Race & Videogames: A Personal Reflection

I recently read an opinion article in the latest Game Informer #214 by Matthew Kato called, “Widening The Scope: A look at racial diversity in video games”. As an avid gamer, it really caused me to reflect on this topic. First and foremost, I had to consider, is this really an issue that matters to me as a consumer of video games? By and large since the beginning of the industry, the vast majority of protagonists in video games have been white males, which means that all “others” have been underrepresented, at least in the protagonist role. But what impact, if any, does that actually have? Do I care that Mario is a white male plumber any more than I do that Toad is, well…a mushroom. That may sound like a trivial comparison but honestly I don’t think it is an issue when it comes to classic games. After all, games of that era really did not encourage the gamer to feel any connection with Mario. He might as well have been a block on the screen because I don’t think many gamers actually thought of him as a man.

​However, as games work to increase the relationship between player and their in-game avatar, the idea of race in videogames has come under intense scrutiny. Can players develop a strong connection with a character that they do not feel like they can fully relate to because of racial barriers? Do we actually want to move to a place where diversity is increased in all games, just for the sake of political correctness? What about the staff in charge of creating the games we love? Does the fact that these game design teams are overwhelmingly comprised of White and Asian males influence how race is presented in games? I think all these are important questions and there are no easy answers.

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I will say that from my own experience as a black person playing games, I have never been offended by the depiction of minorities, in particular African-American males, in games. In fact, of all of the media I consume, I feel that TV shows and movies are much more likely to employ stereotypes then games. It seems that game companies are becoming more and more aware everyday of their diverse audience and has moved on their own to make sure the characters in their games reflect this audience. A perfect example of this trend is the Grand Theft Auto series. While some might cringe at the subject matter in these games, Rockstar, the developer behind the series, has produced some of the most diverse titles of any videogame franchise. For example, GTA 4 is the first game I can remember in history to follow the story of an immigrant trying to make it in the US.

While GTA’s protagonists are as deep and well thought out as the plots they must navigate other games have taken a slightly different approach. The Mass Effect series allows gamers to customize the appearance of their character including their race. While this has little impact on the actual game play, it does allow for players to have a stronger connection to the character because they were able to modify his or her physical attributes.

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So do games have a responsibility to go further than that? Is the ability to change the appearance of a character in a game enough to call the game itself diverse? After all I think the way in which different groups of people are represented through dialogue and their setting in games has a much to do with this discussion as their appearance. Once again this is not an easy question to answer. Overall, I think designers would agree that the main purpose of videogames is to entertain their audience, and not necessarily to take on social issues. But games like GTA challenge this assumption by including political radio stations and satirical advertisements in their games that are there to make us laugh as much as they make us think about why it’s funny. While games like Bioshock and Fallout 3 challenge fascism and tyrannical forms of government that push our worldview while we shoot hordes of enemies.

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Games have progressed so far since the golden age of the arcade that the bottom line is that games have become art and art often reflects the ills of society. Race matters in games as much as it does anywhere else but it should not become the focal point on which games are judged. Game design teams should work hard to make sure cultural diversity is respected in games and it seems that games were already moving in that direction.

3D or not 3D, that is the question...

3D or not 3D, that is the question…

Much has been made of the recent explosion of 3D movies coming to a theater near you. Ever since the success of Cameron’s Avatar it seems that every studio is trying to jump on what is being touted as the next evolutionary step in movies. Now with the influx of 3D TVs, the promise of adding that extra dimension to everything from sports to videogames is having consumers ask the question “3D or not 3D?”

It seems the easy answer to this question is no. That is to say that you should not waste your time with 3D in the movies or at home. All one has to do is remember that 3D is actually not new and has popped in and out of style for decades. I can still remember begging my parents as a child to see Freddy’s Dead the first in the Nightmare on Elm St franchise to have some of the movie presented in 3D, only to be denied the opportunity and left to wonder what it must have been like. I’m sure now that my visions of Freddy Kruger’s gloved hand coming out of the screen were much more visceral then the actual movie, which was at best gimmicky.

