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wraggster
July 25th, 2006, 19:01
Article from Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=66296)

A graduate from the University of British Columbia has published his honours thesis on racism in games, claiming that negative representations of ethnic minorities are far too widespread.

23 year-old Robert Parungao spent around 100 hours playing Kung Fu, Warcraft 3, Shadow Warrior and Grand Theft Auto 3, analysing the storylines and characters in the games for around eight months as part of his Sociology degree.

"Parents, government and media watchdog groups have protested the widespread violence and sexism in videogames, but the blatant racism has gone largely unnoticed," Parungao said.

"Film and television come under greater critical scrutiny so civil rights and minority groups can voice their concerns and effect some change. But videogames have generally been seen as kids’ toys. There aren't the same mechanisms or critical forums to encourage game designers to evolve."

Parungao criticised GTA for featuring "non-white characters who are mainly triad members, Yakuza gangsters, latino gangs or black hoods.

"These stock characters are seen in a lot of games and function as narrative obstacles to be overcome, mastered or ultimately blown to smithereens by the white hero."

Parungao went on to claim that game developers "like to use a mix and match grab bag of Asian stereotypes that are often nonsensical", such as the villain in Shadow Warrior, who "goes by a Chinese name, Lo Wang.

"But when he fires his rocket launcher at his enemies, he screams: 'Just like Hiroshima.'"

Parungao concluded: "I hope to continue looking into ways to improve videogames because they’re fun and I’d like to see them turn into positive media instead of negative ones."

Do you agree or disagree, are games racist ?

corenskae
July 25th, 2006, 19:14
wtf the hero in gta3 isnt even caucasian
great job pal, you played games for 100 hours and think youve done the world a favor...politicians are noisy enough about this dont make it worse ffs

Briggzy11
July 25th, 2006, 19:15
How can Robert Parungao claim GTA3 is racist???

The white guy (the main character) is the worst gang member, killer, murderer etc in the entire game and its MEANT to be violent meaning all the characters are gang members, killers etc. The Yakuza's are suppose to be bad, if the story was about the Yakuzas giving flowers to everybody and singing hymns, GTA3 wouldnt be the same. The black hoods again are there to be killers and murderers, if you look at the pedestrians in the game there are black, white all sorts of pedestrians living normal lives and not killing at all.

If anybodys racist I think its Robert Parungao claiming racism in games. Just shut up and let games have what they like in them. Also I think Robert needs to research games like GTA3 a little more and get a glimpse of the surroundings in the game (again the peds)

How can you justify racism in games though???

Is POKEMON racist then? It must be because Pikachu is yellow and Squirtle is BLUE :O

zrossaye
July 25th, 2006, 19:18
wtf?

wat kind a idiot is dat robert guy

splodger15
July 25th, 2006, 19:23
the shithead needs to get a life

Briggzy11
July 25th, 2006, 19:24
Well to Robert EVERYTHING computer related is racist, If that means pokemon im gonna be so sad cuz I love pokemon...

I often wondered y all the pokemon were coloured different...

publicprivates
July 25th, 2006, 19:29
well, look at brock. he's the perfect example of video game stereotype. He represents a chinese person in japanese culture. Squinty eyes , darker skin ,unusually perverted.

JoshM248
July 25th, 2006, 19:30
Well, He can take that Sociology degree and shove it right where it should be.

inlovewithi
July 25th, 2006, 19:31
Wow, the guy is a nit wit, I cannot even put his dull logic into words. I bet he thinks he's a genius. He's a racist for thinking that everything is a big conspiracy against non whites. "Don't use the 'white man's' calculator, you got your own god given calculator, you have your fingers and toes."

Galiano
July 25th, 2006, 19:41
well personally i always had the view that in gta your character was a PERSON who shot or ran over other PEOPLE. can't say i ever really noticed what colour or creed they were.

When people like robert try to highlight racism wherever it lies they only help to point out the differences between different races.

Not that im saying highlighting racism is a bad thing (Quite the opposite) but to look for it in games when there are so many other causes is pathetic.
I hope he failed

Briggzy11
July 25th, 2006, 19:42
At the end of the day, Robert has made a number of people angry especially me because I feel as if hes calling me RACIST for playing games and I hate to be called something I know I am not. If I were Robert I would apologise to every gamer that graced this planet and change his name to Dexter.

bullhead
July 25th, 2006, 19:46
I agree, videogames are racist. Fact.

