It wasn’t that long ago I was pretty impressed with a game for naming its protagonist Cortez. Here was this action hero that wasn’t named Blaine Goodkill or Ronald Fightfury. Timesplitters may have been silly and off beat but it had Cortez and it flexed him pretty hard. While I’m sure there are other examples of big games throwing people of color a bone and naming their characters something “ethnic” it was almost 15 years until Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s Nick Reyes took center stage.

All of this to say that games like Apex Legends traffic in throwing bones to people. For years people of color and other marginalized groups have sustained ourselves on scraps. Every few years we’d get a throwaway Cortez or Reyes. Once in a while we’d get someone with more substance such as Faith in Mirror’s Edge or Mafia 3’s Lincoln Clay. But over the years developers have landed on a new strategy to keep handing out the bare minimum: representation via art design and out-of-game lore.

First, let’s look at Makoa Gibraltar. It’s easy to see the Oceanic art influences on many of his skins. Geometric and herringbone patterns stick out on most of them. His base appearance includes a large, prominent design on his chest and groin that is undeniably supposed to signify Pacific Islander descent. He can even celebrate by doing a flourish the reads along the lines of Maori haka.

So is Gibraltar a Pacific Islander?

Sort of? When you begin to take into account the “lore” of a game like Apex Legends the very idea of ethnicities defined by geography on Earth starts to fall apart. Gibraltar is from a space planet perhaps thousands of years in the future where no such place as “the pacific” may even exist anymore. In actuality he’s probably more of a “Hikaru Sulu” like figure that is a stand in for a broad ethnic group with nods to many but no specific origin.

Even more complicating is that Gibraltar is a member of the LGBTQ community. How do we know this? One reference in one place on the internet. “However, he only began to understand the value of protecting others when he and his boyfriend stole his father’s motorcycle, took it on a joyride, and got trapped by a deadly mudslide.” This line is not included in the game and if one was to only play the game they’d have no evidence of Gibraltar’s sexual orientation.

Without EA’s website Gibraltar functionally has no orientation, along with every other character. While it’s not fair to assume anyone’s orientation, that the information exists but was excluded from the game makes knowing Gibraltar unnecessarily unstable. Are we to believe that only the evidence presented to us within the game establishes the canon? How then are EA and Respawn to make Gibraltar put up a shield in a way that is simultaneously representative of the LGTBQ community while also not patronizing? If the website were to shut down what evidence would we have left? How do we as people consuming this media put these pieces together when the pieces themselves are unstable?

By separating background information from the main “text” of the game and also by choosing to use art and design to represent ethnicity and race most of the work is put onto the player. Creators could show a strong authorial voice and make characters identities more consistently integrated. Instead, players are left to piece together a more complete picture of a character. This would not be concerning if it were details like the name of their home planet as there are no natives of descendants of Typhon starved to be represented.

The effect of separating lore and game and providing deeper insight via external media turns Wraith into a nightmare scenario. A quick internet search reveals a pretty divided community as to her ethnicity. Is she Asian? Why does she “Naruto run” and is it because she’s a white woman cosplaying as a ninja? Her appearance in the game and in the concept art further complicates this. Neither seems to give a clear answer and many in the community are quick to point out how she is obviously one or another based on the same image, which may or may not be in the game.

Frighteningly, what seems to be the largest hang up to a conclusion is that the developers have refused to give her a name. Were her name to be “Susan Wu” the community could move on to debating the Gibraltar like question of which East Asian community she’s supposed to be a part of. On the Apex Legends website we only know that her name is “redacted.” Worse, if she was to be named “Susan Jones” the debate would further spiral.

In 2019 it’s no longer enough for characters to look or sound a way and have that somehow advance “representation.” It’s especially not enough to consider backstories deliberately kept out of the game itself as “representation.” It’s certainly not worth lauding as being anything more than a stopgap measure. I’m happy that Octane is in the game but what about Octavio Silva? He only exists on a webpage. Games will always struggle to accomplish anything resembling representing the diverse groups that play them as long as it is satisfactory to bury diversity outside the game.

The sad truth of this is that minority groups are used to having to do the work. We’re used to having to explain why something isn’t right or why we aren’t satisfied. We’ve been made to carve out niches for ourselves and read between the lines well before videogames existed. Now, the furthest we’ve come to seeing ourselves in the mainstream is occasionally masked people with accents thick enough to clue us in to their heritage. That’s not enough and its not fair to the people meant to be placated by it.

About the Author

David Shimomura is a Chicago-based writer who wants to pet all the dogs. He’s currently dog friends with Biscuit and Amelia. He waves to every dog he sees.