Pitfalls

Apologies for being away for so long. With the new job comes new stress due to a steep learning curve and I’m adjusting to an environment that is completely unlike anything I’ve been in before. Whereas I used to sit in a cubicle staring at the clock, I am now running around, arranging charts, answering phones and grabbing a quick sip of water or bite to eat when there’s a small break in the rush of patients. It’s definitely challenging, and I’m hoping to hit my stride soon.

To deal with the stress I’ve broken out my used copy of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for the X-Box. I bought it for under 20 bucks on the suggestion of my visiting and adorable younger gamer cousin. It didn’t really bother me that I didn’t first play The Longest Journey, as I’ve started a lot of series playing sequels first.

I immediately felt that I could identify with Zoë (though not because she first appears in her underwear!). The first things that you find out about her is that she dropped out of school, broke up with her boyfriend, and moved back in with her dad. She’s lost and disillusioned, which is, I’ve found, a common emotional domain of many 20-somethings. The story of Dreamfall is excellent: it’s filled with cross-dimensional political conspiracy. While not all characters were completely developed, I noticed that there was a definite effort to give specific attitude and background to many of the NPCs—something that is usually ignored in many other games.
That doesn’t save it, however, from some huge complaints that I have. In a game that features so much diversity in its characters, I was appalled that the developers relied on some pretty insensitive and stereotypical portrayal of Chinese people. How many games do I have to play that feature a Chinese NPC wearing ancient-China style robes and hair, sporting extremely slanty eyes and speaking with a mouth full of buck teeth high-pitched and quivering English? Another aspect that confused me was how the very beginning of the game, which takes place in Tibet, features NPCs talking in their native tongue. I liked hearing an unfamiliar language. I initially thought it cool that a game that travels the world would feature different languages instead of just pretending that everyone speaks English. Yet after the first chapter in the game that completely vanished.

There was a lot of good in Dreamfall: specially the complex story, the game’s focus on women characters, and it’s genuine diversity. While playing the game, I kept comparing it to Indigo Prophecy, and found Dreamfall much more satisfying. However, there was a lot lacking too. Despite two of the main characters being women, the game didn’t lack sexism. Despite the game’s push towards multiculturalism, it had racist elements and was specifically grounded in white privilege. While these aspects really did turn me off to the game in a lot of ways, I have to admit that I’m hooked. I ordered The Longest Journey (soon to come in the mail) and am awaiting the next installment(s) of the series. I’m anxious to continue the narrative and see if it’s shortcomings continue or are improved upon.

Shame on you internet, I thought you were cool

I found a great blog today as I was reading up on Resident Evil 5 reactions. It's called microscopiq, and combines my two favorite things: art and video games into one cool blog. The article on RE5 is also stellar, as he points out many of the issues inherent with the concept of the game. The best point against the game is how the characteristics of the super zombies of RE4, transferred to a black person, creates a zombie that resembles many of the negative black stereotypes.
"With bulging eyes, simian super strength, and a room temperature IQ, we’ve been portrayed as savages beyond redemption."
What is not so cool, and that has made me as angry as a space banished Hulk, are the comments on that post. This post has gotten waaaay more attention than any of the other posts on the blog, and the majority of the comments are telling him how wrong he is. All I can think is "How dare they." What gives these people the right, to come to his blog and tell him that he is wrong; that he shouldn't be offended by obvious racist imagery. Most of the comments boil down to, "No. You don't/shouldn't feel the affects of racism, shut up!" It's inconceivable. Who else would feel the affects of the imagery in this game if not an African American. Commenter after commenter kept admitting to being white and claiming that they have never know anyone to be racist, that racism doesn't exist, and that these images of a race that they don't belong to aren't racist. Well of course you don't feel it if you're white, but it exists. It exists when you go onto an African American blog throwing your whiteness all over the place and saying not to talk about things like racism and be a good boy. Does anyone else see the absurdity in someone defending a game where a white person goes into a black space and starts wrecking havoc, when they themselves are going into a black space and wrecking havoc. This sounds like the perfect game for these people, right up their ally. It's pretty clever of the power structure to admit that racism is bad, but then also claim that it doesn't exist. This leaves those who are affected by racism without even a voice to speak out against it, because, according to the power structure, there's nothing to speak out against. A good rule to follow from now on is that if any marginalized person calls out some sort of oppression of their group, maybe everyone else should just shut up, listen, and at least consider the possibility.

