444 réponses à ce sujet

[Captain_Obvious_au]

I was thinking about this last night in the shower (great mental image, I know) and was wondering why all of the human heroes seem to be Westerners. I mean we have:

American:
Shepard, Ash, Kaiden, Pressley, Adams, Jacob, Jack, Kelly, James.

British:
Zaeed, the new yeoman, Anderson (born in London, but if he's a pom then I'm a turnip).

Australian:
Miranda

Scottish:
Donnelly (sp?)

The only non-Western 'good guy' is Kasumi, who is a Ninja. Oh and an American with the surname of Mikhailovich. Surely some diversity in terms of accents would have been possible? One Asian, no Arabs, no Eastern Europeans, no Africans. Actually James would have been a great character to have as a Pacific Islander or Kiwi given their general build.

Still, discuss.

Modifié par Captain_Obvious_au, 27 avril 2012 - 03:38 .

[Maria Caliban]

I thought Ash was Brazilian?

And we have no idea where Jack was born.

And Shepard is only born on Earth in one background. I don't think a city or country is specified.

Modifié par Maria Caliban, 25 avril 2012 - 05:22 .

[Captain_Obvious_au]

Ha, Ash is as brazillian as Anderson is British. I think Kaiden is supposed to be Turkish as well, but neither looks nor sounds like it.

As for Shepard, the accent is clearly North American. Plus if anyone wants to go into the 'oh yeah but people aren't as diverse any more!' - surely if there's a North American, British, and Australian accents still around, the others are too.

[Shelondias]

Captain_Obvious_au wrote...

Ha, Ash is as brazillian as Anderson is British. I think Kaiden is supposed to be Turkish as well, but neither looks nor sounds like it.

As for Shepard, the accent is clearly North American. Plus if anyone wants to go into the 'oh yeah but people aren't as diverse any more!' - surely if there's a North American, British, and Australian accents still around, the others are too.

Kaidan is a canadian. that chick he liked was turkish.

[Noelemahc]

Kaidan is Canadian, IIRC, but his name betrays a Polish ancestry.

Zaeed sounds British, but his name is more of the Spanish/Moroccan persuasion.

Let's just agree that homogenization of the human race is taking huge strides and leave it at that, a-ha?

[thehomeworld]

Yeah and all the heroes in Japanese video games are Asian. So should we be pissed at that too OP? Really get a new hobby if it bothers you so.

[Sdrol117]

Javik is african. /thread

[yawnandshrug]

And of course one of the villain has to have an explicitly 'dominant chinese heritage' because humanity is morally divided like that -.-

[Sdrol117]

yawnandshrug wrote...

And of course one of the villain has to have an explicitly 'dominant chinese heritage' because humanity is morally divided like that -.-

And the illusive man is a white guy. and saren is an alien. And one of the main characters is a black guy. Shepard can be of any race. You humans are all racist. 

Modifié par Sdrol117, 25 avril 2012 - 05:45 .

[yawnandshrug]

And the illusive man is a white guy. and saren is an alien. And one of the main characters is a black guy. Shepard can be of any race. You humans are all racist. 

 

I believe there's a difference between a generic umbrella term like 'white' or 'black' and targeting a specific race/nationality. But tropes will be tropes and the media hasn't moved beyond the beliefs that viewers can't associate with anything beyond straight white male or national stereotypes. It's quite tragic/frustrating really.

Modifié par yawnandshrug, 25 avril 2012 - 06:03 .

[Noelemahc]

thehomeworld wrote...

Yeah and all the heroes in Japanese video games are Asian. So should we be pissed at that too OP? Really get a new hobby if it bothers you so.

Not all. No More Heroes has a wild assortment of national stereotypes. Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey is genuinely international in its makeup (the protagonist is American, his team consits of Russians, British, Japanese, etc).  Sure, there is a localist tendency, but that's because of "write what you know" more than nationalism, I think.

[Eterna]

Ash is Brazillian. 

Modifié par Eterna5, 25 avril 2012 - 05:56 .

[MrMcDoll]

Captain_Obvious_au wrote...

Actually James would have been a great character to have as a Pacific Islander or Kiwi given their general build.

Wait what!??

I'm a Kiwi and I'm skinny and small, also I'm white.

Are all Pacific Islanders and (i'm going to assume you meant Maori, not Kiwis) Giant lumbering hulks??

