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57 Comments

bradc1988

3 years ago

Ooh I didn't notice the little graphic on the blade of the chainsaw! Quite tricky!

Are there other things in the other two? Or are they just showing how purddy this game is atm?

Anonymous

3 years ago

Welcome to Africa hey? Because Africans are violent and uncivilised machete weilding lunatics right?

I love RE series and Capcom in general. They make good games. But it was a big mistake by them to set RE5 in Africa with black zombies being shot by a white man.

It goes to show how the Japanese are not aware of racial issues in the Western culture. No American developer would make a game were a white man is shooting blacks. Never.

I am not implying Capcom are racist. But somebody should have told these guys that this game will offend many black people.

El Taco

3 years ago

Please get out.

IISpacebreakII

3 years ago

masimba wrote

And Europeans weren't offended in RE4? Probably not, because we don't think the world is against us and we won't generate stupid reasons for the sake of argument

Black people with bright eyes will be really scary in dark rooms, perfect combo, cannot wait ^^

Qbert

3 years ago

The game involves a person shooting a zombie (or non-zombie, whatever) who cares what colour their skin is?

Was it OK for an American to kill Spanish zombies because they are white, but not OK for an American to kill African zombies because they are black?

I can understand where you are coming from, that the media may jump on this, but to basically saying that we should only kill people of a certain colour or race is incredibly stupid.

Africa is a very unique setting for a game, Capcom should be getting credit for taking the game out of generic setting #10. Wouldn't it be stupider to be killing only white zombie's in Africa?

The only reason black people will be offended over this is because they feel they should, have a stick up their arse or are told to by the media. They aren't even human, they are zombies for christ sake.

Gamesta

3 years ago

masimba wrote

Like was already mentioned, so it was ok for an american to kill Europeans.It was also ok for an African American (CJ-San Andreas) to kill white people.

But the moment 1 guy starts killing black people in a setting that obviously would require black people to be present it's not ok.

So if this earth were to have a zombie virus spread throughout it and an African American zombie tried to kill us.Do we just let it kill us because we don't want to seem racist?

When people complain about this it just shows ignorance and to a small extent racism (or maybe it should be prejudice) even though it's not intended.

Cerebral

3 years ago

Before you guys maul masimba, consider this:

masimba wrote

It goes to show how the Japanese are not aware of racial issues in the Western culture. No American developer would make a game were a white man is shooting blacks. Never.

Isn't this true?

In America, racism was a real, and very serious issue, dating back to the slavery of Africans hundreds of years ago, that has only eased in the past century. It's all well and good to say that every other game that involves killing, may involve killing of a particular racial background, but none quite as symbolic as this (and Capcom seem to be aware, ushering in an African protagonist as well as white antagonists, though whether they planned this from the beginning or are merely having a kneejerk reaction, noone knows).

I don't think it should be that big a deal either, but obviously it runs slightly deeper for those who genuinely take up issue with it. I wouldn't call it racist, but it's a touchy subject nonetheless.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Thanks Cerebral for that. At least you understand what I am trying to put across. Because clearly the folks who gave my thumbs down dont even understand racial sensitivities in America especially.

I said I love Capcom and they didnt mean to be racist, but this game will be seen as that. People offended by GTA are non-gamers isnt it? The same goes for RE5. Black folks who dont play games and aint familiar with RE shall see the game as racist. And statements like "There is no humanity here" in the new trailer doesn't help Capcom's cause at all.

Benza

3 years ago

Cerebral wrote

Before you guys maul masimba, consider this:

masimba wrote

It goes to show how the Japanese are not aware of racial issues in the Western culture. No American developer would make a game were a white man is shooting blacks. Never.

Isn't this true?

I shot plenty of black people in GTA 4.

Kurupt

3 years ago

You know white people live in Africa too.

