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Resident Evil 5 Controversy

LibrarianThorneLibrarianThorne Registered User regular
edited August 2007 in Games and Technology
Just saw the new post on GamePolitics. Seems that an African Women's blog is making some noise about how RE5 is training fear of, hatred against, and racism towards black people/women.

I don't get this. We never had a problem killing all the white zombies in the other 5 RE games, and no one made a fuss. Black zombies were getting offed as early as RE2, if I remember correctly. Where was the controversy then? Was RE4 training us to kill eastern Europeans in the advent of some Marxist takeover of the world?

The worry, of course, is that RE5 could be used in such a manner. I'm sure if someone really young did play the game and was encouraged to take that racist message from it that it would affect them in that manner. However, I don't believe the game, as has been presented even in the trailer, could present that message without some outside influence guiding the player towards it.

Opinions?

LibrarianThorne on
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Posts

  • angrylinuxgeekangrylinuxgeek Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Politically correct bullshit looking for blog hits. The game takes place in a predominantly black country, right?

    angrylinuxgeek on
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  • LibrarianThorneLibrarianThorne Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Politically correct bullshit looking for blog hits. The game takes place in a predominantly black country, right?

    Judging fromt he trailer, it's set in Africa somewhere, likely not!Somalia or not!Ethiopia.

    LibrarianThorne on
  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    We've talked about this in the RE5 thread... Someone, somewhere is going to always be offended by violent games. I'm pretty sure that the story will justify the main character's being in the country. Also she's racist 'cause that could be Haiti or Jamaica.

    Do you have a link to the blog?

    Malkor on
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  • RancedRanced Default Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    It's in Haiti from what I recall.

    It's a bit silly to be mad over this, in all honesty. I can't see anything major happening as a result.

    Ranced on
  • RichardTauberRichardTauber Kvlt Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Has anyone asked the zombies what their opinion is?

    RichardTauber on
  • LeitnerLeitner Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Politically correct bullshit looking for blog hits. The game takes place in a predominantly black country, right?

    That phrase doesn't mean what you think it means.

    Leitner on
  • UnicronUnicron Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Did Jack Thompson just find a girlfriend?

    Seriously though, I'd take this as about as seriously as I do him. People just like attention/webtraffic. Last week in the UK a pressure group tried to ban a 60+ year old book ->http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6294670.stm

    Seeing as it's silly season I suppose this might get some attention but I'm pretty sure it'll be forgotten by the time this comes out.

    PS: Sorry for the rubbish bbcode, first time poster here :)

    Unicron on
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  • KazhiimKazhiim __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2007
    Nobody complained when you could kill Nazis in Wolfenstein.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the morbidly obese in Hitman.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the Chinese in Command and Conquer: Generals.

    Kazhiim on
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  • Gabriel_PittGabriel_Pitt Stepped in it Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Has anyone asked the zombies what their opinion is?

    They seem to be overwhelmingly pro-'Brains!'

    Gabriel_Pitt on
  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Kazhiim wrote: »
    Nobody complained when you could kill the Chinese in Command and Conquer: Generals.
    The Chinese did.

    Malkor on
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  • KazhiimKazhiim __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2007
    Malkor wrote: »
    Kazhiim wrote: »
    Nobody complained when you could kill the Chinese in Command and Conquer: Generals.
    The Chinese did.

    Yeah, but they're not people

    don't be refutin' me

    Kazhiim on
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  • LeitnerLeitner Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Kazhiim wrote: »
    Nobody complained when you could kill Nazis in Wolfenstein.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the morbidly obese in Hitman.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the Chinese in Command and Conquer: Generals.

    Actually on the first and third the governments from the relevant countries did.

    Leitner on
  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    (I'm just going to guess where this read is going a post accordingly.)

    There hasn't been a black villian in a Bond movie for years.

    GertBeef on
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  • Red or AliveRed or Alive Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Ignoring the obvious hyper-sensitivity of the situation, to a casual observer unfamiliar with the Las Plaga concept, it would appear that Chris Redfield is gunning down large numbers of African men and women. I can easily imagine how this could be misinterpreted, and , subsequently, cynically used to further clamp down the creative limits of the video game industry.