Didn't I Already write this post?

I was very excited about Rogue Galaxy when I first heard about it. Level 5 left me in love after Dark Cloud 2 so my hopes were high. However, Rogue Galaxy did not turn out how I envisioned. It falls short of Dark Cloud 2 in gameplay, story, and most importantly: feminist stuff. Dark Cloud 2 did a great job of balancing between its girl and boy characters. Max and Monica were given equal attention in both story and gameplay, thus creating a gender equality which went to defy some game conventions. Monica was fully clothed, (not counting secret cat outfit) and fought with a sword, a rarity in video games. While Max was the brains compared to her brawn, and he fought with a nontraditional weapon, an honor usually assigned to a women. Developer: "Girls can't handle anything as phallic as a sword, we better give her an umbrella."

Because of these and other great elements that seemed to intentionally defy conventional roles, their follow up game seemed to be a sure hit. How wrong I was.

[spoiler warning]

Meet Lilika. The sexualized, exoticised only woman of color within your party, and one of two women out of 8 playable characters. Her origin story isn't much better. Of course the only woman of color in the game has to hail from a "backwards" tribal jungle planet. A planet that the white skinned offworlders end up saving. Jaster and friends expose to the poor savages that the god they worshiped was none other than a vile monster causing many problems in the village. So using the power of an almighty gun, Jaster helps the silly silly savages by killing their god. I've found that Imperialism leaves quite a bad aftertaste.

The character of Lilika is fairly interesting, but how can she be taken seriously while looking the way she does. I mean a tiger skin bra? Really? How can the game itself, nay, all of video games be taken seriously when characters are portrayed in this manner. This is why I get embarrassed to tell people I'm a gamer.

I had a possible ray of hope in acquiring her alternative outfits, but I should have known better. I have to say that giving the only woman of color in the game an outfit called "Royal Servant Clothes" is pretty insulting. On top of that, her bow is pretty worthless in combat. The one saving grace is that she doesn't have bunny ears. Shame on you Level 5, I thought you were better than this.

Why do you hate me Sony?

A quick run down of some of Sony's advertising includes:

-an American ad campaign for the PSP which featured dust balls that can be easily interpreted as racist caricatures of Mexican people.

-the UK's various sex-based ads on buses with slogans such as “Your girlfriend’s white bits here.”

-the objectifying and race-based Black vs. White PSP ad in the Netherlands

-not to mention the topless waitresses featured at the God of War II release party

And now there's this running in India, complete with a tagline that reads"Because your girlfriend bores you shitless."

What. The. Hell. Sony.

There's lots of great discussion over at the Iris boards about the ad, along with some plans to get a letter campaign going. I'll post more info about it here when it happens.

hat tip: the f-word

GRAW!

I don't own a Xbox 360, but lucky I go to a college where the library owns one for me. Between classes on Friday I discovered a hidden gem: a shiny Xbox 360 that was connected to a big screen HDTV. I decided it was time to use my well spent tuition money and booted it up. They had a large selection of two games consisting of Table Tennis and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. I picked Ghost Recon so that I could discuss and examine the "myth" behind the game. I also wanted to look at a phenomenon that occurs regularly in video games: the creation of a well designed and fun game, that features content that boils down to propaganda. Games that sway minds to support the war, and love the patriarchy that exploits women, the poor and the underprivileged. A game that turns war into just a game, completely overlooking war's true nature. I know that as I play this game I'm taking in these messages, but I'm having a blast.

