(Taken from The Escapist)

Race in videogames has recently become a touchy subject following the uproar caused by Resident Evil 5's depiction of Africa and its people and when Willie Jefferson, videogame blogger for the Houston Chronicle, wrote a post about racism in games, he re-ignited the discussion with a fresh wave of controversy.

The main point of his article was his dismay at western-themed FPS Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood's use of the Confederate flag, which he regarded as a symbol of hate, but early on in the post, he cited Left4Dead 2 as a game with racist undertones saying: "One of the games that comes to mind is 'Left 4 Dead 2.' Though the game isn't out yet, it's already causing an uproar. Set in New Orleans, players will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies - with several of them who appear to be African-Americans."


Predictably, this view on their game has Valve somewhat mystified and writer Chet Faliszek has spoken about the accusations in an interview with Destructoid.
"Utter insanity," said Faliszek. "There are mixed races of zombies, there are all different races of zombies that you shoot, and since we placed it in New Orleans, that makes it racist? I honestly re-read the paragraph about five times ... but when two of the characters in your game are African-American, it's a weird thing to be accused of. We're like, 'how does this work'? (END :p)

Now, i don't think i'm the only one here who thinks this, but this is the biggest load of bullshit i've ever heard of. Just because you kill black zombies makes L4D2 racist!? I don't understand the idiocy behind this mans writings... Especially since two of your team members are african-american. What do you all think?

lol! What a laugh!
I can't believe this. I have nothing against blacks either, but WTF!! I totally agree w/ you, man, these ppl are crazy. USA is the MELTING POT, hello!! They're probably gonna shoot white, asian, hispanic, etc. Geez, ppl, it's just a game. Don't freak out over it.

I see Left 4 Dead 2 being less racist with black zombies, the first had very pale zombies, that was it, it got tiresome, we need zombies of every ethnicity in Left 4 Dead. lol

Is the guy who's complaining black? if not, then maybe he should ask some black people if they think the game is racist.


People are over-protective of what content gets put into games.

Example, they made a rating system. >_>

Well, rating can differ in countries as well.(Mass effect almost got banned here)

Besides if they want racist games there are plenty of others they could waste their time complaining about. Besides, all this is just a game. I mean sure, games do have an impact on people's mindset but heck, can these people get any bigger of a joke? I don't see the racism in it honestly

Australia gets no L4D2

Both the explicit and censored versions got banned, which I don't see the reason why. They let MadWorld through and Borderlands, both with equal amounts of violence/gore. If those 2 games just had a little more realistic colour, they would've been banned as well.

I think Valve are going to appeal against it again. It takes the piss really, the fact that they won't let it through. Isn't it something like that there's only one governer that opposes there being an 18+ rating out of all teh governers in Australia? I think it's something like that anyway. They let violent movies like Hostel through, so why not games? They're nowhere near as bad. Films show rape scenes, yet games would get banned instantly if there was anything like that. The mind boggles...

Michael Atkinson, probably in the top 5 of the most hated in Australia.