Cos if so, maybe I'm not actually in New Zealand but in a very advanced Virtual Reality!!


At the end of the day though, why does it matter what race all the characters were? This is why I hate lame PC attitudes these days.
It's like that retarded woman that tried to take the Hobbit to court because she didn't get hired as a hobbit - because she was Pakistani. It wasn't some secret racist agenda ****** - The book was set in middle earth, where Hobbits are little englishy types. (but then of course, bleeding heart apologists start saying that maybe Tolkien was racist...)

Since when do fictional works need to represent EVERY nationality or ethnicity? In the future are we going to have a giant checklist?

English... Check
American... Check
Southern Zimbabwean... Check
Inuit ... Che- oh wait, which tribe? We have Alutiiq and Kangiryuarmiutun, but we cant find a guy from the other like 30 different tribes...
Crap, now they're gonna think we are racist...  

Modifié par MrMcDoll, 25 avril 2012 - 06:11 .

[HiroVoid]

Bioware's located in a North American continent, so it's easier to get North American actors. It's a similar reason why Japanese games have Japanese characters.

[wizardryforever]

Sure, there isn't all that much diversity in main(ish) characters, but there's plenty in NPCs.  Samesh Batia is Indian, there's that Russian guy who gets killed by the Rachni, and a Japanese guy selling ramen on the Citadel.  There's also Dr. Michel, whose nationality I can't place.  I'd say Bioware does a reasonably good job of showing how diverse humanity is while not focusing overmuch on humans.

[ZombieGambit]

It's a Western game, so it only makes sense. How many Western main characters are there in JRPGs?

wizardryforever wrote...
There's also Dr. Michel, whose nationality I can't place.

 

Dr. Michel is French. How is that not obvious?

Modifié par ZombieGambit, 25 avril 2012 - 06:20 .

[Tietj]

But Dr. Michel's parents live in Geneva. I think national lines tend to blur in the future, when humanity becomes one race among many alien races.

And it isn't entirely relevant to your point, but my Shepard is Middle Eastern.

[wizardryforever]

ZombieGambit wrote...

wizardryforever wrote...
There's also Dr. Michel, whose nationality I can't place.

 

Dr. Michel is French. How is that not obvious?

Because I don't hear much in the way of French accents?  I could tell it was European, but I couldn't really tell where.  Besides, she doesn't really sound French to me.

[bennyjammin79]

My Shep is from space.

[bennyjammin79]

wizardryforever wrote...

Because I don't hear much in the way of French accents?  I could tell it was European, but I couldn't really tell where.  Besides, she doesn't really sound French to me.

She's pretty effin' French. The only way they could've made it more obvious is if they gave her a beret, a mustache and a cigarette.

[Vormaerin]

bennyjammin79 wrote...

She's pretty effin' French. The only way they could've made it more obvious is if they gave her a beret, a mustache and a cigarette.

I'd like to point out that there are a few benighted places other than France that are afflicted with French speech.  Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, and a variety of African countries.

The fact that she speaks with a French accent doesn't say a lot about her nationality and not much more about her ethnicity.

[Lord Phoebus]

If you pay attention to the birth rates and projected population dynamics, there really shouldn't be too many identifiably white people, most people should be Asian, Indian or Hispanic. However when a Canadian company makes a game, they'll set the racial dynamics to what they see in the population around them. Although if they were in Vancouver or Toronto there should have been more Asians.

Modifié par Lord Phoebus, 25 avril 2012 - 06:46 .

[Captain_Obvious_au]

MrMcDoll wrote...

Captain_Obvious_au wrote...

Actually James would have been a great character to have as a Pacific Islander or Kiwi given their general build.

Wait what!??

I'm a Kiwi and I'm skinny and small, also I'm white.

Are all Pacific Islanders and (i'm going to assume you meant Maori, not Kiwis) Giant lumbering hulks??

Cos if so, maybe I'm not actually in New Zealand but in a very advanced Virtual Reality!!

Ha, I'd argue that all Kiwi's are VI's anyway :-p No I did mean Maori's alongside pacific islanders.

[lillitheris]

You do realize this is 170 years in the future, right? Two explanations:

1. The translators they use with aliens also work with Earth languages; or, more likely

2. English is the primary language for most of the world.

[Fiery Phoenix]

Brazilian sounds almost spot-on for Ashley. I searched Google Images and got some... off-color results, but nevertheless I gather the point and pretty much agree.