July 4, 2016
U.S.A.
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
At E3, game makers introduce more diverse heroes
GAMING GAINS. A display for Watch Dogs 2,
an upcoming open world action-adventure video
game developed by Ubisoft, is seen at the Electronic
Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. After introducing
the world to several new female heroes at last year’s
Electronic Entertainment Expo, story-driven game
makers at a gathering of the interactive industry are
uncharacteristically putting more racially diverse
protagonists front and center in their games.
(AP Photo/Nick Ut)
By Derrik J. Lang
AP Entertainment Writer
OS ANGELES — After introducing
the world to several new female
heroes at last year’s Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3), story-driven
game makers at June’s gathering of the
interactive industry are uncharacteristi-
cally putting more racially diverse pro-
tagonists front and center in their games.
From an Indian-American space dweller
in Tacoma to a biracial Vietnam War
veteran in Mafia III, the heroes and
anti-heroes appearing on the massive
posters and screens across the Los Angeles
Convention Center represented more
ethnicities than have been showcased in
the past.
“We wanted to tell a very different Mafia
story this time,” said Christoph
Hartmann, president of Mafia publisher
2K Games. “That meant getting away from
classic Godfather fare with a bunch of
Italian characters. Once we decided to set
the game in New Orleans in 1968, it just
made sense for the character to be an
African-American war vet.”
For decades, when players weren’t able
to pick their own protagonist’s skin color or
background, the interactive medium has
mostly focused on telling stories of white
leading men and women, relegating
characters of other ethnicities to villainous
or supporting roles. That’s changing.
“At the end of the day, this is the group
that we’re interested in seeing on screen,”
said Karla Zimonja, co-founder of Tacoma
developer Fullbright. “It’s always more
interesting to pay attention to things that
don’t get a lot of attention in media. This is
a direction that hasn’t really been explored
in video games, so we wanted to explore it.”
A look at E3’s newest stars:
Lincoln Clay, Mafia III
Mafia III is heading South to a locale
inspired by New Orleans in the ’60s
following installments centered on Italian-
American gangsters in open-world
versions of New York, Chicago, and San
Francisco spanning the ’30s to the ’50s.
The unflinching crime world saga focuses
on Lincoln Clay, a biracial orphan and
Vietnam War vet, as he battles for control
of the city’s black mafia. He’ll face off
against the police, Italian mobsters, and
L
the Ku Klux Klan along the way.
Alex Hunter, FIFA 17
A real — not virtual — black man
stepped on stage at Electronic Arts’ E3
presentation and introduced himself as
Alex Hunter, a humble English chap with
dreams of bending it like David Beckham.
FIFA 17 players will guide a computer-
generated version of Hunter in the soccer
series’ first-ever story mode. From picking
a team to conducting post-game inter-
views, Hunter’s future is in players’ hands.
Amy Ferrier, Tacoma
The follow-up to Fullbright’s voyeuristic
China city holds dog-meat-
eating festival despite protests
Minority population growth strongest in Minnesota
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows
most of the recent population growth in Minnesota comes from people of
color.
While 4.4 million of Minnesota’s 5.2 million residents are white, figures
show 87 percent of population growth last year came from people who are
African American, Asian, American Indian, or Hispanic.
Andi Egbert, the assistant director of the Minnesota State Demographic
Center, told Minnesota Public Radio News that the growth comes from a
combination of immigration and higher birth rates in those population
segments.
The figures also show the median age in Minnesota is 37.9 years.
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Continued from page 4
forced to take the festival indoors and large-scale
open air dog-meat consumption is no longer seen.
Along with the question of animal cruelty, dog meat
also poses a risk to human health by spreading
diseases such as trichinellosis, rabies, and cholera,
the Humane Society says.
Guangxi is already one of China’s five worst areas
affected by human rabies, and Yulin ranks as one of
the top 10 Chinese cities in terms of cases, the
organization says.
Springfield health system to hire 100 nurses from overseas
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Health system CoxHealth says it plans to hire
about 100 nurses from overseas in the next year.
The Springfield-based nonprofit announced in a news release that most of
the nurses will come from the Philippines, with the first hires expected to
arrive in the fall. The hires are in response to “tremendous growth” in the
health system.
CoxHealth says the international nurses will be carefully screened and will
not replace the health system’s efforts to recruit local nurses.
Candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a minimum of two
years of nursing experience. They must pass the same tests and have the same
certification as local nurses, as well as pass an English proficiency exam.
family drama Gone Home casts players as
Indian-American space-faring free agent
Amy Ferrier. She arrives at her new
assignment on the space station Tacoma to
discover its diverse six-person crew has
disappeared. Ferrier, who originally hails
from California, must rely on Tacoma’s
augmented reality system to retrace their
steps and find out what happened.
Marcus Holloway, Watch Dogs 2
Aiden Pierce, the gruff vengeance-
seeking Chicagoan from the original
Watch Dogs, has been replaced with
Marcus Holloway, a more upbeat African-
American vigilante hacker in the San
Francisco-set sequel. During a demo of the
Ubisoft game, the Oakland-born anti-hero
breaks into a crooked politician’s pent-
house all while jamming to Eric B. and
Rakim’s Don’t Sweat The Technique.
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