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Opinion time: who are some "white males in gaming" done right?

Apologies for any misrepresentation from my poor choice of words.



I'm gonna be honest, when asked if I'm white of hispanic origin I never know how to respond even though I'm like 1/3 Canary Islander.

When you look at your skin color what do you see? that is exactly what ethnicity you are, if you care about it then you are canary islander, who is going to challenge that? I mean you are in a better position that people than are like 3 generations or more removed that somehow associate themselves with their ancestor's culture. OMG one of my great great grand mother is Irish, I must irish as well for example.
 

Kinyou

Member
Edward Kenway (Assassin's Creed IV) embodying a lovable rogue type of personality made him appealing, but also seemed to show progressive attitudes regarding slavery, though we also had Adewale kind of balancing that conversation. It's almost ironic given this is the same publisher that gave us Aiden Pearce.
Kenway became a pretty good character towards the end when he started to realise his mistakes. Made for a great ending scene.
 

conman

Member
I'd cast another vote for Max Payne in MP3. The moment when he first finds himself in a Brazilian slum was for me the first time I felt that a white male (American) character had to confront his whiteness and his maleness and his American-ness all in a single blow. Wonderful moment in gaming.

I'm gonna be honest, when asked if I'm white of hispanic origin I never know how to respond even though I'm like 1/3 Canary Islander.
No joke. Anyone who tries to tell me that "Latino/Hispanic" is an ethnicity and not a race has never been in the situation of being Latino and having to fill out a race/ethnicity form (in the US). Having filled out those forms my whole life, they've only gotten more confusing with time (I'm a light-skinned Chicano).

It's definitely not as easy as saying that Latino/Hispanic is "only ever an ethnicity." Race and ethnicity are both social constructs anyway with negligible biological/genetic support, so it's all the same thing--just with slightly different political implications.
 

AGoodODST

Member
John Marston is a good one I think considering the era the game is set in. Not as easy to say he could be any other colour and be the same like Joel for example.
 

Wiktor

Member
Many of the replies on the first page are so off base it's almost insane. Of course, I'm also struggling to think of a good answer. I guess I should clarify that the original OP seemed pretty crystal clear to me as "white character 'done right' " meaning characters that "justify" their whiteness in that you could not have the same story with non-white characters.

If we're using this criteria than I don't think there's any non-white or female character "done right" in whole gaming either, at least among the commercial games.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
Max Payne 3

The game made me feel uncomfortable. His interactions with the locals, like just stumbling through that street party, the bar scene, the " I don't speak your fucking language" line. Rockstar crafts these awesome mechanics, makes Max stick out like a blazing white sore thumb, & then has you decimate poor people (stereotyped Italians too, of course) I felt they did iton purpose & the effect would have been lost had Max not been white.

Max is often accused of being the "white man" interfering in the affairs of another country. He's often condemned for not understanding how things work there/the cultural differences. In fact, most of the villains bring it up when confronting him, like his showdown with Neves on top of the Imperial Hotel. It's a nice dig at Western foreign policy and the whole "White Man's Burden" deal and, like you say, none of that would really work if he weren't white.

The fact that he doesn't understand the language and the culture alienates him from the people and the city. This was a great move from R* it makes his alienation physically apparent. I like the fact that it also removes his greatest ally in the entire series: New York City.
 

Etnos

Banned
I'm gonna be honest, when asked if I'm white of hispanic origin I never know how to respond even though I'm like 1/3 Canary Islander.

As a whit-ish mexican, usually filling the form with "Hispanic" easy the confusion a bit. For some reason Latino is often associated with brown/dark skin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

Kill3r7

Member
Alan Wake. I thought he was fairly believable, white guy writer who was not some super human dude bro.
2134584-34567890987654.jpg
 

Tigress

Member
Why does it have to be white males? Can't we just talk about decent characterisation in games in general?

I think a lot of people aren't getting the question (or maybe I'm not). I think the idea is to list a character where being a white male fits the role better than another ethnicity or a female. Ones where there is a good reason they need to be white and/or male and the story would not work as well otherwise.
 

conman

Member
For some reason Latino is often associated with brown/dark skin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Whoa. First I've heard that. Kind of proves my point above, though.

