Researcher slams games for "blatant racism"

Isn't it crazy that you can't be a black person in Animal Crossing?

Reports like this are a disgrace to all who have suffered actual racism. Jokes like his report only serve to desensitize us all in the long run. I think if you transported a black man from the 1930's and showed him the content of these games, he'd say "boy I'd LOVE to live in a world where THAT was racism".

Summary: Robert, STOP CRYING WOLF!

This guy did this for this BA Thesis ... big wup, my dog can get a BA.

http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/media/releases/2006/mr-06-079.html

Have fun with you fifty seconds Roberta.

Sent him an email calling him out on it, he never responded.


C'mon, he cherry picked the games, and complained about them being white heros killing asians. Uh... Lo Wang was asian, and there to mock stereotypes. Similarly, the hero of Kung Fu was asian, as was the publisher and developer of the game...

People use that orc comparison to say that Tolkien was racist too. Rediculous.

I predict race will become the dominant topic in this thread, even though it won't have anything to do with video games.

Anyways, you can't put too much stock in research that picks 4 games and tries to draw conclusions about an entire medium. With confirmation bias so strong, why didn't he just pick up Border Patrol or Ethnic Cleansing?

I always find these kinds of criticisms of GTA a little hard to swallow. They always seem to ignore the fact that the protaganist is also a criminal. One character isn't any morally better than any other character.

Honestly, I think Warcraft is the most interesting choice of the games. The fantasy genre plays with the idea of different races a lot and that goes back pretty far.

Take a recent example, Final Fantasy XI. There are 5 races. The human, all white. The Galka, dark fur, taken from their homeland, work for the humans. Mithra, female, dark fur, wild. Elvaan, dark skin, heavily religious. And Taru, short, interested in ancient rituals, more governmentally-controlled than the other races. It's a very simplified way to look at races, but I think each one could relate to a real world race, or at least nationality.

I think this is a bad example of a problem that does exist, not just in video games but in all forms of media. I had a film studies teacher that once said, "If you have a white guy, and asian guy, and a black guy in an action movie, I can tell you the order they die."

call it racism if you want...

stereotypes are based on facts... and the races are the ones portraying the characters with voices, etc. and don't think badly about that

does anyone have the actual link to the thesis?

A hurt dog will holla, the man is right and anyone who is angry about this paper is missing the point. Look at FF XI the humans are white. The game was made by Japanese who's characters in most of their games are white with blue eyes. Yet, the Japanese cannot produce white people or blue eyes. IMO this shows racism and hate for themselves. Racism does not have to be negative, it can be the lack of others in games as if these people do not exist.

Isn't it just human nature for someone somewhere to find fault in everything???...

@The1:

Its not racism, the Japanese have some sort of affinity for abino, androgeneous characters (check out the latest Castlevania DS); weird, but not racist. And, these are characters in some fictional universe, why do they have to be made to look like the people from where the game was made? The physical representations just have to fit into the context of the game.

Now if the game was set in Japan, then it would be wierd to have an abino, androgeneous character with blue eyes who claims to be Japanese.

Wow, people have time to waste. I don't see any racism here.

I gotta ask, but when was the last time you saw a brown, or mexican, or german, or iraqi Hero in a game...I cant think of one time i've seen a brown hero. not once. and if you can think of one, well thank you.

I had a long comment posted but you know what, I can't be bothered with this fucking asshole.

I will say, can Joystiq not post this BS up in future as it only servers to give worthless sacks of shit like this motherfucker more air time.

It appears as if the politically correct will find anything that doesn't portray any character at their best and label it racist.

People don't understand that there is only one race. The human race.

This is merely someone's half-assed BA thesis. I can see this warranting a news story if it came from some respected researcher with a doctorate who wrote a book about the topic, but this is stupid. This deserves a "Who the hell cares."

These kind of idiots are the ones giving Jack Thompson material to work with, next time they'll say that Pacman is racist because of the colors of the ghosts...

Of course. If there's sex (even locked away sex) in games to concentrate on, nothing else is very important is it? Even violence takes backseat to sex. It goes back to the Puritanical fears that people seem to have; so when someone steps back and says, "Hey! There's racism in these things too," it comes as a big surprise.

"People don't understand that there is only one race. The human race."

To hell with the other hundreds of thousands of races on the planet.
Nuke the inferiors!

