2. History of Representation
• Video games have been around since the 1950's, and have being stereotyping characters,
particularly people who are ethnic minorities or other than white.
• Typical protagonist for video games are white males usually mid thirties or older than other
characters in the game.
• Black- criminal
• Middle eastern- terrorists
• White- Racist, supremacists
• Asian- intelligent, warrior
Following Alvarado's theory people are portrayed in four different ways, these being exotic,
pitied, dangerous and humorous, these are the basis for characters personalities in video
games.
3. Asian characters portrayed
in Video Games
Stereotypical Representations of Asian Characters
• Intelligent- In Asian countries their education system is shown to
be extremely academic as well as through to be important in their
society therefore the representations over exaggerate this and
conclude that characters who are Asian must be intelligent to fit
in to the created stereotyping.
• Warriors/ Ninjas- Martial arts and ninjas dissented from Asian
countries therefore the stereotype of characters focus on this in
their fighting skill as abilities, in addition as many video games are
created in countries like Chin and Japan they include their
ancestors history.
• Either technological advanced or extremely traditional in
costume of basis of character.
• Used in a variety of characters like protagonists however Asians
who play bad guys are indefinitely connected to Yakuza or mafia.
Games with Asian Stereotypes
• Portal 2- Chell
• Mirrors Edge- Faith Connors
• Soul Calibur- Mitsurugi
• Tomb Raider- Queen Himiko
• Saints Row- Jyunichi
• Mortal Combat- Shang Tsung
4. Hispanic/Latino characters in
video games
Hispanic and Latino people have a general representation when in
video games, these include:
• Religion- Many Hispanic video games characters are portrayed as
religious this is because of the country of decent, which are
usually predominantly catholic or Christian in religion therefore
media exaggerates this and uses this stereotype in a game,
examples of this are shown in the Darkness where the play on
religion and the devil are key aspects of the storyline.
• Tattoos- In particular the male characters are designed to have
tattoos this is because of another stereotype which is that
Latinos and Hispanics are related to gangs and the mafia
therefore can be recognized in their tattoos.
• Sexuality- The female characters are sexually objectified in most
games and this stereotype derives from the clothing and movies
that have being made to build this stereotype which has
translated into games.
Video Game Examples
• Assassins Creed- Ezio Auditore
• Darkness- Jackie Estacado
• Shadows of the Damned- Garcia Hotspur
• Gears of War- Dominic Santiago
• Dead Rising -Isabela Keyes
5. White People portrayed in Video Games
• Red Dead Redemption- John Marston
• Devil May Cry- Dante
• The Evil Within- White majority.
• Resident Evil 7 Biohazard- Redneck Americans.
• Ethnic Cleansing
• Gears of War- Marcus Fenix
White people feature the majority of video game
characters with the typical protagonist being white,
male and older than their female counterparts. White
people often take leadership roles like Gears of War and
The Evil Within where the game is based around them
or similar characters. The main stereotypes of white
people include
• Leader
• Protagonists
• Overpowered- Dante (Devil May Cry)
• Sexualised- Females in the majority of Video Games
• Racial Abusive or Supremacists- Shown in Ethnic
Cleansing.
• Stupid/ not intelligent- The majority of southern
character in American are referred to Rednecks
which term can be derogatory in the way that they
make them sound studic or un-educated.
6. Nightwolf (Mortal Combat)
• Nightwolf has the ability to call
down thunder
• Native Americans are extremely
spiritual and often have
supernatural abilities. Anther
representation is the costume and
weapons that
• he uses in game, a laser tomahawk,
feather bandana and war paint are
typical of old western movies
translated into game because the
stereotype is accepted that this is
the most common way to show and
native American.
Native Americans portrayed in Video Games
Thunderhawk (Street Fighter)
• Street Fighter used most ethnicity in
the characters fighting style and
costume.
• Thunderhawk is stereotypical in the
sense of western film and ideas like
his attacks are Rising Hawk and
Mexican Typhoon as well as hobbies
including collecting animal skins,
• primitive and violent character as
the creators make him use hand-to-
hand combat including weapons
linked to spirituality and homemade
tools.
Stereotypes
• Aggressive
• Spiritual
• Primitive
• Savages
• Sexualised (females)
As Native Americans are stereotyped as savages they
are usually portrayed as the villains in western
games like Gun, this representation derives from the
western movies which show the Native Americans as
savages and killing white people. This stereotype is
born from the fact that white people had been killing
the majority of peaceful Americans and need to
justify themselves for doing this, hence media made
them the villains.
