1. OOM*: Video Games and the Pacific
Sierra Ochoa
Fall 2016
HAVC 190X
*Out of Mana

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“Lok’narosh!” Clad in battle-torn black plate armor and wielding a massive
warhammer, you advance forth onto the blood-stained battlefield. With a wicked smile,
you raise your mighty hammer to smite a helpless foe with a spell of chain lightning, but
before the incantation can pass through your lips, you are greeted with an error
message: OUT OF MANA. Video games and video game scenarios such as this
instance - an imagined occurrence situated in the game Warcraft III - use the concept of
mana as a resource to cast spells and apply mystical powers to objects such as
weapons, armor, and food. However, this magical energy finds its origin in Pacific
cultures, which served as a subject of interest and study for late nineteenth and early
twentieth century anthropologists. Fascinated by the foreign concept, non-Pacific
scholars such as Carl Jung considered mana to be “‘a forerunner in our concept of
psychic energy and, most probably, of energy in general’” (Tengan and Tomlinson
2016: 314). Mana would traverse through history and take firm root in video game
culture in the 1980s with games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Ultima III. Video
games have the capability to “expand the ways that we [as players] imagine our own
possibilities, create empathetic connection, and seed ethical engagement with lived-
world challenges and problems” (Everett, Harrell, Jenson, and Murray 2015: 1). Despite
the positive, creative aspects of video games and video game culture, there is a marked
under and misrepresentation of Pacific cultures and peoples within the video game
industry. The conversion of mana from a Pacific concept to one of entertainment, for
example, is but one instance of a reinterpretation of Pacific cultures for a basely
Western appetite. Through visual politics and representations put forth by video games,
Pacific cultures are largely romanticized, accessorized, and commodified for Western

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consumers rooted in colonial theory. This westernized concept of the Pacific landscape
and people has been shaped in video games through those same colonial institutions,
and is harmful to the global reception of Pacific peoples and detrimental to their
personal identities. Through a comprehensive visual analysis of seven games featuring
Pacific concepts, environments, and culture, this essay investigates how Western
games utilize the Pacific with a focus on the positive and negative narratives that are
perpetuated through the visuals of those games.
The video game may be defined in the simplest of terms by its status as both
“video” and “game”. As in any basic game, the video game is governed by rules,
conflict, player ability, and valued outcome (Wolf 2002: 14). A technological medium -
such as a gaming console, controller, and TV set - is then required to convey the visual
aspects of the game and make its world physically accessible to the player. This
marriage of video and game creates a “closed formal system, subjectively represent[ing]
a subset of reality”, thereby creating intangible situations that seem or feel emotionally
real to the player (Crawford 1984: 7). Game narratives and design may intentionally
simplify these representations of emotional reality, as “objective accuracy is only
necessary to the extent required to support the player’s fantasy” (ibid.: 9). This
malleability of game design may then reduce its given subjects into whatever reality the
player believes them to be in - whether this representation is true or not. Thus, existing
inaccuracies can be further perpetuated through a guise of fantastical representation.
A game’s storyworld is constructed through the experiences the player
encounters in the world before, during, and after gameplay, which may be presented
through narrative strategies: “In a narrative game, story and world combine to create an

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experience” (Mukherjee 2015). Each gameworld contains its own set of rules, which
govern its own reality and establishes its respective, entangling narratives. The
gameworld is thus both perceived by the scripted events the designer encodes and
performed by the player, who forms a narrative to explain their personal actions
(Domsch 2013: 30).
Gaming narrative strategies include cut scenes, spatial narrative awareness,
personal narratives such as collectable diary entries or audio files, and NPC (non-player
character) dialogue with or without the player-character (ibid.: 29). These serve as
indirect modes of storytelling that do not have to involve the player-character directly,
but serve to fully flesh out the environment in which they play in. Collectables may serve
as passive, enriching modes of narrative that must be actively sought out by the player-
character, who may or may not give value to the NPC populating and characterizing a
given storyworld. Cut scenes, contrarily, are often unskippable and provide main points
of interest or importance in its presentation of pre-scripted events and dialogues (ibid.:
32).
Although the player may be guiding a character along a single-pathed narrative,
the game provides a “sideways” narrative technique allowing the player alternative ways
to complete the game and fulfil the player-character’s mission (Mukherjee 2015). The
narrative doesn’t give the player full information of the situation, allowing for unique
modes of exploration, intrigue, and roleplay. While the player makes these choices
through and for the player-character, the player takes on both the responsibilities and
psychological baggage of the tasks of the player-character (Mackey 2011: 32). This
experience, however, is governed and presented by the structure of the game itself,