    Red or Alive on
  • KazhiimKazhiim __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2007
    Leitner wrote: »
    Kazhiim wrote: »
    Nobody complained when you could kill Nazis in Wolfenstein.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the morbidly obese in Hitman.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the Chinese in Command and Conquer: Generals.

    Actually on the first and third the governments from the relevant countries did.


    WELL NOBODY COMPLAINED ABOUT THE MORBIDLY OBESE THING


    One out of three is good enough for me!

    Kazhiim on
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  • LeitnerLeitner Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    GertBeef wrote: »
    (I'm just going to guess where this read is going a post accordingly.)

    There hasn't been a black villian in a Bond movie for years.

    The last one had the African(?) Warlord and cronies. Not the main villains but defiantly a main bad guy.

    Leitner on
  • VrayVray Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Kazhiim wrote: »
    Leitner wrote: »
    Kazhiim wrote: »
    Nobody complained when you could kill Nazis in Wolfenstein.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the morbidly obese in Hitman.

    Nobody complained when you could kill the Chinese in Command and Conquer: Generals.

    Actually on the first and third the governments from the relevant countries did.


    WELL NOBODY COMPLAINED ABOUT THE MORBIDLY OBESE THING


    One out of three is good enough for me!

    They couldn't complain because their mouths were full.

    Vray on
  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Ignoring the obvious hyper-sensitivity of the situation, to a casual observer unfamiliar with the Las Plaga concept, it would appear that Chris Redfield is gunning down large numbers of African men and women. I can easily imagine how this could be misinterpreted, and ,subsequently, cynically used to further limit the creative limits of the video game industry.

    Yeah and i'm sure you only kill poor black zombies for the first half of the game. Then you kill Bugs and guys with huge guns and regenerators for the rest of it.

    GertBeef on
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  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Leitner wrote: »
    GertBeef wrote: »
    (I'm just going to guess where this read is going a post accordingly.)

    There hasn't been a black villian in a Bond movie for years.

    The last one had the African(?) Warlord and cronies. Not the main villains but defiantly a main bad guy.

    They were in it for about 5 minutes!

    GertBeef on
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  • Red or AliveRed or Alive Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    GertBeef wrote: »
    Ignoring the obvious hyper-sensitivity of the situation, to a casual observer unfamiliar with the Las Plaga concept, it would appear that Chris Redfield is gunning down large numbers of African men and women. I can easily imagine how this could be misinterpreted, and ,subsequently, cynically used to further limit the creative limits of the video game industry.

    Yeah and i'm sure you only kill poor black zombies for the first half of the game. Then you kill Bugs and guys with huge guns and regenerators for the rest of it.

    Of course. But the ever-so-conscientious mothers of the world are only ever going to see a big white man massacring African villagers. It's silly, but Capcom's going to have fight off these kinds of accusations throughout development of the game.

    Red or Alive on
  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Nobody in Spain complained about RE4, but that's just because RE4 was a completely realistic and fair portrayal of Spaniards.

    Whenever a tentacle monster burst out of someone's head, my brother and I would exclaim "Oh, those crazy Spaniards!"

    SimBen on
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  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    GertBeef wrote: »
    Ignoring the obvious hyper-sensitivity of the situation, to a casual observer unfamiliar with the Las Plaga concept, it would appear that Chris Redfield is gunning down large numbers of African men and women. I can easily imagine how this could be misinterpreted, and ,subsequently, cynically used to further limit the creative limits of the video game industry.

    Yeah and i'm sure you only kill poor black zombies for the first half of the game. Then you kill Bugs and guys with huge guns and regenerators for the rest of it.

    Of course. But the ever-so-conscientious mothers of the world are only ever going to see a big white man massacring African villagers. It's silly, but Capcom's going to have fight off these kinds of accusations throughout development of the game.

    Do you think the Japanese developers care/know how North America feels about these particular aspects of their game?

    GertBeef on
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  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    They will when Jack gets on a plane.

    Malkor on
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  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    White zombies, ee ee ee-ee-ee.
    Black zombies, doo doo doo doo.

    SimBen on
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  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Sir, that's racist!.

