Unfortunate Implications/Video Games: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|"All those who feel that stereotypes aren't an issue when creating fictional groups for game purposes are free to take part in playtests for my new game '''''Sambo''': The RPG of Stealing Chickens and Eating Watermelons.''"|JellyRoll Baker, in an RPG.net discussion of why one needs to be careful when dealing with [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|fantasy counterpart cultures]].}}
 
{{smallcapssmall-caps|Important Note:}} Just because a work has [[Unfortunate Implications]] does ''not'' mean that the author was thinking of it that way. In fact, that's the point of it being ''unfortunate''. So, please, no [[Justifying Edit]]s about "what the authors really meant." The way an author handles a trope is an important factor here; handling a trope in a clumsy manner can certainly create unintentional impressions for readers. Likewise, if a work ''intends'' the offensive message (for example, a piece of Nazi propaganda about Jews), it wouldn't count. Also, for something that may not be offensive to you personally but may offend others in a different culture or time period, see [[Values Dissonance]].
 
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* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' has an unintentional variant in the ''[[Super Robot Wars Alpha]]'' and ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' canons. The good guy mecha have a lot of German names, and the bad guy mecha (for the Balmarians) are inuse Hebrew names. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|No more need be said.]]
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' has [[Big Bad]] Ganondorf, revealed in ''Ocarina Of Time'' to be a [[Dark-Skinned Redhead]]. He is a member of the thieving Gerudo race, who have the same appearance. One of the most evil characters in the series came from the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] to certain Middle Easterners.<ref>The crescent and star was on the original Mirror Shield found in the Spirit Temple, was [[bowdlerise]]d for international release, aside from the whole "brown-skinned thieves living in a desert" thing</ref> The rest of the Gerudo are unfriendly, but seem to be on the side of good.
** ''[[Phantom Hourglass]]'' has the blacksmith Zaus, who is also a dark-skinned redhead. He helps Link by forging the Phantom Sword. Also, the Gerudo-like Jolene is technically an antagonist who chases you around challenging you to duels, but she's not a completely bad person. Her real beef is that she's trying to get to Linebeck in revenge for stealing her treasure {{spoiler|[[Slap Slap Kiss|and because she's still slightly in love with him.]]}}
* ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' features [[Mighty Whitey|a white American who saves Africa]] from [[Scary Black Man|Scary Black Zombies]] with help from [[But Not Too Black|a very light-skinned African woman]]. And later in the game, you fight your way through several African villages swarming with African zombies in grass skirts and clay masks, who howlinghowl incoherently while throwing spears. An in-game journal by one of the villagers before they were infected with [[The Virus]] attempts to justify this by pointing out the strangeness of this behavior, and it is actually one of the first signs that something has gone terribly wrong, but it still plays directly into stereotypes associated with Africans, and the message becomes that villagers would only act like traditional Africans before Europeans arrived if they were infected by a virus that brings out that reduces them to animalistic monsters. Not to mention the fact that they are all helpless and enslaved to a blonde-haired blue-eyed [[Social Darwinist]], until said white American arrives to save the day. Even though he has a black African partner and another important black ally, it still reads like a typical [[Mighty Whitey]] setup.
* In ''[[Dead Rising]] 2'', the only Asian person in the story, Rebecca, is [[Butt Monkey|treated the worst by the narrative]]: she's kidnapped (twice), reduced to helplessness by injury, and ends up cold-bloodedly murdered by [[The Mole]]. By the same [[Incredibly Lame Pun|token (ha)]], another black main character is a gold-wearing, pimp-dressed, jive-talking stereotype who becomes the [[Big Bad]] and kidnaps two (white) women. One of the other black characters is a female survivor who can be encountered beating the crap out of zombies. However,; her name is LaShawndra, and she's basically a Fat [[Sassy Black Woman]] stereotype.
