African Settings in Videogames

Close examination of African settings in videogames revealed six themes as shown in Figure 16.1.

Safari and hunting-themed videogames put their players in the roles of photojournalists, tourists, hunters, and naturalists seeking (or hunting) the natural and wildlife wonders of Africa, as well as experiencing the dangers posed by wild animals, fires, locusts, tornados, and so on. A small subset of games includes strategy components such as building and running local zoos, wildlife parks, or “authentic African villages.” This is in line with previous research that defines the construction of the wild and natural dream of Africa (e.g., national parks in colonial zones) as an “ideological formation” or through the lens of “environmental colonialism.”24

Sports themes have always been predominant in the videogame genre. Previous research, especially by Garry Crawford, underlines the importance of sports simulations in the construction and rise of the industry and the gamer identities within it. In this sense, sports videogames contribute heavily to everyday social patterns and narratives, including identity narratives and construction.25 Sports games in Africa often focus on racing (off-road rallies and motorcycling). Golf, cricket, soccer, rugby, and tennis are also prominent sports categories that appear associated with the continent—with golf specifically employing large and “exotic” courses.

Exploration and “dark continent” adventure games are a prominent genre of videogames in which “the player assumes the role of a fantasy character to pursue an adventure.”26 Such videogames (both those that fully focus on the continent or in which Africa is only a part of the overall scenario) often put the players in the roles of archaeologists, adventurers, or treasure seekers. Examples of such videogames are Barbie: Explorer in which players (as a player character version of the notorious Barbie doll clad in an explorer outfit) visit anonymous locations that they only know are in Egypt and Africa; Jack Keane in which players play as a British agent attempting to uncover his past in Cape Town and an anonymous African island; and Lost Horizon in which players play as a British pilot visiting “exotic” (non-European) locations, for instance, Marrakesh. Some other examples, such as Resident Evil 5, portray Africa as the stereotypical dangerous “dark continent” while conveying a white privilege-based outlook.

Pan-African fantasy role-playing videogames form another important genre of the medium. They often focus on epic narratives, character development represented by attribute points and levels, artifact acquisition, and related features. Some such videogames implement settings inspired by African landscapes and artifacts (such as weapons and armor) and populated by people inspired by African cultures in past time periods. These settings could be considered “Africanized” equivalents of fantasy worlds such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The existence of these settings, although few in number, is important, because earlier studies highlight that African or Black identity in the majority of role-playing games is only limited to skin color as a cosmetic choice and might be there “simply to add visual variety.”27 Although there are characters of African descent in these videogames, they typically only exist within the civilizations inspired by elements from European mythoi (e.g., knights, dragons, and sorcery). The three exceptions are the regions of “Elona” in Guild Wars: Nightfall (also featuring an extensively designed set of hairstyles from Africa and the African diaspora), “Hammerfell” in The Elder Scrolls series, and “Odus” in EverQuest.

Transatlantic slavery has recently been addressed in the very popular Assassin’s Creed franchise.28 Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag—Freedom Cry “challenges the stereotypical image of enslaved people in the African Diaspora as victims without agency.”29 Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has been cited as an important tool in digital humanities to understand literature and culture of the Black Atlantic through phenomena such as “passing” as a member of another race.30 On the one hand, some research has criticized the capacity and limitations of these videogames in addressing social issues and as constructing inadequate critiques of colonial powers.31 Sarah Juliet Lauro, on the other hand, suggests that, although “these games misrepresent history . . . they tacitly preserve a distinction between history and play: even with a game controller in hand, the history of slave resistance remains out of reach.”32 Souvik Mukherjee compares the effects of Assassin’s Creed: Liberation and Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag: Freedom Cry on players with Black identity with the effects of videogames like Empire: Total War and East India Company on Indian players.33 In this comparison, Mukherjee underscores that the characters in these videogames remain in hybrid existences, which can be read as failures to definitively side with political or moral viewpoints.