    Malkor on
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  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    GertBeef wrote: »
    GertBeef wrote: »
    Ignoring the obvious hyper-sensitivity of the situation, to a casual observer unfamiliar with the Las Plaga concept, it would appear that Chris Redfield is gunning down large numbers of African men and women. I can easily imagine how this could be misinterpreted, and ,subsequently, cynically used to further limit the creative limits of the video game industry.

    Yeah and i'm sure you only kill poor black zombies for the first half of the game. Then you kill Bugs and guys with huge guns and regenerators for the rest of it.

    Of course. But the ever-so-conscientious mothers of the world are only ever going to see a big white man massacring African villagers. It's silly, but Capcom's going to have fight off these kinds of accusations throughout development of the game.

    Do you think the Japanese developers care/know how North America feels about these particular aspects of their game?

    To be fair, most of the main protagonists of the series are white and most North Americans (often with ridiculous amounts of special forces / military experience for their age). I doubt anyone in North America had a problem with that. Now if say for example, the main protagonist of RE1 or 2 was a North Korean or an Iranian special agent (but still a "Good Guy", honest, decent person like all heroes are supposed to be) caught up in a city where the archetypal Evil American megacorporation (Umbrella) unleashed a biohazard forcing said agent to kill dozens of zombified white Americans, Hellloooooooooo controversy. There's no doubt in my mind that similar minded people on the opposite side of the fence would be up in arms about it.

    This isn't about just BLACK people being over-sensitive to this issue. Odds are that in the scenario above, you'd get the same stick, just from talk-show pundits and outraged "think of the children" bloggers on the "white-hand-side".

    To be fair, it's at least partly undertandable. With the footage shown essentially being a stereotypical White American action hero dude going to some African village and shooting up black people who've only got knives and clubs and things to defend themselves. It's not hard for people to see a "keeping 'em down" ethos to the game when they don't know any context to it or anything about the series.

    subedii on
  • Red or AliveRed or Alive Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    GertBeef wrote: »
    GertBeef wrote: »
    Ignoring the obvious hyper-sensitivity of the situation, to a casual observer unfamiliar with the Las Plaga concept, it would appear that Chris Redfield is gunning down large numbers of African men and women. I can easily imagine how this could be misinterpreted, and ,subsequently, cynically used to further limit the creative limits of the video game industry.

    Yeah and i'm sure you only kill poor black zombies for the first half of the game. Then you kill Bugs and guys with huge guns and regenerators for the rest of it.

    Of course. But the ever-so-conscientious mothers of the world are only ever going to see a big white man massacring African villagers. It's silly, but Capcom's going to have fight off these kinds of accusations throughout development of the game.

    Do you think the Japanese developers care/know how North America feels about these particular aspects of their game?

    Well, yeah, I dare say they might if it limits sales.

    And don't use that tone, thanks. I'm not saying the game's racist, and I don't believe Capcom should do something silly like replace Chris with a black man to offset any inevitable hysteria. All I'm saying is they should be prepared if the media latches on to this and uses the subsequent controversy to sell newspapers.

    Red or Alive on
  • Tw4winTw4win Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    This really isn't news. It's just a minority group trying to claim racism where there isn't any. The game is set in an African country so it's just logical that the majority of the zombies should be black. If the developers included other races to pacify this woman someone would complain that the game wasn't a fair and accurate representation of the country it's set in or they would claim racism because there weren't enough black zombies. It's a lose/lose situation and that woman is best ignored.

    People like her do more to hurt the cause of equal rights with their ignorance than they do to help it.

    Tw4win on
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  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    And if anything, a good bit of controversy never hurts sales... (Conspiracy theory time!)

    GertBeef on
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  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Black zombies shamble like this.
    White zombies shamble like this.

    SimBen on
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  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    GertBeef wrote: »
    And if anything, a good bit of controversy never hurts sales... (Conspiracy theory time!)

    *cough*cough*Manhunt 2*

    subedii on
  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Tw4win wrote: »
    This really isn't news. It's just a minority group trying to claim racism where there isn't any.
    One person does not an entire minority group make dudo.