Oh my God, people are attacking video games and nothing else! Obviously Joystiq should report on articles detailing racism in movies or books too!

Guys, this is a VIDEO GAME site. It makes sense that people who point out racism in other media will not be given coverage here. And do you know what? Video games have shit tons of racism.

James Sorenson is right- racism is based largely in fact. But does that mean I should dumb down my vocabulary when talking to a black person because statistically speaking they're not as likely to have as high an education as me? NO! We need to look at waht racism is, what it ISN'T, and everything inbetween.

The Tolkein example is good, actually. The orcs were described, if I remember correctly, as having wide, swarthy faces and being very dark skinned. Compare that to the humans, many of whom (particularly the riders of Rohan) who were described as generally being tall and blonde. Are you gonna tell me that it's impossible for there to be no racial undertones there?

As for Warcraft and its universe, I think it's fair to say that the Alliance races are generally portrayed as more civilized and have European influences. The Horde races are generally looked at as being more barbaric (particularly Trolls) but also much more Shamanistic and nature-based. the undertones are there.

I remember reading an article written by a black man who described the frustration of taking walks at night and seeing white women cross the street or walk more quickly when he was nearby. I hear my peers- ignorant white kids saying crap like "crossing the street isn't racism!" but let's be realistic- this was a man who had to live with people being afraid of him for no reason other than his skin. Racism is a much more serious and much deeper issue than a bunch of white morons in white robes saying "hang the nigger!" That's not even racism- that's just scapegoating.

Racism is the fear, the lack of understanding, and the desire for seperation that leads to that scapegoating.

This guys examples sucks but his point is valid. There is racism in the games industry no doubt, but it isn't the usual American style racism. Its more of a lack of knowledge or sensitivity of other cultures or races. From kung fu to crazy taxi to gta to indigo prophecy alot of game have content that developers dont realize is offencive. I dont think they are trying to do it they just dont know better. The japanese base thier view of blacks mostly from what they see from US and Europe, and for the longest they got bad sterotypes.

Its not just that the lack of other races in lead roles can ad to the alienation of races, one of the reason Black Americans tend to own mostly sports games is because thats one of the few time they can play a game as themselves. Hell you dont know how big it was when Def Jam came out, it wasnt because these were all rappers but because finally we got a fighter too, San Andreas is the same thing, of course just like any other gamer, Black gamers value quality over content so all of those so called urban games that followed got ignored. What was worse is that now we finally get games and they represent the worst of us. Gangsters, killers, pimps, is that all the game industry think we are? And when we arent those stereotypes, we are just sidekicks, who speak jive.

You can dismiss it when people tell you something needs changing and go about thing as if they are crying wolf if you like. That would be sad.(i will never understand why people get so mad about papers like this it not like it said all ganers are racist?)
It would take so little for a pretty good industry like gaming to make thing a little more inclusive.

I always enjoy these little non-issues.

Racism? In video games? This only is a problem in a society which obtains its values from that which entertains it.

...

But seriously, you guys. And girls (as one must be cautious not to use that horrendously sexist phrase "you guys," further alienating and oppressing the female). I know that I, at least, am terribly offended when I fire up The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and think, "Hey...Link is white. In fact, the bad guy in the game is a dark, green-skinned guy!"

More recently, I was appalled when I observed that Kimahri, the tall, powerful, silent type from Final Fantasy X, is blue! This disturbing and virtually unchallenged trend is continued in that familiar series of mind-warping, hate-mongering games: Katamari Damacy. Yes, the little green prince (with a white face!), when he has displeased his father, is greeted by darkness and scathing insults! Not to mention the deceptively harmful Halo series, with a protagonist whose face we never see! What is Bungie saying with this, do you think? Perhaps that their "hero" is ashamed of his race?

Actually, while I'm on this train of thought, it really offends me that only pleasant clouds are white, and darker clouds bring rain and tornadoes. Weather, it seems, is also an instrument of bigotry.