SSaxdude
July 25th, 2006, 20:00
GTA features non-minority people like Italians, but I guess he failed to mention that. The only game I do think is racist would have to be Postal and Postal 2.

It doesn't even seem like this matters because if games were truly racist, they would lose most their audience. Statistics show that a high number of gamers are minorities. I believe that is one of the great aspects of games: they can be played by everyone.

Accordion
July 25th, 2006, 20:08
maybe there are only problems because people look for them...

ACID
July 25th, 2006, 20:12
Well to Robert EVERYTHING computer related is racist, If that means pokemon im gonna be so sad cuz I love pokemon...

I often wondered y all the pokemon were coloured different...
I totally agree with your comment and i also love Pokémon. Next thing he will say picachu is the white man and mewtoo is the black man. He is a ffs idiot that has no real concept in video games. His research is a half ass research he probably did with his boyfriend. Really 100 hours for a theses. He should get a big F it took me a year and hundreds of hours for mine> That bone head idiot doesn't really know what is involved in games.:mad:

BlackJack23
July 25th, 2006, 20:13
I agree at times there can be subtle hints of racism in games such as 'the mixed bag of Asian stereotypes' . These, however are so subtle that they go unnoticed by 99% of people. These 'hints' have no negative impact and would only be considered rascist by the most nit-picking of individuals such as our friend Robert here.

I'm not sure where this new fad of 'racism in games' has come from. People everywhere are claiming this. First it was the Loco Roco thing then it was something else.

True. There arent many minority group protagonists in games but that is nothing to do with prejudice. All it is is the Eurocentric culture games have come from. No-one can be blamed for this. I mean look at Japanese games. They mostly have Asian characters! Why are Western games targeted for the same thing? I think Robert needs to realise Tony Cipriani, an Italian working for the Mafia cannot be black, peurtorican or Asian. This is simply realism. Do you see many African-Americans riding with Mafia Dons? I think not.

Sure, Carl Johnson can be black and that brings me to a whole other point. Where did Robert mention CJ in any of this? GTA: San Andreas doesnt portray African-Americans as gangsters but rather as folks who just recieved the wrong end of the stick and are just trying to make it through life. CJ is a character with good intentions and kindness, not some cold-blooded Mafia hitman who would kill his own mother if the money was good enough.

Robert needs to realise that racism(his definition) is inevitable in videogames and will continue as long as games are made in Europe and America.

DimensionT
July 25th, 2006, 20:13
WOW, he played Kung Fu looking for racism? The Kung Fu for the NES? That's seriously the funniest thing I've heard in a while.

I can understand why he would consider the quote from Shadow Warrior to be racist and inappropriate, but Kung Fu? He needs a Kung Fu kick to the head "WA-TOO!!" lol (I think that's how you spell the kicking sound...)

I don't really consider GTA to be racist either. If he's talking about the first two, they're no more racist the movie "Scarface" or the show "The Sopranos". If he's talking about San Andreas, he's wrong there too. Take a bike ride through the suburbs of Orange County in the late 80's/early 90's (the city it's modeled after) and you'll see that the game comes pretty close. Of course there wasn't people shooting each other every 5 min in O.C, but the gangs and dealers were all there (albeit lower in abundance)... And (please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not racist) most of them were Mexicans and Blacks.

I think alot of this stems from high paid executives/ concerned parents that aren't willing to face the nitty gritty facts of real life.

Hope I didn't piss anyone off, but if I did I apologise in advance.

bosanova_x
July 25th, 2006, 20:13
some video games are racist but that dosn't make the individual who plays the the game a racist.

In the past I have also come across some nes mario hacks that actualy depict full blown racism.when I saw these i was well and truly shocked, that a game I love can be used to give the gamer a message of pure racisim.

anybody else seen them?

there bad news.

ACID
July 25th, 2006, 20:17
some video games are racist but that dosn't make the individual who plays the the game a racist.

