The short list of representatives

Mark questioned in tutorial whether there were any games that had black characters or people of different ethnicities as protagonists. So I took it upon myself to do some research into how many there were, let alone if they were notable in amount, not as a rebuttal but to survey the state of affairs. What I discovered is worrying, and the prognosis is bleak if this nascent history of video games is anything to go by. Crucially, it’s not the misrepresentations or questionable undertones of these characterizations that make this issue galling in most respects, but the pervasive lack of presence that allows the dominant cybertyping to flourish as the ‘Disappearance of Race in MMOGs’ reading alludes to.

I found the credit given to the game Metroid (NES) that Kevin mentioned in the lecture, having both adequate game play and a female protagonist Samus, bizarre; an early game lauded as an exception to the norm, yet leaving the player in the lurch for the duration of the game- even referring to the character as a “he” in the manual- not revealing the characters sexuality until the final cut scene when, lo and behold, she strips down into her revealing ‘feminine’ garbs par-the-representational-course! To list other examples would be a superfluous exercise in self- defeat as it contains the predictable culprits (CJ, Lara Croft, Princess Toadstool/peach et al) despite the mitigations we prefer to put forth. This includes the all too obvious sports stars/ movie characters in games too (and Moonwalker, showcasing pre-90’s Michael Jackson!).

Street fighter is an interesting proposition as a game that represents a variety of cultures other than the white purview. However, that was part of its global appeal so it was justifiably relevant to the commercial bigwigs to have different ethnicities represented. Incidentally, with a game like Street Fighter the cultural borrowing is quite pronounced which makes a mockery of those who like to claim that the game world bears no reflection to characterizations of the real world and vice versa. There’s Balrog the (black) boxer, and what appears to be a promising female character Chun Li (who I absolutely adored playing with, even if that sounds wrong). Though she may appear to be a bit more demure- the now-disconcerting manga giggle and powerful thighs in veering towards the masculinised aside- amongst a field of ‘strong’ and ‘sexy’ female characters, other street fighter characters from ensuing editions, such as Elena, more than fulfil that sexualised degenerative trope. It wasn’t intentional and the PC brigade can go out swinging. Post- 2000 and even the tumbleweed has more of a chance of being noticed.

The one exception seems to be the black and female character Jade from the game Beyond Good and Evil. By all accounts it seems fair to say that there are no offensive points of contention, and besides the ‘you go girl’ giddyup, it can perhaps serve as some sort of a template for gaming posterity that sadly seems far too entrenched in its ways. I’m not holding my breath for change, but if discussion can provide just a semblance of hope, I’m all for it.