Do you actually care what race/sex a main character is?

I'm a man and of mixed ethnicity (black/Polish), and I guess I stand somewhere in the middle on this issue.

On one hand, I've never even contemplated passing a game over because there weren't any brown characters, or enjoyed a game less because my avatar didn't have my skin tone. If I were that sensitive to it, I probably never even would've gotten into this hobby as a kid, since characters with non-Anglo features are of even greater rarity than female characters. Simply put, there is no black/latino/Arab equivalent to Lara Croft, unless you count the scores of IRL athletes who grace the covers of annual sports games.

On the other hand, if given the choice of multiple pre-set characters, I usually gravitate towards the brown ones. I like playing as non-white characters when given the option, but I also tend to play as women, so 1:1 representation isn't really my aim. Overall aesthetics are of greater import to me, and I'd rather play an interesting looking "white" character than a "black" character who seems pandering or lazily designed.

It's also worth noting that I very rarely play games for the narrative, so my attitudes would likely differ if my interest was in "immersion" or role-playing. I play games for mechanics, to untangle and push against the boundaries of interestingly designed systems. As such, questions of ethnic representation in the medium aren't of much priority to me, since they have little if any bearing on what I actually like about gaming.
 
Don't give a flying poop. If the game is excellent what does it matter if it's a guy or a girl?

Hell, I prefer playing as a woman, especially in MMO's
 
Parmenide said:
Wrong or right, it was his opinion, expressed in a respectful manner. Did he really deserve a ban?
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It was a fairly reasonable post until this.

I belive that people who have problems with the lack of choice in some games are the real racists/sexists/homophobes/etc., not the creators of the games. Because they are the ones that actually CARE what race/sex the character is and act with rage against the game
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Blanket accusation of bigotry for nonsense bullshit reasons.

stupei said:
Wait.

Are you suggesting black people who object to racism or under-representation are the ones standing in the way of racial progress?

Maybe I'm misreading this.
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Plnem1n.png
 
If there is a custom character creator then as a rule of thumb I try to make a copy of myself but it isn't especially important to me either way. If it was just a choice of a few templates then it's just which of them clicks with me the most.
 
Nope. The interactions with NPCs in games would have to improve drastically for me to even remotely care.
 
DoktorEvil said:
I'm not against choice, but if a story is written for a non-descript male to do "heroic deeds", why does it matter what the character's race or gender is? Heroic deeds are still heroic deeds, contextually. CoD is based around the action hero fantasy. You're one guy against an entire army, supposedly doing heroic deeds(that can be subjective). Gears of War same idea, but third person with aliens. That series also introduced a female Gears soldier(took the 3rd game to do it, but progress is progress).

Why did it take playing as a female soldier for you to play CoD? The games are fundamentally the same in multiplayer.
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I will not be able to bring my point across here, since I am no native English speaker, but this is essentially exactly what bothers me. Characters who do heroic deeds will always get defaulted to single white males, and everything else will always be considered an exception, and people will argue that: "Well this really did not need to be a black woman. You whould just play this as a white male and enjoy the game!" All the people arguing that it should not matter, and some of them even arguing that games like this do not purposedly put white males as protagonists seem to miss the point. The did not randomly choose the race and sex of a character. They chose to have a white male.

People forget that video games is two words. "Video" is the part where there is an actual representation of your actions on a screen. And this representation matters for your enjoyment. In a forum where people talk about how badly rendered shadows make them put a game down, it should be okay to say that playing as a white male is something I prefer less than playing as a character of the sex and race you identify as.
 
stupei said:
Calling other users homophobic, sexist, and racist for criticizing a video game isn't entirely respectful.
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It was a point a view. I belong to a pretty infamous ethnic group and still I undestand what it was saying.
I don't care anymore what others think about my pepole, I'm more interested in showing who I am, my ethnicity it's not a relevant part of myself.
 
djtiesto said:
Have you played the Digital Devil Saga games? The games have really strong Hindu / Buddhist themes (in both their storylines and their art direction, enemy design, architecture) and they are awesome games as well.
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I have not. I will give it a look. Thank you for the lead.
 
maxcriden said:
OP, are you a white male? I am a white male, but my sincere understanding is that we don't care about this as much because we don't have to. There's no under-representation to be inherently bothered by.
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I'm a black immigrant but sexism bothers me and pissis me off WAY more than racism.

That being said, I don't care in most situations, but I STILL WANT IT.
 
