I didn't watch the Cricket World Cup final, so I kind of feel like I missed out. I normally don't pay too much attention to cricket, but I can watch it now and again if family members have it on. It's in the snooker/Olympics/American football bracket, well well below the only sport I genuinely care about - football. I was totally oblivious to it all yesterday until I saw it trending. I would have just been jumping on the bandwagon had I tuned in, but still I don't think it's too bad when people suddenly get interested in things they don't generally pay attention to when it's these national communal type events. It's a kind of collective experience. Great moments. So I wish I'd watched really.
The other big thing yesterday was that it looks like the next James Bond will be a black female. Personally I don't really mind either way. I get why people are annoyed about it though, as it seems like we constantly see this type of thing in everything these days. That is - decisions made about art for political reasons rather than artistic ones. There's nothing wrong with a black or female Bond, but if you're just making Bond black or female for the sake of diversity then it'll feel unnatural and forced.
It's similar with the whole gamergate thing. It's not that women and minorities are involved that irks gamers so much, but the fact that games are being designed to meet political demands rather than due to a genuine artistic or gaming impetus.
Example :)
It's like if I designed a game. The characters and scenarios would naturally reflect my own experience of life to some degree. The hero would no doubt be a reflection of myself, as we tend to envision our heroes as idealised versions of ourselves. So being a white male my main character would most probably be someone who looks a bit like me, only better looking, stronger and faster. These artistic biases are generally something of a subconscious thing too, so there's no desire whatever to exclude or malign any other human trait in the process. It's just a natural thing to write from ones own perspective.
Likewise if I was creating a love interest character for my hero they would no doubt reflect my own tastes as a straight male ..so over accentuated female characteristics and, er ...cleavage. I'd like to think I'd be self-aware enough to not go too overboard, but still my ideas of beauty are in part a consequence of my nature. So I'm naturally going to create art that reflects my aesthetic tastes.
Now if on releasing this game people complained that there were no black characters, or Chinese characters, or strong females, etc. Then I could add some more characters for the second edition to fill these omissions. However, I'd then be making not the game I wanted to make, but a game that others were telling me to make. Consequently my heart wouldn't be in it in the same way. Nor would I be focusing purely on the game itself.
On top of this if I tried to add, say a Chinese character, then this character would be crude and stereotypical. As I simply don't have the same in depth experience or understanding of that culture. So it would purely be an inauthentic caricature. It would lack nuance. It would perhaps be different if I had a genuine interest or passion for Chinese culture. However, again, if I had that passion I would naturally make a game reflecting that and wouldn't need to be told to include it.
So all this political correctness in art is just leading to fake and unsatisfying artworks ..or games, or books, or comics, etc.
Like I said, with Bond though I'm not too annoyed or worried. I'm not a mega Bond fan, but the last movie was pretty good. So I'm happy to go with it and see what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment