Once again, I've been neglecting to blog.
It's strange. I get very contemplative when I'm hungover. After a insane night of partying at the bar, staying up will 6 and getting to work 2 hours later, I want to blog more than anything. So much stuff comes to me that I just wanna get out but by the time I get home I lose the motivation. Probably a result of the alcohol that puts me in that state but I find it interesting.
So I was gonna try to put in all the stuff I've been thinking about the last few weeks, but I think I'll go in a different direction. And to lead in I will tell you about my phone call with Angela last night.
It was my day off today so last night I stayed up fairly late. I spent the night running various games and getting the most out of my rig. I then lied down and started watching House as I do every night before sleep. After about one episode it's about 2AM and my phone dings at me. "
"Who could this be?"
Angela.
"You still up?"
I lightly giggled. Oh here we go, drunk texting.
"Sure am, what's up?" I replied.
My phone then rang and sure enough, it was Angela, at a bar. She seemed fairly sober. She told me she was feeling lonely and wanted someone to talk to. I felt kinda flattered actually. Nice to know people so far away think about me at times like these. To sum things up, we had a very lengthy discussion about a large variety of things. Me moving down there, girls, boy and whatever came to mind. It was a very open conversation. They are my favourite although rare it seems.
Anyways, that was great. It made my night. But one of the questions she asked me was about how Native Americans or Indians are represented in videogames. She was doing something with her class about media and blah blah, whatever. I was kinda taken by suprise by it though. This is what fascinates the most about videogames. The culture behind it, how the companies approach marketing their craft, ect. I had never thought about this one. I told her that I didn't think they were underrepresented in any way.
Apparently, I was wrong. This is the beginning of a series of entries I will be writing analyzing games and their impact on culture and economics. Things such as violence in videogames, sex in videogames and how woman are portrayed in them (This one I find VERY interesting).
Here's to you Angela.
Despite what I thought, Native Americans are very under-represented in videogames. Back in the 1980's, there was almost virtually no indigenious characters in videogames. Things were a lot different back then as they were not in many other veins of popular culture. Besides the oh so familar Mario Bro's, this wasn't a huge trend. Their was one game in the 80's, Custer's Revenge, that features the apparent rape of a Native American girl. It sparked a lot of controversy from woman's rights groups and Native American activists.
In the 1990's, we had one of the first games to have a centralized Native American hero character. "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter" was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1997. The gameplay itself was highly praised and was a huge selling title on the platform, but it also held all the stereotypes we usually give to Native Americans, feathers, mystic powers, ect. I can't really decide if that should be considered bad or not, as that IS a very important part of their culture as far as I understand. Their was also some other Native American characters in games but they still were not very dominant.
Between 2000 and 2005, the Native American presence in videogames had completely dwindled. But in 2006, we had a new game coming out with a Native American hero.
It was titled "Prey". Prey is a First Person Shooter revolving around a Cherokee hero. The game begins on a reservation in Oklahoma at a casino (okay, THAT's a stereotype). The game then jumps into a sci-fi alien story that is very compelling from what I have heard. I haven't played the game for more than an hour.lIt seems to, on the most part, fairly represent the Native American culture. A few stereotypes might include the use of a bow and arrow, and a spirit form where you exit your body. From what I remember, these were both used as very defining gameplay elements and weren't simply tacked on to support the native theme. Two voice actors, the main lead and another supporting role, are both Plains Cree and felt like 3D realms did a great job of representing the culture.
Other than what I've posted, their have not been many more titles to truly represent Native American's as a culture. Not sure what the reasons are behind this, but game companies DO know what sells and what doesn't. I will be keeping an eye out from now on in the games I play to take notice of Native American characters and how they are portrayed.
So thank you Angela, you've got interested into an area of the videogame culture I may never have looked into, and I hope I helped you be little more informed yourself.
*Many of the information here was derived from THIS ARTICLE.
This post will probably be one of the first entries into my new blog I'll be doing, focused solely on videogames. Next I'll be writing about how woman are potrayed in videogames possibly coupled with sex.
That felt....good. Stay tuned.
