Answer from the article itself: no, they were never well represented. This is a terrible clickbait title for a decent article.
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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This makes me realize that I can't think of hardly any videogames with a black character at the forefront.
Sure, there are black playable characters in MOBAs and MMOs, but how many story-driven games have black characters at the forefront?
The most recent one I can think of is Alan Wake 2. And Spider-Man Miles Morales. But there really are so few compared to those with white main characters. Which is sad.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey? Or Origin? Too many of them, don't know.
Watchdogs 2.
Most games with a customizable main character.
Mafia 3.
Crysis 2 and sort of 3?
Some platformers I can't name because it's not my genre.
That 80s Kingdom offshoot.
Does Crusader Kings 3 have African leaders enabled or does it come as a DLC?
Civilization series.
Representation of any demographic in games should be done by those who have an interest in doing it well.
Doing it just to pad the numbers is more insulting than even not doing it at all.
Does Crusader Kings 3 have African leaders enabled or does it come as a DLC?
The base game has a notoriously difficult achievement involving starting as a specific female tribal chief uniting "all of Africa" under one reformed pagan religion. Scare quotes because the map doesn't go further south than approximately the Sahel, not all Africa is playable. Whole of the Americas, Oceania, as well as much of east Asia (incl. China and Japan) are missing. There's probably going to be map extensions (and China and Japan will be DLCs with lots of custom mechanics) but the original map is already bigger than CKII ever got, and India was playable from the start, with custom mechanics and all.
Slime Rancher's protagonist, Beatrix LeBeau, is definitely not white. It's not the most story-driven game out there, but I really appreciated how the main character is a PoC woman, with zero fuss about it. She's just a lady with a ranch on an alien planet, and why shouldn't she be a PoC woman rather than a white dude?
Just for the record I agree with you, but the opposite of that final question is true, why shouldn't she be a white dude, or a PoC man? Ranching/farming isn't a job that requires a specific gender or sex.
I mean, that's kind of the point. For the vast majority of games, there's no real reason why the protagonist has to be a straight white dude, yet 99% of the time, that's what they are. I like it when devs do something different.
GTA: San Andreas.
And GTA: V
I wasn't sure about that one since the game switches protagonists & I couldn't be bothered to finish it.
I'd argue Franklin is the primary protagonist, as the ending changes based on decisions made as him.
Watch_Dogs 2
It's old by now, but Telltale's Walking Dead. Loved those games, and loved those characters.
Prototype 2 (2012)
It's been a while, I can't really remember the game well but I do remember enjoying the prototype games.
I can't recall too many other games that haven't already been mentioned here either
can't even pick a decent black hairstyle in the character creators. 90% only have a fro, 9% that weird comb over dread style bc it was in black panther, even tho i've never seen a real person wear it
I can think of Forspoken and Deathloop
Mafia 3 comes to mind and a lot of the game's story and themes are based around that fact
Baldurs Gate 3
One of the 6 characters in Xenoblade 3's main cast is black. He's quite interesting too, this game has pretty good character writing IMO. They're not the usual stereotypical JRPG character types.
You're right, but deathloop is a great one imo
Final Fantasy XIII had Sazh Katzroy. He's not the main character (that'd be Lightning), but he is an important playable character right from the get-go. He has his own storylines as well.