’t change the script of the show