Parmenide said:
It was a point a view. I belong to a pretty infamous ethnic group and still I undestand what it was saying.
I don't care anymore what others think about my pepole, I'm more interested in showing who I am, my ethnicity it's not a relevant part of myself.
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And I can respect that, but that's YOU. Plenty of people take pride in their ethnic heritage and blanket statements saying that it doesn't matter does nothing to move that conversation anywhere.
 
DoktorEvil said:
I'm not against choice, but if a story is written for a non-descript male to do "heroic deeds", why does it matter what the character's race or gender is? Heroic deeds are still heroic deeds, contextually. CoD is based around the action hero fantasy. You're one guy against an entire army, supposedly doing heroic deeds(that can be subjective). Gears of War same idea, but third person with aliens. That series also introduced a female Gears soldier(took the 3rd game to do it, but progress is progress).
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First, I want to be clear: my thoughts aren't "this is exactly the way video games need to be or I'll be mad", they're "I want us to rethink why video games are the way they are". So, I'm not saying my opinions have to be law, or that they'll always be right.

But my first question would be, why does it need to be a "nondescript male" in that role? What does that character trait bring to the character or the game that could not be done if the character were female instead? Is it because it's the story of a father who has lost his child, or a husband who has lost his wife? Okay, if so, are you telling that story because you've got an actual story to tell, or because that's just the easiest cliche to go with?

On one side, let's taking something like Resistance 3. The hero was a nondescript male, but there was never one storyline beat or moment of importance (that I can remember) that really built upon that idea. If I were to magically make him a her, the story wouldn't change, and the character's progression through the game wouldn't be affected any. I could have had that choice, and the game wouldn't have been the lesser for it.

On the other side, you've got games like Silent Hill 2 and The Last of Us. Both build upon actual, crafted stories, where who those characters are is absolutely important. James was a husband trying to find his dead wife, and him being the husband and her being the wife were key elements to what was being told. Or Joel, where what he's been through, and the relationship that he forms with Ellie, probably wouldn't be as strong if you just let the player decide who Joel is supposed to be.

I'd argue that your statement works against the idea that the main character of the game has to be male in COD. Why can't a woman perform heroic deeds? Why can't she be the action hero? Why can't she go up against an entire army? Nearly everything that happens in COD's single player is completely unrealistic, so putting a female into that position changes nothing. And if my character is "nondescript male", then that pisses me off even more, because that means that there really is no reason that I couldn't be given the option to make generic white dude into anyone I want them to be.


Why did it take playing as a female soldier for you to play CoD? The games are fundamentally the same in multiplayer.
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Because it's a mental thing for me. In single-player games, I enjoy the fantasy, and almost never do I try to put myself into the game. In multiplayer, it's different. Multiplayer is me, competing with others. When you say "you're going to make a soldier, and customize them, and configure them, and that soldier is going to represent you on the battlefield", and then I see that solider, and it's someone who doesn't represent me because of its gender, while the majority of other players have soldiers that do represent them, I feel left out–no matter if that makes sense to someone else or not.

And I have far too little free time and far too many gaming choices to play something that makes me feel left out.

That's not to say that I will never play a multiplayer game that lacks such choices, because I've absolutely had examples of putting up with a game's lack of choice due to my enjoyment for the game (The Last of Us' Factions mode being a great recent example). At this point, though, there are enough games out there that understand the importance of choice that I can simply avoid those that don't.

And let me ask this: if gender choice in COD's multiplayer truly doesn't matter, then wouldn't it be true that the next game could come out, force all players to only play as female soldiers, and that should be okay? What if the tables were turned?
 
I'll admit that a female protagonist (or the choice for a female protagonist) increases my interest in a game. But that's probably because it's still pretty rare to play a game with a character of my own sex.

It's not a deciding factor for buying/playing a game or not, though. I can relate and care for a male protagonist just as much as a female one.
 
Sometimes I wish the protagonist was female if I don't see a reason he shouldn't be, and since there are already so many male protagonists.

I guess that's caring?
 
I care. Hopefully all the people who don't care aren't the same ones who get all up in arms whenever the topic of diversity is brought up.
 
Not really, but if it's a game with character customisation, then it better allow me to create a black guy. I was also slightly disappointed in Forza Horizon for not allowing me to create an avatar, was a bit off-putting having to play as that generic white dude.

Would I like to see more characters other than white ones in popular games? Definitely, but only if created/written by their respective race, just to avoid some of the unfortunate stereotypes we've seen over the years.
 
I want to play as a robotic killing machine with no distinguishable human features (non-anthropomorphic). My only form of communication is beeping, booping, dial-up noises and weapon discharge. This would be my dream protag.
 
