Fallout? Last of Us? Shadowrun? Dead Island? Any of the countless games depicting German bad guys? I don't disagree a lot of mainstream games follow the pattern described in his video regarding Arabs, but let's be real there are plenty of games out there that do not fall into your generalization.
Lmao, people get confused when I tell them I'm from Bahrain but once they realise it's in the Gulf, they immediately think I live in a tent in the desert or own a gold platted Rolls Royce.
I've always felt like the Musilm culture has a lot of potential to tell good videogame stories, for the few stories a friend of mine has told me, there's a lot to tell. I'm not Arabic nor Muslim, but I can tell when a story has a lot of potential in other media. Who knows? Maybe in the future, when I get to develop games, I'll try to make some around Arabic culture. Great video man, I really liked it
@Yesmine Khayati I am okay with Jewish people as a religion but Israeli as a gov that is another story , I am a Jordanian/Palestinian my father was born in Palestine , he was driven from his home by guys carrying a gun in one hand and a Torah in the other hand . Then my uncle also died in 1968 when Israel attacked Jordan in Jordan when I was a kid , other kids. Used to say “ don’t play with him he is Palestinian “ , so u guess what do I think about them ? Should I love u guys for driving my grand father / father out from the home they built ?
I think Americans don't understand the difference between an Arab and a Muslim. Arabs are from the Middle Eastern Region (It is like an ethnicity) Muslims are the ones who submit their will to Allah, Submission to Allah is called Islam. Like Africans, they are a race but an African can be Muslim. A muslim can also be african, but all africans aren't muslims. So if one African Christian Guy does a disgusting act like suicide bombing, then that doesn't mean the whole of Africa and Muslims are bad. Two very different things. Oh and anyone who thinks Islam is a terrorist religion, plz sit yo ass down and study about islam, the best way to learn about islam is to straight go to source, which is the hadith and qur'an. I know you have heard many things about it, but i'm sorry everything you heard was WRONG!
@@Enacaus Yeah, I'm a Muslim from Indonesia and I find it surprising when I hear people say that us Muslims are Middle Eastern to be honest with you. I thought people know that Islam also exists in other countries, not just in the Middle East. I'm pretty sure Islam also exists in China and it had a history there as well, but it's not that predominant.
whaaaaaat ?????? why they killed kids and womens in there house why tell me bad guys ok but kids ???? why they take our land and we are bad wtf brother ????
Many Arabs are backwards people who practice a twisted religion which condones violence against infidels and prefer killing their sister than her studying or going to a dance club.
To be honest in GTA series every character have some comic relief and Yusuf is not an exception. In another look Yusuf has good personality. Yusuf came with help for Luis when he was in trouble without any doubts. He is a good person and a real friend for Luis.
I like the fact you say we should try our best to fix the problem ourselves instead of shaming people into trying to do it for us or just to make them feel bad for something they didn’t even do on purpose. 👍 Very good video I loved it!
I was just playing an online game where there was this kid who was calling himself Muslim and yelling out “I’m a terrorist” over and over again. This really made me discouraged because the kid really doesn’t know what it’s like to be stereotyped to this extent
Everything you said is the truth 💯, I still play both Assassins creed 1 and revelations the things they say is some violent words in English, and when it comes to Arabic all they do is speak gibberish while the subtitles say that they are “speaking Arabic”. If I can like this a million times I would
@@xx_javier83_xx97 you don’t get what I meant I know they are supposed to speak English since it’s an Ubisoft made game. But they really say stuff that’s a stereotype a thing. And when they talk gibberish the translation says “speaking Arabic”
@@tonyal3235 Yeah but I can understand Arabic so I know what they're saying. When Assassins creed subtitles say (Speaking Arabic) I can understand it sometimes they mispronounce letters but it's understandable.
What about the other Yemenis who were Menendez's ally though? I mean, I know Farid is a good Arab but I don't know about the others during that mission in Yemen.
i randomly stumbled upon this video while looking for arab video game music LMAO i really love how you explained everything so clearly! as an amazigh moroccan person, i've noticed a lot of Orientalism in modern media (especially video games) too. i'm not arab (or maybe i am a little, but i don't know for sure), but people think i am anyway and i get the same treatment as arabs, such as being called a terrorist. more recently, i used to be a genshin impact player too. but lately there's been an impressive amount of Orientalism in that game -- oversexualization of women, 'primitiveness', whitewashing, misusage of cultural aspects, et cetera. what makes it worse is that the new region in that game sloppily mixes up several cultures and ethnicities in one. arab, persian, turkish, indian... practically all SWANA cultures/ethnicities get put into a blender and passed of as correct representation in genshin impact. so yeah, i stopped playing that game. i'm glad you as an arab have spoken out on this incredibly important topic. for those who are also interested in learning more about stereotyping and Orientalism, i'd heavily recommend delving more into Edward Said's works, a Palestinian-American academic who extensively brought this up in his books.
I'm not a big Uncharted fan but in their defence, if you think about the lore, Uncharted isn't interested about modern culture and cities, rather ancient ruins and history. So putting 2 and 2 together, and I'm Arab btw so I'm coming against my interests, you would be more likely to meet someone of out-of-modernity people than not, as you're going to more likely ancient ruins. Just like if Drake were to go to some ancient Mayan temple, there could be a modern Mexican guy or woman guiding them, but more likely than not, you'd expect a native American doing so as they are more familiar with their heritage and temples than a modern Mexican is. I'd like to emphasize my point exactly, my point pertains to historical and treasure hunting games only, where the lore is specifically about ancient stuff or history, and not every single lore.
Really, as a Muslim, I had big big problems with games, the first that games contains a lot of haram (forbidden) things in games, like music, women dressing (however we must keep our eyes away), saying at anything "god", talking about God like a character that can be a woman or a man, losing time at it and more
I know it sounds stupid but I honestly would rather see an average, boring, middle class Arab who works from 9 to 3, eats from McDonald's, drives a 2009 Chevy Impala and listens to some top 10 pop song rather than seeing another rich douchebag, some militia extremists or other garbage. It's kinda sad and ironic to hear people & corporation say that they care about minorities and such but at the same time, push these racial crap that only adds fuel to the fire.
