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Fantasy, Realism, and the Other in Recent Video Games

Leigh Schwartz Space and Culture 2006 9: 313 DOI: 10.1177/1206331206289019 The online version of this article can be found at: http://sac.sagepub.com/content/9/3/313

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Fantasy, Realism, and the Other in Recent Video Games

Leigh Schwartz San Diego State University

Despite the growing use and complexity of the virtual environments of video games, geographers have neglected investigation of the representation of video game spaces. Game spaces are entirely artificial, and whether they feature swords-and-sorcery fantasy worlds or gritty urban streets, video game environments are embedded with metaphors and ideas for political and mythological constructs. This article examines the virtual environments of four recent games, conducting visual and textual analysis of the representation of fantasy, realism, and othering. Keywords: virtual; geography; othering; media; fantasy

From online worlds populated by thousands of players, to single-player epic fantasy landscapes, to modern-day urban fantasy environments, the complex and varied virtual geographies of video games present interactive spaces for consumption. These increasingly sophisticated artificial environments are influenced only by human imagination and technological limitation; the result is imaginary geographies that are embedded with ideas and messages, spaces of imagination that can be explored and interacted with by human beings. Video games are an increasingly popular form of entertainment; most gamers are adults, and video games earn more annually than cinema (Entertainment Software Association, 2005; Gray, 2005; Riley, 2005). However, this rapid growth has resulted in a situation in which there has been increasing academic interest in the subject, and there are insightful works to build on, yet there remains much that is not understood about interaction with and through artificial environments. My goal with this research project is to examine the relationship of fantasy and realism in terms of the representation of the familiar and the foreign in video games. Through examining video games as culturally constructed spaces of entertainment and communication, specific topics I explore include othering in foreign games, escapism

space and culture vol. 9 no. 3, august 2006 313-325 DOI: 10.1177/1206331206289019 2006 Sage Publications 313

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and virtual tourism, cultural identity and the avatar, the engaging of realistic versus fantastic environments, and violence in othering. For this research, I investigate the interactive landscapes of four popular video games featuring both fantasy and realistic environments. Using qualitative research methods and loosely applying discourse and visual analysis, I use images, textual materials, and interviews for my analysis. More specifically, I examine images and videos of the game environments, notes taken from playing each game, online group interviews with fans of the games, and Web sites and online communities. I used a USB device for my personal computer to create still images and videos, and for analysis I used Atlas.ti for coding. Each of the four games I selected is a high-quality game with a following of online fan communities, which is essential for the online interviews. Two of these games feature imaginative fantasy landscapes, while the other two present more realistic, urban environments. The variety in terms of genre, year of publication, gaming hardware, and country of origin allows for a broader analysis of gaming rather than an examination of only one or two specific games. These games were chosen for their quality and diversity of game environment. I selected Shenmue (Sega-AM2, 2000) for the Sega Dreamcast, a pioneer of the hyperrealistic urban game environment; Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North, 2004) for the Sony PlayStation 2, which features a remarkably polished urban landscape; Suikoden III (Konami, 2002) for the Sony PlayStation 2, with its unusually complex and detailed fantasy cultures; and World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004) for the personal computer, featuring a massive and very popular online game world.

Visiting Azeroth As argued by Rob Shields, if real means that something exists independently, so that other people can verify its existence, then virtual worlds, such as the Internet, online games, and video games, are certainly real. Shields (2003) suggests that though virtual spaces are real, they are not actual, physical space; they are ideal rather than actual and real rather than possible. The virtual worlds of video games exist as information. Game designers ideas are brought to life through the game environments, and when they resemble material reality, it is because the game designers have chosen to represent their ideas in terms of physical space (Adams, 2002; Dodge & Kitchin, 2001). Yet although many games do resemble physical environments, there is also an element of abstraction, even in photorealistic games, that engages players minds while providing an orderly world (Wolf, 2001, 2003). And though game environments are not physical, like other media, they can still exist as geographic space by serving social or communicative purposes (Adams, 1992). Interviews with fans of these games showed that although the games were all, in some way, fantasy, enthusiasts found each game to be realistic. For instance, fans of Shenmue emphasized its detailed urban environments, while fans of Suikoden III focused on realism in war, intolerance, and suffering. Fans discussed how certain elements of realism helped them experience the game spaces as reality. In this way, game spaces become travel spaces of a sort. The following quotations from the online group interviews, conducted via Internet Relay Chat, illustrate this:
I found the locations in Shenmue to feel very realistic. They had background sounds such as, dogs barking, bird song and crowded areas sounded crowded. The looks were

