Lesson 10-Race and Games Flashcards
Violence and sex blow up in games, yet there is little race that is talked about.(not the race like racing games, but like people of colour).
Race features prominently in many games. It also features prominently by not being featured at all. What is the one genre which uses race to frame its stories, to guide mechanics, and to develop dynamics?
Strategy games. (Think of how in real life when Cortez wanted to take over Aztec land, he had to create strategies to beat the other race).
Additionally, strategy games were also one of the first to make the jump to home computing. The strategy genre also has similar roots to the adventure genre. In which the strategy genre was created in table top was simulation games(except most of these were simulated on the computer).
The realization taht the computer could be a meaningful opponent was eye opening. What (Sean Gouglas when he was 10) might not have noticed in the text based strategy game, Star Trek, is that though the motive of the game is to kill all Klingons, it meant to kill a race. (the race frame the game’s story: kill all the klingons)
What was an important strategy game in 1983?
M.U.L.E.
You play as an industrialist competing and cooperating with other players to maximize your wealth and build a sustainable colony.
MULE’s legacy in modern (real time strategy) RTS games comes from its gameplay which is focused on resource management and economics.
What are real time strategy games?
The strategy game is played in real time as opposed to turn based play(like chess). It added the pressure of the ticking clock, which made a huge difference in game play.
What was the earliest RTS game in the 1984?
The Ancient Art of War.
The Ancient Art of War took a lot of its cues from the tactical war games that dominated the early strategy scene. You're on a battlefield. And your job is to win skirmishes against your enemies using knights, archers, spies, and barbarians. It's a single player game that pits you against the computer. Unlike many strategy games, there was no single specific historical setting. Some scenarios were set during the Napoleonic Wars. Some came from the Roman Civil Wars. And others were set in the Great Sioux War of the 19th century. It made little sense, but the game was a lot of fun. The Ancient Art of War also came with a construction set, so you could design your own maps and battles.
An example similar to Archon in terms of how after the player moved to an opponents square, the gameplay switches to an action game?
Mario Party. When you step on Bowser’s block on the map, your character’s box outline turns red and when everyone has had their turn on the board, it’s game time(action) and the red player either gets an advantage or disadvantage
There are many kinds of strategy games, some are turn based. And some involve real-time action. But in general, in strategy games, players compete for A, natural resources, land and power. B, the affections of a damsel in distress. C, tactical superiority in deep space. Or D, the highest score.
The vast majority of strategy games involve domination and supremacy through warfare. Sometimes, though, domination comes through the acquisition of capital and land, as we see in M.U.L.E.. So that makes the correct answer, A.
Strategy games are a good jumping off point for a conversation about race because these games often depend on race to frame the conflict and develop the various interactions.
Is race explicit or implicit in games?
It is more often less obvious and therefore is implicit. In games, race serves more as an abstraction for other concepts. Sometimes it indicates a character’s ethnicity or homeland. Other times it indicates biological differences between creatures.
So here is a question about race.
When we think about race, the distinctions
we are making are based on
A, physical and intellectual characteristics
that are scientifically proven,
B, cultural practices that can be explained
by underlying biological differences,
C, cultural theories and
ideologies that have no scientific basis.
And, or, D, genetic differences
that explain social status.
end of 10-1-Race and Strategy Games
Correct answer is C. Race is a concept that became popular amongst Western scientists of the 19th century. The answer is not A because distinctions made on the basis of intellect, have been disproven, and are dismissed as stereotypes. Nor is the answer B or D. For over a century, people tried to explain cultural differences by genetic inheritance and biology. In the end, racial distinctions emerge from a culture's theories and beliefs about itself and other groups. This might remind you of our conversation about gender, which is also a concept that is culturally constructed.
Who is the game scholar who can explain these questions?
