Choze Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 Eurogamers article reeks of attention seeking rather than interesting debate. Not only that it is incredibly shallow and does not do much service to the racism debate at all. The problem is that alot of games do worse and in an underhanded or even perhaps unknowing way. TV and movies display the same old stereotypes. Games rinse and repeat. Its typical in media products. Whats common is its actually too common. This where I think people like N'Gai miss key issues. Paying attention to killing dehumanized black zombies is too simple... Personally i am more annoyed by how similar black characters are in games. RE5 at least sets itself apart here. Certainly does not seem like RE5 was intentional but is coming from a japanese perspective. Infact I like how it is set in Africa and features more than just white people. Those are stronger parts of the game than the gameplay for me. Same goes for Far Cry 2. I would like to see more black and other types of lead characters too. Since when have people from Africa been stereotyped as savage monsters / subhuman animals ??? Like for hundreds of years. Infact the white/western mentality where 'we are more civilised' complex still exists and goes strong. Like it or not we live in an imperfect world. edit: total mess above lol
CoolFunkMan Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 Yay at the bottom screenshot at scan no 3 Nice scans! But I really don't get why that pic is so "yay", am I missing something?
Dante Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 The blood on the wall has the marks of a RE2 emery.
CoolFunkMan Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 Oh, I see. I kind of thought that at first, but figured it was too obscure to be that. Awesome that it is though! Can't wait to get this even more now!
Razz Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 I never actually said that I find it racist anyway. I was merely agreeing with the fact that this can so easily be found to be racist, and it can be.
CoolFunkMan Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 I think this whole RE5 and racism argument is a load of bullshit. It's not like the enemies you kill in game are human any more, they've been infected. So the entire concept of racism goes right out of the window, right there. Aot start in Africa with witchdoctors etc before it got westernised by Hollywood. The aids virus, did that not apparently originate from Africa, & are thousands not still dying every year from aids there. The human race, didn't we all originate from Africa. Therefore isn't Resi 5 not set in the right place, gone back to it's roots like all of us. This. I agree with it. The origins of the zombie legend is Africa, Capcom said that RE5 will go back to it's roots, hence the African setting. You wouldn't go to Africa and not find it populated entirely/mainly with white people, that would just seem out of place. It's just very unfortunate circumstances that can lead people to believe that it's racist...
Diageo Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 If it had white people then people would complain that it's racist to leave black people out of a game based in africa.
... Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 I think this whole RE5 and racism argument is a load of bullshit. Nuff said.
Daft Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 If you think there is nothing to it then you are either ignorant or very naive.
... Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 Nope, it just means I'm not racist and bigotted. My mind is clear enough to see that a black man can just as easily be infected with the T-virus (or whatever virus is it this time) as a white man and that there isn't any difference. If you see a difference, then it's in your own eyes. All Resident Evil games deal with human beings being infected with that virus. RE5 is no different.
Daft Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 Nope, it just means I'm not racist and bigotted. My mind is clear enough to see that a black man can just as easily be infected with the T-virus (or whatever virus is it this time) as a white man and that there shouldn't be any difference. If you see the difference, then it's in your own eyes. Christ, I never said the game was racist. Personally I couldn't give a rats arse who I was killing but to completely ignore a holistic context, that is ignorant.
Aimless Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 People aren't saying RE5 is racist, they're saying it isn't very culturally sensitive. A lot of Japanese games aren't, knowingly or not; LocoRoco is another recent example. I think the real thing people are worried about is someone like the Daily Mail getting a hold of such a 'story' and attempting to drag videogaming as a whole through the mud once again. Anyway, the game's a day one purchase for me. I think I'm going to go for the PS3 version, although the 360 demo is a bit smoother, both in terms of image and framerate.
Daft Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 People aren't saying RE5 is racist, they're saying it isn't very culturally sensitive. You're right. Racist wasn't the right word.
... Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 Christ, I never said the game was racist. Personally I couldn't give a rats arse who I was killing but to completely ignore a holistic context, that is ignorant. And all I'm saying is it shouldn't and doesn't matter. Let me put it this way: If one of the previous games had a black character that you controlled, would there be a problem? I'm not talking about you personally, you already said to you it's indifferent. But do you think there would be this fuss if you controlled a black cop against the zombies in RE1? There wouldn't, would there? So, what does that tell you? It tells me that it's ok to have black people as heroes, but not as villains. And that, my friend, is what's racist. Or "culturally insensitive", another "great" modern euphemism, like "administrative assistant" (aka "secretary"). All I can do is hope the game doesn't get banned due to these stupid bigotted opinions. Maybe I should buy it 1st day just in case... was planning on getting it a bit cheaper down the line.
Daft Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 No but that example doesn't come with any kind of historical baggage where as the situation in Resi 5 does. Cross cultural pragmatic failure is actually really interesting so I can't say I'm not looking forward to reactions to this American style Japanese game set in Africa. I would be shocked and appealed of the game got banned tbh. On a flip side I hate hearing Obama being constantly referred to as the first black president. He's human, surely that's enough. I dunno...
McPhee Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 If it had white people then people would complain that it's racist to leave black people out of a game based in africa. That's why you do the completely un-racist thing of completely forgetting Africa exists. Or, you could always just make all the white-folk in Africa the Zomies and have the natives hunt them. See, two completely un-racist solutions right there People aren't saying RE5 is racist, they're saying it isn't very culturally sensitive. A lot of Japanese games aren't, knowingly or not; LocoRoco is another recent example. I think the real thing people are worried about is someone like the Daily Mail getting a hold of such a 'story' and attempting to drag videogaming as a whole through the mud once again. I get the point, it's just a VERY tedious link. It's like saying Braveheart is offensive to Scots (which it kinda is, but only due to how shite it was).
S.C.G Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 I don't care if the game is racist or not (which it isn't though obviously) this world is too damn politically correct these days anyway, moral obligation is gonna be the last thing on my mind when I'm actually playing the game.
Aimless Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 And that, my friend, is what's racist. Or "culturally insensitive", another "great" modern euphemism, like "administrative assistant" (aka "secretary"). Racism is negative discrimination towards someone of a different race, being culturally sensitive is discrimination towards someone of a different culture in order not to offend them; i.e. not relying on lazy stereotypes when presenting them. They're two sides of the same coin. Personally all I care about is whether the game is good or not, but you can guarantee that if non-gamers get tipped off to RE5's easily misrepresented depiction of Africans there will be some kind of union or group that will make a big thing of it. People love to jump the gun and moan about situations they don't understand; the whole 'Brand and Ross' thing went on for weeks, and it was obvious that even Andrew Sachs himself didn't actually care about their out-of-hand joke. The world is too politically incorrect, but unfortunately there's not much you can do about it other than try to slip under the radar. Anyway, has anyone else warmed to the demo after playing it a bit more?
Gio001 Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 I defenitely warmed to the demo after a couple of play throughs after initially being a little underwhelmed & can't wait to play the full game. I'm just wondering wether to get it delivered or brave the protesters outside my local game stores on launch day.
Daft Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 I miss the Wii-mote. Although I'm sure I could get used to the controls. I think I'll pick this up when my friend does for co-op funness.
Diageo Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 Sorry I kinda failed Deathjam, and I was there to prove myself Anyone manage to kill the axe guy yet, I can kill the chainsaw guy easy but the axe guy is much harder.
dwarf Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 For the axe guy you should do this: Get Sheva to concentrate on picking off the africans, then use the shotgun of Chris and get the axe guy in the head. He should bend down after every 2 or 3 shots, which is when Chris and Sheva should run up to him and both unleash their melees. Do this 4/5/6 times and he should go down.
Diageo Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 So you did kill him then? What do you get? money?
dwarf Posted February 8, 2009 Posted February 8, 2009 I killed him twice but can't remember picking up anything off him. Although if you kill the guy that shouts in the speaker from the cutscene then you get grenades.
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