It's been that way for so long now, since 9/11 for sure. Some time before that though, Russians were often portrayed as bad guys due to the Cold War. Rambo 3 is a good movie which shows Afghans in a positive light, basically as the heroes who save the day in the end (along with the American, John Rambo). Russians were the bad guys. Although that was a big movie at the time, it is extremely rare to see that type of positive representation of Arabs today. So rare I suppose that's the only example I can think of lol.. If you haven't seen I recommend it. Prior to the Cold War, older western movies showed Native Americans in a bad light for many years. Now it's Muslim's who have been targeted with these stereotypes. I think eventually times will change, they usually do, and by highlighting the issue you're helping towards effecting that change.
Few years ago there was controversy where the Arabic translators for Infinity Ward actually made fun of Activision/Infinity Ward in Arabic language found in the game hahaha 😂😂
As Muslim (not Arab) this video really hit home for me, its a conversation nobody seems to be having and gets buried under everything else. Subscribed! Thank you making this video, will share.
1. Shaheen was actually designed by Saudi students who were studying in Japan, they contacted them and sat down to come up with a good design and a good name (That's understandable after the Saudi stage they added before which had a controversal mistake, which they fixed in a quick update). 2. I really liked seeing Salim in Uncharted 3 and wish he would've come along with the protagonist xD. Also, bedouin was an understandable decision since Nathan fell in the middle of a great desert. 3. Josef Faris... He may not be related to Arabs by anything except that he's mom and dad are Arab, and was born and raised away from other Arabs. I don't like him because he actually had a horrible depiction of Arabs in his game "A Way Out" in which there were 2 Khaleeji dudes having a deal with a drug or stolen jewelery, and he depicted them as stupid (not knowing how to strike a deal properly/over confident) and when the protagonist was sick of the deal, he just pulled a gun popped them off and continued his day like they are nothing. Love your channel, I've watched about 4 vidoes in a row XD
مافي شي من الغرب يصورنا بدون نظرة دونية او استشراقية، دامنا ما نسوي العابنا ولا نقاطع الالعاب الي تستحقرنا مافي حل توي ادري الصراحة ان شاهين من تصميم طلاب سعوديين
I made an OC who's an arab, soldier and a friendly and smart person. She's a part of military force fighting against aliens, she's an engineer with a passion for cooking. Has a furry nutria friend she named Falafel that she has to protect against hungry polish girl trying to eat him (we ate nutrias here in the past, yeah🙄). Obviously it's very tongue in cheek.
It's heartbreaking just how demonized we are by the transgressors while we are the victims 7:30 Altair ended an atheist Prince of Persia dude had it's sword having Muhammad PBUH'S saying, "spread the teaching" Jarudo's outfits themselves are stereotypical Arab belly dancers and an insult to Islam Even the good guys end up insulting Islam.
Oh also and as a Native, I chuckle at your comments about people asking you silly questions about living in the Middle East. I was asked before if we still live in teepees and once someone at our school (u of m Dearborn) literally complained right next to me that he had to write a paper on native history because he was like “aren’t they all dead?” 😂 anyways great video once again, it is my dream to make video games and I would love to see more accurate representation of cultures in the gaming industry.
Anyone who wants to convert Islam can be Muslim. Islam isn't just for a nation or for a country. (English is not my first language sorry for grammar mistakes)
the same thing can be found in "Stronghold Crusader" just take a look at how they showed some of the characters, named some of the units, and just look at how they named the building for troops for crusaders as "barracks" and for Arabs and muslims as "Mercenary"
Now when I think about it, you might be right. This is one of my most favourite games, though. The balance, the soundtrack - it all is so awesome. I believe they made local Arabic units "mercenaries" even for the local commanders in order not to change (ruin) game mechanics. Even though then and Arabic prince-poet casually build's up his own crusade knights as if it's something normal.
I'm an Arab, and I have posters of Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed... only of those two... I just didn't feel like hanging anything else... but now I understand why I don't have any other posters... and I guess everybody else also knows
Wouldn't you imagine if the biggest game studios in the world were in the middle east or Russia that perhaps American soldiers would be the villian and they would be the heroes ? I mean why would you make the enemies Australian or something. It wouldn't make any sense
While I personally dislike the whole "representation" debates and would probably disagree with you on rather much abiout that, I absolutely applaud you for the part from 12:11 on. Because that's the point that's usually made and that makes me completely disregard many 'We need more characters/actors/designers/whatever of group X!' It usually comes down to: "We demand YOU do something! Hire more X, support X, give money to X, design more characters of X" - which is basically itself a really bad stereotype: "We have a problem. But YOU have to solve it for us - after all, we're X and can't take care of our own problems!" So, kudos to you for your well-developed self-efficacy and I'll leave it at that - plus a thumbs up.
As an Arab, I'd say I couldn't care less about representation. I'd be happy had we been featured (and I don't want to use "represented" as if we're about to elect a representative), but if not, I really don't mind. What I mind though is demonize and vilify. If a story relates to a Middle Eastern country than more than likely you're gonna meet an Arab dude, but if you're in India, Nigeria or Turkey, you're not going to meet one. Do I feel offended or belittled when I see 10% of stories have nothing to do with my traditions or nation? No. But when I see the westerner coming to my "fictional" land acting like the noble, liberator, virtue signaling, piece of garbage guy that he is, I do find it offensive. And if you think I'm angry because of my Arab roots, trust me, when I played MW3 Iron Lady mission where Paris gets invaded by Russians and Eiffel tower was destroyed by a Javelin missile you, the player who is American in the mission, shot. As soon as I saw the tower crumbled down to the ground, and saw the American dudes crying in glee for their victory over the Russians and freeing Paris, I felt somehow like a French who lost his history at that moment, and not only am I not French but am no where close to Europe (i.e., I'm not Algerian nor Tunisian to feel some attachment to French language or history). Like dam! Whoever wrote the script felt no remorse to at least provide some condolences by the soldiers to the French people of the tragedy that befell the French people and how they, Americans, owe the French this historical debt that they unintentionally caused to destroy. Like no remorse in the lore was felt whatsoever, like daam! And you know what? F*** your White House invasion in MW2. No one gives a f*** for your monument destruction. If other nations, including the French, mean nothing to you, but when it comes to your monuments you made it that dramatic, dark orange dusk battle where Washington was crying desperately to be rescued until 10% of forces get eliminated and civilians are panicking left and right. So that event is supposed to be dramatic, but the French one is supposed to be happy and cheerful? Why? Because the American history and traditions have become the pinnacle of human civilization, but the French are those subhuman bar not worth bothering about? I'm not interested in defending the west as if I eould die to become one, but this juxtaposition between the WH and Paris, and Washington monument and Eiffel tower and the drastic shift in narrative between the two made me so angry. And before someone calls me a snowflake and an sjw, first I'm more towards conservatism, and second, I thought humans are equal in terms of dignity and respect (and their history and traditions by extension), especially they're part of the west and not like China where maybe that argument would somewhat hold some water then).
