Cultural Code: Video Games and Latin America (The MIT Press) by Penix-Tadsen Phillip

Author:Penix-Tadsen, Phillip [Penix-Tadsen, Phillip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 2016-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.2

Montezuma’s Revenge (Parker Brothers 1984)

Figure 4.3

Aztec (Datamost 1982)

The most enduring video game franchise to use this archeological adventure scenario is Tomb Raider , developed by the British firm Eidos Interactive, now a subsidiary of the Japanese game corporation Square Enix. Tomb Raider is as much a game about spatial exploration and problem solving as anything else. Therefore, in games in the adventure/puzzle genre that are set in Latin America—from the original 1996 Tomb Raider to sequels like Tomb Raider: Legend (Eidos 2006), to games from other series like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Sony 2007)—accuracy of cultural signification usually takes a backseat to the demands of gameplay. Marisca has described cultural representation in these types of titles as “the sort of portrayal of Latin American countries typically found in video games: a highly abstracted portrayal of stereotypes from the region’s countries, constructed from the outside for the outside.” 36 King and Krzywinska echo this assertion, noting that in the Tomb Raider games, “indigenous populations are often depicted stereotypically, or are present only tangentially through the material remnants of their culture,” reducing the significance of indigenous cultures in the games to “sources of exotic spectacle and artifacts to be stolen for their value to others, rather than [involving] any real engagement with their own qualities.” 37 Indeed, while Lara Croft wends her way through a variety of Peruvian settings in Tomb Raider: Legend , for example, it is clear that culture is an instrumentalized part of the environment rather than an element oriented toward accuracy of historical representation. The melding of cultural elements from distinct traditions is a trademark of the series: in Legend , the Norse god Thor is rendered in the weathered limestone and amethyst crystal outcroppings of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, while Norse war scenes are depicted in stone reliefs within Mayan temples, making it difficult to take away any clear touchstones of cultural knowledge.

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