Why So Many Gung Ho GI Joe Shooters?

by dkpatriarch:

©2008 David Hilton.

   I began Turok and was treated to the usual shooter opening sequence; I’m Turok, a member of an elite group of gung-ho patriotic GI Joes who personified bad-ass both in attitude and in overly developed biceps and necks. Already I was rolling my eyes.

The cliche of the Gung Ho American Super Soldier pervades shooter games and to a non-American this can seem over-the-top, reinforcing the view that games made for a predominantly American market must show Americans as militaristic super-confident heroes.

From Gears of War, to Call of Duty, Ghost Recon, or Halo (though Master Chief shows unnatural restraint compared with the soldiers around him), these ‘Team America’ types abound.

If this is sounding anti-American to some of the more sensitive U.S. patriotic gamers out there, I apologise in advance. I do understand that the U.S. tried isolationism and after being dragged into two world wars decided that it might be better to better control its destiny. This isn’t about U.S. war policy. It’s about having to have these stock and uninteresting characters constantly form the basis of the ‘good guys’ in shooters.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way; look at Prey or Half Life 2, shooter games where the protagonist is almost Bournesque: flawed, reluctant, humble, and with a plausible physique. His companions, when he has any, aren’t always rah-rahing or tough talking. The only thing they have in common with GI Joe is that they are always American (sigh-where are the Aussies?) and that they have to fight against insurmountable odds.

Sure, characters in games like Conan or Beowulf (shudder) have these over-the-top qualities too but gritty shooter type games are not meant to be part of an imaginative mythology but of a realistic ‘could be’ scenario.

Adventure games have always had other nationalities and types as heroes from French women (Broken Sword) to Japanese men (Onimusha). It seems the more gritty and semi-realistic the game wants to be the more the Gung-Ho Gi Joe character appears. Like in movies, if fantasy sci-fi Star Wars used laser blasters, then more gritty Aliens used realistic space commando’s with more realistic bullet-guns . . . and lots of gung-ho on the side.

Besides the fact that the market for shooters seems to be predominantly American and that the shooter game developers are more often American, are there other reasons why these characters appears so often in shooters?

In response to an article entitled Militarism Is Deeply Entrenched in the American Psyche by William Astor on AlterNet.org, one commentator, undrgrndgirl, relates video game shooters to the apparent militaristic attitude that America, justly or unjustly, is known for:

“the “glory” of conquest/military success is so pervasive that it undergirds much of our collective conscious without being recognized or acknowledged (much like an alcoholic in denial) . . . . . history is largely taught from a militaristic perspective; WWII is remembered with reverence and nostalgia and its various participants are invoked for all sorts of rhetorical uses; video games are permeated with us v. them shoot ‘em ups; heck we even have a military channel!”

After all the U.S. Military even uses shooters as recruitment tools (eg. America’s Army). And for an amusing look at American Militarism in video games have a look at GameDaily.com’s America, F*@& Yeah. Yet I too enjoy shooters and I am not militaristic or American. Could it be though, that the bigger issue of violence in video games and particularly the popularity of the Gi Joe hero lies in the psyche described by William Astor . . . and that many of us non-Americans share some of these feelings? Astor writes:

“To many of these potential recruits, American culture today appears feminized — or, at least demasculinized — a mommy-state, a risk-averse society with designer drugs and syndrome-of-the-day counselors to ease our pain. In response, what we’re seeing is a romantic yearning among young men for the very hardness, the brutality even, epitomized by military service and warfare.It’s easy to dismiss such yearnings as Neanderthal. The irony is that that very dismissal creates an inviting taboo for a whole segment of young American males to challenge…war is today what sex was to society in the Victorian age, involving as it does emotions nice people don’t feel and acts nice people don’t opt to commit.”

Could this also be fueling the desire to play gung-ho militaristic shooters, where we can more safely indulge in the violent but honourable heroic endeavours of our imaginations, without risk or judgement or it moving into our real complicated and flawed lives? Is it simply a more realistic super-hero role play for our jaded psyches ? Certainly for me shooters are an escape.

It is only that I don’t relate to the GI Joe characters that disrupts my heroic fantasy. I personally much prefer a Gordon Freeman protagonist. But that does not mean that there are not many who like the super-human GI Joe role in their gameplay, especially if Astor’s assessment of U.S. Militarism being entrenched in the American psyche is correct.

What do you think? Would you like to see less GI Joe gung-hoism in shooters?

More non-American characters represented?

Or do you like the characters that are depicted?

Feel free to comment in the section below.

©2008 David Hilton.

Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Console gaming Tagged: | "First Person Shooter", America's Army, FPS, Ghoste Recon, GI Joe, Gung Ho, Mercenaries, Rainbow Six, Xbox, Xbox 360, xbox360