Many of these games require you to choose a race that represents your character. Elves, orcs, Klingons, Kilrathi, Mandaloreans, githzerai, pandaren, toran. All of them represent different species in various video games. Some look human while others have human like features, but almost all of these games ask you to choose your character's race. Why race? They clearly seem like different species. Why not use the word, species?
Nathaniel Poor. Poor argues that the word, race is used in videio games because species in a game stands for a race outside of the game.
A character’s race is used to symbolize the real world differences in appearance, culture, and geographical origin.
Poor says that many games use race as a means for depicting the other.
Refresher from lesson 6: what is othering?
It refers to the process of including some people while excluding others.
In the case of race, othering is determined purely by racial stereotypes. Race in the 19th century was a scientific taxonomy that was used for distinguishing between humans beings based on superficial differences like skin colour, hair type, and it is a term that carries a ton of cultural baggage
What are some other terms that replace the term race?
Ethnic group, and more generally, community.
If there are terms with less cultural baggae that can be used like community or ethnic group, why is the understanding video games course using race explicitly?
One, people still use the term to understand the relationship between cultural groups.
Racial discrimination, hatred and slurs are all unfortuneately real experiences for many people. so we have to understand the term in an everyday sense.
So where do racial
stereotypes come from anyway?
Why do some believe in game races
represent real ethnicities.
For Poor, defining a culture or race as the other, we really project our own values and social taboos on that character. Then, we generalize stereotypes in to racial classifications.
Think about it, high elves are pure melancholy magical creatures of a bygone era. Dwarves are strong, loyal, and greedy. Orcs are a corruption of all that is good and human. And so on. Racial differences in games become analogies for racial distinctions people make in everyday life. Take the dark elves as an example. Dark elves are a species of elves in many fantasy settings. Sometimes called black elves or drow. Dark elves are frequently considered corruptions of their high elf brethren. There is no confusion here. Dark elves are evil through and through. It isn't a huge leap to think of racial perceptions of skin color in a fantasy world as projections of racial perceptions in our world.
So to summarize when Nathaniel Poor attempted to answer the question of why people define race, he said when people define other races, it is a projection of our values as well as what we think are social taboos of that character or race.
So when we use race in games, we are projecting our own social values onto these fictional races as we do on real races. “We use perceptions in our world”
So in summary: Racial stereotypes are crude and
unsophisticated in the real world, and so
games are no exception when
they do the some thing.
>> A lot of the discussion so far involves language. We talked a lot about language in the sections on post-structuralism. A post-structuralist approach might explain race in video games as, A) An abstraction of race based in common structural patterns across societies. We are able to make generalizations, about other things with the same name. B) Something we can only understand when we observe it directly. Generalizations and abstractions based on race are simply our mind's way of categorizing the things we see. C) Something that seems like accepted knowledge, such conceptions about race, however, are based on signs and symbols that are reinforced by existing power structures in society, Or D) The dominant ideas in society that are reinforced by sound scientific research.
By nature this research is unbiased,
so abstractions and
generalizations are based in fact.
The answer is c.
Many racial stereotypes were a product of
historical scientific studies that
had no real basis in evidence.
So that makes D incorrect. A sounds impressive, but it implies a structuralist interpretation. Which isn't what we are looking for. It also happens to be very wrong. B touches on a philosophical theory known as empiricism. But this theory does not help us understand something as complex as race.
What do post structuralists theorize?
They theorize that assumed signs and symbols that make language are created and reinforced by its powerful members. Many racial stereotypes were a product of historical scientific studies that had no real basis in evidence.
What does Nathaniel Poor think is a good idea to avoid the conception that race in games is based on race in the real world. ex. ogres are black people?
He believes abstraction of race is best to address racial problems, and it also might be more effective.
What is the challenge with abstraction?
Abstraction really only simplifies something that is complex. Issues surrounding race and ethnicity are high on that list. However, in Mass Effect, they abstract the sad reality of genocide in human history, but do they really capture the truth in it? Can imaginary characters in imaginary setting do justice to real moral issues?
