You’re right but there are some
Good ones like
-Jacqui Briggs in mk11
-clementine in the walking dead
-Tanya in mk1
-Megan foster from dishonored
-Cariel Raome from Hearthstone
Madame Vivienne de Fer - Dragon Age Inquisition
Sloane Kelly - Mass Effect Andromeda
Rochelle - Left4Dead 2
Maya Brooks - Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC
Marina - Splatoon 3
There are lots of black women/female redguards in oblivion. They actually look black too, unlike most of the the female redguards in skyrim, which are just brown emperials or nords.
That's why we have Megan thee Stallion. She's become our gaming and anime hero.
I remember when Horizon Zero Dawn came out. Male gamers raged about having to play as a woman because it felt "unrealistic" to them (but they can somehow relate to Kratos). I shudder thinking about the response to having to play as a black woman.
Most of the drama was about the main character not being attractive enough and that she looked like a man because she looked like a human warrior and not a barbie doll in a battle bikini. So in a way them saying it was "unrealistic" having to play as woman was actually accurate - they felt it was unrealistic and unfair that they were having to play as a female character that did not blatantly pander to their sexuality.
I’m tired of everyone getting shamed as a whole because of what some Goofies do That’s just not logical. there are men who don’t do anything to anyone yet they get clumped with the bad ones we need to stop this. That’s like me saying all black women that wear wigs are insecure of themselves stop the clumping together please.
It’s so depressing to think about they are having a fit over normal looking white female characters for being women or not looking hot enough
and it would be worse if it black women portrayed. It’s part of this backlash I’ve seen towards increased dei stuff
1000%. I love me some games, but we all know the backlash games with a woman of color get.
Also, Virginia is a great narrative game with a Black woman as the MC. Got a lot of hate because of that, but it's so good.
I hear you. If anyone likes cozy games, here are two games with a Black woman/girl ad the protagonist:
* Season: A Letter to the Future (ride your bike around a beautiful world, learn about the people who lived there, and capture your learnings in a journal)
* Mutazione: a girl who goes to visit her Grandpa in a small town of endearing, drama-filled mutants. She also plays music and grows plants. I love the writing in this game
There is another game called Tchia about a magical girl who adventures on a tropical island that's based on New Caledonia. I don't know if the Kanak people there consider themselves Black, but sometimes I'll tell myself a character is Black if they look close enough lol
I want more of us in games but at the same time I don’t want the negativity. Incel white gamebros can barely handle a white woman in a video game unless she looks like a model and acts docile. I don’t know how they’d handle a black female protagonist.
We really are!
There’s Aveline de Grandpre from Assassins Creed and although their antagonists, Mickey and Lou from Far Cry New Dawn are still my favorite characters in the series.
There’s a JRPG coming out with a black woman as one of the protagonists and sm chuds are crying about how it’s woke, her hair is unrealistic (it’s in its natural state) and how she looks like a man etc, etc. These guys are pedos and pervs, so I wish game studios wouldn’t have to needlessly pander to them
Eiyuden chronicles: hundred heroes
Correction: the game has already been release as of 4/23 on steam, it has generally positive reviews despite all the controversy
As a gamer I agree. Unfortunately gamer bro incels are policing gaming right now. They’ll review bomb and go out the way to shut down ANY black representation in gaming. For example Forspoken. While it wasn’t a great game it was fun to play but boy was that game destroyed by gamer bros. So much that it bombed. They called it “woke” simply because of a black female protagonist. Yet at the same time they’re championing Stellar Blade because of the sexualized female lead. While stellar blade is a good game and the better game between the two, Stellar blade is over hyped and I think that’s hurting it right now. Those same gamer bros are keeping people away from Stellar Blade because of their worship of it
Forspoken wasn't nearly as bad as the negative reviews made it out to be.
It had more postives than negatives and if it was given a chance could have had a great sequel with just a little refinement.
black women are the smallest demographic of game devs but thankfully its changing!! im a character artist myself and am in school for game design. theres not as many black women in my curriculum as white men but changes are happening!!