In the past I have also come across some nes mario hacks that actualy depict full blown racism.when I saw these i was well and truly shocked, that a game I love can be used to give the gamer a message of pure racisim.

anybody else seen them?

there bad news.
Yes you mean like the all night mario or wizzard mario etc. etc.

gimpyjr
July 25th, 2006, 20:23
Ok the guy said that all the gangs in GTA are minorities. Of course. White people aren't gonna put any gangs related to us in there. U.S. Congress and the NAACP would go ape shit if they saw the KKK in a GTA game! Why in the hell is this guy upset It seems like evrything we do is racist or descriminatory. I am a disabled person im descriminated against all the time and do I shit my pants every time I don't get somthing my way? no! And why is it always that whites are racist. There are a shitload of racists out there that aren't white. I get called cracker and crippled all the GD time and I don't whine about it. :mad:

peace out

ACID
July 25th, 2006, 20:26
Hopefully he doesent realise the gender of our beloved Metroit character.

JesusXP
July 25th, 2006, 20:27
Games like Movies aren't subject to claims of racism, due to the fact a substantial amount of what creates the atmosphere and mood of a game/movie, is the means in which its presented ( dialogue, characteristics, and yes stereotypes). I think its unfair to categorize Games with TV because TV isn't necessarily controllable, however you can choose which movie you pay to see or game you pay to play. You have already made a conscience decision to partake in the experience, and thus should already be aware of these possibilities. I dunno, through with the schollarly response. This guy is a twat. Lets not over glamorise his pathetic essay anymore than its already been and make get this guy more attention than he needs. Its pretty rediculous that his essay would make any ripple/waves, considering it has no valid arguement. Kinda just makes me sick to see a person like this, who will no doubt influence someone else as uneducated, uncultured, and unappreciative on so many subjects/levels.

Sumo X
July 25th, 2006, 20:29
What an idiot. You can find any result you want when you selectively choose games.

Some people complain that games don't feature enough minorities especially the character which a player controls, so they complain about that. But if you star a minority in a violent game, they complain about the game portraying that race in a negative light....which is it?!

GTA3 is pretty far from racist. With the exception of the Russian Mafia, every single major criminal organization is represented. Those groups come from a vast list of countries, which would require us to use the proper race for each group. It's just a matter of fact.

DimensionT
July 25th, 2006, 20:32
Games like Movies aren't subject to claims of racism, due to the fact a substantial amount of what creates the atmosphere and mood of a game/movie, is the means in which its presented ( dialogue, characteristics, and yes stereotypes).

Good answer! :p

RuthlessOne
July 25th, 2006, 20:35
Wow 100 hours dont you feel special... T_T guess ill sit at home and play non-racist games like pong O_o... sure...

slayer2psp
July 25th, 2006, 20:37
yep games are racist and if you play games you will shoot people in the face.and movies arent racist give me a break. if a game offends you dont play it its called freedom of speech i dont get mad at cracker whity honkey red neck trail trash what ever bad dancer no soul having white guy i think thats funny you dont see white people in games calling people bad names its mostley the same race talking smack about each other yes gta is no more racist then boys in the hood scarface or others. and look at the cast thats been in the gta games its a story it has nothing to do with race cant people just play games and have fun and stop looking for hiding meanings if anything this guy is the racist one for seening stuff the way he does

ACID
July 25th, 2006, 20:38
I guess i will start playing tetris again. Oh wait a russian team made this game is this racist too. LOL that ideot will probably say so.

Voltron
July 25th, 2006, 20:49
Oh boy................. Whatever, I guess I'm racist!

Video_freak
July 25th, 2006, 20:51
Oh boy................. Whatever, I guess I'm racist!

ya i know, i dont give a damn if people think i'm racist because i play video games :cool:

TheEmulatorGuy
July 25th, 2006, 21:00
Wow, he doesn't just take things out of context, he flat-out lies. Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior is the hero, not the villain.

ACID
July 25th, 2006, 21:06
Wow, he doesn't just take things out of context, he flat-out lies. Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior is the hero, not the villain.
Thats because he doesnt know eanything about games.

Cloud_35
July 25th, 2006, 21:20
Nah...

Maybe he just needs attention.

If he says that GTA3 is racist, maybe he hasn't played San Andreas.

But he's right in some parts. Latinoamericans are always drug dealers, renegade terrorists (Ghost Recon??), men with mariachi suits or whores in bikini (Total Overdose).

