Kotaku's Owen Good article on race in the gaming industry is a thought provoking affair, using albeit a few sources, comes to the conclusion race may be the elephant in the room, as the old proverb goes, in videogames.

Minority Report: The Non-White Gamer's Experience, as the article is dubiously named, details the issues that "minority gamers" face in the videogame industry and the games themselves play. Interests grow, I am of Hispanic/Latin descent, and any article discussing topics of race is worth a look. As redundant as it sounds, I have a kinship to gamers who are minorities, regardless of their skin color, because I am Latino partaking in a niche genre, in a culture where stereotypes of gamers are negative.

A Gamer's Predicament
Last Friday, in an evening of dinner and dancing, I and another Hispanic male friend met the new boyfriend of an old college friend. As night went by, we discussed the Giants, Niners, Raiders and a touch of games. As we discussed our latest purchases of the new Batman, Madden and the ending of MGS 4, our new friend chimed in with seems he has a PS3 he rarely uses and played World of Warcraft obsessively, yet feels like a nerd when discussing it.

He is white, well his skin is, because his background is Irish and Spanish. He felt compelled to bring up the gamer stereotype of an overweight, nerdy, a person living in their mothers' garage card. The old saying never rang truer; never judge a book by its cover. Stereotypes, race and minorities in our night of dinner, shots of whiskey and dancing became strange bedfellows.

Owen interviews a Mexican American from California, an African American from Georgia and a Black Britain of Caribbean descent. Their stories are different, but similar race in games is ignored. The claim is a simple, race matters in games, yet there is very little representation in gaming. Usually minority characters serve secondary roles and may serve negative stereotypes.

One of the issues I have with the article is that the scope of what minority is. It is too narrow.

The biggest publishers are American, Activision - Blizzard and EA, in Japan, Sony and Nintendo. Countless titles of their ever extending libraries are made in their respective territories. America and Japan are the majority, whereas Europe, African and Latin America are the minorities.

Stereotypes Exists

In Nintendo's recent boxing title, Punch Out, the French boxer is a French stereotype with baguettes and wine shown in the punch animation, as the boxer reels from the hit.

Can any of us gamers recall a game playing as Australian lead or a Brazilian?

How do Persians view the Prince of Persia series?

No simple solution.
The memories of E3 2007 Resident Evil 5 'controversy' still hold in non-white gamers minds. How do developers portray characters that are not of their own skin color and/or kin? What matters to gamers, nationalities or race? Is football a ball you kick on fourth down or in continuous play?

Non-white gamers come from different cultures and may view matters of race differently and may not agree upon terms of what is racist or not. For Hispanics/Latinos we have a great literature legacy to inspire us, from Cervantes to Borges to Bolano. What they have done for literature a new breed should apply their trade in game development, and I encourage all minorities to do the same. We may be waiting for the Citizen Kane of games; all I want is a Don Quixote or The Alchemist of games to arrive soon.