Ethnicity Representation in Video games.

History

Video games have been around since the 1950s but became popular in the 1970s. With majority of the protagonists being white male.In a 2009 survey of 150 games across nine platforms show that:fewer than 3 percent of video game characters were recognizablyHispanicand none were playable.

Native Americansandbiracialcharacters were non-existent.

African Americansenjoyed a rate of 10.74 percent, with a big caveat; they were mostly athletes and gangsters.

black andAsiancharacters each have 3 percent representation in the pool of main protagonists;Latinoa mere 1 percent.

It isn't until later on in videos games that they become very diverse. With people of colournot following their stereotypes.For example in the WalkingDead series has had multipleprotagonists that have been black or Hispanic.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_video_games#Racial_representations_in_video_games

How Native American people are portrayed in video games.

In the 80s there were multiple gamesfor the Commodore 64 and NES featuring Cowboys as the protagonistsand Native American characters as the antagonists or targets. Some of these games are:Law of the West(1985)

Outlaws(1985)

Kane(1985)

Quick Draw McGraw(1990)

Hammer Boy(1991)

Cowboy Kid(1991)

Indian Attack(1993)

Native Americans in video games are often portrayed as either savages or as warriors and shamans.Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat is a tribal warrior wearing feathers and face paint. His weapons is a bow and tomahawk, and can transform into a wolf to defeat his adversaries.

InBanjo Tooiethere is a magical shaman Humba Wumba, who lives in a wigwam and becomes oddly sexualized in the sequel.

How black people are portrayed in video games.

Black people are often portrayed as loud, muscular and criminals.Ethnic Cleansing

GTA

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Fortune

God Hand

God Eater

The Walking DeadIn the Walking Dead game, it starts off with Lee sitting in the back of a police car, handcuffed.

This immediately shows that this character is a criminal.

Throughout the game, the player controls Lee's actions, possibly making him an unlikeable character to the rest.

Watch Dogs 2The Protagonist is black but is seen as a criminal because the hacks into top security.

Nadine Ross from Uncharted 4She is muscular and is one of the villains in the game. While it is reasonable that she would need to be muscular, she is the only black major character.

How Asian people are portrayed in video games.

The lack of Asian figures in popular culture today may be connected to a long history of anti-Asian racism in America.Majority of Asian characters are non-playable and if they are playable they often use martial arts, kung fu and etc.Street Fighter

Kung Lao and Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat are Kung Fu Masters

Metal Gear Solid

Tiffany Kim, Vivienne Lu, Not Ping and Sandra from Sleeping Dogs are sexualised and weak.

Lady Shiva is a Kung Fu master from Batman: Arkham Origins

Say'ri is a samurai in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Mei Ling from theMetal Gear Solidseries is a young and prettythat resembles the male fantasy of what they want Asian girls to look like.

Kenshifrom Mortal Kombatis a swordsman with the fight styles ofTai Chi, Judo andNinjutsu.

Say'ri from Fire Emblem: Awakening is a female samurai who is introduced later on in the game, wielding two katanas.

More examples of Asian characters who are stereotypes in video games:https://datadesign.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/yichenshou_asian-stereotypes-in-games-compressed.pdf

How White people are portrayed in video games.

White males are mainly seen as the strong protagonists in videogames.While white females tend to be more of the side-kick/ support/ love interest.Dante from Devil May Cry

Nathan Drake The Uncharted series

God Hand: Kicking and Screaming

Devil May Cry:Dante from Devil May Cry is the protagonistwho has super strength, agility, resistance to injury and etc.

The Uncharted Series:Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series has incredible luck, skill and strength.

He has survived multiple fights and falls, including him falling inside a church with a large bell crashing down as well.

God Hand:Gene and Olivia from God Hand are both white characters but are represented differently.

Gene is the protagonist who wielder of the God Hand, a weapon of God-like power.(Before he is in control of the God Hand he is a drifter until he gambles with a bad gang and in exchange for money they cut his arm off.)

Olivia is a descendant of the family who had been the guardians of the God Hands for generations.

How Hispanic people are portrayed in video games.

Hispanic people are often shown in videogames asEziofromAssassin Creed.

Rico from Just Cause.

Vega from Street fighter

Isabela Keyes from Dead Rising

Kingfrom Tekken series

Dominic santiagofrom Gears of War

Assassin Creed:Ezio Auditore da Firenze is afictional characterin the video game seriesAssassin's Creed. His career as anAssassinduring theItalian Renaissanceserves as central plot ofAssassin's Creed II,II: Discovery,Brotherhood, andRevelations, as well as the animated short filmEmbers.

Just Cause:Rico is the protagonist from Mulatto-Hispanic heritage with a strong Spanish accentwho assaults a military base.

Street Fighter:Vega, also known asClaw, is a fictional character from theStreet Fighterfighting game series byCapcom. Vega is a mask-wearing, claw-wielding fighter from Spain who uses a personal fighting style combining Japaneseninjutsu, Frenchsavate, American Zipota and Spanishbullfighting, earning him the nickname of "Spanish Ninja".

Micro Analysis of Ethnic Cleansing.

Using theGenesis3Dengine, the National Alliance created the game to be provocative and promote theirwhite supremacistmessages.

About the game:Ethnic Cleansing is a first person shooter where the player is apart of a "Race War".

The player controls aneo-Nazior aKlansmanand is tasked with killing stereotypicalAfrican-American,Latino, andJewishenemies.

The game ends with formerIsraeliPrime MinisterAriel Sharon.

Music:At the start of the game, there is a soundtrack that is played multiple times. It has western style upbeat sound but the lyrics to the songincludes racial slurs.(This game is poorly made to their isn't a lot of good lighting or draw back.However the locations in these games are dark, dirty and is full of graffiti.)Black characters - When playing the game, you walk around the ghetto, shooting the enemies. The black people wear nothing more than a shirt and jeans. Often seen in the streets and basket ball court.Jewish characters They are not introduced until later on in the game. They wear long black jackets.Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbBHNeK3Wushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Cleansing_(video_game)

Micro Analysis of God Hand (2006).

About the game:God Hand is an action 'beat 'em up' video game which take the appearance of awestern styled town.

It has a Western and Japanese-themed comedy with over-the-top characters and storyline events.

The gameplay combines traditional elements of the beat 'em up genre with new features. These include being able to map and string together a lot of fighting techniques to the gamepad's face buttons in order to create unique combo attacks.

Music:The music in this game are not tided in with any of the characters you meet. The music is influenced by the techno, rave, rock and funk genre.Some of the characters who follow stereotypes in God Hand:Japanese samurai master stereotype.

Elvis -The stereotypically Mexican, cigar smoking, loudmouth, gluttonous demon from God Hand, he is one of the many villains you face throughout the game.

Afro Fist - is a black male who is loud with a big afro. He follows the 80s disco stylewith his bright yellow costume, which stands out from the setting around him which uses a duller scheme of colours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l6fiTtXpvY

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10/02/17

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10/02/17