    Malkor on
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  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    SimBen wrote: »
    Black zombies shamble like this.
    White zombies shamble like this.

    All I'm saying is, everyone knows that Black zombies have got more class.

    subedii on
  • YesNoMuYesNoMu Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Dammit, I knew this would happen. I really wish people would take the time to be educated about the things they protest.

    That said, I think Capcom would be best off to throw in white enemies, at least in the early game. Make the opening fights set in an airport or something. Or a Red Cross aid building. Any place where they can justify a mixed group attacking you. Since previews are almost always of the opening areas, I think this would defuse any controversy. They've got til 2009 apparently, so I'm sure it'll work out in the end.

    YesNoMu on
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  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    subedii wrote: »
    GertBeef wrote: »
    And if anything, a good bit of controversy never hurts sales... (Conspiracy theory time!)

    *cough*cough*Manhunt 2*

    If that came out tomorrow if an edited form then it would sell like hot cakes.

    GertBeef on
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  • Tw4winTw4win Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Malkor wrote: »
    Tw4win wrote: »
    This really isn't news. It's just a minority group trying to claim racism where there isn't any.
    One person does not an entire minority group make dudo.

    True.

    Although I'm sure she'll organize some group in the near future.

    I'd be a bit more worried about this if Al Sharpton or Rev. Jesse Jackson were involved. They are the only two African American leaders I know of that could organize a big enough protest to really get noticed.

    Tw4win on
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  • SimBenSimBen Hodor? Hodor Hodor.Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Once you go black zombie, you can't go back zombie.

    SimBen on
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  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    YesNoMu wrote: »
    Dammit, I knew this would happen. I really wish people would take the time to be educated about the things they protest.

    That said, I think Capcom would be best off to throw in white enemies, at least in the early game. Make the opening fights set in an airport or something. Or a Red Cross aid building. Any place where they can justify a mixed group attacking you. Since previews are almost always of the opening areas, I think this would defuse any controversy. They've got til 2009 apparently, so I'm sure it'll work out in the end.

    Actually, it's even more easy to stem this than that. All they need is some footage in there of Chris saving "good" Not_African black people from the zombies, and possibly oing work at the behest of people that need his help or something.

    I'd be willing to bet 10-1 there's at least one bit where Chris is actively protecting or helping people in the game (in one form or another). There, situation diffused, Chris doesn't hate black people, he's just fighting a zombie infection yada yada yada the end.

    My guess is that this is pretty much going to dissapear as soon as the game is released, the same way the "Bully" controversy did.

    subedii on
  • GertBeefGertBeef Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    subedii wrote: »
    YesNoMu wrote: »
    Dammit, I knew this would happen. I really wish people would take the time to be educated about the things they protest.

    That said, I think Capcom would be best off to throw in white enemies, at least in the early game. Make the opening fights set in an airport or something. Or a Red Cross aid building. Any place where they can justify a mixed group attacking you. Since previews are almost always of the opening areas, I think this would defuse any controversy. They've got til 2009 apparently, so I'm sure it'll work out in the end.

    Actually, it's even more easy to stem this than that. All they need is some footage in there of Chris saving "good" Not_African black people from the zombies, and possibly oing work at the behest of people that need his help or something.

    I'd be willing to bet 10-1 there's at least one bit where Chris is actively protecting or helping people in the game (in one form or another). There, situation diffused, Chris doesn't hate black people, he's just fighting a zombie infection yada yada yada the end.

    But what if he was a flawed character that actually didn't like black people? Because then we are pretty much fucked.

    GertBeef on
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  • MalkorMalkor Registered User regular
    edited August 2007
    Tw4win wrote: »
    Malkor wrote: »
    Tw4win wrote: »
    This really isn't news. It's just a minority group trying to claim racism where there isn't any.
    One person does not an entire minority group make dudo.

    True.

    Although I'm sure she'll organize some group in the near future.

    I'd be a bit more worried about this if Al Sharpton or Rev. Jesse Jackson were involved. They are the only two African American leaders I know of that could organize a big enough protest to really get noticed.

    I forgot about them. They'll hopefully be too busy supporting one campaign or another.

    Malkor on
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This discussion has been closed.