The myth behind the war game's text is that war is an acceptable option. War is clean, swift, and only eliminates those that wish to do harm to the innocent. Specifically, the United States fights wars in this way, and that it has the right to conduct war in any country that we see fit. We bring justice to the world. This has been a part of our culture for generations. The game puts forth this idea through normal game conventions: shoot the enemy, move to the next location and shoot more, reach end of the stage, watch the cut scene congratulating you. The game hooks us in by placing itself in realistic settings that remind us of current world issues, like the war in Iraq. War games have pushed to be more and more realistic; to represent real world conflicts. The game world, however, is a world without consequences. If a team member dies you can revive them with the Y button, and of course you can retry from the nearest save point if you happen to be killed. The enemies are reduced in this game as nothing more that red diamonds which indicate their location in the game screen, and when they die the diamonds turn white. In game play terms this is useful in that it keeps the game easily accessible, but in turn, it completely dehumanizes the NPCs. And speaking of white, the only choice for the main character is a white male, who leads a squad of culturally diverse troops through the battlefield. No big deal if your African American gunner gets killed--you can just revive them, but if the white commander gets shot, it's game over. The enemies are also non-white, and the action takes place in a Mexican-influenced third world country. This defines the myth that America can do what it wants in poor countries.

To get back to a previous point, even after knowing all of this I still have fun with it. Overall, it is a well designed video game, with pretty graphics, interesting situations, and good controls. But herein lies the rub. Too often people play these good games, and get caught up in the game play, not grasping what they are saying to them. It's perfect propaganda: the player gets to have a great time, while imperialism feeds them messages of war. Why would advertisers be making games, and why would the actual army make a game, if it's not a strong form of suggestion? It's the power of simulation. Being able to act out in a simulated environment and make mistakes, to explore and hop into the role of soldier, allows a person to understand what it is like. It fills them with the mentality needed to act in the situation. If you have played a shooter on X-Box Live it is clear to see this soldier mentality in action. It's creating people that will support war. If the design of the game is to further reinforce this fairly tale notion of war, then it only serves those that benefit from war. I think it to be possible to reflect on war in a way that would leave the player not siding with it. Or to at least start a debate. A perfect example would be Shadow of the Colossus, a fun game that examines themes of violence and the exploitation of nature. Playing GRAW and other games like it reminds me of imperative it is that we be aware of the messages within our media.

A very low toned and gruff warning to all those who have not played Gears of War.

Before my rant, I just wanted to put out a reminder that the 10th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy is up. Check out all the great posts at Adventures in Lame.

So recently I got to take a crack at Gears of War, courtesy of my brother's Xbox 360. The gameplay felt like a breeding between Resident Evil 4 and Halo. I enjoyed everything it took from RE 4, such as the camera, the aiming, the atmosphere, the interesting villains and AI. (Though I still like RE 4's a lot better.) The cover system was fun, and it kept me playing--though for only about 5 to 6 hours, because that's how long it took me to beat it...on Hard.

I'm really glad I didn't buy Gears of War, cause geez, it's short (and kinda easy too). There were a couple of tough parts, but it was pretty straight forward: shoot at things until the level ended. I don't understand why a 5 hour game has gotten so much attention.

Though that's not the worst part. I can deal with a short game, as long as it doesn't bombard me with images and concepts that all proclaim the glory of white men. This game does not want you to forget that these Gears carry packages. The creators took the idea of the super masculinized action hero of the 80's to such an extreme that all metal within a 10 foot radius of the T.V. has now formed a nice, manly rust. All of the characters have the proportions of a small truck, and grip mighty phallic machine guns that not only shoot hot lead, they also moonlight as a the manliest tool around: a chainsaw. CUT CUT CUT! MMMMaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr! I was shocked at the extent in which they packed every male stereotype into this game. If I didn't know any better, I would think this was a joke, or some ironic piece of pop art.

