Saturday, January 17, 2009

A Dream of Character Over Stereotype

In his famous speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

I wonder what he would think today of our society - not just offline, but online. Many people flee judgement based on their physical appearance by retreating into massively multiplayer online games, where ironically, judgement based on physical appearance is still paramount. How can you escape being a [fill in the blank] online? You, the player, can choose a cartoon that looks nothing like you, called an avatar. You get to choose the stereotypes by which your avatar, and yourself as the controller of the avatar, will be judged. It is merely an illusion of escape. A choice of which prejudices you prefer over others.

No matter what black or white, blue or green represent - coolness or repugnance, toughness or illness, high fashion or out of fashion - we are a judgemental society. Still. Naturally, you'd expect all avatars to be pretty. However, many gamers choose hideous beasts. Why? Even a hideous beast has symbolic and social meaning.

But even when stripped of the interesting avatar choices and gaming stereotypes, and you can truly judge an individual gamer by the choices he or she makes. A gamer's character is truly the sum of his or her daily habits. Perhaps one day, the sum of a gamer's character will be seen in the effects of gaming on family, friends and society instead of in black and white, two side only, good and evil debates about the games themselves.

It's only a dream, but hey - slow progress brought us the election of a man for his character instead of his skin, just as Dr. King hoped would one day happen. (If one can ever truly know the character of a policitian?) Perhaps slow progress will also eventually bring us out of the technology worship that blinds us to the long-term consequences of entertainment bullies. I don't know if Dr. King's four children play video games, or his grandchildren, but I'd prefer to dream that they do something more appropriate to their forefather's legacy in their spare time. Can you imagine if we all did something more inspirational with our spare time than play Solitare or Halo?

(Wendy Kays is the author of Game Widow, elevating the conversation about video games between gamers and non-gamers from "he said, she said" to the larger issues at hand.)

1 comment:

AngBreidenbach said...

I had never thought about the way people choose their characters. What an interesting correlation. Thank you so much,
Angie