So before HZD came out I saw a lot of people accusing it of pandering to the SJW/tumblr/cult of overreaction crowd. And admittedly, the leaked material was a bit concerning. You have articles like this one:http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/horizon-zero-dawn-game-interview-review-guerilla-games-2017-latest-preview-a7605551.html
With phrases like: "Once again, Mr Sharma says that the developers accidentally stumbled into a character that embodied the game?s depiction of a world not lived in the patriarchy."
You have the fact that the female main character in a matriarchal society, which while not inherently bad, has the possibility of being extremely preachy if handled wrong.
You have leaked footage of female Muslim scientists from the glorious New Tehran. Again, nothing bad on its own, but depending on how it is characterized, it can be terrible.
So basically what we had was a game that some were touting as the SJW savior, and a bunch of info that, while not inherently bad, had the definite ability to be presented in a very "FUCK THE PATRIARCHY" shallow and preachy manner.
So I'm glad to say that HZD is actually not overtly pandering at all; but it does have one particular quirk in its presentation that makes me question the intentions or the thoughts of the developers. Let me explain.
First, the matriarchal society Aloy starts in is only one of the societies in the world and its mostly shown to be a tribal society of xenophobic Luddites with harsh laws that cause Aloy nothing but grief. And that is totally fine because there's nothing inherently SJW about a matriarchal society, it's the depiction of a matriarchal society as perfect or better than anything else which is both unrealistic and uninteresting, as well as pandering. But the game's depiction is fairly realistic, with both good and bad qualities.
Second, the idea of the "patriarchy" is basically nowhere in the game. In fact, racism isn't anywhere in the game either. The primary forms of discrimination are related to tribal xenophobia and social stigmas (Aloy is an outcast from her tribe, and is regarded as a savage by the more technologically advanced members of other societies). And while these things are pretty heavy handed and on the nose a lot of the time, they're not too preachy because they're non-specific and allegorical. It's a lot like X-men, where mutant can substitute for any number of things that society as a whole discriminates against. And I, and most people I think, have no problem with exploring those themes, we just get annoyed when its presented in a very preachy, patronizing or exaggerated way. Which this avoids.
And last, people got worried about the Muslim scientist lady because it represented a possibly unrealistic depiction of minority groups. SJW's have a bad habit of 90's children's show tokenism, forcing casts of wildly diverse individuals even when such things don't make much sense, and often representing minorities in a shallow and sycophantic praising sort of way, rather than as real characters. Gotta have that black disabled lesbian and she has to be christlike and can do no wrong. Luckily, thats not actually the case; once you reach that point in the game its clear that the Muslim lady scientist is actually part of a great big multicultural group and isn't held up as some sort of glorious human exemplar.
Spoilers ahead.
However, there is one thing that I think IS either pandering or it at least displays a rather odd mindset in the game: The characterization of women (and minorities) vs white men. Simply put, almost every effective or heroic character is ieither black or a woman (Or both) and every white guy is either ineffective, well intentioned but useless, or evil. Seriously. Main villian? White man. Origin of robot plague? Corporate White man. Person who saved the world? Environmental Woman. World saving ai? Black lady. Evil Ai? Created by womanizing white man and has male voice. Main character? Woman. Evil guard and temporary captain of the guard in starting village? White man. Kid who threw rocks at Aloy when she was a child and was a general asshole to her until he got murdered? White man. Person who identified with her and comforted her after the asshole was mean to her? Black girl. Actual captian of the guard who everyone admires and who gets shit done? Black lady. Captain of the guard in the main city, who everyone likes? Woman. Her brother? Drunk womanizer who only gets his shit together because his sister tells him to before dying. Well meaning but basically completely ineffectual sunking who only got into power because previously spoken of female captian of the guard helped him? White guy. Destroyer of the entire repository of human knowledge? White guy. Person who saved the exiled sun prince? Aloy and a Black Lady. Sun Prince's mother who shielded him from the influence of the main bad guy? Black lady.
Really it just goes on and on. I'm not sure if it was intentional, because it's not universal. Rost, your father figure, is a good guy, but also fairly brow beaten by Aloy a lot of the time and just gives in to her demands without much resistance. Sylence (SP?) is a black guy with a pretty complex personality and questionable morality, but is over all still good for Aloy, even though he caused a lot of problems in the past. But overall, there's a pretty obvious pattern in the way a lot of the characters I've come in contact with are portrayed. It's hard to tell if they did it like that for a particular reason or if it just the result of their mindset.
