Week 2 – Socio-Political commentary concepts:

With the basic specification and art direction devised in week 1, I had the chance to focus on the storyline aspects of the game at the end of the 1st week and the start of the 2nd.

A centre point of this project is the idea of ‘edutainment’; taking knowledge of a real-life issue, and then shaping it into a media that people will find entertaining. As they are entertained, they take in the knowledge within the piece and so are educated without truly realising it. Though this procedure is best known for its use in young children’s programs, it can be found throughout almost all media to varying degrees, as many dramas have a moral or idea at the core of their plots, usually involving one of more of the characters discovering the concept and being affected by it. A well known example of this process at work is the famous Animal Farm by George Orwell in which, through a story of animals seizing control of their farm from humanity, Orwell makes a critique of the Soviet Revolution and the USSR’s rise to power, presenting the masterminds of the union as the pigs who come to rule over the farm. Other examples include the anime works of Mamoru Oshii, who’s Jin-Roh (literally “Man-Wolf”, though commonly called The Wolf Brigade in English) depicts an alternate universe Japan puppet-governed by a war-winning Nazi Germany, but is actually a platform for Oshii-san’s protests against the real US’s post-war occupation of Japan (throughout his younger years, Oshii-san was deeply involved in student protest groups of the time), and many similarities can be found between aspects of Jin-Roh’s plot and those of real-life Japan at that point in history. Perhaps his most famous work, the first Ghost In the Shell movie, demonstrates a less political use of the process; exploring through its characters the meaning of being human, presenting a science fiction world of cybernetic humans (including a main character with a brain and upper spine her only biological parts), man-like robots and artificial intelligence to serve as a comparison to humans (as present-day Earth contains no life form that can mirror humanity like Oshii’s machines can).

*   *   *

 I intend this project to be an ‘edutainment’ piece about political extremism and its dangers, namely focused on fascist or nationalist governments such as seen in Nazi Germany. This is a topic I have great personal feelings about, and exploration or consideration of it and other aspects of politics and human interaction form the core of many of my current game ideas (and a core aspect of any future career plans). For me, edutainment represents a fundamental possibility with games to truly benefit people and improve cross-cultural relations, as opposed to simply fill time with entertainment.
The human nation, in which the story is set, Pygar, was designed to be representative of post-WWI Germany, sharing the history of bullying by foreign powers, recession and poverty, followed by a rise of nationalism and rapid industrialisation (which creates the vast industrial metropolis in which the game is set). Also incorporated are the Neko race previously mentioned, who are mistreated and discriminated against under the Pygar regime, serving to represent those groups (Jews, Gypsies, etc) who were likewise mistreated under Nazi Germany. The project will not make any direct links to the Nazis themselves; the storyline concepts create the fictional game world to entertain the audience, the audience’s mind will make the link between it and real life fascism/nationalism themselves.