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

slimeattack on 11 July 2008

Mostly whites play video games because blacks don't have the money. I'm not racist, just think of someone in Zimbabwe having a console (a PS3 costs 5 trillion Zimbabwe dollars:))



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Kasz216 on 11 July 2008
Pristine20 said:
Ajax said:
Cloud, Zidane, Tidus and Vaan are all blond. And Squall is a blue-eyed dude with brown hair. But somehow not only the Americans and Europeans want it this way, but also the Japanese seem to like to have white people in their games, cause Square could have easily put more Japanese looking characters in those games if it wanted. But FFVII had at least real Japanese characters like Yuffie, Tseng and Hojo.

Square has also stated that the want to appeal to more international(white) audiences. Perhaps thats one of the explanations of removing all Japanese characters from the cast even though the main character has always been white anyway. Does it have to be this way or is Square just paranoid of having an FF that doesn't sell?

 


Yeah.  Check the Final Fantasy's that were never even meant to come out in the USA.

Like FF7 actually.  Which Square didn't even want to publish outside of Japan.

It's nothing to do with that when it comes to Japan.



Ajax on 11 July 2008

Japanese idolize European looks I got the feeling. The have some sort of hybrid Japanese/European looking people in their games and anime's.



''Hadouken!''

Pristine20 on 11 July 2008
Kasz216 said:
Pristine20 said:
Ajax said:
Cloud, Zidane, Tidus and Vaan are all blond. And Squall is a blue-eyed dude with brown hair. But somehow not only the Americans and Europeans want it this way, but also the Japanese seem to like to have white people in their games, cause Square could have easily put more Japanese looking characters in those games if it wanted. But FFVII had at least real Japanese characters like Yuffie, Tseng and Hojo.

Square has also stated that the want to appeal to more international(white) audiences. Perhaps thats one of the explanations of removing all Japanese characters from the cast even though the main character has always been white anyway. Does it have to be this way or is Square just paranoid of having an FF that doesn't sell?

 


Yeah.  Check the Final Fantasy's that were never even meant to come out in the USA.

Like FF7 actually.  Which Square didn't even want to publish outside of Japan.

It's nothing to do with that when it comes to Japan.

But if you follow the trend for FFVII, the Japanese characters have dissappeared as the name "Final Fantasy" gained more popularity. The last iteration, FF12, has a totally white human cast.  Reddas is the only dark-skinned person in the entire game! His existence is not even explained. Did his whole ancestry perish?

The other diversified creatures are the catwomen like Fran and the Lizardmen like Ba' Gamnan.

 



"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler

Pristine20 on 11 July 2008
Ajax said:
Japanese idolize European looks I got the feeling.

 

 Thats one of the conclusions I'm drawing as well.



"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler

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Kasz216 on 11 July 2008
Pristine20 said:
Kasz216 said:
Pristine20 said:
Ajax said:
Cloud, Zidane, Tidus and Vaan are all blond. And Squall is a blue-eyed dude with brown hair. But somehow not only the Americans and Europeans want it this way, but also the Japanese seem to like to have white people in their games, cause Square could have easily put more Japanese looking characters in those games if it wanted. But FFVII had at least real Japanese characters like Yuffie, Tseng and Hojo.

Square has also stated that the want to appeal to more international(white) audiences. Perhaps thats one of the explanations of removing all Japanese characters from the cast even though the main character has always been white anyway. Does it have to be this way or is Square just paranoid of having an FF that doesn't sell?

 


Yeah. Check the Final Fantasy's that were never even meant to come out in the USA.

Like FF7 actually. Which Square didn't even want to publish outside of Japan.

It's nothing to do with that when it comes to Japan.

But if you follow the trend for FFVII, the Japanese characters have dissappeared as the name "Final Fantasy" gained more popularity. The last iteration, FF12, has a totally white human cast. Reddas is the only dark-skinned person in the entire game! His existence is not even explained. Did his whole ancestry perish?

The other diversified creatures are the catwomen like Fran and the Lizardmen like Ba' Gamnan.


FF1 had nothing but white people in it. FF4 had almost all white people except for one race of Chinese... and Dwarves. FF6 had all "white" people and then some Espers... Shadow looks black...(or actually blue... but some africans saw themselves as blue rather then black) but in his flashback he's white.

FF5 had all "white" people... and werewolves... and 5 dwarves.

FF2 had one darkskinned guy. FF3 i believe had no one of a different race but i can't really recall.

