Last week, a Houston Chronicle writer referenced Left 4 Dead 2’s setting choice – New Orleans – in an opinion piece lamenting the perceived insensitivity of several games. Valve has responded.
https://lastchance.cc/houston-chronicle-video-game-racism-the-new-norm-5316531%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
There are mixed races of zombies, there are all different races of zombies that you shoot, and since we placed it in New Orleans, that makes it racist? I honestly re-read the paragraph about five times … but when two of the characters in your game are African-American, it’s a weird thing to be accused of. We’re like, ‘how does this work’?
Further, any connection to Katrina is only the perception of others, not Valve’s intent, Faliszek says. “This is a videogame, those are real people’s lives, we are not trying to make a statement with that,” he said. “It’s a place we love, it’s dear to our hearts. We would not cheapen it. It’s not a brick-for-brick representation of New Orleans; it’s a fictional version, and I love that city.”
Destructoid’s take is felt by a lot of people – “you can’t do anything involving black people these days without some moron (usually a guilty white person) screaming about racism.” I leave that to others to argue.
The finer point I’d put on it is, if every time the ethnicity of a video game foe is going to be wrought into a charge of racism, institutional or otherwise, you’re going to have either all-white casts of characters, or gratuitously diverse protagonists that conspicuously interfere with the story being told. That’s chilling effect 101. Here’s hoping it isn’t felt.
Valve Responds to Left 4 Dead 2 Racism Accusations [Destructoid via Blue’s News]
