“Live in Your World, Play in Ours”: Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other

Abstract

As the nascent field of computer games research and games studies develops, one rich area of study will be a semiotic analysis of the tropes, conventions, and ideological sub-texts of various games. This article examines the centrality of race and gender in the narrative, character development, and ideologies of platform video games, paying particular attention to the deployment of stereotypes, the connection between pleasure, fantasy and race, and their link to instruments of power. Video games represent a powerful instrument of hegemony, eliciting ideological consent through a spectrum of white supremacist projects. If the 20 th century is the era of film, a time when Hollywood unified America through stories and imagination, the 21 st century will undoubtedly be the era of video games. Video game sales reached $6 billion dollars in 2000, and speculations put that number at closer to $8 billion dollars last year. In 2000 alone, over 280 million units were sold throughout the world. Experts estimate that sixty percent of Americans, approximately 145 million people, play video games regularly (Children Now, 2002). Various social commentators are talking about video games on talk shows, within chat rooms, popular and obscure magazines, and even academia. With rare exceptions, these critics tend to celebrate the game industry, making only brief mention of potential problems in its promotion of violence and misogyny. Although there are some exceptions, such as Kücklich (2003), the examination of race, power, and ideology within these games has not been a central concern. Video games offer millions (even billions) of game enthusiasts the opportunity to be become a professional athlete, a United States Marine, a member of an underworld criminal organization, or even a wrestling rapper. Games, despite claims of "horse play," offer insight into dominant ideologies, as well as the deployment of race, gender, and nationalism. From the privacy of one's home, game players are able to transport themselves into foreign and dangerous environments, often gaining pleasure through domination and control of weaker characters of color. Video games thus operate as a sophisticated commodity that plays on the desire of individuals to experience the other, breaking down real boundaries between 'communities' through virtual play, while simultaneously 'teaching' its players about stereotypes, United States foreign policy, and legitimization of the status quo, to name only a few. Scope Despite the huge popularity of video games, little work has been done on their appeal and effect. Many academics still tend to view video games as toys for kids, rather than sophisticated vehicles inhabiting and disseminating racial, gender, or national meaning. Moreover, a socially conservative agenda that focuses on the psychological links between games and violence further limits academic inquiries into video games. This article seeks to underscore the centrality of race to the construction and reception of video games, emphasizing the ways in which game...

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