Wow, this is a very fair and comprehensive look at the characters and how they (mis)represent Native Americans. It's one thing to overreact to a bunch of images, but another to look into the story and context of each character, which is more than a lot of people (including the gamers themselves) will do.

I've been following the conversation below (or above as the case may be) and I'm incredibly disappointed to see the comment that ignited it was removed (presumably by the site admin). What good does it do anyone for a site like this, whose writers claim to want to spark tough conversations (and presumably healthy debate), pulls down the content that triggers the debate? I didn't realize this site was run like a George W. Bush appearance - only the pre-screened and approved comments are allowed. Now that I know I am unsubscribing (not that you care) and will stop sharing content from here.

The removed comment was in no way offensive and the fact that it was removed tells me quite a bit about the people who run this site.

I'm glad the video demonstrates where games get it *right* as well. Pointing out the problematic is important, but offering alternatives is even more so.

Langer does a great job of writing about the "othering" of the Horde in World of Warcraft -- one of the "races" in the Horde use Native American identity markers.

Langer, J. (2008). The familiar and the foreign: Playing (post)
colonialism in World of Warcraft. In H. Corneliussen, & J.
Rettberg (Eds.), Digital culture, play, and identity: A World of
Warcraft reader (pp. 87-108). Cambridge: MIT Press.

For full disclosure I'm a Female Gamer; I'm also of Northern European descent. While I normally adore the content this site pumps out, this particular post irks me slightly. Not a lot, but slightly. This would be a much larger issue if it were *just* Native Americans being represented with cliches and stereotypes, but it's not. It's also not just people of color, women, or men. It's everyone.

The bulk of video game designers know how to do one thing, make a video game. Not necessarily a particularly good one, but nonetheless. There aren't a lot of masterful writers in the industry (relative to the number of games put out), and even the ones that are great still have quite a struggle to get us to connect to a character within the time frame it takes to complete the average game, let alone multiple side characters and enemies etc. etc..

With that in mind, the easiest way to make a player who isn't 100% invested in the game yet comprehend what's going on is through the use of a cliche. How many white males do you know who look like this? http://www.3drealms.com/duke-nukem-forever.jpg

How many look like the "Manly Man" in this satirical image? http://www11.onrpg.com/gamepics/articles/general/needs_physique.jpg

It's harder to present here, but furthermore, very few of them actually act like normal white males. Very few video game women act like real women. Very few video game Africans act like real Africans. And, as pointed out in the article, very few video game Natives act like real Native Americans.

And the reason is that by using a cliche, it makes it easier for the player to understand what's going on. Now it might be a very legitimate issue that these cliches exist in the first place, but the number of gamers I know who take them seriously can be counted on 0 hands; and I know a lot of gamers.

But anyway, just to make sure this wall of text actually has an ending, the main point here is that I'd see at as wrong or discriminatory if it were just Native Americans being stereotyped in games, but it's everyone. Even beyond race, the different societal classes are stereotyped throughout games; Ditto to people in different lines of work. Literally no one is safe. Because of that, I don't see a major issue with it. A minor issue perhaps with the existence of the cliches in the first place, but not a major issue.

I really liked this, as it was rather in-depth. I did not really understand the reason behind some of the specific complaints, though. The game mechanics in "Civilization" are essentially the same for every "culture" and are not meant to be a realistic depiction of each culture. I would love to see a better representation of Native Americans in games that are heavily story-based, though. I also felt that Red Dead Redemption was very good in this regard.

Full disclosure-I've never played any video games (well except for Pacman with my children years ago).

However, I writing to encourage those interested in this discussion to visit and read the comments on http://www.racialicious.com/2011/08/09/native-american-images-in-video-games/#disqus_thread 

To date, there are only 4 comments, but three of those commenters  provide some details about their concerns about some of the games mentioned in that video. For example, Logoskaieros wrote that "When I first played WoW, I appreciated that there was a race based on Native American culture--the Tauren starting zone felt very unique and carefully crafted. ....But after a while the marginalization of the Tauren with the realization that there never was a single Nat. Am. culture really grated on me Tauren live on the plains but have totem poles, for instance). The other race fails in the game (goblins are Jewish (They have big noses and like money), Trolls are PoCs (they have Carribean accents and there's a quest where you help white frontiersy humans enslave them--no joke) make the stereotypes about the Tauren stand out that much more."... 

RACISTS