These categories are really confusing for Hispanic/Latino people. I've been in endless back-and-forth debates in the past just about the terms "hispanic" and "Latino" (let alone more charged debates about whether to say I'm "Mexican American" or "Chicano"). And if we who self-identify with either (or both) of those categories can't easily decide or define them, how in the world can we expect to fit into larger debates about the difference between "ethnicity" and "race"?!

Not to mention, that these things ("race," "Latino," etc.) all mean rather different things in different countries.
 

Wiktor

Member
I think a lot of people aren't getting the question (or maybe I'm not). I think the idea is to list a character where being a white male fits the role better than another ethnicity or a female. Ones where there is a good reason they need to be white and/or male and the story would not work as well otherwise.

Isn't that a bit racist though? because it implies that a white character can't be "done right" if there's not some exclusive white struggle he has to go through, like the only thing that really matters about those people is their race.
 

Cocaloch

Member
To be honest, I can't really fathom a white male done 'wrong'. I don't think it works when you break it down to an individual level.

This is completely right. The issue with there being too many white men as protagonists in Western media is systemic. No individual work is wrong for having a white male protagonist, the issue only occurs where an overabundance of pieces has them. A character shouldn't necessarily not be white just because he has no narrative reason to be white, after all he still needs to have some sort of phenotype that would probably end up being identified as a race. The issue is that the industry defaults to white men, which again is systemic in nature.
 

conman

Member
This is completely right. The issue with there being too many white men as protagonists in Western media is systemic. No individual work is wrong for having a white male protagonist the issue only occurs where an overabundance of pieces has them. A character shouldn't necessarily not be white just because he has no narrative reason to be white, after all he still needs to have some sort of phenotype. The issue is that the industry defaults to white men, which again is systemic in nature.
Well, yeah. I think that was the unspoken point of this thread. White males "done right" I think was a way of asking whether there are characters in gaming whose whiteness and maleness (whose race and gender) are highlighted in the game. I think it's a really interesting and productive way of framing the question of racial and gender privilege in the gaming industry. A game's context should justify those choices about a character's race, gender, etc. That's not only good politics; that's good writing.

But you're absolutely right. The problem in the industry (and in many other visual media) is that whiteness is almost always the "default" or "neutral" position. If a character's race or gender don't matter in a specific game, then you can bet that he will be a white male 99% of the time.
 
I always thought they were under the category of 'hispanic'. Mainly because the Spaniards I knew labeled themselves as such.
Spaniards are white.

Hispanic is an overgeneralization for Spanish speakers due the complexity of multiple different races in the Americas that inhabit Latin American countries.

The US is big in profiling people as Hispanic/Latino into one pile regardless of their race.
 

Phades

Member
Hispanic, as I understand it, means that some of their ancestry is derived from Spain, but also from some of the Native Americans that were here.

It is interesting that distinction is made for that specific instance, but for none others involving european + native heritage.
 

Cocaloch

Member
Well, yeah. I think that was the unspoken point of this thread. White males "done right" I think was a way of asking whether there are characters in gaming whose whiteness and maleness (whose race and gender) are highlighted in the game. I think it's a really interesting and productive way of framing the question of racial and gender privilege in the gaming industry. A game's context should justify those choices about a character's race, gender, etc. That's not only good politics; that's good writing.

But you're absolutely right. The problem in the industry (and in many other visual media) is that whiteness is almost always the "default" or "neutral" position. If a character's race or gender don't matter in a specific game, then you can bet that he will be a white male 99% of the time.

A game's context doesn't need to justify those choices in every situation. If that isn't something that the creators don't to tackle then it just isn't something that they want to tackle. Again the issue is that the default is male, not that any single work has a white male who has no particular reason to be white and male.
 

conman

Member
Spaniards are white.
That's an awfully big assumption. Are you saying, for example, that there are no Spaniards of African or Asian descent?