I did when I was 8 years old and had reservations about playing as a girl in Super Mario Bros. 2. Ironically, Peach was the only character I ever used in that game after that. Now I don't give any amount of fucks about the character's gender/ethnicity; as long as they are in a good game, that's all that matters.
 
Mesoian said:
Plenty of people take pride in their ethnic heritage and blanket statements saying that it doesn't matter does nothing to move that conversation anywhere.
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And I can respect that, but that's YOU.

It works both ways.
On a message board I can express my opinion, based on my personal experience and so could that guy. When I wrote that I tought it could be relevant to the discussion, my bad you think otherwise.
 
I only seemed to care if I get to make a custom character...and then I don't know what to do. I will sit at this screen for 30+ mins decided if I want to be man or woman, alien or what. This is especially true for games like Destiny where all of the custom designs look so awful.
 
I dont care much about race or sex. I would play as anyone, that's one of the coolest things about videogames actually :/
 
Mesoian said:
It's personal preference, and it's certainly not wrong.
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I mean, to further elaborate, if I see a movie that has a bunch of male characters, and women are underrepresented, I find myself dwelling on the question: "Why couldn't some (or more) of these characters have been female?" Because I like to see my gender represented in the mediums I'm interested in.

And sometimes this can detract from my enjoyment of a movie. Take Ratatouille, for example. An otherwise wonderful movie, there's only one female character in that movie and she ends up becoming the love interest.
 
Yes.

Variety and representation is incredibly important in offering diverse options and a proper reflection of the world we live in.
 
Not really, with only partially annoyed when a main character is Latin American, mostly because of bad voice acting and horrible fake accents. Too many voice actors trying to do "Latin guy" voice come off like Tony Montana

And yes, I am Latin American, that's why it bugs me.
 
Yes. I find humans boring for the most part. I would prefer that I play alien species in games. In Mass Effect I wish I could have played as Thane, he was the real hero.

Having two arms and two legs is unimaginative. I liked in the darkness how you have four arms and could shoot with two of them and do other attacks with the other two arms. Developers need to start thinking outside the box.
 
I must fight against this sentiment that caring is bad that goes on in this thread, as if we live in some Utopian society in which we can afford to not care about representation.
We live in a racist world, and ignoring it or "not caring" is not the solution, like, ever. You can't destroy walls if you ignore their existence.
Because, look at this thread, people are actually apologizing for caring! As if that's bad! (that's including me, I felt like I had to start my opinion with the "not caring part".) So yeah, I officially change my answer to "Yeah, I care quite a bit."
 
besada said:
I'd prefer more diversity in games in general, in the same way I prefer diversity in other media. I don't care about a specific game, necessarily, but rather the fact that over and over I seem to be playing the same non-character, who largely lacks any sort of viewpoint.
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Pretty much, with the addition that it matters to me because I'm tired of never being thought of, catered to, or otherwise made to feel included.

Parmenide said:
And I can respect that, but that's YOU.

It works both ways.
On a message board I can express my opinion, based on my personal experience and so could that guy. When I wrote that I tought it could be relevant to the discussion, my bad you think otherwise.
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Only insofar as it respects the rules of the board. Saying "maybe you're bigoted if you care about diversity" or for thinking it matters, as well as trying to say what other people shouldn't care or talk about, doesn't create an atmosphere for discussion that GAF generally tolerates. You have an issue or concern with the ban, PM a mod.
 
I don't watch movies with female leads (at least Clooney helped Gravity retain some sensibility (female astronaut? lolololol)), play games with any female characters, or listen to music written and/or performed by women. I just can't relate, you know? When I play video games, I just have to have a character that looks, sounds, and acts like me.

Halo? I can't relate to a cyborg. TLoU? I've never lived in a post apocalyptic world,
or had a daughter die in my arms
. Forza? For fucks sake, I can't afford those cars!

That's why I only play Second Life.
 
Mesoian said:
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No, I kid, I think it's important that we occationally get out of our comfort zones when it comes to playable characters, else all we ever get is Standard Male Protagonist A, Standard Female Protagonist B, etc etc. I loved the tonal shift between GTA:SA and GTA4, even if said tones often fumble over themselves once you've hit the meat of the game. But good story telling should be able to instill empathy on this character you're playing as or with, we don't see that enough in games these days because it's easier to just make a sprite man and go "Sprite Man! Beat 7 worlds and get the thing to win! It's just that simple!"
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Dude, Dio Brando is not a "steroid-douche" character at all.

I get what you're saying and I tried, but just can't bear hip hop culture. It's like nails on a chalkboard for me.
 
More bothered about the character being well written than anything else, so, not really.

White Gay Male for reference
 
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