as a black woman, i am very offended by this character

Whats even more dangerous is that such article is surfacing now; its so permeated into our society as accepted behavior that most probably didn't even think about it while playing the game.

Glad to see that this pattern has been noticed.

Think about this though. Gamers need to relate to a game in a way that makes them like it so they sell more. If they would have a black character use a white mans voice and dialect than people don't relate. This is a way to make the game more "cool" and "hip" so people relate it and think "yeah that just might be the future... yeah... black people are still the same"

It's all a hegemonic response to the time.

Hmm, a black guy who is diesel, hmm he is a football player right.

Get in line behind the Locust Anti-Defamation League, Morgan.

So will we start seeing a none stereotypical Lara Croft now?

I think what truly reinforces casual racism is reminding people it is racism. It is like saying "HEY there's 1 black guy out of this whole group! That's reinforcing racism!"

It is either there is no single black person or there's only one, or only black people in the game. I guess people just need to complain about things. No one is perfectly satisfied.

Don't people remember that episode of south park? Explicitly telling people that something is racism when most may not even see it that way is truly reinforcing racism by telling others it is and they have to treat things differently. When you treat people differently, then we have actual racism.

What's next? Say his voice was too deep and it reinforces what most black people sound like?

*sigh*

MTV sucks...in my opinion.

It's all gonna be okay. In the Gears Of War movie Cole will be played by Alfonso Ribeiro, the lovable Carlton from TV's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

And people would be acting weird if the black guy acted white.

This is so true. The Earth-like stereotypes of Gears were awful, but that's just Gears here.

I agree whole-heartedly, the same goes for COD4, some black guy starts rapping and such. Thing is, not that I have anything against that stereotype, I think pretty much everyone enjoyed having Cole Train around in Gears, he was cool.

I think the black character I liked the most was San Andreas' CJ. He wasn't stuck in a stereotype, you could pretty much make him anything. Heck I played a portion of the game in full biker attire. His speech had some urban vibe to it, but it was mostly free of "gang slang".

@WickedOrange: That's exactly what this guy is saying is wrong. People have that mindset because our pop culture is constantly reinforcing it.

Stereotypes in general need to go. Even the ones spawned by Video Games and Movies. How many games can you count that either star 'grizzled ugly marine' or 'scruffy haired witty hero'

Well, at least he's still better than 50 Cent in his shitty game..

*Bring it on sucka, dis ma kinda shit!* - Cole Train

@Horseflesh: That would definately make me want to watch it!

I believe the character was based, loosely, on Terrible Terry Tate: Office Linebacker from the Reebok commercials. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's actually the guy who plays Terry Tate who does the voice for that character.

Y'know, as a white guy I could also, very easily, claim to be offended at the typical, gruff-sounding, sullen, grisled male character. Not all white guys sound like that, either.

I don't know, I just have a hard time paying attention when people talk about this issue anymore, it's constant and it's almost impossible to weed out the actual, credible claims from the knee-jerk reaction of folks who are simply looking to be offended.

The problem is that it is not just video games, it's society as a whole has a stereotype of the average black man as an urban slang speaking yo-boy, it just permeates into our many forms of media. watch tv, read magazines, you'll see...and it stinks.

What exactly was racist about this? The only thing I can think of is his name. Is it because he's an arrogant cocky loudmouth person? I don't think that's a specifically "black" type of person, especially when we're talking about miliatry and ex-football players.

Why focus on the fact that the Cole Train is an obvious stereotype when every character in the game is an obvious stereotype of some sort? The entire story is one big cliche.

@超外人: I 100% agree with this. People who look for racism in everything are just as bad.

It is a valid point, not just limited to video games but to media on the whole, however: the character is a soldier and former pro-football player. He shouldn't exactly sound like one of the Half Life scientists.

Yup, I probably wouldn't have noticed this otherwise, but also, isn't Dom mildly Hispanic?

@超外人: you're talking about stopping racism via ignorance?

that sounds like the perfect way to stop popular media from reinforcing negative stereotypes.

WHAT EVER YOU DO, DO NOT TALK ABOUT RACISM.

@Fyren: I didn't think much of it until he started rapping during the credits.

That's when I figured that he was a joke to even the Developers.

@Rurik: Easier said than done...

I think Marcus Fenix was an unfair stereotype of ex-cons and military personnel.

There are so few African American characters in games and even fewer of them are in any way positive. If its not a sports game or a gang game chances are you will never see a African American character in a game.

All of American culture likes to play up stereotypes whenever a minority character takes the screen. I don't think its as much the developers fault as it is society's.

