Warming up the point of implicit racism and western centeredness in Star Citizen. I just checked out the trailer for this new purchaseable virtual item that looks like a flying bone:
https://imperium.news/star-citizen-community-frustration-boils-embarrassing-livestream/ The trailer ends with one of those iconographic images of a primitive standing on a rock holding a torch-like thing in his/her hand which made me think.
The confrontation between humans and vanduul-aliens is stylised through a visually clear distinction of technology and lifeworlds, and the backgroundstory (that mostly focuses on military and political organization a lot). Think about it:
humans
x white dudes
x technical, cool high-tech look, symmetrical
x civilized, calculated violence, socially and technologically advanced
x peaceful (strive for peace), war is legitimate when threatened, diplomacy favoured
x large scale political organization
x mostly attractive people
vanduul
x animal-like/non-human
x organically looking technologies, asymmetrical (asymmetry seems to suggest a more 'natural' and chaotic look)
x uncivilized, brutal, primitive, culture-less
x aggressive, brutal, diplomacy rejected
x clustered political organization (political negotations practically impossible): "There is little to no communication between the different roaming clans. Each fleet operates as its own society with its own independent set of rules, laws and customs as decreed by that clan’s chieftain. As such, it is probably impossible to make peace or establish diplomatic relations with the Vanduul as a whole since there is no cohesive civilization." (
http://starcitizen.wikia.com/wiki/Vanduul)
x ugly, aggressive looking aliens
The depiction of the Vanduul consists of a best-of-primitive-alien-stereotypes. They have these traditional weapons resembling spears or other 'primitive weapons' (they represent their cultural backwardness), similar to the Klingons in Star Trek. Their techology does look very organic, definitely distinct from the high-tech look of the human technology. So it does transport a closer connection to nature on a visual level and also incorporates stylistic elements that remind of feathers, skin and bone-structures.
Their political system is unable to ngeotiate peace on a bigger scale, it is basically said to be not compatible with the implicitly advanced system of the humans. In other words, war against them is inevitable and justified, because you can't talk with these guys (even more so because they attacked first). You have to show them the hard way how to live peaceful together (white mans burden anyone?).
It doesn't require a lot of imagination to see cornerstones of colonial depictions of non-western cultures here. It is made very obvious were the 'inspiration' comes from when you look at this textpiece from their wiki that makes a direct reference to anthropological studies of the 20th century, often strongly connected to colonial rule: "From a purely anthropological perspective, the Vanduul behave like classic hunter-gatherers."
I know about all this pseudo-deep background of the story being an analogy to the fall of rome etc, but seriously, that is not only a completely unimaginative setting, but also an offensive one in my view that transports and transports colonial-racist stereotypes against so-called non-western cultures. If there should be a game one day it will probably be a horrible continuation of this stuff, clear traces could already be seen in the Wing Commander games and probably mirrors Chris Roberts mindset to favour arranging stereotypes to tell a story. And the most easily accessible and popular stereotypes are on the base of gender and race, so he just bakes a story out of that. Horrible.
