Africa, The MMOG

Via Joystiq, an MTV Games story about a MMOG that attempts to encompass Africa in a game. From the article: "Less reserved, Adam Ghetti, the teenage creative director at Rapid Reality, the company actually creating the game, said he hopes the game will right some wrongs. 'The white American board developers of the large MMO development companies out there right now don't honestly have the right background and knowledge on the continent of Africa and its lore, mythology and rich history, and quite honestly neither did I,' said Ghetti, who is white. 'They just don't teach it over here.' The game is designed, in part, to change that."

Comments

Africa

[Alex P Keaton in da]

I think one of the issues that we (Americans) have is that you normally hear of "Africa." It is the only continent that is mentioned as a country (aside from the obvious Australia which is a country, or Anarctica, which has no countries). I don't think people(in general) realize that Africa is made up of distinct countries with distinct cultures.
Then again, many of my country men can't name 10 state capitals in the US... so maybe understanding other cultures is too much...

Re:Africa

[MMaestro]

Its because Africa is more or less the black sheep of history really. With the exception of Japan and Russia, nearly every single major imperial/regional/military power in history has exploited Africa at one time or another (slave trade, colonies, subjugation of local population, civil wars, colonial wars, 'border disputes', 'skrimishes', colonial fighting during World War I and II, etc.) No political group/government/nation really wants to get involved with Africa since it'll open up a lot of old historical wounds.

U.S. won't touch it since African American sentiments are still touchy especially in the South. Britain more or less wants nothing to do with Africa (usually due to monetary and military cost), same with Russia, China and Japan. Germany is too restricted to help effectively and France has been giving the finger to everyone lately. Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, Mexico; too weak or lack of interest for whatever reason. The U.N. has been working in Africa but we all know how much of a failure that is (Somalia is still a battleground with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, genocide is CURRENTLY being committed in Darfur, Egypt is tangled in Middle East affairs, theres the widespread AIDS crisis, etc.)

I wish the author well

[Jakuta]

Africa, from an inside flavor. This will be interesting to see and i for one am going to be expectant of the views presented. Will this be of the time of Egypt? Will it cover the Congo and Llukumi existance and history of the west coast? The Ethiopia, Swahili and Zulu nations of the east coast? There are a number of pantheons and diverse cultural histories to be represented either correctly or fictitiously. Perhaps crickets are not all that would be heard and maybe you might learn something about Africa from the game, unlike LOTR which was not set in europe....

Re:Beats my education on Africa

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, while the Anglo-saxons are the most well known part of the slave trade (particularly since, as the cultural forebearers of Europe and America their history tends to show quite a bit, and since their impact was more pronounced on the fabric of African society), the Arabian slave trade from East Africa to the Middle-East and India started earlier and culminated in tens of thousands of people a year being transported into slavery.

Personally the growth of Islam as a religion among african americans is something I am still baffled by. How can a group that embraces its racial memory that it was oppressed and taken into slavery, at the same time turn to the religion of one of its greatest enslavers? (but then religion is a personal matter, that each person needs to decide on their own).

Re:What's the... point?

[jdray]

This may be something of a troll, but since Africa is a continent, as you point out, you should compare it in size to North America, which is also a continent, rather than America, which makes up some fraction of North America.

I have to say that my elementary school education regarding Africa was spotty, and completely non-existent in high school, except for the "cradle of civilization" part. As a teen (many years ago), I could have told you that Egypt was a part of Africa, and that the Congo was, but had little or no idea what relationship they had to one another, either socially or geographically. South Africa is obviously in the southern part, and there was plenty of news about Apartheid at the time, but I had no clue what any of it meant.

In my adult life, I'm happy to say that I've had (still have, in some cases) several friends from different parts of Africa. I know how to find The Gambia on a map (not so easy), and quite a bit about the culture of Ghana (fascinating place). Unlike most Americans, I know that Ethiopia is not primarily a desert full of starving poor people.

There's so much about the world that doesn't fit into eight second sound bites, and much of it is only interesting after you've spent time learning about it, which is to say that it takes time to get enough of a picture to understand what's going on. If half of America knew as much about the cultures of this world as they do about what Paris Hilton does in her bedroom, we'd all be better off.

Re:This does not sound good...

[CFTM]

My initial impulse is to agree with you, but sometimes someone really does have a better way of doing things. Robert Rodriguez [Sin City] said the same thing with his movies and he ended up being correct.