Racism or Cultural Accuracy - Street Fighters Uniquely Cultural Roster

Hey everyone my last blog critique for my last assignment, next one ill be looking into whether who should be liable for excessive playing and the implications it has on our society anyway enjoy :).

Racism or Cultural Accuracy - Street Fighters Uniquely Cultural Roster

The Street  Fighter franchise has a plethora of fighters from everywhere in the world. The roster of fighters is very unique for a fighting game it reaches around the world and includes fighters from places such as the United states, Japan, Russia, India and more. The game does not hold back when it comes to creating people from those places in the world for example the fighter from India, his name is Dhalsim. He can blow flames, his win dance is that of an Indian dancer, and he is a yoga instructor, at the time of his creation around street fighter 2 the internet did not exist so this interpretation of what an Indian was pretty much became the norm. Is it right to say that this is acceptable? perhaps seeing that this over stereotyping did not only look at one portion of the world. Looking at Street Fighters evolution and understand why they made the choices they did with the characters and how their character creation has changed over time.

The racial look at street fighter 2 even begins right at the start of the game, in the opening a street fight breaks out between a white guy and a black guy fighting below a building where the white guy throws one punch and this knocks the black guy out. Could you say this was racist?, I think not if you look at it for what it is, it is simply two people fighting, their colour is truly irrelevant. However due to the backlash received, Capcom made a change in the next iteration of the game by changing it to two white guys fighting.

We can atleast say that Capcom heard of the complaint and took action to correct the issue even though you could argue there was no real issue to begin with. Characters like that though made people think that all Americans had American flag tattoo's on them and that they were all a part of the military. The stereotypes in this game are just a reflection of our society in those times. It was a common thought for people to think America then to think of America's army. Guile's stage is just a reflection of what people thought movies like top gun would have if it was a stage in a video game. The fighter jets all lined up with everyone lounging around having a good time. The other fighter from America Ken, he also had a familiar theme to his stage where there is a large boat with people standing about all looking generally happy to be there. Compare this to that of say Blanka's stage where the people look isolated you could understand as to why people thought that way.

Street Fighter 3 came along and brought with it a new cast that was just as diverse as Street Fighter 2, however it strayed away from stereotypes. The characters never stood out as much except the a few like Dudley whom was an intellectual boxer compared to the racially charged Balrog whom like it or not was based on Mike Tyson. This change in looking at fighters was a nice touch however the game felt like it lacked the personality that Street Fighter 2 had. The characters didnt have the same appeal and so the game did not do as well commercially. The look at culture that was in Street Fighter 2 really helped define the game for many players.

The people asked and Capcom answered, Street Fighter went back to its roots for Street Fighter 4 in regards to characters and design. Bringing back the old classics like Dhalsim that were such a hit in Street Fighter 2. They even created new characters that weren't so stereotypical the likes of C.Viper whom you can't really say has a nation however she is definitely a stereo typical spy with sex appeal. If there was ever a character that was a part of the Street Fighter 4 roster that could maybe offend people might be either El Fuerte or Hakan. Both are stereotypes, Hakan is a Turkish wrestler and El Fuerte is a Lucha Dore wrestler.

Though with both as above it could be stated that they are references to their source material. As we can see from the games that have come through the Street Fighter series its more to do with visually making their characters different enough to be able to allow them to have a sense individuality making the roster feel as though they have collected a cast that is from totally global standpoint. Can we see this series as racist? Maybe Street Fighter 2, however since then I would say that this game follows the stereotype tropes of people from different parts of the world.

References:

Leone, M. (2014). Street Fighter 2:An Oral History. Retrieved from: http://www.polygon.com/a/street-fighter-2-oral-history

Demby, G. (2014). 'Street Fighter II': Most Racist Nostalgic Video Game Ever?. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/03/16/290119728/street-fighter-ii-most-racist-nostalgic-video-game-ever

Lo, V. (2001). The rise and fall of Street Fighter 2. Retrieved from: http://web.stanford.edu/group/htgg/sts145papers/vlo_2001_2.pdf

Image Reference

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