Is this racist?
Is it racist to wish that the season 2 protagonist will be another minority?
I mean, with Lee, the game broke so many unfortunate traditions in gaming. And with the Walking Dead in general. After that travesty that was T-Dog's character, I was glad to have Lee. But now that he's gone, I fear TellTale will go the typical cut and paste brown-haired white male route.
I know it shouldn't matter, but on a certain level, it does. Especially when it comes to video games and the representation of diversity. I mean, majority of video game protagonists look like this:
We have enough Nathan Drakes. Your thoughts?
I mean, with Lee, the game broke so many unfortunate traditions in gaming. And with the Walking Dead in general. After that travesty that was T-Dog's character, I was glad to have Lee. But now that he's gone, I fear TellTale will go the typical cut and paste brown-haired white male route.
I know it shouldn't matter, but on a certain level, it does. Especially when it comes to video games and the representation of diversity. I mean, majority of video game protagonists look like this:
We have enough Nathan Drakes. Your thoughts?
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Comments
I disagree on the narrowminded bit, friend. It's just that, as a minority, I've played as Nathan Drakes and Chris Redfields for YEARS with no problem. But the rare time I have a protagonist I can relate to on a ethnic basis, he dies at the end. Fucked up.
Errr... so in order to relate to a character he has to be the same race of you? I am white and could totally relate to Lee. Jees your fucked up tbh.
Dude, you're missing the point.
The principle behind concepts like 'affirmative action' is to be a correcting course against those tendencies. To help give an equal voice to people in situations where the decks are otherwise unfairly stacked against them. Race is an issue, and pretending that it doesn't exist or that one is 'colour blind' only helps to make one more blind to when it harms those with smaller or more uneven representation.
Especially when you yourself are privy to the privileges of being white, or being male, or being within a certain age range.
Well, that's how it goes. I'm from Germany... show me the last time a German dude was allowed to be the hero - apart from Xcom: Enemy Unknown.
I never had the ethnic problem, though, but not because I'm white anyways and the characters could fit. I had a black character on Oblivion and Mass Effect and loved them!
I'd say over 90% of the community could relate to Lee and believe me, he died for all of us.
I'm saying that most businesses tend to market things around what they believe is the largest demographic for their product.
That's why so many 'mainstream' films have white male leads.
That's why so many big-budget adaptations change the ethnicity of the lead characters.
It reinforces the idea of whiteness as 'default' and anything else as being a deviation from the norm.
And no, I don't believe their target audience are black Americans, and that's what makes their choice of lead virtuous.
I wouldn't know. I'm not white. What I do know is, my family and several of my friends are of African Americans were pleased with Lee and Clementine (who's partly black too). It made the fact that the writers of the TV show screwed over T-Dog that less painful. And it gave me hope of a multicultural gaming world.
I'm assuming you're white. So you wouldn't know. If you're an avid gamer, moviegoer, or even TV watcher, you see people who look like your and represent your culture all the time. So the race or gender of a character wouldn't be as big of a deal to you.
It's like a woman complaining of no females in professional sports. To a man, it's not a big deal because the industry is dominated by males, so they can't relate.
Now, put yourself in my shoes and see how little people who represent your cultural and ethic backgrounds are there. That would be a tiny bit depressing.
For every Lee, there's twenty Nathan Drakes. I think my argument is reasonable.
Personally, three of my favorite survival horror (and I consider this game survival horror) main characters are black - and I'm not.
A good character is a good character, doesn't matter what they look like.
Well, Germans are common in games... only they're the bad guys most of the time.
I feel you, and I'm not saying everyone couldn't relate. I'm really happy people loved Lee. I'm just saying the implications of a colored character is more far reaching and positive than you might think, mate.
It's a black thing, lol.
It's more complicated than you're making it, bruh. I'll take a good character of any race any day, but good characters representing different cultural aspects and races is good for everyone. The All-American, fair-skin, brown-haired, blue-eyed badass is awesome, but there's more colors in the rainbow (skin color) and different smells in the kitchen (cultures).
I like diversity rather than the same-ol' same-ol'.
When I play a game I can't decide on their ethinicity, I gladly go with the developer's choice.
I agree with this from a storyline standpoint, I think Clem needs a "mother" figure to balance out Lee's "father" figure.
Me too!
With a Buster Sword.
Oh wait, in The Walking Dead?
Brown haired white guys are very generic, that's why a lot of developers use them. The 'everyman' look rather than outlandish design (such as every Japanese protagonist ever).
The one and only time I thought about Lee's skin colour during the game was Kenny's comment about picking the lock. Other than that, it's mostly just people talking about it on forums.
Maybe it's because I'm white, I don't really care about Lee being black. I understand why people do though. Lee's just a fallen hero to me now *sob*
I'd still like to see some good female protagonists, though. And is there any game at all where we play as a mother or a mother figure?
That's genius, actually.
Don't forget that "white" and "black" isn't just skin color every time. What I think OP said is about culture too.
Shepard is white in all the promotional materials, even as a female. Niko does have a extremely different culture, but he's still white and therefore still appeals to the most common demographic.
Travesty??? I loved T-Dog. I don't know what you mean when you call his character a travesty. T-Dog didn't get to develop as much as some on the show, but I still thought he was a great character. As far as being racist goes, I'm wondering how you would see it if wrote a post hoping that the next protagonist was white, and saying we'd had enough of Lee's kind of character.
Not really. Americans don't seem to be good with British voices.
Oh come on, you can do it.
I love me some T-Dog, but that was my problem: No character development. Characters introduced in seasons 2 and 3 got more development than him, and he was on the show since season 1. When characters talked the camera went to him... looking at another character speak.
That's why I called it a travesty, lol.
He's covered wars, you know.
Oh really?
rofl.
Lol at you cherrypicking. Niko is still a white character, absorbed in American culture, so he appeals to the American white male demographic.
This. OP, what you call "cherrypicking" is actually using real facts and quotes instead of randomly spouting some 'pity me' arguments.
I'd hate to be forced to play as a dog, or a donkey, but why should I have a problem "being" an Asian (or whatever race) if it fits the story?
Take Prototype - they had a white lead in the first game and a black lead in the second. When asked "why did you choose a black male for a main character." they replied "We didn't, we chose James Heller." (i.e. one character they had crafted from a pool of potential lead characters - he was just the best one they had crafted)
I know, but other than emails, a few missions revolving around the his past, and the occasional Serbian phrase, Niko doesn't expel much of his culture, instead the player adopts the American culture in Liberty City. From the clothes, to the cars, women, TV, food, radio, nightlife, etc, etc. His Eastern European roots are tossed out the window for the most part. There's really no hard time transitioning, at least, none we see on camera.
So, basically, even if Niko was an average American character coming to Liberty City from San Andreas, the experience would be pretty much the same.