racist zombies!!!

(charlie brown impression) Good grief.

Here we go again:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/zombie-racism/black-looks-on-re-5-racism-284725.php

Quite frankly. There are at least a couple things wrong with this. In the first place, if one truly believes that it's hateful/damaging, you may or may not be hurting your own case in promoting it. There is something to be said for the idea that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

The second area is hazier. Less clear. Would it be racist if the protagonist were black? Would it be racist if the zombies were white? Clearly not. Nobody complained about the first 4 games in the franchise. If you're a game developer - I used to think it was reasonably safe to use fixed groups as your villain. Put simply: zombies, terrorists, nazis, devils/demons and aliens. Guess now we have to scratch zombies off the list.

Plus there's a basic issue at work - there's an assumption there that it's about hate. I spent my childhood killing sprite based enemies of all-sorts, including turtles (mario), aliens (defender), commandos (chopper command), etc... It doesn't necessarily follow that I must hate them. I don't. It's just a @#$@#$@#$ game.

On the other hand, it's important to remember that this shouldn't bother me either. Carlos Mencia (in his own brash way) once basically said that minority advocacy groups aren't always accurate depictions of the minorities they represent. We all have our extreme/radical groups, and I'm allowed to hope that one blogger who just happened to make the news doesn't necessarily speak for population segments larger then herself.