Gaming While Black

Over at Joystiq there is a piece by Jess Conditt titled " Gaming While Black" which, as you might have guessed, talks about how it is to be part of the community (be it as developer or player) as a black person. Now Jess is not a black person so she was going off the experiences of others and for the most part they weren't that great; yeah there is a few good bits there but it's not a general positive overview of things and I for one am tired of all the negativity so I've decided to share my own experiences.

I've made a post before about why I'm a gamer but I never really talked about my race, that's mostly because it doesn't really factor into the equation. I'm not an idiot, I know that when you play online that you are gonna run into jerks that will hurl every racial epithet in the book, but I get that in spite of my race and it doesn't make me wanna isolate myself into a specific corner and not interact with others; why? Because I have been gaming since as long as I can remember and I can handle a few idiots, just wreck them in the game and watch them cry sweet tears. The gaming communities have been the most welcoming ones i've been apart of, the only time I've had to mention my race is when the media or some "pop culture hackers" decide to make everything political; forcing every minority that identifies as a gamer to play race politics just to defend our hobby. I enjoy playing videogames because my race does not matter, I am not barred from purchasing or enjoying a game simply because I'm black. Do you know how nice it is to have that? To not have your race be a determining factor in how people treat you? I thought gaming was the one place that I could go to in order to escape the realities of the world but now I see people trying to force that  reality into my fantasy; I don't like that at all.

Now I am fully aware that there are not a ton of minority protagonists in gaming and those that are, often fall into a stereotype ( especially the black characters). I would love to see more diversity in that regard but I don't feel like I'm unable to enjoy the game simply because the character I am playing isn't black; I am able to enjoy my games while also being aware of the lack of representation for some but that doesn't make my existence as a black gamer something of melancholy. I actually hate the term "black gamer" I am just a gamer and I think it's high time we stopped adding race/gender as a prefix. Gaming is an inclusive hobby that cares not for race, religion, gender or orientation so I think we shouldn't focus on the consumer's race, religion, gender or orientation; at the very least not as something to prop up to show how good of a person you are, instead if you really want to help us out then showcase us in a positive light. Show black gamers at fighting tournaments, profile black concept artists, spotlight black dev teams, show us succeeding in the industry in spite of everything...that's something that we never get to see and I guarantee you it will have a more profound impact than saying "look how terrible blacks have it in the industry". But hey what do I know? I'm just a gamer.