Before Resident Evil 5 was released, there were cries, stupidly, that the game – in which you slaughter hundreds upon hundreds of undead – was racist. Racist, because those reanimated corpses happened to be black. The fact that it was set in Africa, where presumably the majority of people are y’know…African didn’t really factor.
Capcom though, have learnt a lesson from the ordeal – and there’ll be no more racist imagery, imagined or not, in their games.
“Since the RE5 controversy, we have become much more aware of how important it is that we are part of the asset creation process early on so that we are able to have a say in the end product,†said Melody Pfeiffer, senior PR manager for Capcom US.
“We are also designing a lot of our own assets from this side of the pond so that we are able to make strategic pieces of content that make sense for our market. We are working really closely with our producers in Japan to construct these materials for the West and they are open more then ever to hearing our thoughts and ideas for assets.â€
So the western, more politically correct branches of Capcom will have a hand in character and asset design to ensure that the insensitive Japanese teams don’t offend people. What are they going to do? Make sure that all characters that die are now white? are all of Capcom’s heroes now going be of African decent?
That apparently puts paid to hopes that Resident Evil 6 would be set on the Gaza strip, killing zombies on both sides with guns that shoot pork bullets.
Source : Gamasutra
Last Updated: August 25, 2010
koldFU5iON
August 25, 2010 at 15:30
http://media.photobucket.com/image/facepalm/mintkiller/facepalm.jpg
Sir James of the Cape
August 25, 2010 at 17:30
So… basically what they’re saying is that there won’t be any more black people in their games? :facepalm:
Steve Hofmeyr
August 25, 2010 at 17:38
This is realy sad… :getlost:
Sir James of the Cape
August 25, 2010 at 17:44
I unfortunately haven’t had a chance to play Resident Evil 5, although I can understand why there was such a furore about the game, especially since the imagery was very similar to actual racist and prejudiced material (books, movies etc.)produced in bygone eras about African black hordes descending on a lone white gunman/soldier/farmer (and the need to destroy or subjugate that horde).
However, this was a knee-jerk reaction by many and although Capcom has shown blissful ignorance about racist notions regarding Africa and Africans, I seriously doubt that Capcom intended the game to offend.
However there’s another side to this coin, when last have we seen a game featuring a black protagonist or at least a black game character who wasn’t (a) a gangster (b) loud or (c) unintelligent (I can only think of Alex from Half Life 2 at the moment).
They could make up for this by allowing one of their newer games to have a black protagonist that doesn’t conform to the usual stereotypes. I would welcome it, because I’m kind of tired of the usual bald-or-short-haired space-marine looking bland Caucasian.
47iscool .
November 14, 2013 at 14:50
(sigh) Libtards