It hard being African American and standing out from these stereotypes because it makes you an outcast from both spectrums. The people who do act in the stereotypical manner see you as ashamed of your "culture" & then there are people who expect you to be everything they stereotypes dictate and become surprised when you aren't behaving in that manner. Its sort of a damn if you, do damned if you don't situation.

I think thats why I like the Half-Life series so much strong African American characters that don't just reenforce stereotypes. Alyx and Elli are two amazing characters and I pray that we see more like them in the future.

@WickedOrange: Yes, exactly. It's not about a conscious decision to re-enforce racial stereotypes, it's about creating a character that creates an authentic experience to make the player feel immersed. Knowing a few black football players, and knowing how they act and talk Cole's voice sounded authentic.

Would GTA:SA have been the same if the black characters had sounded like they were a bunch of lawyers from wealthy backgrounds and families? No.

To be fair, they didn't really "make" that character up. They just asked Terry Tate to come in and act like, well, Terry Tate. Who is very much Cole Train, at least in those old silly commercials Office Lineback commercials. The problem is those commercials were funny because it was a fish out of water style thing. Whereas in Gears, it's just a Black guy with a silly attitude. Would people prefer a Pierre Bernard (from Conan O'Brien) styled Black Guy instead?

@IronsUK: Very true.

As a black man, it bothers me that the stereotypical hood/ghetto/urban black man is the norman that we see in video games. I think it is a problem. The majority of games out there have either a white or asian character as the hero of the game. I like that Crackdown made their main character a black man.

To some it may not mean much, but I think there are just as many who think it means a lot. There is something to be said for being able to identify with the character in a game. It sometimes gets you more into the game.

Take a game like Half-Life, why couldn't Gordon Freeman have been a black guy? Why is it that the hero of a game can not be black and not be hood? Take commander Shepard in MAss Effect, Would the game be different if he were black? Ask the same question of Gordon Freeman from Half-Life.

But the article in question is part of an ongoing series that focuses on black professionals in games. The previous one made its focal point women in gaming.

@超外人: The problem with Cole in Gears of War, is that he is the stereotypical black guy. He is big, a former "football" player, and is hyper and out of control all of the time. That should not always be the image of a black guy in a video game.

This is such a hard subject. If you made him not sound the way he does, people might just go ahead and accuse you of white-washing his character.
Maybe he (the character) wants to be urban. Is there anything wrong with that?

I mean, he doesn't ever say that he wants to eat a watermelon filled with fried chicken or whatever else that bad bad stereotype likes, right?

I mean, c'mon! "Resident Evil is racist, it has no black zombies!" / "Resident Evil (5) is racist, it has black zombies!"

I'm not endorsing racism by any means but if you showed me a Japanese guy (like myself) eating sushi in a video game I would not flip out. Well, I guess as long as I'm not black I don't understand. (No sarcasm in that last sentence.)

And people would be acting weird if the black guy acted white.

What does that even mean?

Does Eli Vance act "white" by being intelligent educate and erudite?

But it's the Cole Train baby!!!

I honestly couldn't care about this. Almost everyone in Gears of War is a cliché of some kind, that just adds to the appeal for me. It's always been a semi-serious style of game.

超外人: Totally.

@ZenGaijin: Half-Life is great, and that's part of why I loved it. I guess to continue the whole South Park theme, I just can't fully appreciate the pressures that come from being a minority. I hope that, as a society, we can constructively identify and eradicate prejudice. Sadly, though, I don't think we're going to solve the problem here today, but a discussion is better than nothing.

The "Stereotyping" has to come from somewhere. It doesn't magically appear. Plus I didn't even notice that until you brought it up.Good job!(sarcasm)

Awww Hell No!

Of course it never helps when people play into a stereotype, like Mr. Tate...or half the people on xbox-live.

@Crom:

It isn't ignorance; as I said, it is explicitly pointing out it is racism by enforcing your view on others when people may not even see things that way.

This is as silly as saying "Omg, you're reinforcing the stereotype that hispanics like tacos by eating them!"

It is utterly pointless to keep saying it is racism when they likely don't even intend it to be racism. Making blantant accusations that they didn't try to branch out the character deep character development is asinine when you aren't aware of what they were trying to accomplish.

Telling people who don't even see it as racism that it is blantant racism is negatively affecting people to feel guilty about enjoying the character's behavior. It isn't as if it is poking fun of people. If it were like Mad TV's sketches of having him eating chicken and chit-lins while shooting his gun and rapping away then I'd have more reason to believe it is blantant racism.