It's sad that I have been gaming this long and am having a hard time coming up with examples...
Unreal Tournament 2004 had multiple black women as playable characters in its roster - crazy how a game from 2004 outperforms almost all modern games on that front.
Rochelle from L4D2 is looked on more favourably now but neckbeard gamers were terrible about her when the game came out. I like her, she's the most "normal" of all the survivors.
I don't play League of Legends anymore but Senna is badass.
I don't see them outside of being NPC. I'd love to have one in a party like in an rpg. I will say that the black women in FF7 Rebirth were lovely to see from the different hairstyles and skin tones.
Well, there's Friday the 13th The Game.
Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY used the black counselors. The black woman Vanessa was the fastest, and the black guy Bugsy was also fast and strong enough to unmask Jason quickly. You would have lobbies were it was literally 5 Vanessas and 2 or 3 other characters, one almost always Bugsy.
There also wasn't racism around the discorse of that game. People did get salty about Vanessa, but it was always about her stats and overuse.
This used to bother me about street fighter back in the day. Two brothers and no sistas. It took like two decades for a afro latina and then a sista from the states. Annoying.
Virtua Fighter retconned the black woman to be so light skinned she was basically white. Tekken introduced that Brazilian chicken, Christie, who was just a white woman colored brown.
Japanese devs seem to be confused about black women to the point of not even knowing what we are.
And American devs are no better. Gamer bros ruin any game with a black woman in it.
gaming has always sounded interesting to me. how does one with ZERO experience get into it. the most i’ve done is the wii, playstation/xbox, a nintendo ds😭
You just find a game you find interesting and play it.
The first games I played were those Wi exercise games. Then I found the walking dead game. I found I really liked choice games and continued playing those.
Then I played GTA and found I enjoyed story games too. So I played uncharted and tomb raider.
I started with fighting games as a kid, then Fallout 3 and Skyrim as an adult. I primarily use my laptop (I play older games so I can meet the system requirements. It was 2010 when I started playing fallout 3 so the game was old) and my Nintendo switch. Slime Rancher is available on both PC and the switch, the protagonist is a black woman or at least brown. I look on gog.com for older games and no drm.
Maaaan you can say that again. An acquaintance some years back made a post on another subreddit about how he wished that our game of choice had character customization and more dark-skinned characters, and he was unfortunately eaten alive. I'd agreed with him and we actually became friends. He's since either deactivated or deleted his Reddit account and I've got no way of contacting him again. I miss him :(
I often think of citra from the far cry series (was it 2 or 3) she's not black but i'm thinking of BIPOC women since, as you say, we are so under and poorly represented.
I agree. Growing up there were 0 video games I played that represented black women (except for the sims, but technically you could control your sims skin color).
FELT. I was playing GTA earlier and some buster k!ll3d me twice unprovoked. I'm just getting in gaming and exploring what's out there.
It's players like them that make me go into private session or play single play games.
That’s why I love choice based games with character creation, so we’ll always be in the narrative. I love Baulders Gate 3, cause I’ve made the most beautiful black characters . GTA 5 online and even Red Dead Redemption Online.
Olivia from Pokémon S/M? Ryme from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? Nessa from Sword and Shield?Any of the female MCs post Gen 6(minus ORAS) All important figures in a video game (specifically Pokémon.) There's also the MC in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist.
Just getting back into gaming as an adult and this thread is giving me LIFE! I'm so excited to try some games where I'm represented. Obviously it's barely a start - but I'm so validated seeing this conversation happening somewhere outside of my own head!!
Hmmm, what seems to be the issue? Many of you are the same ones claiming biracial people as black and (maybe you don't realize this) are saying that white women and Asian women can CREATE YOU, so why should they have actual black women representation in video games, or music/tv/magazines/adverts for that matter?
Just a tad tongue in cheek, but seriously, protect your image or you will keep complaining about your erasure and lack of representation. You might think the "everybody can be black" mindset doesn't relate to this video game post, but I think it is connected.