I guess the big difference between today’s 3D and the 3D of yesteryear is the advance of 3D technology. Movies like Avatar are actually “shot” with 3D cameras and then the effect is reproduced with advanced 3D glasses that provide much more depth then the old red & green cardboard glasses. Then there are rumblings of TVs that will allow you to perceive depth without the use of special glasses, which would eliminate many consumers’ complaints about how uncomfortable the glasses are to wear.

It’s really a tough call as to whether or not 3D has lasting potential. This may be an obscure reference to non-wired readers, but something about the 3D craze is very reminiscent of virtual reality in the 90s. For those of you that don’t remember, Virtual Reality became a hot topic after it became popularized by movies like The Lawnmower Man in which an engineer is exploring the potential of technology that immersed the user in a virtual world. Using goggles and a headset to produce 3D images and sound and a special suit to interact in the environment using ones hands and feet, VR was supposed to completely mimic reality. Sounds cool right? It did then too. The problem was that most people could not afford the expensive equipment and the actual technology wasn’t nearly as advanced as Hollywood portrayed it to be. At the time, VR was considered the wave of the future in terms of entertainment much in the same way 3D technology is today.

Ultimately, like everything else, it’s going to be up to consumers to vote with their wallets. Is going to see a movie in 3D worth those extra 2-3 dollars? Is the idea of playing videogames in 3D appealing enough to gamers to drive the sales of 3D ready TVs? After all, gamers buying Blu-Ray ready Playstation 3’s decided the war between Sony’s Blu-Ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD formats. Can retailers convince those of us who are just now catching up to HD in our living rooms to throw down the money to go 3D? I’m not really sure, I guess it’s just a matter of perspective…

Tips to Survive Any Haunted House

Now that October is in full swing I’ve been thinking a lot about the fall and Halloween season. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays for as long as I can remember. The colors, mainly orange and black against the collage or changing leaves on the trees, the crispness in the air that marks the official change of the season and those little butterflies I used to get just before Trick or Treating seem return no matter how old I get. The anticipation of Halloween seems to have heightened for me in recent years due to time spent volunteering in a local haunted house. I’m not truly sure why I enjoy doing it so much other then it’s fun to participate in creating Halloween memories for kids the same way adults did when I was younger coupled with the fact I’m actually good at it.

This year I believe will mark my 5^th or maybe 6^th year participating with the same group and our haunt has grown from very modest beginnings to one of the biggest haunted attractions in the area. It has taken the blood, sweat and tears  (no pun intended) of many people who are more dedicated then I to make this happen and feeling when we meet each year is comparable to that of a family reuniting. All the mushy stuff aside, I have decided as an haunted house insider, to provide some tips for those of you who want to survive your local haunts this year.

SPOILER WARNING!! Some of these tips will reveal things about a haunted house that will make them a less scary experience. If you WANT to be scared stop reading HERE

Tips For Haunted House Guest

1.       Always Go In A Group – You’d think this would be a no-brainer but you’d be surprised just how many brave souls come through haunted houses each year all alone. Frankly as a scare-er it kind of shocks me when I  come upon a lone visitor because I immediately think “What kind of psycho-bad-ass would show up and come through this scary hell by themselves?!!” But unless you are willing to get all of the attention of those monsters inside, make sure you come with friends as they make perfect shields during those difficult moments. ALSO, the best place to be if you DON’T want to be singled out is actually the FRONT of your group as most scare-ers will target the middle and the back of your group because usually the person leading is the protector and the hardest to scare.

2.       Never Say Names  - Haunted House actors are ALWAYS listening for identifying information because personalizing what they say always has a greater impact. Most guests will be dumbfounded if an scare-er says their name forgetting that their friend has been screaming it the whole time they’ve been in the haunted house

3.       Adjust Your Eyes – Some of the best haunts will be designed in such a way to constantly move you from lighted to darkened areas as a way to keep your eyes from ever fully getting adjusted to your surroundings. One way to counter this is to close your eyes for at least 10-15 seconds when first entering a dark area. When you open them you should be able to see a little better then you could before. However strobe lights and other devices make even this technique useless.

