Racism seems to have been present in games much like any other kind of media. Whether its revolving the main character or someone you see in the streets for a mission benefiting chat, racism- at some level- will exist. This varies from real life races, and fictional be it in the past or future.
Discrimination has normally involved characters being placed in stereotypical roles. And the main subject tends to be of those from a rough background associated with crime, drugs and other dodgy areas being pinned on Black and Hispanic people, and middle eastern folks as terrorists. With this said, in most cases, white characters are almost always the hero, and if a minority is on the good side, they would normally only rank to supporting role and admire the hero.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, is a great game with a great flaw in it. A homeless informant named Letitia almost throws you back completely when she starts talking. Many have expressed their offence when they hear her accent, and it is indeed something that puts Deus Ex a few steps back.
In Red Dead Redemption, we have the character Irish, who is the stereotypical embodiment of what and Irish man is apparently like.
There’s also Scribblenaughts, a completely harmless game, that when one inputs something will see it come to life. When the word ‘Sambo’ is typed, a watermelon appears. This is apparently racist towards black people as its a racial slur aimed at Africans.
From a personal view, if I ever enjoy or become a fan of a character, it’s because I like the characters personality, who they are and how they do things. I’m able to identify with them, but physically I can’t. Being Pakistani, I can’t really say that there are many protagonists that are the same race as me (unless in COD you choose what country’s side you’re in.)
We have eastern characters, such as Altair from the Assassins Creed series who is noted to be Arabian, the Prince from Prince of Persia, which is obvious where about he’s from. The Assassins Creed series even takes us to Turkey and introduces the lovable Yusuf. Deus Ex has the pilot Farida Malik. But theses are literally the few that I can remember off the top of my head, and it’s sad that we don’t have many characters of a middle eastern race that can leave a bigger impression on us.
And I think that’s where the option of making a custom character is appreciated as there will be characters of different colors and races. But then comes the little hoohah of race within a fantasy game. Fantasy minorities have become an in-game tactic to bring in the same type of racism we see on the streets in real life. For example, in Dragon Age: Origins, elves are a victim to racial slurs, and though at first you might think “Aww, haha poor elves”, you’ll soon realize how life like this all actually is. We even have Dwarfs mistrusting Elves and its interesting how this kind of discrimination is almost needed in the game to make the world feel real to us. This also involves alien species having it in for each other as well, with the hate between Salarians and Krogans and the plan to destroy their kind and stop them from reproducing.
References:
Chad Hunter, Complex Gaming, The 15 Most Stereotypical Characters In Video Games: http://www.complex.com/video-games/2012/05/the-15-most-stereotypical-characters-in-video-games/
Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku, The Weirdly Racist NPC in Deus Ex: Human Revolution: http://kotaku.com/5836692/that-weirdly-racist-npc-in-deus-ex-human-revolution
Duke Thibodeaux, AlterGamer, Don’t Be An Elf: Racism In Games: http://www.altergamer.com/racism-in-video-games/
Yi Mou and Wei Peng, Gender and Racial Sterotypes in Popular Video Games: https://www.msu.edu/~pengwei/Mou%20Peng.pdf
Peter Mai, OCWeekly, 7 Racist Video Games You Had No Idea Were Racist: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2011/01/7_video_games_you_had_no_idea.php
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