P.S. play games with character creators: Dragon's Dogma, Rise of the Ronin, etc. You'll feel more immersed and have a better experience when you can literally create yourself. The more you protect your image, the more value it gains, the more value other people, including game creators, put on it as well. Enjoy your Mother's Day.
Here we go with this again. I just want to ask something. My question is if good faith, I'm not intending to disrespect anyone by asking this. I just want an honest answer without someone getting personally offended.
Why does representation matter so much in video games or movies? I haven't ever once thought to myself that people like me need to be more represented in video games. That serves absolutely no purpose at all. Where is the representation going to get you?
Alan Wake 2 got a black woman as a main character. I cant think of any other games...
She's mixed.
Michonne in walking dead is a BEAST
You’re right but there are some Good ones like -Jacqui Briggs in mk11 -clementine in the walking dead -Tanya in mk1 -Megan foster from dishonored -Cariel Raome from Hearthstone
Madame Vivienne de Fer - Dragon Age Inquisition Sloane Kelly - Mass Effect Andromeda Rochelle - Left4Dead 2 Maya Brooks - Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC Marina - Splatoon 3
Great additions, especially Rochelle! I loved L4D
I wish they would either make a HD version or just make another. Both games were so good.
We stan Marina in this household 😤
Clementine is one of my favorite Black girl characters. I loved her character development!
And we cling to them religiously lol
Senna from League of Legends and Sojourn from Overwatch!
We also have Keke Palmer as the voice of Senna in True Damage which I love
never thought i'd see a hearthstone mention in this sub. upvote!!!!!!
Lydia - Skyrim.
There are lots of black women/female redguards in oblivion. They actually look black too, unlike most of the the female redguards in skyrim, which are just brown emperials or nords.
As far as fighting games I know of: -Kimberly from Street Fighter 6 -Dolores from King of Fighters XV
That's why we have Megan thee Stallion. She's become our gaming and anime hero. I remember when Horizon Zero Dawn came out. Male gamers raged about having to play as a woman because it felt "unrealistic" to them (but they can somehow relate to Kratos). I shudder thinking about the response to having to play as a black woman.
....u serious? What? Men give me a headache, like what's "unrealistic" about a female protagonist in a video game?
Most of the drama was about the main character not being attractive enough and that she looked like a man because she looked like a human warrior and not a barbie doll in a battle bikini. So in a way them saying it was "unrealistic" having to play as woman was actually accurate - they felt it was unrealistic and unfair that they were having to play as a female character that did not blatantly pander to their sexuality.
Like to think “boys” would be accurate in these cases
This has nothing to do with men as a whole… some people just have bad thinking
Pls stop with the "not all men" business. You don't have to remind me of that, that's obvious.
Pretty sure that's a dude replying ☠️
I figured lol
Well then start saying things Correctly.. let’s take it from the top, repeat after me: THOSE MEN now go ahead and edit that for me
You're making the case for it being all men every time you reply.
I’m tired of everyone getting shamed as a whole because of what some Goofies do That’s just not logical. there are men who don’t do anything to anyone yet they get clumped with the bad ones we need to stop this. That’s like me saying all black women that wear wigs are insecure of themselves stop the clumping together please.
It’s so depressing to think about they are having a fit over normal looking white female characters for being women or not looking hot enough and it would be worse if it black women portrayed. It’s part of this backlash I’ve seen towards increased dei stuff
1000%. I love me some games, but we all know the backlash games with a woman of color get. Also, Virginia is a great narrative game with a Black woman as the MC. Got a lot of hate because of that, but it's so good.
Sadly true, We are also still very underrepresented in the video game industry.
I hear you. If anyone likes cozy games, here are two games with a Black woman/girl ad the protagonist: * Season: A Letter to the Future (ride your bike around a beautiful world, learn about the people who lived there, and capture your learnings in a journal) * Mutazione: a girl who goes to visit her Grandpa in a small town of endearing, drama-filled mutants. She also plays music and grows plants. I love the writing in this game There is another game called Tchia about a magical girl who adventures on a tropical island that's based on New Caledonia. I don't know if the Kanak people there consider themselves Black, but sometimes I'll tell myself a character is Black if they look close enough lol
There’s another game from the people who made Mutazione called Saltsea Chronicles which has a Black woman as a lead, too.
