Dead Rising is clearly direct homage to a certain subgenre of American movies, so I think it makes perfect sense in that case. A far more puzzling cultural question arises when you consider Capcom’s 1942.
The interesting thing about the movie derivative angle is if you go through the xbox.com action genre, the explicitly licensed characters human charaters from other formats are more out there than the home-grown stuff. Blade, Buffy, Catwoman, Dark Angel, Eragon (blond! Not grimacing!), the new Bond (maybe), and so on. Game designers are unable to go outside the core of the concept?
The only female character in action or action-like games without major Lara Croft stereotyping is Samus. But then again, Samus was made female to mock the stereotypes in the first place.
I know he’s white, but does Gordon Freeman count as square-jawed? I know he often has a severe look on his face, but then again his lab just got taken over by monsters and whatever.
Probably because the story took place in America.
Umm, it’s always been that way with games. You’re gonna play as a white guy unless it’s sports.
give me a saint’s row style character creator in every game please (crackdown also allows custom characters) so I can get a skinny black guy who actually looks like me – in saints row me + the high top fade I’ve always wanted to have.
Persians are caucasians.
DX:IW has options for choosing white, black, or asian in male or female varieties, although the guy on the box was the white male version of the character.
Well… there was D’arci Stern from 1999’s Urban Chaos.
Of course only 4 people played that game so maybe that proves the point in a way.
Nope.
I’ve always appreciated that KotOR allowed me to choose a look and ethnicity for my character, and apparently Bioware’s Mass Effect will as well. It seems like now that cut scenes are often done with in game engines that this should become increasingly easy to do. I hope this becomes much more common.
I can’t find a good image, but he sure looks black to me.
Yeah, a black woman in a game called “Urban Chaos”? Gee, no subtext there.
Anyone know when this action hero archetype started? I know there was William Hart, early western actor and filmmaker (think Silent-Film-Eastwood). Valentino was more of a pretty boy rather than bursting with testosterone. Did Hollywood ape this from pulp literature or something else?
She was a cop.
There’s also Jade from Beyond Good and Evil. But the presence of a pig sidekick and the lack of big guns may mean the game isn’t gritty enought to be considered “action”.
Duke Nukem has blonde hair.
Shades too.
Severe looking face, strong chin, dark hair, caucasian, leather jacket
Duke Nukem has blonde hair.
Shades too.