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also amazing, many of the people actually went about their lives, for example, leaving their homes, going to the shop, getting a bite to eat, then returning home. It felt like they were all real people with real lives. (Tom) Ambient sounds really add to the feel of the game. if it sounds like there are really other people around rather than just you, the character, and a bunch of non-playable characters, then you dont feel as though you are playing a game, you feel as if youre in a real town/city with other people. (Tom) Well, I think that Shenmue is particularly daring in the fact that it is trying to represent not only a specific geographical space, but also a time period. For those outside Japan who play the game, its a little like having a virtual tour of a small town in Japan - right down to the bathroom in Ryos house. (Paul) I spent more time in certain areas, reading up on certain cities, talking to everyone there. You inhabit a castle, watch areas grow. Towns, surfaces, etc . After several hours, the game has a bit of a familiar feel to it. The landscape, that is. (Don)

As indicated by these fans, realism and detail allow gamers to accept game spaces as real and visit them as tourists. Game designers seem to present their games in such a way as well. This is indicated by the following excerpts from a virtual book found in Suikoden III:
Every village and city has at least one specialty, and itd be foolish not to try them all. Here, for the first time in one book, is all you need to know about the finest sustenance your potch can buy. Theres no use going to Caleria if youre not going to indulge in their FRIED RICE.

Thus, when a player visits Caleria, he or she does not only complete the game objectives but also takes in the sights. Clearly, one aspect of engaging with game environments is this virtual tourism; game designers present the spaces as such, and as shown from the online interviews, players also spoke of the game environments in terms of visiting exotic locations. John Urry (2002) suggested that tourists gaze on something that is out of the ordinary for them, for the purpose of removing themselves from their ordinary spheres of residence and employment. Virtually visiting an exotic location, such as Caleria, Shenmues Yokosuka, or Azeroth in World of Warcraft, is certainly separate from the ordinary lives of players. Players can interact with virtual characters and engage in activities that exist only in the games, escaping from their material lives without having to go to the trouble of traveling. Yet when players accept game spaces to experience them, the abstracted and fantasy elements of the games become more real as well.

Fantasy and Realism When a player interacts with a game environment, he or she encounters both realistic and fantastic game elements. The suspension of disbelief allows a moviegoer to experience film space as reality, taking in the cultural meanings that are reproduced, challenged, or elaborated on through cinema (Aitken & Zonn, 1993; Hopkins, 1994). Similarly, the suspension of disbelief enables players to experience game spaces, causing them to take in not only the realistic and fantastic game elements but also the meanings underlying the representation.

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Figure 1. Shenmue Features Detective and Kung-Fu Fantasy Mixed Into a Modern and Extremely Realistic Yokosuka, Japan.

Source: Reproduced with permission, 2000 Sega-AM2.

Shenmue offers a highly realistic and detailed urban setting, in this case a small Japanese town in the 1980s (see Figure 1). Integrated into the game are also fighting segments that are part of a heroic fantasy story. Although the fantasy and realistic elements might not mesh well, as discussed by one of the interviewees, the use of the realistic environments might help players accept the fantasy elements as well.
On the one hand, you have this attempt to be slavishly accurate to 1985 Japan, and then on the other, you have all these martial-arts movie elements. I think perhaps the idea was that the realism of the setting would make the martial-arts segments more believable. (Paul)

