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My interest in the sociological study of video games has resulted in a two-big-binder set of video game research. In their entirety, these binders hold hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds pages of articles copied form journals. The unfortunate majority of these articles deal only with gender and video games while a few deal with race and racism in video games. None of these speak about heteronormativity or LGBTQ issues aside from a couple of very brief articles from The Advocate. What surprises me most, however, is the lack of research dealing with the full spectrum of marginalization in video games.
Race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc all figure into the equation of one's experience of life. And all of these figure in simultaneously. The experience of being a white woman is different from the experience of being a black woman is different from the experience of being a black gay man is different from....well, you get the idea. To study race or gender as two separate factors in video games is to ignore the intersectional nature of marginalization/oppression/privilege/etc. Though I understand that conducting research on the whole gambit is a much more difficult task than focusing on the issues individually, I also feel that more focus should be placed on this than has been. Few articles exist in the academic world which deal with this at all. So, I was, rightfully, excited when I came across an article by David Leonard, "Not a Hater, Just Keepin' it Real: The Importance of Race- and Gender-Based Game Studies".
In this article, he discusses, well, the importance of race and gender based game studies. He states that, "As of yet, the conspicuous study of video games regarding race and gender has not moved beyond simple discussions of stereotypes: there has been limited analysis of issues of power, privilege, or racial common sense." (86). Another, slightly older, article Leonard has authored, "'Live in your world, play in ours': Race, video games, and consuming the other" contains a similar sentiment, that, "the examination of race, power, and ideology within these games has not been a central concern". In my research, these two articles are, to me, central in identifying what the future of the study of video games should be. Because of this, I asked Professor Leonard if I could do a short interview with him. Truly, I was excited that he agreed to let me pick his brain on the future directions of video game study and the importance of continuing this line of study:
In your work, you speak about the importance of studies on race and gender in video games. Do you feel that exploration on issues of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community is of equal importance. In my research I have yet to find any studies which address the near absence of LGBT representation in video games. Do you feel that a near total lack of representation is just as disturbing and harmful as highly stereotyped representations, both of the LGBT community and of women and minorities?
I think you raise a good point, although there are examples of games where LGBT issues are present, whether in the form of expressed homophobia or the sexualization exoticizing of Lesbians. Yet, as you note, there is very limited representation of the LGBT community within video game culture. I don’t necessarily think it is useful to compare invisibility to distorted visibility as if one is better or more desirable than the other. I mean both the hyper visibility of say African Americans as athletes or gangstas within video games or Asians in kung fu games and the invisibility and erasure of Gays and Lesbians or Native Americans within virtual reality embody the racist, sexist, and homophobia logic of dominant discourse. That being said the lack of visibility for the LGBT community, as with the lack of visibility for characters of color in certain game contexts, reflects the hegemony of whiteness and more specifically white heteromasculinity within video game culture
In "'Live in Your World, Play in Ours': Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other", you list several games (e.g., Def Jam Vendetta, Vice City, Ready to Rumble, Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, Street Hoops to name a few) in which racial stereotypes are prevalent. Do you know of any games which handle race (or gender, or sexuality) in positive ways? What would a game like that look like to you? That is, in a video game utopia, how would these issues be dealt with or handled?
First off, it isn’t necessarily about positivity because that is an illusive and difficulty idea to even conceptualize – positive to whom? Moreover, the construction of a positive representation presumes and thereby legitimizes a negative – less desirable – representation. Likewise, a positive stereotype is still a stereotype. In terms of games out there, I think ICED (although I have not yet played this game) or the game that tries to expose the atrocities happening in Darfur attempts to use video game technology as a means to transform racial discourse all while impacting policy debates. This not only transforms the available representations afforded to people of color in this case, but also potentially has a transformative impact beyond virtual reality. So, in video game utopia, there certainly would be several elements but I guess I won’t necessarily confine it to a single game because one of the key elements within video games and all popular culture is broadening the types of representations available to people of color, to women, to LGBT communities, so that the hegemonic stereotypes, the accepted common sense of dominant culture is disrupted through a range of representations, narratives, and situations. Moving beyond the accepted narratives and representations, the commonly seen stereotypes, is key through diversifying these images. As mentioned above, a game the doesn’t perpetuate or legitimize social injustice but rather challenges it would certainly be a defining element of my ideal game
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In both articles, you provide an analysis of the racist racial representations in the GTA series (GTA III and San Andreas, specifically). Emotionally, what was your response the first time that you played these titles?
This is a very interesting question because as a game scholar I don’t necessarily start playing a game without a certain gaze so that I approach the game (with my pad and pen in hand) in a somewhat detached manner. That being said, I often struck, if not shocked, by not just the types of representations and rhetorical devices found in a spectrum of games. I am that much more amazed by the lack of public discourse about race, gender, sexuality, and nationality within game culture. At this level, my shock is often about the lack of sustained discussion about gaming culture beyond the clichéd questions about violence or the impact on American youth. Lastly, I should that the power of these games resides with their ability to induce pleasure, joy, excitement, and engagement so that even I who enters into virtual reality with a certain amount of critical skepticism find enjoyment in playing even as I am disturbed and troubled by the types of representations and broader implications. I think we can take several things away from this relationship in terms of the power of games to entice and seduce, the ways to which we all are taught to consume and adhere to dominant ideologies, and importantly the ways to which games give the illusion of agency and power give players pause in that they push players to think they are doing something different with these images.