Only your first point is valid, sure I think there should be more arab heroes but video games are fictional they dont have to be a realistic. It would be much more intresting to see such a movie or tv series in my opinion.
I think you forgot about speaking about the first COD Game that actually didn't refer Arabs as some Terrorists. It was some cod modern warfare game (I forgor the name) You are at Futuristic Af Egypt fighting some organisation with The Egyptian Army and that COD Cold war and one of it's games added an Egyptian Character on the NATO Side who is an EX Unit 777 and goes by the name "Salah" and yea
In BO3 you fight alongside the Egyptian army, and I saw that as a good guys' thing they did, but didn't do Arabic transcript unfortunately (most likely because it's a campaign and not multi which takes a lot of the experience if you don't understand what they're saying. And that's why you hear the announcer in MW1, 2 and BO2 speak English but the characters speak Arabic). But his point still stands, the general trend is antagonistic and it's only recently did we see this moral shift in representation.
Thank you for the video man. I'm a white guy and I was just sitting here thinking about this exact thing. (I think about things like this a lot tbh) I typed in "Islamophobia in video games" and this came up. You made great points! I look forward to seeing more content on people continuing this conversation. The ONLY saving grace I can say why the Middle East and Russians have been depicted as the "bad guys" in the last two decades of videos games due to the current political climate along with the wars. That's the only reason I can think of but FOR FUCKS SAKE. Can't we have a game where our protagonist is middle eastern and is a relevant non stereotypical middle easterner? Or SHIT EVEN IF THE GAME TAKES PLACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST atleast have characters correctly depicting the culture in a non extremists fashion without being the stereotypical "Underground resistance" fighter shit? Thanks for this video man. I really liked it.
what music do you use for your videos ? it's all great but i can't find anything in your channel your about nor even your description, it would be appreciated to at least have the music you use be credited so we can all listen to it
The terrorist in shooter games stereotype has been around a ton but most definitely since the PS2 came out. I remember SOCOM was pretty egregious with it
Thanks to SF, Tekken and Uncharted, i still have hope about positivie represantation for Middle Easter/Arabic/Northern African representation in video games. I am a “pseudo-Middle Eastern” (means Anatolian or Turkish in my book) myself and have Middle Eastern/Arabic friends and cousins and all of us agree that we don’t get accurate representation in media
9:55 is this outfit that unacceptable? 🤔 I saw some belly dance recording made in seemingly Arabic countries and people didn't seem to disapprove the way the dancer dressed... Sure, not all Arabic women wear that. But why not put that outfit in a game? It's hot. It's traditional. It's fun to make. So..
@@Oleksa-Derevianchenko the opinion of the majority of people on belly dancing is it's haram (sin) and shameful low and a degrading act but they would not bother them about what you do as long as they stay away from them and their children and don't try to force them to accept it as an ok career for women and you know most belly dancers are women that has no family or their family disowned them so belly dancers are considered the same as prostitutes in the eyes of the majority of the people and they will never see them as "legitimate artists" because their "art" is to dance half nude to drunk men
In fact, we Arabs see this as immoral, Even when you called someone a belly dancer (Whether it is male or female) is an insult, Because we Arabs consider the belly dancer a prostitute
@@alhashemi. why is belly dancing so widespread, then? Plus, it still exists after centuries of the establishment of Islamic rule on all these vast territories. Is it really, actually haram? I am surely far from these realities but I've seen Islamic law specialists disagree with common misconceptions which means the public isn't always right.
I dont understand why this is even a question? West's classical enemy has been Islam ergo muslim/arabs etc. Cultures need their 'others' otherwise the discontent of their people turns inward onto the culture itself. If you are asking that west should make video games that make arabs/muslims out to be a good guy, i find this extremely strange. The idea is to sell video games and a recognisable enemy for an FPS is important for this to happen.
Really good video. I feel like such a fool for not realising Malik of all people was of Miiddle Eastern descent. Definitely relate in part with the struggle to find good representation as someone who is trans (although that thankfully seems to be getting a bit better to a degree).
i am arab and i agree with your video. what I disagree with is that sexualizing women is a problem. for me and many people, it's not. people can do whatever they want. i really don't give a fuck about sexualization or misogyny or misandry
bruh arab women exist and play these games too, how do you think we feel about only ever being portrayed as sexy sexual belly dancing sex objects. this is a pretty unempathetic and hypocritical take
subscribed. let them play games and buy smartphones and collect figurines let them hate us. and we train and make kids and be good mannered. they are not our teachers. we stay polite and firm wa eleykoem salaam
Hi. I'm a Iranian Muslim and Games like prince of Persia make me angry. They show us like how we were in 2000 years ago. We are modern , we've got tv , we use phones , we drive cars , we buy apartments and more. And we are NOT terrorist , we are some usual guys who live peacefully without using guns. We have jungles and we don't live in deserts. So please , whit guys , please STOP being racist and thinking that we are terrorist and we live like 2000 BC , because we DON'T
Salam man, I tried finding your contact info and couldn't. Would love to email you about my documentary and the possibility of interviewing you. Let me know if there is a way I could reach you!
I know the best way to solve this problem (i think). Add an option to choose nationality in story mode. Although it would take a lot of work but modders have done this many times. Especially cod modders. Why can't the developers do this? It's a lot easier for them than poor modders who have to figure out everything by themselves.