Even the uberman's feelings toward others was well represented, for what's a Gear without his female supporter giving helpful tips over the radio, far removed and safe from mucking up all this manly action? And if I remember my American History X correctly, who could deny the convenience of the curb stomp? Why, a busy Gear can proclaim his love for hate crimes in one press of a button!

Rounding out this package of privilege is the Gear's always-entertaining black sidekick for comic relief. A man who not only has to be saved at first, but his name is 'trane--short for Coltrane.

Writer: "How should I name my token black character? What's a good 'black' name? Well...jazz musicians are are black, and they have names! Now let's think of the two jazz players I know..." (flips coin between Armstrong and Coltrane)

But apparently this character wasn't screaming black stereotype enough. The writer really wanted to flesh out his creation, so why not give 'trane a past career?

Writer: "How do black people make money? Oh yeah, they play football."

A professional football player. Sounds like the perfect combination of a shallow black character to me. All the writer had to do to capture his subtleties is to make 'trane smack talk the ground aliens with puns based off of his name. For instance: "Get off the tracks, cause the 'trane's coming through!" I must say, great writing for this post-racist society we live in.

Let's all celebrate this groundbreaking achievement in video games.

The Better to Arouse You With, My Dear

My gaming history is somewhat cliche for my age range. For instance, the first RPG that I ever played was Final Fantasy VII, and I feel it responsible for my sad and painful blossoming into a gamer. Like many people, I've always held a shining, warm spot in my heart for the franchise.

My dedication to FF VIII was legendary within my circle of three friends, and I never felt closer to my brother than the summer of FF Tactics. But I can't bring myself to play FF XII. There is a giant racist roadblock preventing me from the "best game of the franchise." I would really like to meet the person who thought, "oh, lets make the first and only black female character this series has ever had into a sexy bunny."

I mean, come on. Nobody thought this image was in any way offensive? Despite the long tradition of showing the black community as nothing more than animals? And then to sexualize her on top of that! "Hi, I'm Fran. Please do me. I'm just an animal, so it's ok." If there were any other non-human characters, or if there was ther black human characters in the party it wouldn't be as bad. But the only image this game portrays of the black community is a dehumanizing one.

I understand that the subject of race in a Japanese-made game is a complicated subject. Japan is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world, so I am weary to scream foul when a game is made with only pseudo-Japanese characters in it--by which I mean that sometimes it's difficult to tell the race of a character that is drawn in an anime style. However, gaming has reached a global level, and triple A titles like the Final Fantasy series reach all over the world. I feel it is important for these companies to realize that a wide range of people play games, and it would be nice to see some healthy representation of that. At the very least, if you are going to diversify your supporting cast, don't fall back on centuries-old racist stereotypes.

My Type of Thesis

While I was not working at work, I discovered this cool interview with Robert Parungao that Gamespot put up. Maybe this is old news, but I thought what he has to say about racism in video games is very insightful. This is an issue that has bothered me for some time now, and it was nice to see a site like Gamespot discussing it. Even though the title is a little inflammatory, and the comments should be read at your own risk, I think its worth checking out. I would love to read his full thesis.

I unfortunately read through the comments. I couldn't believe the amount of resistence and fear towards this guy's thesis. I don't understand how people can deny someone's study of racism so easily. I did think it was cool to see that some people defended the article. It made me start to think that I should e-mail those people and get their friend codes. I would love to have a community of people that I knew it would be safe to play with online.

And the Award for Most Offensive Ad Campaign Goes to...

First there was this:

Now blac(k)ademic alerts us to this:

The Sony PSP: Classist, Sexist, and Racist.

Click on over to blac(k)ademic for Sony's mailing info.

UPDATE: Jacob has informed me that Sony has pulled the PSP white ads and has apologized to those who are offended by it. There's a whole article over at Gamespot.

Ugh.

