Just to clarify on a sub point someone brought up on page 1 and 2, since even some of the smarter people that cared to post obviously neglected to take art history in college.

The large eyed animation style that the japanese use today is actualy based on older AMERICAN influinces brought in from the WWII era. During this time we began introducing them to the idea of motion picture cartoons (think of what examples they had to go by... micky mouse... bambi i believe, etc). Of course they evolved that into what we have now. The japanese did not use big eyes to represent any particular culture, it was just their basis.

The japanese culture borrows heavily from the advances of other cultures, this has alot to do with the post WWII culture shock, as well as the forced technological advanced and such this ushered in. I dont intend this as a racest remark or anything, but most of their culture and advances post WWII was indeed copied from the west.

The main character in the game Shadowman was both awesome and black. Anyway, I can honestly say I have never really cared about the race or gender of the main protagonist in *any* game that I have played. They just have to be cool.

Also, major game companies are notorious for not taking risks. That is why we see the same forumlaic games with the same dull themes coming out over and over again. This is particularly evident in RPGs IMO. I think as independant developers we should be pushing on these boundries instead of, say, creating another space sim (why are there so many of those!?).

Why focus on race period? It isn't a matter of race. Its a matter of the person. Asking why main characters are usually not black is like asking why main characters usually have shoe sizes smaller than 12. People should get over whose what race. We're all people, and thats what matters. People play games to get into the shoes of somebody else, race being a minimal factor.

Its also a matter of what fits the story too. Game developers aren't likely to put random black, indian, and hispanic people in a game about ancient rome in order to be 'politically correct'. But on the other hand, if its an RPG based on a story with roots in africa, then im sure there would be tons of black people.

Another factor might be the developers and story writers themselves. I know from my experience that when I write stories I tend to associate myself with my characters. I also don't really care what 'race' the person is, so I tend to go by my personal default, which is my race (in my case it's white). Basically I suppose it might boil down to personal association with the characters. And thus, since a majority of game developers and story writers are probably white (or japanese in the case of japan), they will subliminally (or intentionally) make their characters their own race.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers!

-Dyamios

Quote:

Original post by Dyamios Another factor might be the developers and story writers themselves. I know from my experience that when I write stories I tend to associate myself with my characters. I also don't really care what 'race' the person is, so I tend to go by my personal default, which is my race (in my case it's white). Basically I suppose it might boil down to personal association with the characters. And thus, since a majority of game developers and story writers are probably white (or japanese in the case of japan), they will subliminally (or intentionally) make their characters their own race.

yup, I think that too.
Also it's likely to be because of the general target of costumers (in the case of comercial games), and also it has a lot to do with the game ambientation.

Also, a brief comment:
Lately I've been seeing a lot of racist stuff around (I don't mean in this forum), I mean, even when we think that racism (as any other type of discrimination or violence) it's stupid, there's a lot of people that still believe that "what's different it's bad, therefore we shall destruy it", and I just can get it..

anyway, I was going to add something more, but the TV is on and my brain has just melted..

anbsdasbdbsdabsbdbasbdbasbdbbsbsbsbsdbadsb... (<-- melted brain)

Q: Why do black people get a disproportionate representation in video games?
A: I have no idea, but I find it strange that extra-terrestrials are the main character so frequently, yet make up such a small portion of our real-life population.

Q: Why aren't there any crippled people as the main character in RPGs?
A: Because of magical healing spells. In other words, a Wizard did it.