* The ''[[Warcraft]] III''—The, The Horde's dialects are based on stereotypes of different races. The playable Trolls are Jamaican (with other tribes sounding Cuban) practicing vodoo voodooVoudoun, an Orc hero type uses pretty bad "urban" accents, and Tauren, while mostly unaccented, have blatant cultural commonalities with Native Americans. Thankfully, they had dropped most of the [[Exclusively Evil]] stuff before this.
{{quote|"What do you mean what kinda' accent is dis? It's a ''troll'' accent. I swear, Jamaican meh crazy."}}
** In ''[[World of Warcraft]],'' this continues to the Alliance expansion race, the Draenei (Teutonic or Slavic depending on what the accent sounds like to whoever it is you're asking), while the expansion's Horde race, the Blood Elves, meet a different stereotype (metrosexual) -- more consistent with the Alliance original races' behaviors. This aspect of this may be a [[Justified Trope]] in that the Draenei and Blood Elves are supposed to be bastions of the opposing faction within their own ("human" Alliance versus "alien" Horde), in turn consistent with each of these races being the only race in their faction to have a class previously exclusive to the other. Both were pretty [[Broken Base|controversial]].
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** The Khajit. They speak with Eastern European-style accents and tend to come in two varieties; Bandits and highwaymen or in traveling trading caravans (or as slaves in Morrowind). They also have racial bonuses that lean them towards thief/assassin territory. While the racial bonuses could be hand-waved by their nature as [[Cat People]], the rest sounds an awful lot like common stereotypes of [[Roma]]. Hardly helps that their homeland is the source of one of the Elder Scrolls' few true narcotics.
* In the original ''[[Star Control]]'', most of the Alliance (or "good") species didn't look very alien to humans (beautiful humanoid women, furry vulpine-lupine-rodent creatures, pretty silicon-based life forms, pterodactyl-like organisms, etc.). The Hierarchy (or "evil") species were invariably [[Starfish Aliens|ugly]], except for the humanoid Androsynth, who had [[Turned Against Their Masters]], so the use of [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?]] was glaringly obvious. The sequel reversed this to some degree, since the player character had to ally with both cute and non-cute aliens, but none of the old Hierarchy species allied with him permanently, if at all. And even if you do agree that {{spoiler|[[Green-Skinned Space Babe|space aliens should only be allowed to have sex with humans if said aliens are attractive by traditional human standards]], the accidental invocation of [[Bring Out Your Gay Dead]] was unfortunate.}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121102185422/http://www.arcadiafan.de/Kirby/Images/sp614.png Wham Bam Rock], from ''[[Kirby]] Super Star''. In the DS remake he was [http://wikirby.info/images/8/84/Wham_Bam_Rock.JPG redesigned]{{Dead link}} to look more like a Shakokidogu (an ancient clay figure from Japan with an extremely stylized female form) and less like a blatant [[Ethnic Scrappy]]. Good move, I say.
** Wham Bam Rock's appearance, meanwhile, was switched over to [[One-Winged Angel|Wham Bam]] ''[http://images.wikia.com/kirby/en/images/5/59/Whambamjewel.png Jewel]'', his on-steroids counterpart from "Helper to Hero". The lips are less massive, and he has three eyes, but he still resembles a blackface a bit too closely for comfort.
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'': The Valkyrur themselves. {{spoiler|The legendarily angelic Valkyrur are responsible for the Darcsen Calamity and installed a traitor family of Darcsen as rulers, thus letting the shame of their betrayal become the incentive to keep their non-Valkyrur heritage (and thus the true identity of the Valkyrur as vicious conquerors) a secret. They're powerful, but they're also emotionally manipulative liars who used the pain they caused to elevate their own reputation. Guess which gender their [[One-Gender Race]] is.}}
** And one of the two good Valkyria is {{spoiler|a little girl who has the social graces of a wild animal until she's civilized by your team}}. Yeah. Ouch.
