De-Cultural Imitation Games
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Published:April 2024
This roundtable begins part 3 of the collection, “Localizing Empire,” by expanding on the issues of the body from the previous section, to consider space and regional histories. The roundtable features a conversation among designers who work and/or focus on “non-American” contexts: Joe Yuzhou Xu in Shanghai; Paraluman (Luna) Javier in Manila; Christian Kealoha Miller in Hilo, Hawai‘i; and Lien B. Tran, who develops games aimed at audiences in the Global South. These game makers explore how games, as an entertainment media that emerged during the Cold War, were made possible by manufacturing routes that include extractive mining in Africa, processing factories in Malaysia and southern China, and innovations in Japan. The speakers also consider how their own games have sought to combat imperial structures through historical reckoning and decolonization. For these game makers, games can be reread to reveal how empire, capitalism, and racialization operate in seemingly apolitical games.