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which may vary from genre to genre; as such, this essay will compare the presentation
and use of narrative within each example given, focusing particularly on the involvement
and emotional response of the player-character.
Environmental design provides the visual aspect vital to the fashioning of a
game’s storyworld. Game designers have full creative control over whatever they chose
to represent, performing research and sketching dozens of designs before modeling a
finished product. The environments of video games create respective levels, or areas of
play, are divided systematically to “[build] up the narrative as well as [establish] the
game objectives” (Mukherjee 2015). Environment can contribute to a game’s personal
subset of reality, thereby creating a visual vacuum that exists only to support a
developer’s or player’s given fantasy. Though static in form, a game’s environment may
serve as its own character in a narrative, providing not only a metaphorical, poetic
landscape on which to act, but also a representation of a greater narrative as ascribed
by the personal choices of the game designer.
As virtual worlds within reality, video games require an agent for the human
player to access the digital realm. Gaming may be called an ergodic medium in that it
requires the player to experience content through utilizing skills “which go beyond using
‘eye movement and the periodic or arbitrary turning of pages’” (Mukherjee 2015). These
skills must then be applied through a physical medium - otherwise known as a
“console”, “system”, or “platform” - that is separate from the game, but nonetheless
defined by it. Mediums - including systems such as the Xbox, Playstation, and personal
computers - are purchased separately from games and can cost several times the value
of a given game. This potential for high costs may refute access to low-income

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consumers, thereby denying the global availability and access to gaming narratives as a
whole. Thus, gaming narratives are only available to those who can afford it.
Whilst the game world stands as a creative landscape for the development of
interactive narratives, the Pacific identity and narrative structures hold markedly
contrasting values and design. Game narratives serve the purpose of the the creator
and perpetuate the creator’s given message; the creator does not necessarily have to
have personal ties with the themes and stories they generate and present for public
consumption. As such, each game and its narrative stand alone as the production of a
given designer or team of designers. Pacific narratives, however, are comparatively
rooted in genealogy, identity, and personal connection to the natural world with an
emphasis on community. Narratives are spread not for the benefit or pleasure of a
single unit, but to create harmony and understanding across various communities whilst
establishing each individual’s identity within a greater Pacific narrative.
Games provide an interactive experience that allows a single player to unfold a
given narrative at their own pace whilst isolating their perception and consumption of
the material from other potential players. Pacific narratives contrarily involve the
participation of multiple individuals to create and transmit information and knowledge.
Situated in a complex oral tradition, storytelling through “chant, song, dance, [and]
speech” (Rapaport 1999: 166) is designed as a performance-based art for a specific
cultural audience. These “generational words… reveal and transmit Pacific ways of
knowing and being”, and are not purely for entertainment (ibid.: 167). Active narratives
not only encourage physical participation, but also cement an active participation in
community as well as in defining personal identity. These stories are repeated through

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generations, providing a common link in ancestry and the sharing of knowledge.
Through an intimate awareness of cultural difference, each Pacific culture and
community creates their respective identities through oral and visual traditions.
The narratives of tattooing and textiles constitute further Pacific narrative
traditions that are “visual manifestation[s] of the social, economic, religious, and political
systems in Polynesia” (Stevenson 1999: 64). Tatau, or Samoan tattooing, is a visual
narrative and art form serving as a marker of social status and personal genealogy.
Tatau motifs “[refer] to histories and traditions”, with each design holding separate
meaning in an overall narrative (ibid.: 66). While they link the wearer to the past, tatau
work in the present as visual markers of identity. The act of the tatau grants the wearer
their respective place within society as a fully-fledged, active participant readily
available to proudly perpetuate their culture. Barkcloth weaving, integral to Tongan
society, entails a similar status as a visual marker of identity and culture. As protectors
of community, barkcloth textiles are highly valued, labor-intensive works that serve
multiple functions: demonstrating status and wealth, foster interpersonal relationships,
convey social obligations, and allow an artist’s ability to be publically announced (ibid.:
66).
The environment serves as one of the main references for visual culture and
presentation of Pacific narratives. By utilizing immediate environments “invested with
historical, social, and spiritual significance” (Hereniko and Wilson 1999: 167), Pacific
artists create works that embody “‘aspirations, visions, fears, hopes, and dreams’” (ibid.:
141). As products of the environment, Pacific narratives provide physical connections
and tangible sources of origin, place, and community. Through the establishment and

