While gamers continue to debate whether or not the upcoming Resident Evil 5 contains racist imagery, the Penny Arcade crew has weighed in on the issue with a new comic (left).
Incidentally, in a recent GamePolitics poll on the topic, 83% of GP readers disagreed with the idea that there was racism in the game.
For the full PA comic, click here.
PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261 EA Sports Canada Moron calls Wii U 'Crap' and Nintendo 'Walking Dead'05/18/2013 - 11:42am
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E. Zachary Knight: If the videos are of sufficient quality that people subscribe and watch regularly, then those let's players are providing a service that people want. That is the heart of capitalism. That is not something that should be shamed.05/17/2013 - 8:06am
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E. Zachary Knight: I have no idea who either of those people are. However, I still don't see why making a business out of creating let's play videos is somehow evil or wrong.05/17/2013 - 8:04am
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MaskedPixelante: It sure is if you're just doing it for the money. See Tobuscus and/or Pewdiepie for what happens when people get into it just for the money.05/17/2013 - 7:30am
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E. Zachary Knight: Why is it wrong to make money doing LPs? Why should that be something that should be shamed?05/17/2013 - 6:20am
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MaskedPixelante: https://twitter.com/PsychedelicSA/status/335183893214924801 Now here's an interesting, glass half full thought about the Nintendo LP thing. It outs the people who are just doing LPs to make money.05/17/2013 - 5:56am
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E. Zachary Knight: I responded in writing to all this "let's play" stuff Nintendo Started. No need for my permission, I won't give it. It's not mine to give. http://divineknightgaming.com/?p=29205/16/2013 - 2:21pm
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E. Zachary Knight: Lars Doucet of Levelup Labs has a Reddit going on game companies that allow monetization of Let's Play videos. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1egayn/lets_build_a_list_of_game_studios_that_allow/05/16/2013 - 1:04pm
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Sleaker: @Imautobot - yah I wouldn't use an emulator as a good first run test of how stable the console is, haha.05/16/2013 - 11:47am
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E. Zachary Knight: The 50th person to jump off a bridge is just as dumb if not dumber than the 1st.05/16/2013 - 10:03am
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MaskedPixelante: Yeah, let's all jump on Nintendo for doing this, even though they're hardly the first company to do this...05/16/2013 - 9:47am
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E. Zachary Knight: Wow Nintendo, this is wrong. http://kotaku.com/nintendo-forcing-ads-on-some-youtube-lets-play-video-50709238305/16/2013 - 8:44am
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Imautobot: @Sleaker, further gameplay has revealed that the controller button do stick under the faceplate. Also, The NES emulator (Emuya)keeps crashing on me, though I think a bad ROM is causing it.05/16/2013 - 7:10am
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Papa Midnight: AE: I wonder if any other publishers will follow suit.05/15/2013 - 8:12pm
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Andrew Eisen: EA is ditching Online Pass. http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial-online-pass-program/05/15/2013 - 7:20pm
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Avalongod: @Zach and quicnkold...I've read the bill and the intent of it is to fear-monger. It's not a balanced message. I don't recall the ESRB being mentioned at all. It's more "keeps your kids away from these movies/games or they'll become violent"05/15/2013 - 4:35pm
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E. Zachary Knight: quiknkold, The big problem with that legislation is the amount of misinformation out there. Who is going to ensure that the information in the pamphlet is accurate?05/15/2013 - 3:25pm
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quiknkold: REBeardogg : I'm on the fence about this. on one side, I want parents to be aware of the ESRB, and even Movie Ratings. On the other hand, I feel this will be used for nothing but Propaganda. The ESRB does a good job.05/15/2013 - 3:07pm
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IanC: Frostbite is coming out on iOS devices. Yet the Wii U cant handle it? *coughbullshitcough*05/15/2013 - 2:31pm
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BearDogg-X: http://www.politickernj.com/65515/lesniak-ruiz-bill-limit-children-s-exposure-media-violence-clears-senate - Bill requiring schools to publish pamphlets with anti-fake media "violence" propaganda clears NJ Senate05/15/2013 - 2:03pm
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Comments
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Well, yeah, but robots are racist towards all organic flesh bags.
Stupid Oil suckers.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Hey, the robots were just minding their own business until the bugs got all up in their faces, buzzing around their illuminated optical receptors every night, with no regard to personal space.
One bug, one pesticide canister!
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Nice. Dennis I would just mention, last line of the story:
"For the pull PA comic, click here."
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Don't know about racism, but can we consider the middle one sexist?
/b
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
I thought the last one was specist. Seriously, what have bugs done wrong?
Nido Web Flash Tutorials AS2 and AS3 Tutorials for anyone interested.
How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls
How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Yeah, it advocates spousal abuse by women against men.
....
Whaddaya mean that's not a sexist act?
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
I noticed that, too. I wonder if PA was trying to say something there or just being funny...
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
You know, I used to be on the side that was saying "This is what they consider racist? They need to lighten up."
I still am, but now I kind of understand where they are coming from. As an Asian, I have no real emotional stake in something like this because the people being shot aren't <i>"my people"</i>. However, looking at things like the movie scene (Dragonball: Evolution and Avatar) there's still a significant air of racism among movies today, an industry which has predated gaming by about 50 years (not casting any Asian actors whatsoever for effectively Asian characters is already an insult, but then having one of the white actors say "I can just get a tan, dye my hair, and I'll look Asian" is just disgusting to me). THough, in this game it's different because of the setting of the game; it makes sense for the natives to be portrayed as black.
