Unfortunate Implications/Video Games: Difference between revisions
Unfortunate Implications/Video Games (view source)
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{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]].}}
{{smallcaps|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
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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 in Hebrew. [[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.
** ''[[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 howling 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.
* ''[[Warcraft]] III''
{{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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** 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.
*** Well, that was a small problem in that, right after, a gigantic city-sized dreadnought was plowing through the Gallian countryside, right into the the capital city, Randgriz. Then said dreadnought is equipped with a [[BFG|mountain-destroying laser of death]].
**** This is true, but Squad 7 is ''walking away from the blast'' and only barely stop ''walking'' to acknowledge it even happened, and even then, their major concern is whether {{spoiler|Alicia}} is also capable of creating a blast like that. There are a couple of scenes between the two where you'd think ''somebody'' would express some concern, but since Selvaria is supposed to be sympathetic, we're not supposed to mind that she killed ''thousands of people who had nothing to do with her capture'' while she ''let the people who WERE responsible for her capture go free'', and specifically had them removed from the danger zone ''as part of the terms of her surrender''. The game does nothing to show that there's anything really wrong with it, either! We're supposed to feel bad that Selvaria committed suicide, not that she single-handedly destroyed the lives of however-many Gallian soldiers and their families. They don't matter, killing them isn't even presented like a sad reality of war like the enemy Mook who dies in Alicia's
**** If fact you're supposed to ''feel good'' because she took out a number of the [[Jerkass]] higher-ups; remember that this is 5-15% of a ''nation'' being killed right there.
** When Selvaria first steps out onto the field, she tells her men, "There lies Gallia. ''Claim her.''", and they rush forward, but it says even uglier things about the Empire that it finds it appropriate to use rape metaphors to encourage its soldiers.
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** Every confirmed gay or bisexual character in the whole series is a villainous sadist. Volgin is a rapist, Ocelot gets off on torture, and Vamp is plain inhuman and wears a knife in front of his crotch (curiously enough, he was originally intended to be a female character, but was turned male fairly late in development). However, the gallons of [[Ho Yay]] between the heroic characters, the [[Morality Pet|gay loves]] generally being portrayed as [[Pet the Dog|sympathetic relationships]], and Snake calling out Raiden on being more disturbed by squicky gay relationships than squicky straight relationships do a bit to alleviate this. On the other hand in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'', though, which depending on your view, presented a male/male "[[Just Friends|couple]]" as being incapable of raising children until a woman showed up and started cooking for them, which could be interpreted as a swipe against non-traditional families.
*** Possibly more a swipe against single dads regarding Otacon and Sunny. Sunny's personality and Otacon's attempted parenting fits the negative stereotypes of the single-dad relationship rather well: Sunny is allowed free reign of the ship, Otacon clearly has little to no control over her, and she spends all day unsupervised in front of the computer. The only foster dad/daughter bonding time the two have together is when doing traditionally masculine things (like building the Mk. II for Snake). Naomi arrives and teaches Sunny traditionally "feminine" things (art, fashion, cooking, kerotan alarm clocks) and when Naomi and Otacon become romantically involved, Sunny sees her like a surrogate mother.
** Racial stereotypes: The DARPA Chief {{spoiler|and weapons expert Sigint}}, the bomb disposal technician, two women who carry [[BFG
** [[Black Dude Dies First]]. In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', it was the DARPA Chief and in ''MGS2'' it was Scott Dolph. The former's death is even more egregious when one considers that the DARPA Chief who dies on-screen is an impersonator and that the real dies ''before'' the events of the game.
*** ''MGS2'' pulls this ''twice'' - {{spoiler|the first [[Plotline Death]] of the second chapter is Peter Stillman}}.
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* ''[[Mass Effect]]'''s treatment of homosexuality is a bit questionable. In the first game the limited cast made even the presence of a [[Discount Lesbians|Discount Lesbian]] a relatively positive sign, but when ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'' came out with [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] with numerous chances of interspecies romances with very un-humanlike aliens the absence of male homosexuality has become uncomfortably conspicuous. What's even worse is that ME2 confirms that female Commander Shepard can indeed be lesbian with human women, but gives her the most shallow "romance" subplot (if it can be called that), and the game does not treat it as a "real" romance - it does not bring the Paramour achievement<ref>which, admittedly, is described as being for romances with squadmates</ref> and is not considered cheating on your ME1 partner, like every other option. Bonus points for a [[Depraved Bisexual]] [[Discount Lesbians|Discount Lesbian]] serial killer in another subplot.
** There's also the issue with [[Word of God]] saying a player may not choose to pursue a homosexual relationship because Shepard is too predefined a character, and his sexual orientation was decided. But players may decide upon the history, first name, appearance, gender, class, and personality of Shepard. Pretty much the only thing that cannot be chosen is the voice and that Shepard is going to save the galaxy. This does nothing to explain the fact that Female!Shepard can be exclusively lesbian. So it seems the only trait of Shepard's they decided to define is that ''he's'' no-way no-how gay. Ouch.
*** What makes this particularly odd is that the company that produces ''Mass Effect'', [[BioWare]], has included properly fleshed-out [[Gay Option
*** They seem to be trying to rectify this with the third installment, which will finally have a male homosexual romance option, though only adding it to the third one has [http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/515 its own issues]. It's completely possible to have played a male Shepard as gay throughout ME1 and ME2, he'd just also be a [[Celibate Hero]] on top of being gay, but that just falls into this ''again''.
*** Mass Effect 3 does dip into this with their treatment of bisexuals, continuing the tradition from Mass Effect 2. Of the three new love interests, one is a gay man, one is a lesbian, and one is a bisexual woman. The man and the lesbian are considered full love interest, have fleshed out scenes building the relationship, and full romance scenes to the end. The bisexual woman has no real conversations with Shepard beyond interviewing him(she's a combat reporter), and her "romance scene" is a kiss and a black out much earlier on in the game; she can't be invited back up afterwards, and she doesn't spend the night with Shepard before the last mission like the other romances do. This is even shallower than [[Mass Effect 2]]'s bisexual love interest. Kelly is only upgraded to full love interest status in 3.
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