Similarly, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas combines a gritty urban setting with a violent fantasy element that leads to escapism. Although Shenmue was an earlier pioneer of this immersive urban fantasy environment, San Andreas polishes its presentation for a stronger blend of urban fantasy. When asked about the urban setting, the interviewees responded by emphasizing the fantasy elements of the game:
The level of destruction in SA [San Andreas] was unrealistic, but the fact is that the things in the game do happen on a regular basis. (Jennifer) Even though the violence in San Andreas was probably made excessive to boost sales, I think they ended up painting a more realistic picture of modern culture and society than they had intended. (Jennifer) If GTA [Grand Theft Auto] were set in my hometown, Id still be stealing cars, doing missions, engaging in criminal acts . . . totally removed from the mundane. (Paul)

Because of this combination of fantasy and realism, differentiating the two elements becomes difficult. At what point do the carjackings and drive-by shootings become fantasy? With the incorporation of both elements, players are able to accept the fantasy as part of the game reality. In Suikoden III, the setting is a fantasy world that strives for realism through a detailed and layered portrayal of imaginary cultures (see Figure 2). The fantasy cultures, at war in this game, are portrayed through clothing, food, architecture, music, dialogue, and story events. This level of detail in the presentation seemed to impress the fans of the game; during interviews, they emphasized this aspect of Suikoden III:
well the cultures can be realistic because they have their own ways of life and all that. clothing etc. (Scott)

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Figure 2. Suikoden III Portrays Detailed Fantasy Cultures Through Game Play, Game Architecture, and the Narrative.

Source: Reproduced with permission, 1995, 2002 Konami.

The games try to present all the cultures equally. Each civilization has its own architecture, its own belief system, its own politics. And like in the real world, theres a lot of bigotry and misunderstanding about what other cultures are like. (Edward) but unlike the real world, theres a lot of after-school-special style lets all understand each other (James)

In other words, a thorough and realistic presentation makes fantasy cultures more believable. Like Suikoden III, World of Warcraft presents a fantasy world that attempts its own internal consistency, pitting players against other players in the epic battle of Horde versus Alliance. World of Warcraft does not achieve the detail in cultural representation evidenced by Suikoden III but offers something the other does not: a fantasy world populated by real people. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online game in which thousands of gamers play in the same world at the same time. This adds an undeniable realness to the interaction of the game; although players do not actually defeat hideous monsters, the fact that others share that experience with them adds to the fantasy. Games such as this superimpose a fantasy adventure over simple online chat, merging fantasy with real human interaction. With each game, the fantasy and realistic aspects of the environment blend to become a believable, fantastic place for players to visit, just as people imagine faraway places when reading stories about foreign countries. This blending of fantasy and reality is interesting in and of itself; combined with an element of control over the environment, this allows for escapist entertainment:
Well, just that, if you mix a realistic setting with a fantastic story, thats escapism right there. Thats something you could never do in real life, in those real settings. (Paul) If a game has nothing but unrealistic fantasy elements then it just flies away, you cant get into it as well. Its the little things like having to eat or shop, the kind of things we all do every day, that ties it down and allows you to feel like a part of it. (Jennifer) Yeah, back to my example of the Girl making the blossom blow around her. Obviously nobody could do that in real life. If the player can do magical things, or do something they cant do in real life then they feel as though they can do anything. The modern environments help the player feel like its really happening because they can relate to that environment because they live in a similar environment. (Tom) The modern setting itself isnt entirely necessary IMO [in my opinion], a fantasy environment with a great level of detail that retains elements of real life will work just as well for me. (Jennifer)

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318 s p a c e a n d c u l t u r e / a u g u s t 2 0 0 6 Escapism all boils down to control, the more control you have over the game environment and your character the more you lose your self in it. Even if its only control over your own character and not the npcs [nonplayer characters]. (Jennifer) GTA makes you feel like youre god. You can kill anyone and do pretty much anything you want without any rules. In Shenmue you help people. For example, a character was being beaten up for his money. You then come and help him and beat up the bullies. You then help the bully later who gets bullied. Helping people is also a great feeling. Maybe in real life you cant beat the bully. In the game you can do anything you want to. (Tom)