[DISCLAIMER] The following comment is based on my personal gaming experience, which is NOT a comprehensive sampling of all that gaming has to offer. [/DISCLAIMER]

I've always noticed that the Human species in certain Sci-Fi/Fantasy themed games is presented as being all white. As Probot and The1 have mentioned, "Humans" in some (perhaps all) Final Fantasy games are all white. I mostly noticed the all-white phenomenon in certain adventure games or RPGs. Sports, FPS and modern (20th century) or futuristic adventure games are generally diverse when they feature humans as a major species. Sometimes I think the Japanese game developers focus on all white and asian casts because those are the only facial structures they can, as an industry, presently recreate. I do recall seeing a relatively realistic black character in an "Advent Children" screenshot, but that was pretty much the first and last. I think most fantasy settings are pseudo-European so a lack of non-white characters is a bit more acceptable. I'm still waiting for a good Afro-Punk setting, like out of "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm."

I perhaps made too light of the "issue" in the above post. If there really are people crying out for equality in their pixels, then its an issue that should (eventually) be formally addressed. It seems, however, that the article in question (remember, the one up for discussion?) did a rather poor job of evaluating the situation and is another example of someone who doesn't play video games complaining about them.

In contrast, you who have written in this thread agreeing with the man are the ones who should be speaking out, writing theses on the topic, and so on. You have come from a background rich with video game knowledge, and as such you ARE qualified to speak on it, and should do so. Being white, I don't think that I'm particularly racist (although C.S. Lewis might point out that once a person thinks that they are not something, then they very likely are that very thing), but I suspect that my perception is drastically influenced by my race. Thus when a black person calls something that I may not perceive as being racist as such, I'm often incredulous. And even after the fact, I may think that they are still being hypersensitive, but sometimes their complaint is valid and the item in question should be changed. I do submit, however, that games such as World of Warcraft, Knights of the Old Republic, and other such games that provide the option of character creation, with their startling popularity, should show an encouraging trend among developers who are more than willing to allow the player the option to make the protagonist whatever race he or she wishes. It's important to recognize the people who are going about things in a proper manner, while at the same time noting those who are not.

Anyway, I did not want to come off as being casual and arrogant about the issue of racism, although I still think the comment about clouds is funny.

Oh, come on. There is no undertone of racism in Warcraft, or are we forgetting European shamistic groups? Celts, Nords, etc. All people of Earth have roots in pagan and naturalistic religons.

Christ, is real racism so hard to find that those who glom on to the issue for political power have to manufactor instances?

As for the Asian grab-bag of stereotypes comment, isn't that another way of saying NOT stereotypical? People play game with characters that have blue hair, tentacles and saucer-sized eyeballs, so why is it when a game comes from an Asian country, it HAS to have Asian people exclusively? Aren't you afraid that the blue-haired freak population is scared of being stereotyped?

I am so sick of this crap. There are plenty of games with non-white protagonists, but guess what? Most of them are made in Japan, and stay in Japan. That trend is dying, but still the roots of it is in business, not racism. White males between 14-25 have been the largest group of video game buyers in America and Europe, so guess who the games were/are targeted at?

I understand that the games become more personal when you can relate to your avatar, and many games are heading into create-a-player territories that haven't been covered before.

Racism does exist, but it has become the new crutch topic for lazy politicians (and term-paper writers) to appear intelligent and "of the people."

And this is why things like 'token black guy' exist. Sometimes, complaing about a problem can make it worse in ways.

It amuses me that Shadow Warrior was one of the best portrayals of racism this sad sack could find. That game was so damned funny (and fun). I have a hard time faulting a game that drags stereotypes into the sun and beats them to death for 'racism'.

This is unbelievable. Here I am, a hispanic american who has experienced real racism in his life (imagine your family being followed around a store by attendants for no reason or being pulled over because you "looked like someone who had been breaking into cars") and I have never once stopped to identify video games with racism. So what if the main character in a game happens to be white, or blue, or female, or animal. I play games to get away from the bullshit that we put up with as human beings. Here's a point that people seem to be glossing over as well. A large number of games are created outside of the US. In the countries where they come from racism isn't as big of an issue as it is here in the US because for some reason my country needs to continue to feel ashamed for what, yes was a horrible time in our history, but that we have since taken great strides to remedy. That being said though we have to cry about anything that might even remotely upset us because thats the way our country is turning. Apologize for everything, make sure no one feels bad or is challenged......God we have turned into a country of pansies.

Sorry for the rant. Anymore games offer incredible customization options so your protaganist can be whomever you so choose. As for games that have strong asian characters, why didn't the guy mention Ninja Gaiden or Jade Empire. Hell, what was the last game you played with a central hispanic character? Oh wait don't answer that, because frankly who cares. Just play games to have fun and don't try to find or blame the world's problems in or on them.

