News Blips: Deus Ex's "racist stereotype," Black Ops players average spending cost, why Elder Scrolls won't become an MMO, and more

We've had fairly large discussions on racism within games in the past, and today's top story shows how quickly the issue can return under the spotlight. What do you think?

News Blips:

Square Enix responds to Time Techland writer Evan Narcisse's scathing attack on the "racist stereotype" of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Letitia character. "Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fictional story which reflects the diversity of the world's future population by featuring characters of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds," the publisher said in a statement. "While these characters are meant to portray people living in the year 2027, it has never been our intention to represent any particular ethnic group in a negative light." Narcisse claimed that Letitia's exaggerated speech "harkens back to the worst blackface minstrelsy of the last century." Stereotype or not, Letitia's only impressionable quality I can remember is that she was still standing after I threw five beers at her.

The average spending amount for Call of Duty: Black Ops players is $76. At the Call of Duty XP convention building in Los Angeles, publisher Activision whipped out its camo-painted calculator for some quick number crunching and determined that Black Ops gamers plunk down enough dough to buy a new copy of the game plus one of the four $15 map packs. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg revealed that 18 million map packs have been downloaded to date. [GameSpot]

WTB Skooma: The Elder Scrolls franchise isn't destined for the massively multiplayer genre. "I'm not really an MMO guy," Bethesda Game Director Todd Howard told Joystiq in an interview. "I respect them, I look at them, but I don't play them. It feels more real to me when I'm the hero, and it's crafted for that. A community aspect to it, I recognize a lot of people would want that in a game like this, but it changes the flavor for me." Kudos to Howard for prioritizing player experience over figuring out how to include a "ravage 15 Argonian maids" quest in a potential MMO.

Apple apparently loses a prototype model for its next iPhone iteration in a California bar -- again. CNet reports that Apple's security "scrambled" to recover the lost tech, tracing the phone to a San Francisco home where the trail suddenly went cold. The entire debacle mirrors last year's reveal and subsequent police-raiding frenzy of the iPhone 4 after (wait for it) it was left in (wait for it again) a California bar. Great Scott, Marty! Someone set the DeLorean's controls to "infinite loop" again!

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Tags: Call of Duty, News Blips, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Call of Duty: Black Ops, The Elder Scrolls: Arena

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Jonathan Oyama

September 01, 2011

I already thought that the voices in Deus Ex: Human Revolution sounded weird anyways. I mean, Adam Jensen already has that stereotypical Christian Bale voice going for him.

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Rob Savillo

Yeah...after watching that clip, the performance and writing for Letitia is downright cringe-inducing. Narcisse is spot on when he writes: "The horrible broken English Letitia speaks is so far removed from any actual slang that it renders the character practically extra-terrestrial. It's not from an alien planet, though. That slang harkens back to the worst blackface minstrelsy of the last century."

I guess after Final Fantasy 13, Square-Enix decided to make their African-American voice acting more racially stereotypical. Ick. I'm sure that Sazh would feel insulted by Letitia.

Matthew Anfuso

New rule: before Square-Enix (or any developer) puts anymore black characters in their games, they have to actually meet a black person. In real life.

Square-Enix: Huh? What's a black person?

olly teigaga

September 02, 2011

LOOOL, i burst out laughing the minute she opened her mouth. It seems an exaggerated stereotype but such characters probably do exist. As long this aint reflective of every black character you come across in the game, its not really much of an issue. But the voice acting as a whole in that game seems a bit off, and the animations aswell.

Shawn Gordon

So I guess you all think they got Jenny Alexander wrong too, or what she not Black?

Andrew Stewart

September 07, 2011

Another person getting all bent outta shape about a voice actor over-doing it. Just like that Tomb Raider trailer a few months ago. Granted this is worse, and it's the kind of work you'd hope the game's director(s) would hear and say, "Whoa, no way, we've gotta record that again," but... I think it's worthy of laughter and eye-rolling, not umbrage. But that's really my default attitude about this kind of thing. As long as it's not malicious, which this doesn't seem to be, I think you just sigh, scoff, laugh, whatever, and move on.

I also thought it was more of an awful voice acting mistake too. That doesn't stop it from looking and sounding utterly wrong though. I mean, it's a drunken trash lady in Detroit in the future with over-exaggerated ebonics. That's like someone is asking for a backhand slap...(plus some voice acting lessons. It sounds like a freaking guy acting like a black woman...weirded out...Lol)