Politics, gender and race are often explored in media today. Movies especially have long been criticized for their different depictions of these major issues. This week, Smith and UMass students came together to bring attention to these issues as they appear – not in films, as one may suspect – but in video games.

The lecture began with an emphasis on video games as a debased media form despite its possible use to make truly lasting statements about society, much like its more serious cousins, the novel and film. Jen Malkowski of the Smith Film Studies department and TreAndrea Russworm of the UMass English department spoke of the analysis of video games on an academic level, and how this emerging study factored into their classes.

“Video games are thought of as a debased media, and in many ways, they are. But game sales are beginning to outnumber box office ticket sales, so it’s clear that video games are very popular. We need to address the way they communicate stories,” said Malkowski.

As a part of their film studies class, Smith students explored L.A. Noire, The Sims 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Red Dead Redemption and Portal 2. These games were criticized much like films, with a focus on the sociological issues implicit in media today.  

The students from UMass focused on Bioshock, Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto IV, Afro Samurai and Fallout 3 as the culmination of their studies in an English class.  Their criticism focused mainly on the mechanisms of narration in a dystopian story, and the social issues that may be satirized or emphasized in such stories.  

Each group of students considered the social commentary made by each game. While some exaggerated gender, race and political stereotypes – such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto – others were far more subtle.  UMass students were careful to note the complexity that existed in the dystopias of Bioshock and Fallout 3 as being just as nuanced as many novels.

Bioshock and Fallout 3 are both known for utilizing visual styles of both futuristic science fiction and “Don Draper” ’50s and ’60s advertisements.  UMass students noted the gendered and privileged outlook of this aesthetic, and its juxtaposition with the unified, undifferentiated aesthetic of post-apocalyptic dystopia.

“The ’50s swept things under the rug in the extreme. It was a caricature of advertisements, and a ‘WASP’ attitude existed,” said Anne Samolewicz ’13. “The dystopian games use the ’50s because they’re so contradictory, the idea of perfect America compared with an end of civilization as we know it. Plus, it’s creepy to have ’50s advertisements in dystopian media for the same reason.”

Both Russworm and Malkowski expressed interest in future exploration of this new media.  

“There is a huge time investment in picking up a new game, finding it, and making it applicable for class. It’s certainly something I’ll keep tampering with,” said Russworm.