I'm not saying I agree with them, I just know where they're coming from. Having a society that already gives you two strikes (or three in some cases!) merely because you're not white can cause an entire race of people to become disillusioned and bitter, specifically when they believe they're being treated unfairly. This can cause a snowball effect that ends up causing people to overreact to every little thing.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
I understand where you comming from. But I wouldnt fret over the Hollywood DBZ movie too much. This movie will be so embarrisingly bad.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
I know exactly what you mean. 21 pissed me off to no end. They didn't even try to make white people look asian, they just wrote the asians out of what happened. And the only asians that remained were used for comic relief.
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Internet troll > internet paladin
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
"However, looking at things like the movie scene (Dragonball: Evolution and Avatar) there's still a significant air of racism among movies today, an industry which has predated gaming by about 50 years (not casting any Asian actors whatsoever for effectively Asian characters is already an insult, but then having one of the white actors say "I can just get a tan, dye my hair, and I'll look Asian" is just disgusting to me)."
You are right to be offended by this. This is an actual slight to the brilliant and creative people of East Asia, who have their creations licensed and then repopulated with "localized" actors, plot, and dialogue.
Just look at The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). You have an opportunity to make a movie with 2 of the greatest martial artists in movie history, and you have to place a talentless white American kid in the staring role. The fact is that Hollywood is still racist, and they still think that America won’t go see a movie without the main character being white. This is, of course, despite the success of Sony pictures classics bringing over big Hong Kong films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, etc.
This is very different than what’s going on in RE. Here you have a game that takes place in Africa, and the main character, who has been an established character in the franchise for many years is white. So you have a few choices.
1. Tell your writers "your creativity must be censored because someone might find this racist, so set your game somewhere else" (this is of course even more racist, because if everyone does this Africa will never be featured in a game)
2. I guess you could make everyone living in Africa suddenly white? This would not only be ridiculous but it seems extremely racist as well.
3. Magically make the main character black. I guess you could do this, but you would have to introduce a new main character, and again this would be stepping on the toes of the writers. (We do want halfway decent writing, right?)
4. Tell your story the way your writers envisioned it and let petty people say petty things, and hope that no one decides to ban your game.
The difference Ashton, is that in Hollywood you have real people, making real choices, that affect Asian actors and writers. In RE you have fictional characters that are doing fictional things, and it does not directly affect anyone, unless they are looking for ways to be offended.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Just because Holywood frequently makes asian characters white is not necessarily evidence that they are racist. They may very well be racist, but all this shows is that they are assuming that there are a lot of racist Americans. And frankly, it's a good strategy. I would think that there are more people who wouldn't see a movie because the main character is black than there are people who would boycott a movie because the main character is white when he should actually be black.
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Internet troll > internet paladin
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Or it could just be easier/cheaper to get white actors (since they outnumber the others, at least in Hollywood).
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
But, as I said, many hong kong cinima films have been very sucessful in the United States. (Even with subtitles O_o)
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Although i'm not a big fan of DB, i'm pretty sure it is never said to take place anywhere in asia, or in our world for that matter. So i have no problem with that.
As for RE5, it might contain accidental "racist imagery", but at least we can all agree that if that is the case, it happend at worst out of ignorance and in no way deliberately. Can we?
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
It's also worth noting that Avatar was a Western creation, and it wasn't even set in Asia. It had a lot of Eastern influences, from the anime style to the martial arts, to the many asthetic choices for archetecture and culture. BUT, it was not actually set in Asia.
Not set in Asia, not created in Asia. They can cast whomever they want.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
And another point:
Goku's a damn alien.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Oh yeah... Good point!
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Yeah, but you can look at a photo of a black homeless guy on a bus bench and call it racist, when it is just reality too. The question is not really if it is racist, because almost anything can be, but is it more racist than reality? (If we are calling this racist, then I call out Final Fantasy 1 for having no black people. Just to prove there is no winning.)
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How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls
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Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Come on, we're not all like the jackass (liberals) in hollywood. Chances are, they decided that the DB movie would have white actors because it's easier for the core audience to identify with them. Not saying it makes sense, but Hollywood is a place full of douchebags.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Lol I usually don't like these comics but this one is amusing.
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
A bit of an amusing strip, but I don't feel much will be debated about this. It just attracts the wrong sort of attention, as it has done repeatedly.
You have the ones who repeatedly decry the image is racist because a person is white, and that person is shooting a black man (who is undoubtedly trying to kill him), and for some reason that isn't allowed with them. So they prefer to be treated differently by stating that it is only racism because a black man is being shot and they can somehow relate to this fictional character.
The whole point of equality is to eliminate this want/need for spotting racism and not caring about skin color of a person and making judgements of something because of that skin color. In other words, you judge it because of skin color, but the other person doesn't care, the fact is, you're trying to kill the one with the gun.
This sounds bad when I reread it, but ugh I need coffee...
Re: Penny Arcade Examines the RE5 Racism Controversy
Yes. The people calling this racist, saying that it's wrong for a white protagonist to kill black zombies, are the only ones really being racist by trying to treat one race different than another.
All I see is Chris killing zombies that happen to be in Africa...
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