Some popular videogames promote racist, negative stereotypes of Asians that would be unacceptable in other forms of media, says a Canadian researcher.
Robert Parungao studied four of the best-selling games designed and published in the United States during a 20-year span: "Kung Fu," "Warcraft 3," "Shadow Warrior," and "Grand Theft Auto 3."
He said that the games feature evil gangsters, all of them non-white, who "function as narrative obstacles to be overcome, mastered, or ultimately blown to smithereens by the white hero."
Sexism and violence in videogames have become hotly controversial topics recently in the United States.
But while blatant racism is not tolerated in mainstream films or television, Parungao said that in videogames "it's below the radar."
Parungao, who did the study as his thesis for an honors sociology degree at the University of British Columbia, and is himself an avid gamer, said that it has had mixed response.
"Some say [racist stereotypes in games] is terrible," he said. "Other people in the games community say, 'Lighten up, it's a game, you don't have to worry about political correctness'."
A fifth-generation Canadian of Chinese and Filipino ancestry, Parungao said that with videogame sales at about $30 billion worldwide - making them more popular than movies - negative stereotypes matter.
He admits that not all games, or game publishing companies, promote such stereotypes, but said that racism is rife among many of the most popular games, which are designed and published mostly in the United States and Japan.
"These aren't just kids' toys, these are representative of our society and they teach us."
Parungao's study is one of the first to look at racism in videogames, said Richard Smith, a specialist in technology and society at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
"We've heard about sex and violence, but I can't remember hearing about racism in videogames," said Smith. "The most insidious thing about racism is when people accept it. Studies like this help create consciousness."
Smith, however, cautioned that there is no academic consensus that violence and sexism in media impacts on real-world attitudes, and said that the impact of racist images will be hard to measure.
"This is new territory," said Smith. But he said that because games are interactive they may have more effect on a player's real-life behavior than television or film, "being that you're much more engaged with it - or it could have the counter-effect."
