176: Global Games, Local Perspectives

[Chris LaVigne]

Global Games, Local Perspectives

Games can take us to exotic locales around the world - but why do they always insist on telling their stories from the same stale American, British or Japanese perspectives?

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[Beery]

Sales DO fall when games involve protagonists from other cultures. Personally I feel this is one big reason why Assassin's Creed was not as successful as perhaps it should have been. Many people attacked that game with vague or unfounded criticisms, but what I smelled underneath the unfocused ire was a sort of post-9/11 racism.

Game developers will start making multicultural games when gamers stop unfairly criticising every game that has a non-white protagonist.

 

[Ultrajoe]

While i loved the article, i do take a slight step back at some of your game suggestions.

They were... well... awful.

A wider cultural experience would be great, but a game still needs to entertain and impress an audience. The idea of a fur-trade era survivor does rub against the grain there. I understand the sentiment, but games need to give a sense that the player is involved or has a stake in the outcome. They need to be a hero.

Where is the motivation for a non-canadian (or, i daresay, a canadian who doesn't know much about this time period) to save that very specific world, or at least forge an existence in it? And if we accept that there needs to be a motivation, why not make it space marines or American G.I's. It was a world war, after all, though your accent may be different your still fighting for the world you live in.

That said, the idea of taking Rommel down a peg as one of the Rats of Tobruk is quite... enticing...

Or the fear and trills of a Kokoda Trail horror shooter... Gallipoli trench warfare, ending in the famous charge...

Wait... where was I?

Spoiler

I hope people get the point of this post, otherwise i look a bit of a prat.

 

[PieMaker]

I just have to say that a few old games dared to touch a different demographic as main player, or none in general.

As a great example, we have the X-Com series, which let you put a base anywhere in the world, and all personel had either french, russian, english, italian or other name origin.

Granted there isn't much dialogue in X-com, but it was binding the whole world to the cause of fighting aliens.

 

[Ryan Sumo]

Great article. I pitched a similar idea recently, and I guess this is why it wasn't considered.

I think you'll start seeing more interesting games, or at least games that speak to you once the distribution networks start become more localized. In the same way that Bollywood makes movies for Indians, Filipinos could make games for Filipinos. Yes, they wouldn't have the production values of triple A games, but that was never the point.

I am quite surprised that Canadians don't have more local developers that make and sell games for Canadians, considering the large developer base there. You'd think there would be a wealth of canadian games on XBLA or something.

 

[Cousin_IT]

As long as the player character in FPS' is just a disembodied hand with a gun in it, I dont think the characters nationality will ever be important or add anything to the game. It would be nice for games to perhaps have a less "colonial" approach to countries/cultures outside the big three though.

qualifier: By colonial, I mean going into another country & 'fixing' their problems for them/defeating their evil rulers. Seems to be the basic premise of alot of games these days

 

[ShadowKirby]

I am quite surprised that Canadians don't have more local developers that make and sell games for Canadians, considering the large developer base there. You'd think there would be a wealth of canadian games on XBLA or something.

Well, the big Canadians game devs are Ubi and Bioware so their games ends up here but it's through the bigger NA market. But I'm sure there's a few XBLA games coming from Canada but we just don't know the devs are located here and we just assume they all are from the states.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Saw a comment on a similar article a few weeks ago and the topic of who would be badass enough to make an FPS based on their life came up. An Australian by the name of 'Dangerous Dave Everett' was mentioned:

http://www.dangerousdaveeverett.com/index.html

An ex-SAS Aussie who went rogue in Myanmar before coming home to steal money to help the Karen rebels? Sounds good to me.

 

[markdeloura]

I keep completely agree with the sentiment of this article. A year or so ago I gave a talk in Tokyo which highlighted the slow rise in quantity of games from places we aren't familiar with: Lebanon, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, Zimbabwe... playing games from these places frequently can give us insight into the cultures of those regions. But are ready for games with controversial views? The game I played from Lebanon focused on what we in the U.S. would label terrorism, and yet I felt like I gained an insight into another person's way of thinking which enhanced my global perspective. Are we ready for the Taliban or Al Qaeda games?

 

[Archimedes88]

i agree the games market could put to use this idea, and i'm sure it would be appriciated by the consumers, i myself pick up alot of genral knowledge from games.

Whereas there are obviously no limit to the setting of games, the backdrop of the story, the characters etc, there are a limit to the types of game you can make (RPG, FPS, RTS etc) which somewhat limits what you can and can't make profitable from a game designer's point of view.

you did give me the idea for a horror game set in the Chernobyl power station though ...