Military conflict represents the theme most represented in videogame representations of Africa, in franchises such as Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Delta Force, and Tom Clancy—along with many other lesser-known war games. Some franchises like Medal of Honor are oriented toward the past, focusing on the world wars. When African- and African diaspora–based military videogame settings are mapped out on the continent, a pattern emerges in which the majority of the continent is set out as a constant conflict and war zone. Earlier research underscores similar patterns for how the Middle East is represented in videogames through a lens of “war on terror.”34

Sarcasm/ Irony

The importance and complexity of sarcasm and irony in human communication and cognitive experience have been underscored in many earlier studies.35 In the age of online communication, sarcasm and irony are often prevalent and deployed for the rapid transmission of viewpoints, self-aggrandizement, and undermining others. Usages of memes and emoticons often convey sarcasm and irony to achieve a quick impact.36 Our research into the communities of 4chan and Reddit illustrates how dominant memes and ironic messages are when discussing the issues of gender and race online and concludes that, although they “facilitated old inequalities . . . the social dynamics hacked by that logic could be hacked to diverse ends.”37 In other words, sarcasm and irony are not limited to any political perspective.

In our examples, players regularly mobilized sarcastic remarks to draw attention to the racist content of the videogames or to other problems in the way the videogames handle serious issues. For example, when referencing Resident Evil 5, a game in which a white soldier protagonist is fighting against zombies of African descent, the player P-04 saw this as a racist situation from the perspective of someone of African descent, writing, “White people will attack you if they see you walking around . . . logic of racism 10/10.”38 Player P-05 wrote, “The story takes place in [A]frica with lots of Black people . . . basically the goal is to kill as many of them as possible . . . all in all I can recommend this game because the tragic story reminded me a lot of my own tragic life in poverty.” These two users (among others) seem to be mapping their lived experiences of racism with the treatment that Black zombies receive from a white protagonist. Although they play the white avatar during the game, ironically, they both identify with the “enemy” zombies while talking about their experiences.

Other players use sarcasm to underscore the allegorical potential of the same game for the relationship between Africa and colonialism. Player P-06 wrote, “White man visits Africa and gets culturally enriched by dindus . . . in the end he finds out an evil white man is behind all the dindunery . . . too accurate.” Player P-07 wrote, “The game really picks up around act five where our glorious white hero takes the battle to a native village and blasts his way through wave after wave of semi naked screaming spear armed [A]frican ‘natives’ . . . they really should have just called this British Empire: the game.” Instead of using sarcasm on a personal level, these players use it on a societal level to address a greater issue, while still displaying their personal convictions.

In almost all cases, despite the comments being sarcastic in nature, they are also marked as a positive comment (“Recommended”) for the game. This leads to the conclusion that players are able to distance themselves from the content of a game in order to access the gameplay that they enjoy and appreciate. In earlier studies, distancing strategies were discussed in terms of individuals who tried to avoid facing racism, but in this case, the players are aware of the racist content yet choose to play the game anyway to access the engagement and fun they can acquire from just gameplay.39 Dyer-Witheford and De Peuter similarly discussed players who distance themselves from the content of military simulations and just focused on the mechanics, gameplay, and social play capabilities.40

Trolling

Trolling is defined as “deliberate, deceptive, and mischievous” behavior in social networks that mobilizes shock value to facilitate aggressive feedback.41 Recent studies posit that trolling is not confined to a limited “antisocial” minority but can be adopted by all kinds of users depending on the mood and the discussion environment.42 In our analysis, we found that some reviews mobilize sarcasm or irony to such an extreme that they might as well be thinly veiled racist comments. These comments need to be distinguished from the previous category because of their underscored trolling intent.

