CoD: Black Ops 3's campaign doesn't allow you to change race
- Thread starter Lime
- Start date
Doesn't seem like you paid any actual attention, because none of the characters in the MP are in SP. And out of the 4 starting specialists Ruin is the only white guy. Prophet is black, and Battery and Outrider are women.
dgrdsv
Member
Hey this game doesn't allow me to play as a Russian. Maybe I should be offended?
show me your skeleton
Member
would that be a bad thing, considering just how under represented other ethnicities are in videogames?
When people see "character creator", they expect to be able to make a character they desire, and often, people want to make characters of varying races. And when they can't, they express disappointment. Shocking, I know.
Ah, that makes sense. I feel like they oversold the customisation aspect, but it explains that they didn't just happen to forget about minorities.Its just a carry-over from the multiplayer. You get nine variations of the multiplayer characters to unlock, but you can't make Seraph NOT Seraph. Her specific facial features, her ethnicity, that's her, period.
You can't make her into a white man, she's a specific character. Just like the protagonists of the game.
Scientist Supreme!
Banned
Sounds like they shouldn't have tried at all. I really appreciate them having a female main character and female enemies in the campaign.
ChaoticBlue
Member
the game doesn't even have a black character to select...
i'm sure the military only have white men and women!
paperspace
Member
They made a playable character based on specific individual and thought "hey, wouldn't it be fun if you could customize him/her with different hair and stuff". I don't think that automatically has to evolve into a full blown character creator.
What the fuck...lmao
If representation of Russian people is really important to you, absolutely! But I suspect it isn't.
Corpsepyre
Banned
Dude, atleast they're allowing you to choose a female. Small steps.
TheBlackMarvel
Member
I'm wondering exactly why people are against additional representation here?
DrunkShogun
Member
White people privilege I guess.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Yeah, its not really a create-a-character, its just...slight variations. Prophet is always a specific black man you can play in MP, no matter what goofy ass helmet you put on him
thesonovabeach
Member
I didn't see that in the thread but is there a character background that makes the protagonist specifically white ? I don't have an example right not but maybe that would explain it.
Otherwise that's a dumb decision not to give the choice to the player.
Otherwise that's a dumb decision not to give the choice to the player.
For the future, I'd rather we had an interesting set protagonist than a faux-player-created protagonist who is almost as bland as Hendricks. They can keep the wardrobe customization, but give the character a name and a personality.
Though what I find funnier is the sheer number of blue-eyed people in the campaign. Even Goh Xiulan has blue eyes, and she's East-Asian.
Though what I find funnier is the sheer number of blue-eyed people in the campaign. Even Goh Xiulan has blue eyes, and she's East-Asian.
MasterForm
Member
Remember, no Russian.
In MP it has.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Here is Mike Colter as Spartan Locke in Halo 5. This is his campaign asset. This probably took 343 hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to do. They can make his skin slightly lighter, give him an afro, braids, a goatee, a full beard. But they can't make him look any different than this.
That same issue happens in Black Ops 3. They're got two motion capture actors for the campaign. And they've tried to vary them up, different beards, hair coolor, tanned skin, paler skin. But they can't essentially do blackface, nor can they make them look Asian or whatnot. The multi-player has several different ethnicities, Asian, black etc. Just crazy, even when games are super progressive, and have men and gender lead campaign players, several people of colour as supporting characters, several different ethnicities and races in multi-player, it's just not enough.
Its not the same issue. There's no create a spartan before the campaign in Halo 5. If the dialogue is the exact same and the gender doesn't matter then the race shouldn't either.
paperspace
Member
I don't think anyone is?
MasterForm
Member
I'm not against it. I'm just not gonna moan about it if it isn't there.
There are several non-playable black characters in the campaign. It's clear you aren't comprehending the argument though.
fuzzyreactor
Banned
This place is starting to become ridic. Can we just have a megathread for all the social injustice discussion
The problem is that when they give you some measure of control over your character, in this case gender, hair, headwear, and outfit, it feels out of place when you can't change the skin color. It sends the message, intentionally or not, that they didn't have one specific vision for what this character looks like but it definitely was a white person.
I think part of the problem is that the initial "choose gender" screen shows a male and female figure in complete shadow with no distinguishing features before you pick them, so that suggests a sort "blank slate" character you can make into anything. So it definitely stuck out when you select one and then it's just white people. If it was just "choose a character" with those two faces up already it wouldn't have stood out as much.
I think part of the problem is that the initial "choose gender" screen shows a male and female figure in complete shadow with no distinguishing features before you pick them, so that suggests a sort "blank slate" character you can make into anything. So it definitely stuck out when you select one and then it's just white people. If it was just "choose a character" with those two faces up already it wouldn't have stood out as much.
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
Looks more like pre-set character customization to me instead of full customization.
Ok, i got stupid question, if a white actor did full motion capture (face and body) and the dev turn his skin black in end result, is that considered black face?
Genuine question.
Ok, i got stupid question, if a white actor did full motion capture (face and body) and the dev turn his skin black in end result, is that considered black face?
Genuine question.
I hope I'm wrong and he is cool. I'm just talking about the character's appearance. I'll be buying the game tonight probably.
toastyToast
Member
Eh. Seems like a positive to me but if they were going to give options why not give the options you'd tend to expect in a character customizer? Someone was bound to make this criticism is what I'm saying.
What's next, movies?
Are directors going to have to shoot multiple versions of films because there is outrage that Han Solo or Luke Skywalker are Caucasian rather than African-American?
