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»New World«: How Amazon turns old colonial fantasies into a video game

2021-08-28T16:45:08.912Z


Amazon wants to position itself as a major developer in the gaming world. With its debut game "New World", however, the company has made a mistake in history.


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Aeternum game world: costumes, weapons and architecture are a constant reminder of the colonization of North America

Photo: Amazon Game Studios

Skeleton warriors, bizarre monsters and magical powers: "New World" is the name of the online role-playing game with which the US logistics giant Amazon now also wants to conquer the gaming world: On the fictional continent of Aeternum, players fight as courageous conquerors against malicious creatures or against each other , rise in level and become more and more powerful.

At first glance, “New World” presents itself as an exotic fantasy playground that doesn't seem to have anything to do with our world.

But if you take a closer look, you will discover problematic references to the colonial history of North America, which Amazon apparently tries to keep quiet.

Disguised colonial fantasy

The historian Felix Zimmermann from the University of Cologne, who is researching historical images in digital games as part of his doctoral thesis, analyzes for SPIEGEL those elements that make »New World« much more than a fantasy game.

He says: “First of all, the landscapes in the game seem very North American to me.

Second, it is noticeable that the style of the armor and weapons, despite fantasy elements, is based on individual chapters of North American colonization. "

An example in this context is the central advertising figure for »New World«, which is emblazoned on the front of the game packaging: It is the likeness of a man with a conquistador's helmet - a clear reference to the equipment used by the Spanish and Portuguese colonialists who died in the 16th and 17th centuries In the 19th century, large parts of North, Central and South America were forcibly taken.

There are further references to real colonial history: In a leak during a very early development stage of the game, the name of the city "Jamestown", which has since been changed, was to be seen on the world map of "New World" - this was also the name of the first British settlement in North America, the 1607 was founded.

Even the game's official FAQ places the fantasy world on a familiar timeline.

It says: "The game begins with the discovery of a mysterious new world in which players, together with hundreds of others, determine their own destiny in a harsh and supernatural world of the 17th century."

The historian Zimmermann is amazed at this sentence: »I have the impression that the game was originally much more explicitly based on the North American setting, see the explicit colonies of the leak.

Then they moved away from the historical setting - but many of the references to real history are still there. "

Problematic clichés

The fact that a fantasy game like »New World« is obviously based on concrete elements of real history is not unusual at first, on the contrary: Many development teams who create strange worlds let themselves be drawn to real landscapes, architectural styles, fashions and much more to inspire.

But »New World« is making a mistake: There are no indigenous people in the new world. In combination with the unmistakable references to the real historical colonization of America, this is a highly explosive decision, as Zimmermann explains: “At first glance, this step seems obvious for the developer. If no one lives there, one cannot steal, expel or murder indigenous people. At second glance, however, this decision is problematic because it inherits the idea of ​​an uninhabited island that is just waiting to be settled. "

In real-world colonialism one tried again and again to justify the far-reaching expansion in America with the argument of the »Terra Nullius«, that is, the »uninhabited world«, says Zimmermann: »The colonial efforts were justified by claiming that there was nobody there anyway lived and everything is uninhabited. ”This is exactly the argument that“ New World ”uses to avoid having to confront players with gradually pushing an indigenous civilian population out of the game world.

The historian would have wished for a more conscious approach to dealing with indigenous peoples as a separate cultural group in the game: »One can offer alternatives: Instead of killing them, trading with them and their villages or interacting in some other way.

But I consider it problematic to leave them out completely. "

Amazon is turning the colonial theme under the rug

»New World« will not appear until the end of September, but numerous influencers, streamers and Let's players have already presented a beta version of the game to their audience - the majority of them did so under sponsorship agreements, i.e. paid advertising partnerships with Amazon. It is noticeable that the game's handling of its own setting was not discussed in public for several weeks, despite this permanent presence. Because it's not that nobody noticed him. Amazon itself is apparently aware of the explosive implications, but does not want to talk about them.

Rocketbeans, one of the streaming magazines with the greatest reach in the German-speaking region, produced several Amazon-sponsored videos about »New World«. And of all things, it's a Let's Play by Rocketbeans, which is not part of the sponsored video series, in which an editor talks about the terms of the contract for the Amazon-funded contributions: “That is clear what it is: basically America. I noticed that they wanted to row away a bit because they noticed that the settlement of America did not go so smoothly. " Don't like it when you draw parallels with the colonization of America. «During the production of the sponsored video contributions, the Rocketbeans» noticed that this topic is reluctant to see. «

SPIEGEL asked Amazon for a statement.

So far it has not been received.

Games are also sources of education

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»New World« wants to be fantasy, but also reproduces colonial fantasies. Zimmermann sees this as a major problem with regard to the influence of games on our images of history: “Most people have their knowledge from school lessons and then the input decreases rapidly. But that does not mean that these people will never again have a picture of the past after their school days. "

Rather, other media would take the place of history lessons and help shape ideas about the past - consciously and unconsciously. »Even if you don't want to hear it: Pop culture is a main educational medium for people to shape their view of history. That means that even a game like ›New World‹, which claims to be only fiction, fails to recognize that fiction does not arise in a vacuum, but is also very often very strongly influenced by historical ideas and narratives. "

With its combination of recognizable real historical elements and the simultaneous

claim to be a fantasy game without real world references

, Amazon tries to pull itself out of a great responsibility. Games help shape knowledge - and in the case of »New World«, players learn and repeat unconsciously or consciously the same arguments that were used to justify the colonization of North America 300 years ago.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-08-28

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