In the case of Japanese artists it's really not pandering so much as they like variance... and the lighter skin really plays of color variance a lot.  It's what they like to draw.

As for the Half Japanese, i'd argue that has less to do with pandering and more to do with the legacy of the troops stationed in Japan... and the later influence of the US.



Ajax on 11 July 2008

Like Goku. Goku looks more Italian or Persian than Japanese. Ever noticed that the biggest characteristic of Japanese people, 'small eyes', is completely the other way around in their art; anime eyes are big and even a trademark of anime.



''Hadouken!''

Ajax on 11 July 2008

They even have plastic surgery overthere to change their eyes to European looking eyes. Check this http://www.drmeronk.com/asian/asian-eyelid-photos3.html



''About 90% of blepharoplasties performed in Japan include the double eyelid procedure. The reasons for the popularity of this procedure relate to changing concepts of beauty among the Japanese people. Facial anatomy contributes to the appearance of sleepiness and lethargy in the flat, monotone Japanese face. The narrower eye opening does not allow for the maximum viewing of the cornea. The shortened lateral canthus presents a facial balance that is not considered as attractive as one with an extended lateral canthus. The double eyelid procedure corrects these features, producing a face that is considered more beautiful.''



''Hadouken!''

Pristine20 on 11 July 2008
Kasz216 said:
Pristine20 said:
Kasz216 said:
Pristine20 said:
Ajax said:
Cloud, Zidane, Tidus and Vaan are all blond. And Squall is a blue-eyed dude with brown hair. But somehow not only the Americans and Europeans want it this way, but also the Japanese seem to like to have white people in their games, cause Square could have easily put more Japanese looking characters in those games if it wanted. But FFVII had at least real Japanese characters like Yuffie, Tseng and Hojo.

Square has also stated that the want to appeal to more international(white) audiences. Perhaps thats one of the explanations of removing all Japanese characters from the cast even though the main character has always been white anyway. Does it have to be this way or is Square just paranoid of having an FF that doesn't sell?

 


Yeah. Check the Final Fantasy's that were never even meant to come out in the USA.

Like FF7 actually. Which Square didn't even want to publish outside of Japan.

It's nothing to do with that when it comes to Japan.

But if you follow the trend for FFVII, the Japanese characters have dissappeared as the name "Final Fantasy" gained more popularity. The last iteration, FF12, has a totally white human cast. Reddas is the only dark-skinned person in the entire game! His existence is not even explained. Did his whole ancestry perish?

The other diversified creatures are the catwomen like Fran and the Lizardmen like Ba' Gamnan.


FF1 had nothing but white people in it. FF4 had almost all white people except for one race of Chinese... and Dwarves. FF6 had all "white" people and then some Espers... Shadow looks black...(or actually blue... but some africans saw themselves as blue rather then black) but in his flashback he's white.

FF5 had all "white" people... and werewolves... and 5 dwarves.

FF2 had one darkskinned guy. FF3 i believe had no one of a different race but i can't really recall.

In the case of Japanese artists it's really not pandering so much as they like variance... and the lighter skin really plays of color variance a lot.  It's what they like to draw.

As for the Half Japanese, i'd argue that has less to do with pandering and more to do with the legacy of the troops stationed in Japan... and the later influence of the US.

One of the arguements someone made (i'm too lazy to go back to check) was that in the pre-ps1 era, especially, you couldn't really tell what the characters look like so I don't know about the NES and SNES families.

However, after reading Ajax' discoveries, it would seem that the Japanese make games with white people in them to appease their own people as well since they are going as far as to have surgery to look white. If this holds, perhaps FF never really changed, its just the best of both worlds since 95% of gamers would be officially white if the Japanese gamers all get the surgery so since people want characters that look like them or look like they want to look, then FF can appeal to both westerners and Japanese with white characters in them.

 



"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler

Ajax on 11 July 2008

What they find beatiful, is I think the main reason for those typical anime faces. People draw not in a certain style without seeing beauty in it. The American comics are also full of characters that the Western artists find beautiful; the eyes are normal European eyes in this case, and the faces are more blocked meaning they have strong yaw-lines and the characters are tall and don't have out of the ordinary hair. (Captain America, Superman, Batman, Iceman etc. these guys also fit a specific formula.)


(I speak of European and not American, cause the 'white American' people are the direct grandchildren of Europeans, so European includes also them in this discussion.)



''Hadouken!''