The gamers touch on an interesting aspect of the medium. In video games, not only are game worlds rendered in a way unlike that of film or literature, but games also offer players some degree of control over environments that can be explored at will (Woods, 2004). Yet players interact with environments in forms foreseen and coded by the game designers. Through this, through rescuing the helpless in Shenmue or through killing in San Andreas, players not only take in but participate in the geographical ideas that are embedded into the game spaces. One type of representation of geographical ideas is through equating fantasy cultures to real-life cultures, to real-life cultural traditions such as Eastern or Western, or to mythologies (see Figure 3). This was observed by the gamers during interviews as well, such as this interviewees comment about the geography of Suikoden III:
Many of the towns in Suikoden III were caricatures of towns from different periods in the world. (Don)

But in video game spaces, these representations are scaled down, stylized, and simplified to the point at which, as Dons word choice indicates, they become caricatures rather than accurate representations. Just as the fantasy elements are a form of abstraction, this reduction of complexity is an abstraction as well. By abstracting in this way, even a realistic game becomes an involving yet comprehensible environment for the player (Wolf, 2003). With this more orderly world, players can accept and understand game cultures and landscapes. The environment intrigues players and draws attention to the ideas portrayed through the space. In Suikoden III, the more Western nation is portrayed as corrupt yet advanced, whereas the indigenous nation similar to Japans Ainu is portrayed as innocent and unsophisticated. The Chinese villains of Shenmue make danger seem to come from abroad, reflecting a view of modern Japan as a destination for foreign negativity. And in World of Warcraft, modern corporation The Venture Company, with its blue-collar workers, mines, and clear-cutting operations, is the enemy of players on both sides of the conflict. Although the negative portrayal of a massive corporation is nothing new, the juxtaposition of the evil corporation with blue-collar employees, all directly damaging the natural environment, makes an interesting statement about modern corporate culture. These cultural meanings are further complicated by the effect of identity through the avatar, a players character in a game. Identity and space influence political and social perceptions, while race and identity also shape a players perspective and role in a game environment (Ow, 2000; Shome, 2003). Furthermore, if games offer players the opportunity to escape the mundane and gaze on the exotic, the provision of exotic identities allows players to escape from their material identities as well as the physical world (Nakamura, 2002; Urry, 2002). In the examples listed above, Suikoden III allows players

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Figure 3. The Interactive Environments of Video Games Range From the Imaginative Fantasy Cultures of Suikoden III to the Highly Realistic Cityscapes of Shenmue.

Source: Reproduced with permission, 1995, 2002 Konami, 2000 Sega-AM2.

to not only explore the indigenous Grasslands culture or the sophisticated Zexen Federation but also to experience these cultures from different social roles. The perception of the Zexen Federation is influenced as the player experiences the towns first as an enemy, then as a leader, and finally as a neutral outsider. The feel of Shenmue could change significantly if the hero were Chinese, exploring a Japanese town as a foreigner. And although in World of Warcraft, the players identity opposes the evil Venture Company, this role might either challenge or reinforce the players existing beliefs about corporate culture and blue-collar workers. With World of Warcraft, the real-time interaction of players makes it easy to see what gamers make of these geographic ideas. To examine it further, in World of Warcraft, the more Western, or possibly First World, Alliance fights the more non-Western, or Third World, Horde. Although both cultures are presented more or less equally, with equal resources and impressive capital cities, many players insist that the Alliance are the good guys, and its easy to see why: One look at the Alliances bald eagle gryphon mounts is enough to show that the Alliance are us in this war. With the fantasy trappings of this game, designers mask a world infused with modern constructions and messages as a fantastic world, influencing the way players take in these constructions and messages. Perhaps the representation of the Alliance as owning a large library is a reflection of the idea of Western learning, for instance.

Othering the Virtual Additionally, othering plays a strong role in the representation of culture in each of these games. Representations of foreign cultures reveal not only opinions and beliefs about the cultures being depicted, but also quite a bit about the cultures of the authors (Said, 1978). This has been explored not only with fiction and nonfiction but also through travel writing, advertising, film, digital media, and other forms (Duncan & Gregory, 1999; Konzett, 2004; Moeran, 1996; Shaheen, 2003; Sorenson, 1991). Christopher Douglass (2002) exploration of orientalism in the Civilization game series reveals the ways in which game designers reinforce cultural meanings while appearing to challenge them. Each of the four games explored in this article attempts to represent familiar and exotic cultures. With a single-player game, the interaction is between the player and the game itself. Shenmue, a Japanese game, features a Japanese protagonist who must fight Chinese martial artists and Japanese gang members to avenge the death of his father. The player takes on this role, investigating with a distinction between Japanese and foreign. The

