{"id":15847,"date":"2018-03-22T21:54:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T21:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/315758"},"modified":"2018-03-22T21:54:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T21:54:00","slug":"how-and-why-you-should-better-represent-muslims-in-your-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/03\/22\/how-and-why-you-should-better-represent-muslims-in-your-games\/","title":{"rendered":"How (and why) you should better represent Muslims in your games"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve worked on games that misrepresented Muslims, and I had no choice in the matter. I tried to make them better; sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I did not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With those words, game designer Osama Dorias took the stage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today to talk about why positive representation of Muslims in games is important, and share practical steps devs can take to improve the portrayal of Islam in their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

His goal with that statement was to make it clear that his message is not an attack or a reprimand: instead, Dorias wants fellow devs to think hard about their assumptions, and work to represent Islam and Muslim communities as they are —\u00a0not as they\u2019re sometimes portrayed. Games are creative works with vast reach, and they have great power to help or harm communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMuslims have a public image problem. And it\u2019s sometimes dangerous to be Muslim,\u201d he said, alluding to the modern political landscape. \u201cSo we need help addressing the public image problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he points out that despite the recent surge in anti-Muslim sentiment, representation is\u00a0not a new problem — instead, Dorias encourages fellow devs to look at the way negative portrayals of Muslims is often cyclic. In the \u201890s film Three Kings, for example, a \u201cbad\u201d Muslim viciously shoots a \u201cgood\u201d Muslim in the head at point-blank range, creating a victim for the three (American) heroes to avenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

“A Muslim can look like anyone”<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cSolely portraying us as victims justifies the wars that make<\/em> us victims,\u201d said Dorias.<\/span><\/p>\n

To debunk common assumptions, Dorias\u00a0did his best with the time he had: he pointed out that fewer than 15 percent of Muslims are Arab, though you’d never guess it from looking at games.\u00a0The biggest Muslim country is actully Indonesia, \u201ca peaceful country that doesn\u2019t get involved in anything,\u201d and the second biggest is India, where Muslims are actually the minority.<\/span><\/p>\n

He then asked devs in the audience to picture what a Muslim looks like, waited a moment, and then asked again: now what does a Christian look like? What does an atheist look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA Muslim can look like anyone,\u201d said Dorias. \u201cAnd the more Muslims you meet, the more this is a no-brainer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To give devs some examples of positive representations, Dorias\u00a0pointed to video game characters like Deus Ex: Human Revolution<\/em>‘s bad-ass pilot Faridah Malik, or comic book superhero Kamala Khan, as a very respectful and authentic portrayal in pop culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Kamala Khan]\u00a0comics speak to me, even though I\u2019m not Pakistani, I\u2019m not a woman, and I\u2019m not a teenager,\u201d said Dorias. \u201cWhy is that? It\u2019s because her story is authentic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re not sure whether or not some aspect of your game is an authentic portrayal of Muslim culture, Dorias\u00a0says don\u2019t be afraid to come and (politely) ask someone at your studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask us an offensive question, you may offend us once but you\u2019ll never offend us with that question again\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t ask us and put that offense in your video game, you\u2019ll offend us forever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(And if you don’t know many — or any — Muslims, maybe do something about that!)<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you can, get a consultant with expertise on the matter.<\/span>\u00a0Dorias\u00a0says checking in with friends and colleagues is good, but contracting an expert is better. He also encourages\u00a0fellow game makers to insist on authentic voice acting, saying that\u00a0it really does make a huge difference — even if it doesn’t sound like it to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

To illustrate his point, Dorias\u00a0highlighted Egyptian voice actress\u00a0Aysha Selim’s portrayal of\u00a0Overwatch<\/em>\u200b’s Egyptian sniper Ana Amari. It’s authentic casting, which is something of a rarity in big-budget game development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by some Egyptians that if you are Egyptian, you can tell exactly which part of Egypt she\u2019s from,\u201d says Dorias. \u201cShe\u2019s even about the same age as her character. So when Ana speaks, you will never mistake her for another character. Isn\u2019t that awesome?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

And if, like\u00a0Overwatch,<\/em> you work on a game with a big\u00a0a roster of characters, Dorias\u00a0has a simple request: \u201cplease include us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing because it normalizes us,\u201d said Dorias. \u201cWe are normal, so we need your help pushing that to other people so that they can see we\u2019re normal as well. We have other interests, other aspects of our personality, than just being Muslim.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also asks that devs who make games with character customization take the time to include things like hijabs and khimars. And if you’re going to include Islamic symbols or Muslim rituals (prayers, etc) in your game, Dorias\u00a0says you should either make sure it’s authentic or just cut it entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOur rituals are precise; my friends from First Nations have the exact same comment\u201d said Dorias. \u201cIf you\u2019re not going to do the research or hire a consultant, then just don\u2019t include the ritual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, Dorias\u00a0speaks out against \u201cArabistan\u201d — that sandy-brown war-torn foreign country that appears in countless games under various names. He encourages fellow devs to go beyond that cliched stereotype and be more imaginative in their choice of setting, pointing to Overwatch<\/em>‘s\u00a0bright, beautiful portrayl of Iraq in its Oasis map as a great example.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Iraq; never once did I project a bright future for my country,\u201d said Dorias, choking up for a moment. \u201cTo see someone else do it…I hope you realize how meaningful this is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone then ran onstage to give him a quick hug, and after a moment he continued. \u201cThis is very meaningful, and I hope it touches others in a positive way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThings are getting better, but we still have a long way to go,\u201d concluded Dorias. \u201cMuslims…all we want is to be included in this conversation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve worked on games that misrepresented Muslims, and I had no choice in the matter. I tried to make them better; sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I did not.\u201d With those words, game designer Osama Dorias took the stage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today to talk about why positive representation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}