By Henrike Sausen

Disclaimer: The word ‘race’ is being used throughout the writing process as the correct game lore term in the literature and to ensure consistency. This is a reproduction and should be viewed with a critical eye.

After a stressful day, many people come home and, after a few clicks, dive into the digital realm to escape all the stress and problems. For many people, gaming is a big part of their everyday life, whether it’s on their computers, phones or consoles. They’re attracted by the interactive part of video games and their vast and beautifully crafted stories and graphic design. This post looks at how race and racism are portrayed in video games, with a focus on fantasy games. Games use ideas of race, capability and compatibility to create a world where the enemy is always easy to identify. There are lots of ways to look at this, from the objectification of cultural signs and practices, the way different skin colours are presented, and the way appearance and characteristics are connected.

Scholars in recent years have in some cases presented the Orcs as evil (Fergusson 2022) while others prefer to throw a wider net and focus on the presentation of Race and Otherness (Leonard 2003) and the concept of Essentialism (Monson 2012). David Leonard calls the 21^st century the era of video games as he sees the increasing availability of video games and their progression on a visual and in game level (Leonard 2003: 1). In addition to the monetary indicator for the popularity, studies are looking into the amount of people playing video games on a general basis. Around 65% of all American households enjoy video games from different genres (Monson 2012: 48). Scholars like David R. Dietrich argues for the need to integrate video games and their role into research: “What’s more, video games represent a new form of media, distinguished from the previous forms by the interactive element where game players have the ability to change and influence the game world” (Dietrich 2013: 82). Research regarding video games by Children Now found that over half of the analysed games show stereotypes. In general, they found a high number of presenting and reusing sexist, misogynistic, racist tropes and a lack of people of colour in their games (Leonard 2003: 1).

Scholars believe that one reason for this is the role of the game creators and designers, who are limited by their capacity in society and the constructs in which they grew up. Just as researchers need to reflect on their privileges and limitations, we should consider the people creating games and in which context it was produced. As Melissa Monson notes: “Here, it is the imagination of game developers that sets the parameters for the sociohistorical context in which the game takes place, rather than any overt attempt to replicate the real world.” (Monson 2012: 49)

Many tend to believe that fantasy-based video games are not subject to racism and the criticism discussed above, as they seem to be very distant from the real world. However, research shows that they are just as essentialist as their reality-based cousins. Analysis of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) such as World of Warcraft – the current number one in fantasy video games – show that criticism of racism can be traced and connected just as it does to any other media form: 

From the hate-filled bigotry of Blood Elves to racialized jokes (So an Orc walks into a bar…), to game encoded racial essentialism which determines alliances, language, intellect, temperament, occupation, strength, and technological aptitude, Azeroth (the fantasy-based realm of WoW) is ensconced in racial precepts (Monson 2012: 48).

In addition to in-game problems as discussed above are additional issues through the interaction between players outside the game. This will not be discussed at this point, but should be kept in mind, when talking about video games. The world of Fantasy authors is sometimes more obvious and sometimes less connected to the real world. The different groups in a story are often based on real-world areas, cultures and people (Monson 2012: 51). 

For the limited scope of this paper, one example from Baldur’s Gate 3 as a proxy, is presented. In general, it is to be noted that the critique can be applied to almost all fantasy video games, as they require the choosing of a race to be played by the gamer (comp. Monson 2012). With it comes a background story and characteristics, which will influence their game play but also interactions inside the game. A central issue is presented by Ferguson because “[t]he Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) game also saw controversy given that the game involves some monster ‘races’ such as orcs which are depicted as inherently evil”. (Ferguson 2022: 12400). The connection of race and attributes is what is central to the criticism, as it seems to follow theories and aspects of the real world. “The intertwining of recognizable cultural histories, epistemologies, and geographies encourage readers (and gamers alike) to suspend disbelief and accept the more fantastical elements of such stories” (Monson 2012: 53).

As discussed by Ferguson (2022) certain races in fantasy settings have more racial attributes, than others. He suspects that the Ethnocentrism lived in the real world translates into the virtual space and is reflected in the portrayal of certain races as evil or bad (Ferguson 2022: 12402). 

Against the background of the use of racial theories and the degrading and condescending characterisations based on appearance in the past, it becomes apparent that not only the physiological but also the character representation has to be a central point of criticism. To differentiate people by their appearance and their race, which in the fantasy world is more visible and often better explained, remains to be viewed critically. To connect characteristics to races and form strong stereotypes through it, that can easily be reproduced and sometimes very openly connect to real world cultures shows that racism and the use of Othering is common practice in fantasy.

This short post showed rather briefly how cultures are reproduced and used in game design and how concepts of racism and xenophobia are used to explain lore in the game world, without explaining the game further.

Bibliography

DIETRICH, D. (2013) Avatars of Whiteness: Racial Expression in Video Game Characters : IMMIGRATION AND RACE. Sociological Inquiry, 83(1), 82–105. 

Ferguson, C. (2022) Are orcs racist? Dungeons and Dragons, ethnocentrism, anxiety, and the depiction of “evil” monsters. Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 42(15), 12400–12408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02551-4

Leonard, D. (2003) “Live in Your World, Play in Ours”: Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other In: Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education. Volume 3, Issue 4 (November 2003). pp 1–9. DOI: 10.3138/sim.3.4.002.  

Monson, M. (2012) Race-Based Fantasy Realm: Essentialism in the World of Warcraft. In: Games and Culture. 7 (1). pp 48-71. DOI: 10.1177/1555412012440308