Should've mentioned the ridiculousness of C&C Generals' GLA XD Despite the game going for an overall stereotyping of factions, still the GLA should take the cake, and despite that they were a fan favorite for most arabs I knew XD (including here in Egypt).
I'm from Lebanon and I came to the us a couple years ago and Christian or Muslim because of such stereotypes if you are Arabic and in my case I am look at literally associated with that we need representation
Call of Duty’s Warzone 2.0 just came out, and it is one of the most beautiful representations I have seen so far, bar the actual signage. It’s such a shame it’s all in service of such a shitty game.
The first dev you showed to represent arabs in video games is literally the second stereotype you critisize (Rich dude who think he can get everything with money even get over sexual harassment).
Even though I'm not Arab or Muslim I can see where you are coming from. I've always found the whole middle easterners as terrorists stereotype to be very overdone and I wouldn't mind seeing seeing some more positive representation.
Some European countries love immigrants from other European countries but dislike and have prejudice towards immigrants from middle-eastern countries this is because they often associate immigrants from middle-eastern countries with terrorism and cultural differences that they find difficult to accept, while immigrants from other European countries are seen as more similar and less threatening to their way of life. Their hatred of the Middle Eastern comes from their jealousy, if you think about it, the Middle East has rich resources, has built civilizations, and invented stuff. These European countries who love immigrants from other European countries don't actually love them but rather need them to fill in the labor gap, whereas they see Middle Eastern immigrants as a threat to their culture and way of life. This mentality is not only discriminatory but also short-sighted, as it fails to recognize the valuable contributions that immigrants from all backgrounds can bring to a society. It is important to promote inclusivity and diversity in all aspects of life, rather than succumbing to fear and prejudice.
good video!! subscribed bc this is the first time i've seen video games discussed from the lens of an arab/muslim and i think this kind of representation is important if we want to advance gaming as a medium
I'm curious if you have read some of Edward Said's writings. Said wrote Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World which might be of interest to you.
I wish we had some Arab gaming studio funded by the billions that UAE and KSA can afford. We would get great Muslim characters that would actually portray Islamic values so the gamers can learn some positivity too. I think games like Uncharted, Assassin's creed could totally be made by the Muslims.
no those nations have different priorities like feeding their citizens and providing jobs and health care instead of making video games i think saudi arabia is trying to enter the market but again they have different priorities
In every fiction medium made in the U.S., the antagonist is either British, Russian, or Arab.
Fallout? Last of Us? Shadowrun? Dead Island? Any of the countless games depicting German bad guys? I don't disagree a lot of mainstream games follow the pattern described in his video regarding Arabs, but let's be real there are plenty of games out there that do not fall into your generalization.
@@TheRedVipre most of them do?
the rest of the world has to start making games, what a fucked up country the US is of fueling war in the rest of the world.
Yep there's a lot of stereotyping about Russians and by extension most Slavs and most Eastern Europeans
The main hero must be white America or a British dude
My brother met a guy in discord who thought people in Kuwait lived in huts with no electricity
Lmao, people get confused when I tell them I'm from Bahrain but once they realise it's in the Gulf, they immediately think I live in a tent in the desert or own a gold platted Rolls Royce.
They are stupid, no kidding
I’ve been talking to multiple Americans/ Europeans of which didn’t even know what Kuwait was...!
lol
Bruh quwait is one of the richest countries in the world
I've always felt like the Musilm culture has a lot of potential to tell good videogame stories, for the few stories a friend of mine has told me, there's a lot to tell.
I'm not Arabic nor Muslim, but I can tell when a story has a lot of potential in other media.
Who knows? Maybe in the future, when I get to develop games, I'll try to make some around Arabic culture.
Great video man, I really liked it
Thanks man. I also think stories from the Muslim culture is truly under appreciated and unknown in the west.
Dune by frank herbert is a great example
Those 1000 movies were proof that Hollywood DEFINATELY had a propaganda to sell even before 2001
New fan From Egypt, keep going bro i love your stuff
Me too
New fan from kurdistan-iraq love his stuff ,just found his channel this evening and I'm binge-ing it
I'm from Egypt but don't curse please Ding say son of a b//// cuz it's haram to say that much bad words
based pfp
Thanks for issuing this , i feel like i was born a villain just because i am Arabic 😂
@Yesmine Khayati I am okay with Jewish people as a religion but Israeli as a gov that is another story , I am a Jordanian/Palestinian my father was born in Palestine , he was driven from his home by guys carrying a gun in one hand and a Torah in the other hand . Then my uncle also died in 1968 when Israel attacked Jordan in Jordan when I was a kid , other kids. Used to say “ don’t play with him he is Palestinian “ , so u guess what do I think about them ? Should I love u guys for driving my grand father / father out from the home they built ?
You are. So how do you treat Atheists? Better yet how do you treat your maids.
@@donelkingii3738 Just like Russia get de fuck out. Maids...eh idk I'm not sure about those because WE ARE NOT GOD DAMN BILLIONAIRES
@@donelkingii3738 bruh dude what
@@donelkingii3738 bruh dude what
Am an arab and the only thing i blew up was the toilet after a plate of Makbos
I think Americans don't understand the difference between an Arab and a Muslim.
Arabs are from the Middle Eastern Region (It is like an ethnicity)
Muslims are the ones who submit their will to Allah, Submission to Allah is called Islam.
Like Africans, they are a race but an African can be Muslim.
A muslim can also be african, but all africans aren't muslims.
So if one African Christian Guy does a disgusting act like suicide bombing, then that doesn't mean the whole of Africa and Muslims are bad. Two very different things.
Oh and anyone who thinks Islam is a terrorist religion, plz sit yo ass down and study about islam, the best way to learn about islam is to straight go to source, which is the hadith and qur'an. I know you have heard many things about it, but i'm sorry everything you heard was WRONG!
Also majority of muslims are from Asia
@@ted9030
especially from india and indonesia
no one seems to talk about the two biggest muslim populations
@@Enacaus Yeah, I'm a Muslim from Indonesia and I find it surprising when I hear people say that us Muslims are Middle Eastern to be honest with you. I thought people know that Islam also exists in other countries, not just in the Middle East. I'm pretty sure Islam also exists in China and it had a history there as well, but it's not that predominant.
