As video games have gained popularity, the communities that have evolved around them have become increasingly restrictive. Although the image of a (usually white) young male with nocturnal tendencies, subsisting on junk food alone is a stereotypical picture of a “gamer,” whatever validity this image holds has much to do with the ways video games are marketed, and the stories they seek to tell. Despite the expanding range of video games available today, most are still heavily marketed towards boys and men, offering heroic scenarios, quests to conquer, and depictions of violence. Indigenous video games like Never Alone are important not only because they combat this stereotypical image of a “gamer” by creating more inclusive game narratives and opening up the gaming community to Indigenous people, but also because they have the capacity to educate non-Indigenous players about the people and cultures these games are inspired by. In this way, Indigenous games such as Never Alone may be instrumental to decolonizing the gaming industry by dispensing with the colonial narrative of the need to “conquer” that is present in many video games today.
Video games, like any form of media which seeks to tell a story, face the issue of which stories to tell, and for whom. Since video games are typically marketed toward men, the stories and narratives they perpetuate typically reinforce normative notions of masculinity. This is true of the game Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2. The scholar Esther Wright notes its reinforcement of the colonial idea of “civilization” versus “savagery” in the so-called Wild West. “[I]t suggests,” she observes, “a lack of critical engagement with and understanding of the colonialist implicitly white supremacist underpinnings of the civilization/savagery binary…” (Wright 9). Acknowledging the gendered marketing of video games, this statement is consistent with the political scientist Kevin Bruyneel’s discussion in Settler Memory of the heteropatriarchy’s drive to conquer and tame through violence as a driving force of colonialism. In light of this, the male-oriented marketing of video games coupled with the restrictive “boys club” nature of the gaming community is not merely an innocuous stereotype or phenomenon, but something that actively reinforces gender roles and the inextricable narratives tied up with them, such as the romanticization of colonial attitudes.
Adopting a legitimate and systematic way to analyze and discuss video games academically, as games studies specialist Clara Fernandez-Vara advocates, could potentially assist scholars in combatting the issues present in games like Red Dead Redemption. “By improving the discourse of games,” she write, “we can make it so that being well-versed in games can be admirable and knowing about games an intellectual currency” (Fernandez-Vara 10). However, this call to analyze games as texts in an attempt to infuse them with cultural capital has drawbacks. Like many things that can be said to possess theorist Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of “cultural capital,” such as appreciation and knowledge of things such as art, cinema, and gourmet cuisine, there are barriers to entry. Notable among these are wealth and class, which typically exclude minority groups like indigenous peoples. However, as can be inferred by LaPensée, et al., the intellectual legitimization of games in an academic setting may also allow for academic grants and funding for the creation of Indigenous games and the inclusion of Indigenous creators in game development.
Indigenous involvement is evident in Never Alone, from the artistic elements, storytelling elements, and Native language narration that traces the story as players move through the game. Ishmael Hope, an Indigenous collaborator and writer involved in the game, notes in an interview on the YouTube channel “History Respawned” that the involvement and support of Iñupiaq elders was especially instrumental in the creation of the game. Additionally, he discusses the theme of nature present in the game, as a character in its own right, not simply as the “enemy” but as a complex and guiding force.
In this way, nature is depicted in terms of the Iñupiaq understanding of nature, as alive alongside us and around us, so we can never be alone within it, revealing one of the explanations for the game’s title. Though subtle, this idea actively combats typical—and implicitly colonial–game narratives, as nature is not to be seen as an enemy to be conquered but as a force infused with agency—one that is inextricable from the subjects of the games, as well as the players that “inhabit” them during gameplay.
Works Cited
Fernandez-Vara, Clara. Introduction to Game Analysis. New York: Routledge , 2015.
LaPensée , Elizabeth A., et al. “Towards Sovereign Games .” Sage Journals (2021): 1–16.
Wright, Esther. “Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption, and Narratives of ‘Progress.’” European Journal of American Studies, 16, no. 3 (2021): 1–20.