Culture and WoW
To most people, games are just games. They put it on, they play it, they follow the story, and then they go on with their lives. But there are always people who like to dig a little deeper, think a little further, make connections between what’s being presented and what lies beyond the surface.
As an English major, I spent a lot of time breaking books and articles apart and trying to make connections between what the author wrote, how he/she wrote it, and what it meant in the context of their individual frames of existence. It’s amazing what you find when you look at the world critically.
Today I read an article at Terra Nova that breaks WoW apart in terms of borrowed culture and history, and what the races represent when placed against the real world.
(1) Gnomes, dwarves and humans seem to signify the West, with gnomes and dwarves closely connected to capitalism and technology. The only alliance race with darker skin is the Night Elves, and they are viewed with suspicion by other alliance members.
(2) The visual iconography of the horde races suggests real-world cultures (e.g. totems, tents, face paint), and the horde in general are portrayed as “primitive.”
(3) The trolls speak in recognizably Jamaican accents, and the emotes for the male reinforce highly sexualized stereotypes…
(4) The alliance actually locked the Orcs up in internment camps, a move which she compares to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. She writes, “The Orcs’s bloodthirstiness was subdued during their stay in internment camps, which is a disturbing sort of justification for the imprisonment and enslavement of another race of people.”
For most people it’s easier just to play the game and move on. Who cares about the racial representation of game characters? Who wants to think that hard about a game?
Perhaps not many people. But, if you do, go read the article. I found it fascinating.
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POSTED IN: Culture, Links, World of Warcraft
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