The interactive nature of video games has been said to potentially increase the influence that they have on youth aggression. Do you believe this interactive nature could work to reify dominant stereotypes in more influential ways than other media forms? How might the interactive nature combine with the minstrelsy present in video games in influencing the ideas and values of youth?
Yes, I do think the interactive nature of video games enhances their power in disseminating dominant ideologies regarding race, gender, and sexuality. The interactive nature provides users with greater agency and ownership, allowing them to even push the inscription and signified meaning in individualized ways. I also think the power that is derived through possessing and becoming the Other perpetuates resembles other processes of dehumanization. So that the opportunity to become the Other – to occupy, to control – is a dehumanizing process that reduces the other to object. If people of color and women are reduced to objects of consumption and control within virtual reality it would seem that these dehumanizing process would carry over into other contexts. Clearly, also the process of reducing Otherness to exotic commodities functions in this context. I also think the interactive nature and the fostered racial minstrelsy reduces race to an object, a costume, thereby denying not only history and community, but the realities of inequality and privilege so that race isn’t about inequalities, injustices, or varied experiences/life opportunities, but rather an imagined culture that is easily occupied and controlled by white youth. Lastly, I think the interactive nature of games as it relates to race and gender contributes to a discourse that allows for the denials of persistence of racism or patriarchy in that it fosters a discourse where players can deny the existence of racism or white privilege or patriarchy by citing their enjoyment of a particular game or character.
In "Not a Hater, Just Keepin' it Real: The Importance of Race- and Gender-Based Game Studies", you quote Arische Ritter of Stormfront.org:
But for those of you who have played it, have you seen how much of our point it stresses. You run around and you shoot people, you can go in peoples houses and steel tv's, vcr's, stereos, etc....In my opinion, this is one of the greatest games around. It blatantly shows how the negroes have corrupted our society.
quite powerfully illustrates some of the harm of trivializing the influence of video games by claiming that they are "kids' stuff". Further, you state that, "The cost and consequence is not just the reification of stereotypes but legitimizing, normalizing, and sanctioning state violence, inequality, and despair." What might all of these mean to women and minority players? Beyond the white male consumption of "the Other," how might these images and legitimizations adversely affect women and minority consumers (e.g., self-image, interest in technological fields, feelings of alienation, etc)?
This really good question and I don’t necessarily know the answers here, but I think the types of images, representations, and games available can be alienating in that few games reflect upon and represent the humanity and diversity of communities of color, women, and LGBT communities. The question makes me think of several blogs written by gamers of color who have articulated over and over again (Only to be criticized) how the hegemony of the gaming industry is alienating to say the least. Additionally, like other forms of popular culture, the impact of these narrow images are not limited to white players, but likely impact all its players so that the over abundance of seeing blacks as athletes within video game or women as sex object invariably impacts identity formation. In this sense, it reinforces the stereotype for the stereotyped. Lastly, I clearly have concern about how these images impact the day-to-day experiences of not just those who play these games, but also given the perpetuation and legitimization of those discourses and social processes that are so disempowering and devastating in a spectrum of contexts.
How do you believe that we can change the face of gaming? What steps will it take? What sort of action is needed? In that regard, how can the academic (e.g., gaming studies) be applied to affect change in the gaming industry itself? Finally, do you feel a level of frustration in the painfully slow pace of change in the industry?
I think continued debate and discussion not just amongst academics, but also within the media and maybe most importantly from game scholars who blog (to me some of the best work on race, gender, sexuality, and countless other issues is being done by bloggers), will continue to raise the specter of interest on gaming. I think as serious conversations are promoted that will further elevate the nature of the debate. I hopefully that will foster greater attention and demands from civil rights organizations and the like demanding (as has been done with other industries) transformation in the types of representations available. I think one of the keys is greater connections and cooperation between scholars and schools producing programmers and those who are doing critical studies of gaming culture. I think introducing future programmers and even existing programmers to these issues, all while pushing for greater diversity within the gaming industry, will result in some change. I certainly am frustrated by not just the lack of forward thinking and transformation within the industry, but also the lack of change within the academy and culture at large in terms of both the continued lack of willingness to think about video games in serious ways and also the persistent resistance to serious debates about racism, patriarchy, homophobia, and xenophobia within and beyond the realms of popular culture. What is crucial is shifting the means of production away from the existing power structure so that players committed to utilizing the transformative and oppositional possibilities of gaming can begin to generate their own games. Not only would this lead to the production of games that offer something new, but in doing so game producers would demonstrate who wants to play what types of games.
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