GUN video game the subject of Native boycott

Surrounded by an onslaught of hatchet-wielding Indians attempting to blockade a railway trestle, the "hero" fearlessly raises his rifle and begins to fire indiscriminately. The ultimate goal is to kill all those who stand in the way of the hero's quest. During this particular mission, it was a band of Apache that was in the gun's crosshairs. This depiction of the Wild West, whether this scenario ever occurred in the late 19th century, is being portrayed in thousands of homes across the US in the form of a video game and has drawn the condemnation of an American Indian group. The Association for American Indian Development (AAID) has launched a petition demanding the recall of the game GUN as produced by Activision Inc., of Santa Monica, CA. Citing the charge as to how the game is "damaging, socially harmful and insensitive," the boycott lists how the myth of the "savage Indian" is perpetuated–including the practice of scalping human heads and killing sacred white animals. AAID Treasurer Litefoot pointed out how neither the game nor the manual instructions provide historical details or references to attempt to explain the westward expansion of 150 years ago. "When you just take a piece of history that no Americans know about and put it into a video game, when it reverts into a Native American context as in this game, all you see is the savage Indian that perpetuates the stereotype against every Indian," Litefoot said. Released last November for game consoles including Xbox and PlayStation, GUN follows the main character, Colton White, who is on a journey to determine his family lineage. The subtitle of the game invites players to "Experience the Brutality, Lawlessness, Greed and Lust that was the West"; and with an unlimited supply of ammunition and other armaments available to Colton, the storyline quickly develops (or deteriorates) into a stream of extraneous violence. GUN's premise is established in the second scene of the game when Colton's missionary ancestor was killed by an Indian. Litefoot believes this cold-blooded murder, which takes place so early in the game, acts as a stimulus to White's behavior. "I don't know that it is those things that we find offensive, but how Native people are portrayed in this game," he said. "To me that is much bigger than what the purpose of the game is because it's out of context." While Activision provided a copy of GUN upon request to Indian Country Today, the company remained unavailable for comment despite numerous attempts to obtain an interview. However, posted on several gaming websites and blogs, Activision has issued this statement: "Activision does not condone or advocate any of the atrocities that occurred in the American West during the 1800s. GUN was designed to reflect the harshness of life on the American frontier at that time... We apologize to any who might have been offended by the game's depiction of historical events which have been conveyed not only through video games but through films, television programming, books and other media." GUN is marketed as a fictional game, with White participating in different jobs in order to accumulate points and purchase other weaponry. Yet, the task at hand can easily be lost in the heat of battle when the game's graphics provide a point-of-view perspective of staring down the barrel of a Winchester. The intensity of violence and imagery of blood earned GUN an "M" for mature audience rating, and it's suggested that the game is intended for those older than 17 years. Such a rating, however, would not keep this video from getting into the hands of younger kids; even so, Litefoot claimed, most teenagers wouldn't have the educational background to distinguish some basic facts from this gaming fantasy. "Does your average 17-year-old know or care about what happened to Native people today or in the past? Unfortunately, no." The petition requests if GUN cannot be re-released to "remove all derogatory, harmful and inaccurate depictions of American Indians," the game be recalled in its entirety. Nowhere, though, does the petition charge that GUN or Activision Inc. is racist, in part because White is just as likely to shoot non-Natives who impede his path. In one particular scene, White even frees numerous Apache who were trapped in a boxcar and destined for slavery as some method to repay a karmic debt. Regardless of whether the political motives of the game's designers are debated, Litefoot said AAID's petition strikes at how American Indians and their imagery have been trivialized. He feels that if any other video game portrayed a distinct ethnicity, such as blacks, Jews or Hispanics, in such a manner there would have been a much greater uproar by the consuming public. "When anything like this comes up in Indian country, it's asked: 'Aren't there other bigger issues that we need to be focused on?'" Litefoot rhetorically pointed out. "How are they going to find anything relevant in contemporary society when they don't understand the history and that these are the issues we face every day?"