Native Americans slam GUN

By Games Industry.biz Published 2 February, 2006

Over alleged racism.

The Association for American Indian Development has launched a campaign against Activision for publishing PC and console title GUN, claiming that the game glorifies racism and genocide.

GUN is set in the American west of the late 1800s, and sees players taking on the role of cowboy Colton White. According to Activision's own press information, players must face off with a variety of enemies including "corrupt lawmen, merciless outlaws and unforgiving Native Americans."

The AAID claims that the game features "some very disturbing racist and genocidal elements toward Native Americans," observing that players must slaughter a set number of Apache Indians in order to advance through levels. The association also objects to the fact that "Indian scalping" has a prominent place in the game, and "the mis-information of American Indian traditions of 'killing' sacred white animals."

Now the AAID has set up an online petition requesting that Activision "remove all derogatory, harmful and inaccurate depictions of American Indians from the videogame GUN." If this demand is not met, the AAID will campaign for the game to be removed from retailers' shelves worldwide.

The petition website goes on to outline the AAID's argument in full, with a statement which reads: "To create a game where one must slaughter members of a racial group in order to move forward promotes and condones the near genocide of Native Americans in this country."

"How many kids will (and although rated for mature players, young kids will still manage to get a copy of it) play this game and then carry what they've experienced into their interactions with real, live Apaches and other Native Americans?"

"Yes, Native people still live here in America. They are not a lost or extinct people and they don't all live secluded on reservations. And, believe it or not, Indian kids play Xbox, too."

The AAID also argues that Native Americans are not being treated with the same respect as other ethnic groups in this instance. "If a game were created that had its hero slaughter, say African Americans, Irish, Mexicans, or Jews, would there not be an outcry of extreme proportions?"

"Yes, the brutal slaying of America's indigenous people is historically accurate...it happened. But so did slavery, lynching and the Holocaust and we don't see games glamorizing it as if it were the right thing to do."

Activision was unavilable for comment at the time of writing.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eighthours #1 6 years ago

    Activision will probably be very happy with this. The game (which was planned to be a major new franchise) has sold well below expectations, so any publicity is a good thing at this point.

  • El_MUERkO #2 6 years ago

    Well at least they are more lucid in their comments than all the people who got bent out of shape over the 'kill the haitians' mission in GTA:VC, still thou, as I understand it from the review you could choose to be on the Indians side, either way by all accounts the game was naff.

  • Rambaldi #3 6 years ago

    "To create a game where one must slaughter members of a racial group in order to move forward promotes and condones the near genocide of Native Americans in this country."

    Fair point..but the game's story evolves to the point where you fight alongside the Indians in the face of oppressionn from the 'white-man'. It left me with a positive and slightly more understanding view of Native American history.

    I'm guessing they never botherd to finish the game
    Edited by 1 at 02/02/06 @ 13:33

  • Darkedge #4 6 years ago

    the Game sucks, but they did screw up and as such should be liable for this. Bad bad Activision

  • Furbs #5 6 years ago

    Lets just hope the Germans dont start getting pissed off eh?

  • the_dudefather #6 6 years ago

    "Yes, Native people still live here in America. They are not a lost or extinct people and they don't all live secluded on reservations. And, believe it or not, Indian kids play Xbox, too."

    isnt refering to native americans as 'indian' an example of misinformation?

    yeah, cheap shot :p

    anyway, from what i gather the depiction of native americans in GUN seems to be insensitive, but then so is the average cowboy movie or warner brothers cartoon featuring native americans

  • Freek #7 6 years ago

    The reason being you're playing from a white man point of view, set during the time of the conflict, obivously racial slurrs would be featured since they probably did say those things about the enemy.

    You're not fighting "german soldiers" in WW2 games either, it's "those fucking nazi's" and the "godamn jerries".
    Not to mention Vietnam.

    That's what happens in war.

  • ElephantMonkey #8 6 years ago

    Is that why we don't see any cowboy movies anymore?

  • Freek #9 6 years ago

    We do, but they're "gay" now. ;)

  • Stickman #10 6 years ago

    "How many kids will (and although rated for mature players, young kids will still manage to get a copy of it) play this game and then carry what they've experienced into their interactions with real, live Apaches and other Native Americans?"

    None?

  • Dynamize #11 6 years ago

    As far as I'm aware Colton White is half Apache, half white, and is sympathetic to the Native Americans throughout the game.
    The game's central mechanic is killing people who are attempting to kill you or others. You kill as many, if not more white people. Never thought of it as a racially charged issue, more an example of a pioneer atomosphere with little law and order, rule of the gun and that.
    In the Old West there were violent people, some of them were Native Americans. The people would often kill each other. I'm not seeing a skewed view of any one party in this. The only difference is that the Apaches are shown to be pushed to the fringes of what passes for society in the setting, land stolen and all that, and the whites are generally represented as morally bankrupt, conniving types. Each party defends itself and its interests to the point of killing another. Such is the way of the world.
    Is it really far removed from The Allies vs. The Axis, Gang A vs Gang B, or Group A vs Group B?
    Gun was good fun.

  • Eldritch #12 6 years ago

    "Lets just hope the Germans dont start getting pissed off eh?"

    This German only gets pissed off by reading "news" from the day before yesterday as today's news. As in this case.

  • Galvanizer #13 6 years ago

    I still think Resi 4 would have been scarier if it was a Black guy in a village full of memberrs of the KKK.

