Is Lovecraft too racist for gaming?

Games
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Is gaming ready for its version of Lovecraft Country?

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2018/10/09/is-lovecraft-too-racist-for-gaming/
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Topic goes P & R in 5, 4, 3, …

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I think you can use some of the source material, acknowledge the limitations, and compensate for it. The ideas are interesting, and you can’t hold hold the same standards of today to some of this old stuff. Having said that, it seems like a lot of games, video or otherwise, don’t really try and if they ever go back to well it’s the source material… then it’s really not okay. We know there are problems with source material. Don’t use it as an excuse.

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Front page article. Sorry.

I offer it with very little comment. I guess my characterization of the linked article as a “screaming hot take” is commentary, but I couldn’t resist.

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Well, it is a screaming (and stupid) hot take, I’ll give it that. Clickbait FTW!

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Greer is a perfect example of why I never read: Eurogamer, Kotaku. It’s the Journalism equivalent of listening to a Comic Book Store owner opine on Tax Policy in the Marvel Universe.

Edit: and @rhamorim, I didn’t even give them a click. :) Why reward it?

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I will say that I told my story regarding my own struggle with Lovecraft in the comments of Tom’s Lovecraft Country review. I still love the stuff H.P. created, but I can’t deny that some of it is really problematic.

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Well, I gave them a click because I wouldn’t call the article “stupid” without reading it. And read it I did - luckly, it was a quick read, pretty much devoid of relevance or substance, so no big harm done. ;)

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Thanks for triaging for me. You are a friend.

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The article gets at least one thing right: all the things that popular consciousness labels as “Lovecraftian” are way, way overused. I mean, gaming is in general a terrible medium for storytelling of the conventional linear narrative kind and suffers from an incredible array of hackneyed tics (which makes it, really, not that different from most movies and novels, but hey), but really, yes, we don’t need any more Eldritch Horrors, I think.

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That’s the beauty of expiring copyrights, both the original work and author haven’t mattered at all for ages. Keep going forth and stealing from it.

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I liked Lovecraft Country quite a bit, and I really appreciated that it functioned very well as an homage, an implicit criticism of the source material, and an implication of culture, all within the narrative. My favorite part was the general reaction of all the black characters in the novel: “This is supposed to be scary? I deal with scarier shit on a daily basis.” I actually think it’s pretty awesome when gaming does something that self-reflective. There’s no question that the Mythos has become a bit worn over the last couple of decades (though surprisingly never in film.) It’s always great to see new takes on tired themes, and if that includes an exploration of what’s problematic in those themes, even better.

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I think the article is lacking in a couple of ways, but namely I don’t think the author did a good job of linking the premise to the conclusion. I wouldn’t say it’s not relevant though. We have two fairly high-profile Mythos games coming out, a TV series in development based on Lovecraft Country, and all this while even the writing world struggles with the Lovecraft question. If anything, saying a more critical look at Lovecraft in gaming/nerdom is overdue.

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I think you’re mixing things up. I would agree that the premise might be relevant, but the article in itself isn’t because it utterly fails in properly building upon the premise in any significant way. Might as well have been just the headline.

I hope someone (maybe you or Tom?) develops the premise properly. There are things to be said about it, sure. But not by that particular author.

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Sure. That particular article is weak, but as a kickoff to our discussion, it serves.

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Not an expert here on gaming narrative or on lovecraft, but it seems to me that the theme is very very overused.

Then again I think the same about high fantasy but I still play AoW3…

I’m sure there’s a way to use “lovecraft” as genre shorthand without using the corpus of work, similar to how many settings are tolkienesque wihout being a Tolkien product.

However, I suspect the author, whose article I am debating whether to read or not, cares little about the subject matter and is more concerned with virtue signalling.

Like: hey look at me, I’m condemning racism!

Which ofcourse is by no means a bad thing, just seems like lovecraft is an easy target.

Also, where does this stop?

Tolkien was a ww1 veteran, very much a product of his time and, by today’s western standards, just a little racist. It’s no accident the uruk hai resemble gorillas and that Orcs in general are debased elves (who are perfect and just coincidentally white…)

Or that Gondor is white and the eastern nations are arabic/black.

Or that the evil Saron the black chills in the East.

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Someone is going to have to connect the dots for me about how tentacle monsters are racist, because I just don’t see it. Lovecraft was, in many respects, personally reprehensible. I don’t for one moment dispute that this colored his work in various ways. However, games aren’t really adapting Lovecraft stories, they’re just plucking elements and images to get a particular horror vibe going.

This seems like, to read it as generously as possible, a deeply misguided author whose priorities are… less than ideal even for purposes of his own stated goals. Considering the world we live in right now, this is where we’re focusing our energies?

Nothing is more overused than zombies. Nothing.

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The easy pull is the Deep Ones and the Innsmouth taint, which is about the evils of miscegenation and corrupting bloodlines.

And that’s actually a story that was directly adapted for Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

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But see this is what I mean - are there games (exterior, I guess, of specifically Cthulhu branded ones) which use that kind of thing? Most of the “Lovecraft” stuff I see is just, as the author says, tentacle monsters, foggy villages, and aliens posing as gods. I’ll grant that Lovecraft’s details and settings are often racist, but I don’t generally see that stuff getting carried over. Am I just missing it? Certainly I don’t see any reason why the one would have to come with the other.

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Deep Ones are all over the place.