The main character of San Andreas is not a "hero", he is a villain. If they had someone like him on a mission to save the world as the lead, I'd be surprised.

ROFLOL....

Aya Brea

FF's also somehow never seem to have real japanese characters, Yuffie and Tseng and Hojo from FFVII were the last real ones or not?

No denying she's one of them. She's one of the "halves" like Yuri (Shadow Hearts) and Solid Snake (MGS). Does she look like a "half" to you?

Little Mac's coach was black....Thunder from Fable was black.....um...Cole was black from Gears of War but he was the loudmouth sterotype.... Barret was based off Mr. T... Luigi has black tendencies (j/k). I have had this conversation with other people before. It is a shame but, no one's doing anything about it. No black/hispanic main characters come often. CJ from San Andreas DOESN'T COUNT.

Wait, CJ doesn't count? Why not? Because he does "bad stuff"?

If that's your only reasoning, I'm calling shenanigans on most FPS heroes, everyone British (because they're almost always cast as villians), most Italian-Americans (damned mafia), and almost every 1970s movie "hero".

This is a classic example of cherry-picking to suit an argument.

No Pristine.

You don't seem to get it. Its my fault. I focused on using the idea of main characters to drive my point home but its actually deeper than that. I tried to used the term villain to dismiss CJ but that didn't work very well so I have to elaborate.

You see, what I mean by pandering to white (American) audiences is "appeasing their belief system". White people like to see themselves as the saviors of the world because many see themselves as bringers of civilization to others. America has taking over the helm from Britain. D'you see the pandering with most "save the world" storylines?

CJ fits into many whites' "belief system" in the US. Many whites see blacks as crooks first before anything else. This is why CJ's character is so successful. Because his character doesn't conflict with their beliefs. Even CJ panders to the white (American) audience. Think of a recent hip hop smast hit. An example: Soulja boy's "crank that superman" or whatever the song is called. You see tons of suburban whites dancing to that song in clubs but would they be comfortable if they saw Soulja boy and his friends across the sidewalk from them? He fits right where they need him an thats all.

This is the same with all GTA's lead characters due to the nature of the game. They are all "misfits". Do you think an Abercrombie and Fitch model-type, blond hair, blue-eyed looking GTA character would work? Hell no! Because the characters actions would conflict with this belief system and the game thus won't make sense.

I agree with amp316: Games are made to primarly attract an audience already associated with the genre/series and art depicts the stylings of its ambition or whatever. I think that since the VAAST majority of videogames are and have been produced in Japan that the mass market leaning would cater to Japanese and perhaps Asians in general moreso than Americans. I would agree that the more popular titles in America (GTA,Madden, uh XBOX ;0 ) do not follow this standard so I can see people maybe missing that.

            On the otherhand I really find it strange that people still view America as an almost segregational society. When I read comments that seemed to me that 1. Whites dominate the money market and 2. You rarely see blacks outside of the NFL. that have been posted on this thread I wonder to myself how this kind of thought has arrived when speaking about this country post 1964. I mean have you heard of the Civil Rights Laws? and have you seen any movies lately? Blacks are only 10 to 12 percent of USA population yet appear in some role in over 80% of all movies. Lord of the Rings was one of the few movies that didn't cast any blacks whatsoever (and their was definatly discussion about that). What I mean is what makes people think that this structure still exsists, when there is no evidence of it that I can see.
Also define what exactly qualifies as a racial attribute to an in-game feature. i.e. what "kind" of things would a game have to "pander" to blacks, or South American or anyone else for that matter.

      
Besides I have heard of this argument before but it's funny my wife's family (African) never seemed to notice anything when playing Video Games. They don't share that same opinion.