A game's context doesn't need to justify those choices in every situation. If that isn't something that the creators don't to tackle then it just isn't something that they want to tackle. Again the issue is that the default is male, not that any single work has a white male who has no particular reason to be white and male.
I totally disagree. And not just for political or ethical reasons. I think good writing requires that you don't simply "default" to any particular character type (or plot convention or setting or whatever). All of those choices should matter. If, as a writer, you can't justify your choices about your characters (or your plot or your setting or whatever), then you have no business writing in the first place.
 

Calibus

Member
I would say a bad white male character is one that actively oppresses social minorities or otherwise gloats about his privilege. I have yet to play a game in which the protagonist does this. So my answer is all white male protags in the games I have played so far.
 

conman

Member
He meant that the Spaniard ethnicity is one of the ethnicity that is considered white.
"Spaniard" is a nationality (a person from Spain), not an ethnicity--though many cultural nationalists of the European far right would disagree. So there are of course people of African descent who are Spaniards and so on.
 

Wiktor

Member
That's an awfully big assumption. Are you saying, for example, that there are no Spaniards of African or Asian descent?

I totally disagree. And not just for political or ethical reasons. I think good writing requires that you don't simply "default" to any particular character type (or plot convention or setting or whatever). All of those choices should matter. If, as a writer, you can't justify your choices about your characters (or your plot or your setting or whatever), then you have no business writing in the first place.

Yes, but at the same time I think writer being white is enough justification for making a white lead though.
 
I'm not sure if this is what teh OP had in mind, but I see 'bad' white characters as anyone where it seems like the Devs/Publishers said, "Let's make him a 20-35 year old average white guy because that's our key demographic and I don't know if they'd be happy playing as a black man".

Sam Fischer, Nathan Drake, Aiden Pearce, Marcus Fenix are all bad in this sense, even if they are good characters (well, Nathan is). Even Joel (who I think is great) is a bad example of using a white character. Their race is only used to maximise their demographic appeal.

The GTA5 guys are great white and/or male characters, because their race and gender are a key part of the story. It's about the perversion of the American dream and attitudes of masculinity.
I was one of those people annoyed by the continuing lack of a female GTA character, especially when we found out that GTA V would have 3 protagonists, all male. I was wrong though. The story totally justifies the use of the protagonists though I'd still like to see GTA 6 use a woman or a black guy who isn't a gangbanging hood-made-good.

Most historical games get a pass. John Marsden and Ezio are good because their racial background is an important part of who they are. The story whould have to be quite different if they were black, since they would face racism at every turn in the American wild-west or renaissance Italy.
I'd love to see a historical game with a story from a non-white perspective since it's a totally unexplored realm for stories. When we see the subaltern perspective being the subject of a game, we will show that gaming is getting serious about culture/art/storytelling.

Max Payne is double-plus-good, especially in 3. It's literally about the ongoing follies of a white guy and his unconscious privilege. He is a dumb white guy who gets in way over his head because he doesn't understand, and often has contempt for, the foreign culture he is in. He thinks he can save the world, but usually ends up fucking stuff up even more.

Far Cry 3 is double-plus-ungood. White guys rule and indigenous peoples are all clueless fucking peasants who need a spoilt rich kid to show them what's what. And no, getting killed while shagging voodoo priestess doesn't make it better, it makes it worse. Seriously, the indigenous people aren't even capable of fucking their own leader, because only your superior white-boy semen can provide the mesiah or whatever. And no it's not ironic. Anyone suggesting that it is should be forced to listen to Alanis Morissette on repeat for the rest of their natural lives.
 

EGM1966

Member
What makes them unique? Just that they're in a game with good writing? Seems like the standard father-daughter story with an adopted daughter. But I don't know too much about the game, so... elaborate, please?

