There are bigger problems to deal with, or it's worse for women, or Asians have it good enough, or It's up to them to speak up about it are claims I have witnessed far too often for comfort. For as long as this absence is felt, there is no drive for improvement. It does not denote the absence of the problem but an unwillingness to show awareness and forge a conversation around it. But from what I saw, at least, there was a lot less social-media buzz when Amadeus Cho became the (totally awesome) Hulk in 2015. Marvel, and presumably African American Riri Williams as the forthcoming new Iron Man. This absence of recognition can be seen in other spaces: most of us know African American/Puerto Rican Miles Morales as the new Spider-Man, Pakistani-American Kamala Khan as Ms. Why is there so little discussion around this? While the dialogue surrounding diversity is becoming increasingly widespread, to exciting and brilliant results, there is a lamentable absence of discussion regarding Asians neither celebrated during peaks of positivity and going largely unnoticed by communities passionately championing diversity in games. Nevertheless, 49 percent of Asian American respondents to a 2015 Nielsen survey "strongly disagreed" with the statement of "all races have ample representation/inclusion in video game characters." This is more than twice as high as Hispanic and African American respondents, and similarly more than twice as high than women that "strongly disagreed" with the same statement toward gender. Fortunately, there has been no organized social-media movement against Asians-although some of the coarser language certainly focused on ethnicity-but rather a continuous disregard.
Nor do Asian men experience the same career barriers within the tech sector and generally are not currently under the extremities of harassment and hate felt by others: not under threat of deportation or assumptions of terrorist sympathies, nor under fear of trigger-happy law enforcement.
China, Japan, and South Korea are strong markets for video games with their own idiosyncrasies, studios and market influence, and are certainly as responsible for propagating these tropes as Western developers and publishers. The issue of representation is perhaps more difficult to confront because Asians have always occupied a significant presence in games history, culture, and production, creating the assumption of a non-issue.
INVISIBLE VIDEO GAME PLUS
'Yakuza 5' announcement trailer-the game is currently available (in August 2016) for "free" via PlayStation's PS Plus service There's undeniably a degree of "Orientalism" about these productions, which can come across as a fetishization of established, and out-dated, Asian tropes. They do go out of their way to paint with more discerning brushstrokes on the sidelines of the main quests, but there are still plenty of disappointing stereotypes to be found in these games, likewise Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors franchise.
INVISIBLE VIDEO GAME SERIES
There is no doubt that games like Sleeping Dogs and SEGA's Yakuza series display a varied array of Asian characters, but the heroes are trained martial artists, triad members, tough guys. Asian and Middle Eastern characters are placed strictly as the enemy, cannon fodder in Call of Dutys and Battlefields or minor gangs in Grand Theft Autos, without the tonic of more nuanced representation elsewhere that might quell the dehumanizing effect of social stereotypes. Street Fighter V's F.A.N.G portrays some of the most classically derogatory Asian stereotypes-villainous, weak, conniving, effeminate-with such ferocity, it is astounding that it passed through so many eyes in Capcom without comment and continues to do so with its players. These exceptions are extremely rare and surrounded by the continuation of widely accepted tropes. There is a reason Faith is an oft-go-to example. F.A.N.G, as seen in 'Street Fighter V,' screenshot courtesy of Capcom
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