NOTE: PLease, no racist jibber-jabber that would get the thread locked. Only intelligent, well thought out responses needed.

I was talking to a guy today and he mentioned that there was a Pakistani mod of Couterstrike on the internet. In the mod, you get to play as a Pakistani soldier, defending Pakistan from a US assault. As you can imagine, the game generated nasty responses from Americans.

Yet, there are tons of popular games like COD4 where you kill Russians and Arabs and Ghost Recon where you kill Mexicans. The main heros are usually always American or just plain white. Russia has been the scapegoat villain country for years yet I haven't heard their complaints.

He asked me to name a popular gaming character that wasn't white. I thought for over 10 minutes and I couldn't think of even one. Mario=Italian, Cloud=blond hair,blue eyes, Samus Aran=bond hair blue, eyes, Link=blond hair, blue eyes, Snake=Half japanese/Half-white even though he looks 100% white, etc. And these games originate in Japan not even America!

I finally thought of a main character that wasn't white though. It's Ryu Hayabusa. Perhaps thats why his face is never shown?

Is the problem the fact that white people need to be ego fed or they won't buy games? Whats your opinion?

Thanks in advance for the intelligent and thoughtful input.

Because most are made for Americans, by Americans. Many of these games are targeted towards the US market, so obviously the games are designed to appeal to them the most

Seeing how the white race has figured so prominently in written history, and game plots and concepts are rooted in that history and also Western literature and archetypes, it's not surprising. Consider this rundown:

Militarism: Western nations have dominated almost exclusively

Fantasy themes: Mostly rooted in Western mythology and literature. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. inspired by Western computer games (Ultima, Wizardry)

Science fiction: Pretty much a Western oriented creation.

The concept of the heroic journey: Again...

Seeing how the white race has figured so prominently in written history, and game plots and concepts are rooted in that history and also Western literature and archetypes, it's not surprising. Consider this rundown:

Militarism: Western nations have dominated almost exclusively

Fantasy themes: Mostly rooted in Western mythology and literature. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. inspired by Western computer games (Ultima, Wizardry)

Science fiction: Pretty much a Western oriented creation.

The concept of the heroic journey: Again...

you have the same issue on tv - whites make up a disporportionate of who you see on tv. i recommend you follow the money - who is making the decisions on what does/does not get made and i'll bet you'll find a lot of white people.

i guess the above really only applies to wester developers. i have no idea why the japonese developers don't use more japonese main character. i won't pretend to have any knowledge of their culture.

The largest market always gets catered too. Currently that's America and it's predominately white. Europe is becoming increasing important as a market but it's also extremely white (natch).

Ironically, Japan love their manga and manga/anime style characters also are for all intensive purposes white even when they are Japanese characters - mainly because it allows for more of a diversity of looks I suppose.

There simply isn't enough of a non-white market to cater a game too unless it's a real low budget game.

As for ArtznCraphs comments I disagree there lots of non-white history, fantasy, etc to base games off - Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian, African, North American Indian, etc., etc. But American audiences historically don't care about anyone but themselves (also they aren't as famaliar with the subject matter). Which is why games like Jade Empire and movies like Apocolypto underperform.

Why does anyone care? It's a skin pigment - genetics; no indication of any other attribute of a person. No one should even notice just like eye colour.

Real racial equality advocates should just realise the large proportion of incidentally melanin-sparse skinned people in video games doesn't matter. It's not a deliberate attempt to discriminate, nor does it harm anyone. Also, the fact the population is in ration X:Y doesn't mean video game heroes have to be in the same ratio. 1 in 6 people in video games MUST be Chinese. 1 in 10 video game movie sidekicks MUST be in wheelchairs.

we have teh moneys. Give us yore gamez and yore cheezeburger.

It goes deeper than mere marketing. The white male influence is huge among the human race, in all developed nations. The world stage has been determined by the actions and ideas of the West. The white race is seen as the measure of mankinds ideas of heroism and civilization, as well as representing the depths of corruption, greed, violence, etc. Standards of beauty, intelligence, creativity, progress, and the like are viewed as those set by the West. As a result, another culture's self indentity can be repressed by indentification with Western culture, the West's standards becoming the standards for all

No one seems to have gotten the point. Does catering to the west mean the main characters have to be white?

@ Munkeh

Thats why I mentioned only games developed by the Japanese in my example. These games could remain the same and use a pure Japanese cast but I get the feeling that they won't sell anywhere like they did if that was the case which is what the problem I'm trying to address is.