Playable Minorities in Videogames are Token Characters

Recently, I have been thinking about a fallacy in videogames. If you go on the website of some very well-intentioned and otherwise very intelligent people, you may notice a trend: these very well-intentioned people believe that by putting minorities as playable characters, that will... actually, I'm not sure what it will accomplish, according to them. It'll just be good.

In principle, I completely agree with them. However, some people (*cough* developers *cough*) believe that having a minority as a playable character automatically makes the game Politically Correct. However, I have noticed that it is rare to see a progressive (note: progressive does not equal politically correct) playable character that is also a minority and it is depressingly common to see a minority player character in a game that is quite clearly using that character as a meat shield to defend against protests of racism. To illustrate my point, I will make a list of games with playable characters who happen to be black. I would have chosen Jewish characters (as I'm Jewish,) but I can't think of a single Jewish character in a game.

Anyway, here are the games and their characters. See if you can guess the order they're in.

1. Roland from Borderlands- In the first Borderlands game, the Soldier class happens to be black. However, personality-wise, the Soldier is the exact same as all the other characters in Borderlands. That makes him the ultimate Politically Correct character, because as a person he is completely interchangeable with a white male, a Hispanic male and a white woman. This is reinforced because none of the NPCs treat any of the player characters differently in conversation. He is not a progressive character because you have gained no sense of empathy for a black male who is regularly roughed up by cops simply for being black, or a black male who is forced to choose between "acting black" or "acting white. I do admit that in the second game, Roland actually got a character and you finally learned his name. However, he still could have just as easily been white, Hispanic or Asian, or male or female. Does that make Roland a poor character? No. Does that make the portrayal of him racist? Not even in the slightest. Is there something more the writers could have done to flesh him out? Yes.
2. 50 Cent from 50 Cent:: Blood on the Sand- If you've ever wanted to be 50 Cent, apparently this is the game for you. In the game, you play as 50 as he and his friends depopulate most of a third-wold country just to get a diamond. The only reason I don't out-and-out call it racist is because I assume 50 had a hand in this game. 50 Cent, if you ever read this, man, please: think about what you said. This game was about an urban black male who murders and steals out of greed. Don't you think that that's kinda setting your people back a bit? If you had nothing to do with the plot, then I apologize, but still, the messages this game sends need a bit more thought.
3. Sheva from Resident Evil 5- Hey, everybody! Remember your annoying partner from RE5? Yeah, she made the list!
   
   Let's not get into the whole "how black is she?" argument some people have. Let's not talk about her (lack of) character. Let's not talk about her (lack of) relations and empathy to her infected countrymen and women. Instead, let's talk about how other black people are portrayed. For instance, there's a level in a swamp where all the houses are made out twigs and mud and all the people are black males in animal-skin loincloths and the occasional tall one who wears a tribal mask. For those of you who are still wondering about why this is more racist than RE4 (and I admit I was once among your number,) let's think about this. In RE4 the Spanish peasants who attacked you wore kind of RenFaire costumes. The men always wore pans and shirts, and the women wore dresses. And you were never spurred to action by having a scripted event imply that a white woman was being gang-raped by black men. Yeah, play those first few levels, and see if you can spot it. So, after all that sexism and racism, I think you should have some kind of reward. How about one of Sheva's alternate costumes?
   
   Actually, considering everything I listed above, that costume is downright horrifying. Stay classy, Capcom.
4. Kimberley Evans from Call of Juarez: The Cartel- If you have figured out the order of this list and haven't played this "game" yet, you might be wondering what the hell could be worse than RE5. You get an achievement for killing black people. It is called Bad guy, and it is earned by killing a certain number of enemies in a level called Gang Bang where all the enemies are black. In case you were wondering what the player is doing, the answer is simple: inciting gang violence. From what I can tell, Kimberley in and of herself isn't offensive. Yeah, it would've been nice if she had become an FBI agent on her own merits instead of through a minority outreach program, but in a different game, I'm sure most people would let it slide. However, in a game that claims Mexicans are kidnapping our women to sell into sexual slavery (when the truth is some of us are buying their women) that becomes a minor insult. As opposed to the constant stream of insults and lies this game heaps upon Mexicans and African-Americans. Oh, did I mention you can also play as a Hispanic man? Obviously, Kimberley Evans and Eddie Guerra are flimsy meat shields put in place to defend the game from accusations of racism.