For example, in two positive reviews of Resident Evil V, player P-08 wrote, “Great ethnic cleansing simulator,” and player P-09 wrote, “You get to kill virus-infected [A]frican as a white guy, and isn’t it what life is about?” Although an initial instinct might be to mark these examples as sarcasm or irony, on closer examination, it is possible to see that, instead of contributing to a critical framework about discussing the issues of representation and racism, these reviews instead operate to normalize or even strengthen these issues. Phillips describes trolling as a cultural practice that has now become mainstream.43 From this viewpoint it is possible to assume that the sarcasm/irony category could be considered to be “positive” trolling that generates creative allegories that contribute to wider critical outlooks, whereas the trolling category just works to cement the inequalities. In another example from Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, player P-10 wrote, “[In the game] slaves are in no short supply,” and player P-11 wrote, “[Main character Aveline] looks more like a hippie college pagan than a slave.” These examples seem to be on the borderline between provocative insensitivity (that may or may not be trolling) and covert or everyday racism.44

Compromising

We found that topics such as Africa, race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as slavery in particular, are tackled in nonconfrontational and low-key manners by some videogames. For example, in response to Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag: Freedom Cry, player P-12 wrote, “After playing as a pirate who did everything for the money, we go to a character who is just the opposite, does his assassinations for principle and the well being of the slaves”; for Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, player P-13 wrote, “If you appreciate history from a marginalized point of view . . . you should enjoy this game.” The first comment approaches the game from the assassin mythos of the series by focusing on the virtues of the main character Adewale, who in the game’s story is an ex-slave. The comment softens Adewale’s complicated relationship with slavery by stating that he fights for the “well-being of slaves” instead of for justice, liberation, or even retribution. The second comment disassociates the historical legacy of chattel slavery from “normal” history and negotiates with it by marking it as a marginalized point of view (while in reality slavery is neither marginal nor a point of view). In both cases, the comments mobilize chastened or reduced language to avoid or to not excessively address the injustices of the issues they are talking about.

In another example, talking about Resident Evil 5, player P-14 wrote, “I don’t think there was an intentional bid to be offensive, this is pulp story/action-adventure cliche territory, but it’s definitely not a comfortable thing and I don’t fault people who find it offensive,” and player P-15 wrote, “An American, white, male shooting the, albeit infected, Black natives . . . there seemed no way around this . . . someone would get offended.” These comments are trying to construct a middle-way while still keeping up the appearances of being “sensitive to both sides.”

Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

It is hard to investigate identity representations while avoiding comparisons, contrasts, and conflations with gender issues.45 Looking at the discussions about the representations of Africa, it is possible to see them portrayed by dichotomies of oppressor/oppressed, colonizer/colonized, and punisher/offender through the lens of gendered allegories. Typically, colonizer, oppressor, and punisher are offered as male. Consider the comments from players P-16 to P-19, respectively, who wrote the following as they talk about Resident Evil 5’s protagonist Chris Redfield and his relationship to Africa or to his female and African military partner, Sheva:

• • “Chris Redfield contains his genitals as he looks for the cure to [AIDS] inside the deepest darkest depths in Africa”
• • “A Dashing Young Man With an extremely small♥♥♥♥♥♥♥take on an adventure through worm ridden somalia with his spunky Black sex slave.”
• • “Play as a muscular white guy, killing hundreds of Black zombies in Africa. Not racist at all”
• • “Be Chris Redfield . . . steroid fueled chris redfield . . . in africa . . . shooting Blacks . . .”

In some of these examples, the relationship of Chris and Sheva mirrors a gendered colonial perspective as the colonizer/colonized, which can also be observed in the relationship between Chris and the zombies he fights.

In another example, Adewale from Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag: Freedom Cry may be portrayed as revengeful in a virile way (P-20: “Sweet Jaysus [Adewale] swings his machete around as if the soul of every angry slave that ever lived existed”), whereas Aveline from Assassin’s Creed: Liberation may be mentioned as more docile (P-21: “Aveline is lovely and the exchange between the 3 costume modes . . . is quite fun,” P-13: “Aveline is a likeable”). In these examples, the relationship of Adewale and slavers is gendered as oppressor/oppressed or punisher/offender. However, the female assassin Aveline does not enjoy the same privilege as Adewale.