And yeah, Bing Chavez from Rainbow six was Hispanic. (I think his name was Bing.)

They ignored the most racist game of all time: R.B.I. Baseball. Not a black player to be found.

Logikill, his name was Ding, but kudos for being close. I've always found the racial tensions in World of Warcraft fascinating, how it simulates a racist (or hateful) environment using the Alliance and the Horde. Its an interesting view at a fantasy world with a real world dilemma.

In my honest opinion, only a racist person could find racist undertones in all of this.

a) About why most protagonists are "white": note that most games came from Europe, Japan America. Regarding Europe and Japan: Note that the main class of people are "whites". About America, it's more about education causing there to be far more white people in the industry then not.

About why villains tend to be dark: a) Religion: The whole light vs dark issue was there LONG before racism was an issue. b) Contrast: Most games aren't brain exercises in the logic/analysis catagory. To make things easier, deliberately contrasting characters are used. Also see: Why heroes tend to look hansome/beautigul, while villains ugly.

In fact, the current trend in games (at least RPG ones or those which are more story based) is to be less critical on the whole colour/race issue. Take for example WoW, with both Horde and Alliance factions having a reasonable diverse background, with both sides having done what one would consider to be war crimes and attempted genocide (or at least, the orcs and humans, the others other than night elves and undead, are more or less innocent. Take for example GTA in general (and esp San Andreas for showing the "other side of the picture" Where everyine tends to be corrupted or "not very good" in general, or are merely pawns.

Of cause one might argue that story-based games needs to do so in order to create mystery, plot-twists, and similar, but the point is that it's because of the move from pure action to something more sophisticated. As #6 Probot mentioned, "If you have a white guy, and asian guy, and a black guy in an action movie, I can tell you the order they die." Now put them in something more engaging like "Lost", and you'll see that the whole deal is changed.

Eric,

Thanks i knew it was something like that. As to your World of Warcraft example, how is that really any different then any other mmorpg that allows you to have opposing factions. It's only a microcosm of racism in the real world if you choose to see it that way. The sad thing is that people will see awful things in the most benign examples. For instance, the KKK actually citing the bible as an excuse to hate other races.

Exeter, your cloud comment was indeed funny; I daresay that I laughed out loud.

I read the linked article, but couldn't find a link to the actual thesis. My quick google search was also unsuccessful at finding the actual paper being discussed. My comments avoided direct reference to the thesis and were, therefore, "off-topic" because I'd rather not make any judgement based on conjecture.

Oh, and before everyone starts talking about "racism" please observe:

rac·ism
Pronunciation: 'rA-"si-z&m also -"shi-
Function: noun
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

From http://www.m-w.com

Please try to distinguish between the first and second definitions when commenting. The racism of the USA during the Jim Crow era falls under the first definition, and is the only proper use of such a powerfully negative word in my opinion. Racial prejudice and discrimination are a bit different, so when you write, "racism," just add a line clarifying which definition your using.

Richard,

Both are equally distasteful, but i would imagine that in most cases the definition being used would be the second. But be careful here because the second definition springs directly from the first.

I think attacking the writer because he played 4 games only is lame! In fact I find it hard to not find non racist games. Especially something like a rpg. Or a non war game.

To #2 What your kidding me? Just because it is less dramatic doesn’t mean its not wrong. And I've suffered 'actual racism' and I still don’t like this kind either! And by the way once that same person got used to living in this time he would be saying the same as me. We don't settle for less dramatic racism.

To #6 Are you kidding? I guess you don’t notice the racism in games since your not the object of it. Try being its object and see if it is right then. I've been playing since ....well lets just say I'm 44 and since 6 years old. So he is DEAD ON CORRECT. And on Final Fantasy? Please! I cant find one that I’ve played that does NOT stereotype us. Even when one of the heroes on FFVII was black he had to have a bad angry-black man personality....acting without think....and a all around muscle brain and THIS is the best representation of blacks I have ever seen from a final fantasy game. EVER! that’s shameful!

To #15 year there is only one race....but why do all black ones have to be displayed negatively? Ever the so called colored heroes have major problems are or heroes for selfish reason. They just want to kill, happens to be the bad guys.

