Can video games engage with decolonial discourse?

In most computer games, the character you play is the conquering hero.

Think of Civilization, Skyrim, Doom, Mario, Zelda...

Even if your job is to be a 'goody' and bring peace to the land, or rescue the princess, you do it pretty much single-handed, as the legendary savior slaying the 'baddies'. While the narrative might not be so explicit, you are usually acting as the colonizer of another land, people or world.

Skyrim is a great example. I love this game, but whichever race you choose at the beginning, you come into Skyrim as an outsider that no-one knows. Like so many stories that boil down into battles of knights and kings, you are 'the chosen one' Matrix style: despite so many other competent allies, you are the one that will save the day, and become the most powerful and kingmaker of the land (Fallout too). You'll save the locals from disaster or tyranny, so be hailed as a conquering hero, much as conquistadors and crusaders from Europe were conquering and pillaging The Holy Lands, or the Americas in the 1700s, bringing 'reason' and 'civilization' to the 'savages'. Complete the conquest, and you win the happy ending!

I'm certainly not the first to point out the colonial undertones of many games, or the first to think about games which provide an alternative point of view, or a aim that isn't to conquer an environment or people.

But a long time ago, I used to work in academia, and while it's been more than a decade since I left for my first start-up, I'm still go to conferences and started hearing some amazing talks about the decolonial turn. Everyone was suggesting, or referencing Decolonializing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith. It's one of those books that changes the way you look at the world, makes you more aware of your positionality, and that the effects and mantra of colonialism are still very active today - this is a contemporary, as well as historical study.

So it was inadvertently in my mind when I had the first idea for The Protagonish. It was always going to be a very short silly premise: an adventure game where you don't control the adventurer.

It was a fun twist, and an engaging pitch that made people want to understand how it would actually work. However, the concept could work in so many settings. There were a lot of possible scenarios and paths such a concept could have taken, but the first idea in my head was Skyrim. This was probably because it was winter, and I was doing my near annual Skyrim replay: once cold weather sits in and it stops being fun to actually be out in real woods and mountains, I love jumping into Skyrim with a fresh character, and just explore side quests in the mountains and forests without even getting into any plot lines.

So I thought of all the memes and 'quest givers' in Skyrim: the shopkeeper you are always trying to rip off, the blacksmith who trains you, the miner who can't mine as it's filled with beasts, the monks on a mountain... It seemed a great setting to parody a little, with fantasy-medieval tropes familiar enough to a broad audience.

But as the story developed, it became clear that the easiest way for the player to have an emotional attachment to a group of characters, was for them to all share a common goal. And if there was going to be a stereotypical 'Protagonist' it was easiest to do that if they all hated him: an outsider, blindly focused on their quest, firm in their belief he is 'saving' the land, but causing chaos where-ever they meddle.

An early aim was to make sure that the player sensed this threat too, and felt animosity towards the adventurer. So immediately the game starts with the adventurer smashing through the door of the shop, with no explanation or warning. The opening has actually not been tweaked much, because it achieved its purpose in playtesting so quickly: more than 80% of people immediately don't want to help the Protagonist. We still give the player a very early choice to help him, even if most people choose not to, because it feels like you are being cheated when forced to choose a path in a game, even if it's the path you want!

But the dialogue, character design and voice quickly shows the privileged nature of the adventurer: he is born to a noble family, not too bright, but blindly focused on his quest for glory with little regard or interest in others. It's pretty mild for a colonial character, but enough to make the 'locals' of the village dislike him. I don't want to spoil too much of the short story (it's now available for just $3.99!) but suffice it to say, he doesn't leave a great impression.

So I think that games can (and should) engage with this colonial discourse, and this is even more important in present day society, where the power of white male oligarchs from privileged backgrounds escalates everyday. And while we aren't ready to reveal too much about the next game we are working on, it's going to fit this form in a different historical way... With guillotines!