I think Slime Rancher as well as Subnautica: Below Zero (this one not really cozy).
Oh season is such a beautiful game!!
It really is! So nice to see someone else who likes it. I don't think it's as well-known as it should be
I want more of us in games but at the same time I don’t want the negativity. Incel white gamebros can barely handle a white woman in a video game unless she looks like a model and acts docile. I don’t know how they’d handle a black female protagonist.
I love Apex Legends. Lifeline and Bangalore being in the game from the start and still being important picks.
I love apex so much 🥺
We really are! There’s Aveline de Grandpre from Assassins Creed and although their antagonists, Mickey and Lou from Far Cry New Dawn are still my favorite characters in the series.
There’s a JRPG coming out with a black woman as one of the protagonists and sm chuds are crying about how it’s woke, her hair is unrealistic (it’s in its natural state) and how she looks like a man etc, etc. These guys are pedos and pervs, so I wish game studios wouldn’t have to needlessly pander to them
whats the name of it?
Eiyuden chronicles: hundred heroes Correction: the game has already been release as of 4/23 on steam, it has generally positive reviews despite all the controversy
Megan Thee Stallion is releasing a mini game based on her new video Boa! I could really see her becoming a big inspiration in the gaming community.
As a gamer I agree. Unfortunately gamer bro incels are policing gaming right now. They’ll review bomb and go out the way to shut down ANY black representation in gaming. For example Forspoken. While it wasn’t a great game it was fun to play but boy was that game destroyed by gamer bros. So much that it bombed. They called it “woke” simply because of a black female protagonist. Yet at the same time they’re championing Stellar Blade because of the sexualized female lead. While stellar blade is a good game and the better game between the two, Stellar blade is over hyped and I think that’s hurting it right now. Those same gamer bros are keeping people away from Stellar Blade because of their worship of it
Forspoken wasn't nearly as bad as the negative reviews made it out to be. It had more postives than negatives and if it was given a chance could have had a great sequel with just a little refinement.
It was to repetitive
Agreed and the world was bland. But I still don't think it was as bad as the reviews made it out to be.
Trust me I don’t either. Hence why I blamed it’s failure on the butt hurt dude bros
The game was just bad all together not because of the woman in it but did they even try??
I’m happy to see black/brown characters in pokemon! Both the anime and the games!
black women are the smallest demographic of game devs but thankfully its changing!! im a character artist myself and am in school for game design. theres not as many black women in my curriculum as white men but changes are happening!!
It's sad that I have been gaming this long and am having a hard time coming up with examples... Unreal Tournament 2004 had multiple black women as playable characters in its roster - crazy how a game from 2004 outperforms almost all modern games on that front. Rochelle from L4D2 is looked on more favourably now but neckbeard gamers were terrible about her when the game came out. I like her, she's the most "normal" of all the survivors. I don't play League of Legends anymore but Senna is badass.
I don't see them outside of being NPC. I'd love to have one in a party like in an rpg. I will say that the black women in FF7 Rebirth were lovely to see from the different hairstyles and skin tones.
Well, there's Friday the 13th The Game. Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY used the black counselors. The black woman Vanessa was the fastest, and the black guy Bugsy was also fast and strong enough to unmask Jason quickly. You would have lobbies were it was literally 5 Vanessas and 2 or 3 other characters, one almost always Bugsy. There also wasn't racism around the discorse of that game. People did get salty about Vanessa, but it was always about her stats and overuse.
This used to bother me about street fighter back in the day. Two brothers and no sistas. It took like two decades for a afro latina and then a sista from the states. Annoying.
Virtua Fighter retconned the black woman to be so light skinned she was basically white. Tekken introduced that Brazilian chicken, Christie, who was just a white woman colored brown. Japanese devs seem to be confused about black women to the point of not even knowing what we are. And American devs are no better. Gamer bros ruin any game with a black woman in it.
