Racism as a theme in video games

[Empire]

Mount and Blade: Warband is sexist. I'm not too familiar with the game, but when I was making my character the game had a tutorial message that said that if you played a female character the game would be notably more difficult than playing a male character. Also, if you play as a noble the game will be easier than other professions.

[Shagger]

On 8/25/2021 at 6:50 PM, m76 said:

So in the previous two GTAs you play white italian dudes. First thing they do is kill people steal cars, etc. You presumably don't take issue with that.

But when you are playing the same game with a black guy, that is painting black people in a bad light? 

When you are presented with a white criminal you automatically think that it is just one guy and not representative of the entire group of people, as you should.

But with the black guy you immediately jump to the conclusion "they are saying all black people are thieves" No, you are adding that part.
They are just presenting one dude, same as the white ones in the previous games. So why do you apply a different standard if it is not projection?

 

This is actually spot on. The game is called Grand Theft Auto, its literally named after a crime. So for people to get all shocked and shaken when you roleplay as somebody, minority or not, doing crime is a classic case of reading too much into it. Whether or not Rockstar handled race well in thier games is open to debate, I honestly wouldn't be one to know. I think the vast majority of players take the characters in GTA games as individuals like the way you said about the "white" criminals and people looking at GTA and any prejudiced overtones it may have are looking at the portal of the characters as individuals and are free to judge for themselves. I do think some of the characters and gang member NPC's, especially in some of the earlier GTA games, are kind of stereotypical, but to call it flat out racist is a bit of a stretch.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Shagger

[Shagger]

25 minutes ago, Empire said:

Mount and Blade: Warband is sexist. I'm not too familiar with the game, but when I was making my character the game had a tutorial message that said that if you played a female character the game would be notably more difficult than playing a male character. Also, if you play as a noble the game will be easier than other professions.

 

Wow, that is pretty bad. Did they give any logical reason for this? Not that it would be a valid excuse, I'm just curious if they tried.

[Heatman]

26 minutes ago, Shagger said:

 

This is actually spot on. The game is called Grand Theft Auto, its literally named after a crime. So for people to get all shocked and shaken when you roleplay as somebody, minority or not, doing crime is a classic case of reading too much into it. Whether or not Rockstar handled race well in thier games is open to debate, I honestly wouldn't be one to know. I think the vast majority of plays take the characters in GTA games as individuals like the way you said about the "white" criminals and people looking at GTA and any prejudiced overtones it may have are looking at the portal of the characters as individuals and are free to judge for themselves. I do think the game member, especially in some of the earlier GTA games, are kind of stereotypical, but to call it flat out racist is a bit of a stretch.

There are so many debatable opinion on how GTA series is linked up with racism. 

You can read up more on such myths here 

https://gta-myths.fandom.com/wiki/Racism

[Crazycrab]

39 minutes ago, Heatman said:

There are so many debatable opinion on how GTA series is linked up with racism. 

You can read up more on such myths here 

https://gta-myths.fandom.com/wiki/Racism

 

I think the examples here fall under the category of social commentary, in particular with how Franklin (GTA V) is treated.  Definitely an interesting read.

[Heatman]

2 minutes ago, Crazycrab said:

 

I think the examples here fall under the category of social commentary, in particular with how Franklin (GTA V) is treated.  Definitely an interesting read.

Yeah - There was so many interesting points that was raised in the article/write up which tallied well with the argument being debated. 

[Reality vs Adventure]

12 hours ago, m76 said:

Yet nobody seems to be raising their voice against representing Eastern Europeans or Italians as criminial, it's only when black people are presented when the crying starts.  So why is that? Unconscious bias, that's why.

It's not unconscious bias because blacks have endured far more suffering and targeted hate. I'm part Sicilian and I don't care the way Italians are portrayed because it's kind of bad assery. Italians may have a bad rep, but in no way are they mistreated and abused these days. I'm part Hispanic and because Hispanics also have endured far more suffering I get defensive. I'm thrown into the same pool of hate towards Mexicans and Central Americans but my family is from Spain. I'm also part British, but if someone were to call me a Russian I'd get pissed. But that never happens to any British. No European gets treated the way blacks do, unless there is a war obviously. And if they are, since you know more about that region, then it is your responsibility to speak up and raise awareness. If not, then stop undermining blacks. 

[Heatman]

1 hour ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

It's not unconscious bias because blacks have endured far more suffering and targeted hate. I'm part Sicilian and I don't care the way Italians are portrayed because it's kind of bad assery. Italians may have a bad rep, but in no way are they mistreated and abused these days. I'm part Hispanic and because Hispanics also have endured far more suffering I get defensive. I'm thrown into the same pool of hate towards Mexicans and Central Americans but my family is from Spain. I'm also part British, but if someone were to call me a Russian I'd get pissed. But that never happens to any British. No European gets treated the way blacks do, unless there is a war obviously. And if they are, since you know more about that region, then it is your responsibility to speak up and raise awareness. If not, then stop undermining blacks. 

I think that I mentioned something about this with blacks being more at the receiving end when anything racist is involved. It carries more wave once it's associated with blacks not that other races aren't abused racially in one way or another. 

But, I don't really think he was trying to undermine the black race based on his assessment, he's just trying to objective.