Representation of race in video games - Far Cry 4
From little plumbers to mercenaries and spies to princesses, most video games present gamers with a chance to transform themselves into a character —and sometimes even create their own identities as well— which are distinct from their normal lives. However, the ability of a player to build a persona in a game which can be reflective of their true selves is important as well, something that can be significant to feel included and immersed in the video game. But most AAA titles being targeted towards straight white men and young adults results in a lack of representation for people of colour. Even for games which have been set in the global south, game designers cannot help themselves but fall into a colonialist abyss. A good example of this is when Ubisoft unveiled the cover art of the third instalment of the Far Cry franchise.
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The image of a seemingly blond-haired white man with his hand on the head of a kneeling Nepali or Indian man with a grenade in his hands conjured up accusations of racism, colonialism, and general tone-deafness. I’m sure that the character pictured in the Far Cry 4 image is meant to be a villain, as creative director Alex Hutchinson reassured later that the man was Chinese and not white as well, but the way he is portrayed still romanticizes imperial power. Colonialism, the practice of conquering countries and economically exploiting them, and imperialism, the ideology driving that practice, are things that weigh heavily on my mind whether I want them to or not. In this image, I see a gross attempt to appeal to a modern desire for a return to empire. Ubisoft Montreal’s design approach to Far Cry 4, as modelled off the Assassin’s Creed series from the same studio, lends itself neatly to an imperial metaphor. You chart and map this island, from outpost to outpost, gazing upon it, declaring it your own. Thus, when I look at the Far Cry 4 box art, I don’t feel as if I am being challenged to take down an oppressor. I feel as if I am being challenged to replace his empire with my own. The blond man engages the viewer in a gaze that almost challenges them to a duel, sitting on a self-made throne over a panoramic view of the Himalayan mountains. From this vantage point, he himself is taller and grander than them. This image isn’t about liberation—it’s about conquest. Videogames, particularly first-person shooters, deal in a visual language of power fantasies. To own an empire is to power fantasies as Miles Morales is to Peter Parker—the ultimate form.
Far Cry 4 is based in the nation of Kyrat, which is a composite of Nepal, India and China. The storyline is similar to the Maoist struggle in Nepal mixed with the end of the Shah Dynasty’s rule, where the nation of Kyrat is suffering from a civil war which helps set the context of the game. The government is under the dictator, Pagan Min - strangely, the name is the same as that of the Burmese emperor whom the British hounded out of Burma after committing gross acts of aggression in the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852.
Despite taking on the job of representing a quasi-historical narrative of Nepal, with influences taken from several different regions, Ubisoft’s constructs completely fail at the first step when they use Hindi as the main language of Kyrat and not Nepali, maybe falling for a Bollywood stereotype. Most of the characters in the game are not native to the region as well with Pagan being of Chinese origin and the protagonist Ajay being born and raised in the US. The game also features two other antagonists who are foreigners as well along with a CIA agent thrown in. Just like Far Cry 2, the game ends either way without a victory for the people of Kyrat. Ending Pagan Min’s rule leaves Kyrat with either a patriarchal society run by the local faction or a nation drowning in narcotics and armed conflicts. This further confirms the orientalist spectacles that Ubisoft comes in with that the people of Kyrat cannot rule themselves. Far Cry is a prime example of where a lack of diversity
Figure 1 Cover of the game Far Cry 4
in-game designers comes out in their representation of notions of people of color. Diversity in video games an important tool. Representation is obtainable, but only to those who seek it out. Diversity, however, is necessary for the political and educative goals of representation. It requires that players are actively confronted with diverse content. Diversity is not the result of demand by audiences, but is rather the social responsibility of media producers. Media producers, however, can take advantage of the fact that identities are complex, that identification does not only require shared identifiers, and that diversity in a non-tokenistic sense can appeal to a much wider audience than pluralistic, niche marketing. In sum, diversity can address both the market logic and educative goals of media representation.