There's been quite a kafuffle lately over traditionally marginalised groups challenging assumptions and derogatory representations in mainstream gaming products. While the Haitian community wasn't the first to do so, their plight against GTA publishers Rockstar (neé Take Two) forced the company to change lines of dialogue in GTA: Vice City which it deemed offensive. More recently, the gay and gay-friendly communities of online title World of Warcraft received an apology from publisher Blizzard after it tried to shove the sexuality issue under the carpet.
In the past week, another maligned group has called for the boycott of Activision's GUN game. The Association for American Indian Development (AAID) has charged the makers of the Western title with condoning the devastating eradication of North American Indian tribes. From their website, boycottgun.com:
WE ARE DEMANDING OF ACTIVISION INCORPORATED, (THE PUBLISHERS OF "GUN") TO EDIT AND REMOVE ALL DEROGATORY, HARMFUL AND INACCURATE DEPICTIONS OF AMERICAN INDIANS FROM THE VIDEO GAME "GUN" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE SLAUGHTERING OF THE "RENEGADE" APACHES, THE ATROCITY OF "INDIAN SCALPING" AND THE MIS-INFORMATION OF INDIAN TRADITIONS OF "KILLING" SACRED WHITE ANIMALS. WE ALSO DEMAND THAT UPON THE RE-RELEASE OF THE EDITED VERSION OF SAID VIDEO GAME, THAT ACTIVISION DO SO IN A MANNER THAT IS RESPONSIBLE TO THE GREAT APACHE PEOPLE AND IS CULTURALLY AND HISTORICALLY ACCURATE TO THE STRUGGLE AND PLIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ANCESTRY.
They clarify their point further (without the use of ALL CAPS):
To create a game where one must slaughter members of a racial group in order to move forward promotes and condones the near genocide of Native Americans in this country. If a game were created that had its hero slaughter, say African Americans, Irish, Mexicans, or Jews, would there not be an outcry of extreme proportions? We're not talking about generic bandits or outlaws who could be any race - this is a game that specifies the slaughter of a living, breathing existing racial group of human beings. There is no indication of the complexities of the period, even as interviews with it's author, talk about how he was able to delve into the history of the period. Native people during this time were protecting their homeland, their way of life. Something that is instilled in good old American values.
The plot sickens. Activision have been contacted and this is what they have to say (via gamecloud):
It was not Activision's intention to offend any race or ethnic group with GUN, and we apologize to any who might have been offended by the game's depiction of historical events which have been conveyed not only through video games but through films, television programming, books and other media.
Is this political correctness gone mad? Do they have a point? I just hope they've never seen Custer's Revenge.
A whole lot more on the GUN and Custer's Revenge controversies at GamerGod
