SOMBRAS EN VIDEOJUEGOS: VIRTUAL TOURISM AND COLD WAR REPRESENTATION IN TACTICAL SHOOTERS

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Hawkins, S. (2019). SOMBRAS EN VIDEOJUEGOS: VIRTUAL TOURISM AND COLD WAR REPRESENTATION IN TACTICAL SHOOTERS. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

In 2018, Newzoo reported video games as a 135 billion USD industry selling millions of units each year around the globe which also create a response in the real world as Venezuela’s prohibition on violent video games in 2009 reveals. I argue that an interactive subtext and landscape, through Cold War ideas and virtual tourism, depict Latin America through the violence of the tactical shooter genre emphasizing shallow perspectives and mindsets on the region’s history and politics. Two ideas create a framework to analyze the perspectives, as well as the subtext, within video games: gamescapes - or virtual landscapes - and interactivity - the core design of the video game medium. Developers and publishers design the gamescapes and interactivity which, in turn, form the medium’s lens representing Latin America’s region and people. Twenty chosen, popular video games identify the representative patterns within tactical shooters and appear side-by-side to travel narratives for historical context. The history of travel narratives takes perceptions on Latin America towards foreign, or outsider, mindsets which video games apply through publishers and developers from the United States, Europe, and Asia within the international corporations branded AAA (Triple-A) known for high-quality products. Tactical shooters paint incomplete pictures which misrepresent Latin America’s cultural, more than physical, landscape due to a lack of different, far-reaching perspectives.

Details
Author

Hawkins, Sarah

Title

SOMBRAS EN VIDEOJUEGOS: VIRTUAL TOURISM AND COLD WAR REPRESENTATION IN TACTICAL SHOOTERS

Physical Description

1 online resource (87 pages) : PDF

Date

2019

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

In 2018, Newzoo reported video games as a 135 billion USD industry selling millions of units each year around the globe which also create a response in the real world as Venezuela’s prohibition on violent video games in 2009 reveals. I argue that an interactive subtext and landscape, through Cold War ideas and virtual tourism, depict Latin America through the violence of the tactical shooter genre emphasizing shallow perspectives and mindsets on the region’s history and politics. Two ideas create a framework to analyze the perspectives, as well as the subtext, within video games: gamescapes - or virtual landscapes - and interactivity - the core design of the video game medium. Developers and publishers design the gamescapes and interactivity which, in turn, form the medium’s lens representing Latin America’s region and people. Twenty chosen, popular video games identify the representative patterns within tactical shooters and appear side-by-side to travel narratives for historical context. The history of travel narratives takes perceptions on Latin America towards foreign, or outsider, mindsets which video games apply through publishers and developers from the United States, Europe, and Asia within the international corporations branded AAA (Triple-A) known for high-quality products. Tactical shooters paint incomplete pictures which misrepresent Latin America’s cultural, more than physical, landscape due to a lack of different, far-reaching perspectives.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Area studies
History

Subjects--Places

Latin America

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Cold War
Gamescape
Tactical Shooter
Video Games
Virtual Tourism

Subject Area

Latin American Studies

Advisor(s)

De la Torre, Oscar

Committee Members

Soliz, Carmen
Houck, Charles

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Hawkins_uncc_0694N_12137

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1870