I mean, it's just silly.
Hahaha I don't know why I find this so funny.
I do know quite a bit about ethnicity and know full well about people of all races and backgrounds buying the game. Still don't see what your point is.
Vegans and albinos and lumberjacks and lacrosse players and tribal amazonians aren't prominently featured in this game either. It means exactly nothing.
Am I really supposed to care about the playable character having a skin texture that resembles mine? It changes nothing. This is a non issue and a total overreaction borne of ignorance or faux sensitivity.
If you want meaningful representation of minorities, you vouch for black people and Hispanics and women getting jobs in tech. You try and get our stories made into games - it's been too long since San Andreas and too few followed suit. But you grab generic GI Joe here and paint his face ______ and nothing has changed - nobody is better represented.
There's real issues concerning diversity and representation in tech and gaming. I believe this isn't one of them.
It's also a mistake to not give them actual names but just "Player". All that gives the impression that these are meant to be fully customisable character that will look like you want them to. Instead you're actually choosing just between two characters, no different when selecting an operator in the MP mode.
RichiRamjag
Member
Most games do it. As a mixed black guy, it isn't like my
voice sounds a specific way. Honestly, I rarely care about such things and I still like black ops, but I did find myself really annoyed as I love being able to customize a character. It was really disappointing after reading about the customization options before release only to boot up campaign and have different versions of a white guy. If there was one option, then that would have been that, I just didn't see the point of having the option to begin with.
For the record, it hasn't ruined the game for me or anything like that, but honestly, I was quite pissed for a couple of minutes when I found out. Mainly because I enjoy making characters, but also because it felt extremely silly to have the option, but not have a simple skin shader.
That is a silly question.
They should have named your character you are intended to be white. Calling it player gives it a false sense of immersion.
Like Kinyou said.
prag16
Banned
Complaining about main authority figures in the story being white seems a little petty, but with customizable protagonists, locking everything to white does seem like a legitimate complaint.
Is there a story reason why they're white? e.g. they're the offspring of one of the aforementioned "authority figures"?
Is there a story reason why they're white? e.g. they're the offspring of one of the aforementioned "authority figures"?
DryvBy
Member
That's reasonable. It's why I'm not touching Tomb Raider this year.
It's funny that you use Star Wars as an example, since I'm certain that calls for greater diversity in film are the reason why the new movies have a black and female lead.
Ordinaryundone
Member
victreeb3l
Member
Yeah I was surprised that they dont let you choose skin color when in MP you can customize your avatar like crazy.
The "more voice acting" comment is weird. Why would black or brown or asian people sound different?
The "more voice acting" comment is weird. Why would black or brown or asian people sound different?
Chû Totoro
Member
If you have a specific character for your story then don't make it customizable... else you have to be sure to give the wider range of possibilities. It's not racist not to put all races but it's not smart at all when you claimed that your game is nice because it has a female protagonist (surfing on the feminist move so you can have nice articles).
Seriously it's just stupid imo. Real life things in the world regarding women, gays, black people are more important, just focus on this instead of trying to do politically correct just to "feel" like you're a good person. Not having a black character is no racist, not having a female character is not misogynistic and having sexuality characters (both women and men) is not insulting... Gaming is just an entertainment, with specific stories and specific characters.
Activision is stupid but I don't really care (I don't buy most of their games anyway).
Just don't act like it's important for women to be represented when you just don't care about black people.
Seriously it's just stupid imo. Real life things in the world regarding women, gays, black people are more important, just focus on this instead of trying to do politically correct just to "feel" like you're a good person. Not having a black character is no racist, not having a female character is not misogynistic and having sexuality characters (both women and men) is not insulting... Gaming is just an entertainment, with specific stories and specific characters.
Activision is stupid but I don't really care (I don't buy most of their games anyway).
Just don't act like it's important for women to be represented when you just don't care about black people.
The story is painifully bad.
Advanced Warfare's story was paint by numbers as fuck but it did not over stay it's welcome. But Black Ops 3 goes out of it's way of making the bad sections EXTRA long and the fun stuff short.
One of the first unlockable specialists is a black man and another is an Asian woman if I recall correctly.
Yeah, that's another good point. "Player" suggests it is meant to actually represent the person playing the game, in the game. With some changes to the way it was presented this would be probably be fine.
The point is, you want them to do 8-10 hours worth of motion capture work and facial animation work as well as cinematics for several different ethnicities? All because some people may feel that the game isn't inclusive enough? Again, campaign and multi-player assets are different. Just look at the multi-player characters, they're a variety of characters and ethnicities, but they can't look any different than they are.
They're giving you the illusion of 'create-a-character' but they've given you two models they've used. Primarily, white, average but good looking people and tried to vary up how they look. They're not going to do much more than that, especially when they shoehorned women into the campaign as well. I think the whole premise of the thread is flawed. People expect several different ethnicities of motion capture and facial animation work for the campaign and it's just not cost feasible so a vocal minority on the Internet can pat themselves on the back. I feel this kind of discussion has done a much greater disservice. I bet next time, they're just going to give you a single character and base the story all around him.
RichiRamjag
Member
Honestly, this is a silly comment. Every time a concern regarding a matter comes up, folks have to take it to the far extreme. Personally, I'm not offended at the lack of a black character, I just didn't see the point of having customizable character that was a variation of the same discount gears of war reject. Had there been one option, then no one would have noticed or had much to say.
Also, Star Wars is pretty disverse anyhow, so get outta here with that nonsense.
Fine, it wouldn't be all that different than what they've offered here.