This thread will actually tie into a different one I've been wanting to make for a few weeks now. It started when I saw threads celebrating (or studying) the depiction of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and nationalities in games. I wanted to make one about Indians in gaming- and then I realized that Indians basically have no representation in video games. It's absolutely and utterly shocking- we're talking about a seventh of the world's population here, one of the largest countries in the world, and depictions of India in video games include Dhalsim in Street Fighter and Great Tiger in Punch Out. Oh, and Gandhi in Civilization, if that counts.
Which is the larger problem- Indians don't get much, if any, depiction in video games (and, indeed, any media). The depiction Indians get is always stereotypical, and extremely harmful. I am talking about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which depicts Indians eating a stew of bugs and monkey brains, Apu from The Simpsons, which has single handedly done more to hurt perception of Indian people in pop culture than any other factor I can think of, Raj from the Big Bang Theory- that depiction continues to hurt the stereotype about Indian people in western media- and generally, just the fact that when Indian people are depicted in media, they're either store clerks or cab drivers, with a typically thick accent and broken English, and that's that. When India is depicted in western media, it'll always be this land of cows and snake charmers and bazaars on the streets- this bizarre mosaic image of India that is stuck in, honestly I don't know what century, but it's certainly not this one.
So, generally, yes- India and Indians do not ever get depicted properly in media (and games, which I will now stick to for this thread, because this is a thread on the gaming side). In and of itself, I am fine with that, whatever- I don't need a game to have an Indian character or be set in India for me to get into it. Of course, the issue is that when Indians are depicted in games, they're always harmful caricaturized stereotypes.
And then there is Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
First, I want to get some things out of the way- Uncharted nails having two strong female leads in a AAA game without resorting to titillation and pandering. I absolutely love how well they nailed that depiction, and in a time when so few other games manage to get it right, I'll give it credit for that. And that's where my appreciation ends.
Naughty Dog is one of the best, most influential prestige studios in the industry. When they do something, people take notice, and people pay attention. In the lead up to the game's release, they often talked about how much research they did into recreating India authentically.
That was all horse shit. The Lost Legacy is another further typically stereotypical depiction of the country, which just further fuels and harms the negative misconceptions people in the west hold about the place. The Lost Legacy depicts the Western Ghats (a mountain range along the western coast line of India) as this bizarre, failed, war torn state with crumbling buildings, insurgents running rampant on the streets, with bombs dropping from above on to the city as the Indian military tries to contain the insurgency, and people lament about not having running water and functioning toilets. Basically, it's like what I would imagine an actual failed state to be like- except they turn and say 'this is India'. This place with weird bazaars on the street, impromptu curfews, a local war lord ripping the place apart, ruined and crumbling cities, insurgents wantonly breaking into civilian homes to beat them up and torture them, and setting up check points on the street, with bombs being dropped by the Indian military, they say this is India.
But, but, but, you know what, I would be willing to let this go. I mean, yes, it would disappoint me that Indians typically get no accurate portrayals in media, and when they do, they are always stereotypes, even, apparently, coming from a studio like Naughty Dog- but I get that someone wants to tell a story, so they took some creative liberties and artistic license. That's fine. I mean, after all, Wolfenstein tells the story of a world where Nazis won, while they categorically did not- that's just the story setup. So, sure, Naughty Dog is just taking liberties with its depiction of India in Uncharted, right?
Except:
So, this is their idea of an accurate portrayal of India.
It's hugely disappointing to me. It's a let down. I feel Naughty Dog has acted irresponsibly. Maybe you feel I am being too hyper sensitive here. But, in an era when we are vying for accurate representations of all sorts of people and diverse groups in media, and we are actually seeing accurate portrayals of people where we previously didn't, the fact that India and Indians are still stuck being depicted as exotic foreigners from a country of snake charmers is an actual, legitimate bummer (especially since, all it does is feed the stereotype and misconceptions even more- if all media you are exposed to shows India and Indians in a certain way, and you have no personal exposure to the country, what reason do you have to doubt it?). The fact that one of the most influential developers in the industry had an actual chance to take a rich setting and culture and do it justice, and instead decided to resort to the stereotypical portrayal and depiction that westerners largely hold to, is distasteful to me. This is without me getting into the smaller problems (the languages being spoken are not only regionally inappropriate, they actually have different people speak different languages altogether- because obviously, to a person in the west who doesn't understand any of the Indian languages, how are they any different anyway?)
This is without me going into what they did with Chloe (an Australian woman who they spontaneously decided to retcon into being Indian by mysteriously making her half-Indian)- because, of course, having an actual, accurate, healthy portrayal of an Indian character that's not westernized, or not relying on the crutch of a popular, established character, is impossible.
None of this is to say that India doesn't have problems- it does, and, in fact, I've said in this post itself that it has a lot of the same problems that the game brings up. And you know what, if Naughty Dog ha wanted to respectfully deal with the plight of poverty in Indian rural belts, or the insurgencies in Kashmir, I would have lauded them for it. This is not that- it's a mishmash of every harmful stereotype and misconception of the country, basically strung together because it furthers commercial appeal to an audience that doesn't know better, and because they needed a canvas for 'war torn exotic country with culture'.
In the end, it basically comes down to, Naughty Dog had a story in mind, they wanted to tell that story, they figured India is 'exotic' and 'mysterious' enough that they could shoehorn the story into it, especially since it tied with people's perception of the place, and called it a day. It's especially disappointing to me because they, of all developers, were ones I expected to be more responsible. But nope.
