Positive outcome for representing race in Skyrim?

The lecture on racism and representation of race in video games has had me thinking as to whether there is the possibility that video games can explore the discourse of race in a positive fashion. As shown in the example from Resident Evil, games can overly rely on historical narratives and myths to drive their plots and negatively represent real world populations.

I am curious as to whether this can work in the reverse, using the topic of race and racial difference to demonstrate a negative scenario and inspire some real world discussion on the topic. Avoiding games which intentionally set out to pursue a racist ideology (games like Ethnic Cleansing, the name says it all), many games adopt racial narratives purely unintentionally due to race historically being an integral part of traditional narratives.

I’ve been playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a lot lately and the topic of race appears quite prominently in the game. In brief, as part of the major plot of the game you are given the choice to side with either an imperialistic force who wishes total domination of the inhabitants of the land of Skyrim, or with a rebel faction wishing independence for the people. I tried to play as the “good guy” and took up the fight of the rebel ‘Storm Cloaks’, only to find that they’re hugely racist, and once in power would dispose of any non-‘Nord’ peoples from their lands. So this kind of virtual othering, and creating a racial hierarchy in a virtual world with virtual people with little functional resemblance to the real world, may work in a positive manner to inspire people to discuss these issues as some already are, and how they work in reality.


Unfortunately there is still the issue that in role-playing games race works in a very functional way, different racial classes as chosen by the player upon starting the game afford positive or negative attributes, Elves may have better pick-pocket and sneaking abilities, and Nords might have better fighting abilities, so perhaps it’s not so possible to totally escape the clichés of racial groupings. If it were possible to have mixed-race characters, these kinds of racial advantages may be less problematic, but role playing games seem determined to maintain some kind of racial segregation when it comes to picking a racial group, you get one or the other, there is no in-between unfortunately.

Skyrim doesn't use the issue of race to necessarily say one is better or more important than any other, but I've seen that people have been drawn to the topic of race in the game and have generally responded well, and shown interest in unpacking the racial knapsack (to steal a term) in the virtual world of Skyrim.

Whilst the idea of racial difference is still as huge element of role playing games hopefully they can serve as a springboard for gamers to discuss these issues amongst themselves, if anyone else has examples share away!

Bit Mob - Understanding the 'other': Racism in Skyrim