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representation of ordinary Chinese immigrants, owners of Chinese food restaurants and barber shops, as knowledgeable about the Chinese mafia isolates and draws attention to foreigners in Japan. Although the Chinese residents are portrayed as exotic, the representation is not overly negative, seeming more descriptive of the reality of the social roles of foreigners in a small Japanese town in the mid-1980s. And yet the Chinese, be they ordinary citizens, villains, or allies, are clearly different from the Japanese protagonist. This othering is engaged by the player toward virtual inhabitants of the game world. On the other hand, the more cynical and violent Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas does not identify foreigners as different or dangerous; instead, the player runs a gang that is at war with every other element of the city. With a paranoid and somewhat sociopathic viewpoint, the player takes on not two or three but hundreds of others by engaging in virtual violence. These others include opposing inner-city gangs, corrupt police officers, and ordinary citizens of varied economic and racial backgrounds. Gonzalo Frasca (2003) argued that the environment of Grand Theft Auto 3 is entirely immoral and that the lack of virtue and humanity converts virtual characters into potential victims. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, like Grand Theft Auto 3, also portrays an immoral city governed by greed, corruption, and violence, a city populated by offensively caricaturized and dehumanized others who are thus acceptable targets for violence. Both San Andreas and Shenmue feature urban environments, and both use othering in varying degrees, together with fantasy elements, to provide players with powerful roles in these large cities. Rather than merely providing a role for players, in Suikoden III, game designers used othering as a narrative theme. The more European nation, the mercantile Zexen Federation, fights a war with the indigenous hunter-gatherer nation of Grasslands. In a move somewhat unique among other such games, Suikoden III allows players to experience both sides of the conflict. By using a chapter format, players experience each segment of the war first from one side and then from the other. Although Zexen is vilified during the Grasslands chapters, Grasslands is similarly dehumanized from the Zexen point of view. Through this format, players identify first with one culture and then the other, engaging and challenging their notions about war. While this is happening, the games narrative events lead to Zexen and Grasslands learning to coexist peacefully. Suikoden III uses known interactive and narrative methods to draw on and challenge players own tendencies to other the unknown while telling a story about overcoming cultural intolerance. With this portrayal, a keen awareness of othering emphasizes the natural tendency to define and fear the unfamiliar. Once again, the massively multiplayer status of World of Warcraft makes it a different experience from these other games. Rather than merely accepting the fantasy and regarding virtual beings as foreign, online players engage in othering toward one another. The majority of the players on the North American servers are American or Canadian, yet it is not along real-life boundaries that players divide themselves. Instead, players are at war with players of the opposing faction. The game encourages animosity by disabling communication between factions (through languages) and allowing players to attack only members of the other faction. What was surprising to me was the enthusiasm with which many players took sides in this virtual conflict. I experienced the game on a role-playing server and observed that some players would role-play hatred and bigotry to make the game environment more real to them. This role-played intolerance made it appear that players did not really care to escape from the social problems of material life as much as, perhaps, the unfair, real-life dimensions of these problems. Additionally, the players often took this dislike outside of a role-playing environment,

