I recently read an opinion article in the latest Game Informer #214 by Matthew Kato called, “Widening The Scope: A look at racial diversity in video games”. As an avid gamer, it really caused me to reflect on this topic. First and foremost, I had to consider, is this really an issue that matters to me as a consumer of video games? By and large since the beginning of the industry, the vast majority of protagonists in video games have been white males, which means that all “others” have been underrepresented, at least in the protagonist role. But what impact, if any, does that actually have? Do I care that Mario is a white male plumber any more than I do that Toad is, well…a mushroom. That may sound like a trivial comparison but honestly I don’t think it is an issue when it comes to classic games. After all, games of that era really did not encourage the gamer to feel any connection with Mario. He might as well have been a block on the screen because I don’t think many gamers actually thought of him as a man.However, as games work to increase the relationship between player and their in-game avatar, the idea of race in videogames has come under intense scrutiny. Can players develop a strong connection with a character that they do not feel like they can fully relate to because of racial barriers? Do we actually want to move to a place where diversity is increased in all games, just for the sake of political correctness? What about the staff in charge of creating the games we love? Does the fact that these game design teams are overwhelmingly comprised of White and Asian males influence how race is presented in games? I think all these are important questions and there are no easy answers.
I will say that from my own experience as a black person playing games, I have never been offended by the depiction of minorities, in particular African-American males, in games. In fact, of all of the media I consume, I feel that TV shows and movies are much more likely to employ stereotypes then games. It seems that game companies are becoming more and more aware everyday of their diverse audience and has moved on their own to make sure the characters in their games reflect this audience. A perfect example of this trend is the Grand Theft Auto series. While some might cringe at the subject matter in these games, Rockstar, the developer behind the series, has produced some of the most diverse titles of any videogame franchise. For example, GTA 4 is the first game I can remember in history to follow the story of an immigrant trying to make it in the US.
While GTA’s protagonists are as deep and well thought out as the plots they must navigate other games have taken a slightly different approach. The Mass Effect series allows gamers to customize the appearance of their character including their race. While this has little impact on the actual game play, it does allow for players to have a stronger connection to the character because they were able to modify his or her physical attributes.
So do games have a responsibility to go further than that? Is the ability to change the appearance of a character in a game enough to call the game itself diverse? After all I think the way in which different groups of people are represented through dialogue and their setting in games has a much to do with this discussion as their appearance. Once again this is not an easy question to answer. Overall, I think designers would agree that the main purpose of videogames is to entertain their audience, and not necessarily to take on social issues. But games like GTA challenge this assumption by including political radio stations and satirical advertisements in their games that are there to make us laugh as much as they make us think about why it’s funny. While games like Bioshock and Fallout 3 challenge fascism and tyrannical forms of government that push our worldview while we shoot hordes of enemies.
Games have progressed so far since the golden age of the arcade that the bottom line is that games have become art and art often reflects the ills of society. Race matters in games as much as it does anywhere else but it should not become the focal point on which games are judged. Game design teams should work hard to make sure cultural diversity is respected in games and it seems that games were already moving in that direction.