 

[stompy]

That said, the idea of taking Rommel down a peg as one of the Rats of Tobruk is quite... enticing...

Or the fear and trills of a Kokoda Trail horror shooter... Gallipoli trench warfare, ending in the famous charge...

I'd love to do such a thing. And it was unfortunate that Treyarch didn't capitalise on their Pacific setting to introduce Kokoda, or even any other nation that fought in the Pacific expect the US. It would have been an awesome level to be the Chocos that held back the Japanese until reinforcements came, only 40 kilometres from Port Moresby, knowing that, should they fail, it would be the end of Australia as we know it,

Saw a comment on a similar article a few weeks ago and the topic of who would be badass enough to make an FPS based on their life came up. An Australian by the name of 'Dangerous Dave Everett' was mentioned:

http://www.dangerousdaveeverett.com/index.html

An ex-SAS Aussie who went rogue in Myanmar before coming home to steal money to help the Karen rebels? Sounds good to me.

SASR. The SAS are a branch of the British Air Force; we Aussies (and Kiwis) have our own branch, the SASR. Not your fault, of course, just putting it out there.

As for the article, I agree with it. I would love to play as a protagonist of another background and characterisation than that of the stereotypical British/American/Japanese person, or even have more cultures influence the art direction and other aspects of games.

 

[Solipsis]

Until there are more cultures involved in video game production, we won't see more cultural viewpoints represented. I mean, sure, we'll keep seeing Lara Croft go to Peru (or maybe next time she goes to Suriname, who knows?). But what American, British, Japanese or Canadian developer is going to tackle the problem of how to make a game from a specific cultural viewpoint when they're not from that culture themselves?

I'm sure not going to try to construct a story from the POV of a Chinese, Chilean, or Icelandic hero without someone from that country showing me what that view really looks like. When you write about a fantasy world, there's nobody who can tell you "no, that isn't how it is" there aren't any cultural sensitivities to trip over, and there aren't any right or wrong approaches to the subject. Real cultures are a little more delicate. What we're seeing isn't an unwillingness to explore other people's realities, it's just classic "write what you know" when all the content creators know approximately the same realities.

 

[Smokescreen]

Solipsis hits it on the head with the first sentence.

FTA:
"And don't just give us a level in each country. Make games that really show off the places. Let us meet the people who live there. Better yet, let us experience what it's like to live as them."

That's a good idea if you, you know, have experience with those things, but it's a god-fucking-awful idea otherwise. You know why? Because it will come across as bullshit.

Fantasy cultures allow you to do just that: create a fantasy from whole cloth. It can resemble or borrow from any number of other cultures (see any number of FF settings) without having to get the actual experiences of living in those cultures right.

To get the kind of diversity of perspective (and tales) that the author is imagining, it will require the participation of more cultures in the medium.

 

[nikudada]

Shadowkirby: Ubisoft is a French developer with offices in Canada as well as USA. Bioware was purchased by EA last year so its an American company.

With that being said the video game industry is inherently capitalistic. Publishers want (need)their games to appeal to the largest demographic possible. The general consensus is that the highest percentage of video game players right now are white males. As i gathered from your article you want to play a game where the hero is Canadian. I find that totally normal as its easiest to associate with a character who you find similar to yourself (or at least i do). And that is the very reason why we see publishers pushing the average white protagonist; because thats the largest section of gaming consumers and therefore the most likely path into the highest number of household hearts (and minds).
I do agree that its sad that we don't see more variety. But, like Greg Costiksan (sorry i just slaughtered his last name) said in the escapist article "Death to the Game Industry" the publishers are, to an extent, holding up progress. Even when we do see a new kind of protagonist, such as Nico Bellic, its usually because the developers are using the ignorant yokel as a vehicle to teach the user the controls and so forth. Its a clever convenience that doesn't break immersion. I have two friends that are Serbian and they both consider Nico to be a poor representation at best (don't get me started on the accent). Ultimately the whole East European thing doesn't come off all that well. The only reason STALKER worked well (aside from the bugs)was because it was actually developed by a Ukrainian studio. If TakeTwo had done it you would have had William Shatner doing voiceovers for half the NPCS.
At the end of the day thats why you get the independent studios paving the way in terms of cultural diversity in games. Its the only way to differentiate themselves from the stale white bread that is mainstream gaming. I hope that at some point in time an Indie developer makes it HUGE vis a vi independent films avenue of success: taking exactly what mainstream shies away from and shoving everyones face in it. And i hope when that happens they don't immediately sell themselves to EA.

