Primary Research - Gathering first hand info!

So, as far as I've looked, it's a scarcely explored topic - culture within games that is. There's plenty of information on video games as a culture, and the difference between games made by different cultures (that well known contrast between Western games and Japanese games in particular!). However, there isn't much on games that take inspiration from different cultures.

I guess it should speak for itself, but honestly, there could be more to it - like whether unique cultural influences really do or don't have a particular impact on game-character relation. At the moment I'm talking more broadly, because ultimately the whole scope of the game would affect the characters within it. 

Anyway, my point is that the best way forward is to gather information first hand from people who have played games I know are pretty heavily influenced by one culture or another. So I'm making a couple of surveys that will identify whether people are impacted by, value or even notice the presence of the inspiration from a culture. By gaining some statistics, it will help me to evaluate the necessity in focusing on this particular topic.

Screencap of survey in progress.

One example that I know has a fairly obscure inspiration origin is the Prince of Persia series. Obviously it's easy to see that it's set around Persia (duh!) but I've paid particular attention to the 2008 'reboot' of the series. Prince of Persia is set completely separately to the trilogy (Sands of Time, Warrior Within and The Two Thrones) however they all have their roots in the Arabian Nights tales. It just so happens that, as the producer Ben Mattes (Kotaku, 2008) stated: 'there are hundreds of tales in Arabian Nights'.

Strictly speaking, Prince of Persia 2008 is majorly influenced by Zoroastrianism (Persian Mythology), an ancient Iranian religion. That seems quite niche, and though people will see the obvious, the stereotypical if you will, it will be interesting to find out whether the deeper influence impacts more players than not.

The same will go for the other games I will investigate through the power of survey! Bwah ha ha!

Culture Inside and Out of Games

So there are still plenty of avenues surrounding 'culture' that I can research.

But that aside, for me to understand how culture integrates within video games I have been researching it from different perspectives. When designing characters, those characters exist within a world that exists within certain rules - i.e. the rules of the game. Considering this, I have been researching culture in regards to how differently games are designed according to different national cultures, the most obvious examples typically being American games versus Japanese games. This is a common comparison, as indicated in Better Game Characters by Design and in The Business and Culture of Digital Games, Kerr discusses the differences between regional versions of games.

Through gaining an understanding of how games are impacted by culture in the real world, I can investigate and explore the effect this has on the design of characters and their fictional worlds. Personally, I would say it is wrong to assume that games from one prominent culture are necessarily strictly influenced by that culture. That is to say, a series such as Fire Emblem - while the nature of the game design and art style is typically recognisable as Japanese - there are heavy influences from Western Historical culture in its character designs, most notably the armour as an example (albeit a little fantasized!).

Example of armour influenced by Western armour

Anyway, having overloaded my brain with books and information, that's just a little bit more food for thought at this stage.
I'm picking it apart. Slowly.

Generating stereotypes?

So, following on from what I said about having discussed stereotypes when it comes to cultures of various sorts, I considered some three cultures based on my knowledge of them as it stands. I decided that, as a start, I will explore:

Welsh - The culture I probably know the most about from lifestyle to history to mythology.

Japanese - A culture of which I have a basic knowledge.

Slavic - Having touched upon the mythology surrounding this large culture, it will be interesting to see the results of what I think I know of the real life side of the culture. 

Australian - I know very little about, apart from something of the aborigines.  

Resisting the urge to research further until initial designs have been made based on what I currently know, I will then determine whether that state of knowledge generates a stereotype in those designs.

These are merely a starting point.

In the meantime, I want to continue researching what it is that strictly entices a person to grow attached to a character in order to uncover whether cultural influences play a part in how easily related to a character might be.

Again to sum it up as I try to write my Learning Agreement, I intend to explore the value of cultural influences in character design and how this may or may not effect the relation between player and character.

As for initial sketch work and exploration, it's late and I'm going to bed. That can wait until tomorrow.  

Better Game Characters By Design

So I took this book out of the library,  Better Game Characters By Design: A Psychological Approach, and within it the author, Katherine Isbister, covers the subject of culture in Chapter 3.

It seems this is pretty much what I need to be looking at, as Isbister correctly writes in the chapter introduction that 'it is dangerously easy to resort to over-simplified stereotypical notions of what someone from another culture is like'. This is particularly true for those who have little to no educated knowledge of the culture in question. 

Josh and I discussed the topic of culture, and agreed that it would be a good idea to explore this very thing, in fact. Basically, the intention is to explore character designs based on my current knowledge of several cultures and how I perceive them at this stage, and then to design characters from the same cultures, having researched and learned an accurate portrayal. This may or may not - more likely than not in my opinion - in fact support that opening quote from Isbister.

Basically Isbister tries to tackle how to avoid falling into those stereotypical notions.
I want to explore whether stereotypes can ultimately be more easily related to, given that is how they are perceived by the larger percentage of people. Not only that, but can characters inspired by real cultures be fantasized and would an audience rather see than strict realism?

