prompt #5- internet and spread of video games

The history of racial video games dates back well before the introduction of the internet, when video games were created and bought and played with a physical disk (or in that time, floppy disk). At this time video games were rarely played because if you didn’t have a copy of the disk you weren’t playing. Fast forward to the days of the internet and you have the ease of logging onto your computer and playing countless games at any time of the day. But lets back track a little bit, at the start of the internet you had dial up internet and the video quality was very raw. This allowed for very slow and basic games. One of the most known game at that time would be Custards Revenge.

Custards Revenge is a video game that has a white man (general custard) and an Indian women. General Custard is naked and has a erection, where as the Indian women is also naked and has very defined breasts to show that she is naked. It is also important to point out that she is tied to a poll. The point of this game is for general Custard to dodge arrows all the while getting closer to the Indian women and to win the game you have to get close enough and rape her without being hit by an arrow. This game shows that at the very advent of the internet there were people making video games. More importantly we see the white nationalist ideology of a white man raping a minor (Indian).

We move on to the present day of internet technology though. With the increase in availability and connectivity to the internet, it is possible to be on the web 24/7 anywhere. Whether it be at home on your computer or on your smart phone you can connect and play video games. While writing this post currently on the Android market there are no games that have racial motivated titles to be downloaded onto my phone but that does not mean there are none available with different names and a hidden agenda in the game.

Going back to the computer though we have seen the increase in graphics on video games on the internet which is very scary. The realistic graphics I have seen on some games makes you feel like you are actually watching a real life movie rather than a video game. How I see this becoming a problem is with the youth seeing this game and playing it and with its great graphics think that what is being depicted in the game something that is ok to do in real life, where it could be from hate crimes, assault, murder or rape.

The internet has done some definite marvels to our society today but from what we have learned in class it has became a gateway for white nationalists to spread their ideologies and beliefs faster then ever before. Continuing this idea we can say their ideologies are becoming involved with more and more video games today. And the ease for getting ahold of these games are becoming easier and easier each day. Kids now are growing up relying on the computer and internet for everyday functions and they have a hard time determining what is acceptable and not acceptable. For example look at martinlutherking.org and the youth may think it is a true factual website but rather it is a cloaked site. Video games are not as cloaked as this but in the minds of a child they may think a video game where there is a lot of violence is ok but the only killing going on is the killing of minorities.