On Video Games
Okay, now that my viewing scheme is fixed....
My list of games for the XboX is growing. Despite controversy, I do want to play the new Resident Evil. I've heard all points of view on it, read the arguments and dissertations, and figure I'll just make my own judgments upon playing the game myself. I think that's all anyone can do. And as I'm ( Read more... )
My list of games for the XboX is growing. Despite controversy, I do want to play the new Resident Evil. I've heard all points of view on it, read the arguments and dissertations, and figure I'll just make my own judgments upon playing the game myself. I think that's all anyone can do. And as I'm ( Read more... )
Ah. I guess it does provide a negative image to some people. It makes sense, though, that if Wesker's around there, he would be employing people in the area. I guess they could have used a black woman, but then people would have said it was showing savagery from black villagers against their own people. They could have used white men, but then people would have said it was reminiscent of whites lynching or gang raping blacks, another racism-related imagery. See? No matter what they do, it could be interpreted as racist. I guess they could have left out the scene altogether. I got the impression though, when it first started, that people were reacting to the infected villagers and their skin color, not any outside bad guys without that infection.
I think the problem with accusing Resident Evil of being racist is that it ignores the history of the prior Resident Evil games. Does that mean Resident Evil 4's racist against Spaniards or rural people? No, because it was obvious something was not right with these people from the start. And that something was a biological weapon. Are the previous games racist against Americans because they feature Black, female, and typical white make zombies, but no Asians? No, definitely not. I read recently in Wikipedia that according to one magazine reviewer there's a "dark continent" feeling about the game, but it makes sense that Chris, who's never been to Africa presumably, would see it as this mysterious land he has to get acquainted with personally. And, he would also be reacting to the fact that he has no idea what to expect, now that the whole area has been infected by whatever this thing is. There could be monsters, there could be zombies, there could G-virus infected monstrosities the likes of which he's never seen - he doesn't know. You're right, in that context makes everything. And in Resident Evil, the context is usually mutating agents running amok and sinister conspiracies working in the shadows. So anyone attacking an innocent person aren't doing it because of their skin color, they're going to do it because they're working for the villain or being mind-controlled. This does bring up an interesting issue for me. I don't like to think of Japan being racist in its video games. I know it's naive, but I'd like to think that they've above that, since they're distanced from the history of racism and violence that has happened in this country.
It's not the same, but I remember when someone said Metal Gear Solid 3 was sexist, because of how EVA used her sexuality and good looks to entice Snake. But I didn't feel that way, because Kojima intended for EVA to be an homage to the famous Bond girls. A lot of things in the game were veiled winks at Bond, while staying as far away from Bond as possible (Kojima even has a joke where Snake's CO is a huge Bond fan, and lambastes Snake after Snake trashes the Bond series). We'd already had the standard strong female characters before with Meryl and Fortune and Olga to match the formidable male protagonist (Solid Snake, not Raiden :P), and now Kojima could have a little fun with the characters without having everything be so serious. I think it said more about the person making the statement, than it did about the game itself, as you said. She didn't approve of some things, and I guess she may have been uncomfortable with the sexuality being displayed, not because it was a woman doing it, but because she was uncomfortable with sexuality in her life. I didn't see it. And I've got a pretty good eye for these things usually.
Not to mention, MGS3 gave us one of the strongest female protagonists ever: The Boss. In fact, she's probably the strongest female character in video gaming history, philosophically and emotionally. If there's a stronger female character, I haven't seen her. I find it a little hard to believe Kojima's sexist in the face of that.
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I think the whole problem with racism (and sexism) in Japanese games is that we, here in the Western world, can only look at it in our own context. We come at them with our own American sense of history and racial/sexist issues. And I'm of two minds on it. On one hand, yes, we're bringing our world view and our historical view to it, and that can lead us to seeing things which weren't intended. But Japan isn't an isolated fortress, and isn't completely unaware of the history of racial issues in the US. I don't think there is deliberate racism going on in mainstream games, but is there casual racism? Sure. It's alive and well today, all over the world.
On the other hand, without a clear knowledge of Japan's own racial issues (which I admit I know only a small bit about) there could be issues which are far worse than what we bring to the games, but how on earth would we know? It's a very complicated issue, I think. As it always is when dealing with these things.
I'm not terribly far into MGS3, but I have to agree that what I've seen of The Boss definitely strikes me as a strong, well done female character. I can't really speak on sexism in the games, as I don't have much experience with them - save for the original NES games. I will admit now that sexism in media (video games, television, etc) is something I'm much more firm on than racism. And I know this is another world view (and yes, privilege issue) as I am a mostly-Caucasian woman.
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