Because really, they are just abstractions. They are able to show a piece or slice of how sad genocide of a race can be. But it would be hard to make it feel more real also due to the use of imaginary characters and setting.
Strategy games often use racial differences as plot and story elements. The real-time strategy game, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, is a popular example of how race is used in the fantasy subgenre. Characters of different races most often: A) Develop strong interpersonal relationships based on mutual interests. B) Are pitted against one another in bitter conflict. C) Begin in conflict and eventually resolve their differences through diplomacy by the end of the story. Or, D) Initially form alliances, and slowly become enemies as cultures clash.
end of 10-2- Race in games
The most correct answer is B. Many strategy games, especially fantasy games, use racial conflict as a means to drive the plot forward. The game usually ends by conquering or annihilating the enemy. The answer is not A, nor C, because it's very rare for games to resolve racial differences in any peaceful way. Although some games do begin with alliances that break down over the course of the game as is suggested in D, this is not too common.
As you've seen, racial conflict is used as a story element in many fantasy games. It is used, A, as a plot device to drive the story forward. B, to complicate gameplay. C, as character motivation. D, as moral and political context. Or E, all of the above.
So, E is the correct answer. As we've discussed, the Warcraft series uses racial war to drive narrative, gameplay, and character motivation. It even uses race as a means for understanding the moral and political context of the Warcraft world, Azeroth.
Complex uses of race can add much more depth to a game’s narrative framework.
Take the RPG Shadowrun as an example. Shadowrun is based on a science fantasy world that combines cybernetics and magic. It has some of the same character races you'd see in other fantasy games lke orcs and trolls. But it has an interesting twist, every race in the game was once human. This shared human ancestry makes a big difference in the story and setting. No race is inherently good or evil in Shadowrun. Racism is one of the central themes in the game universe. Humans are capable of ugly prejudice against humans of other ethnicities, and so are orcs and dwarves and trolls.
the racially complex setting creates a
lot of opportunity for emergent gameplay. But the complexity doesnt always have to be solved through war.
It is like in adventure time, the creatures of the land of oo used to be all human.
Racially complex setting create a lot of opportunity for emergent gameplay. But this does not always mean that the conflict has to be resolved through war. So what’s another way to solve this problem and which game does this?
In Ultima VI: The False Prophet,
Humans think gargoyles are trying to destroy their sacred shrines. The gargoyles think that the humans are prophesized to extinguish their species. It’s a case of cultural miscommunication that brews into war. The player spends the rest of the game trying to understand the root of the rift between humans and gargoyles. In the end, the player resolves the conflict by showing both races that can can cooperate towards a higher moral purpose. The plot is therefore resolved through words and not weapons.
Many video games allow the player to customize the physical attributes and facial features of the protagonist. Character creation and customization of this kind is seen in the Elder Scrolls series as well as Mass Effect and Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf. More often than not, these kinds of games include a default character. Default characters are important to study because A, they can reveal what the designers view as normal with respect to race. B, all games need a neutral character for the player to modify. C, they are often the best choice for a protagonist because the designers created them. Or D, they represent the protagonist in his or her ideal form.
End of 10-3- Race as narrative
A is the correct answer. Marketers and developers in the game industry often tailor default characters to suit the gaming audience they imagine. Most often, this audience is comprised of white males between the ages of 16 and 30. B might have been tempting to choose, but there is very little neutral about the default character. In fact, default characters are not neutral at all. Their physical attributes often express questionable racial assumptions held in gaming culture. The answer is probably not C or D, because character creators exist to give the player more agency in creating a protagonist that suits them.
Basically, race in narrative can represent races in real life and nathaniel poor believes it best done abstractly. Some games like SKyrim actually have NPCs react to your race and how you look. Games can also demonstrate real races and conflict like aboriginals and how they are migratory and how they cant even become a civilization because of this and this is brutally true.