While comparing previous male assassin characters like Adewale and Aveline who both have missions to fight against slavers and to free slaves, player P-23 wrote, “As men we muscle our way through most situations with brute force, and mayhem in games and in life . . . but women tend to strategize more, and use image and looks to make up for not being able to run rough-shod through a situation.” Seemingly for this player, the intersection of racial relationships with gender dominantly operates directly and powerfully for males, but not for females who are relegated to taking compensatory actions.

Slavery as Background

Regularly, the issues of representations of Africa, along with the portrayal of slaves and slavery, remain a complementary or cosmetic component to the discussions of game mechanics or storyline. Especially in Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, in which Aveline can choose to wear a “slave outfit” or adopt a “slave persona” to move around without attracting attention, players often talk about this game mechanic while totally disassociating it from what actually being enslaved means, even when discussing the backstory of Aveline’s heritage. For example, players P-24 and P-25, respectively, wrote, “[The slave persona] is kind of in the middle: not best at fighting, not best at climbing, but can be 0% suspicious,” and “As the slave, Aveline loses her combat strength but gains the ability to incite riots and blend in with other slaves.” Here, the meaning and consequences of being a “slave” are torn out of historical and ethical context and reduced to a discussion of a game mechanic. Although it should be recognized that these examples are from a game review message board and players naturally discuss videogames from a gameplay perspective, this blindness becomes identifiable as a strategy when it is observed as prevalently as is the case here.

When taken to the extreme, the whole perception of the source material as “just” game mechanics can work against the aims of the game itself, as in the example of Playing History 2: Slave Trade. In its official explanation, the game states that it aims for the player to “travel back in time and witness the horrors of slave trade firsthand.”46 Yet player P-26 wrote about the game in a way that only emphasized his achievements: “I bargained with a village chief to buy as many slaves as I could, I dumped 25 of them into the ocean, I told one of the slaves that it’s OK to commit suicide and I got the platinum rank at the end.” According to an executive from the company who made the game, the game mechanics were intentionally made insensitive and gruesome “in order to teach about slavery effectively.”47 However, this strategy did not seem to resonate with players. As player P-27 puts it, “This isn’t a very good way to portray the harsh realities of middle passage.” Another criticism comes from reviews of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag: Freedom Cry in which Adewale’s skills can be updated by a fictional currency that is earned by freeing slaves. About this example, player P-3 points out that the “game contains strong statement against slavery [but] uses slaves as currency for upgrades.”

The “Authentic” Africa

Occasionally some comments underscore the harsh conditions of life in Africa as the only true representation of the reality of Africa. In this viewpoint, any representation that does not adhere to these harsh “truths” may be considered inauthentic or a poor representation. For example, about Democracy 3 Africa, player P-28 wrote, “You can only be the good guy, helping woman, eliminate criminal [sic], improving education, etc. That’s very not Africa. The country where I come from is famous for corruption, money laundering, bribe. etc. Which you can’t do in this game.”

A similar trend is also visible in the discussions of Resident Evil 5. With short and sarcastic review opening or closing sentences, players characterize the conditions of the shooter game as being the realistic African situation: “Still the most realistic depiction of Africa in video gaming” (P-29), “Africa simulation” (P-30), “Great Africa simulator” (P-31), and “Just another day in Africa!” (P-32).

Dangerous “Dark Continent”

Related to the previous strategy but distinct from it, some comments underscore Africa as a bleak, underdeveloped, and unsafe place. These approaches do not debate the authenticity of any representation; instead they portray figurative and literal “darkness” and danger as inherent characteristics of Africa that may also permeate the people and cultures within it.

For example, about Resident Evil 5, players P-33 and P-34 wrote, respectively, “This game predicted the ebola outbreak in Africa,” and “The franchise takes us to somewhere far less developed, a dusty, desolate Africa.” In an outburst of negativity, player P-35 exclaims, “i [sic] hate playing in Africa [sic].”