Cerebral

3 years ago

Benza wrote

Cerebral wrote

Before you guys maul masimba, consider this:

masimba wrote

It goes to show how the Japanese are not aware of racial issues in the Western culture. No American developer would make a game were a white man is shooting blacks. Never.

Isn't this true?

I shot plenty of black people in GTA 4.

You shot plenty of white people, too.

Infested Jibbs

3 years ago

I still hold faith that one day we can live in a world where we can shoot people and be shot by people of any race, colour, or creed.

Crestfallen

3 years ago

Look, regardless of who killed what in previous games, this particular game carries racial undertones which are incredibly sensitive in nature.

A white man 'pillaging' a seemingly poverty-stricken village full of mindless, murderous Africans?? I'm not debating what grounds are too sacred for games or entertainment to touch upon, but I don't think gamers should just instinctively support the industry and disregard what might be a serious issue. We should use this opportunity for the gaming community to openly discuss what they believe is not suitable issues to portray in games.

But then again i shouldn't be surprised. So many gamers are overgrown infants whom are totally detached from reality.

unlachs

3 years ago

i dont know

i dont think that just because what little we've seen of the game consists solely of a 'white' man shooting 'black' people that it's necessarily racist

as other people have said, re4 consisted solely of murdering spanish people, so the only thing different here is a coat of paint

sure re5 is a lot more historically sensitive, but it's not racist

G3ck0

3 years ago

Isn't saying you should only kill white people incredibly racist? I have heard black people say that the zombies should be white, and that was on this website that was against racism!!!!

Infested Jibbs

3 years ago

^And that is where the catch 22 is.I still think southpark, of all sources, made that point so clear, with that episode about the flag having a group of white people standing around the gallows with a black man being hung.

In an ironic sort of way it was the townspeople who thought it was racist that ended up being racist themselves for drawing conclusions.The kids themselves saw only a group of people standing around another being hung;they made no distinction between colour.

I'm not saying this is as clear cut as what people are making it to be, hence me not joining in and negging masimba into oblivion, but we need to go back to the roots of what defines 'racism'.

In Africa there are black people.Whole villages of them.This plagas has taken hold in the village and have infected the residents.The residents go crazy.They send in resident evil vet Chris to mop up(who has been white since way back, he's not some new kid on the block who was chosen to be white for racially motivated reasons).End of story.

Anyone who reads further into it then what's above are looking too hard for something that is not there.This is not a social commentary on race relations veiled as a game.It's a game, full stop.

Gamesta

3 years ago

Crestfallen wrote

A white man 'pillaging' a seemingly poverty-stricken village full of mindless, murderous Africans?? I'm not debating what grounds are too sacred for games or entertainment to touch upon, but I don't think gamers should just instinctively support the industry and disregard what might be a serious issue. We should use this opportunity for the gaming community to openly discuss what they believe is not suitable issues to portray in games.

I honestly don't see it that way.Ok yes they could have made a new character that was also African.But I don't see the racism here.Just because they so happen to have a white man killing Africans in AFRICA, do you expect him to kill white people (of course there are white people in Africa) or maybe Europeans again or hell why don't they just put in aliens so as not to offend anyone.

The point is that regardless of what colour the protagonist is, there are going to be black people in Africa.

Now for all I know, or anyone else know they COULD be racist with this game (in which if I knew this to be the case, I wouldn't buy the game).But it's not like they're gonna come out and say so.

I agree with what I read once before. Racism is never going to go away as long as people keep on bringing it up.

Should we forget racism ever happens/happened? No we shouldn't but there's no point in bringing it up every freaking time a white person is killing a black person, or any other time something has even the slightest potential of being racist.The truth is, if you're going to kill someone, you're not gonna be bothered with what colour they are.

Now I hope no one takes this as being racist myself.If I had my way racists would all be killed off.If I met someone that was being blatantly I would put them in hospital and make sure they never even THOUGHT of something racist again.

But I do agree that a game like RE5 would NOT be made in America.