TL;DR:
Which is the larger problem- Indians don't get much, if any, depiction in video games (and, indeed, any media). The depiction Indians get is always stereotypical, and extremely harmful. I am talking about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which depicts Indians eating a stew of bugs and monkey brains, Apu from The Simpsons, which has single handedly done more to hurt perception of Indian people in pop culture than any other factor I can think of, Raj from the Big Bang Theory- that depiction continues to hurt the stereotype about Indian people in western media- and generally, just the fact that when Indian people are depicted in media, they're either store clerks or cab drivers, with a typically thick accent and broken English, and that's that. When India is depicted in western media, it'll always be this land of cows and snake charmers and bazaars on the streets- this bizarre mosaic image of India that is stuck in, honestly I don't know what century, but it's certainly not this one.
So, generally, yes- India and Indians do not ever get depicted properly in media (and games, which I will now stick to for this thread, because this is a thread on the gaming side). In and of itself, I am fine with that, whatever- I don't need a game to have an Indian character or be set in India for me to get into it. Of course, the issue is that when Indians are depicted in games, they're always harmful caricaturized stereotypes.
And then there is Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
First, I want to get some things out of the way- Uncharted nails having two strong female leads in a AAA game without resorting to titillation and pandering. I absolutely love how well they nailed that depiction, and in a time when so few other games manage to get it right, I'll give it credit for that. And that's where my appreciation ends.
Naughty Dog is one of the best, most influential prestige studios in the industry. When they do something, people take notice, and people pay attention. In the lead up to the game's release, they often talked about how much research they did into recreating India authentically.
That was all horse shit. The Lost Legacy is another further typically stereotypical depiction of the country, which just further fuels and harms the negative misconceptions people in the west hold about the place. The Lost Legacy depicts the Western Ghats (a mountain range along the western coast line of India) as this bizarre, failed, war torn state with crumbling buildings, insurgents running rampant on the streets, with bombs dropping from above on to the city as the Indian military tries to contain the insurgency, and people lament about not having running water and functioning toilets. Basically, it's like what I would imagine an actual failed state to be like- except they turn and say 'this is India'. This place with weird bazaars on the street, impromptu curfews, a local war lord ripping the place apart, ruined and crumbling cities, insurgents wantonly breaking into civilian homes to beat them up and torture them, and setting up check points on the street, with bombs being dropped by the Indian military, they say this is India.
But, but, but, you know what, I would be willing to let this go. I mean, yes, it would disappoint me that Indians typically get no accurate portrayals in media, and when they do, they are always stereotypes, even, apparently, coming from a studio like Naughty Dog- but I get that someone wants to tell a story, so they took some creative liberties and artistic license. That's fine. I mean, after all, Wolfenstein tells the story of a world where Nazis won, while they categorically did not- that's just the story setup. So, sure, Naughty Dog is just taking liberties with its depiction of India in Uncharted, right?
Except:
So, this is their idea of an accurate portrayal of India.
It's hugely disappointing to me. It's a let down. I feel Naughty Dog has acted irresponsibly. Maybe you feel I am being too hyper sensitive here. But, in an era when we are vying for accurate representations of all sorts of people and diverse groups in media, and we are actually seeing accurate portrayals of people where we previously didn't, the fact that India and Indians are still stuck being depicted as exotic foreigners from a country of snake charmers is an actual, legitimate bummer (especially since, all it does is feed the stereotype and misconceptions even more- if all media you are exposed to shows India and Indians in a certain way, and you have no personal exposure to the country, what reason do you have to doubt it?). The fact that one of the most influential developers in the industry had an actual chance to take a rich setting and culture and do it justice, and instead decided to resort to the stereotypical portrayal and depiction that westerners largely hold to, is distasteful to me. This is without me getting into the smaller problems (the languages being spoken are not only regionally inappropriate, they actually have different people speak different languages altogether- because obviously, to a person in the west who doesn't understand any of the Indian languages, how are they any different anyway?)
This is without me going into what they did with Chloe (an Australian woman who they spontaneously decided to retcon into being Indian by mysteriously making her half-Indian)- because, of course, having an actual, accurate, healthy portrayal of an Indian character that's not westernized, or not relying on the crutch of a popular, established character, is impossible.
None of this is to say that India doesn't have problems- it does, and, in fact, I've said in this post itself that it has a lot of the same problems that the game brings up. And you know what, if Naughty Dog ha wanted to respectfully deal with the plight of poverty in Indian rural belts, or the insurgencies in Kashmir, I would have lauded them for it. This is not that- it's a mishmash of every harmful stereotype and misconception of the country, basically strung together because it furthers commercial appeal to an audience that doesn't know better, and because they needed a canvas for 'war torn exotic country with culture'.
In the end, it basically comes down to, Naughty Dog had a story in mind, they wanted to tell that story, they figured India is 'exotic' and 'mysterious' enough that they could shoehorn the story into it, especially since it tied with people's perception of the place, and called it a day. It's especially disappointing to me because they, of all developers, were ones I expected to be more responsible. But nope.
TL;DR:
- India and Indians barely get represented in media and video games to begin woth
- When they are, the depictions are stereotypical and harmful
- Indians have all of a half dozen prominent representations in video games in a 30 year long history of the medium, and they have almost all, without exception, been further feeding these stereotypes
- Naughty Dog is one of the most influential and respected studios around- and when it set a game in India, I had reason to be hopeful and excited
- I was wrong to be hopeful and excited, because their depiction of India and Indians is every bit as stereotypical as any of the others
- The wait for accurate depictions of India in western media that aren't fueled by harmful fantasies and misconceptions continues.
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