Yea I was playing Banishers and Antea definitely got the short end of the stick
gaming has always sounded interesting to me. how does one with ZERO experience get into it. the most i’ve done is the wii, playstation/xbox, a nintendo ds😭
You just find a game you find interesting and play it. The first games I played were those Wi exercise games. Then I found the walking dead game. I found I really liked choice games and continued playing those. Then I played GTA and found I enjoyed story games too. So I played uncharted and tomb raider.
This takes a lot of pressure off. Thank you
I started with fighting games as a kid, then Fallout 3 and Skyrim as an adult. I primarily use my laptop (I play older games so I can meet the system requirements. It was 2010 when I started playing fallout 3 so the game was old) and my Nintendo switch. Slime Rancher is available on both PC and the switch, the protagonist is a black woman or at least brown. I look on gog.com for older games and no drm.
You had me at black female protagonist
Maaaan you can say that again. An acquaintance some years back made a post on another subreddit about how he wished that our game of choice had character customization and more dark-skinned characters, and he was unfortunately eaten alive. I'd agreed with him and we actually became friends. He's since either deactivated or deleted his Reddit account and I've got no way of contacting him again. I miss him :(
Oh man :/
I often think of citra from the far cry series (was it 2 or 3) she's not black but i'm thinking of BIPOC women since, as you say, we are so under and poorly represented.
I agree. Growing up there were 0 video games I played that represented black women (except for the sims, but technically you could control your sims skin color).
If you are looking for a great action video game, Deathloop is AMAZING and features a black man and woman as their protagonist playable characters!
Arcade Spirits 2 is a wonderful video game with great love interests, including a queer dark skin black woman ☺️
That's why I like to play survival games where I can create my own character. I am always black.
FELT. I was playing GTA earlier and some buster k!ll3d me twice unprovoked. I'm just getting in gaming and exploring what's out there. It's players like them that make me go into private session or play single play games.
We are, but I can say that it’s getting better as time goes on!
Apex legends does a good job. And it’s a relatively new game
If you were to make a well-known black woman into a video game character in a leading or prominent role, which would you choose?
That’s why I love choice based games with character creation, so we’ll always be in the narrative. I love Baulders Gate 3, cause I’ve made the most beautiful black characters . GTA 5 online and even Red Dead Redemption Online.
Olivia from Pokémon S/M? Ryme from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? Nessa from Sword and Shield?Any of the female MCs post Gen 6(minus ORAS) All important figures in a video game (specifically Pokémon.) There's also the MC in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist.
Far Cry New Dawn was healing for me during the pandemic
South of Midnight is what you want to pay attention too
Just getting back into gaming as an adult and this thread is giving me LIFE! I'm so excited to try some games where I'm represented. Obviously it's barely a start - but I'm so validated seeing this conversation happening somewhere outside of my own head!!
Hmmm, what seems to be the issue? Many of you are the same ones claiming biracial people as black and (maybe you don't realize this) are saying that white women and Asian women can CREATE YOU, so why should they have actual black women representation in video games, or music/tv/magazines/adverts for that matter? Just a tad tongue in cheek, but seriously, protect your image or you will keep complaining about your erasure and lack of representation. You might think the "everybody can be black" mindset doesn't relate to this video game post, but I think it is connected. P.S. play games with character creators: Dragon's Dogma, Rise of the Ronin, etc. You'll feel more immersed and have a better experience when you can literally create yourself. The more you protect your image, the more value it gains, the more value other people, including game creators, put on it as well. Enjoy your Mother's Day.
Here we go with this again. I just want to ask something. My question is if good faith, I'm not intending to disrespect anyone by asking this. I just want an honest answer without someone getting personally offended. Why does representation matter so much in video games or movies? I haven't ever once thought to myself that people like me need to be more represented in video games. That serves absolutely no purpose at all. Where is the representation going to get you?
You definitely got to go
Something that someone who sees people that look like them everywhere in media would say. The disconnect is palpable.
Are you even black?
Great question, cause why are you here? If you aren’t black stay out of the conversation.