Sleeping Dogs Trailer (Warning: VERY graphic): Furthermore, there are less than a handful of white characters in the story barring a Russian bartender, an American tourist named Amanda (Emma Stone), and Superintendent Pendrew (Tom Wilkinson). There are no Asian characters played by non-Asian voice actors.
The large majority of Hongkonger characters in the story are faithfully represented by voice actors who live or have lived in Hong Kong. The game features an impressive cast, enlisting the voices of actors such as Lucy Liu, Emma Stone, James Hong, Elizabeth Sung, Ron Yuan, Tzi Ma, Will Yun Lee, and Chin Han. Shen takes the job, but in a classic turn of events, becomes too invested in the gang after a civil war between the heads of the Sun On Yee territories breaks loose. The game starts after Wei Shen is hired by Pendrew to infiltrate the Sun On Yee (新安義), a triad group riffing off the real life Sun Yee On gang (新義安). He becomes notorious in the SFPD for his meticulous and thorough (albeit violent) execution of undercover operations, catching the eye of Hong Kong Police Superintendent Thomas Pendrew. After graduating from San Francisco College, Shen enrolls in the SFPD and graduates in the top of his class.
She gets involved with triad activity in Hong Kong before their family moves to San Francisco, where Wei Shen becomes a documented U.S. Occasionally referred to and marketed as “Asian Grand Theft Auto”, the game entirely takes place in Hong Kong and revolves around Asian American protagonist Wei Shen.īefore the events of the game, the player learns through in-game dialogue that Shen’s sister, Mimi, becomes addicted to drugs. Sleeping Dogs is a fascinating inclusion in the single player open-world crime sandbox genre, because it’s not just one of the only games in the genre featuring an (almost) all Asian cast, but to my knowledge it’s the only game of its genre which takes place outside of the United States. For this blog post, I’ll specifically be examining Square-Enix’s Sleeping Dogs (2012). However, the realm of action and reaction complicates the relationship of the viewer with the subject of their gaze. You must act for it.” (Wolf 933) Throughout the course of this class, my eyes have been opened not only to representation of race, but representation of place and class in relation to race. For example – what does it mean for me as a Caucasian man to control the actions of this protagonist? As The Video Game Studies Reader more clearly states – “computer games are not ‘just games’ but play a constitutive role in our cognitive development and in the construction of our identity … You have to do more than identify with a character on the screen. All sorts of ethical questions arise from this sort of game. In Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 3, you play as an indigenous American in line with colonial American forces during the civil war. Otherwise it’s just you and an interactive virtual sandbox so to speak.Īs I’ve grown older and more cognizant of all sorts of social narratives, I try to note now when I play these games what it means to take that choice away. The common thread however, is that more often than not there is only a loose goal that you may choose to pursue or not. For example, Red Dead Redemption decides that you will play as John Marston, ex-outlaw turned rancher. Other single player adventure games do not allow this sort of freedom. For example, most games of this fashion feature character creation interfaces where you can design the appearance and proficiency of your character. I’ve gravitated towards this style of game because it gives the player a degree of freedom in comparison to games like Mario or Tetris. Legend of Zelda, a handful of Japanese Role Playing Games (known colloquially as JRPGs), as well as Skyrim, Fallout, and Fable to name a few European and American releases. Predominantly, I grew up playing single player adventure games. Towards the end of young adulthood gaming stretched into sessions of three to four hours straight, with six to seven hour marathons on weekends.
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I like to joke that video games taught me how to read. They’ve always entertained me, and even have facilitated my learning. From first grade until the end of high school, I would come home from school virtually every day and play video games for at least an hour. How Square-Enix’s Sleeping Dogs Opens The Door For Ethno Communications Games