How sad...

jman420
July 25th, 2006, 21:38
I would have to agree.. Resident Evil 4 was based on shooting plauged mexicans lol

Postal2 was based on shooting rednecks..

and many other games have made a specific race of people a target...

but what people have to realize is, shooting a white person is never considered racist.. I have never understood why only the minorities are allowed to complain about racisim... you have to realize that the majority of all shooter games have been based on killing whoever...

so the handful of racist games on killing minorities doesent compare to the ammount of racist games on killing white people lol

gamesquest1
July 25th, 2006, 22:44
Hah i think he just tried to justify being a thick shit by sayin playin games was his works lol as for saying gta is rasist, err has anybody noticed that the main 'HERO' is actually a mureder you cant be rasist against everybody because then it isnt rasism because its just people being nasty who is rockstar being rasist for because as i see it the is a bad guy of virtually every race in the game ....so i dont get it

PS. as for saying it shows minoritys as drug dealers and that. lets face it they somebody to bee the baddy so they genrally just use somebody that is noticable distinguishable from the main charecter so as to save the confusion, think it will always be that way the only reason rasism still exists is because the 'minority's like to kick up a fuss about anything but seem to think its fine to walk around shoutin racist shit them selves so its there own fault that people are still being exposed to such words.......

LampDev
July 25th, 2006, 22:57
I guess I'm the only one who was surprised he didn't mention Barret from FFVII, eh? :)

Seriously, you have to guess this guy went into this with preconceptions of racism on his mind. If you look for racism, ANYTHING to support your argument, you'll find it in the smallest examples. He faced the same situation that a Daily Show correspondent faces when they are sent out to cover a ridiculous story somewhere. They have the story they want, and they HAVE to make it work... somehow.

He had a premise to a thesis, and he did his best to support it even though he's a no-nothing idiot. WTF, he only logged 100 hours? I played more than that the first 2 weeks when Halo had just came out.

****ing sociologists need to do more than play 5 or 6 games before making a judgement on the entire industry. I would have been impressed if he would have found racism in Super Mario Bros. (italians are good plumbers and jumpers?), Zelda, or Sonic.

pokothehobo
July 26th, 2006, 00:34
If you need to spend that much time, and study every piece of these games, then they are not racisit. if they where racist it would be obvious. People just need to stop gettting hung up on the little details.

JKKDARK
July 26th, 2006, 00:46
I can't understand why the people have racism in their minds...

sithlord1823
July 26th, 2006, 00:49
hi folks... im a regular visitor here (every day) and i cant believe what im hearing from this guy. im guessing he's taken a controversial route to his degree for a reason... and he'll prob pass as a result.

i got beat up a couple of months ago by 3 black guys for the way i dress (im a 25 yr old indie rocker) to the point that i needed a brain scan. Do i hold a grudge against black people....NO... some of my best friends are black, family friends and so on.

fact of the matter is... you will get white people who think they are gangsters, black people, chinese people, pakistani people...and so on... but you will also get all varieties of races that are bank clerks, police officers, security guards...genuine law abiding people.

If anybodys racist... it's these folk who try to throw a cat amongst the pidgeons in these cases. what can they expect from this? a whirlwind of racist furore...thats what.

San Andreas features a black dude as the main character..... im not upset by this...it's a fecking great game.... best thing we can do is ignore this person.

peace

lee

F9zDark
July 26th, 2006, 01:04
This person may be intelligent, but he certainly doesn't have common sense.

For starters, the games he played, are NOT indicative of the entire video game industry. Warcraft 3? That doesn't even take place on Earth as we know it; so how can that be pointed out as being racist?

GTA3? Its a gang game. How is it being racist? There are many non-gang NPCs who are from very diverse ethnic groups. But what do ya know, a game centered on gangs having gang-members as important characters to the story? I wouldn't have ever thought that was possible!