I don't see them as "unique" in the sense that almost all characters share traits. What made them work, and be believable, was the combination of consistent characterization shown through both their actions and how they act (this includes written dialogue but also behavior)

Take Joel - sure he could easily be a cliche but right from the first moment he appears he behaves right for his character within context. In the opening we see both his overriding concern and care for his daughter, his ability to fight to survive and the selfish streak of the true survivor in his actions towards others. When we pick up the story later he is subdued, too much the survivor not to keep living - and to an extent excelling at it to an extent - and with a brutal side to him that makes sense in context to his past and current circumstances. The first "mission" as well as being a classic tutorial also makes it clear you do not want to be between Joel and information or something he wants. His warming to Ellie is gradual and makes sense, reaching its peak around their encounter with David. Post that we see he has totally invested in her, perhaps over-invested in her, and hence the stage is set for the final, brutal climax of the narrative when yet again someone he cares about obsessively is in danger and people stand between him and his goals.

The final Coda wraps his tale up nicely - he's not a monster or a psychopath nor is he a hero or even an anti-hero. He's a guy with a particular physicality and state of mind and the true traits of the selfish survivor who makes in the end a simple choice that is completely in character even if many would question his choice set against a world where survival is not guaranteed.

Thematically TLOU puts all its main characters (and by main I mean the leads and notable secondary characters) the question of their existence - "can it all be for nothing?" and each reacts to that accordingly. Some fall by the wayside when it seems it is all for nothing, some sacrifice themselves in the belief it then "won't be for nothing" and in the end Joel, the true selfish survivor, ensures that for him it wasn't "all for nothing" even as to do so he eventually crushes the actions of other characters seeking from their perspective to make sure "it all wasn't for nothing".

TLOU clearly chose a setting and context that allowed for combat, conflict and the struggle for survival and then put in place a consistent set of characters each trying to achieve their own ends, each trying to make sure that from their own perspective they achieve their own goals and that for them "it wasn't for nothing" and their drive, determination to succeed and absolute will to survive determines how successful each is.

There's nothing revolutionary about the characters or writing in TLOU in general terms, it still lags films and novels and short stories for example, but in a medium where most characters are barely more than inconsistent animated cliches with bad dialogue it really does stand head and shoulders over most games efforts at proper, strong characterization.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Kane and Lynch's whiteness feels central to the aesthetic and atmosphere of Kane and Lynch 2. They're a couple of entitled, violent, psychopathic foreigners in Shanghai bullheadedly trying to get what they think they deserve, constantly blundering into bigger and bigger trouble by virtue of their ignorance. They're culturally alien from most of the people they're shooting at, one of the many things that builds the game's sense of numbing, ceaseless, and bleak violence.
 

conman

Member
Yes, but at the same time I think writer being white is enough justification for making a white lead though.
Not needing to justify a character's whiteness or maleness just because he was written by a white male writer is the height and definition of privilege. Choices about a character's social inflections (race, gender, sexuality, etc) are never incidental.
 

Wiktor

Member
I'm not sure if this is what teh OP had in mind, but I see 'bad' white characters as anyone where it seems like the Devs/Publishers said, "Let's make him a 20-35 year old average white guy because that's our key demographic and I don't know if they'd be happy playing as a black man".

Sam Fischer, Nathan Drake, Aiden Pearce, Marcus Fenix are all bad in this sense, even if they are good characters (well, Nathan is). Even Joel (who I think is great) is a bad example of using a white character. Their race is only used to maximise their demographic appeal.
Fisher used to be 50ty though. That owned.
Far Cry 3 is double-plus-ungood. White guys rule and indigenous peoples are all clueless fucking peasants who need a spoilt rich kid to show them what's what. And no, getting killed while shagging voodoo priestess doesn't make it better, it makes it worse. Seriously, the indigenous people aren't even capable of fucking their own leader, because only your superior white-boy semen can provide the mesiah or whatever. And no it's not ironic. Anyone suggesting that it is should be forced to listen to Alanis Morissette on repeat for the rest of their natural lives.

Personally I don't think Brody could have been anything but white. That's the only way his character works. The whole point of him is being ignorant as fuck and just falling into false belief he's a white messiah, while being in reality used and becoming just a mass murderer. His whole character is bassicaly making fun of white messiah stereotype being played out by the most cliched and stupid dudebro persona possibible. The game doesn't always succeed in fully getting this point across, but the idea itself..it only works if he's white.

