Everybody has their hang-ups, even if they’re a nation. What we play in our games today can dredge up uncomfortable memories of our pasts.
When Basil Fawlty whispered, “Don’t mention the war. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it alright”, the joke was on him; however, he was far from being the first and last person to ever wander headlong into an international faux pas. Even Australia’s near brainless variety show Hey Hey It’s Saturday was left with mud on its face, after some of its guests decided to dab a bit on their own. As a fellow portion of the global industry that is entertainment, videogames hold the same ability to offend cross-culturally as they do to elicit any other emotion.
There have been a number of games banned, modified, or simply abandoned because of the way that their content spoke to the uncomfortable memories of a country’s past. For example, the success of LucasArt’s Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis led to a planned sequel, The Iron Phoenix, which never saw the light of day – partially because it could not be released in Germany, a result of its recipe being a little too heavy on the Nazi for the Germans to stomach. In fact, within the laws of the country (the Strafgesetzbuch) there are stipulations that render depictions of Nazi symbolism, and other signifiers of ‘völkisch’ ideology, illegal. These laws have also prevented several other games, such as Wolfenstein 3D, from being released there. Had the developers possessed a better understanding of the country’s needs, especially knowing that Germany was and still is one of the largest markets in the world for PC games, could they have worked around these issues earlier on; or more specifically, should they have? Especially if it meant sacrificing their original vision?
In a similar vein, last year’s controversy surrounding the initial trailer for Resident Evil 5 and its depictions of savage-looking ‘blacks’ was partly a result of Western cultural baggage – as evidenced by the Japanese development group’s indication that they weren’t aware the images were incredibly loaded with symbolism to those outside of the game’s country of birth. In his Playing in the Dark column in the June 2007 issue of Edge Magazine, N’Gai Croal commented upon speaking to the game’s Producer Jun Takeuchi that, “[should Jun’s] muse inspire him to set another game in an African country – or any real-world location, for that matter – [his] only wish is that he do so in as fully informed a manner as possible”.
There is a great deal of work being done in community and health services around ‘cultural competence’. The idea that workers must meet their clients with a level of understanding about the different cultures from which each party comes is not a complex one, but one that is often forgotten by many. While much of the published material on this is rhetoric, there is something that game developers can glean from these ideas being explored by the people that look after our society’s vulnerable. There’s more to a culture than the things that its collective likes to do, and indeed dislike to do, in order to while away their hours. All cultures have moments in their past that they’d prefer not be stirred up, and quite often, all it takes is a single unknowingly loaded image to do this.
It’s not a new thought in relation to entertainment – for years the subject has been considered in respect to other media – but when sitting down to play, each and every one of us brings our own cultural baggage to a game’s world. In a marketing sense, the world of videogaming has already grasped on to the idea that different nations and ethnic groups demand different content within their games. But as the industry and audience grows, and the details within a game increase, there’s sure to be more images, content and subject matter that stir up each of our own individual national neuroses. But offending us isn’t the crux of their problem, for art is sometimes supposed to offend our sensibilities. The important lesson is the intention for us to question what it is to be who we are.
For a piece of cinema that we now consider a classic, it is surprising that Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (AQOTWF) was originally banned in several countries. It’s understandable that in Germany, the emerging Nazi Party would feel uncomfortable about its depictions of their nation’s troops; but interestingly in Italy, it was banned for being too sympathetic to the Germans. As a demonstration that ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’, AQOTWF was originally banned in Australia due to its raw depictions of violence. What is key about the unwelcoming receptions is that the film spoke to all these country’s difficult national, cultural and historical pasts – their sense of identity – and did so in a respectively different way.
Just as AQOTWF explored its war from a very human perspective, Atomic Games’ Six Days in Fallujah had promise as an investigation into the human condition, as it stood within the previously near faceless geopolitical struggle of the Iraq War – to examine the emotional, psychological arc to the battle. Popping in and out of existence in early 2009 like some kind of quantum event, it was one of the briefest development announcements-cum-disappearances that we’ve ever seen. And, while it hasn’t been officially cancelled, the continued silence following Konami’s choice to step down as publisher doesn’t bode well for the project. The plan appeared to be the blending of real world substance – the stories of various real-life soldiers – with entertainment: to bring a human face to the virtualised wars which we’re so accustomed to partaking in, both in our games and our television news. Unfortunately for the developers and its potential audience, the main market for the game was the US, where the subject matter pinched too raw a nerve far too soon.
Another deep wound in the American psyche is the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Super Columbine Massacre RPG, an indie game which placed players in the shoes of the disaffected youths responsible for the killings, was originally marked as an entry into the 2007 Slamdance Festival – part of which is a section which aims to be a sort of “Sundance” for gaming – but was eventually removed by the organisers. In an interview with Kotaku, one of the festival’s coordinators commented, “there are moral obligations to consider here with this particular game in addition to the impact it could have on the Slamdance organization and its community.’ It seems that, similar to AQOTWF’s initial reception, a game, even from the indie scene, that is filled with symbolism and comments on events which are uncomfortable for a nation to face will find it near impossible to be accepted.
While it’s rare the narratives of games raise the collective hackles of various populations, the discussions around any discontent caused by their content is extremely worthwhile. Understanding the various ways in which the signifiers in our games can carry meaning is incredibly important when dealing with a global audience. Whether the inclusion of symbolism is intentional or unplanned – insensitive or carefully thought out – open discussion about the issues is the most important outcome of any controversy. How gaming tackles the multitude of different ways in which various images blend with cultures, emotions and history will only be seen as the medium continues to mature. Let’s hope though, that there’ll always be those around who question how our virtual worlds portray the people, objects and events from our real one, in order to get us examining who we are, and indeed, who we want to be.
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Tags: All Quiet on the Western Front, censorship, Columbine, competence, controversy, cultural, nazis, Six Days in Fallujah
I think movies have the same issue; the entry cost is prohibitive, reducing the publisher’s appetite for risk. We’re less restrained when it comes to text because, apart from time, there’s no up-front cost to writing a book. And, as we all know, a writer’s time is worth nothing.
Plus, while it varies from country to country, rating systems are far more stringent on games and movies than they are on books. So, while I can pop down to the local bookstore and buy AQOTWF or Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, something like Super Columbine Massacre runs a very real risk of becoming banned in Australia simply because it deals with mature, potentially confronting material.
I hope we’ll continue to move towards a more experiential perspective in appreciating games, but with people like Michael Atkinson out there, it sure isn’t going to be coming from Australia.
It also comes with the ability to ‘read’ games: most people presently take them at face value. If there is any objectionable content there, they assume that the game is advocating it. The same can’t be said of film, but it did take a while for the general public to get there. Likewise, it’ll take the general public some time to be able to read games in an effective manner.