 

[Sylocat]

I've always wondered what a Red Green video game would be like.

 

[goodman528]

I agree with the author. However, you'd never manage to sell a game with an Indian, Chinese, or Ukrainian protagonist.

People just wouldn't identify with the main character.

The producers are not from that culture, so they would be producing something about a culture they know nothing about.

Much as we scream about every FPS being a space marine shooting monsters, that is the mainstream, and that sells, anything that deviates from this main stream is just seen as weird and people don't like buying things they know nothing about.

Very simple example, I read a post recently on a Chinese forum made of entirely pictures with captions, telling the story of a man who hitch-hiked on a transport lorry, it's a pretty simple and inspiring road trip story, Hemmingway style if Hemmingway used cameras. However, when I sent this link to a friend of mine, who is also very interested in travel stories since we are planning a road trip in the near future. He just couldn't identify with the main characters, who were young, like him; working class, like him; didn't have much money, like him; hard working, like him; but Chinese, while he was English. The cultural gap meant he thought it was interesting to see these people eating at roadside food joints for £0.5/person, but he's never seen such a place before in real life, he just can't place himself in these people's shoes.

 

[paladinsama]

As Solipsis said, probably to get a game with a cultural viewpoint from Peru, the game should be done by Peruvian game designers. So far the latest things being done here, are flash games. (Example: http://www.inkagames.com/ ). Maybe after some training/experience, better games could be done here and be valuable enough to be exported to the globalized world.

 

[swift tongued]

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I wanna see a game about mythological Russia where sheilds break from one sword swing. Game developers, make it happen.

Don't care if the games are controversial, istorically games have always been controversial, lets at least through some culture into them.

I agree with you in every single way, but then again I can't honestly represent any kind of majority. I just gave up a big chunk of my free time to studying ancient Nubia for no good reason. Unfortunately non white protagonists usually only appear in very violent games and have a very limited storyline, ex. Adjo from "The Club" and Kai from "Mortal Kombat 4." Given these aren't exactly culturally sensitive charecters, but they're the best examples I could think of and Adjo is basically the only charecter in the Club that I really like.

 

[Varulv]

I'm inclined to agree with the people saying that this article looks good on paper, but will most likely fall flat on its face should it make an attempt at real life.
The problem isn't so much that the developers do not want to produce games with a different protagonist, or taking part in another part of WW2 than D-day, this problem is spawned from the real one, namely that gamers do not buy games that are different.
Which do you think would sell better? A game proclaiming that it'll give a new and thrilling twist to the attack on Pearl Harbour or a game that says that it will let you play as a guerrilla *insert African or not-Korean Asiatic individual here*? We don't know who they are, as such we don't care about them and they strike us as boring, and we'd rather stick with the safe game that we know.
I, for one, can't blame big game developers for not doing something new when it won't sell.

On the note of us knowing Azeroth, Middle-Earth, etc., better than our own world, this isn't entirely true. Take a good look at Azeroth and its inhabitants, now twist your brain a bid and think if they resemble some peoples. I can probably brand a lot of old cultures to most of the beings in Azeroth.
My point is, that while we don't think so much about it, or are even aware of it, these games teach us quite a bid about our own world. As my game design teacher said: it's 90% steal, 10% altering what you've stolen.

 

[Clashero]

Personally, as an Argentine, I would love to see this happen.
Games with characters from different nationalities always interested me. And if given the choice, I would always march to Berlin as a Russian than fight in Omaha Beach for the hundredth fucking time.
Assassin's Creed did a great a job of a lot of things: The settting was spectacular, both space and time-wise, and it recreated Hassan bin Sabbah's story faithfully while bending it appropriately to fit the gameplay and story. And for once, there were no "bad guys" in the game: both sides were simply commited to their mission. Possibly the game didn't sell as well as it should have due to, as was said before, post-9/11 paranoia and the fact that you were killing Christians nearly all the time.
I also loved how Far Cry 2 had a rather interesting, Blood Diamond-like setting. Only two playable chracters were Americans, and one was British. The rest were mostly from Eastern Europe, along with the Brazilian, Chinese and Mauritian.

I'd certainly love to see a game based in Argentina. There is no shortage of game developers here, just a game market that thrives on piracy. What about an RTS that let you play as Güemes's Gauchos? Set a spy game in Buenos Aires, which is just about as varied as any other large city in the world? What about racing in 9 de Julio avenue, the widest street in the world? A Falklands War shooter, where you could play as both British and Argentine forces? (and like the article said, don't just give us one level: one of the Rainbow Six games had a level in a meat packer in Pilar, but that's not enough)