Africa in gaming. An example from CoD MW3...
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I was sitting on my bed with my laptop when I saw this. Nearly pissed myself from the LOL.Batou667 said:It gets worse. Wait until you see the stereotyped attack dogs that appear in the Northern Ireland stages.
In the context of CoD, the campaign for that game is all about spectacle. Hyenas are unique and more interesting than attack dogs. Therefore, they appear in the Africa section.
You win this thread. You deserve a cookie.Batou667 said:It gets worse. Wait until you see the stereotyped attack dogs that appear in the Northern Ireland stages.
Allright, first of all, Hyenas are not dogs. In fact, they are more closely related to the family of felidae, or cats for the ones that are less latinically inclined.
And guard bears would better fit canadians than russians, as a few years ago, I read about the raiding of a canadian drug farm which used bears as guard animals (which were kind of inneffective, as they were tamed and thus not aggressive towards humans, including the police officers)
But back to topic: I actually thought that the guard hyena was realistic, as some african warlords tend to keep these animals (amongst others) for intimitation purposes. It's not like the game has packs of guard hyenas chasing you around the level, but one instance where you're attacked by one you surprised by storming an area (at least on normal difficulty).
And concerning the portrayal of africans: I don't think africans are worse off than people of other continents concerning clichees or prejudices. It's just that, as generally africa ranks amongst the poorest places on earth, it's regarded as bad sport to portray them that way.
But as video games are in a very early stage of becoming a serious narrating medium, I for one am happy that africans are not portrayed as stupid or lazy, but rather africa itself (or rather, perts of it) is portrayed as a nigh anarchistic region where people have go to extremes to get by. I don't think that africans fare worse then other mooks in video games.
I rather think it's sad that there are little to no non-caucasian game heroes in games where you can't create your own one. But then, females are underrepresented to, especially in heroines that don't focus on tittilate the male audience.
And guard bears would better fit canadians than russians, as a few years ago, I read about the raiding of a canadian drug farm which used bears as guard animals (which were kind of inneffective, as they were tamed and thus not aggressive towards humans, including the police officers)
But back to topic: I actually thought that the guard hyena was realistic, as some african warlords tend to keep these animals (amongst others) for intimitation purposes. It's not like the game has packs of guard hyenas chasing you around the level, but one instance where you're attacked by one you surprised by storming an area (at least on normal difficulty).
And concerning the portrayal of africans: I don't think africans are worse off than people of other continents concerning clichees or prejudices. It's just that, as generally africa ranks amongst the poorest places on earth, it's regarded as bad sport to portray them that way.
But as video games are in a very early stage of becoming a serious narrating medium, I for one am happy that africans are not portrayed as stupid or lazy, but rather africa itself (or rather, perts of it) is portrayed as a nigh anarchistic region where people have go to extremes to get by. I don't think that africans fare worse then other mooks in video games.
I rather think it's sad that there are little to no non-caucasian game heroes in games where you can't create your own one. But then, females are underrepresented to, especially in heroines that don't focus on tittilate the male audience.
I know you are aware of that because you're South African. I'm Nigerian so I definitely know where you coming from TC.
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Yeah, I was suprised by the first point to. I know an Aardwolf is closer to Canines, but I always considered a hyena to be as well.
OT: It has some basis, sure. I realised that. It still just grates me to always see Africa being portrayed this way. But I guess any person from a fairly exotic location can feel the same. India is the source of all things mystic, even though she's provided the world with amazing scientists (as an example).
As for the fact that games with fixed heroes generally pic Anglo-Saxon males, yeah. That's really disappointing. But I see your point about how Africa is depicted as being exotic feels like a good thing, but I'd still like to see Africans (and I use this terms generally) being depicted as current. In hindsight I can see the use of hyenas in the same way you did, but I still would have liked it maybe to be a hyena and then dogs from West Africa as general attack dogs. They used the same template anyway, so it wouldn't break their backs...
ColeusRattus said:
Yeah, I was suprised by the first point to. I know an Aardwolf is closer to Canines, but I always considered a hyena to be as well.
OT: It has some basis, sure. I realised that. It still just grates me to always see Africa being portrayed this way. But I guess any person from a fairly exotic location can feel the same. India is the source of all things mystic, even though she's provided the world with amazing scientists (as an example).
As for the fact that games with fixed heroes generally pic Anglo-Saxon males, yeah. That's really disappointing. But I see your point about how Africa is depicted as being exotic feels like a good thing, but I'd still like to see Africans (and I use this terms generally) being depicted as current. In hindsight I can see the use of hyenas in the same way you did, but I still would have liked it maybe to be a hyena and then dogs from West Africa as general attack dogs. They used the same template anyway, so it wouldn't break their backs...