Oh yeah, I'm aware of it. I follow the videogame industry quite closely.
I've even posted some articles on it here, such as the new phenomenon
where actors, musicians, and atheletes now count starring in games as
being as important as getting good endorsement deals. The issue of race
is a huge one in gaming, and, as this article says, worse than that of
gender. It's a male-dominated industry, true. But at least in
RPGs--notably the Japanese ones--you get women used as heroines. Often
part of a team, many times as the stars. Blacks are rarely seen in
traditional RPGs: funny that you can have elves, giants, orcs, fairies,
dudes with purple hair, etc., but no Brothers. And when Blacks are
featured in such games, they're invariably shown as huge and hulking.
Look at many fighting games, a genre which does feature Blacks. From the
classic Street Fighter, to Streets of Rage ("Bare Knuckle" in Japan), to
Soul Calibur, the Asian and white characters usually have skills such as
speed, dexterity, flexiblity, agility, and are masters of a number of
impressive martial arts. Black fighters are almost always rated high on
size, strength, and cruder, more brutal fighting, such as boxing. A
classic example is the Mike Tyson-like character in Street Fighter 2 who
fought in a Vegas scene which was filled with Black pimps and
prostitutes. The other characters had speed, superhuman skills and
powers, he was just a big brawler. For years, the "Big Black Guy" has
been a staple in gaming. We never get the slicker abilities. With the
advent of the more "realistic" games like Grand Theft Auto, designers
opened a new world in which games are based more on real environments.
Unfortunately the realities they've chosen to portray have often been
the inner city, gang-ridden, crime overrun ghettoes. Hence the Brother
in GTA San Andreas, the roster of rappers starring in the fighter Def
Jam Vendetta, and others. Oh: we also star in a host of football and
basketball games, and show up as soldiers too--always subordinate to a
white commander.
Video games are becoming a huge part of our culture. They're as
entrenched as TV and the Internet. The gaming industry is making money
that meets or exceeds that of the film industry, billions of dollars. A
single game like GTA or Halo can sell millions of units and be seen the
world over by people from several cultures. What a sobering thought that
the image of Blacks as hulking, graceless, thuglike pimps and gangsters
is what Japanese and European gamers are seeing.
-----Original Message-----
From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of g123curious
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 16:02
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black people?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Like many of y'all have said--better than me, I
> might add--it ultimately boils down to us
> controlling our own. Between whites that are
> prejudiced, whites that aren't prejudiced but
> let market factors shaped by *other* whites
> influence their decisions, and whites that
> simply don't get it, we're always fighting an
> uphill battle. Why are so many Blacks in scifi
> often used as aliens that are either weird
> looking, or "noble savages"?
Don't forget how we are portrayed in video games, where we now seem
to be getting more and more "leading roles" like CJ. See below.
That's part of the problem, too. It's good to read about this
brother, Armstrong, who is taking action.
George
- - - - - - - - -
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/fun.games/08/05/minority.gaming.ap/index
.html
Drawing minorities into gaming
Push for more black, Hispanic heroes in video games
Friday, August 5, 2005; Posted: 12:07 p.m. EDT (16:07 GMT)
[Photograph. Caption: Urban Video Game Institute co-founder Joseph
Saulter, demonstrates 3D animation software.]
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- In the popular video game "Grand Theft
Auto: San Andreas," players assume the lead character of Carl
Johnson, a down-on-his-luck criminal who roams city streets,
stealing cars and helping gang members knock off rivals in drive-by
shootings.
"CJ," as he's known by his pals, is black -- and to some in the
video game industry, that's a problem.
A growing number of people in the booming industry believe there
should be more black and Hispanic heroes and heroines instead of
hoods and hoodlums.
"Not everybody goes outside with bling-bling and listens to rap
music all day," says Amil Tomlin, a black 15-year-old from Baltimore
who plays hours of video games each day.
Among those trying to paint a different racial picture is Mario
Armstrong, who hosts a weekly National Public Radio program on
technology. He and two fellow black colleagues have started the
Urban Video Game Academy, a virtual programming boot camp for
minorities.
"It's been said that a bunch of nerdy white guys are creating these
games," Armstrong said. "The problem with a bunch of white guys
creating the games is that the story isn't being created with
balance."
Roughly 80%t of video game programmers are white, according to
preliminary results of an International Game Developers Association
survey. About 4% of designers are Hispanic, and less than 3% are
black.
The academy is holding summer workshops in Atlanta, Baltimore and
Washington to give minority students like Tomlin an opportunity to
learn the basics of making video games. Organizers hope this early
exposure will inspire a new generation to make minority video game
characters that go beyond typecast racial roles.
"I'd love to hear what other stories exist in the world besides the
stereotypical ones. There are good people in the ghetto. There are
role models," said academy co-founder John Saulter, who runs
Entertainment Arts Research, one of the industry's few black-owned
video gaming companies.
So far, interest in the workshops has been high, which doesn't
surprise organizers.
A March study by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that black
youths between 8 and 18 years old played video and computer games
roughly 90 minutes a day -- almost 30 minutes more than white
youths. And Hispanics play about 10 minutes more per day than whites.
"If you've got kids who can sit in front of a game for eight hours,
then they have the cognitive thought process to learn how to build
the game," Saulter said.
Some in the industry believe race in games is a serious issue that
has been ignored for too long.
"For a long time, we've talked in the game industry about gender
diversity as the one problem on the radar, but the racial split is
worse," said Ian Bogost, a Georgia Tech game design professor who
recently published a book on video game criticism.
Jason Della Rocca, IGDA's executive director, said the industry must
confront a cycle that threatens its creativity: Educated, young
white males create games for other educated, young white males.
"Games are an expressive medium. They are an art form, just like
movies, theater and literature," Della Rocca said. "We're seeing, to
a large extent, that the games that are being designed unconsciously
include the biases, opinions and reflections of their creators."
In a way, he said, stubbornness to diversify runs counter to the
industry's tolerant roots.
"We like to think that game design is a higher calling and that no
one really cares what your skin color is or your sexual
orientation," Della Rocca said. "But that doesn't seem to manifest
itself in terms of a more diversified workplace."
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
-0-
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