So, looking at the three examples above, having minority player-characters don't help a game at all. If I make a game, and the player character looks like this:

not only would people crucify me for being racist, but they'd be right to do so.

But enough about how to do it wrong, let's talk about how to do it right. Since we've been talking about black people so much, let's have our hypothetical progressive character be black.

Now, for a while I've been planning a sequel to the FEAR trilogy, even though I probably will not get to make it. For those of you who don't know, FEAR is an action/horror game that's basically about a secret commando unit that fights ghosts and monsters.

The first thing when making a truly progressive character for any medium is to ask why you want the character to be what race, gender, orientation, creed, etc. they are. It can be from anything from "marketing wants a female character to sell to horny boys and I don't want my character to be just a sex object" to "I want to make a Russian character because I want to expose my audience to Russia's culture." The only right answer is a completely honest answer. The reason I want a black character in this game is because I am tired of black guys always dying in horror movies.

The second thing (it can also be first, if you so desire) to consider is what is the character's role, both to the story structure (main character, secondary character, etc.) and plot (what is the character's job.) As my character is in the FEAR universe, he is going to be some kind of soldier. I also think he should be the leader of the FEAR team in this game as this could lead to some interesting commentary on real life. Structurally, I don't want him to be the main character or the player character in the game. That way, when it turns out he actually came off better than the main character, it will be all the more surprising.

The third thing that should be done is to see what stereotypes about the person's background you should embrace (to let the character be,) avert (to not have the character be that,) or to subvert (the character is that... on the surface.) For instance, when writing a black character like the team leader of the new FEAR game, I must consider these stereotypes:

• Black people are tough (subvert)- Despite the fact that the army has been integrated for decades, black people are still kept out of many of the Army's more elite positions (at least according to the book Black Hawk Down.) Logically, that means a black man in a special forces unit would have to be tougher than the average special forces soldier. However, this character, as a squad leader, cares completely about the men and women under his command. In calmer moments, you can catch him relaxing regulations for his men. He also will refuse to follow orders that may lead to the deaths of innocents.
• Black people are assertive (embrace)- This character, when he believes he's in the right, he will follow up on it. While he'll consider the views of others, he'll come to a decision quickly. All of his plans are executed promptly and woe betide those who don't agree.
• Black people are ostentatious (avert)- This man does not spend time on things he considers unnecessary. When in the field, he uses mostly standard-issue gear. At home, he drives something sensible like a Prius or a Focus. He does use dual magnum pistols, but that's because he can reliably shoot at two targets at once, and his targets tend to be heavily armored and fast-moving.
• Black people are criminals (avert)- He used to be a cop, and still has a very strong sense of right and wrong.
• Black people are scary (avert)- Of all the things that can happen in a FEAR game, even a stereotypical black man would be the least of the player's problems. In fact, the scariest person in the squad is a white female. Her mother and brothers are much worse, though.
• Black people are angry (subvert)- When something offends his sense of justice, he gets mad. He may shout and swear, but he always is in control.
• Black people are uneducated (avert)- When off-duty, the time he doesn't spend with the people under his command is spent sketching and reading history. He also graduated high school a semester early and earned a full ride to a reputable college, though not exactly an Ivy League one.

The third thing to consider is what sort of conflicts are created by him being black. The reason being for this question is that a true progressive character is not defined by their skin tone (or whatever other ways we have of arbitrarily withholding or granting privilege to people) but by their response to the conflict it brings to them.

• Due to his strong sense of justice, before this squad leader of FEAR became a cop. He has been a beat cop and a SWAT officer, but for most of his career he has been a detective. Because of the high percentage of black people incarcerated in the US, many other blacks don't approve of his former career. Including his superior officer.
• While this doesn't have much to do with his skin color, he is first and foremost a cop. When fighting on foreign soil in the midst of a bloody three-way civil war, he still tries to preserve life more than a soldier would.

Now, this character is probably very far from a perfect progressive character.  This is the beauty of progressive characters: they are hard to get good, and impossible to get perfect, but when they succeed, they are wonderfully fleshed out. It also doesn't matter what kind of minority the character is, or even if the character is in the "majority."

Oh, and just a note to all you professional game designers: be careful any time you put an ethnic minority as the lead character. If it is just a token meat shield to disguise the fact that you are a horrible, horrible person, I will call you on it.