Is LocoRoco Racist?

[wraggster]

News from Spong (http://news.spong.com/article/10334)


Earlier this week, a Californian-based blogger pointed an accusatory finger at Sony’s new PSP hope LocoRoco, accusing the game of being blatantly racist due to the inclusion of Golliwog type characters (see picture to the right).

Alejandro Quan-Madrid insisted that the game was guilty of "institutional racism", claiming that the bad guys - Moja – were far too similar to offensive early 20th Century caricatures of Africans popularised by such things as golliwogs and the Black and White minstrel-type entertainers of the day.

Another Kotaku writer, Florian Eckhardt, offered a counter-point to Quan Madrid’s accusations: "[he] is making himself out to be one of those knee-jerk reactionaries who measures his own importance by his ability to be self-righteously offended. Not only is his argument silly and worthy of derision, but it demeans the struggle against actual racism."

Ryan Bowling, PR manager for SCEA, waded into the frey, offering the comment, "LocoRoco is a fantasy game geared towards a worldwide audience that takes place in a vibrant pastel world with colorful landscapes and characters and is not based on real-life places, people or things."

What do you think? Are Japanese games designers innocently creating wonderful fantasy worlds for us to play in? Or are some of them really guilty of “institutional racism” as per Quan-Madrid’s comments? Is there really something darker at work here?

[publicprivates]

well, i hate all races equllay.

[Larry]

well alejandro is in my personal opinion, a fool.

I'm black. (half african, half japanese) but i have skin as dark or darker than full african decendants.

and alejandro isnt at least according to the picture in his blog
He has no RIGHT to say something is racist against the african race.

I Have the right to say if its racist or not at least to me. How ever the game is not racist in my eyes. It's just a game.
Pollitical correctness is politically incorrect.

it took centries for those with darker skin colors to get equal rights.
And now.. this fool wants to divide us and split us up.

everytime a dark colored charactor appears in a game, theres always gonna be someone that says its racist.

But same can be said for any charactor of any game of any color.

[acn010]

so what does the name mean then

[INKED]

ha how ****ing stupid is that, you have to be one hell
of an attention whore to manage to convince yourself that a video game is racist or causes racism...sounds like Alejandro Quan-Madrid dosent have any friends to play psp with

[slaphappygamer]

DID YOU ALL HEAR! in lion king, at the waterfall, the mist spells SEX. oh ****.

[slaphappygamer]

****?

[acn010]

the guy should be slapped.
really

[Ennohex]

Who cares if it's racist or not. It's fun. Seems like the gaming society has once again become the political soap-box. This nonsence will never end, we'll just have to wait it through.

[Shiaoran]

I hope thwy don't screw the game like they did in megaman Powered Up, making Oilman BLUE because black was racist ¬¬
WAKE UP MORONS!
Now they'll turn every black evil character blue?

Why don't they do it in american stuff too? Why don't they make all the evil egyptian characters in Stargate blue? It would be easier to tell wich character is good...

In SG-1:
O'Neil: I can save these people. Help Me.
Teal'c(blue, or teal XD):Many have said that.*turns black* But I believe you can.
(I don't remember exactly the scene, but I believe its it.)

[knblh]

Youve gotta agree with Larry. The bloke who made that crap up is obviously a pain in the arse. The majority of people these days arent racist at all, and i for one am sick of these bloocy stupid people PC awareness rubbish. This is my opinion so sorry if i offend, but i rem the golliwog on the back of the jam jars im from the UK btw. And not once when i was 5-6 wot ever i was did i even think theres a black man. I mean come on for **** sake, afro hair, bright white eyes, ****ing dunergees and bright red lips anyone seen someone looking like that anywhere in the world? lol bout time some people realised there just cartoons, i mean if i were to draw a pic of a clown should peoplw with red noses be offended?

sorry for rambling on lol, just sick of sad lonely PC wankas nowt else better to do but stir shit, funny thing is hes the only one who thought it was racist lol.

live and let live................

cheers all bri

[dtothabreezy]

dang next theyll say gta is violent:D


i do not know how to spell so get over it

[.:}<3\/!}\{:.]

i think being racist is bad, but it depends on how racist it is...

