{"id":332,"date":"2018-04-26T15:18:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T15:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/?p=332"},"modified":"2018-04-26T15:27:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T15:27:29","slug":"dr-john-wills-latest-piece-for-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/2018\/04\/26\/dr-john-wills-latest-piece-for-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr John Wills latest piece for ‘The Conversation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0narrative of the new Ubisoft video game Far Cry 5<\/strong> speaks to what seems a powerful political moment, of an American nation literally at war with itself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an article\u00a0published recently on The Conversation<\/a>, The Centre for America’s Dr John Wills\u00a0explores how the new video game\u00a0Far Cry 5<\/strong> speaks to today’s divided America:<\/p>\n

You are a rookie law enforcement officer, on board a helicopter heading into the main compound of Project at Eden\u2019s Gate, a religious cult operating across a huge stretch of Montana. A towering statue of the militia\u2019s leader, Joseph Seed, rises into the sky. With a warrant for the arrest of Seed, you navigate a warren of buildings patrolled by aggressive white men and their snapping dogs, before entering a white-boarded church. A haunting rendition of Amazing Grace plays in the background as you meet Seed for the first time, in an almost dream-like sequence. From there, you are transported to an intense face-off between militia extremists and federal officials.<\/p>\n

This is what you would experience on playing the new Ubisoft video game Far Cry 5<\/strong> (2018). Its story speaks to what seems a powerful political moment, of an American nation literally at war with itself.<\/p>\n

While already a huge financial success (with reports of nearly five million copies sold in its first week of release), Ubisoft\u2019s title has been widely criticised for its overt lack of political message. The Montreal-based company may have promoted its game as a serious take on religious and political radicalism, but so far journalists have labelled Far Cry 5<\/strong> a title unwilling to squarely take aim at Trump\u2019s America, or speak directly to matters of contemporary racism, endemic gun culture, or right-wing extremism. Instead, reviewers have called it \u201ctotally unconvincing\u201d (PC Gamer<\/em>), \u201ca missed opportunity\u201d (The Outline<\/em>), and a game that ultimately \u201csays pretty much nothing about\u201d modern America (The Guardian<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Are we being too harsh on the game? After all, most entertainment companies hype their products. Equally, would a film or novel tackling religious cults be criticised for not engaging with the wider problems of Trump\u2019s America? In my view, video games do not need to make blatant political statements to be considered art or satire, nor do they need strong messages to have impact. Ultimately, gamers make their own readings and experiences, without the need to be constantly \u201cbillboarded\u201d. Click to continue reading this article on ‘The Conversation’.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr John Wills is Reader in American History and Culture at the University of Kent’s Centre for American Studies. He will be exhibiting his latest research on videogame representations of the United States at the British Academy Summer Showcase<\/a> on 22-23 June 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0narrative of the new Ubisoft video game Far Cry 5 speaks to what seems a powerful political moment, of an American nation literally at war … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34306,"featured_media":333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/amst-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}