Yeah, sadly, people tend to cling to stereotypes
You guys have the same misconceptions about Israelis and Jews tbh
When you spend a long while trying to find an Arab character that isn't a terrorist, you know that there is a problem
whaaaaaat ??????
why they killed kids and womens in there house why tell me bad guys ok but kids ????
why they take our land and we are bad wtf brother ????
Many Arabs are backwards people who practice a twisted religion which condones violence against infidels and prefer killing their sister than her studying or going to a dance club.
So do you condem khaaaaaaaamas
The only one I could think of is shaheen from tekken
As a somewhat fellow Arab I like the way he says خي
على وضعك
To be honest in GTA series every character have some comic relief and Yusuf is not an exception. In another look Yusuf has good personality. Yusuf came with help for Luis when he was in trouble without any doubts. He is a good person and a real friend for Luis.
I like the fact you say we should try our best to fix the problem ourselves instead of shaming people into trying to do it for us or just to make them feel bad for something they didn’t even do on purpose. 👍 Very good video I loved it!
وَلَن تَرْضَىٰ عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَا النَّصَارَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَىٰ ۗ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُم بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ ۙ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِن وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ
Game devs picking tge nationality of their villain:
1•Arab
2•Russian
3•German
"Hmm... choices choices."
I was just playing an online game where there was this kid who was calling himself Muslim and yelling out “I’m a terrorist” over and over again. This really made me discouraged because the kid really doesn’t know what it’s like to be stereotyped to this extent
This comment section sucks I'm sorry you have to deal with this
Bizony
Everything you said is the truth 💯, I still play both Assassins creed 1 and revelations the things they say is some violent words in English, and when it comes to Arabic all they do is speak gibberish while the subtitles say that they are “speaking Arabic”. If I can like this a million times I would
Nah they speak arabic. Though I'm not native but I can speak english which is pretty much arabic right?
@@xx_javier83_xx97 you don’t get what I meant I know they are supposed to speak English since it’s an Ubisoft made game. But they really say stuff that’s a stereotype a thing. And when they talk gibberish the translation says “speaking Arabic”
@@tonyal3235 Yeah but I can understand Arabic so I know what they're saying. When Assassins creed subtitles say (Speaking Arabic) I can understand it sometimes they mispronounce letters but it's understandable.
ruclips.net/video/MyU9_4nteOI/видео.html
@@xx_javier83_xx97 yeah that’s what I mean
الذي يكرهك بدون سبب .... لن يحبك و لو اعطيتهُ كل اسباب الدنيا
Only 5k views.
RIP being muslim in this day and age.
Theres like 2 billion muslims out there
I'm actually writing my dissertation on this topic now. Thanks for the really great sources my dude!
I mean in black ops 2 we had fareed a good arab also love from yemen :)
What about the other Yemenis who were Menendez's ally though? I mean, I know Farid is a good Arab but I don't know about the others during that mission in Yemen.
More like a good apostate to the west.
i randomly stumbled upon this video while looking for arab video game music LMAO
i really love how you explained everything so clearly! as an amazigh moroccan person, i've noticed a lot of Orientalism in modern media (especially video games) too. i'm not arab (or maybe i am a little, but i don't know for sure), but people think i am anyway and i get the same treatment as arabs, such as being called a terrorist.
more recently, i used to be a genshin impact player too. but lately there's been an impressive amount of Orientalism in that game -- oversexualization of women, 'primitiveness', whitewashing, misusage of cultural aspects, et cetera. what makes it worse is that the new region in that game sloppily mixes up several cultures and ethnicities in one. arab, persian, turkish, indian... practically all SWANA cultures/ethnicities get put into a blender and passed of as correct representation in genshin impact. so yeah, i stopped playing that game.
i'm glad you as an arab have spoken out on this incredibly important topic. for those who are also interested in learning more about stereotyping and Orientalism, i'd heavily recommend delving more into Edward Said's works, a Palestinian-American academic who extensively brought this up in his books.
Me too I was looking for a cool arab character or something 😭
I'm not a big Uncharted fan but in their defence, if you think about the lore, Uncharted isn't interested about modern culture and cities, rather ancient ruins and history. So putting 2 and 2 together, and I'm Arab btw so I'm coming against my interests, you would be more likely to meet someone of out-of-modernity people than not, as you're going to more likely ancient ruins. Just like if Drake were to go to some ancient Mayan temple, there could be a modern Mexican guy or woman guiding them, but more likely than not, you'd expect a native American doing so as they are more familiar with their heritage and temples than a modern Mexican is.
I'd like to emphasize my point exactly, my point pertains to historical and treasure hunting games only, where the lore is specifically about ancient stuff or history, and not every single lore.
Really, as a Muslim, I had big big problems with games, the first that games contains a lot of haram (forbidden) things in games, like music, women dressing (however we must keep our eyes away), saying at anything "god", talking about God like a character that can be a woman or a man, losing time at it and more
At least in metal gear solid doesn’t have this thing
well there was Metal Gear Solid 4
@@YellowMohamad1234567 oh damn I forgot
Sniper wolf is iraqi
@@lYosefl kurdish*
@@karam7503 isnt kurds are part of iraq?
I know it sounds stupid but I honestly would rather see an average, boring, middle class Arab who works from 9 to 3, eats from McDonald's, drives a 2009 Chevy Impala and listens to some top 10 pop song rather than seeing another rich douchebag, some militia extremists or other garbage.
It's kinda sad and ironic to hear people & corporation say that they care about minorities and such but at the same time, push these racial crap that only adds fuel to the fire.
It's been that way for so long now, since 9/11 for sure. Some time before that though, Russians were often portrayed as bad guys due to the Cold War. Rambo 3 is a good movie which shows Afghans in a positive light, basically as the heroes who save the day in the end (along with the American, John Rambo). Russians were the bad guys. Although that was a big movie at the time, it is extremely rare to see that type of positive representation of Arabs today. So rare I suppose that's the only example I can think of lol.. If you haven't seen I recommend it. Prior to the Cold War, older western movies showed Native Americans in a bad light for many years. Now it's Muslim's who have been targeted with these stereotypes. I think eventually times will change, they usually do, and by highlighting the issue you're helping towards effecting that change.
