Sensitive content in videogames and sexual diversity in gaming ♥

Sensitive content in videogames and
sexual diversity in gaming
♥

After watching extra credits' sexual diversity in gaming video on the escapists' website i have decided to take up blogging. I have had strong views about gaming as a media for a long time and would like to make them known, so here goes.

for starters i urge you to watch that particular episode of extra credits here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2520-Sexual-Diversity

this way we're all on the same page, if you have time read some of the comments people have posted as they have raised some points ill be touching on in this blog.

Ok for starters, i am in agreement with the people at extra credits, i see gaming as a budding art form, there have been a variety of marvellous titles made over the years by teams of skilled artists, unfortunately these have flew under many people's radars as they were not aware of them or see gaming solely as entertainment or solely for children/loners this needs to stop.

There is a lot of stigma attatched to being a gamer that is not attatched to being a movie/ music lover or avid novel reader, and these mediums have been through similar scrutiny and have managed to overcome them as the years have gone by. For example elvis was accused of corrupting the youth of the 50s, harry potter books were burned in america for encouraging witchcraft and there have been countless books banned for their content, one of the most popular being catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger

(you may have noticed i am reiterating some points mentioned in previous extra credits episodes, i am aware of this and am doing so to set the context.)

Now, if i may bring up some recent cases of sensitive content in videogames we can begin discerning between the public perception of videogames and the actuality of these cases. There are of course cases when designers will have taken something "too far" including content of an explicit violent or sexual nature, but for many cases the public uproar caused has been  misled or blown out of proportion.

Case 1: Mass Effect
Sexual content

Mass effect is a futuristic role playing game for the Xbox 360 set in a fictional universe inhabited by a number of races including humans. You play as "commander shepard", a member of the human "alliance" (a military organization) who has been called in to investigate attacks on a human colony and eventually must fight to save the races of the galaxy from a deadly threat. You can create and shape commander shepard as you see fit, make them male or female and choose how they react to multiple situations. You can try to solve conflicts with diplomacy or brute force, you may act in an evil fashion should you choose or be a paradigm of morality, this makes the player think more about their actions as every choice they make has a consequence.

The controversy stems from the relationships you can develop with your crew members, who consist of humans and humanoid aliens. As you become closer to them you can discover more about their personal historty and side stories separate from the main game, and should you wish you may eventually develop a physical relationship with that crew member. I would like to point out the extent of these scenes is in no way explicit and is done in context and very tastefully and is only possible with 3 characters in the game. Watch this video for an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-58E7Iuzt0

when the media caught wind of this content they branded the game a "sex simulator" and a political blogger known as Mike McCullough wrote in his blog:

"Mass Effect can be customized to sodomize whatever, whomever, however, the game player wishes," and "with its ‘over the net’ capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away."

Although exposed as baseless, his views sparked a lot of letters written to the games developers, demanding the game not be released as well as numerous defaming articles on the national news and resulting in the game recieving 18+ ratings in countries such as singapore.

This infuriates me as it was obvious the man had never played the game or was ever going to give it a chance, but was willing to accuse the gaming industry of being perverse at the drop of a hat.

Case 2: Resident Evil 5
Racism

Resident evil 5 is a horror genre videogame, the series originally featured zombies (the walking dead) as the main enemies, which various survivors had to fend off in order to survive. Since resident evil 4 the main enemies of the game have been "las plagas", humans transformed into savage monsters by a parasite. Resident evil 5 sees Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar fending off such monsters in various fictional locations in africa.

Controversey stemmed from the fact the protagonists were white people killing native black africans. Kym Platt, a journalist wrote on her blog:

"This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young...fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."

I will start off by pointing out that the black people in the game were portrayed as savages not because of their way of life or beliefs or colour of their skin, but because the umbrella corporation (which is a corporation experimenting with bioweapons for use in times of war) infected them on purpose with the parisite which forces them into a murderous rage. I will also note on a personal level i felt no joy in killing black people and was very aware that i was infact killing inhuman monsters in the context of the game's story.

This accusation recieved a lot of publicity, some people supported it but gamers were quick to point out some facts, the least of which being that the company making it was Capcom, a japanese company. In japan the views on black people are the same as anyone else, there isnt the predjudice, there was no black slavery. The japanese simply pointed out that in africa, there are a lot of dark skinned people, so to exclude them from a game set in africa would be ridiculous. they have different racial sensibilities and i doubt very much there was any evil intent.

response
Now these examples don't represent a large portion of games, but are very typical of the type of hype aimed at controversial games, 99% of the time when a game recieves criticism it is ill founded or comes from someone who hasnt played the game in question and often is not a gamer at all! now im not an art lover so i wont begin to say whether or not a painting is any good, i can offer my opinion on it, saying whether it is pleasing to the eye but im not about to say that it is bad for a FACT like these politicians and journalists do. they say a game is disgusting and violent or lewd and racisst, with no artistic value and without any kind of moral context and in my eyes thats wrong.