    I would shit myself playing that game! Maybe Resi 6. :-)

  • MoFo #14 6 years ago

    Much as I hate any group who threatens companies because of the content of a game I do feel they have a point. If there was a Nazi game where you had to eliminate the Jews then people would probably end up in jail becuase of it, yet the irradication of Native Americans was actually far more succesful than Hitler's attempts to destroy the Jews.

    Then again, a cowboy and Injuns movie is far more entertaining than watching a documentary about the Holocaust so BRING IT ON!

  • attep #15 6 years ago

    I think i must have missed the point. Isn't gun a game? Hasn't anyone seen Romper Stomper? It's a wrong film in many ways but if you don't agree with it don't watch it. Same applies here.

    EDIT: Does this mean if we ever encounter an alien race (and it turns out to be covenant) then Bungie will have to stop and withdraw the Halo franchise??
    Edited by 1 at 02/02/06 @ 13:58

  • MoFo #16 6 years ago

    Bungie should remove the Halo franchise anyway because it's the biggest overrated piece of crap out there.

  • reality_cheque #17 6 years ago

    @attep: Only 50 years after the war has ended when everyone else has stopped living in the past and has forgotten all about it apart from some self elected (probably human) Covenant Rights Group.

    If we do meet the covenant they'll be mainly trying to kill us for not being covenant. UNLESS this is what started the war... an xbox, pad and copy of halo got sucked through a mysterious time/space portal to the covenant capital planet :)
    Edited by 1 at 02/02/06 @ 14:03

  • reality_cheque #18 6 years ago

    @MoFo: So you're a GT fan then? *ducks*

  • Stormflood_UK #19 6 years ago

    Bungie should remove the Halo franchise anyway because it's the biggest overrated piece of crap out there.

    You would say that, Covenant scum.

  • Xerx3s #20 6 years ago

    "That's what happens in war. "

    Except that it wasnt war, but genocide by the yanks (& others). 0_o

  • MoFo #21 6 years ago

    Halo is responsible for torturing cuddly cute kittens. Screw them native injuns, Bungie tie kittens up and dangle them in to pots of boiling lard, cover them in honey and throw em to the bees....then they gather around in a circle and wee on the poor creature. Ban this sick filth!

  • Pastici #22 6 years ago

    How long has this site been up? If its recent then they're a bit late, was released a fair while back now. =/

  • Zuiyo #23 6 years ago

    "Activision was unavilable"

    should read

    "unavailable"

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #24 6 years ago

    I'm going to make a game where the sole purpose is to offend as many minorities as possible. Mission 1: Find and destroy the fat black woman in the wheel chair!

    I just don't understand why everything is taken so seriously, these days. If someone created a game in which killing white westerners was a main part it's unlikely that there would be such an outcry and nor should there be. Personally, I wouldn't take offence at it and I wouldn't expect a random teenager to "pop a cap in my ass" any time soon either.

    I seriously think some people just love to complain and whinge... not like I'm doing now, though... that's different... shut up! My mum thinks I'm cool!

  • Stickman #25 6 years ago

    You don't work for Running With Scissors do you?

  • tenma #26 6 years ago

    Zuiyo: c'mon know, don't be one of those dicks. ;\

    Lets just hope the Germans dont start getting pissed off eh?

    Haha, excellent

  • fluff_the_tiger #27 6 years ago

    Zuiyo:

    Thank you Captain Obvious

  • Ranger101 #28 6 years ago

    I think what you're missing here, Redneon, is that Video Gaming has become a large enough part of mainstream culture for it to be considered within the full context of liability. When games start looking more and more realistic, and producers aim for the depth within games we see today, Video Gaming has to take a certain responsibility for what it's putting out there.

    If this was a game on the Atari 2600 20 years ago, who gives a shit - the fact that you're a cowboy and your killing native americans was tiertiary to the gaming mechanics and graphics. But since gaming has evolved, and as gamers we have demanded more than just pretty graphics and basic gameplay, background, storylines and motives - the ethos of a game - have taken centre stage.

    Look at it this way, what would your reaction be if EA or Infrogames or another big developer (not smallstream Japanese) marketed a Rape Simulator. Sure playing the game won't turn you into a rapist, but is it an appropriate game to be playing? What does that say about the people that produced that game, the culture they're marketing it to and finally the role of men/women and rape as a whole?

    (I mention smallstream japanese, because, as readers of Something Awful will know, rape simulator games do exist out there , produced by those weird Jap companies).
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/06 @ 11:16

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #29 6 years ago

    No, what I'm complaining about is it seems ok to discriminate against the majority but when the same discriminations are placed on the minority, there's anarchy.

    In my opinion, if you're against killing a particular race you should be against killing ALL races, including the majority, otherwise you are being racist towards the majority which is just as bad as being racist towards the minority. Essentially, what I'm asking is: Why is killing Indians any worse than killing any other race? Do they need special treatment to be protected? In which case, why don't other races get this treatment?

    I personally believe that to be non-racist you should believe that all races should be treated exactly the same regardless of their abundance in a particular part of the world. If laws are created to protect the minority that I feel that the majority will feel that they are missing out and visa-versa.

  • Ranger101 #30 6 years ago

    But the issue here is that part of the game allegedly focuses upon the elimination of a particular race. If there was another commercially marketed game which had a feature that basically glorified the genocide of a 'majority race', as a distinct feature, I'm sure it would cause controversy.

    But as of yet, we've not had that. Sure we have games where you can go round killing masses of people (ala GTA) but the distinction within the games aren't made for a particular race, like it has allegedly been in this game.

    The rest of your statement falls out of the scope of Videogames, but that's down to you to work out where the implication, and power, lies within racism, and why it is that specific laws are created to protect minorities.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/06 @ 16:13