Fighting Game Stereotype use

[Iced]

Every fighting game ( and in a sense most games) uses stereotypes to creat fast recognition of the characters avaliable.

But how far does it go where it goes from a  fun character to something offensive?

SF2
american soldier in guile
savage amazon beast in blanka
sumo wrestler in honda
chinese dress girl in chunli
curry powered holyman in Dhalsim
etc

Those are loved characters, they managed to keep the theme of what they were based on but to be more than just what they were meant to represent.

then you have stuff like this:http://mugenguild.com/forum/topics/ultimate-gay-fighter-155234.0.html
Where every "theme" used is reduced to an insultive parody of whatever the theme was, in this case using sexist themes and reducing the characters ( and themes) to jokes.

What about it? Talk about themes and stereotypes you enjoy in games versus those you dont enjoy in games.
Maybe even list the themes of the fighters on your favorites.

[DatKofGuy]

Does the "Bruce Lee" character qualify?
Like Feilong, Marshall and Forrest Law, Dragon, Jann Lee, etc?

[Nero D.]

nah you're thinking archetype


in this instance stereotype refers to black belligerent boxer who is a criminal, perpetually broke and only cares about money balrog/mike bison, who went from looking like his namesake to looking and acting like a goddamn minstrel character





thats what this topic covers

[Iced]

You can also talk about archetypes if you want, but they are oftenly not prone to have negative qualities that can be abused.
Some characters cover both archetypes and stereotypes.

[FeLo_Llop]

If you're Spaniard, then you MUST be a torero. Or something related. Or still living in the XVII Century, as if you were in Hogwarts.


(This doesn't apply to Falcon, who appeared in a beat'em up game...he's a baddass samurai!)

[Bea]

Punch Out! made an excellent use of stereotypes.
One can say that most of them are "offensive", but they added a much needed personality and a way to distinguish each boxer in a game that had little to no space for background stories.

I love when stereotypes are used properly like this. Makes the characters easier to understand, relate to and love.

["Bad News" Hoffmann]

Brazillians..they are automatically Capoeira experts ..except Blanka of course while there are a few more martial arts styles popular there like vale tudo and recently jiu jitsu

And we Germans are automatically somewhat evil in fighting games (Leo from Tekken being one of the very few exceptions)

[Niitris]

Stereotypes are far from a bad thing; they exist for a reason don't they? While obviously everyone has different degrees of sensitivity, some do push the envelope a bit far... that said, not every character should be politically correct anyway (that would be boring).

Stereotyping is only a problem when an game does this to most or all characters but lacks versatility and taste in doing so (lol Gay Fighter). I know quite a few gay people... while they're not the shining definition of masculinity, they're far from what I saw in that crap video.

Street Fighter (Punch Out was a good example too) makes this work because of the versatility of stereotypes they use, making for a more well-rounded game.

[Iced]

Stereotypes are far from a bad thing; they exist for a reason don't they? While obviously everyone has different degrees of sensitivity, some do push the envelope a bit far... that said, not every character should be politically correct anyway (that would be boring).

You can have stereotyping and reductive stereotyping.  refusing to make a character have negative qualities due to their sexual orientation or race /origin might be as bad as the opposite.   Characters should be characters before being dictated only by their stereotypes.

I tihnk that Darkstalkers did this pretty well ( even tho the archetypes and stereotypes it uses are from fiction) by making the characters personalities subvert their archetypes.

[Websta]

Being American automatically means you speak with some of worse engrish conceivable

Terry, Geese, Galford are good examples.

[Iced]

likely a limitation of them being japanese creators and only having japanese voice actors.
I found funnier that the guilty gear english speaking ninja tried to speak japanese by screaming food names.

"SUKYAKI!"

[QuickFist]

"English Gentlemen"
Dudley, Eagle
"Bad-ass Biker"
Hwoarang, K'
"French effeminate men"
Remy, Ash
"Megalomaniac who believes he's a god"
Gill, Igniz

[walt]

Mexican Wrestlers.

[rednavi -RETIRED]

At least most of your countries are represented somehow. Any character from South America is always automatically from Brazil so none of our other countries around here are ever represented

I liked how SF represented Brazil, their country of origin didn't affect the character that much (Blanka's english is 100 times better than any guy from Brazil I've played an online game with).

[Jmorphman]

I dunno how much of this has been explored in various back stories and what not, but Blanka doesn't really seem like he's Brazilian. His plane just happened to crash there. I mean, it's certainly possible that an English speaking white guy whose name is Jimmy is Brazilian, but... seems more like a Tarzan type scenario.

nah you're thinking archetype

I agree.

Whenever people talk about SF being about stereotypes, they're totally wrong. It's about archetypes, not stereotypes. The wandering karate master isn't a stereotype; it's an archetype, and so on. Street Fighter is all about taking archetypes of characters, boiling them down to their essence, and tweaking it. It gives a sense of purity to the characters; of simplified elegance.  Not that it applies to every character, just a lot of them.

Stereotypes are far from a bad thing; they exist for a reason don't they?

That reason is ignorance used to justify reductive thinking. Not exactly the best thing to base characters on.

[FeLo_Llop]

Any character from South America is always automatically from Brazil so none of our other countries around here are ever represented

That "jaguar" guy from Kakuto Chojin was argentiiiiiinian. Also, one ofthe guys of Iron Muscle/Slam Masters was South American too. Eddie(from Double Dragon is Venezuelan, as Foxy, from KoF).


Also, forgot: Kakuto Chojin has "two" Spaniards: Vittoria(name in Italian? LOLOLOL!! and is supposed that her long lost brother is Shadow(that badass ninja from the same game).

[Cazaki]

I don't know, you can have stereotypes in a positive light, make something that is typical desirable.

[QuickFist]

Foxy is Venezuelan??

[Websta]

Africa comes in 2 flavours in fighting games. Egyptian and Tribal black person.

[Jmorphman]

I don't know, you can have stereotypes in a positive light, make something that is typical desirable.

... not really?