[N1ghtshade]

well, i hate all races equllay.

right on

[Zephyroth_drgs]

wow cmon dudes, thats true? its like u know, if u wanna be really a "justice bringer" maybe u should first care bout ppl that is dying in the middle west cause a unjust invasion ... not about the color of a little balls in a game...

[Shiesty]

i dont think what some homo blogger says should be news

no diss to wraggster for posting it, but some guy who thinks people care what he blogs about should be slapped

[publicprivates]

lol middle west.

[MicroNut]

Wow, this guy is getting fat.
Way to FAT to move...
Look at the way that little fat rolls along.
He's so fat, he makes up 6 little fat ones!
The Fat ******* cant jump!

Funny little yellow fat guy.
He's so short he's got no legs! :eek:

[mog]

LOL... this thread made me check the marmalade jars in my house...
There really is no golliwog on any of the jars!
Not that I'm really that suprised -- seeing how stupid and anally retentive the pc brigade is. :p

I like the comment made on SPOnG forum that mentions that there are no white blobs on LocoRoco!
The blobs come in many skin colours except white! (assuming the blobs actually have skin)
So there you have it, LocoRoco IS racist... against people with a low quantity of melanin in their epidermis ("white" people)! :D

[F9zDark]

This is the same absurdity that surrounded the Lord of the Rings movies; the Uruk-hai were black skinned, and the voice of Sauron was someone of seeming Middle Eastern descent.

Its stupid really. Once a color of skin of 'a neglected ethnic group' is used in any way that shapes the character as evil, its racist.

Let us not count the thousands of white skinned individuals who are used to portray evil characters in games, movies, books and even music.

Anyone claiming such is just racist themselves; the way to end racism is to stop dividing people by race in the first place...

The thinking that Alejandro is using to purport his claims of racism is racist in and of itself. Basically he is telling the world that dark skinned people aren't fit to fill the roles of common character types in a given entertainment medium...

[clay18]

i thought the demo rock, the game is for fun. your looking into things too deep

[kingmar5]

wrrrd

[shadowprophet]

However, One has to take into account, that fantasy violence has been in video games for a very long time now. And yes I hate racisim of any kind.
But fantasy racisim?! Ohh hell no thats just taking advantage of a overly sympethatic system and milking it for his moment in the spotlight.

People need to lighten up and start living in the (real world) and start worring about real problems,

Just an opinion SP.

[Forever~Zero]

Seriosly how stupid of a comment is that? If those Black characters symbolise Africans then wont LocoRoco (Main Character,not even sure its named that or not) symbolise fat people who are obsessed with eating and cant stop like what MicroNut said? I think this guys is so low man. So low.

[Cap'n 1time]

With this "logic" (I really shouldnt call it that)... I can find alot of "racist" video game characters... but I am not the kind of moron that goes and looks for the smallest, meaningless links to everything. And I say this even though, nothing brings me more joy than seeing Sony in court.

[10shu]

ICO on ps2 is a very racist game too...:D ...all thoses black creatures who try to grab my so white girlfriend...oupss i shouldn t give them ideas...;)

[acn010]

mario is white, and the minimes are brown

[RedKing14CA]

want to see a racist game...

black and white...

just the name is racist!

lol.. ppl are so dumb.. your skin means nothing, not to mention its COLOR!!?!??!

it is the heart God looks at, and men cannot see

romans 14:13 says let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in [his] brother's way.

In english it says:

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.

It talks about why should we fret about something as STUPID as skin color or appearence, when in the end it will be the same for EVERY man.... no matter what his skin color or decent...

[acn010]

oh oh oh!!!!!
how about chess!!!
thats black and white :D

[Cap'n 1time]

oh oh oh!!!!!
how about chess!!!
thats black and white :D

yes... and white always goes first... RACISM!:p

[mog]

black is a dark colour.
white is a light colour.

dark, darkness, shady, shadowy, murky, gloomy, etc...
It just happens that dark colours are usually used to describe and represent evil, black being the darkest colour and therefore the best for this.

light, bright, sunny, shiny, glow, illumination, radiance, etc...
It also just happens that light colours like white and other pale colours are used to describe and represent good/holy.

Also, light can be used to mean happy, cheerful, untroubled, joyful...
Whilst dark can be used to mean sinister, threatening, mysterious, depresing, bleak, sad, unhappy, and finally: evil.

