Resident Evil... Racist Evil?!

When Microsoft played Capcom's crazily anticipated game, Resident Evil 5, at this years newly renovated(?) pre-E3 press conference, I was shocked. Not of the quality and the intense and gruesome atmosphere alone, but also with how this iteration of world's favorite zombie massacre game may ignite fire on something we're all too familiar to: racism. Why? Watch the trailer at the bottom, and you may see what I mean... or not, like one of my close friend. (Hint: Handsome and well-fit white guy vs not-so-welcoming-looking native Africans.)

When I told that above-mentioned friend about this, he, as other noble Resident Evil fans, defended the title fervently, stating if this one was to be questioned for being racist, then previous game should have been treated the same way. (Resident Evil 4 had a white dude from America hacking and slashing his way through Spaniards.)

However, it seems like I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Check out this posting on GamePolitics.com. Apparently, a very electric debate, if you will, on racism in this title has already been started, and it's not all pleasant to read what people say.

When I say that this game may spark the racism discussion across fellow gamers, I am not accusing Capcom or its title of promoting racism in anyway. I think, just as film industry has gone through long time dealing with racism issue, games should go through the same if the industry proves that it's impossible to learn from film industry's lesson. Racism within games isn't one of the topic I have ever thought of before, and I think many other gamers are the same. It needed something to be brought into spotlight, and Resident Evil 5 is that something. I hope game industry will wisely deal with this issue, and learn a great deal from it... and surpass where game industry is at...where ever that may be.

UPDATE: I guess I should add that being so realistic graphically (and in other parts as well) also brings more responsibility on developers' shoulders. People will start noticing things, small or big, they have been ignoring simply because they were so primitive. (In the same sense as how fairy tales or stories from Bible are overlooked of some of their intolerable settings if it was done today.) This is actually a good thing, in my opinion. This shows us that game industry is developing, and we are going somewhere. Through all these hardships, I think game will grow so mature that it will be accepted by general public just as cinema is today.