Gears criticised for stereotyping Comments by Ellie Gibson

Tekken has black ninja and a black Thai boxer, neither of which say "dawg!". So there's two examples for you. Namco seem to be trying a bit harder with black characters.

eating kfc lol.

Leeeeerrroy!

""I am sick of playing the average white dude character. I’m just done with it. And I’m sick of playing a black stereotype," Gray stated."

Ah so he doesn't want to play a black or white stereotype. Newsflash: media is about ionisation which leads to stereotyping. If you don't do the cartoon thing, you create a realistic thing.

EDIT: Everything is a stereotype. Most people don't even realise how far this goes.

i dont notice the color of the games characters, and surely thats the point

i shouldn't be giving people any attention for the color of their skin, positive or negative

and white stereotypes are just as prevelant - the white mass murder, the italian mob boss, the irish boozer, the uk thug/upper class twit, the yank dummy, COD 4 for example was PACKED with stereotypes

why is it acceptable for there to be white stereotypes, but not black ones?

What would he rather black guys be portrayed as? Soft-spoken, girly, spikey haired boys from a jrpg? I'll keep my cole train and barret stereotypes tyvm! (and why the hell not?! Those guys were awesome).

Plus it's a game for Christ's sake. You see the same shit in all media these days.

You're not suggesting that Gears might just be another Frat-boy Space Marines running through gritty corridors shooting aliens game are you? How very dare you!

I think you'll find that Gears of War is an incredibly original game set in a wholly unique and not at all desperately derivative game world. It's full of interesting characters and has a deep, multi-faceted, and highly intellectual storyline.

I can't wait for what 2 Gears 2 Furious of War will bring! Exciting times!

what alot of people are not getting is the fact there is very few roles a black guy has in video games
i dont really care what colour the main character is as long as the game is good

Thank god this guy didn't play UT3.

But he does have a point. There are huge numbers of lazy racial stereotypes in games. Or just lazy stereotypes in general.

Ragging on him for working on TR is just stupid though. If that was lazy and stereotypical Lara would stay at home washing her husbands clothes all day and playing The Sims in her spare time.

Doesn't Samus have a gun built into her arm? Such a white woman stereotype.

"Thank god this guy didn't play UT3."

lmao! So true! :D

Also he failed to mention the only games that I in any way find questionable. Every time I finish a Tom Clancy game I feel the writers want me to believe that all Mexicans are president-napping terrorists who will shoot me on sight. That's as close to racism as I've felt a game has come. The rest stereotype because it's easy, and they do it with white people as well.

Actually, maybe it is more rife than I'd feared. Last night I was playing FIFA 08, and Thierry Henry, a black man, managed to outpace Gary Neville, a white man. This just reinforces the 'black men are faster' stereotype. And in Fight Night, Mohammed Ali is the best fighter, and in Tiger Woods, the eponymous character is the best golfer. Clearly EA are just repeating the 'black men are better athletes' stereotype and are all a bunch of racists.

I too was disappointed that he wasn't talking about the "Gays of War" stereotyping. That's a seriously camp game! Even the achievements are camp ("Dom-curious"? "I Can't Quit You Dom?").

It's an interesting interview. I don't agree with him 100%, but he raises some interesting points. Although I disagree that everyone assumes games to be made by "white cats and Japanese cats". I figure the percentage of ethnic minorities in games development is probably the same as in most other office work.

Also, on the subject of "colour-blind" black characters, the lead in Urban Chaos is a black woman, and I don't remember there being anything stereotypical about her (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

"F***ing Barret in Final Fantasy VII - they put a gun on the guy’s arm. It’s just like, 'Yeah, black guy with built-in gun.' Okay, that’s really, really weird. So it’s generally been s*** characterisations that are way racist or way just hokey racist."

Actually Dyne, the guy barret faces at the end of the old Corel section (Corel Prison - under the Gold Saucer) , is a white guy, with a gun on his arm.