** ''VC'' wasn't too warmly received in China because [http://images.wikia.com/valkyria/images/a/a0/Nadine2.jpg the Darcsens]{{Dead link}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20120522115344/http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101030172110/valkyria/images/8/87/Cordelia_Leanbluff.jpg look suspiciously] [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111007123961/valkyria/images/thumb/7/75/Lynn.png/292px-Lynn.png Japanese]. Their story of seeking recognition [[Second Sino-Japanese War|just don't sell in China]].
*** Not to mention that the Darcsen function in the plot as an Expy for the Jews during WWII. Except they look Japanese and there's no Japanese Expy country or race, and so it gives the impression that the writers/character designers ''replaced'' the Jews with the Japanese for the purposes of the narrative.
** An enemy soldier has a touching death scene in a chapter entirely designed to humanize the opposing army and help the player realize that even the bad guys are people. Squad 7 members who die have a brief, but tear-jerking and characterful last words scene. {{spoiler|Selvaria and Faldio}} kill themselves after heartfelt speeches that show the player their plight. The entire Gallian Army is completely disintegrated. [[A Million Is a Statistic|No one cares.]] Enemy Mooks are people, but ally Mooks are cannon fodder.
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** Well in the current comic continuity {{spoiler|Wakandans}} use primitive weapons in order to be [[Closer to Earth]], so at least there is some reasoning for the implications. It doesn't help much, but it softens the blow.
* ''[[Call of Duty]]: [[Modern Warfare]] 2'' includes the infamous level "No Russian," where the player is allowed (but not required) to join in a civilian massacre of Russians. Civilians can also appear (and be killed) during the Rio missions. The Unfortunate part is that the latter part of the Americans' storyline takes place during a Russian invasion of the Washington D.C. metro area and there isn't a single American civilian to be found anywhere, save one dead VIP. Killing Russians and Brazilians on screen is apparently acceptable but not Americans.
** Radio chatter in the level "Of Their Own Accord" (which is set in Washington D.C.) mentions that the Russians are firing on evacuation choppers full of civilians.
** On the flipside, Americans are consistently protrayed in the series as either incompetent fools to cock everything up, unwitting patsies for the villains, or flat-out villains themselves. If you're the sort who looks for reasons to get offended, ''Modern Warfare'' will see your challenge no matter who you are.
** In Modern Warfare 3, a child is killed by an explosion in London. As [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] points out, other children probably died in the war, and the only one worth focusing on was the American tourist. Apparently, Americans can't identify with anyone but other Americans...
*** The framing device for the scene requires the characters to be videotaping themselves in downtown London, and tourists are much more likely to be doing that than natives. And if you want non-British tourists in Britain who still speak English, 'American' is first up on the list of possible choices.
* In ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', the villain team is Team Plasma. Their clothing is designed to evoke the armor of knights, and they even use a symbol used as a shorthand for Jesus's name as a symbol. And they allegedly want to "save" your [[Mons|Pokémon]]. Yep, the villain team are Christian radicals.
** They plan to "save" the Pokémon by creating separate worlds for them. Not just Christian radicals, but an [[Animal Wrongs Group]].
** And if that wasn't offensive enough, {{spoiler|Team Plasma - the team based on the Christian church - turns out to be a scam set up by its leader so he can become the most powerful Pokemon trainer in the world once everyone else is powerless. Not helped in that Ghetsis's robes make him look a bit like [[The Pope]].}}
** Also, the one guy who can actually talk to Pokémon sides with Team Plasma, but they're still shown as being wrong. Basically in order to progress in the game you have to ignore your best source of information on what Pokémon actually want. To help you feel better about this you keep running into trainers saying they love their Pokémon and would never want to hurt them. So, if you have power over people don't bother asking them what they think of how you treat them, as long as you mean well you must be doing fine. Somewhat mitigated when N later reveals that {{spoiler|the player character's Pokémon said that they wanted to be with the player character the first time they met N, and other trainer's Pokémon have been saying similar things}} but the player character had no way of knowing this until they're pretty far into fighting Team Plasma.
