Video games are nowadays a popular way to pass the time. The most obvious usage for video games is for entertainment purposes, but they have some less apparent applications as well. For example, games can be used in education, as simulations, or to train certain skills. There are also authors who have argued that games are a new form of art (Berger, 2002).
As all these different examples of how videogames can be seen or used suggest, it is difficult to pin down what videogame culture actually entails (Muriel & Crawford, 2018, pp. 1-15). However, it is clear that games can be understood as an expression of our lives and contemporary culture, thereby making them ideal to help us understand aspects of our (social) lives (Muriel & Crawford, 2018, pp. 1-15).
This article aims to investigate the question: in what ways do video games reflect, but also potentially shape, our ‘real life’ culture? To investigate this question, the game ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ will be taken as a case study (more information about the game can be found here). Below, I will first outline some examples of how Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) reflects our contemporary culture like a mirror, even though the game world is set in a different time. After that, I will discuss how video games can also shape our culture through the messages and views they bring about.
Why games?
Videogame culture is complex, diverse, and constantly subject to change (Muriel & Crawford, 2018). These words can also be used to describe our society: full of complex rules for how to behave (or how not to), diverse with cultures, religions and values, and inevitably subject to change, for instance through technological advancements or scientific discoveries. Because of these similarities, games can act like a mirror for our society and culture. Look at a game, and you may learn something about social life.
Why does this article take into account a game such as RDR2? Firstly, because it features an open world. This means that the player can explore the game world freely and at their own pace. Games with an open world provide a simulated reality; one that is usually as close to our real life as possible, while still keeping the games’ timeline and (im)possibilities in mind (‘Open world’, n.d.). Second, the game’s story and missions are heavily based on player choice. This makes for another way in which the game mirrors our reality: the choices you make actually have consequences and therefore, the player is invited to think carefully about their actions.
A final reason to choose RDR2 for this case study is simply because the game is incredibly popular and has received exceptionally high review scores (an average of 97 out of 100 on Metacritic). RDR2 already sold 17 million copies in the first two weeks it came out (Sarkar, 2018). This means that the game speaks to a very wide audience of gamers, which in turn means that this game has the potential to reach millions of minds and to shape millions of people’s experiences of the Wild West, with all kinds of possible consequences.
Games as a mirror
The first portrayal of our reality that I would like to point out is the growth of hair in RDR2. Yes, you read it correctly. Hair growth is realistic in RDR2! In contrast to many other games, RDR2 will only allow a player’s hair to grow with the passing of time in addition to using hair nourishing items. Not everyone is a fan of the way hair growth works in the game though. It seems that players have actually come to expect an unrealistic manner of hair growth for their characters. That says something about our (videogame) culture. Shouldn’t the most realistic portrayal, of any process at all, be the standard in a game that aims to look and feel so lifelike?
It seems that semi-realism has been the norm in video games. If we look at another huge open world game (Grand Theft Auto V; published by the same studio as RDR2, by the way) that was also made to look and feel like real life, we quickly find out that hair growth in that game was a joke. As can be seen in the example, people even made fun of this weird haircutting feature. But now that RDR2 offers players an ultra-realistic way of growing their character’s beard, people complain that it is “too difficult” and guides have popped up online on how to ‘Grow a Beard and Hair Fast’.
Another example of these new portrayals in video games can be found in a non-playable-character (NPC) in RDR2: Dutch van der Linde. In the game, he is the leader of a gang of outlaws. Dutch hasn’t become the gang leader by coincidence: he is an idealistic and charismatic figure who the others look up to. Dutch is supposed to lead the gang to a better life in which they are completely free. But in order to start such a new life, they need money, and Dutch isn’t planning on earning the money in an honest way. Dutch thus started out as an inspirational leader with good intentions, but by chasing after his ideals by criminal means, his gang and trust between the members starts falling apart.
Red Dead Redemption 2 offers characters with depth
Instead of simply providing the player with an obvious bad guy and some ‘minions’ who seem to blindly follow their master, RDR2 offers characters with depth. Dutch is definitely not a good guy, because he believes he can commit crimes whenever he pleases and isn’t afraid to murder others in order to get what he wants. However, it would be simplistic to say that he is a completely bad guy. After all, his intentions can be seen as good: he wants to take care of his gang members (at least initially) and wants a better life for them and himself. He values freedom and doesn’t want to be controlled by a government.
Many of us can, to a certain extent, probably identify with these values and may feel like he is fighting for a good cause. In our real life we also regularly encounter conflicting views, opinions and methods to achieve what we want. And just like in real life, people aren’t usually ‘all bad’ or ‘all good’, but rather somewhere in between. In this sense RDR2 is a great attempt of the developers to reflect how our real life society used to work around the year 1900, but it’s also still applicable in our modern times.
Games as a sculptor
Now that we have seen how games can mirror our real life, I will argue that video games such as RDR2 can take things even further by actually moulding players’ perception of contemporary culture. Games that aim to be realistic can provide players with new knowledge that they can apply in their lives.
