Race in Games and Their Communities

Professor Nakamura begins her article discussing the difficulty of analyzing race in interactive media. One of the main reasons this is the case is because of the fact that most of these games are so immersive for the users that race may not be the most noticeable factor while playing. However, Nakamura points out that racism itself is far less prominent than it was in the past, especially publicly. Private and other subtle forms of racism, coined “microaggression,” are increasingly common in online media. In sum, Nakamura argues that this is possible because of the sense of a public sphere that social networking sites and virtual worlds exhibit. Within these forms of digital media diverse knowledge and friendships are witnessed and obtained everyday. In turn, many people are exposed to other races that they may not normally interact with on an everyday basis in the real world. This could have both positive and negative outcomes for different types of individuals. On one hand, some may learn about other races and cultures, increasing their knowledge and awareness. On the other hand, ignorance can come into play and some act harshly to people of other races than their own.

Those of us who often, or even have ever played online games know that there are plenty of ignorant people in those communities. Although online connectivity also gives users a sense of anonymity, people sometimes like to sound off racist remarks regardless if they even know if someone is of a certain race. It happens, just like people constantly harass homosexuality, even though they have no clue whether someone is actually a homosexual. As for actual game content, I cannot say I notice too much racism. Maybe because I am one of those too involved in games to actually notice it. However, Grand Theft Auto games may use stereotypes a bit too far. It might sound crazy, but I’m actually not a fan of the series so I wouldn’t really know. Maybe it’s not, but it’s something that comes to mind coming from an outsider’s perspective. If there are any certain instances of racism from any game, I would surely be interested to know which games they come from and the situations to which it occurs.