As you probably assumed by reading the title, I’m black. As it happens, I’ve been both black and a gamer for as long as I can remember, yet I don’t have many fond memories of playing a game where they nailed the hair for a black character. This has put a significant damper on me fully immersing myself in some games. Sometimes I want to see someone who looks like a real black person on screen. I guess some sports games (Madden, NBA 2K) do well enough, but I’m mainly talking about RPGs and non-sports affiliated games. Has anyone else been luckier than me and found some games that get the looks right?
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Hair is tough thing in games, because it doesn’t translate well to polygons. I have long curly hair, like Slash or Jesus, and haven’t found a game that can do that hair right either. The closest you’ll find is a sprite based character creator, like Stardew Valley.
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True. Stardew actually has good hair for black characters as well. I completely forgot about it.
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How do games like The Division do? I hoped it’s contempary setting would allow it to do better than how badly Destiny dropped the ball.
I would give the Division a C. They have basic straight back corn rows, terrible short dreads, and a fine fade. Nothing spectacular. Luckily, you’re always wearing a hat in that game, so it’s less of an issue.
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Yeah that feels like PS2-era thought not great
The Sims4 engine doesn’t really have great support for it by default, but modders have done some decent work:
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This a thing I’ve never even had to consider before as a white gamer. Really interesting insight. Thank you.
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So we’re going to need a separate thread for character creators with good black colored hair? Cause that’s more hit and miss than you’d think. Dragon Age: Inquisition knows what it did.