Finding a Focus

Well, it became very quickly apparent that culture is a very, very broad subject to try and explore. There are so many aspects about it that it's impossible to cover. It left me scratching my head a little bit, still asking myself too many questions about it.

After all my rambling thoughts on culture within games/character design, Jim then asked how I would explain what I wanted to do in 30 words. I found I couldn't do it. We had to find a focus. 

I think what I was ultimately aiming for without realizing was the exploration of the character-to-player relation. Players want to feel that they connect with the characters whose role they take in a game, and by extension want to relate to the whole world of characters. A compelling game should have compelling characters so that the player doesn't feel detached, as opposed to engaged with the world and the characters within it. 

In regards to traditional and more modern cultures, Josh mentioned the Fifth Element as a counter argument to what I said about more modern cultures being more present in the sci-fi genre than fantasy genre.

60's influence in Fifth Element

However, that inadvertently supports what I said really, in my opinion, because while the presence of 60's culture is apparent in Fifth Element, the film is sci-fi, and set in the 23rd century! ;)

So to summarize, my intention as of right now is to explore the impact, value and influence of culture in character design and to evaluate the relation between player and character as a result of cultural presence.

Challenging Conventions of Character Design 2

So, since introducing my first thoughts on the direction of my MA, I have considered some other aspects about the influences of culture in character design. 

I realised, first of all, that to take great influence from culture, to incorporate it well and realistically into the design of characters (and by extension their environments/worlds/lives) I need to understand: what constitutes culture? How do I define what it is and what really makes up a culture?

Countless games and movies take direct inspiration from real life culture. As if to back that up, a friend pointed out a video by Feng Zhu in which design is discussed regarding references to real life. According to that, the majority of design works best when the real life references/influences outweigh the completely imaginary aspects. Now, this could be another avenue that I could experiment with. Would most people prefer designs that came mostly from real life influences, i.e. culture in this case, or those which are vastly made up, inspired more readily by the designers visual vocabulary and imagination.

Along similar lines, it also occurred to me that it isn't merely historical culture or long lost cultures that inspire design, but obviously modern day cultures. This raised the question to myself: is the historical context growing outdated? How well do the historical influences blend with the flourishing sci-fi genre, for example? On the flip-side, perhaps there is not enough wonder and versatility to take great inspiration from today's cultures. After all, even eastern cultures are becoming somewhat westernized. Again, this could open an opportunity to experiment with how people perceive characters from more recent cultures in comparison to older cultures.

Another question I asked myself was whether there is direct causation between suitable art styles and the cultural influence into the design of a character. Perhaps certain art styles only work because of the inspiration behind the character - the setting of the character and its environment etc.

Going back to my mention of Mario in my last entry, people obviously grow attached to their favorite characters. Would it have the same outcome if that character came from another culture. What about lesser known cultures? It might be possible that these kinds of characters might become niche and detached from player relation. This makes me consider why we don't often see more unique cultures in games and other media more often. Of course, the experience a player receives can be a whole let better when they relate to the character whose role they assume, so player-character relation is pretty important in my opinion.

Again, more answers to find. I need to appoint myself a solid set of questions to systematically answer, to guide my exploration of these thoughts and considerations.

Challenging Conventions of Character Design

Finding a starting point is one of the most difficult parts. Finding one for my MA was even trickier! 

Firstly, though, I considered what I enjoy, what I specialize in and what I've dabbled in before. How could these things create a pathway for me to explore? 

My specialism is in character design. When I considered this, I reflected on how I used mythology as an influence for previous characters. In regards to this, the suggestion of culture - something that widely interests me -got me thinking further about how much of an influence culture can have when designing characters. 

There are a few examples, such as Okami, where the obvious cultural influence screams out at you. Immediately, you know it is an art style taken from Japanese culture.

Okami - traditional Japanese ink painting style

                                   

But how does this reflect in less obvious characters and, by extension, their worlds? I want to question the impact of cultural influences and references within character design and how people interpret those characters. One could design a character, and it may or may not work in one style or another, designs influenced from existing cultures - both historical and modern. 

In terms of exploring this, I would begin with researching existing characters from various different media and investigate their impact on their respective audiences. How clearly do people see the cultural references, if there are any, and do they understand it? Does this spark their interest in that culture or does it put them off? 

By no means, when I'm referring to the influence of culture, does it merely apply to an art style. It could be in that very character's personality or the clothes they wear, which might be influenced by a place/era/tradition/you-name-it. Perhaps, while the inspiration behind the character might be subtle, this kind of thing has a bigger impact than people might think. I want to challenge whether there is more to character design than simply creating a recognizable mascot.

Take Mario, a blatantly recognizable character for various reasons, and yet one of the things that makes him so fun and agreeable is the novelty that he is an Italian plumber, and with it he brandishes the typical mustache always associated with Italian culture. Stereotypical though it may be, the influence from Italy is clearly there. Would the character have been taken/accepted any differently if he had been of any other culture?

And there's my starting point! The point raises a number of questions; now it's time to begin searching for the answer to them.