And also American wants to find reason to wage war so their weapon can be profitable
Russians are still unfairly hated
afghans aren’t arabs bruh
@@chuuchuu4018
انهم مسلمون ... اذن لا فرق
@@nnnnn-q5u ahh na3m sa7, im sorry i agree
Few years ago there was controversy where the Arabic translators for Infinity Ward actually made fun of Activision/Infinity Ward in Arabic language found in the game hahaha 😂😂
im from bosnia and anytime i play a game its hard not to get triggered
Nice video. I still think COD and the whole modern military FPS craze of the early 2010s was a propaganda psyop.
I don't think so.
I think it's a mix of malicious intent and simple ignorance.
As Muslim (not Arab) this video really hit home for me, its a conversation nobody seems to be having and gets buried under everything else. Subscribed!
Thank you making this video, will share.
1. Shaheen was actually designed by Saudi students who were studying in Japan, they contacted them and sat down to come up with a good design and a good name (That's understandable after the Saudi stage they added before which had a controversal mistake, which they fixed in a quick update).
2. I really liked seeing Salim in Uncharted 3 and wish he would've come along with the protagonist xD. Also, bedouin was an understandable decision since Nathan fell in the middle of a great desert.
3. Josef Faris... He may not be related to Arabs by anything except that he's mom and dad are Arab, and was born and raised away from other Arabs. I don't like him because he actually had a horrible depiction of Arabs in his game "A Way Out" in which there were 2 Khaleeji dudes having a deal with a drug or stolen jewelery, and he depicted them as stupid (not knowing how to strike a deal properly/over confident) and when the protagonist was sick of the deal, he just pulled a gun popped them off and continued his day like they are nothing.
Love your channel, I've watched about 4 vidoes in a row XD
مافي شي من الغرب يصورنا بدون نظرة دونية او استشراقية، دامنا ما نسوي العابنا ولا نقاطع الالعاب الي تستحقرنا مافي حل
توي ادري الصراحة ان شاهين من تصميم طلاب سعوديين
Yeah Everybody Knows Arabians is Always Tourists
-U.S.A Government
You've got a new sub brother 👍
Well am still young but still learning about game development, Insha Allah i will be a good developer
Yh go for it u can make good money from being a games developer
اتمنى لك التوفيق
Good luck and inshallah you’ll make fantastic and popular games
This video is really good.
I made an OC who's an arab, soldier and a friendly and smart person. She's a part of military force fighting against aliens, she's an engineer with a passion for cooking. Has a furry nutria friend she named Falafel that she has to protect against hungry polish girl trying to eat him (we ate nutrias here in the past, yeah🙄). Obviously it's very tongue in cheek.
It's heartbreaking just how demonized we are by the transgressors while we are the victims
7:30
Altair ended an atheist
Prince of Persia dude had it's sword having Muhammad PBUH'S saying, "spread the teaching"
Jarudo's outfits themselves are stereotypical Arab belly dancers and an insult to Islam
Even the good guys end up insulting Islam.
the way he ended it made me subscribe
Fantastic video, I hope that more of us can get into and change the industry!
Respect for you
From an algerian arabic and muslim guy
Don’t worry COD has moved on from Arabs to Chechens
Afghans as well
13:15 my goal to be like him
Only the good parts hopefully
good points.
but i personally think i could give zero shit about what americans think about muslims
Also why is he playing these trash ass soulless games lol.
This should blow up, more people should see this
كفيت و وفيت ❤️
No mention of Rashid as a standout positive? He's excellent.
You mean the rich aristocrat whose critical art turns him into a SAND STORM and has a SERVANT that calls him "master?"
He fits the third stereotype listed in this video, rich, "naive, carefree, and hedonistic"
Glad you aren’t afraid of starting conversations we need to be having. Thanks for this informative video.
Oh also and as a Native, I chuckle at your comments about people asking you silly questions about living in the Middle East. I was asked before if we still live in teepees and once someone at our school (u of m Dearborn) literally complained right next to me that he had to write a paper on native history because he was like “aren’t they all dead?” 😂 anyways great video once again, it is my dream to make video games and I would love to see more accurate representation of cultures in the gaming industry.
Anyone who wants to convert Islam can be Muslim. Islam isn't just for a nation or for a country. (English is not my first language sorry for grammar mistakes)
That's why he differentiated between "Arab" and "Muslim"
@@pyrosimba2014 Ebu leheb was Arap and he was evil . Our Prophet Hazrat Muhammed (SAV) was an arap too and he was a good person.
@@uzeyircoskun I am aware.
damnn is that prince of persia the sands of time soundtrack? is sounds fire
the same thing can be found in "Stronghold Crusader" just take a look at how they showed some of the characters, named some of the units, and just look at how they named the building for troops for crusaders as "barracks" and for Arabs and muslims as "Mercenary"
Now when I think about it, you might be right. This is one of my most favourite games, though. The balance, the soundtrack - it all is so awesome.
I believe they made local Arabic units "mercenaries" even for the local commanders in order not to change (ruin) game mechanics. Even though then and Arabic prince-poet casually build's up his own crusade knights as if it's something normal.
my mother is a berber"amazigh" and my father is arabic that decsend from the prophet pbuh thank u for making this for arabs and muslims especially
"Jerk each other silly" 😂
I'm an Arab, and I have posters of Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed... only of those two... I just didn't feel like hanging anything else... but now I understand why I don't have any other posters... and I guess everybody else also knows
Hi thank you this is great. You're doing wonderful job. I have subscribed. Keep up the good work!
Wouldn't you imagine if the biggest game studios in the world were in the middle east or Russia that perhaps American soldiers would be the villian and they would be the heroes ? I mean why would you make the enemies Australian or something. It wouldn't make any sense
A very good video that brings a much-needed discussion to light.