@IronsUK: I have to agree with you. Gears did a remarkable job of including an Asian, White, Black, and Latino stereotype to cater to every audience demographic. Frankly, I don't think Cole-Trane was a "bad" character. He was likeable, tough, and not anywhere close to as bad as some games *see: Uncharted: Drake's quest to kill dark skinned nameless idiots*.

Yes, Epic could have made Cole Traie the team leader and made him a physicist instead of the Asian character, but I don't think they can be seen as malicious for NOT doing that. There are too many instances of REAL stereotyping racism *see: Disney, and 50 Cent/GTA* for us to make a big stink when Epic has one of the most diverse character casts in gaming history.

That video game black dude probably got a big virtual dick. Really, who cares, but stereotyping has created a wasteland of games. I want to play other games than fps shooter. 90 percent of games involve some kind of shooting or slashing. Where's the other stuff.

I agree stereotypes can be racist, but it's all about presentation. There's also the fact that blacks could be offended if they made him too "white." Ultimately, it can be racist to constantly look for or be offended by stereotypes, because you can drift into presuming about the motives of the presentation.

If I was black, I would not appreciate such stereotypes, but my greater concern would be how many of my race seem to embrace said stereotypes and actually encourage or celebrate the particular features of said type, vs. working hard to insure that it's just another characterization, such as the redneck stereotype for a white person. Sometimes I myself am confused as to how black people would "prefer" to be seen as far as the "average" preference goes. Sometimes strong reaction to a stereotype can simply be anger that when you look at your own race, the stereotype is all too present.

I know plenty of blacks who are nowhere close to this stereotype, but the media and attitudes at large seem to act like such stereotypes are what we have to accept as normal. The responsibility does not only lie with those who are irreverently and recklessly propagating this "normal," it is also with those from within the black community who reinforce such things by embracing them as a necessary part of culture.

@超外人: Also, if it was Mad TV you'd have a blatant reason to believe what you're watching isn't funny.

For every stereotypical black character there is a non-stereotypical black character (but those never get mentioned).

Good news is no news basically.

I think people are focussing too much on this character who has been chosen as a typical example of how black people are portrayed,rather than looking at the bigger picture.
It's not about how one character is portrayed, it's about how the majority are portrayed.

wow, this character is ridiculously racist. how did this get into a game?

Do any of you know that "Coltrane" was actually slang for black people at one point? It was an epithet hurled at accomplished black people, a derisive slang that implied "even though you've accomplished something (a la John COltrane) you are still black".

How come theres no stereotypical white person in video games?

Do I complain that i haven't seen 1 Australian main character in a game?
No.

@P-Sheddy: GTA3 peds.

When was the last time anyone saw movie or game where there was a black genius? How about a black secret agent? Where there was no campiness or stereotypical urban references? Why is it that a black character is acting white if he has diction and sophistication? I don't mind a little "blaxploitation" from time to time as long as it was understood that that is what's being presented, but blaxploitation =/= Black.

When I first saw the Cole Train character I was like "Seriously Epic? Did none of you take ten seconds to think this out?" I mean you could argue that most of the characters are pretty shallow, but few of them reach the level of sterotype that Cole reachs. Dominic Santiago and Minh Young Kim, both minority characters, get played pretty straight as dedicated soliders. But then Cole hits the scene and I don't think it's too harsh to say it becomes a godman minstrel show.

Cole Train was a complete stereotype, there is no denying it. The bigger problem is that he really didn't have a place on some other planet. This was NOT Earth, so why Sera is the black guy acting like he is from the ghetto? Imagine for a second if Lando or Geordi La Forge had acted the same way? It is so out of context that making them stereotypical makes no sense. Ditto for Dom to a lesser degree, you could almost hear him longing for Marie Cruz.

Griggs, from COD4, wasn't half as bad.

@TheAngryHeretic:

Then are you stating you'll be happy with a scrawny black kid that wears glasses a la Urkel?

I bet you'd call that a stereotype as well, even though Family Matters is so old >_>

The truth is, there is no magical "perfect" way to portray a person of a race. Everyone is so offended by stereotypes it just destroys the meaning of enjoying a game.

@TheAngryHeretic:

I've heard this before from several others years ago. And sometimes I see this element that they want pride in a video game. Does that really matter to feel that your ethnic group has to look perfect in every way by being articulate intelligent and saving the world in order to satisfy yourself?

I say you're right about there not being many professional black developers in games, but be aware that many of these games are made in the Southeast part of the world. Game designs of characters are also affected by writers and concept artists, not just necessarily "one" black professional in gaming.

@P-Sheddy:
That being said I can't think of too many Asian-Americans in video games either. Probably because it's 3:30am, though.

What's so wrong with having stereotype characters? There's loads of stereotypes of men in general in games, often as amoral bastards!