i fully support the fact children should NOT be playing games like call of duty or grand theft auto without learning the reasoning or context, if they dont understand why soldiers fight or why a man may turn to a life of crime it paints a bad picture. War is not fun and crime should be frowned upon but when experienced in a safe environment they can be an interesting insight into another way of looking at things. i have seen enough videogames to know i would not like to be shot at and i know crime doesnt pay, you cant just slap a bandage on a gunshot wound and you cant murder someone then spray your car another colour so the police cant find you. i may write more on kids and games in future, as its something i feel strongly about


so please, people don't be so quick to judge, common sense tells us companies dont set out to offend people, gamers must enjoy these games in order to want to buy them, noone wants to play a game that they find distasteful. many may require a pinch of salt, but you should know what you like and don't like, if you dont like horror dont buy "Saw: the game" if you dont like board games dont buy "monopoly" and if you dont want to kill germans dont buy a world war II shooter. you have the power to choose what you play and what you let your children play, dont expect developers to stop making them if you dont like it! nut allergy sufferers don't ask supermarkets to stop selling nuts, they simply ask that they are told if nuts are in their food, it should be clear what you are getting in a videogame and it is.


Sexual diversity in games:


now for a word on sexual diversity in videogames. Now i believe gaming has some truly memorable characters, from solid snake of the metal gear solid games to the prince from the katamari games to wander, the semi mute (he says only one word as far as im aware) protagonist of shadow of the colossus and they dont really push the boundaries of sexual diversity. Snake might take a glance at a naughty poster a soldier has pinned to their locker, or peek at the leading lady's chest that she has so obviously on display (im looking at you eva) but he doesnt let his emotions get in the way of the mission (except for a freudian complex he has with "the boss", his mentor and hero who defects to the russians in metal gear solid 3 and crops up again in peace walker) so of course context is important.


Gaming has a bad rep when it comes to sex in games thanks to lara croft, duke nukem, playboy the mansion and the dead or alive series, painting it as a hetero-oriented closed minded medium where women have to be scantily clad and men have to be schwarzenegger clones. shining through the muck are gems like the persona series (covered very well in extra credits' video) and the valkyria chronicles. other games are aware of it but it is not a focus (such as the sims games and fable, where you can start a relationship with either sex with no difference between them in terms of gameplay)



Valkyria chronicles is a game set in the fictional country of gallia, a very european-style country in the fictional continent of "europa" set during the "second europan war" ok the setting is paper thin, world war 2 with a new coat of paint, and pain is very fitting, the game looks stunningly like a watercolour in motion, take a look:


http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/866/866142/valkyria-chronicles-20080411040153763_640w.jpg


nice, huh? well without going into too much detail, the game touches on some VERY serious subjects throughout, despite its colorful appearance. Throughout the story youll find racism, prejudice, genocide and murder as well as sexuality. Each of the members of your squad is unique, they have likes and dislikes, allergies and sexual preferences. But what does this have to do with the game? during the firefights your characters act like real people, they rely on eachother to aid them, if they should be next to someone they like they will be more enthusiastic and fight harder, if they have a dust allergy deploying them in the desert might be a bad move, so you need to think about your squad memers as actual people, not faceless cannon fodder. This is something this game achieves remarkably well and seeing one of your men/women fall in battle is a sorrowful experience, especially when their name appears in the register of the dead.


Now when it comes to sexuality and romance i found this game charming, one character "Ted ustinov" fancies both men and women so is a real showoff in the battlefield, trying to impress both the men and women in his squad with his heroics. "Jann walker" is a delightfully feminine man with a fetish for muscle-y men and develops a crush on "Largo potter" one of the games main characters and heavy weapons expert, this is hinted at multiple times in the story, with jann saying how dreamy largo is, and largo going red. These instances, along with fitting dialogue ingame, make you see each and every character as a unique person and causes you care more about your squad members. All of this makes for one fantastically involving and touching game, sexuality is not core to the game but i wouldnt have it any other way, and the choice to not ignore that aspect of people's personality is one i applaud.


reading the comments on that particular extra credits video i came across many people asking why we should care if someone is straight or gay, that it is pointless and has no place in games. i'll agree that certain games have no place for it but to say that no game has a place for sexuality is seriously wrong. in a first person shooter your character is usually a faceless nameless nonentity as you are meant to believe you are the character so they act however you want them to, but in role playing games, strategy games, even third person shooters you are very aware that YOU are not the character, you are controlling someone else or even have to step into their shoes and BE them so to leave out certain parts of them because you dont see the point is... pointless. What would be the reason in making a character that shares the same views and likes the same things you do? all novels and films would be soo dreary, and i personally play games for an escape from my life, not to just live it on a screen. 

so i believe we have to have sexual diversity in games, to bring characters to life. the game doesnt have to be ABOUT sexuality but to ignore it sounds too much like sexual repression to me. there is a place for it and it is important.



THATS IT!
Thats all for this blog, yes its wordy and might be sketchy in places (i didnt draft this) but hey thats what it's like inside my head. i hope to do more in the coming days, its almost christmas so i have to do something to take my mind off the fact theres no santa.
Dil