But, as noted in the recent IGN editorial, so are a whole bunch of other games and I still played AND I still enjoyed them (read: Cole from Gears 2).
For those new to the issue, here is what I wrote earlier about the game:
The point is that although games are controversial, artistic, and fun, there has to be a line drawn in the sand regarding morale fiber. The problem is that many consumers of these games lack the sensitivity to place the morale compass in the correct area because of the singular mindset they often think of their lives. While I may not feel like shooting africans in resident evil 5 is dragging me down as a person or supremely affecting the black community in general, I am sensitive to the images and how they eerily depict the past of the hateful thoughts commonly communicated towards Black people.
A similar sentiment was shared in the editorial over at IGN:
I don’t begrudge anyone who finds the imagery in RE5 offensive. But I don’t believe that vilifying Capcom for its artistic vision is appropriate. This controversy illustrates that race relations remain a major issue in America and Europe. Electing an African-American President doesn’t suddenly wipe away the past few centuries of prejudice, nor does it create a level playing field for blacks in this country. But attacking a videogame isn’t going to fix these things either. Perhaps it’s time to let go of what a game represents to us individually and move the dialogue to a more significant issue: How do we create a world where opportunity is not merited by the color of one’s skin?
The essence of my first article, however, was more on the lack of sensitivity of the fanboys staunchly trying to defend the game through their trollish comments on Black blogs, specifically Blacklooks. It’s one thing to engage in debate and have alternative opinion. It’s another to anonymously spit epithets and flawed logic.
While it does suck that the downside of technology (read: Xbox Live) allows these few to stain a great experience with What up my nigga in Gears 2 matchmaking, the spirit of trying to explain it away is eerily reminiscent of the sentiment in trying to explain the imagery in this game.
Is that too deep? Maybe.
Will I avoid RE5 because it shoots zombie Africans? Probably not.
martyy420
first off.. its in AFRICA.. second im sure you never had a problem killing white zombies let alone hear white people complaining how theyre all white.. so get your facts straight before you critisize a perfectly normal game.. again its in africa.. did you expect to see green zombies? and they arent even zombies theyre not even similar to zombies.. zombies are something that has died and come back to life (walking dead) not walking life
March 23, 2009 at 2:33 am
DaBlackX
Why would white people complain about being killed BY white people in video games? For every negative representation of white (and Asian) people in video games, there are easily 7 or 8 POSITIVE representations to counter act that. For blacks and other dark skinned ethnic groups it's the EXACT OPPOSITE!
The vast majority of the material people have written in regards to the Resident Evil 5 debacle have been repressive in nature:
“This is stupid.â€Â
“You’re seeing things that don’t exist.â€Â
“Talking about things like this only makes race issues more prevalent.â€Â
These types of responses are, frankly, immature and counterproductive. Where else in life do we routinely say, “if you ignore it, it’ll go awayâ€Â? Certainly I can say that, as a person of color, if it were so easy to simply ignore race, I would have done so a long time ago if I had thought that it would make the racial problems go away. But we cannot ignore it. “Ignoring race†is really something only white people get to do – an element of “white privilegeâ€Â.
April 2, 2009 at 9:13 pm