Racism in Videogames?

In a previous blog, I examined the possible effects of the changing dynamics of childhood play tending towards a more virtual gameplay. In addition, in class we discussed whether it was valid to consider videogames as a form of “texts”. In a different class, one student raised the notion that videogames were beneficial to individuals, even so far as to consider them at the same level, if not better, than literature. Now that may be going too far. While there are studies which show that videogames can improve hand-eye coordination and, in some cases, even improve concentration and other cognitive functions, they do have their downfalls;  for example, decreasing the amount concentration in other areas or even becoming an addiction.

Now with the subject of videogames on my mind, I discovered a video which examined an aspect of videogames we had not discussed in detail in either of my classes: race. To be more specific, whether or not videogames and their designers were racist. According to this video, they are, but not for the reasons one may expect.

Games such as, Street Fighter, Pokémon, and Resident Evil definitively show such racism; though this does not go for all videogames to be fair. According to a recent study, for games on the market about eighty-five percent of their characters are white, leaving fifteen percent of characters encompassing the majority of the world’s population: Asian, Hispanic and Latino, Black, Native American, Indian, and mixed race people. In addition, in most top games, the main characters are also white, especially white males. Now why is that?

Is marketing to blame, does being white appeal to more people? Is consumer demand? Does the market call for more white characters? What else could it be?

One reason is animation difficulties. Ethic hair, specifically curly hair, takes much longer to animate because it must be both stiff and flexible. In Pixar’s Brave, the main character’s red curly hair took thousands of hours and several hundred individual strands of hair to create. While Pixar has access to several hundreds of computers to create each frame, game designers have to allow for such rendering with a consumer’s single computer.

Another complication exists with game visualization. With colored characters, it would be more difficult to see them in game. From the Renaissance, a painting technique called “chiaroscuro” was adapted into modern animation which utilizes bold contrasts to highlight the subject. With darker skin tones, in videogames, which often utilize darker spaces, it becomes hard of animators to draw them so they are visible.

Could this racism also be due to consumer demand? The gaming industry, like all other industries, must comply with the needs and wants of the consumers, and so should market to them. This, however, does not seem to comply with reality. One study reveals that African Americans spend more time playing videogames than white people and Hispanics were more likely to buy a videogame console than non-Hispanics. Even when the previous technological complications are overcome, non-white characters are either severely stereotypical, minor characters, or unplayable. And still the lack of representation of colored and non-white characters persists.

            Why does this matter? Representation in media, such as videogames, shows that the racial group holds a standing and weight in society; which the narrator defines as “you can’t be what you don’t see”.

            Each week, over three billion hours are spent playing videogames, which shows that videogames do play a large part of society and life. While some strides are made in a more racially diverse and meaningful videogame universe, the narrator smartly adds that “these characters are an exception, not the rule” and this is something that needs to change. Perhaps in the future the technological complications will more efficiently overcome, but whether this will lead to a more racially diverse game universe is up in the air.