Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs 2 trailer dropped last week, setting Internet nerd land on fire. Much of the hoopla was dedicated to the sequel title with the protagonist being a black guy.
Instead of playing as the original main character, Aiden Pearce, the person that the player directs through this game’s journey is Marcus Holloway, a young black hacktivist from Oakland, California. As with any form of media these days (interactive media included), the talk about PC casting, even in a video game has reared its ugly head.
Disregarding the fact that black people are not monolithic and exist as individuals from all walks of life and experiences, a community of gamers started a thread called, “Shoehorned black character why can’t we be Aiden?”. Conversations with similar themes took place on every social media platform you can name. Everything from the need for customizable characters (so they could change his race) to the unlikelihood of Marcus Holloway existing as a person in real life according to census reports on the black population in San Francisco was discussed.
The fact that this a conversation even happening at all just reinforces what we already know about gaming culture (read: most of America). The space is predominantly white and male. And everybody wants their main playable character to be white and male, because…well, that’s just how thing should be.
That’s not racist. Right?
I personally think Watch Dogs 2 looks just as, or more, enjoyable than the first. On Monday at E3, Ubisoft did a presentation on all of their new titles and took some time out to chop up it about the new game.
What do you think about the reactions to Watch Dogs 2’s main character? Let’s talk about in the comments. Tag a friend on Facebook that needs to read this.