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complaining about the other faction on message boards or in game chat. I hate the Alliance, said one player in Horde chat. They should all just die and go to hell. Although the war, the Alliance, and the Horde are all fantasy, the feelings of triumph, frustration, or anger experienced by players in virtual conflict are certainly real. Conclusion Examining games as culturally constructed spaces reveals how fantasy, realism, and control are used to create virtual destinations for players to visit and escape from the mundane. Realistic and fantastic environments alike communicate cultural meanings that are experienced not only through game environments but also through avatars, identities provided for players. When experiencing these virtual spaces and the ideas embedded in the representation, game designers and players alike bring othering to the experience. Is there no us if there is no them? Even many of those games that do not involve war seem to establish foreigners as dangerous or, at the very least, different. Some of these games are Japanese, and some are American, and yet both define the foreign in opposition to themselves. For instance, the Japanese game Suikoden III portrays two fantasy cultures, each distinct from Japan in different ways. Zexen is mercantile, sophisticated, and corrupt, highlighting a belief of Japan as influenced by foreign infrastructure and corruption in the postWorld War II reconstruction. Similarly, to the hierarchical Japanese, the tribal Grasslanders are egalitarian as well as animist. In the American World of Warcraft, the more Western faction is learned, sophisticated, and religious, whereas the other faction is tribal, spiritual, and struggles to overcome a dark cultural history. These representations reflect the designers views of their own cultures, a viewpoint that is taken on by gamers through interaction with the virtual environment. When a game is translated and shipped overseas, these viewpoints become distorted. Zexen and Grasslands are no longer defined in opposition to Japan but rather are compared with players own cultures. Perhaps players will relate to the more Western Zexen Federation or feel drawn to the exotic Grasslands. In World of Warcraft, the Western imagery and the bald eagle gryphon mentioned earlier probably hold an entirely different meaning on the Chinese servers. Lisa Nakamura (2002) has argued that virtual identities in online spaces reinforce racial stereotypes and offer stereotyped avatars for consumption. As asserted by Nakamura, although online identities are fluid, they are also defined by cultural hegemonies. Games such as those in the Civilization series reinforce imperialism while masking this ideology through providing exotic cultures for play (Douglas, 2002). Similarly, the games explored in this article provide exotic avatars that allow players to experience alternate identities while reinforcing a comfortable view of the other. A player of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas experiences the game as an African American gang member, a sympathetic avatar that provides identity escapism without causing discomfort by challenging the players views of inner-city gangs. And although Suikoden III challenges notions about war, the presentation of an innocent and unsophisticated tribal culture and a sophisticated yet corrupt Western culture are likely to fall comfortably within players expectations. Shenmue, on the other hand, provides an exotic identity even to Japanese players: Ryo, the protagonist, is a skilled martial artist who explores the Japanese underworld, an opportunity not available to the typical high school student. To North American gamers, there is an added dimension of identity tourism through exploring Japan as a Japanese person.

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Like Suikoden III, World of Warcraft provides a variety of potential identities for players. But because of its status as a massively multiplayer online game, anywhere that World of Warcraft might challenge cultural hegemonies, players are free to assert their own, more comfortable viewpoints. This contributes to the fan discourse insisting that the Alliance are the heroes of the game, despite the obvious attempt by game designers for equality between the factions. Thus, through collaborative effort between the players and the designers, virtual spaces reproduce larger ideological patterns. Unlike most other media, games portray domestic and foreign cultures in a space that can be directly experienced by players. When players suspend disbelief to take in a game environment, they participate in and perhaps reinforce these views of what is foreign and what is familiar. People bring perceptions and beliefs to these fictional, recreational spaces spaces that are entirely artificial, made of, in a way, ideas rather than physical space. Although the realistic, urban environments gain authenticity in their resemblance to real-life spaces, the fantasy landscapes might gain a more uncritical acceptance. With San Andreas, players are concerned with how well the game mimics real life. Where it and Shenmue succeed and fail in this area was a popular topic for discussion in the group interviews. Elements of representation in urban games that might be directly compared to real life include the callous disregard for players victims in San Andreas, as well as the representation of race and economics. On the other hand, Suikoden III fans seemed to enjoy analysis of the series, but they focused on the abstract, such as the validity of the philosophy of complete cultural tolerance. It is a subtle distinction, but whereas the cities of San Andreas might obviously fail to accurately represent urban life in some way, fantasy environments such as that of Suikoden III require examination in terms of the fantasy worlds own internal consistency and mythological tradition. Thus, a distinction in the way players engage in realistic and unrealistic fantasy emerges. Although all four games include realistic and fantasy elements, the dominating environmental characteristics seemed to encourage either connection to or distancing from real life. An idealized representation of war further engages players through a blending of fantasy and realism. From the urban street wars of San Andreas and Shenmue to the epic fantasy wars of Suikoden III and World of Warcraft, a defining feature is that war becomes fun. San Andreas is violent, but there is little suffering as a result of the violence. When the player kills a civilian, he or she will not hear weeping from nearby passersby but rather exclamations of Wow, Im glad that isnt me! In Shenmue, the victims of the players heroics are thugs and mobsters, justifying the violence. And in Suikoden III and World of Warcraft both, war is represented as tragic but as less tragic than real-life war. All of these games justify violence just as they justify war: Typically, the justification is that the players are not, after all, killing real people; and in World of Warcraft, in which there is a real player behind each character, death is temporary. This allows players to enjoy violence without experiencing any guilt. Combined with the dehumanization the World of Warcraft players direct toward one another, war becomes a contest of skill, a sport in which teams are evenly matched and either side could win. That one team reveals a Western or First World influence whereas the other is more tribal or Third World in style betrays a highly idealized view of the real world. When players voluntarily role-play bigotry toward one another, it is done in an environment in which no race holds undue power over another. Life may not be fair, but life in Azeroth surely is.