To #30 Are you kidding me? that first sentence is crazy!
So let me get this straight you must be racist to see racism in it?
nice logic. Hey cop you must be a drug head to see drunken undertones in my driven! Great logic there to see something does not mean your it! If I see a man following a woman with and then standing outside her house after complaint after complaint does that make me the stocker instead of him? There is no racism we are just saying that for fun! How’s that? Now can you please not make my people 99.9% of the time a negative stereotype in games now that I admitted that there is no racism? Please?

If you people want to see "a brown, or mexican, or german, or iraqi Hero in a game" then learn how to make games yourselves and create a brown, mexican, german or iraqi hero. Then when people cry about how your hero isnt a different skin color, you'll see how stupid you sounded when you posted and cried here.

logikil, I see why you would think the two definition are related, but I don't agree. The example you gave earlier of being followed around in a store was likely an example of racial prejudice.

Shopkeeper: "Those latinos are entitled, for better or worse, to all the rights that I'm entitled to, but my GOD they sure do steal a lot. I better follow them around and discourage their nasty habit."

If said shopkeeper was just plain racist, however...

Shopkeeper: "Those latinos, by way of them BEING latino, are like dogs to me. They're beneath me because I am [fill in race of choice]. If I am human, then they are sub-human. Of course they're going to steal from me; they lack basic human civility and culture. Who cares if I follow them around? They should be thankful that I'm allowing them to be in my presence."

Although that may be a bit extreme, it gets the point across. When someone has a prejudice, it typically exists on top of their recognition (however begrudged) of ones humanity. A 1st definition racist doesn't care because they see your humanity as inferior to their über-humanity; therefore, they can treat you like garbage and never fell remorse.

At least that's my interpretation.

Bafquat, thank you for allowing me to fulfill every young black mans dream.

(Clears Throat)

YOU PEOPLE!?!!?!

Joy! Overeacting feels as good as I dreamed it would.

Bafquat, what the hell do you mean "you people?" Is that some kind of racial stereotype directed at me and my undisclosed race? I am deeply offended by this remark and demand an apology.

Funny how gamers place the blinders on when anything threatens their sacred pass-time. After 20-odd years of narratives detailing how some bright shining hero must endeavour to vanquish the "evil dark forces that threaten to sink the world into blackness," is it really all that much of a stretch to say that racism exists in videogames?

Themes prevalent in videogames are prevalent in any society and games have achieved enough of a pop culture status to be an adequate mirror to society. So which one of us will say that racism doesn't exist in society?

Aside from stereotypical characters that attempt to distill entire cultures and ethinicities into a single two-dimensional protagonist and an occassional string of ham-fisted one-liners (Turok, Mario, San Andreas), videogames are pretty damned white-washed.

Japan is notorious for producing game characters that bear closer resemblence to Europeans than anything asian--down to their raspberry blonde manes and magenta tinted corneas.

The few native americans that have managed to grace the bits of data in any game tend to rely on "mystical spirit" powers, tomahawks and a bow and arrow, or spirit animals to defeat their enemies. Either that or they're just brutal savages riding about scalping European settlers in the Wild West (GuN).

African Americans in games present another mixed bag of embarassing stereotypes: an undead voodoo user in Shadowman, a gang-banger in San Andreas, or the only ebonic-speaking character in all of the Final Fantasy series.

All this and we still dispute whether or not racism exists in games? That's just absurd--really, really absurd!! Kietzman can nitpick a novice thesis all he wants to advance his own baffling agenda, but it's disheartening to see that so many gamers would be insensitive and oblivious to that one simple and almost ubiquitous flaw of videogames.

The interresting thing is of course that if you would have "a brown, or mexican, or german, or iraqi Hero in a game", people still would cry racism and even more, exploitation.

Until people stop using race to differentiate between people, this sad state of affairs will not end. All it is, is skin color. It does not define you as a person nor anyone else.

Sometimes I think that the world is an ink-blob-test, and for some reason, certain people, predominatley (white?) U.S. Americans, choose to see racism instead of cultural diversity, even if by means of a cultural stereotype. Some people are simply never satisfied, no matter what, they will still see what they choose to see. In my eyes, these are the true racists.

"... a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities ..." - http://www.m-w.com

Robert, Author of the thesis, you do not score 200 PoliticallyCorrectPoints, and you do NOT pass GO.

