Cracked.com have blown my mind with a couple true-to-home truth bombs concerning prejudice in video games.
My world will never be the same.
Here's one article:
Here's the other:
This is a call to arms and I'm ready to mount up.
Prejudice has long been an annoying factor in video games, and no game company can seem to turn it around.
Except for the Fallout series, by Bethesda. Fucking awesome. There's women and men in charge, of all races. There's perks to make your character gay or straight, and you can choose either sex right at the outset.
I believe this series, at least as far as the latest two games in the series, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, are concerned, has transcended most of the prejudices mentioned unfavorably in these articles.
I had a problem with before I bought it. It's true! It doesn't mean, however, that I didn't buy right into the fad of foreigner murder and race-baiting, like an idiot, or a 14-year-old male.
Before purchasing, I asked a few friends who had played it already, "What about how you're a white guy slaughtering hordes of black and brown people?"
Their responses boil down to, "It's not that bad. Once you play it, it becomes less shocking."
This never sat well with me, but fuck I love zombie games. I'll play any Resident Evil game because I'm a fan of the series, I love the gameplay mechanics, (most of the) storyline, and the genre in general. Played it since whenever Resident Evil was released on the Playstation in the 1990s.
The latest incarnation, 5, is the most offensive. The storyline writing on 5 went way off in a direction it shouldn't have.
It's not easy to make a shoot-em-up game not be really offensive. But did the Resident Evil 5 writing team have to place the storyline in fucking Africa? Come on! At least make the main character African too!
But no, what did they fucking do? Put an attractive white guy, hair gelled like a douchbag, clean shaven and armed to the teeth, in the middle of a bunch of brainless, murderous black people, slaves to a white-man-made disease, and have him shoot his way out.
Nice. Sensitive. Good touch. That's gonna be healthy for people of any race and gender to experience. Great for foreign relations between countries--I'm serious, it starts small, with us regular jackoffs. We elect our leaders who operate between countries. Raise kids on video games like this, and they'll be desensitized by the time they get older, and their life choices may well reflect that.
My world will never be the same.
Here's one article:
5 Prejudices That Video Games Can't Seem to Get Over
Here's the other:
6 Things Red Dead Redemption Taught Me About (Hating) Women
This is a call to arms and I'm ready to mount up.
Prejudice has long been an annoying factor in video games, and no game company can seem to turn it around.
Except for the Fallout series, by Bethesda. Fucking awesome. There's women and men in charge, of all races. There's perks to make your character gay or straight, and you can choose either sex right at the outset.
I believe this series, at least as far as the latest two games in the series, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, are concerned, has transcended most of the prejudices mentioned unfavorably in these articles.
I'm still a piece of shit and bought RE5
I played the shit out of it, too. When I think about it, I feel like Resident Evil 5 has left a sticky film of wrong all over me.I had a problem with before I bought it. It's true! It doesn't mean, however, that I didn't buy right into the fad of foreigner murder and race-baiting, like an idiot, or a 14-year-old male.
Before purchasing, I asked a few friends who had played it already, "What about how you're a white guy slaughtering hordes of black and brown people?"
Their responses boil down to, "It's not that bad. Once you play it, it becomes less shocking."
This never sat well with me, but fuck I love zombie games. I'll play any Resident Evil game because I'm a fan of the series, I love the gameplay mechanics, (most of the) storyline, and the genre in general. Played it since whenever Resident Evil was released on the Playstation in the 1990s.
The latest incarnation, 5, is the most offensive. The storyline writing on 5 went way off in a direction it shouldn't have.
It's not easy to make a shoot-em-up game not be really offensive. But did the Resident Evil 5 writing team have to place the storyline in fucking Africa? Come on! At least make the main character African too!
But no, what did they fucking do? Put an attractive white guy, hair gelled like a douchbag, clean shaven and armed to the teeth, in the middle of a bunch of brainless, murderous black people, slaves to a white-man-made disease, and have him shoot his way out.
Nice. Sensitive. Good touch. That's gonna be healthy for people of any race and gender to experience. Great for foreign relations between countries--I'm serious, it starts small, with us regular jackoffs. We elect our leaders who operate between countries. Raise kids on video games like this, and they'll be desensitized by the time they get older, and their life choices may well reflect that.
Not so bad once you play it?
Sure, but murdering real people gets easier the more you do it too, doesn't it? Doesn't make it acceptable. I should have stayed away from that game.
But it's a sweet gameplay experience, I'll tell you that.
I'm all about pushing the envelope concerning what's acceptable and what isn't, what is and what should not be.
It's a fine line, but I believe there is one. Writers can choose what to write, and designers can choose the characters they design. It's all protected speech. But they ought to recognize the line and not cross it. Pushing close is enough--all you need is intelligent, well-thought-out writing.
I suppose it's up to the video game buyer to shape how the makers make the games.
Game makers make what sells. So game buyers need to start leaving the line-crossing games on the shelf and going for more sophisticated titles. It's up to us, the regular jackoffs, to turn the tables on them.
And oh yeah, Red Dead Redemption -- come on! Rockstar, seriously? I played the shit out of that game too, shit I'm all wrongly sticky...
But it's a sweet gameplay experience, I'll tell you that.
I'm all about pushing the envelope concerning what's acceptable and what isn't, what is and what should not be.
It's a fine line, but I believe there is one. Writers can choose what to write, and designers can choose the characters they design. It's all protected speech. But they ought to recognize the line and not cross it. Pushing close is enough--all you need is intelligent, well-thought-out writing.
I suppose it's up to the video game buyer to shape how the makers make the games.
Game makers make what sells. So game buyers need to start leaving the line-crossing games on the shelf and going for more sophisticated titles. It's up to us, the regular jackoffs, to turn the tables on them.
And oh yeah, Red Dead Redemption -- come on! Rockstar, seriously? I played the shit out of that game too, shit I'm all wrongly sticky...
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