While I personally dislike the whole "representation" debates and would probably disagree with you on rather much abiout that, I absolutely applaud you for the part from 12:11 on. Because that's the point that's usually made and that makes me completely disregard many 'We need more characters/actors/designers/whatever of group X!' It usually comes down to: "We demand YOU do something! Hire more X, support X, give money to X, design more characters of X" - which is basically itself a really bad stereotype: "We have a problem. But YOU have to solve it for us - after all, we're X and can't take care of our own problems!"
So, kudos to you for your well-developed self-efficacy and I'll leave it at that - plus a thumbs up.
As an Arab, I'd say I couldn't care less about representation. I'd be happy had we been featured (and I don't want to use "represented" as if we're about to elect a representative), but if not, I really don't mind.
What I mind though is demonize and vilify. If a story relates to a Middle Eastern country than more than likely you're gonna meet an Arab dude, but if you're in India, Nigeria or Turkey, you're not going to meet one. Do I feel offended or belittled when I see 10% of stories have nothing to do with my traditions or nation? No. But when I see the westerner coming to my "fictional" land acting like the noble, liberator, virtue signaling, piece of garbage guy that he is, I do find it offensive.
And if you think I'm angry because of my Arab roots, trust me, when I played MW3 Iron Lady mission where Paris gets invaded by Russians and Eiffel tower was destroyed by a Javelin missile you, the player who is American in the mission, shot. As soon as I saw the tower crumbled down to the ground, and saw the American dudes crying in glee for their victory over the Russians and freeing Paris, I felt somehow like a French who lost his history at that moment, and not only am I not French but am no where close to Europe (i.e., I'm not Algerian nor Tunisian to feel some attachment to French language or history).
Like dam! Whoever wrote the script felt no remorse to at least provide some condolences by the soldiers to the French people of the tragedy that befell the French people and how they, Americans, owe the French this historical debt that they unintentionally caused to destroy. Like no remorse in the lore was felt whatsoever, like daam!
And you know what? F*** your White House invasion in MW2. No one gives a f*** for your monument destruction. If other nations, including the French, mean nothing to you, but when it comes to your monuments you made it that dramatic, dark orange dusk battle where Washington was crying desperately to be rescued until 10% of forces get eliminated and civilians are panicking left and right. So that event is supposed to be dramatic, but the French one is supposed to be happy and cheerful? Why? Because the American history and traditions have become the pinnacle of human civilization, but the French are those subhuman bar not worth bothering about?
I'm not interested in defending the west as if I eould die to become one, but this juxtaposition between the WH and Paris, and Washington monument and Eiffel tower and the drastic shift in narrative between the two made me so angry. And before someone calls me a snowflake and an sjw, first I'm more towards conservatism, and second, I thought humans are equal in terms of dignity and respect (and their history and traditions by extension), especially they're part of the west and not like China where maybe that argument would somewhat hold some water then).
Yusuf from GTA is honestly an accurate representation of a lot of Gulf Arabs and this is coming from someone who lived there.
No
No
The spoiled ones
It's great to hear someone speaking about this. Thanks for making the video
Yeah of course anti sjw are going to cry about how having an are Arabic character as hero is woke
3:25 Money doesn't grow on Skill-trees.
bro i love that you talked about it, because it is annoying when games include Arabs that way.
did not expect to see nervli in your video, lol!
Only your first point is valid, sure I think there should be more arab heroes but video games are fictional they dont have to be a realistic. It would be much more intresting to see such a movie or tv series in my opinion.
How stupid do you have to be to not realize they portray the real world
I think you forgot about speaking about the first COD Game that actually didn't refer Arabs as some Terrorists. It was some cod modern warfare game (I forgor the name) You are at Futuristic Af Egypt fighting some organisation with The Egyptian Army and that COD Cold war and one of it's games added an Egyptian Character on the NATO Side who is an EX Unit 777 and goes by the name "Salah" and yea
In BO3 you fight alongside the Egyptian army, and I saw that as a good guys' thing they did, but didn't do Arabic transcript unfortunately (most likely because it's a campaign and not multi which takes a lot of the experience if you don't understand what they're saying. And that's why you hear the announcer in MW1, 2 and BO2 speak English but the characters speak Arabic). But his point still stands, the general trend is antagonistic and it's only recently did we see this moral shift in representation.
Thank you for the video man. I'm a white guy and I was just sitting here thinking about this exact thing. (I think about things like this a lot tbh) I typed in "Islamophobia in video games" and this came up. You made great points! I look forward to seeing more content on people continuing this conversation. The ONLY saving grace I can say why the Middle East and Russians have been depicted as the "bad guys" in the last two decades of videos games due to the current political climate along with the wars. That's the only reason I can think of but FOR FUCKS SAKE. Can't we have a game where our protagonist is middle eastern and is a relevant non stereotypical middle easterner? Or SHIT EVEN IF THE GAME TAKES PLACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST atleast have characters correctly depicting the culture in a non extremists fashion without being the stereotypical "Underground resistance" fighter shit? Thanks for this video man. I really liked it.
Maybe AC Mirage could nail that
what music do you use for your videos ? it's all great but i can't find anything in your channel your about nor even your description, it would be appreciated to at least have the music you use be credited so we can all listen to it
I'm your 420nth subscriber... nice
The terrorist in shooter games stereotype has been around a ton but most definitely since the PS2 came out. I remember SOCOM was pretty egregious with it
Thank you for making this video, I knew about this problem but i guess i had never realized how big it was.
Thanks to SF, Tekken and Uncharted, i still have hope about positivie represantation for Middle Easter/Arabic/Northern African representation in video games. I am a “pseudo-Middle Eastern” (means Anatolian or Turkish in my book) myself and have Middle Eastern/Arabic friends and cousins and all of us agree that we don’t get accurate representation in media
Also pseudo Middle East consists of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt
يجب ان نفعل ذلك بأنفسنا
I bet the dislikes are from the OoT skit you had in the beginning, lol. Great video though! Sparks a conversation that should be had.
9:55 is this outfit that unacceptable? 🤔
I saw some belly dance recording made in seemingly Arabic countries and people didn't seem to disapprove the way the dancer dressed...
Sure, not all Arabic women wear that. But why not put that outfit in a game? It's hot. It's traditional. It's fun to make. So..
some people didn't disapprove doesn't mean the majority are ok with it because if you are not ok with it you wouldn't go there in the first place
@@Ashraf-Hrira makes sense. So what is the opinion of the majority of people?