I guess it would also be wrong for Shadow Warrior (which, I might add, was made when game developers had balls), which takes place in Asia, to be chock full of Asian imagery, ideals and even stereotypes (which are used in this sense as purely slapstick; I suppose this 23 year old loser lacks a sense of humor)

All in all, we should send letters to that university, to fail him, for his thesis purely based on opinion and not on fact (when last I checked, thesises needed proof and factual evidence to support them).

gamehunter101
July 26th, 2006, 01:07
this guy is crazy he is like a next jack thomson

emuking
July 26th, 2006, 01:43
isnt gta about fictional crime they are supposed to be bad people in it because thats the point, lol people think anythings racist, this is a little violent but not racist, hell kids play gta and you dont see them turning into racists or criminals, adults just cant admit its their fault when something goes wrong :(

emuking
July 26th, 2006, 01:46
hi folks... im a regular visitor here (every day) and i cant believe what im hearing from this guy. im guessing he's taken a controversial route to his degree for a reason... and he'll prob pass as a result.

i got beat up a couple of months ago by 3 black guys for the way i dress (im a 25 yr old indie rocker) to the point that i needed a brain scan. Do i hold a grudge against black people....NO... some of my best friends are black, family friends and so on.

fact of the matter is... you will get white people who think they are gangsters, black people, chinese people, pakistani people...and so on... but you will also get all varieties of races that are bank clerks, police officers, security guards...genuine law abiding people.

If anybodys racist... it's these folk who try to throw a cat amongst the pidgeons in these cases. what can they expect from this? a whirlwind of racist furore...thats what.

San Andreas features a black dude as the main character..... im not upset by this...it's a fecking great game.... best thing we can do is ignore this person.

peace

lee

good for you, your first post was intelligent and made sense, it was better than my post :D

idapimp
July 26th, 2006, 02:02
i hate when colleges give idiots degrees

picketf
July 26th, 2006, 02:05
There was a FPS Soldier game like 1-2 yrs ago for the PC (and afaik for the PS2) I think it was the sequel to a not very popular title (hence why i can't recall the name of the game)

I remeber it being mentioned on the news that Tamils and some other militant country, possibly S. Korea successfully banned the creators/publishers from depicting war crimes related to past activies inside the game... (two scenarios were removed)

As games become more realistic I agree that there should be some control. But as far as I can tell the realistic kind of games are targeted to an older audience and I would rather much fight for a efficient age rating watchdog than to censor possible insinuations of racism in a game rated R-18

After all an adult should be rational enough to separate reality from a game, right?

I even think it can be regarded as a kind of fetish in gaming industry - much like the japanese tentacle monster hentai rape games for PSX back in the days...

I've known many people that like to live out their perverted fantasies trough gaming, something they obviously would'nt do in real life so perhaps that is
where games charged with heavy stereotypes are going to lead us.

Real racism in games?? Dactari Boxing for the Atari 2600 white against black! Real simple

MicroNut
July 26th, 2006, 02:42
Maybe some of it is over the line

But I think the comedian Carlos Mencia really put "racist" humor into perspective.

When taken out of context anything can be seen as malicious.

http://www.carlosmencia.com/content/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Mencia

JD/
July 26th, 2006, 04:01
I think this arguement has no basis. Yea its true that some games might have stereotypical views of people implemented into them but I think people of this day and age are smart enough to see that just because a game gives stereotypical views of people it does not mean that they are true.

So that means when people play games theyre not being racist or anything of the sort. when people bring up discussions like these it just makes people angry. Gaming is to good to be ruined by idiots who look for trouble in everything.

Spanishpeacock
July 26th, 2006, 04:37
So, is the University of British Columbia just giving those degrees out? or do you have to pay them for it.
Who goes and plays over 100 hours of video games and then says they're racist and against minorities? Even though all the non-minorities are hitmen, purse snatchers, or just dudes running from the police for no reason...
and how the heck are Orcs racist characters? Oh no, they're green, and they're slaughtered like pigs, does that make them a minority :confused:

shadowhawk22
July 26th, 2006, 05:39
Give me a f*ckin break. Waste of time in my book. Just because black people are seen as gang members in a tough neighborhood (like the ones in GTA) doesn't mean the game is racist!!!!! It means thats the way it is in the game. Give me a break! Go find something else to complain about!

ACID
July 26th, 2006, 05:41
Give me a f*ckin break. Waste of time in my book. Just because black people are seen as gang members in a tough neighborhood (like the ones in GTA) doesn't mean the game is racist!!!!! It means thats the way it is in the game. Give me a break! Go find something else to complain about!
Actually black people are seen as regular people minding there own bussines in this game not as gang members. But i sttill agree this guy is a F***

Briggzy11
July 26th, 2006, 09:52
Everybody, at the end of the day, Robert has called almost every gamer of GTA, Miami Vice, Oblivion, Virtua Tennis, Pokemon, Worms and Pong a racist because of the game that we play...