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Video games centered on aggressive human conflict emphasize the role of dehumanization in justifying war and violence. But how does this reflect media representations of modern wars? In real life, war propaganda strives toward the same goal in dehumanization: to allow soldiers to kill without guilt and to allow civilians to support war without guilt. Suikoden III can challenge players notions about war through interactive and story elements. At the same time, San Andreas provides an identity and environment in which even the most mild-mannered players can become merciless criminals. These two examples are merely fantasy; what effect could be created by game representations of actual, present-day wars? Within a geographical context, these games speak to modern American gamers in different ways. Shenmue, a foreign and pre-9/11 game, is somewhat lighthearted, with Chinese mobsters who wield martial arts rather than guns and bombs. Suikoden III features a compassionate and somewhat tragic representation of both sides of a war. Although the selection is small, both of these Japanese games represent stronger antiwar themes than the other games and feature sympathetic or stylized foreign villains. On the other hand, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas represents urban war as brutal and violent, with enemies residing around every corner; this might resonate with gamers saturated with media images of danger. And the recent World of Warcraft features the most idealized war of all of these four games. Both sides of the conflict are portrayed as equally strong, and the tragedy of war is seen rarely. Suitably for its medium, war is truly a game. The reasons for portrayal of war in such a way most likely reflects the desire to represent a utopian environment meant to inspire gamers to continue to pay a monthly fee. Yet this representation seems well in line with the representation of Americas ideological wars on the evening news, in which the days deaths in Iraq are mentioned but only in passing, along with discussion of the progress of Iraqi democracy, and in which, like World of Warcraft, corpses and grieving families are shown briefly if at all. As foreign or domestic products, the ideological messages of these games participate in the larger cultural pattern of media representations of war. This is relevant not only because games participate in this but also because of their existence as virtual environments: People visit these sanitized war spaces and engage in virtual violence for fun; this could reflect a fascination with our own far-off wars. This research begins to explore what is potentially a very interesting and important field. How people relate to others through virtual environments, as well as how they relate to the virtual environments themselves is a question that has interesting implications in an age when people frequently communicate through technology, such as the telephone and the Internet, sometimes without ever meeting face to face. Can the ways that people interact with game environments be taken as a reflection of the ways they interact with other virtual environments? This encourages future research overlapping interaction with video games and interaction through the Internet. Examining these four games leads to the question of why so many games reproduce war, hatred, and racism. Some games feature nonviolent conflict, such as Animal Crossing, Tetris, and Dance Dance Revolution. But many games seem to represent human hatred and violence as the central conflict. Even the utopian games, such as World of Warcraft, feature war. Does this reflect a lack of variety in the games industry, and if so, why is this the case? Is it simply a feature of a young medium, or are people more universally drawn to these human conflicts? What role do virtual environments play in the larger cultural situation with media and entertainment? This research only begins to explore such questions, in a broad field that could reveal fascinating insights into the representation of space in media and human interaction with virtual environments.

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Leigh Schwartz recently graduated with a master of arts in geography from San Diego State University. Her current research interests include the representation of and interaction with the virtual spaces of video games, the Internet, and other visual media. She will begin doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2006.

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