@@Oleksa-Derevianchenko the opinion of the majority of people on belly dancing is it's haram (sin) and shameful low and a degrading act but they would not bother them about what you do as long as they stay away from them and their children and don't try to force them to accept it as an ok career for women and you know most belly dancers are women that has no family or their family disowned them so belly dancers are considered the same as prostitutes in the eyes of the majority of the people and they will never see them as "legitimate artists" because their "art" is to dance half nude to drunk men
In fact, we Arabs see this as immoral, Even when you called someone a belly dancer (Whether it is male or female) is an insult, Because we Arabs consider the belly dancer a prostitute
@@alhashemi. why is belly dancing so widespread, then? Plus, it still exists after centuries of the establishment of Islamic rule on all these vast territories.
Is it really, actually haram? I am surely far from these realities but I've seen Islamic law specialists disagree with common misconceptions which means the public isn't always right.
Yeah Muslims
⚜🇧🇦⚜🇧🇦
Thank you brother for this video
I dont understand why this is even a question? West's classical enemy has been Islam ergo muslim/arabs etc. Cultures need their 'others' otherwise the discontent of their people turns inward onto the culture itself. If you are asking that west should make video games that make arabs/muslims out to be a good guy, i find this extremely strange. The idea is to sell video games and a recognisable enemy for an FPS is important for this to happen.
Really good video. I feel like such a fool for not realising Malik of all people was of Miiddle Eastern descent. Definitely relate in part with the struggle to find good representation as someone who is trans (although that thankfully seems to be getting a bit better to a degree).
Yes but this is what school and history class is for
If you really on gaming for your world knowledge then you have a problem
i am arab and i agree with your video. what I disagree with is that sexualizing women is a problem. for me and many people, it's not. people can do whatever they want. i really don't give a fuck about sexualization or misogyny or misandry
bruh arab women exist and play these games too, how do you think we feel about only ever being portrayed as sexy sexual belly dancing sex objects. this is a pretty unempathetic and hypocritical take
@@MVA hypocritical? lol what? I don’t care. Now shoo and go away
It will become your problem when people start sexually harrasing the female figures in your family,stop being spineless
that's not what I've typed on youtube but cool video anyway
subscribed. let them play games and buy smartphones and collect figurines let them hate us. and we train and make kids and be good mannered. they are not our teachers. we stay polite and firm
wa eleykoem salaam
Hi. I'm a Iranian Muslim and Games like prince of Persia make me angry. They show us like how we were in 2000 years ago. We are modern , we've got tv , we use phones , we drive cars , we buy apartments and more. And we are NOT terrorist , we are some usual guys who live peacefully without using guns. We have jungles and we don't live in deserts. So please , whit guys , please STOP being racist and thinking that we are terrorist and we live like 2000 BC , because we DON'T
Any practising Muslims here?
Yep.
@Can a swallow swallow? yo you are from yusha evans lol
Salam man,
I tried finding your contact info and couldn't. Would love to email you about my documentary and the possibility of interviewing you. Let me know if there is a way I could reach you!
What's the documentary about?
I know the best way to solve this problem (i think).
Add an option to choose nationality in story mode.
Although it would take a lot of work but modders have done this many times. Especially cod modders.
Why can't the developers do this? It's a lot easier for them than poor modders who have to figure out everything by themselves.
Well at least you're brave enough to tell this regardless of the expected backlash
Should've mentioned the ridiculousness of C&C Generals' GLA XD
Despite the game going for an overall stereotyping of factions, still the GLA should take the cake, and despite that they were a fan favorite for most arabs I knew XD (including here in Egypt).
I'm from Lebanon and I came to the us a couple years ago and Christian or Muslim because of such stereotypes if you are Arabic and in my case I am look at literally associated with that we need representation
As a content creator I’ll try to include positive portrayals of Arabs in media I produce down the line. Thank you for the advice.
Call of Duty’s Warzone 2.0 just came out, and it is one of the most beautiful representations I have seen so far, bar the actual signage. It’s such a shame it’s all in service of such a shitty game.
The first dev you showed to represent arabs in video games is literally the second stereotype you critisize (Rich dude who think he can get everything with money even get over sexual harassment).
Even though I'm not Arab or Muslim I can see where you are coming from. I've always found the whole middle easterners as terrorists stereotype to be very overdone and I wouldn't mind seeing seeing some more positive representation.
Some European countries love immigrants from other European countries but dislike and have prejudice towards immigrants from middle-eastern countries this is because they often associate immigrants from middle-eastern countries with terrorism and cultural differences that they find difficult to accept, while immigrants from other European countries are seen as more similar and less threatening to their way of life. Their hatred of the Middle Eastern comes from their jealousy, if you think about it, the Middle East has rich resources, has built civilizations, and invented stuff. These European countries who love immigrants from other European countries don't actually love them but rather need them to fill in the labor gap, whereas they see Middle Eastern immigrants as a threat to their culture and way of life. This mentality is not only discriminatory but also short-sighted, as it fails to recognize the valuable contributions that immigrants from all backgrounds can bring to a society. It is important to promote inclusivity and diversity in all aspects of life, rather than succumbing to fear and prejudice.
Some Europeans are racist as a summary
Awesome video, god bless you
Boss it's you it's been 9 years ago
Great video khyieeee
good video!! subscribed bc this is the first time i've seen video games discussed from the lens of an arab/muslim and i think this kind of representation is important if we want to advance gaming as a medium
Thanks for making this. We definitely need to start talking about this more.
The problem with some people is that they take their culture from games
شكرا !!
I'm curious if you have read some of Edward Said's writings. Said wrote Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World which might be of interest to you.
RebelTaxi?! Is that you?
I wish we had some Arab gaming studio funded by the billions that UAE and KSA can afford. We would get great Muslim characters that would actually portray Islamic values so the gamers can learn some positivity too.
I think games like Uncharted, Assassin's creed could totally be made by the Muslims.
no those nations have different priorities like feeding their citizens and providing jobs and health care instead of making video games
i think saudi arabia is trying to enter the market but again they have different priorities