** Also, the games in general have been accused of "encouraging" animal abuse by pointing out similarities between Pokemon battles and "cockfighting"/"dog fighting".
** Jynx is currently the ''only'' Pokemon who's physical appearance was changed because of this. Originally, she looked like [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20200328194634/https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/e/e1/Lorelei_Jynx.png this.] Naturally, this caused many people to compare her design to that of "Blackface" . Nintendo soon redesigned Jynx's appearance so now it looks like [https://web.archive.org/web/20130118072926/http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/a/ae/Jynx_anime.png this.]
** The Pokemon universe's only known Italian is a Mafia Don. ''Ouch.''
* ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'': Several reviewers have taken issue with the fact that the game has Samus - [[Action Girl|a strong and independent bounty hunter who just happened to be female]] - now going on about her feelings, taking orders, and seeking approval from male authority figures. And she can't use her equipment until a man authorizes her, even if that equipment would save her lots of damage.
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*** Take also into account the fact that Samus has killed Ridley ''four times'' before ''Other M'' - and not frozen up on any of those occasions. The makers of ''[[Other M]]'' say they didn't take the stories of the ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games into account, which still leaves two times. Defenders of the game claim that a) she thought that the last time, he was dead for sure, b) she was emotionally vulnerable after the events of Super Metroid, c) she realized that {{spoiler|she was partially responsible for this Ridley's development}}, or d) some combination of the above.
** Various reviewers accused the game of sexism, including [[He-Man Woman Hater|Yahtzee]] of ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' and [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]]. Others, such as [[Moviebob]] in his Game Overthinker persona, accused the critics of the game of being oversensitive or sexist. As you can probably tell, the issue is a bit touchy...
** And to round out the [[Fan Dumb]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20130312050127/http://www.g4tv.com/videos/48335/Talkabout-Metroid-Other-M/ the reviewer for X-Play], among others, was accused of hating the game simply because she was "a feminist". Yes, and? Why would that be pejorative?
** Many of the people bashing the game often mentioned "Japanese culture" being a factor in the direction taken with the game. While Japanese gender relations are... complex, critics are using it both to attack the game's portrayal of Samus, while other critics are using it as a defense. The problem is, they're ''partially'' right. It can get even more uncomfortable if detractors say that [[Retro Studios]] should have stuck with the games not necessarily because they were more skilled with their handling of the series (a much more valid argument), but because their "American" approach automatically makes it better.
** During a flashback, we find that Adam would end briefings by going (rhetorically) "any objections, lady?" Samus is the only female member of her squad, so Adam was deliberately singling her out by her gender. Repeatedly. Samus seemed to be the only person who found any problems with this (at the time), but somehow recollects it fondly, as Adam's little joke. Samus even notes that it would sound sarcastic from anyone else. [[Unreliable Narrator|There is nothing in the cutscenes to distinguish it from sarcasm or mockery]]. By contrast, Anthony's repeated use of "Princess" is clearly an affectionate nickname, and the game lets the viewers ''infer'' that they are [[Like Brother and Sister]], compared to the ham-handed approach to the Adam-Samus relationship.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20131104140519/http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html Other critics argue] that the game's sexism and bizarre incompetency on Samus' part are merely parts of a greater whole: a romanticized [[Abusive Parents|abusive relationship]] between an otherwise capable bounty hunter and her surrogate father figure.
*** Some will argue that Samus wandered in based upon a distress signal later revealed to have been sent by {{spoiler|Madeline }} and Adam made it clear she had no business on the station, which was Galactic Federation property and only later agreed to let her stay on the condition she follow his orders, making it more of a commander subordinate situation.
*** Many players were creeped out by how Samus kept referring to the Metroid hatchling as "the baby," and that the game kept using "baby" imagery.