Explain that one.

/geek mode off

Dolly. Pram. Thrown.

Same old shit - it's a fact of life. "Clowns and Criminals" - bear that phrase in mind because that's what the UK media industry does with black characters and the majority of black presenters on TV.

The others mustn't fit the desired image. But games and media in general portray stereotypes!

At the end of the day, the only thing that can be really said about this

LOOK AT ALL DAT JUICE

There were some african americans in CoD 4 too; they were all right werent they?

BTW: I am currently re-playing Oblivion with a black character.
Redguards have the best endurance and strenght starting stats.
So they are great melee fighters, and crap at magic - low int and wil.
Is that racist too?

@Fwing

"Ragging on him for working on TR is just stupid though. If that was lazy and stereotypical Lara would stay at home washing her husbands clothes all day and playing The Sims in her spare time."

No, that would be realistic, not stereotypical. Lara is most definitely the most stereotypical female games character of all time. Huge bewbs - Check! Nice arse - Check! Wears skimpy clothes - Check....That's about it...

Black guy called Coal.

Nope, no racism there... 0_o

Gears 2 COG squad to be led by Master Sgt. Honky Cracker, with squad members Cpl Nip "Slanty" Kawasaki, Lt. Jude "Moneybags" Goldberg, Pt. Cochise "Red" Hiawatha, and Ms. Les "Fat, Ugly, Butch Hairdo" Van Dyke.

Gears of War's characters are all (2D) stereotypes if you ask me, at no point while I played the game did they strike me as being even remotely believeable. They're just the usual bunch of dumb cliches that usually surface in American made shooters. Epic certainly aren't the only ones guilty of this.

Mind you, I did love the homoerotic undertones... now that was different... ;)

Ok ... eurogamer, this is getting tiresome! Stop posting these crap stories to get people to show up and post something ... it's getting old ... yeah we get it, some idiots think games are bad, games are racist, games are .... spare us!

I am tired of people getting tired.

I for one didn't realise cats were so heavily involved in game development. And people say they're just lazy scroungers!

This obsessive hand-wringing need to be politically correct about every little thing is possibly the most tedious facet of modern life.

And yet, I haven't met a single person who wasn't bigoted about something. It usually just surfaces somewhere else. Get over it.

I do love this argument;
"Look, see this game here, it's made of stereotypes, and I really hate that one of them is black!"
Cry me a river, do you hear "white"-Brits complaining that they are always cast as villains in American films?

He obviously needs to take a wider look at the industry too, for instance Crackdown had a whole line-up of different nationalities to play and Oblivion gives you the full spectrum of colours.

Also, as others have pointed out, could you be any more hypocritical given the big-breasted, small waisted, athletic heroine of your own games?

I agree with him for the most part. It did irk me when he started using the word "cats". Does he become a stereotype himself by using the word "cats"? I mean really.

I think we've all learned a very valuable lesson here today. I'm just not sure what it is.

Olemak: The black guy in CoD 4 starts spotaneously rapping at the end of the game, i think that's pretty stereotypical

The train is at home on the rails.

anomagnus wrote: "why is it acceptable for there to be white stereotypes, but not black ones? "

The POINT is that devs should have some balance in the characterizations. When there are only 2 or 3 black video game characters or avatars per year, it gets a little weary when they all come out of Sterotype Central Casting.

The video game industry wants to be seen as a maturing and artistic medium on par with books and film, but somehow still wants to cling to the art and sub-culture that existed when John Carmack was creating Doom.

There will alway be a place for the white, bald, space marine, trust me, but games will have to diversify in content and, frankly, in staffing, if they hope to continue to appeal to a wider, global audience.

Stereotypes are NOT the nature of this business. The problem is that we are far behind movies and television for portraying positive black, asian and even in some circumstances southern white americans in games. Mainly it's because we don't think the games will sell as well with minority lead characters (clearly a lot of game company managers have never seen a Will Smith or Samuel Jackson movie).

