Game-industry critics object to any overt or implied elements of sex or racism that crop up in the course of play. Often, the gaming community's knee-jerk defense against these critics is to contend that they don't know what they're talking about. In many cases, this is true. But in their haste to polish their pet medium's reputation, gamers ignore the other side of the coin — namely that, in some instances, the bluenoses have a point.
The truth is that some games are irresponsible in regard to the fantasies they effectively promote. But instead of arguing for the validity of games on their merits, gamers may blindly lash out at their critics. Passionate advocacy means engaging our antagonists, not attacking them. It means not taking the bait. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done.
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Newsweek’s technical writer and editor, N’Gai Croal — an African-American — recently explained the RE5 controversy this way to
MTV’s Multiplayer blog: “It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Oh, they shot Spanish zombies in Resident Evil 4, and now black zombies and that’s why people are getting upset.’ The imagery is not the same. It doesn’t carry the same history; it doesn’t carry the same weight.”
In other words, by failing to acknowledge the troublesome overtones of the trailer, gamers were in effect shutting their eyes to historical follies by colonial powers in such places as Africa and the Caribbean. And whether or not gamers recognized the potential offensiveness of the trailer’s imagery, it was offensive to some. In the end, the larger issue wasn’t so much whether the trailer actually was racist — it was that gamers didn’t seem interested in finding out.
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No, Thompson isn’t right when he claims that playing Grand Theft Auto IV is going to teach kids to go outside and shoot cops. Capcom isn’t trying to cash in on Western racism to sell a video game about zombies. The government shouldn’t impose limits on what software parents can buy for their kids. But just because they’re wrong doesn’t mean that anything we do in response is right.
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i, like my gaming cohorts out there, do NOT let shite like this affect my judgement on games
i will still buy RE5, regardless of this racial content
its not the critics, not the gamers, but both parties fault
1) Entire logical disconnects (such as saying Mass Effect has full-blown sex in it)
2) The fact that 99% of the games they criticize are rated M and are not intended for children. If an adult wants to have fun gunning down people in RE5 or stealing cars in GTA IV, they have every right to since 99.9% of the audience playing it can tell the difference between games and real life.
Saying that gamers cannot see the other side of the issue is just ridiculous. There is no other side. Just because the zombies are black in RE5 doesn't mean that Capcom has something against black people. It's an attempt by sensationalist news reporters to grab headlines using a popular form of entertainment media, and what better way to do that then say that a video game is racist. Look at GTA: SA for instance. No one complained when the game was out that it was a simulation for killing white people since the main character was black since there is no history of that. There is no event in history when whites were mass murdered by blacks. Yet turn the color around and suddenly it's racist? Yet another logical disconnect, this time in the name of "seeing both sides".
The article pretty much sums up examples of the recent stupidity that some gamers have shown when a critic critisizes a game that they like. Sure, some critics (like Jack Thompson) are just idiots, but some of them aren't too and they still get abused.
I explained in the article's description an instance where gamers lashed out at someone (Croal) who was talking about the racism in RE5. They didn't bother reading what he actually said and ended up with comments like this ...
... when his article had nothing to do with the fact that zombies were black. He didn't care that the zombies were black. He was just worried that people who hadn't played the RE series would get the wrong impression over what the trailer was about. To anyone that hasn't played the games - It does look like an anti-black game. That's all that Croal was pointing out, yet his blog was flooded with a bunch of comments from people who just wanted to insult another article that they believed was "attacking" their game.
Your comment just proves this article right.
He claimed they looked violent and animalistic even before they were infected. Which has no basis in truth. No one really knows what's going on in the trailers outside of some mysterious infection.
I understand he wasn't blatantly calling RE5 racist. However, he really shouldn't write an arcticle on the subject without at least some facts, or it might come off as "hate" towards the gaming industry.
The only things guaranteed in life are death and taxes.......and disagreements.
I once again have to agree with Sereph's and Seproth's post.
On a separate note- Are gamers still lashing out at Thompson? Personally I stopped being offended and angry about what he says. I just laugh at his increasingly desperate attempts to prove video games are a "plight" on society.