Let's Play Together - Gamedec - Part 20 - Taking Things Personally

Channel:

Thrythlind aka Luke Green

Subscribers:

449

Published on December 4, 2021 11:00:20 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrAJ2oEHDpg

Game:

Gamedec (2021)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 22:29

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So, there was a knee-jerk reaction in the middle here... and I absolutely have do not deserve to speak out. I have lived a mostly privileged life, growing up a middle-classed white-guy. I'm a bit neurodivergent, though we're not sure exactly how, and of late I live quite a bit below the poverty line... (I'm still paying for the move from Japan)... but the whole Native American thing there just made me so peeved at the character.

Now, I play a lot of characters from other cultures and I play female characters. I don't try to tell the story of those cultures or of women though. Mostly I play the story of someone trying to pass as normal and/or learning that it's okay to not be what everybody considers normal.

I tend to base my characters physically on my favorite actors and characters which tends to be a lot of women from a variety of cultures and ethnicities.

So why did this character make me so pissed off? I'm not entirely sure. But part of it is that the character very obviously doesn't consider it at all.

In retrospect I do have to ask if that culture, or any of the cultures of real world Earth, are even existent or remembered clearly in this setting. So in that context, is this any different from someone trying to dress of something half-remembered they have no memory of...

And the answer, I have to say is "yes" and this is because, this game does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in our real world. And there's a lot of this that's just done for a gag. This game is appearing to try to make a point about how games do this. And it's a point that has to be made. There's way too much of games out there that just treat cultures as a costume.

But it's a murky line... when are you being disrespectful and when are you being representative?

My reaction here was knee jerk, and though I gave Branwen a reason... I'm not entirely sure why the reaction was so severe. Partially it is what I said and remembering growing up as a kid and seeing the costumes as "yeah that's normally" and being incensed that this is still a thing. But really... I don't know.

I worry that even that reaction is being disrespectful.... and this worries me.

This video is posted under fair use laws as a commentary on the video game and a showcasing on methods of clearing each section.

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