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Showing posts from April, 2022

How a Video Game Character "Fails" To Meet a Nation's Standards

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  Genshin Impact is one of the hottest video games out currently. As of March 30th of this year, the game amasses 10 million players on a daily basis. The game has become a global phenomenom and rightfully so. The game doesn't hold back when showing off it's stunning graphics and art style, along with it's compelling characters, and lore that runs deeper than the Kola well. But along with it's many positives, it has sparked up many debates, especially in China. You see, China has strict regulations when it comes to how companies portray their fictional characters to avoid any negative connotations. This is the reason that many video games are being censored in China. The government requires game developers to change the appearance of their fictional characters to align with the current government's view of what is appropriate to portray in video games. This has lead to many video games being removed from China or being altered to meet the government's standards....

South Park's Stereotypes and Tokenism

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Trey Parker and Matt Stone's sitcom, South Park, is about a lot of subjects. It has been on the air since 1997 and covers twenty-five seasons. That's pretty successful, but we're not here to discuss South Park's success; we're here to discuss the program's numerous repeating themes, which highlight the show and have shaped it into what it is now. If you've ever seen or heard of South Park, you're aware that the television program can be somewhat controversial at times owing to the themes it chooses to address. I'd want to bring up two points: how South Park depicts stereotypes and tokenism. Eric Cartman is probably the most infamous character from the show and rightfully so. He’s loud, he’s a bigot, and overall not a good person. But he is also one of the main driving forces in the show, as many of its plots involve him in some major way. In the seventh episode of season 9 titled: ‘Christian Rock Hard’, the four main characters, Kyle, Stan, Cartman, ...