Why do 99% of videogames pander to white (especially American) audiences?

[Pristine20]

Borkachev said:

So why the main characters have to be white to "cater" to white audiences? How about the Japanese that buy games like DQVIII in droves even when every single human in that game is white?

I read an interesting discussion about this recently, though I can't find it now. Basically, the point was that the Japanese don't see the characters in their games as white. They might have blonde hair and blue eyes, but to them these are Japanese people with those features. These superficial differences are just the differences they see among themselves represented with a bit of artistic license. They're an expression of the universal character that everyone identifies with themselves.

To me this makes a lot of sense. And if you look at the characters more closely, they seem to support this: at lower detail they're usually stylized anime characters, while at higher details (like in the FF FMVs or Advent Children) they take on distinctly Japanese facial features.

 

I don't know about that one. I think the Japanese realize fully well that these people aren't Japanese. The story tellers usually use the idea that the character is half-Japanese when the game's story is based off currently existing countries. Think Yuri in Shadow Hearts Covenant.

However, it is also interesting to note that in Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Shania could have easily been the main character. Her story has a lot of depth and she's the one with the fusions yet that title goes to good old Johnny with what? You guessed right "blond hair, blue eyes"

Even in LOD, the game I'm currently playing, Dart has blond hair, blue eyes. Its a ps1 game so you could rgue that he was meant to be Japanese but when you look at the hi-res pictures in the manual. I don't know but he seems pretty white to me!