And the sex scene makes sense, because she kills him afterwards. What's the point in killing somebody from her own people? And a victorious warrior and father of next leader needed to be killed if she wanted to keep all the power to herself.

Far Cry 3's problems don't lie in set ups and ideas, just in execution of those.
 
Isn't that a bit racist though? because it implies that a white character can't be "done right" if there's not some exclusive white struggle he has to go through, like the only thing that really matters about those people is their race.
Makes you wonder why, in every thread where the topic of diversity comes up, people say that minorities need to be justified in the story or gameplay.

That's the point of this thread: if minorities have to justify being a minority, then what are examples where a majority character's majority status is justified or central to the story or gameplay?

Pretty much all the responses I'm seeing aren't really addressing that question.

Why does a character's race, gender, or sexual orientation have to be "justified"?
That's a great question, one I wish more people asked every time someone said that about minority characters.
 

Wiktor

Member
Not needing to justify a character's whiteness or maleness just because he was written by a white male writer is the height and definition of privilege. Choices about a character's social inflections (race, gender, sexuality, etc) are never incidental.
You're looking for privilege where there's none. The "write what you know" is one of the very first advices any writer gets and it's a good one. It's simply easier to understand and develop character you share a lot with. That is white male when the writer is white male, but the very same rule applies to woman writting a famel lead or black writer picking black person as his narrator.

The "it was easier for me and thus resulted with better written character" is good enough justification.
 
Isn't that a bit racist though? because it implies that a white character can't be "done right" if there's not some exclusive white struggle he has to go through, like the only thing that really matters about those people is their race.

It may be racist, but as others have pointed out it seems likely that this thread is a response to another thread criticizing the amount of white males in gaming. The idea here seems to be to explore the critique that most characters could just as easily be females or minorities without any loss to the gameplay. Judging by the responses, this is probably true for the most part. There is still a rational and acceptable reason why they do tend to be white males which is better left for discussion in the other thread dedicated to it.

If we're using this criteria than I don't think there's any non-white or female character "done right" in whole gaming either, at least among the commercial games.

Not needing to justify a character's whiteness or maleness just because he was written by a white male writer is the height and definition of privilege. Choices about a character's social inflections (race, gender, sexuality, etc) are never incidental.
Whoa there. Can it really be a privilege if everyone enjoys it? Females tend to write female characters, minorities tend to write minority characters, teenagers tend to write teenage characters, etc. It's a basic tendency that is reflected in every culture throughout history.

As the poster above pointed out, it is just as hard to "justify" female and minority characters as it is to "justify" white male characters. For the most party they all arbitrarily reflect the writer. I don't think that because white writers happen to be a majority in the industry that they have some onus separate from the rest of the human race to write primarily about characters of other races and genders.
 
Who are some white males in gaming done wrong? The only ones I could think of are villains and even then the only thing "wrong" about them is that they imply that not all white people are saints and heroes...
 

conman

Member
Fisher used to be 50ty though. That owned.


Personally I don't think Brody could have been anything but white. That's the only way his character works. The whole point of him is being ignorant as fuck and just falling into false belief he's a white messiah, while being in reality used and becoming just a mass murderer. His whole character is bassicaly making fun of white messiah stereotype being played out by the most cliched and stupid dudebro persona possibible. The game doesn't always succeed in fully getting this point across, but the idea itself..it only works if he's white.
Totally agreed. Brody in FC3 was at least an attempt to unsettle the ridiculous trope of the white male messiah. As you say, it wasn't always successful (and the critique was lost on most people), but it was a really awesome attempt. The game wouldn't have worked if Brody weren't an obnoxious, wealthy, American dude-bro Spring Breaker in an "exotic" locale. The island was layered with a history of oppression and occupation (old wars), filled with endangered species, and defined by its economic turmoil and exploitation.

