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The Black Culture Thread |OT12| Days of Future Bans

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Bubba T

Member
So I've been paying my roommate for half of the Internet/cable bill. Been doing so since we moved in. I see the bill in the mail so I decide to open it and review the charges. Turns out, the bill is a month behind. He hasn't paid since the end of July.

I would probably be upset about this, but the bill isn't in my name and I'm moving out tomorrow. I just laugh and leave the bill on the counter.
 

Crocodile

Member

I don't get why fighting games were excluded. The question wasn't "games that only have a single playable character who is Black and female" just "games that have playable Black female characters". So I don't really get the "playability extends to everybody" excuse. I also don't get how "not a lot of fighting game characters are super well written/well explored" (which while true to a degree I really get the feeling the author has some pretty arbitrary criteria as to what counts for "well written" or "deeply explored") really matters. As an example, just because I don't know every single detail about Dudley's (from Street Fighter) history, motivations, complex psyche, etc. doesn't stop him from being a positive representation of a Black dude in a video game. Speaking of Dudley:

The most annoying thing about this is, people will question if a good portion of those characters are even black. The "Is Clementine black?" thread is a perfect example of, if someone isn't as dark as Wesley Snipes then they must not be black.

This has and will always be a big issue when discussing race in video games. I'm still shook from that one time someone seriously tried to argue Lisa from DOA was a ganguro girl. Like God fucking damn O_O
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
The most annoying thing about this is, people will question if a good portion of those characters are even black. The "Is Clementine black?" thread is a perfect example of, if someone isn't as dark as Wesley Snipes then they must not be black.

On the subject, what's the word on "ambiguously brown" characters?

Y'know, the kind where their skin color and name is in that deliberately balanced spot where the only thing that's certain is they are NOT of North European descent.
 

Kreed

Member
On the subject, what's the word on "ambiguously brown" characters?

Y'know, the kind where their skin color and name is in that deliberately balanced spot where the only thing that's certain is they are NOT of North European descent.

When you're talking about mediums where characters with the bodies of 7 year olds can be 3000 years old, those characters have to stay ambiguous until there's enough info on their backstories.
 
On the subject, what's the word on "ambiguously brown" characters?

Y'know, the kind where their skin color and name is in that deliberately balanced spot where the only thing that's certain is they are NOT of North European descent.
Super-Street-Fighter-IV-Dudley-vs-Sagat-Trailer_2.jpg


?
 
I don't get why fighting games were excluded. The question wasn't "games that only have a single playable character who is Black and female" just "games that have playable Black female characters". So I don't really get the "playability extends to everybody" excuse. I also don't get how "not a lot of fighting game characters are super well written/well explored" (which while true to a degree I really get the feeling the author has some pretty arbitrary criteria as to what counts for "well written" or "deeply explored") really matters. As an example, just because I don't know every single detail about Dudley's (from Street Fighter) history, motivations, complex psyche, etc. doesn't stop him from being a positive representation of a Black dude in a video game. Speaking of Dudley:



This has and will always be a big issue when discussing race in video games. I'm still shook from that one time someone seriously tried to argue Lisa from DOA was a ganguro girl. Like God fucking damn O_O

I agree that exempting fighting game characters is weird. Also lol at Fran and Jade is someone that's brought up often that I'm never sure about. Shit seems ambiguous as fuck. In general I find most game artists can't seem to draw black women that well. It seems like most of the time they just copy and paste the features from their white or Asian characters and darken the skin. There are plenty of black artists I follow where I don't ever get their black characters confused with their whites and others, regardless if they have their hair straight or natural.

Some other ones I thought of that aren't on there:

Christie Montiero - Tekken
Jacqui Briggs - MK
Tanya - MK
Seeiah - SSX Tricky
Zoe (???) - SSX Tricky
Lil' Kim, Shawnna, and Shaniqua from Def Jam FFNY
Elena - Street Fighter

That list is pretty small and if I wanted to focus on ones that star in their own game, then I can only name about three and those three were mentioned in the article.
 

Parallax

best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
I don't get why fighting games were excluded. The question wasn't "games that only have a single playable character who is Black and female" just "games that have playable Black female characters". So I don't really get the "playability extends to everybody" excuse. I also don't get how "not a lot of fighting game characters are super well written/well explored" (which while true to a degree I really get the feeling the author has some pretty arbitrary criteria as to what counts for "well written" or "deeply explored") really matters. As an example, just because I don't know every single detail about Dudley's (from Street Fighter) history, motivations, complex psyche, etc. doesn't stop him from being a positive representation of a Black dude in a video game. Speaking of Dudley:

I dont get how rochelle gets a pass but elena doesnt
 

D i Z

Member
Zoe in SSX isn't black. She should be tho. I would do unusual things for a SSX Tricky remake for the new systems.
 
I feel like maybe Storm has something to do with that. She's the oldest character I can think of with that trait.

Also I didn't know about Tanya. I looked her up right quick and this still look sort of like a sista to me.
Just showed my friend story mode yesterday..that picture is waaaaay darker than she is in-game.

Edit:
tanya-mkx.jpg
 
Zoe in SSX isn't black. She should be tho. I would do unusual things for a SSX Tricky remake for the new systems.

Oh you right. I did look up other SSX games since Tricky was the only one I played and she is undeniably a white girl in the reboot that came out. Tricky was the only one where she had some melanin and could pass for mixed. I also hope for a game as good as Tricky again. That reboot that came out back in 2012(13?) looked disappointing.

why are all the black people in pokemon black and white either breakdancers, athletes, fighters or raised by animals
There are black in Pokemon? I only played the first 3 gens so it's a surprise to me.
 
Are there any examples of people of color in games that have their hair visibly dyed or frosted rather than coming from some inexplicable Ganguro lineage?
 
Oh you right. I did look up other SSX games since Tricky was the only one I played and she is undeniably a white girl in the reboot that came out. Tricky was the only one where she had some melanin and could pass for mixed. I also hope for a game as good as Tricky again. That reboot that came out back in 2012(13?) looked disappointing.


There are black in Pokemon? I only played the first 3 gens so it's a surprise to me.

It takes place in Poke-Manhattan so there's some more racial diversity compared to the monotonous shade of Apricot that most other regions are painted in. Gen 6 is in Poke-France and there's a handful of people of color in it, as well
 

D i Z

Member
Oh you right. I did look up other SSX games since Tricky was the only one I played and she is undeniably a white girl in the reboot that came out. Tricky was the only one where she had some melanin and could pass for mixed. I also hope for a game as good as Tricky again. That reboot that came out back in 2012(13?) looked disappointing.

It was. They just won't get it though their thick heads that people want a Tricky style SSX. The courses were so damned boring in the reboot, but the multiplayer system and how they handled leaderboard challenges was really good.
 

Crocodile

Member
Only one you got on him is Iris and Mammy, he said Black and White not XY.

Subtle commentary about the differences between European black people and Americans
.

I........I knew that!

*shifty eyes*

Reading is hard :(

I guess whatever "issues" (I don't recall ever really having a problem with B/W in that regard but I'll respect the opinions of those who did) there might have been in BW, there was clearly a course correction for the better in the later games. As such, I'm not really inclined to hold B/W against Nintendo/Gamfreak.

I also missed these


Though I will admit these trainers are a bit more ambiguous
 
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