A first reason that games can construct new knowledge is through the evidence of experience (Scott, 1991). A videogame is played by a person, at which moment the player is experiencing another world. That virtual world has its own (social) mechanics and rules. However, the mechanics and rules are, in the case of a realistic game like RDR2, not entirely new, but rather based on the society and culture that we know right now in the West. Why would a video game forbid the player to grow their character’s hair through a haircut? Because that is illogical in real life. Why would a video game make the player use hair tonics if they want a long, thick beard? Because that does resemble how hair growth works in real life. This is an example of making the gameworld feel like a real experience. Instead of just playing the game, the player is invited to be immersed in the gameworld; to feel and become a part of it. And as Scott (1991) writes: “seeing is the origin of knowing”. Everything that the game shows you is presented as lifelike, as something that truly happened or truly existed around 1900.
The ‘realistic’ experience in Red Dead Redemption 2 is very confusing at times and can give off the wrong message
When players see these features in the game, they may believe they have gathered new knowledge about the actual Wild West. And while in some cases RDR2 provides quite accurate representations of that time, in other cases it falls short. Here is an example of the game when it is lacking realism. It may not seem like much of a problem at first, but examples like this could potentially have negative consequences in real life. For example, it’s not unthinkable that a younger person who plays this game may get the idea that stealing from someone else is fine and without consequence (or at least that this was the case in the 1900s). The game is officially rated to be suitable for people over eighteen, but it is certainly possible that younger people will nonetheless play this game.
Another example within the game is suggesting the complete opposite, which may be even more harmful to people’s ideas of how society works: when you do something good to help the community, you get punished for it. In this case, a person killed a group of bandits that were harassing the town but still got a bounty for it. Of course, in most contemporary societies, it is not acceptable to kill criminals, no matter how much they have stolen. But since the game is set in the 1900s, you would actually expect that this action would be respected and appreciated by the townsfolk. In other words, the ‘realistic’ experience in RDR2 is very confusing at times and can give off the wrong message, especially towards younger people. Either our current society and culture may be wrongly interpreted by players, or the time that the game is aiming to portray is sometimes not accurately represented.
But there is another way in which games may construct new knowledge that may be even more problematic than through the evidence of experience, which can be explained through the concept of ‘orders of visibility’ (Hanell & Salö, 2017). This concept refers to the fact that certain (types of) knowledge in our society are more visible than others. Knowledge that is more visible is perceived to be more credible and legitimate than knowledge that is less visible (Hanell & Salö, 2017). Game developers have to make choices about what things to portray in their game and what to leave out. This act of choosing your priorities is always a difficult one, simply because it is impossible to always give time and space to every subject. However, in our culture, sometimes a specific subject is systematically left less visible than other matters, and that is when it could lead to negative consequences.
The game legitimizes a type of knowledge that is, at the very least, incomplete
An important example within RDR2 of the orders of visibility is how different social groups are portrayed. Having the game set in the Wild West, you would expect to see many Native or Black people. Surprisingly enough, the game is dominated by White characters. This again raises the question of how realistic RDR2 actually is, but more importantly, the game legitimizes a type of knowledge that is at the very least incomplete. A striking example would be the NPC Charles Smith; a Native American who has been represented by a Japanese and Parsi actor instead of a Black or Native actor. As a Native game critic wrote, “White actors have been pretending to be Black and Indigenous, typically as radically offensive stereotypes”. The NPC Charles is unfortunately no exception. Black and Native people are less visible in RDR2 than they should be, with regard to the time and place it portrays. On top of that though, these races are prone to be stereotyped. In other words: players are exposed to incomplete, crooked knowledge. But thanks to the otherwise realistic game world, they may adopt it as legitimate knowledge.
To summarize, video games can offer us a mirror through which to look at our contemporary culture and society. They can offer us new insights and provide us with new knowledge. However, we should remain critical of what we see. Just because games are becoming more realistic, doesn’t mean they always provide us with accurate experiences. Don’t let yourself be sculpted unknowingly.
References
Berger, A. A. (2002). Video games: A popular culture phenomenon. Transaction Publishers.
Hanell, L., & Salö, L. (2017). Nine months of entextualizations: Discourse and knowledge in an online discussion forum thread for expectant parents. In C. Kerfoot, & K. Hyltenstam (Eds.), Entangled Discourses: South-North Orders of Visibility (pp. 154-170). New York: Routledge.
Muriel, D., & Crawford, G. (2018). Video games as culture: considering the role and importance of video games in contemporary society. London: Routledge.
Open world. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved December 6, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_world
Sarkar, Samit. November 7, 2018. Red Dead Redemption 2 tops 17 million copies shipped: In under two weeks. Retrieved from https://www.polygon.com/2018/11/7/18073314/red-dead-redemption-2-sales-1…
Scott, J. W. (1991). The evidence of experience. Critical inquiry, 17(4), 773-797.