So Your Favorite Game is Problematic: A Beginner’s Guide

Video games were on the start of a serious streak in Spring 2013. Games like Grand Theft Auto V, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us and BioShock Infinite were scheduled to release later that year, and I had my eyes focused on God of War: Ascension — a game I expected to be the first domino in a back-to-back line of excellent games.

And then I watched Adam Sessler’s review of Ascension.



Since his beginning days on Tech TV and G4, I’ve considered Sessler to be one of the best games critics in the business. And yet here he was, criticizing the latest God of War game (and the franchise as a whole) for its poor portrayal of women and for its online trophy “Bros before Hos.”

My initial reaction? “It’s just a game, blow it off.” At the time, I felt frustrated with an opinion that went against my expectation for a positive review. If the gameplay for Ascension felt right and the game looked great, why focus on something like the game’s portrayal of women?

Up until this point, any critical thought about video games was reserved for the “Games Are Art” argument. I thought I understood why games likes Shadow of the Colossus or Half-Life 2 or Flower were reserved for these conversations, that these titles stood out for their gameplay or graphics or writing — that these games alone stood as art. And here was Sessler, discussing female representation in a series that follows a bald-headed, screaming Spartan who regularly tears foes in half with his bare hands. I was being challenged to consider the effect God of War’s portrayal of women had on women gamers, and after a few days of thought, Sessler’s critique clicked. I made the decision not to buy Ascension.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, 2013 became a year of deep analysis of the games and media I consumed. Sessler’s review was just the starting point — later conversations with my then-girlfriend (now-wife) about representation in media eventually became eye-opening. If I wanted to consider games art (which games are), then I needed to start playing games with a critical eye that reached beyond appreciating a game’s mechanics or graphics.

And still, I came across a question that I continue to ask myself: if a game has problematic elements, is it still worth playing? Finding an answer to the question is often a balancing act. In the same year I turned away from God of War, I made the decision to pick up GTA V. Although both games carried the same valid arguments about their portrayal of women, I concluded that GTA V’s story and open world sandbox was still worth playing.

I’ve found myself walking the same ethical tightrope in recent weeks, wrestling with my thoughts on Horizon Zero Dawn. On one hand, the game is gorgeous and presents a robot-dino-hunting game loop that has lured me to continue playing until the late of hours of the night. On the other hand, the game’s characters and storytelling elements are uncomfortably heavy with Native American tropes and general cultural appropriation. I’ve cringed each time a character mentions “tribes” or “braves.” The game’s matrilineal society comes across less as well-imagined and more as a hodge-podged written structure that cherry-picks off of the customs of existing Native American pueblos and communities. What’s worse is that these issues have seemingly gone unnoticed by the games press.

Thankfully, Native American writer Dia Lacina began the conversation with her Medium article, “What We Talk About, When We Don’t Talk About Natives.” Lacina criticizes both Horizon and games journos and critics for not mentioning these issues. When Horizon’s world is written as a place “‘where life has seemingly reverted to the tribal-like ways of the past,’ …The uncritical use of words like ‘primitive’ and ‘savage’ to describe appropriated cultural signifiers on large media platforms serves to reinforce racist and colonialist ideas about indigenous people.”

Reactions to Lacina’s article were mixed. John Gonzales, the game’s narrative director, defended the game’s language and art style while games critic Colin Moriarty dismissed the critique entirely.