Kotaku: Racism

'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 »

Envisioning a World Without Racism With Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Mike Fahey — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:20:00 EST

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It might be seven years old, but that doesn't mean commenter Cheese Addict can't find a positive racial statement lurking in the back alleys of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It's never too late to Speak Up on Kotaku. More »

Thank Capcom These Hideous, Offensive Street Fighter Rejects Never Saw Life

Mike Fahey — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:30:00 EDT

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Did you know that Zangief's original name was Vodka Gorbalsky? Do you realize how horrifically stereotypical some of the early Street Fighter character designs were? You will once you watch episode one of Machinima's FighterPedia. More »

Expert Says Blaming Massacres on Video Games Smacks of Racism

Mike Fahey — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:00:00 EDT

When tragedies such as the recent massacre in Oslo, Norway occur, the first place many look to lay blame is in the video games the perpetrators played. According to clinical psychologist Christopher Ferguson, when white males kill and games are blamed, there may be racism at play. More »

Confederate Army Uniforms Pulled from Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace

Owen Good — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:20:00 EDT

Microsoft removed a Confederate soldier's uniform and cap from an Xbox Live avatar items collection, following complaints from users about what the symbols represent. More »

Is This Studying Hate Speech, or Just Intellectualized Trolling?

Owen Good — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EDT

GAMBIT, the video games research center at MIT, is investigating racism and hate speech in online multiplayer gaming. The results are not particularly surprising, but I'll confess to a morbid curiosity as to what a gamer would hear playing Halo: Reach under the gamertag PROUD_2B_MUSLIM, GayPride90 or Black_N_Proud90. It, and the language in this video, is decisively NSFW. More »

Let's Just Say White Mage's Dad Is 'Old-Fashioned'

Mike Fahey — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST

White Mage, Red Mage, Black Mage, what's the difference? In Dorkly's latest video we discover that not every White Mage is as enlightened as the next. More »

Valve Writer Hits Back at 'Racism' Editorial

Owen Good — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:40:00 EDT

Last week, a Houston Chronicle writer referenced Left 4 Dead 2's setting choice - New Orleans - in an opinion piece lamenting the perceived insensitivity of several games. Valve has responded. More »

Houston Chronicle: Video Game Racism "The New Norm"?

Owen Good — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:00:00 EDT

No, not that guy. Norm, as in, status quo. As in, we've masticated the shooting-black-people argument in Resident Evil 5, now let's pile on Call of Juarez and an unreleased game for good measure. More »

New York Times on RE5: The Truth About African Zombies

Mike Fahey — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:40:00 EDT

The New York Times' resident game writer Seth Schiesel kicks off his review of Resident Evil 5 with a lengthy discourse on the racism controversy, invoking the one truism about zombies everyone keeps forgetting. More »

An Informed Expert Speaks Out On RE5 Racism (UPDATE)

Mike Fahey — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:20:00 EST

VideoGamer.com played through the first three levels of Capcom's latest with one of the UK's top experts on racism to get the final word - is Resident Evil 5 racist? More »

Vexed by Online Bigots' Language? Psychologists Say They Want You to Be

Owen Good — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST

By now it's sadly a common experience, hearing racist, homophobic, even anti-Semitic slurs during online games. Often it's for no apparent reason other than as a term of abuse used against competitors, that packs more of a punch than your standard four-letter word. But a couple months back, I had a different experience, and I'm sure it's no more uncommon for others, too. In a game of Castle Crashers - cooperative multiplayer - this guy I was playing with completely proffered some rather ugly opinions of African-Americans, and needlessly heaped racial slurs on the foes we were battling. More »

Study Finds Racial Bias Common In Virtual Worlds

Stuart Houghton — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:20:00 EDT

Anyone thinking that virtual worlds are edging towards some kind of utopia, please revise your hopes downwards. More »

Resident Evil 5 Interview Confirms Africa Setting, Explains Why

Mark Wilson — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Since the Resident Evil 5 trailer debuted, it's stirred controversy. And even more recently, it's stirred controversy again. Now a Famitsu interview has surfaced with the game's producer Takeuchi-san. Aside from telling us quite a bit more about the RE5, he confirms that the game is set in Africa and explains the team's choice for this, skirting the racial tension around the topic. More »

GTA - Where Are All The White Gangs?

Mike Fahey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:20:24 EST

The Brooklyn high school teacher who writes the NYC-themed Big Smoke Street Corner blog has some interesting things to say about racism in the Grand Theft Auto series.

Having played pretty much the entire series (being, sadly, the resolute gamer I am) and basically noting how much they've pulled from such sources as The Godfather, Scarface and New Jack City, I can not remember a single positive image for Blacks, Mexicans, Cubans, Jamaicans, Colombians, Haitians, Italians, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, Japanese, one Jewish lawyer (!) and soon in the upcoming game, Russians and Serbians; not to mention the constant lampooning of liberals and homosexuals. Mind you, of course, there are never any white gangs.