...Robert sucks, I hope he/she gets a BIG "F" for the assignment and gets laughed at by all his/her friends in front of the class. Damm I have been playing games for almost 16 years (I am 18 now by the way), I could do this assignment and call myself intelligent :D, I wont even need to play the game, the back of the box says and shows it all :) (Maybe thats all Robert did really?)

idontnowhoiam
July 26th, 2006, 11:12
I totally agree with your comment and i also love Pokémon. Next thing he will say picachu is the white man and mewtoo is the black man. He is a ffs idiot that has no real concept in video games. His research is a half ass research he probably did with his boyfriend. Really 100 hours for a theses. He should get a big F it took me a year and hundreds of hours for mine> That bone head idiot doesn't really know what is involved in games.:mad:
OMFGHOMOPHOBE!!1!

It's impossible to get through life without encountering forms of prejudice or bigotry against all kind of minorities that no one really notices until you point them out. The only media that won't be accused of being racist, sexist, or any other -ists is media with no personality, like pong or tetris, and I cant even think of any examples for movies.

snkrock25
July 26th, 2006, 11:20
i think he might really be on to something, more often than not when you see a person of color in a videogame, they're corrupt in some way or form.

i havent seen videogames blatantly re-enforce racism (short of a handheld ad), but they do love to re-enforce stereotypes. And idunno how many of you guys notice, but minorities do not have the most desired stereotypes.

Mystic8277
July 26th, 2006, 11:37
How can Robert Parungao claim GTA3 is racist???


Because this guy is a tool.

R4mbo
July 26th, 2006, 12:26
ROFL.
Sry but... FU Parungao.

Why is he looking for trouble?
GAMES = *F*U*N*

I hate those people making critics on games which they take to serious.

Maybe he just want's attention, rofl

R4mbo
July 26th, 2006, 12:29
isnt gta about fictional crime they are supposed to be bad people in it because thats the point, lol people think anythings racist, this is a little violent but not racist, hell kids play gta and you dont see them turning into racists or criminals, adults just cant admit its their fault when something goes wrong :(


Right

sogeki
July 26th, 2006, 15:35
i have never been prompted to actually write on this forum until now, but not about this mans thesis, but about the fact that you are all missing one very important point that a few of you have already proven.
first somewhere on page 3 or 4 one of you made a comment about how the thesis writer must have doen it with his boyfriend. you are proving his point right there
second someone else said a few pages back that in resident evil 4 all you do is shoot mexicans. low and behold your actually in spain so i guess you claim anyone who speaks spanish is a mexican?
your both good examples of what the thesis writer is writing about ( if you actually take the time to read it)
the fact that it is subtle and that racism need only be an influence! you may think that a chinese character screaming about hiroshima is stupid and funny, and not what the thesis writer is claiming but in the end you most likely will tell your friends about it and they theres, only in the end to have been influenced enough by it to either desensitize yourself or with enough other examples from videogames to build an even bigger picture of racism based from said games.
now picture this, most people who bother to post on forums or even use the internet for anything constructive are generally more intelligent than your average person who does not, why? because it takes an amount of intelligence to learn it and do so. what you get then is the same logic applied to the average or normal person playing games who does not understand the difference between subltey, or jokes. what they then do is what i said above but they take it farther, they spout it off like a new chapelle show one liner at people thinking its funnny because they got it from a game.
in the end the writer is right, games can be racist, but its the "unwashed masses" as chomsky put it that screws it up because they are not intelligent enough to go beyond the literallity of it, they just go out and use it on others.