4.       Always Look Behind You ­– A well designed haunt will make great use of misdirection, that is, using a device or another actor to draw your attention one way while another actor with the REAL scare sneaks to the side or behind you. Just like in scary movies, when the visitor thinks nothing is going on or the scare has already occurred is when they are most vulnerable.

5.       Keep Moving – This is fairly obvious but seems counter-intuitive when you are scared. Keep a steady pace when moving through the haunt. Don’t stop or slow down (don’t run either) because this just gives scare-ers a chance to scare you again and again. If you move at a steady pace through the haunt this will force them to scare you once and move on.

6.       Prime Yourself – Know that when you enter a haunt there will be loud noises, scary people jumping out, bright lights, and other things designed to scare the pants off of you. Remind yourself about this just before and as you travel through the haunt. By priming your mind to expect these events you will find they are much less scary, because you will be expecting them to happen.

Thoughts On M. Knight Shyamalan

With the release of his latest movie "Devil", I wanted to share my thoughts on the much maligned and controversial director, M. Knight Shyamalan. I must begin by saying I am an obvious mark for his movies since I am a fan of "scary" movies and a native of the Philadelphia area, where he shoots most of his films. Having laid my fandom on the table where all can see, any criticisms that my take is biased can be thrown aside as I will try my best to be objective.

I think one thing we can all agree on is the obvious success of The Sixth Sense. This is the movie that introduced us to the mysterious director and made us all ask "How the hell do you say this guy's name?" Following his seemingly overnight fame, M. Knight released a slew of movies that received less than favorable reviews from general moviegoers everywhere. What happened? Why did a director who was already being compared to Alfred Hitchcock go from being loved to hated so quickly? Were his movies really THAT bad?

To answer these questions we have to consider several factors. The first of these factors is what I think of as the "unknown director bump". It seems that whenever a new director comes on the scene with a relatively good movie, there is an instant buzz because it's unexpected. Who is this guy? Is he the next ___________ (fill in famous director name here)? There are countless examples of this phenomenon but Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception) comes to mind.

The second of these factors is the "gimmick" or what I'd rather call "signature" factor. M. Knight is of course known for his signature "twists" that seem to show up at the end of all of his movies. I think anytime you marginalize yourself by having something your fans will always expect in your movies you are taking a risk.

The last of these factors, that created a perfect storm for criticism, was hype or maybe in this case over-hype. I can still remember people running up to me hysterical about how amazing The Sixth Sense was and how it would "change my life" if I saw it. Anytime buzz crosses the line into over-hype area you are bound to have unrealistic expectations.

So what does all this mean? Well let's look a little closer. Being an unknown director when The Sixth Sense was released clearly helped its performance at the box office and by the time Unbreakable, M. Knight's second movie his the big screen, he had already achieved a certain level of fame so this unknown factor could no longer help him. This clearly has nothing to do with the actual quality of the movie itself but everything to do with the circumstances in which it was released.

Next we have the signature twist which fans had now come to expect as early as his second movie. This is where I really think things started to go downhill. This is simply my own speculation but I don't think that M. Knight ever wanted to be known for his "twists" in fact I think he would say that the fact his movies tend to have an underlying message that is not evident in the preview is not actually a twist but more of a way of getting people to think about an idea in a different way. For example, The Sixth Sense is not so much about a little boy seeing ghosts as it is a man who can't let go of life on Earth following his unexpected murder and Signs is not really about aliens so much as it's about a priest loosing his faith in God after his wife dies in a car accident. In this way, M. Knight finds an interesting and exciting way to tell a story about a relatively normal and perhaps less interesting occurrence.

Last but not least we have the hype that is associated with his movies, which in recent years has become more negative then positive as evidenced by the lack of M. Knight's name as part of the title of Devil. Again this hype is something that affects the perception of his movies, even before viewers enter the theatre that negatively impacts the reception of his movies. I have often said to critics if The Village, a movie that is often considered his worst, that if it had been released first instead of The Sixth Sense, it would have been received much differently.

In the end, I do love M. Knight's movies and I don't think they get a fair chance. Should he be in the same sentence as Hitchcock when discussing directors, probably not, but I find his creativity refreshing in a world where Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer are still allowed to make movies. If you enter theater with an open mind I think you'll find that he truly is a great storyteller.