The Walking Dead: The Game
Telltale games’ The Walking Dead: Season One is an episodic adventure video game based on the popular The Walking Dead comic series. The game sets place is a post-apocalyptic world in which zombies roam rampant. Our main protagonist is the African American, Lee Everett, who was convicted for the murder of a State Senator who slept with his wife. Due to the world’s circumstances, Lee is freed and encounters a young girl called Clementine. Lee takes her under his care and they both stay together throughout the story to survive. Eventually, they meet up with a group of survivors in which Lee rises to protect before becoming the sole leader, after a series of betrayal and friendship. It is because of Lee’s resourcefulness and intelligence that Clementine learned to defend herself from people as well as the undead throughout the game franchise.
The Walking Dead is one of the best examples of black representation in video games as well as media as it provides an opportunity for players to understand racial identity and its difficulties. The series has the mechanic of player choice, allowing the player to participate in contributing to Lee’s black masculinity instead of just observing it. Telltale Games encourage the player to decide for themselves how they want Lee to appear through their own actions. Since the player is in control of how Lee appears, they can choose from a multiple of diverse ways for Lee to present himself to others, progressing forward in the game. They can choose from a range of options: to be caring and compassionate, independent and resourceful, serious and cold-hearted as well as many alternative decisions. The audience’s play-style and their own personality reflect onto Lee, in which they support him throughout the game and let him experience multiple outcomes. This further reinforces Telltale’s ideology of letting the player experience life as a person of colour by allowing them to encounter race itself.
An example of this is when a character named Larry is introduced in the first episode. He is an old, stubborn, aggressive man who shows his contempt for Lee as soon as you meet him. Telltale uses Larry’s aggression as a subtle approach of racism which the player can notice as it increases throughout the game. Furthermore, we see Larry picking on Lee with minor remarks in which the player must subsist through despite the experience being uncomfortable. Even other characters in the game mention Larry’s predicament with Lee, in which you can expose Larry’s racial prejudice or choose to ignore it, depending on how you feel as the player.
The game unveils the player to these issues in which they give the option of how you respond to the problems enacted by ethnic difficulties. Telltale’s freedom of choice allows the player to pick on how they wish for Lee to respond, whether it is considerate or fuelled by aggression. A lot of the players (including me) found Larry’s unnecessary comments belittling and insulting, causing them to follow the revenge trope further down the line. This action though can contribute to Lee’s character to be defined as a hostile black man who is judged by his group but also Clementine who will be influenced by these actions. That is why The Walking Dead’s representation of Lee is unique and is more progressive towards the views of American Americans. The game still includes stereotypes such as the generic 'convicted felon is a black man’ which sets us back to the conventional ideology of people of colour being violent as well as dangerous. Though, this stereotype I believe is used as a defence against this claim as it contributes to the construction of Lee as a role model through how he has been shaped by his experiences and his responses to them whether negative or positive.
Red Dead Redemption 2:
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar Games. The game is set in 1899 in the Southern United States. It follows Arthur Morgan, an outlaw, who is a member of the Van Der Linde gang. The gang must deal with the decline of the Wild West due to the expansion of civilisation. We follow their journey as they try to survive against the government forces who are dedicated to wiping out the remaining fugitives who are halting the progression of urbanisation. In addition to observing Morgan, the narrative revolves around the leader of the gang, Dutch Van Der Linde as well as John Marston who was the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption, the sequel that was released in 2010.
Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t only focus on the main gang but also world issues occurring during the decline of the American frontier. A large portion of the game concentrates on the conflicts between the US government and the Wapiti Reservation. This is due to the battle of land as the government wishes to colonise the native area for industrialisation as well as business profits. The Van Der Linde gang aid the Wapiti Reservation due to the Natives’ limited amount of people available to fight the invading forces. We later find out this is due to the gang’s hidden agenda. Rockstar’s accuracy of the event is comparable to that of the seizure of the Black Hills that occurred in 1877. The discovery of gold in the plains nations in the 1870s is historically precise to the events portrayed in Red Dead Redemption 2 from the conflicts to the belittlement and oppression of the land’s inhabitants by the US Government during that time.
The player meets two key figures during these acts throughout the game. Rains Fall is a pacifist Native-American who believes that everything the Indians do should be done violent-free. He is willing to tolerate the decades of abuse from the US Government if it results in no conflict. His son Eagle Flies on the other hand, is an impulsive and haughty young man displeased by the injustices his tribe are exposed to by the Army. He is especially disgusted by how the army are paid off in order to retrieve the oil-rich lands for personal gain. Opposite to his father, Eagle concludes that war is the only solution available as he deeply holds the old Wapiti values of glory in death, which juxtaposes Rain Falls pacifist ideals he desperately tries to hold onto. Due to feeling that the Indians are unable to accomplish anything, Eagle Flies announces war on the US troops despite his father’s objection. This was enticed by Dutch Van Der Linde whose goal was to exploit and escalate the tensions between the government and the tribe in order to draw away attention from the gang.
Many agree with how well Rockstar represents tribal culture. Their decision to not ignore nor skip over the racial and cross-ethnic hostility apparent during this period in 1800s America is praised by numerous people. The representation of the Indians makes the player feel more understanding and sympathetic of their circumstances through the heartfelt discussions the characters have with the main protagonist Arthur Morgan. With Red Dead Redemption 2’s great use of character development, the player feels a strong connection with the main character as the game progresses. As they control him more, they also start to relate to the situations he faces and so think more open-mindedly about the world along with its problems. I believe Rockstar uses narrative symbolism to present realism to the player for a better comprehension of the Natives and their battles against colonisation. They bestow the feeling of compassion against those who suffer from misconduct of others due to just trying to survive through these hard times. As the player learns that Dutch takes advantage of the tribe, the player starts to feel pity for the Indians. Observing the abuse the natives go through, the player realises how mishandled they are and how they’re used for everyone’s own personal, selfish gain. Red Dead Redemption 2 contributes to the more progressive views of ethnic groups. The portrayal for people of colour, by using past examples to challenge conventional ways of thinking, is now depicted differently by the player’s new occurrence due to these struggles of race presented through the game.