G3ck0

3 years ago

I don't watch South Park, but the funny thing is I have seen that episode. The thing is, when I first saw RE5 I didn't think "Oh look black people, this game is racist", I just thought "I hope this comes on the Wii". It's not until people started complaining that I realized that you are killing black people, and I couldn't care either way.

RXWAG

3 years ago

^^^yep for the most part i agree with you Gamesta, if nothing had been said about this game maybe having some underlying racial issue i would never have even noticed it....

the sheer fact that people have brought it up has sparked this conversation about if it has racism imbedded within it...which i doubt.

have any person from any nation killing another person from another nation could be seen as being racist as long as there is something racial backing up the killing, in this case there isnt..

the fact of the matter is that it all comes down to a colour, its only the colour of someones skin, sure it was a major issue before and can still be quite a prominent issue in todays society but im pretty sure you can all be grown up enough to look past this and not read to deeply into it...

its just a game at the end of the day people...

Skiller

3 years ago

As long as the character shooting them isn't shooting them because of the color of their skin I don't see what the big deal is. It's just a simple coincidence that they happen to be black because the game is set in a country mostly populated by black people.

And for anyone who thinks something should be changed think about this: if you set a game in most "western" countries you'd be killing mostly white people, set it in Japan/China and you'd be killing mostly asians and if you set it in Africa you'll be killing mostly black people, changing that means that you are changing the way you treat people differently based on the color of their skin, which is the very basis of racism.

The sooner people stop drawing racist conclusions from these sort of situations the better.

G3ck0

3 years ago

Isn't Far Cry 2 set in Africa? Because the people in that game are white, so Ubisoft got around that problem.

Cerebral

3 years ago

Interestingly enough, Kotaku interviewed the producer on the issue:

Quote

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi told us "No, not really." He said via his translator that cries of racism "didn't have any effect on the game design."

On the subject of Chris Redfield's new sidekick, one who appears to lean toward ethnically ambiguous, Takeuchi said "We wanted Chris to have a partner who was familiar with the environment. She's been in there since pretty much the beginning."

"In terms of the reaction, we're in the business of entertainment," Takeuchi said. "We didn't set out to make a racist game or a political statement. We did feel there was a misunderstanding about the initial trailer."

The Resident Evil 5 producer said they'd sent a team of Capcom staffers to Africa to do research in the area, stressing that they had decided to include Arab and Caucasian peoples based on what they'd seen while on location. We found it odd that there was virtually no non-Black representation in RE5's debut trailer, but Takeuchi was adamant that the current product is in line with their experiences.

So while it was not their intention, the game can still be seen to be cast in a bad light. No matter how accepting you are of other races and cultures, the symbolism is there, because American history makes it stand out.

I'd find it difficult to tell someone who takes offense to the game because they or their family may have been victims of hate crimes, to simply 'get over it'. Australia might be a very multicultural nation, but racism still exists, particularly in America.

Infested Jibbs

3 years ago

Sambo110 wrote

Isn't Far Cry 2 set in Africa? Because the people in that game are white, so Ubisoft got around that problem.

Both games centre around different locals even though both are set in africa.Far cry tends to focus on you taking down hired militia in jungle/savannah areas regardless of the countries dominant ethnicity, all of whom tend to be the garden variety 'white with handful black militia'.

Re tends to focus on realistic(for a zombie game >_<) encounters in more of an urban setting;encountering a town populated by actual townspeople, not wizards or demons, or militia or hired goons.Hence why in re4 the Spanish towns were populated by, you guessed it, Spaniards.No different for an African village to be populated by Black Africans.

G3ck0

3 years ago

Jibbs wrote

Sambo110 wrote

Isn't Far Cry 2 set in Africa? Because the people in that game are white, so Ubisoft got around that problem.

Well that makes sense. And I think Africa is a good setting for RE5. Most games are either in an American type setting or in a jungle, but at least Africa is different, and looks sorta like a desert type town from the screens.

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