DAMMIT! When is a game going to come along and accurately depict the epidemic of white street gangs! Running around in their leather jackets, with names like Ponyboy and Sodapop. Until S.E. Hinton is brought on as a consultant this racism will continue unabated! More »

Racism and Mysterious Americans

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:00:55 EST

Over at game site Insert Credit, Brandon Sheffield has an interesting post that deals with Japan's "charming" racism. Of course, Sheffield is being ironic and drawing attention to some of the stereotypes that populate the Japanese zeitgeist. From his post: More »

Dr. Phil Fights Xbox Live Racism With Phone Support

Mike Fahey — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:20:44 EST

Television therapist Dr. Phil once again journeyed into the magical realm of gaming this past Tuesday, this time to tackle the problem of Xbox Live racism. He spoke to Terry, a black father of three who claims his civil rights are being violated by fellow gamers tossing about ethnic slurs over Microsoft's gaming service. The name-calling is apparently so rampant that Terry refuses to let his children play online anymore. Before contacted Dr. Phil, Terry contacted Xbox Live. More »

Black Looks On RE 5 Racism

Mike Fahey — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:20:08 EDT

For many people the trailer for Resident Evil 5 was seen as an exciting new direction for the definitive survival horror franchise. For others, it's racist hate mongering at its worst. Kym Platt at Black Looks, a blog dedicated to exploring issues concerning African women, expresses her concerns over the trailer which depicts Chris Redfield in what appears to be an African setting, struggling against a horde of black zombies. More »

Racist Paintjobs Slip Through Forza 2 Moderation

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:20:29 EDT

User created content has been enabled in a much broader capacity with the current generation of hard drive and internet enabled consoles and software that aims to take advantage of this hardware. This a trend we'll see more of than less over the course of the generation, with software like LittleBigPlanet, Forza Motorsport 2 and Mii creation generating a great deal of buzz with gamers. This capability has been a facet of PC gaming for many years, spawning mods and levels that rival commercial products. Sadly, there is a downside to this freedom to create. More »

"BBC/Kotaku PS3 Launch Coverage Is Racist"

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 11:22:54 EST

Earlier, we posted a letter from a reader detailing what went on during the Japan PS3 launch. Homeless people lined up for consoles as well as select Chinese who then turned around and tried to sell the machines. The story got substantial internet play, including being picked up by the BBC, who interviewed me as well. But, was the coverage racist? More »

Castle Crashers... HORRIFICALLY RACIST!

kotaku.com — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:40:42 EDT

For some, Castle Crashers is just a fun looking little Golden Axe-like with the art style of Dad 'N' Me or Alien Hominid. For others? A horrific parable of genocide, in which the Ku Klux Klan take swords in hand to slice and dice the enemy gollywogs, and maybe burn some upside down crosses for extra lives. More »

Space Invaders Against Racism

kotaku.com — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:40:08 EDT

Oh great. Ash has done it again. By plucking something from the tips jar (in his ineffable laziness) that no one else thought was even interesting enough to post, he's caused an avalanche of similar crap to come rumbling down on the site, to bury you all. More »

Mario: Back to the Start

kotaku.com — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:40:32 EDT

I almost never say this, but air quotes, then "LOL." More »

College Student Plays Four Ancient Games, Diagnoses Racism

egauger — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:20:16 EDT

Canadian researcher Rob Parungao claims he spent 100 hours playing Shadow Warrior, Warcraft III, GTA III and Kung Fu over an 8-month "research period" and then published a paper on the racial stereotyping within. Jesus christ, could you take a worse sample? More »

Sony Crumbles, Puking and Mewling, and Pulls Black vs. White Ad

egauger — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:00:55 EDT

Sony's very sorry and has promised to never do it again. More »

Destroy All Hungarians

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:22:59 EDT

Romanians In Space isn't just, well, Romanians in space. It apparently encourages players to carry out a war against ethnic Hungarians. According to game site GameSetWatch, the title's slogan is "Follow your destiny. Kill any non-Romanian alien prick in cold blood." More »

Offensive Nintendo Parody Ad, This Time Shapist

brownlee — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 13:40:52 EDT

No matter what you think about Sony's PSP ad of an albino squishing the cheeks of a sleepy woman in her pajamas — racist or not? — I think we can all agree that this Ctrl + Alt + Delete is outrageously prejudiced against disgusting fatties. Florian Eckhardt More »

Counterpoint: Sony Ad Not Racist

brownlee — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:40:36 EDT

Crecente posted this ~~London~~ Dutch ad for the new white PSP, he preceded his post with the words 'I hate to spur the ire of Florian...' He then insinuated that the image represented an Aryan Ku Klux Klan super model abusing a black woman for not referring to her as 'massa'. More »

Toastyfrog Rebuts Racism, Calls Out Internet For Dickery

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 21:35:35 EDT

Hey, Kotaku readership! Remember earlier this week, when both Brian "Briana" Ashcraft and Florian "I Don't Want To Piss This Man Off" Eckhardt weighed in on whether the (seemingly) dreadlocked, blackfaced Loco Roco bad guys hit a little too close to home on the picaninny front? No? Well, they were both giving their opinions on one particular 1UP blogger's initial reaction to potentially offensive character designs that even I, Mr. Insensitive, thought might stir up some ire. More »

Counterpoint: LocoRoco Not Racist

brownlee — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:40:16 EDT

While Ashcraft nervously waves his hands and cautions about slippery cultural slopes, let me issue a more blunt response to Alejandro's claim that LocoRoco is racist: Alejandro's argument is that of a reactionary imbecile. More »

LocoRoco Racist?

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:22:07 EDT

That's what Kotaku reader Alejandro says on his 1Up page. LocoRoco looks to be the most interesting PSP game, since, well, Lumines. And while the game's creator might have stated he wanted to make a "happy game because there's too many 3D shooting game", Alejandro says that the game's anatagonists smack of blackface. Dubbed Mojya Corps, these dreadlock-like brown characters attack LocoRoco's peaceful world. He blogs: More »

Racist Game Targets Immigrants

Brian Crecente — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:00:08 EDT

A flash game is making the rounds called Border Patrol that lets you shoot immigrants crossing the border. The three types of targets in the game are a Mexican Nationalist, a drug smuggler and a pregnant woman with a child, described in the game as a "breeder." More »