Here's a game I would like to see. It would be sort of a clone of Lost Vikings. It would star three people. The first, an Asian Nazi Jew. The second, a Black KuKluxKlan-member. The third, a "wigger", a white gangsta-hip-hop-person.

They would be on a mission to defeat gray aliens from outer space that bring love to humanity after having been brought on-board their spaceship.

How well would this game, a game with no real stereotypes be recieved? People would call it racist, exploitatious, distortion of the truth, and distastefull.

If it wasn't for the fact that I've never finished a single one of my spare-time programming projects, I would get on with this game immediatley. If anyone wants to use the idea, go ahead, I leave it to the public domain.

to #35 indysurfn

I think you misunderstood, assuming you're referring to point #31 instead of #30. What I meant is that it's up to interpretation. Unlike drunkedness which is measurable, how can you tell if the designers made such differences to a) simplify design issues (Ok, I need something to represent good and evil. So lets put a hero against monsters! Yay!), b) did so because of system limitations (erm, we've only 32 pixels, guess we should put a mustache instead..), because they followed the traditional religious themes of good (holy light) and evil (shadowy darkness), or d) because for specific design choices (let's spoof this sily debate!)?

If you can find a quantifiable measurement which can prove that games are indeed racist, then you may proceed to use your drunk arguement. Otherwise, please prove that that you're not interpreting wrongly.

"After 20-odd years of narratives detailing how some bright shining hero must endeavour to vanquish the "evil dark forces that threaten to sink the world into blackness," is it really all that much of a stretch to say that racism exists in videogames?"

This comment is the kind of thing I was making fun of in my original post. Come now, sir or madam, you are speaking nonsense when you say such things. The fear of the night, and its darkness, and welcoming of the day, and its light, (not to mention the respective associations with evil and goodness) are shared by all races and have always been. You should be embarrassed to make such a claim.

@ fawazr

I agree with you completley.

There is racism in games, it may not be malicious but its there. You see alot of japanese games/anime/manga characters have weird hair color or mixed features. The reason for that is, Many of the japanese have similar features. So when they dial back detail to make a character or a manga, you are left with many characters with black or dark hair and not enough features to distinguish. But as far as the japanese finding europeans more attractive, its not only Japan that suffers that problem.Almost every popular young star in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, has had plastic surgery (sometimes by request of parent company) to gain more european features. You don't have to take my word for this, you can look it up.

But even with that mish mash of culteral identity it makes you wonder, when dark skinned people are all over the world, why more video games don't represent it. It's sad when logikil can point out "one" latino hero in a game and see no problem in that. Out of hundreds of games I have played I can only think of less than ten... and that makes me sad. A little more attention would be nice. Because even if no one says it out loud; the absence of dark skinned people in postive roles in video games does portray a light of inferiority on those characters.

And Light vs Dark does not equal racism, it never has. But there are ways you can imply meanings under that age old concept. Its been done before and I wouldn't be surprised if it was done again.

Isn't it great that you can't be a black person in final fantasy, I mean, unless you have a gun attached to your arm, and curse every other sentence. We also would have accepted anyone with fur, which are the usual replacement *ahem* FFXI

This probably won't add much to the debate, but I keep remembering one example where a japanese game company (Square, to be exact) put a perfectly fine black character into a game. Remember Parasite Eve? Daniel "Bo" Jackson? His role was that of a father figure to the blue-eyed, blonde protagonist. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything racist about this example, which at the very least proves there's not some absolute racist rule that japanese developers would follow without exception.

Also, the "Light vs. Darkness" example is terrible and completely arbitrary. Not to mention that villains are often represented as having pale skin but *dressing* in dark clothing.

Another thing I wanted to address is the racial sterotyping in Warcraft in particular. Yes, the characters are definitely defined by their race and culture in these games, that much is undisputable. But it depends entirely on the player how these characteristics are perceived. If I think the Orcs, obviously being represented in a "racist" manner as the ugly, shamanistic humanoids, are the coolest race in the game, how can you reduce that to negative stereotyping?

The problem isn't that we have ethnic and cultural variety, it's how these are perceived by the individual. And that's the part where all this pointless theorizing applies in real life, the only place it really counts. Video game stereotyping only matters if it alters the perceptions of real life people. I think this can be prevented not by maniacally searching out stereotypes everywhere, but by educating people to the point where these stereotypes don't matter.

