Undergrad Fingers Racism in Games

Research borne of thousands tens of hours poring over hundreds four games yields worrying results.

Bad news: It comes in threes, or so they say, and that's how it is at the moment for the games industry, which is again being tainted by the gnarled hand of perceived racism.

First there was LocoRoco, which one commentator said was an example of institutionalized racism. Then came the PSP farce, in which Sony was forced to pull a controversial ad campaign featuring two women - one black, one white - grasping and gripping each other. Now comes a study that says games are shameless in flaunting their racism.

"Parents, government and media watchdog groups have protested the widespread violence and sexism in videogames," writes Robert Parungao as reported by Next Generation, "but the blatant racism has gone largely unnoticed."

As part of his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, Parungao took a cursory look at the games industry and plucked four games for his research: Grand Theft Auto III, Warcraft III, Kung Fu and Shadow Warrior.

The research, which involved Parungao playing games for 100 hours, fingered the alleged racist undertones in his subjects, such as Grand Theft Auto III's blanket portrayal of minority groups "as narrative obstacles to be overcome, mastered or ultimately blown to smithereens by the white hero."

It's unclear what principles Parungao used to extrapolate the results from his picayune sample group, though it's possible he blindly applied his experiences with some individuals to the entire population. Sort of like actual racism, you might say.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games