Race, Games, and Law

Here I was thinking that today would be a quiet day in terms of society misinterpreting the role of video games; sadly, I was wrong, as a litany of headlines have surfaced which have caused me to look at our society with shame.

This initial piece talks about how a 18-year-old named Jean Pierre Orlewciz from Michigan is on trial for the murder of a 26-year-old male. While that item in itself may not sound important, it bears mention because Jean’s attorneys plan to claim that he was under the influence of ‘Hitman,’ a popular video game series made by Eidos.

The video link contained in the article will give you access to the testimony; however, I ask you: is society frightened with the entry of a new medium of entertainment, especially one that has managed in many ways to outpace the established norm? This question is especially important considering this latest attempt by legislatures to limit video games.

My next topic in video games relates to race. This usually isn’t a concern, as a fair portion of video games star fantasy characters in fantasy environments. However, thanks to the new Resident Evil 5 trailer below, the topic of racism in video games has become relevant again.

N’Gai Croal, Newsweek’s Technology Editor who frequently comments on video games, engaged in a debate with a writer on popular video game blog Destructoid. The discourse can be found here.

While I agree with N’Gai’s analysis on many levels, he also said some things that I find disappointing. He claimed that silence exists between the villagers, when in reality, silence exists for the first minute of the trailer. He also says that there is ‘unmotivated hostility’ being displayed towards the villagers by Chris, when it can be seen easily why Chris has to do what he does. He even expresses caution toward one of the villagers, only using hostility when it becomes clear that he is threatened.

As the Destructoid writer stated, video games can’t be an art form if developers are not able to take any sort of risk. This is the first Resident Evil game set in Africa; a setting that too few games explore. It is also ironic that no other race has expressed outrage over the Resident Evil series thus far. Caucasians had plenty of reason to in the first three games, and the Hispanic community was surprisingly quiet when Resident Evil 4 hit the shelves.

As much as I respect N’Gai, my opinion of him as a forward thinking critic just took a few steps back.