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In today's world of video games, where a contingent of players of different ethnicity are grossly under represented in the games they play and reportedly play longer hours than their white counterparts in a day, minorities are hard press to find characters that portray their culture. Given two studies were released recently, and with a popular video game blog sites reporting on the issue which leads to ask: should we celebrate when a game character is noticeably Hispanic, Mexican-American or Latino?
Perhaps video game developers and their respective publishers should start marketing strategies when releasing titles to the growing Hispanic/Latin market in the United States. They have, but with little fanfare from bilingual gaming sites, video game forums and consumers.
In our video game world, where we question if Bayonetta empowers or deplores the female gamer, should Hispanic/Latin American writers explore the ethnicity of Army of Two's Tyson Rios? The prettier half of the Army of Two team, who became a Brooklyn raised Mexican-American kid over night
What if, Tyson Rios in the first game was a US Ranger turned mercenary, but in the sequel he turned out to be Mexican-American, without an explanation in his Bio or in the storyline? Sure, as I played Army of Two: The 40th Day, I came to the realization that Tyson Rio's tattoos portrayed the character Mexican-American, but Mexican-American video gamers might have met him with a tepid response. How so? Let me explain.
When I finished playing through Army of Two The 40th Day, where I played as Tyson Rios sporting a macabre mask no less, came a rush of satisfaction. To the untrained eye Tyson is unequivocally American, built like a linebacker, his in-game bio in both Army of Two and its sequel The 40th day describes Rios as a US Army Ranger who cut his teeth in the streets of war torn Mogadishu. Before starting the game you are asked to choose between two playable characters, Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios.
That's not entirely good; it is difficult to relate to any character at the start up screen. At this point, I felt compelled to choose Rios because of his badly disfigured web like scar on the right part of the face. EA Montreal, the creative studio behind AoT, teeters between madness and genius when it comes to character design. See, when I first realized Tyson Rios was Mexican-American I was not so sure if it was an accident or planned by the artists who created the character.
On first glance, Rios was just a guy in a death mask wearing armor. What I like about Rio's tattoos they told a story of who he was and where he is from. By giving players a chance to find these tattoos and infer the reason for the said tattoos made the narrative impact much greater. The first tattoo is simple to decipher: vaya con dios means go with God.
The second tattoo is where all those research associates may catch or miss when tallying how many video game characters are of what ethnicity. The tattoo is the shape of a bird's head, but not just any eagle it is the one found on exported Mexican products. Check any Tequila bottle in Mexico, the "Hecho en Mexico" label is stamped.
We infer Rio's is a god fearing man, definitely Christian and Mexican-American, yet with this information in mind the morality choices in presented in AoT become much convoluted. In AoT 40th Day, the morality moments are defined as pessimistic or optimistic are placed throughout the game.
Your choices can range from helping or ignoring pleas of a third party character, but are placed in a context that any decision can have dire consenquences to the said person, and with Rio's being Christian the choices became difficult for me to interpret.
For years, my Mexican-American friends and family members always argued video games needlessly leave out Latinos/Hispanics from the titles. And if our culture is included, say Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, we are portrayed the stereotypical gangbanger, homie, cholo archetype. The passion of the meduim has a strong Hispanic/Latino foundation, kids play longer than their white counterparts as an example.
By giving Rios a stronger ethnic backgrounded EA Montreal empowered the character to be something much more. I know Mexican-Americans can be strong warriors in the US Army and I am just loving the fact that I get to play one. As for the other half of the Army of Two team? I still can not figure out what Elliot Salem is, and that fact alone leaves an uncomfortable feeling.