crait
July 26th, 2006, 16:37
agreed with sogeki
i remember the whole loco roco insident
i mean. if i were to ask you, if a white man and a black man armwrestled, who would win?
you wouldnt be able to answer it without some one shouting your a racist
i mean, cmon people, seriously
if there is a gang that only allows asain people to join, and thats a part of a game, its racist, he claims
well, no its not! because there are really gangs out there who only allow people of a certain origin, and that game was just aiming for realism

and about the white hero part, well, in a lot of games there are white heros, and thats because there are more white people in america then any other color. and you know what? if thats the color of most people who play the games. then thats the type of people the game industry is trying to sell to the most! and if you were to look at a black peice of paper, with a big white dot of ink in the middle, your
probably going to notice the circle, its easier for your eye to see the circle, and not the paper
just like in video games, where there are white heros, but there are also black, yellow, brown, green, red, all colors. and those are more easily unoticed. not because there are a lot less, which isnt the case, but because when you look at it in a certain way, you dont see them
and the reason why racism isnt seen in video games, is because there is none! its twits like this man, who say there is one, then gets other people to play along with him


ps: in gta, it doesnt matter what color you are on the ouside, just whats on the inside
which usually is smeared all over the front of the car

NiGame
July 26th, 2006, 17:35
heh I think he did the thesis on rasism in computer games just so he could play on computer games for the duration of his course. Its an easy subject to cover because every sort of media and entertainment is rasist in some way or other. So I wouldn't pay much mind to this. The general public of all nations are rasist in some way, so really there is no escaping it.

Bog
July 26th, 2006, 18:44
Wow 100 hours dont you feel special... T_T guess ill sit at home and play non-racist games like pong O_o... sure...

Pong is totally racist. I mean its two WHITE paddles with a WHITE ball ONTOP of a BLACK background. It should be two BLACK paddles and ball ontop of a WHITE background, but wait, thats racist too thats saying that the WHITE man is much LARGER than the BLACK man and is everywhere he wants to be!

See how easy it is to convey Politically Correct racism to ANYTHING. I am so sick of PCism it pisses me off.

MaxSMoke
July 27th, 2006, 04:45
I'm really annoyed when I hear people give Shadow Warriors flack. Shadow Warriors is not about asians, it's a parody of Kung-Fu movies and Japanese Anime. I don't think it's right to accuse something of being racist just because it makes fun of films and media that happen to come from one particular area of the world. Has political correctness gotten SO FAR out of control that you can't make parodies anymore? Or is Hong Kong and Japanese films SO SPEICAL that we arn't allowed to make fun of them. Does that mean we can only make fun movies that star white people?

Also, that game just flat out kicked ass. Best Duke Nukem clone ever!

MadMonkee
July 27th, 2006, 06:36
Ahhh another fat white c*cks*cker in a suit smoking a cigar bitching about racism. Racism is in the people, it's a state of mind to group differences and fear them subconsciously hence creating hatred. It's not given to children by GTA (children shouldn't even be able to buy the game since it's Rated M+) buy racism is mostly put into people through people they trust/feel secure with the most... mostly being their parents. It's not something you can get from a game. I really find racism a funny subject to make fun of to break the ice around multi cultural gatherings, but personally I like difference, I don't try to change people to my liking. I accept people for how they are... and howEVER they are... even if they have an eye growing from their nose, I don't care... that's you, and you are free to be who you want to be, to have freedom, you must give it first.

But no, I played GTA, and as a child and even to this day Shadow Warrior has been one of my favorite games and I never for a second thought about its racism. There we go again with the politicians and the pussyification of our generation. Soon the only game we will be allowed to play will be barney the purple dinosaur.

Vancougar
July 27th, 2006, 08:04
Damn thats weak.
Seriously, you can make much more of a case of negative black or latin stereotypes than with asian ones. But anyway, how about the positive asian sterotypes in games? Characters like Chun-Li or Liu Bei, the boy and girl in Ico, or the dude from Shenmue. Subtract the whole fighting people bit and you got a classy bunch there. But hey, does fighting people mean a game plays into a sterotype? If it does, then I'd be damned if all other races didn't qualify in this category too.
And from all the overseas stuff i've seen, trust me they peddle their own self-mocking junk out there in Japan. So you can say 3D Realms made a racial disasterpiece with Shadow Warrior; but please don't discount all the japanese games that feature japanese characters playing into adverse steroetypes.
So you can write a paper about racism in martial arts films and just replace where it says "film" or "movie" with "video game" (it's just a reiteration of the same concept); but don't do a half assed job and not focus on the greater scale of racism that is much more relevant in todays society.
Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna play Marc Ecko's Getting Up. man, is those white po-po so uncool or what!

stotheamuel
July 27th, 2006, 08:51
wtf the hero in gta3 isnt even caucasian




yes he is...

dergreg
July 27th, 2006, 14:04
He was going into this looking for racism. He was biased going in, and I'm certain he was never denying that. He's making the points to support his theory, not the counterpoints to undermine the work he's putting forth.