StaticNeuron

Here is why i don't consider it sad that i can only think of a single game with a latino hero and pretty much the core of this debate:

BECAUSE EVERY GAME I PLAY HAS A LATINO HERO

Wanna know how that works? See there is this wonderful thing i possess called imagination. That little tool pretty much allows me to substitute any designer created character for myself. When i play as mario or simon belmont or jak ever since i was little those characters were substituted with me. Thats the joy of not looking at these games in the way folks want to try and look at them. Use the imaginations you were born with.

Logikil you cant be serious that you find it ok that you have to pretend the charaters you play in games are latino, instead of being given the choice to play as an actual one? I dont want every game to star black people or latinos or asians, i would just like to see it at least a few times a year.
Honestly asians have it better, i can name a lot of games that give them good positive lead rolls. But as for us black guys and gals,we dont get to benifit from being the majority of game designers.
A friend of mine has been pitching a game for the past 2 years and he has decided to give up on it. The game was set in a mostly brown world. The good guy is black and so are the bad guys, he is always told that the game sounds cool and his demo was great, then they say the changes they would make it they take on the game, They almost always want to turn the hero white and if he cant be white then they want him to be a gangmember or drug dealer out for revenge and they wanted to ad a gangsta rap soundtrack.
So like 6 months ago he started trying to find ways to produce this game independantly, but has found that investors tend to believe that people will not buy a game with the a black hero. My favorite comment was if people wanted to play as a black man the would just pick up NBA street, and then he said there has never been a sucessful game with a black hero and thats why you dont see them made.

Thats crap and i wish i could tell you who said that but my friend said he could be sued if i did.

Yeah i dont think warcraft is racist and i do think games like Total Overdose are racist(but dont know they are)(i bought this game for my nephew who is half mexican and i had to take it back its one thing that the game sucked but the fact that it had almost every stereo type you can think of for mexicans in it was worse).
Why is it so painful for you guys who claim there is no racsim in games to hear that some of us find that there is?
I

Probot (#6):

"I had a film studies teacher that once said, 'If you have a white guy, and asian guy, and a black guy in an action movie, I can tell you the order they die.'"

Your teacher was pretty ignorant. There are hundreds, if not thousands of movies that would prove that statement wrong. In most action movies, there is not one white man, one black man, and on Asian man. There are many antagonists that are of varying colors, and will die in varying order. And depending on where the movie was made and by which race (whether by blacks, whites, or Asians) the antagonists will be different colors. Many kung fu movies (and blaxploitation movies) will have evil white antagonists (but not usually the main antagonist), while white movies might have an Asian or black antagonist (but often the main villian is white as well). The main antoginist is almost always going to die at the end of the movie, regardless of race.

If he was trying to say if there are three protagonists, white, black and Asian, and he can tell you in which order they die, I call bullshit. I can't think of a single movie that has three main characters who are white, Asian, and black, respectively, especially ones where the main characters die. Even if there are a few movies out there like that, it obviously isn't common enough to make a generalization like that. And in any case, like I said above, it would play out differently if made by black people or Asian people.

Obviously there are videogames with racial stereotyping.

I think that what most people are taking offense at is an implication that videogames are a racist medium or that they are somehow more racist than say movies. There's racism & violence in movies, television, videogames, books, comic books. Is it worse in videogames? I'm going to say no, especially because there are many videogames which are abstract enough that it's hard to make race an issue, such as Tetris.

#49, I'm sorry that you can't get a black non-gangster protagonist. What you're running up against is an economic reality. I used to work at a toystore that sold dolls. White people wanted white dolls, black people wanted black dolls and everyone else had to make do with one or the other. Only twice in 3 years did I meet a family who didn't care what color the skin was on the dolls in the house. We sold more of the white dolls, so if you're only going to sell one doll you'll probably sell more if you make him/her white. Changing the skin tones on a character model in a game is probably easier than changing the color of plastic poured into a mould, but I bet you'd have people up in arms if you started selling a black version and a white version of a videogame.

If you want a game with a good mix of racial protagonists try Eternal Darkness. You get to play a variety of genders and ethnicities. The central protagonist is a white girl, but I think you'll just have to get over that.