7. Black Characters portrayed in Video Games
Game Examples
• The Walking Dead- Lee
• Gears of War- Augustus Cole
• Prototype 2- James Heller
• Assassins Creed 4- Aveline
Black people are the most represented ethnic minority in video games
closely followed by Asian people. Black characters have many negative
stereotypes which have been carried and modified, this ethnic minority
also follows each one of Alvarado's characters groups in many different
video games the most predominant being exotic and dangerous.
Stereotypes include
• Criminals- This has risen since gang culture has being actively
portrayed in the media, another reason is the stereotypes of slavery
where the media would exaggerate black people as criminals to justify
their action against them. Another reason is the black rights movement
where marches and protest would turn violent as a result of self
defence against police and predominantly white people.
• Antagonist- As the majority of games have a white protagonist the
villain is often a character who is black or an other ethnic minority,
specifically in games who use racial abuse as a motive in the game for
example Ethnic Cleansing.
• Dangerous- As the characters are designed the characters in war or
fighting games are built to be physically strong, this is used when
creating black characters as the game doesn't give them as much of a
backstory sa other characters therefore must make them appealing
through another way, sometime these characters are not playable or
classed as background characters.
8. Micro Analysis- Ethnic Cleansing
Ethnic Cleansing is a first-person shooter video game for Microsoft Windows
computers, created by the American White nationalist organization National
Alliance.
The player can select a neo-Nazi, a Skinhead, or a Klansman to control. They run
through a ghetto that has been compared to New York City and shoot African-
Americans and Latinos, before descending into a subway system to kill Jews.
This games is one of the most controversial video games created and was released in 2001. This
shows a representation of white people being racial abusive to other ethnicities, however the fact
that this game sold around “a couple of thousand copies” and was a game in a long list of racial
segregation games like Grand Theft auto and Street fighter, the audience of this game was 90%
white teenage males. The game is a first person shooter which make the player feel more
relatable to the game however similar games to Ethnic Cleansing are more subtle in targeting a
certain Ethnicity, like the Playstation2 game Gun where Native Americans are the villains and
constant targets throughout the game.
10. Clementine
• African-American
She is represented as one of the most important character sin the
games franchise and displays traits like being highly intelligent as well
as compassionate, however further in the games play she grows older
and more independent this shows her representation of her race as
well as gender.
Her dress is white which links to innocence as well as her pose in the
image showing reluctance and shyness.
As she is young and shy she becomes pitied if anything happens to
her, following Alvarado's theory.
Lee Everett
• African- American
Lee was a professor who taught history for over six years at the
University of Georgia. Most of Lee's main decisions and dialogue are
left up to the players; however based on conversations and Lee's
responses to certain events, it's shown that he is smart, reasonable,
independent, and generally kind. He is the main protagonist in the
game therefore displays leadership. The picture above displays his as
aggressive and dangerous, this is misleading as he only becomes this
way when someone threatens himself or Clementine, also showing
he is a father figure to many other characters. He wears darker
coloured clothing this can be because of practicality in the game or
shows that he has a more violent side to his character.
11. Glenn
Korean-American
Glenn is an Asian character whose traits are kind-heartedness and a caring demeanour, in the games he is friendly with
the majority of characters including Clementine and Lee. He is classed as a younger characters, aged 22. Glenn
disappears for a section of the games therefore suggesting that his character development is not a strong as the
others, in addition to this based on the players decisions Glenn will be killed, this is normal for games to disband
secondary characters. His picture also shows a different demeanour, as his is shown frowning when in the game he is
one of the nicer, more considerate characters. His character doesn’t follow the stereotypes for Asian people as he is
not war-like or over-powered like most Asian game characters.
The Walking Dead give the player decisions to further the game, creating a butterfly effect in that characters like Glenn could be
effected by the choices. In the image to the right Lee is first shown to be in the back of a police car representing him as a criminal,
the players can have the response of either believing that he is dangerous or pitied.
The image to the left shows Lee to be a father like figure and leader to the rest of the characters which disproves previous
stereotyping earlier on in the game, both images feature Lee making him the main character and protagonist of the game, is feature
are different than others like Prototype, or Gear of War because Lee is allowed to have a more nurturing side
