Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games

361 Pages·2020·17.809 MB·English

by  Christopher B. Patterson

Open World Empire
POSTMILLENNIAL POP
General Editors: Karen Tongson and Henry Jenkins
Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of Empire Antisocial Media: Anxious Labor in the
Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns Digital Economy
Greg Goldberg
Spreadable Media: Creating Value and
Meaning in a Networked Culture Open TV: Innovation beyond Hollywood
Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and and the Rise of Web Television
Joshua Green Aymar Jean Christian
Media Franchising: Creative License and More Than Meets the Eye: Special Effects
Collaboration in the Culture Industries and the Fantastic Transmedia Franchise
Derek Johnson Bob Rehak
Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Playing to the Crowd: Musicians,
Guerrilla Marketing Audiences, and the Intimate Work
Michael Serazio of Connection
Nancy K. Baym
Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black
Masculinities Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and
Mark Anthony Neal Queer Possibility
Alexis Lothian
From Bombay to Bollywood: The Making
of a Global Media Industry Anti- Fandom: Dislike and Hate in the
Aswin Punathambekar Digital Age
Edited by Melissa A. Click
A Race So Different: Performance and
Law in Asian America Social Media Entertainment:
Joshua Takano Chambers- Letson The New Intersection of
Hollywood and Silicon Valley
Surveillance Cinema
Stuart Cunningham and David Craig
By Catherine Zimmer
Video Games Have Always Been Queer
Modernity’s Ear: Listening to Race and
Bonnie Ruberg
Gender in World Music
Roshanak Kheshti The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle
in American Culture
The New Mutants: Superheroes and the
Michael Serazio
Radical Imagination of American Comics
Ramzi Fawaz The Dark Fantastic: Race and the
Imagination from Harry Potter to the
Restricted Access: Media, Disability, and
Hunger Games
the Politics of Participation
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
Elizabeth Ellcessor
The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies
The Sonic Color Line: Race and the
to Model Minorities
Cultural Politics of Listening
Tara Fickle
Jennifer Lynn Stoever
Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the
Diversión: Play and Popular Culture in
Global Rise of Video Games
Cuban America
Christopher B. Patterson
Albert Sergio Laguna
Open World Empire
Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games
Christopher B. Patterson
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
www.nyupress.org
© 2020 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Patterson, Christopher B., author.
Title: Open world empire : race, erotics, and the global rise of video games /
Christopher B. Patterson.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2020] | Series: Postmillennial pop |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019030785 | ISBN 9781479802043 (cloth) | ISBN 9781479895908
(paperback) | ISBN 9781479886029 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479886364 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Video games—Social aspects. | Video games—Political aspects.
Classification: LCC GV1469.34.S52 P375 2020 | DDC 794.8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030785
New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials
are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli-
ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
For Y- Dang and Kai
In loving memory of Donald Goellnicht,
who played and slipped away.

Contents
List of Figures ix
Introduction: Touching Empire, Playing Theory 1
Part I. Asiatic
1. Global Game: Race \ Play / Intimacy 37
2. Ludophile: Author \ Auteur / Asian 77
3. Ars Erotica: Utopia \ Aphrodisia / Role Play 112
[Pause] 150
Part II. Erotics
4. Posture: Plunge \ Dread / Vulnerability 157
5. Loop: Violence \ Pleasure / Far Cry 194
6. E- motion: Transpacific \ Virtual / Blur 232
Coda 271
Acknowledgments 273
Notes 277
References 309
Index 331
About the Author 349

List of Figures
I.1. A set of doors in The Stanley Parable. 5
I.2. Jill proving herself to the Queen in Mighty Jill Off. 12
1.1. Overwatch’s character selection screen. 66
1.2. Overwatch’s in- game textbox chats. 73
2.1. Shenmue II: Ryo in Hong Kong. 94
2.2. ScottishDuck17 bows before Shenmue and Shenmue II. 95
2.3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Alavi’s “No Russian” level. 108
2.4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Credit sequence in
an unnamed country (Saudi Arabia). 110
3.1. The dialogue wheel in Mass Effect (Wrex and Shepard). 129
4.1. Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire.” Stripe stabs a roach
with MASS activated. 167
4.2. Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire.” The same roach seen
without MASS. 167
4.3. Haze. Massacred civilians with Nectar activated. 172
4.4. Haze. Massacred civilians without Nectar activated. 172
4.5. Centipede “Arcade Girl” in plunge position.
Electronic Games magazine, 1982. 176
5.1. Far Cry 4. Selfie with Ajay Ghale and Pagan Min. 195
5.2. Far Cry 4. Hang glider near rebel village. 196
5.3. Far Cry. Jack Carver. 216
5.4. Far Cry 2. Using the in- game map while driving. 229
6.1. Book jacket for Transpacific Studies: Framing
an Emerging Field. 239
6.2. “Guam: Pacific hub to Asia” by Craig Santos Perez. 242
ix