The backdrop and setup for FC3 was brilliant. Wish it had been more consistent in its critique, but it deserves props for trying.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Many of the replies on the first page are so off base it's almost insane. Of course, I'm also struggling to think of a good answer. I guess I should clarify that the original OP seemed pretty crystal clear to me as "white character 'done right' " meaning characters that "justify" their whiteness in that you could not have the same story with non-white characters.

Tony Hawk and all the white skaters for obvious reasons (not great, but you can't really argue with them being their respective races)

Eternal Darkness has a varied cast of badasses of both genders and many nationalities, but I think the white characters are justified through their social station in their respective time periods for the most part.
Pious and Peter, as a Roman Centurion and a dude in WWII London could probably have been different races without much damage, save for being a Centurion, which really isn't that integral.

Anthony lives in a monastery in the time of Charlemagne.
Maximilian Roivas is a rich American doctor who built his mansion in the wrong spot. Without going into too much detail, his social station, money, and profession all have significant impact on the rest of the story. Being that the two other Roivas' are related to him, I guess they're whiteness is justified to some degree. Although another family could have certainly taken over the mansion, I would regret losing the sense of family history that is revealed through the game.
Good example, I agree.

Another Silicon Knights game protagonist as example:
blood-omen-legacy-of-kain-kain-1.jpg

372015-kain_cinematic.jpg


Kain is a nobleman born in a fictional universe strongly based on medieval Europe. The flavour, aesthetic and atmosphere of the setting are all very homogeneously gothic European even if Nosgoth itself is fictional. Moreover, Kain gets immediately turned into a vampire at the start of the game, and his skin turns even paler. :p And he's of course one of the best characters in video game history.
 
Not needing to justify a character's whiteness or maleness just because he was written by a white male writer is the height and definition of privilege. Choices about a character's social inflections (race, gender, sexuality, etc) are never incidental.

I thought privilege was like, going to a third world country and complaining about how all the drinking water has parasites.

Anyway, uhh, Trevor from GTAV. Because only white people live in trailers and cook meth, am I right folks?

I do not see this topic ending well.
 

Freeman

Banned
Not needing to justify a character's whiteness or maleness just because he was written by a white male writer is the height and definition of privilege. Choices about a character's social inflections (race, gender, sexuality, etc) are never incidental.

What is this? Nobody needs to justify why they picked anyone as their main character.

People just want to complain, meanwhile the people who actually buy the games don't give a shit.
 
19620_garrett.jpg


Garrett from the old Thief games: a seamless blend of characterisation and gameplay. He doesn't talk much but when he does, it's full of dry sarcasm and professional pride in his thievery.

He tries to hide his loyalty to a few (Artemus, Basso and Cutty) but it comes through anyway. He fits perfectly in the shadows of the late medieval Gotham.

In my opinion, the best 'white unshaven dude with a gravelly voice' ever featured in a game. (We don't talk about the 2014 reboot.)
 

Chris23

Member
The Doom marine, doesn't say a word, just pulls the trigger.

That's all you need to know.

I'm sure he has an interesting personality behind the scenes.
 

APF

Member
You're looking for privilege where there's none. The "write what you know" is one of the very first advices any writer gets and it's a good one. It's simply easier to understand and develop character you share a lot with. That is white male when the writer is white male, but the very same rule applies to woman writting a famel lead or black writer picking black person as his narrator.

So what are some good examples of the characteristics of being white that these writers have revealed in their characters? If being white is writing what they know then how is "what they know" revealed in the writing, outside of the character just having a particular skin color? I think that's what the thread is trying to ask.
 
That's an awfully big assumption. Are you saying, for example, that there are no Spaniards of African or Asian descent?

I totally disagree. And not just for political or ethical reasons. I think good writing requires that you don't simply "default" to any particular character type (or plot convention or setting or whatever). All of those choices should matter. If, as a writer, you can't justify your choices about your characters (or your plot or your setting or whatever), then you have no business writing in the first place.

Ethnically- no. Nationality- of course. These discussions can become very confusing very quickly, since there is a lot of blurring of definitions, like ethnicity vs nationality vs race and how these terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
 
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