So why is it hard to see why black is used for the bad guy?
It doesn't have anything to do with racism, stupid moron. :p

[shadowprophet]

There is a difference between someone takeing a hit off a joint and somone with a heroin needle stuck in there arm. So should society differentiate between a
racist and a hate criminal? Just waxing philosophical Guys what do you think?

[Shiesty]

its worse than we thought people...



http://members.aol.com/grubby1/pictures/tyson5.gif

[publicprivates]

ff7 is the most rascist game ver. ****ing baret is the stereotype of every black person! Like the fact that hes bad at magic.

[10shu]

ff7 is the most rascist game ver. ****ing baret is the stereotype of every black person! Like the fact that hes bad at magic.


lol...did u mean everyblack personne is bad at magic??:rolleyes: lol

[shadowprophet]

ff7 is the most rascist game ver. ****ing baret is the stereotype of every black person! Like the fact that hes bad at magic. Ohhh.... Umm.. Yeah..
Yeah all my black friends they completely suck at magic, Not like white people at all, with our complete mastrry of the supernatural an all:eek::o LOL, Why just the other day I was at mcdonalds and they gave me and my friend cold fries, and I told him why not just use magic to warm them up, And he said he couldnt because he was black:confused: :confused::confused:So I just cast firega and saved the.... um.... day and stuff........ um.... yeah:confused:.. Cause as you know us white people um we umm can uhhh. cast magic I suppose lol HAHAHAHA

However, As funny as my reply may have been,
You make a very clear and very true point. Black people have been sterotyped in videogames almost a full 100% of there apearences:( Since day one.:(

[Privateer]

Oh my lord, this is almost as racist as when mario blows up bomb-ombs because they're black. We must put a stop to this.

[kfish2oo2]

HA! Man this blog guy has no life. I bet you all my PSP that before his "locoroco is racist" rant, his blog hit were really low down and now they're soaring! His same logic (ie that because it appears this "certain" way, it must be so, without regards to historical or contextual factors) is applicable to the KKK. Seriusly, visit their site and see for yourself. There is never any mention of an historical factors at all, no scientific facts. Basicly they have some very obscure bible phrases, which, to be honest, can be applied to anything. (I dont mean to start any debates on the bible, I'm just saying, how can anything represent its original meaning after translation through several languages, some of whihc are no longer spoken or fully understood?)

[Shiaoran]

Many people doesn't realize one important thing: there's not even a SINGLE person ih the WHOLE world that is BLACK! The closest to black are the africans who are really dark brown. But look at their hands, they're not COMPLETELY dark brown, so, they're not like mojas XD

[whitefeather]

sorry bout that but some of my family is from iraq and most of them are dead now and by the way those people who bombed the trade center werent from iraq so they dont deserve what they are getting thats all i wanted to say sorry if i offened you and i dont like being told to put a sock in it because my family got killed by some soldiers from no reason im not saying america is full of murderers i know people from the us and they are decent people

[shadowprophet]

what hell is with the" middel west" jokes you think that the stuff happening at iraq is funny your god damn army is murdering people sleeping in their beds and dont say im being racist towards americans ive seen what happens there your men are being ordered to kill inoccent people in there homes So im going to give you a warning, This isnt a flame thread or rant thread. So tone down the attitude Or face A bann..
If you cant get your opinion across without offending an entire country, Find some other forums to plauge with that negitivity, It wont be tolerated here...

*Edit, Also know that your lucky that your arnt banned already.. If some other mod had found you. That may have been it for your account.
From now on, Find more creative ways to express your views about other countries then calling us Murderers. From the people that died in the world trade centers, there families could very well say the same things about those countries. So Put a Sock in it!!

[acn010]

just putting the word racist, it starts a riot.
:(
i feel bad for people now

[Tron_Fan]

Well, I just put 2.71 on and downloaded the demo. It's pretty separated from reality, but I didn’t see what the "racist" part of the game might be.

As for the game itself.... it's AWESOME. The characters sing along with the music! It's like Katamari on steroids.

I hope this game doesn’t get negative press. It really is fun!!!

[yamaneko]

i'm hispanic and moja is my avatar no MSN :-)

[IndianCheese]

I can't see how this would be ruled out. They are black colored, have ebonic voices, and their hair looks like the hair of a casual afro-american DNB artist.