With phrases like: "Once again, Mr Sharma says that the developers accidentally stumbled into a character that embodied the game?s depiction of a world not lived in the patriarchy."
You have the fact that the female main character in a matriarchal society, which while not inherently bad, has the possibility of being extremely preachy if handled wrong.
You have leaked footage of female Muslim scientists from the glorious New Tehran. Again, nothing bad on its own, but depending on how it is characterized, it can be terrible.
So basically what we had was a game that some were touting as the SJW savior, and a bunch of info that, while not inherently bad, had the definite ability to be presented in a very "FUCK THE PATRIARCHY" shallow and preachy manner.
So I'm glad to say that HZD is actually not overtly pandering at all; but it does have one particular quirk in its presentation that makes me question the intentions or the thoughts of the developers. Let me explain.
First, the matriarchal society Aloy starts in is only one of the societies in the world and its mostly shown to be a tribal society of xenophobic Luddites with harsh laws that cause Aloy nothing but grief. And that is totally fine because there's nothing inherently SJW about a matriarchal society, it's the depiction of a matriarchal society as perfect or better than anything else which is both unrealistic and uninteresting, as well as pandering. But the game's depiction is fairly realistic, with both good and bad qualities.
Second, the idea of the "patriarchy" is basically nowhere in the game. In fact, racism isn't anywhere in the game either. The primary forms of discrimination are related to tribal xenophobia and social stigmas (Aloy is an outcast from her tribe, and is regarded as a savage by the more technologically advanced members of other societies). And while these things are pretty heavy handed and on the nose a lot of the time, they're not too preachy because they're non-specific and allegorical. It's a lot like X-men, where mutant can substitute for any number of things that society as a whole discriminates against. And I, and most people I think, have no problem with exploring those themes, we just get annoyed when its presented in a very preachy, patronizing or exaggerated way. Which this avoids.
And last, people got worried about the Muslim scientist lady because it represented a possibly unrealistic depiction of minority groups. SJW's have a bad habit of 90's children's show tokenism, forcing casts of wildly diverse individuals even when such things don't make much sense, and often representing minorities in a shallow and sycophantic praising sort of way, rather than as real characters. Gotta have that black disabled lesbian and she has to be christlike and can do no wrong. Luckily, thats not actually the case; once you reach that point in the game its clear that the Muslim lady scientist is actually part of a great big multicultural group and isn't held up as some sort of glorious human exemplar.
Spoilers ahead.
However, there is one thing that I think IS either pandering or it at least displays a rather odd mindset in the game: The characterization of women (and minorities) vs white men. Simply put, almost every effective or heroic character is ieither black or a woman (Or both) and every white guy is either ineffective, well intentioned but useless, or evil. Seriously. Main villian? White man. Origin of robot plague? Corporate White man. Person who saved the world? Environmental Woman. World saving ai? Black lady. Evil Ai? Created by womanizing white man and has male voice. Main character? Woman. Evil guard and temporary captain of the guard in starting village? White man. Kid who threw rocks at Aloy when she was a child and was a general asshole to her until he got murdered? White man. Person who identified with her and comforted her after the asshole was mean to her? Black girl. Actual captian of the guard who everyone admires and who gets shit done? Black lady. Captain of the guard in the main city, who everyone likes? Woman. Her brother? Drunk womanizer who only gets his shit together because his sister tells him to before dying. Well meaning but basically completely ineffectual sunking who only got into power because previously spoken of female captian of the guard helped him? White guy. Destroyer of the entire repository of human knowledge? White guy. Person who saved the exiled sun prince? Aloy and a Black Lady. Sun Prince's mother who shielded him from the influence of the main bad guy? Black lady.
Really it just goes on and on. I'm not sure if it was intentional, because it's not universal. Rost, your father figure, is a good guy, but also fairly brow beaten by Aloy a lot of the time and just gives in to her demands without much resistance. Sylence (SP?) is a black guy with a pretty complex personality and questionable morality, but is over all still good for Aloy, even though he caused a lot of problems in the past. But overall, there's a pretty obvious pattern in the way a lot of the characters I've come in contact with are portrayed. It's hard to tell if they did it like that for a particular reason or if it just the result of their mindset.
