Is it a coincidence that Valve re-uses those landscapes to great effect in Left 4 Dead? What Romero was saying about the fears of Middle America is as relevant now as it was fifty years ago – it's just that the religio-political enemies have changed. George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is more widely linked with the Civil Rights Movement, but there is an anti-Commie fervour about his military figures – plus, the fact that the survivors barricade themselves into a quaint rural farmhouse hints at an idealised America under attack from opposing cultural forces. Survival horror games, too, betray one of the roots of the zombie genre: McCarthyist paranoia. The Locust Hordes, the Chimera – they're Al-Qaeda in scary masks. The modern equivalent is the equally airy and supernatural 'war on terrorism' although Insomniac and Epic may not intend it, their games communicate a national malaise, an underlying tension directed at an unknown and unknowable alien culture. The underlying influences may be similar too – the great sci-fi explosion of the fifties was fuelled by Senator McCarthy's anti-communist witchhunts, the fear of 'the other' devouring the American way of life. Alien races seeking to exterminate mankind and rule the world, secret collusions between world leaders, scientists and the invaders - the themes are almost identical. In the America of the fifties and sixties, schoolboys were obsessed with baseball cards, in Japan it was all about 'konchuusaishuu', insect collecting – a pastime that influenced Miyamoto to design the Mario universe, and Satoshi Tajiri to create Pokemon.Īs for the influence of American post-war culture, two of this year's biggest shooter's Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 are in thrall to the fifties sci-fi tropes introduced by writers like Ray Bradbury and Robert A Heinlein. Even the very structure of Japanese games – specifically the convention of the final boss battle - may owe something to Little Boy.īut at times there is also a pastoral element – a longing for the simple life before the mass industrialisation and urban sprawl of the modern age. It is there in the haunted, abandoned townscapes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, where mutation and death are prevalent. You can also see the shadow of Hiroshima in the great RPG series', which often feature worlds on the precipice of complete destruction. His influence on Japanese videogame design is enormous. Tezuka Osamu, creator of Astro Boy and widely regarded as the father of manga, explored transformation and technology throughout his career, often returning to WWII for inspiration. The devastating nuclear attacks had a profound effect on the nation's collective psyche, leading to preoccupations with apocalyptic destruction and horrific mutation which have haunted popular culture ever since, from the Godzilla movies, to the Armageddon-obsessed manga of Akira and Fist of the North Star and of course, on to videogames. Many of the themes and conventions we see today can be traced back to one defining event, or rather two – the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Look at Japanese videogame culture, for example. A lot of the games we're playing today have roots that go back fifty years… The Second World War and its immediate aftermath continue to exert a much wider influence over videogame design. And actually, there could be more going on with CoD: World at War, Battlefield and Brothers in Arms than just the convenience of a conflict that featured lots of different theatres, relatively modern weapons and some meaty bad guys. Sometimes it seems as though the videogame industry looks only sideways at Hollywood, sport and music, or forward to the next technological advances.īut of course, the ongoing obsession with World War Two shows that the past is a rich source of material for videogame developers. The reliance on high-end technology, the profusion of modern obsessions like social networking, licensed rock tracks and corporate branding. It's tempting to think of videogames as completely contemporary.
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