Interestingly, other comments presume this darkness as being visually devoid of color, washed out, or gray, and they also construct an inherent African “feel.” For example, player P-36 wrote, “The pallet [sic] [of the game is] yellow and gray—thus quite nicely giving the African feel.” Another player, P-37, wrote, “It feels washed out and grey . . . with an inexplicable filter applied to exacerbate the issue, while RE4 had more colors.” These subconscious definitions are in line with the myth of the “dark continent” enduring from Victorian times, during which “[European] explorers, missionaries, and scientists flooded it with light.”48

Minimizing by Comparing Reactions

This strategy is used to shut down arguments by positing that other players lack the authority or even right to criticize something because they have not criticized or reacted to something else before. This reaction is similar to the tu quoque fallacy in argumentative discourse in which one side of the argument is trying to portray the other side as a hypocrite.49 For example, about Resident Evil 5, player P-38 wrote, “You can kill Blacks but it’s not racist because you can kill mexicans [sic].” Player P-39 wrote, “That was until the whiny people at the time complained how there was indeed Black people in a game set in Africa. Nobody still doesn’t care about the Spanish in RE4. Double standards much?” These comments assume that advocators of antiracism are not practicing what they preach because they ignore (or did not react to) other examples of racism or bias.

Exploration and “Dark Continent” Adventures

Our case studies included Resident Evil V, which takes place in an exploration and “dark continent” adventures type of setting. Players who have been exposed to preparation for bias/cultural coping with antagonism messages and cultural pride and legacy reinforcement messages may feel aggrieved or (at best) ambivalent about stereotyped African settings. Such players may avoid the genre or may play such videogames critically, for instance, attempting to subvert genre limitations when possible. Alternately, they might challenge “dark continent” narratives through modding or creating critical content in ancillary venues (e.g., in online discussions). In contrast, players with a primary R/ES strategy of cultural endorsement of the mainstream are likely to accept such videogames and the lack of diverse player characters within them; conversely, players exposed to the promotion of mistrust messages may reject these videogames altogether in favor of settings where their racialized identities are more numerously represented in ways that are positive or at least correspond with players’ perceptions of their racial/ethnic categories.

Transatlantic Slavery

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry, and Playing History 2: Slave Trade all take place in the transatlantic slavery setting. Players who have been exposed to preparation for bias/cultural coping with antagonism messages may appreciate game mechanics that reflect how they negotiate such biases in the physical world. Cultural pride and legacy reinforcement messages may be associated with the experiences of players who appreciate the ability to move beyond the role of the enslaved person and to act as a resistor or liberator. These players may feel frustrated by limited standard game mechanics that mostly involve combat. Players who grew up receiving promotion of mistrust messages may appreciate game mechanics that enable them to play as characters that incorporate valued aspects of their physical-world identities. Finally, players who grew up with cultural endorsement of mainstream messages may experience cognitive dissonance between their physical-world identities and their blended identities in these videogames, especially those representing concepts such as rebellion or marronage. Frankly, they may reject such videogames because their self-perception as “the good ones” may be challenged when playing revolutionary roles.

Military Conflict

Democracy 3 Africa takes place in a military conflict setting. Promotion of mistrust messages may result in players who may prefer only videogames in this genre that provide possibilities for player characters aligned with the historical political goals and values that they deem to be associated with their racial/ethnic group. In contrast, players who grew up with cultural endorsement of the mainstream messages may play roles within these videogames that support imperialist or colonial aims. They may also prefer non-African settings altogether rather than African settings because of factors such as shame. Preparation for bias/cultural coping with antagonism messages may have made players acutely aware of the clichéd African military setting and appreciative of the aspects of the game that rely on historical research rather than on racial stereotypes regarding African military conflict. Finally, players who were exposed to messages of cultural pride and legacy reinforcement messages may reject these videogames if they had been socialized with anticolonial/antiwar perspectives. Nationalistic, prowar players may appreciate videogames that honor military events involving Black-identified combatants.