Penny Arcade image copyright Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins
A recent web-comic that I read brought to my attention the controversy around the video game Resident Evil 5. You can read the creator’s summary online, but the video game received national news coverage when a trailer for the game was released. The game is the latest in a series of “zombie horror” video games, where the main character tries to survive being killed by hordes of undead humans. The main character is Chris Redfield, an American Caucasian male. The game in set in West Africa, so almost all other characters and zombies are African. Put together, the images of the trailer and the game itself are of a white male killing (in various ways) dozens of black men and women (though zombies). In a two-player game it is also possible to play as Sheva Alomar, a woman whose race/ethnicity is not specified. The problem with the trailer and the game was summarized by Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal in on an MTV blog, “This imagery has a history.”
N’Gai’s initial reaction was, “Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game.” My first reaction was not very remarkable and then I realized that my context was that of a video game player who is:
1) Used to playing zombie “shooter” games where the object is to “kill” hordes of attacking undead (not human)
2) Able to easily identify with the main character of a video game (often without seeing what they look like)
I am interested in hearing other opinions outside of my context, about this game or the video game industry in general.
March 19, 2009 at 1:04 pm
As an editor for TNL (www.the-nextlevel.com) on the side, I’ve written a little about this. It’s important to note that the Japanese developed this game and while they are a culture that is afflicted with racism just as ours is, I don’t think the game harbors any racist undertones. In more than 5 iterations of the Resident Evil series, zombies and the infected of all race, color, and creed have been annihilated in order to protect mankind.
I can see how a passerby might see some clips of the game and say this is racist (I mean you are killing infected Africans, stealing their stuff, selling it back to buy weapons to kill more of them), but you need to play the game within the context of the series to see that it isn’t at all. All the games involved looting areas for treasure/ammo/weapons in order to survive. All the games involve massive amounts of killing (you can’t just let the infected survive!)
I think one of the problems is that these aren’t just zombies anymore, they are infected not-zombies as one person coined them. Powerful, fast creatures more akin to what we saw in 28 Days Later. They don’t look as dessicated as zombies, so unless you see them transform into the horrible creatures that they are, you could mistake them for crazed humans. That’s another reason why it’s important to not judge footage out of context.
RE5 is just another stop on the world map for those trying to turn humanity into bizarre creatures… Who knows where the next version will take us? It’s important to note that plenty of white infected have been killed over the years. I wonder what would happen if the main hero was black and all the enemies killed were white? Would we have the same national attention? I’m honestly not sure.
I don’t want to go too in-depth here, but claims such as this are usually unsubstantiated. Play through the entire game and then make a judgment (while also factoring in other entries in the series). This happens all the time with violence, sex, and race in videogames. The folks making the claims just do not have the historical or expert knowledge to be making comments, though they do.
Great post. I have no problem with people raising the idea, but they need to have facts to back it up. I say no, it’s not racist, but is easy to misinterpret.
March 19, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Great posts John and Andrew!
I have no doubt that the designers and players of this game had no intention to be racist. It brings up a good point though, that often is involved in disputes such as these: Whether or not an ethnic group “should” be offended by an action that was “not intended” to be offensive.
Whenever any of us is offended by something, it’s usually hard to fully articulate why we’re offended. It’s also easy to be offended even when we know “rationally” we shouldn’t be. But barely a generation away from common lynchings, murders, and other crimes against a people categorized by their skin color (in this country) I can imagine it would be easy to be offended purely by the visuals.
Maybe the problem is the fact that it was designed in our country, with its history of whites having power over blacks. If it were a product of say, Senegal, then it would completely change the perception people have of it.
March 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm
My title “Out of Context” played a number of roles in my mind, one was that the imagery of the trailer/game was taken out of context. But, I think Jeff’s point is key, that visuals (and related imagery) can offend on their own. You can’t expect everyone who sees an advertisement or trailer to have the same experiences or reaction (let alone base it only on the context that was intended). Even more so with the ability to share and re-mix content on the web.