Kotaku: Race

'Prankster's' Racial Slur Found in Minecraft Won't Be Removed til Next Update

Owen Good — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST

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Minecraft's head developer has elaborated on how a racial slur made it into a "snapshot build" of Minecraft's PC version, noting that it was not pushed to all users. As such, Mojang, the game's maker, won't remove the offensive language until the next such update. More »

Racial Epithet Shows Up on Minecraft Menu, Developer Apologizes [Update]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST

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The newest version of Minecraft greets players with the sentence "You are a NIGGER," if they switch their language settings to Afrikaans, the language spoken in South Africa and Namibia. More »

We Simulated The NFL White Vs. Black Race Bowl On Madden So You Don't Have To

Drew Magary — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:31:55 EST

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Earlier this week, reader Dustin asked who would win between an all-white NFL All-Pro team and an all-black NFL All-Pro team. Mind you, this question was asked without ANY ROOTING INTEREST, and without any hint of RAYCESSNESS. Are we clear on that? Good. BECAUSE WE TOTALLY SIMULATED THAT RACE WAR ON MADDEN TO SEE WHO WOULD WIN. More »

Study Tries to Break Down Who Buys In-Game Items—by Race

Owen Good — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:00:00 EDT

A study found that whites and, by a slighter margin, blacks were more likely to account for purchases of in-game items from mobile games, in a study that examined purchasing habits by ethnicity. What it seeks to prove, I have no idea, but the mobile entertainment portal MocoSpace sounds pretty smug that it'll change the face of mobile games development. More »

Nielsen Survey Finds Black Gamers Spend the Most Time Playing Consoles

Owen Good — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EDT

Nielsen, the folks who measure every single thing that is or could possibly be done with a television set, have released an analysis of gaming habits by ethnicity, finding that African-Americans game the most per day, on average, Asian-Americans the least. More »

Consumer Reports Knocks Down Kinect Skin-Color Claim

Owen Good — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:20:00 EDT

Yesterday GameSpot set off a minibomb with an anecdote about Kinect not recognizing two dark-skinned users while lighter-skinned gamers had no problems. Consumer Reports has weighed in, saying this sounds like a claim about laptops from last year. More »

Race and Rain

Scott Juster — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EDT

This post contains spoilers for Heavy Rain. Although Heavy Rain is set in a nameless American city, David Cage has been forthright about Philadelphia's strong influence on game. When members of the development team visited the city, it inspired the dark, gritty world players would ultimately explore: More »

Making Avatars That Aren't White Dudes Is Hard

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:30:00 EDT

Since the majority of video game players in the West are white, when they play a role-playing game, it's not hard to have their character looking and dressing like them. But what if you're not white? More »

Survey: Hispanic Gamers More Inclined to Buy Games

Owen Good — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EDT

Hispanic gamers are more likely to buy console video games, less influenced by price points in their choices, and consider themselves gaming novices, according to a survey by Univision, which will team with GameSpot to produce a Spanish-language games portal. More »

Minority Report: The Non-White Gamer's Experience

Owen Good — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Fergus Mills searches for the words. It's clear he wants to say this carefully. The 22-year-old from Macon, Ga. is black. His Xbox Live avatar is black. Except that it's not. More »

Days Before Resident Evil 5 Release, Race Debate Spikes Again

AJ Glasser — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:40:00 EDT

Today, two articles tackle the tough issue of race in the upcoming Resident Evil 5. (Commenters beware - the ban hammer is poised at the ready.) More »

"Clearly No One Black Worked On This Game"

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:00:55 EDT

In line with the earlier post on race in video games, Newsweek journalist N'Gai Croal offers these insights about the Resident Evil 5 trailer:
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"Every Other Effin' Black Video Game Character"

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:00:48 EDT

Ah, the Cole Train. Not exactly the deepest of characters. Says Morgan Gray, Senior Producer at Crystal Dynamics:
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Halo Car Red Rings, Wii Car Takes Second in Race

Brian Crecente — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:30:25 EDT

With the release of Halo 3 just days away the ultimate faceoff went down over the weekend at the Dover Speedway: Halo 3 took on the Wii in the form of a NASCAR racing pitting Greg Biffle versus David Stremme. More »

Water Sports, Ball Play, and...Galaga

Mike Fahey — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:20:54 EDT

Are you into water sports? Do you like playing with fuzzy little balls? Do you enjoy...shooting aliens? I almost had a sexual innuendo triple play going if Nintendo hadn't included the TurboGrafx 16 version of Galaga '88, craftily retitled Galaga '90 (600 Points) to this week's Virtual Console update. Always ruining my fun. Joining its sexually ambiguous brother in arms this week is The Adventures of Lolo for the NES (500 points), which sees Lolo trying to rescue Princess Lala from the Great Devil, whose evil influence obviously led to the country of Eden's naming policy. Lolo, a small, fuzzy blue ball, must navigate a series of mazes to save his princess and indeed, the world. Need a little less pomp for double the price? N64 hit Wave Race 64 (1000 points) splashes its way onto the VC this week. It's the jet ski game so good that it inspired DOA creator Tomonobu Itagaki to include the sport in DOA Xtreme 2, and he hates everything. A nice little crop of games that should have you playing with your Wii all night long. More »

Totilo Weighs in on RE5 Debate, It's About Poverty not Race

Mark Wilson — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:40:51 EDT

The Resident Evil 5 trailer is provoking responses in all directions, and I hate to add fuel to the fire. But as someone who was a uncomfortable watching the trailer the first time he saw it at the Microsoft presser, who also hasn't seen a decent summation of his feelings on the topic, I can appreciate Stephen Totilo's perspective. And I hope you give it a shot:

My problem is that it presents a fantasy I don't desire. It looks like it's an advertisement to virtually shoot poor people. I know "Resident Evil" games are supposed to be about hiding from and shooting zombies — this one probably is too. Shooting zombies is something I can get behind...But when I see a town of what looks like impoverished African villagers — the very image of global poverty, the very spectacle that since my youth has been coded in me to evoke sympathy and charity — I don't want to pull the trigger.

Racial Stereotyping in Video Games

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:48:14 EST

Writer Richard O. Jones has a lengthy article up at Black Voice News, where he discusses the dangers of racial stereotyping in video games. Citing examples like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, he contends that young Black and Latino children who constantly see themselves portrayed as thieves and killers are more likely to emulate them. More »

The Great Gnomish Race

kotaku.com — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:00:52 EDT

Being on a World of Warcraft kick lately, I just had to post this video of 16 Level 1 Gnomes racing between Ironforge and Stormwind, on a PVP server no less. I'd like to scowl at the Level 60 Horde bastards who eviscerated the little shrimps on their marathon, but hell, I'd have done the same thing. I'm a ganker. Thanks, Hard Gay! Florian Eckhardt More »

Gnomish Death Race 2000

egauger — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:20:56 EDT

While the video is twelve minutes, the race itself took an hour: 16 level 1 gnomes on a mad dash from Ironforge to Stormwind. More »