The other day I found some interesting stats that David J. Leonard used in his article, "Not a Hater, Just Keepin' It Real: The Importance of Race-and Gender-Based Game Studies" that are originally from Children Now's Fair play? Violence, gender and race in video games, a study from 2002. Needless to say, the stats are a little dated, but I think the results are still extremely important to consider.

EDIT: As Steven points out in his comment, it seems odd that there would be such a low percentage of Asian/Pacific Islanders in video games when so many games are made in Japan. I'm having a hard time finding the Children Now's study without having to pay for it, so I can't find out exactly what games they were looking at. My hunch is that the percentages are from American-made video games.

Here's a link to Leonard's article. On the right sidebar, you can download the pdf.

In 2002:
• 64% of platform game characters were male
• 19% were nonhuman
• 17% were female, 50% of which were props or bystanders

• 50% of player-controlled characters were White males
• less than 40% were black, the majority of which were athletic competitors
• less than 5% were Latino
• 3% were Asian/Pacific Islander
• no multiracial or Native Americans

• 80% of female player-controlled characters are White
• less than 10% were Black
• 7% were Asian/Pacific Islander
• less than 1% Native American
• no Latinas
• When Black women appear in video games, 90% function as props, bystanders or victims

Asiaphila and White Privilege

Jen has an amazing post over at her blog reappropriate that speaks of the common co-opting of Asian culture. An excerpt:

The Asiaphile doesn't understand the politics or consequences of his fetish. He knows all about the Meiji Restoration and has memorized the Art of War by heart, but actually defends Hiroshima and Nagasaki (200,000+ killed in a brutal act of terrorism, but to the Asiaphile, it was a necessary act to defend the people who really matter). He knows nothing about the Asian American movement even though he organizes endless anime, sushi and karaoke nights at his college campus. He doesn't even see his interest as a fetish, he sees it as his God-given right to take and take and reappropriate my culture because he feels denied somehow that his mixed-up part-Greek, part-English, all-European-American, totally of the Caucasian Persuasion ass doesn't have a native tongue that's quite as "different" or an American culture that involves bladed weaponry.

Please go read it now.

Her post touches on a lot of things I've been trying to think about, but my own white privilege really makes it tough.

I've since I was a little girl I've enjoyed watching anime. I like to think that I watch anime or read manga because it gives me strong female protagonists that are difficult to find in American culture--but is there an underlying draw because it's "exotic."

My stepmother is Chinese and I love her death and she takes the time to teach me and talk to me about China and her life, and buys or gives me Chinese clothing, and in order to gain more understanding I've taken Asian history and literature classes--am I just co-opting her into my life for my own benefits and interests? By revealing this am I trying to escape criticism by giving "credentials?"

I have to ask these questions of myself. To partake in an active interest of other cultures is to walk a fine line of ethnocentricity, co-option, and privilege.

Its entirely aggravating to hear people who in my classes talk with such authority and superiority in regards to Asian culture (specifically Japanese culture) that I wonder why they even watch anime or play video games if all they're intent on doing is trying to prove how great America is (and thus themselves for being American.)

Gorilla Suit

One last test for Friday. It can't come sooner.

I don't know why certain things in popular culture catch my eye--why some irk me more than others. I think we all experience this time to time. For some people it's Paris Hilton, for others, Family Guy.

So what's getting me? King Kong.
It's a new movie. It's a video game. It's based on something from the 1930's.

It's also racist.

Let's think about a couple of things:
1) Imperialism
2)"The Jungle"
3)Natives
3)Hottentot Venus
4) Most blantantly: Kong's sexual feelings


Why was this movie remade? Why are so many people excited about it? Why is Peter Jackson considered a genius? And most importantly, something I want clarification for: If the King Kong game is being released cross-console, are the graphics for the 360 really better? Was anything retooled for the 360 version? And, if not, why would anyone then want to pay over 60 bucks for it?

And I'm not alone in my thoughts, though maybe at work I am. For a great post about this and further links check out Flimmaking for the Poor.