Here's the bottom line though. If you really can't see the casual racism in a lot of games then you are probably already a racist because only someone who doesn't have black, asian etc. etc. friends would find the portrayal of those races even slightly based on reality. Example: Ask yourself how many people who look or talk like Cole Train have you ever seen or known in your lifetime?

I'm now in my thirties and I don't know or ever rememeber meeting a single one!

Whenever I come across a character such as Coal Train I don't think see it as a black stereotype, I only see it as an American stereotype. And as someone has already said, judging by Live a sadly correct one. Besides it's not just laziness that means that most games characters are the same (ie. American) it's a concious decision to appeal to their most important market.

Fable has 2 black characters in it, and they were both heroes. I don't remember them being particularly stereotypical, annoying maybe?

Well, that settles it then. If a bunch of middle-class white guys don't notice any casual racism in games then there can't be any, can there?

Jesus fucking wept.

"Example: Ask yourself how many people who look or talk like Cole Train have you ever seen or known in your lifetime?"

One. And it isn't Cole in case you were wondering! But is it because my friend is black or because he is an American? And which would be the stereotype?

This is all getting very confusing :S

"way racist or way just hokey racist."

And there you go, stereotyping yourself in print. /win!

Wait, isn't black guys complaining about really tiny amount of racism stereotypical? Or maybe I'm missing the point...

Play Ikaruga, you play as an uber space ship and can be black or white at will. Racial Equality with no stereotypes and no human main character (unless you delve into the story a bit)

"you play as an uber space ship and can be black or white at will"

Is it Michael Jacksons ship by any chance?

"Is it Michael Jacksons ship by any chance?"

No, thats Space Channel 5

I'm not a fan of being called a white cat.

Wow...just wow!

Do you people know the difference between a sterotype and an offensive stereotype?

The guy quoted in the article sounds like he has zero sense of humour. The white character in GoW is as much a stereotypical jock.

I can't believe he complained about Barret's gun arm - the same game has a cat with a megaphone riding a stuffed animal. I mean FFS.

Oh and /agree with whoever said policical correctness is one of the worst things about modern Britain. I fucking hate Edge magazine's obsession with 'female' gamers and videogames catering to 'broader' audiences. Who gives a fuck - write shit for the people who already love the medium.

Excuse the French :p

*backs away s-l-o-w-l-y*

This obsessive hand-wringing need to be politically correct about every little thing is possibly the most tedious facet of modern life.
The thing I dislike most about modern life is that "politically correct" seems to have become a pejorative. How bloody tedious it is to try and show respect for other people, after all.

'Politcally correct' does not equal showing respect for others.

WUT THE FUCK? He's the one showing racism by actually caring about these minor things. If a black guy is in the game, it's racism, if it's not it's also racism. If he wears a gun, like ALL the other characters, it's racism. FFS.

'Cue the drum beat, here comes the black character.'

lol! He said it, I can't remember anything like that in a game!

But he does have some points except in basically all games and films there have to be stereotypes to make it look right.
If Cole Train was walking around talking posh everyone would be laughing!

this is a disgrace, all games have different races/creeds /colours etc. it does my head in when people come out saying stuff like this. I am mixed race and I know loads of 50 cent wannabes using all the slang etc attached with it. cause its cool.

comments like this are racial taunting. there expecting a reaction and always get it. I and any white /black/ red / purple person can speak whatever they like but dont tell me black people are overlooked in video games cause there not.

Why dont we talk about the MOBO's a black music award which gives one white musician award out (if thats not racist what is).

As a mixed race person if white people had a white music award the ethnic minorities would be up in arms. Its just the old race card but more ethnic people are using this now to win an argument/ get noticed. There is racism in the world no doubt about it but my black brothers can be as racist and as biggoted as billy bob down on his south kentucky farm.

grow up man you got the reaction but its pathetic. rant pover

Errr-body inda club gittin tipz. Or so J-Kwon says..