I certainly do NOT agree with the way he went about searching for racism in games. For instance, Kung Fu Master for NES was originally named Spartan X. Developed by Irem, a Japanese company, and based on a Jackie Chan movie called Wheels on Meals or Spartan X depending upon how you find it. Where is the racism in that? GTA, in ANY iteration, has CHARACTERS that are racist. Just as American History X has CHARACTERS that are racist, as an extreme example. Would it be looked at the same way if the main character were a different race? I haven't read his paper, but it doesn't appear that he's cited GTA:SA, and it wasn't reported as a played game for the report. Warcraft 3? I mean, come on. Where was he trying to go with that? Sure, there was "racism" in that the human race was battling the orcs, and whomever else they battled. But it's a WAR simulation. When two groups are fighting, there's going to be a defined line in who is fighting whom.

I will NOT say there is no racism involved in video games or development, as Lo Wang: Shadow Warrior is a prime example. While it was certainly tongue-in-cheek, it was still a stereotype filled attempt at keeping the Duke Nukem 3D style game alive. The developers intentions were almost certainly to shock people into playing the game. Much like the Mortal Kombat games initially shocked people with the addition of blood and homicide, which helped introduce a ratings system to video games and has also been a mainstay in mature rated games to date. Perhaps they were simply trying to relive the feel of 70's and 80's comedies which contained similar styles of humor.

A friend and I had a conversation the other day about something very similar to this, it wasn't a matter of racism in games so much as why there weren't very many ethnic or minority protagonists in games. However, there aren't very many foils who are minorities, either. So it's never been an "us" versus "them" sort of thing. I mean, I can understand making the main character white, there's a reason ethnic groups are called minorities. It's because there are less people of that particular race than there are white-europeans. So giving us a generic main character with whom people can easily identify makes sense.

I can honestly say the races in any given video game have never made a difference to me. I'm there to enjoy my experience, not analyze it. When I play games I become the main character, I don't watch him. I don't kill people based on the color of their skin, I don't fight people because I don't like their culture. I want to sit down and take myself away from the ignorance and boredom of the real world. I want an escape.

Hunting down racism where it doesn't truly exist serves no purpose other than to segregate people further. You never know when you're going to have an impact on a life. What kind of impact you have is up to you.

I'm done here. It's time to go to the gym.

Hawkeyefile
July 31st, 2006, 17:24
Parungao criticised GTA for featuring "non-white characters who are mainly triad members, Yakuza gangsters, latino gangs or black hoods.
yeah and?????? whats your point.

Parungao went on to claim that game developers "like to use a mix and match grab bag of Asian stereotypes that are often nonsensical", such as the villain in Shadow Warrior, who "goes by a Chinese name, Lo Wang.
(not villain dumb @ss he's the hero).
it's a flipping game! it's not suppose to be real! its suppose to be funny. and if you following low wang as a role model, get some serious help.

Parungao concluded: "I hope to continue looking into ways to improve videogames because they’re fun and I’d like to see them turn into positive media instead of negative ones."
they are already fun. violence makes it fun. bad puns make it fun. if you dont like that go play, Barbie Horse Adventures.

and another thing he forget the great duke nukem!
you the know the blonde hair, sunglasses wearing womanizer!

Mushslap
August 10th, 2006, 23:57
How can Robert Parungao claim GTA3 is racist???

The white guy (the main character) is the worst gang member, killer, murderer etc in the entire game and its MEANT to be violent meaning all the characters are gang members, killers etc. The Yakuza's are suppose to be bad, if the story was about the Yakuzas giving flowers to everybody and singing hymns, GTA3 wouldnt be the same. The black hoods again are there to be killers and murderers, if you look at the pedestrians in the game there are black, white all sorts of pedestrians living normal lives and not killing at all.

If anybodys racist I think its Robert Parungao claiming racism in games. Just shut up and let games have what they like in them. Also I think Robert needs to research games like GTA3 a little more and get a glimpse of the surroundings in the game (again the peds)

How can you justify racism in games though???

Is POKEMON racist then? It must be because Pikachu is yellow and Squirtle is BLUE :O
I Agree!