Video games and black culture

Black History Month is in full effect and after hearing the greatness that is Dr. Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and Common, I think it’s time to delve deeper into video games and its effect on black culture.

So the last time I purchased a game at its midnight release was NBA 2K13 in October, not realizing that Resident Evil 6 was coming out as well.

When I pull up to Gamestop I see, what seems to be an  odd group, for a 2K crowd, starting to assemble outside. This group starts to resemble the cast of Big Bang Theory, and for .1 second I start to freak out thinking I had my days mixed up, but once I opened the door I saw a more familiar sight…backwards baseball fitteds, basketball shorts, and hoodies.  Understandbly, I'm stereotyping here, but I felt this was more of a 2K crowd. 

To say it was a sight to behold seeing these two “entities” interact would be an understatement.  At first, I thought it pretty funny when they split the groups up to pick up the game, I didn't want to believe that my stereotyping was true but all of the "urban" gamers where in the 2K line and the Big Bang Theory Cast, in the Resident Evil line.

After deeper thought I realized something…most urban gamers ONLY play sports games and the occasional shooter games like Call of Duty! 

Normally, I try to stay away from bold generalizations but I realize how true it is.

Lets look at my  Xbox Live friend as a social experiment of sorts.
Last night there out of 50+ "urban gamer" friends, 35 were online
19 were playing Call of Duty and 13 were playing 2k!
1 was playing Madden
1 on Devil May Cry and the other watching Netflix

As you can see, there isn't much variety in these numbers.

Unfortunately like many aspects of “urban” life, the idea of being a gamer is limited in scope to the known versus the unknown.  It has been well documented that sports and hip-hop are the quickest way to get out of the “hood,” so latching on to games that capture that escapism is more tangible than “pretending” to save the world from a Reaper attack.

Here I am, someone who grew up somewhat ashamed to admit my love of sci-fi, anime, or comics out of fear of ostracized.  But honestly, being different is really just being open to different experiences and willing to expand your boundaries.

I know guys who play the MyCareer mode in 2K non-stop, but have only played 20 minutes of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and immediately threw it to the side as another stupid “white person” game… I don’t even know what that means but unfortunately I’ve heard that phrase more than once! 

Off the top of my head, I’ve heard Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, X-Com, and even Zelda being pawned off as “white!”  What do these have in common, well they’re all based in fantasy and in simpler terms, imagination. 

So, yeah I’m challenging my people to broaden their horizons and play something not named NBA 2K something, Call of whatever, or NFL gambling 2013.  I’m not asking you to go full RPG (because everybody knows, you don’t go full RPG), but just ease into other genres and find your niche.

 Try out Deus Ex or Mass Effect if you’re feeling like a shooter…feeling like roaming aimlessly a la Grand Theft Auto give The Elder Scrolls a try.  All I asking (begging actually) is to step outside of your comfort zone and do something different, you never know what could be waiting for you!