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perpetuation of ecological knowledge and mythos, Pacific narratives physically root
cultural identity.
Video game narratives are created to perpetuate a given message of
entertainment, or a designer’s personal agenda. Narrative content is at the whim of the
game’s creator, who has freedom to write and present any message they want. Pacific
narratives, however, have definite purpose in the survival of cultural identity and
continuation of tradition and community. They act as cultural tools meant to strengthen
bonds through the sharing of physical objects and ephemeral word and action. This
dissonance between game and Pacific narratives provides a problem in the expression
of the Pacific through video games: game narratives simply do not hold the same value
systems as Pacific narratives, leading to the misuse of Pacific culture and the lack of
representation of those Pacific identities. Video game narratives utilize pieces of the
Pacific to suit their own needs in a colonialist reading of Pacific cultures. Visual
components of the Pacific narrative are taken out of their original contexts and
repurposed in the name of creative license; this misappropriation of the Pacific narrative
is both damaging to the Pacific identity and perpetuates an incorrect visual and
contextual display of the Pacific. Thus, game narratives override Pacific narratives
instead of expressing them.
The online “living map” gamedevmap.com catalogues game developers,
publishers, and organizations around the world (Fig. 1). Colored dots populate a global
map, marking locations in which there are video game studios with a staff of five or
more. There are a considerable amount of developers in the Western hemisphere whilst
South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania are comparatively lacking. According to the

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database, there are a total of 719 developers in the US - 2 of which are in Hawaii.
These two developers are Blue Planet Software and Left Behind Games, which are both
not producing new games. Blue Planet Software’s last game was developed in 1999; its
founder, Netherlands-born Henk Rogers, is considered the “Father of RPG” in Japan
and is currently involved in environmentally-conscious work (Blue Planet Foundation
2016). His daughter, Maya Rogers, who now runs the company, has abandoned her
father’s gaming legacy and is instead pursuing her vision to create Hawaii into a
technological hub of commerce (Hawaiian Business Magazine 2016). Left Behind
Games, otherwise known as Inspired Media Entertainment, was a Christian-themed
gaming company that went defunct in 2011 (Wikipedia 2016). It’s founder, New York-
born Troy Lyndon, received social criticism over the Left Behind series and incurred a
heavy lawsuit concerning almost two billion unregistered shares of the company
(Wikipedia 2016). Curiously, the game Left Behind 4: World at War, based on the book
series of the same name, is available to download for free online “for a limited time”
(Left Behind Games 2014).
The game development scene in Oceania is sparse as compared to that of the
US mainland. According to the gamedevmap database, there are 13 developers in
Indonesia, 20 in New Zealand, 4 in the Philippines, 4 in Malaysia, and 60 in Australia
(gamedevmap 2016). There is no data for developers in Papua New Guinea. If
Australia’s statistically low population of Pacific Islander communities is taken into
account, the effective number of indigenous Pacific developers drops to a total of 41
(Queensland Government 2016). With a total of 4348 developers registered in the
database, Pacific developers make up less than 1% of the video game community.

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This severe lack of Pacific developers may be attributed to the technological,
social, and cultural shortcomings of the global perception and actual situation of Pacific
cultures. In today’s society, technology serves as a vital source of a given country’s
power and income - the video game industry has been seamlessly integrated in today’s
hi-tech world. The tech industry, however, is extremely demanding of higher education,
which is regarded as “a critical element… for capacity building and socio economic
development” (Thaman 2016: 6). Higher education in the Pacific is limited both in quality
of teaching and in availability. The failure of a clear establishment of formal education
may be attributed to unnaturally selective systems of enrollment in higher levels of
education, the perpetuation of “irrelevant” education, poor distribution of learning
resources such as educational faculty, and an overall “refusal to acknowledge the
critical importance of indigenous educational thoughts and practice” (Regional
Conference on Arts Education 2002: 7). This so-called ignorance may be attributed to
the damaging colonial past of the collective Pacific, through which the Pacific identity
was vehemently denied and eliminated (ibid.: 2002: 8). Through this colonial process,
Pacific cultures were gradually recontextualized through Western conceptions for
Western consumption. With a cultural image prepared for the entertainment of other
cultures, the Pacific finds itself at a loss when attempting to express itself with its own
methodologies. When applied to the Pacific’s video game industry, this sentiment -
paired with the need for higher education and means of technology - effectively denies
access for Pacific peoples to comfortably enter the gaming sphere.
Visual interpretations of Pacific cultures in Western video games reveal a largely
colonialist attitude toward those cultures. Representations of Pacific peoples, their

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cultural institutions, and native and natural environments are drastically warped in an
effort to sustain a Westernized concept of the Pacific. Through a visual analysis of video
games of various genres that involve Pacific cultures or their representations, this essay
emphasizes the injustices in the presentation and consumption of Pacific cultures.
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (Developer: EA Games, EA Los Angeles) sets
the player as US Marine Private Thomas Conlin deployed in the Pacific Theatre during
WWII.The game begins with the attack of Pearl Harbor, representing enemy Japanese
forces as reckless and charging straight into US formations. Throughout the game,
loading screens with diary-like narrations and historical photography of the war
emotionally gear the game’s narrative to sympathize with US forces. Its presentation is
extremely one-sided, decidedly focusing on the valor and efforts of the Americans whilst
providing little to no context of both Japanese aggressors and the Pacific populace that
inhabited the islands of the Pacific theatre. One of the campaigns takes the player to the
Makin Island Raid of 1942. The visual design of the Makin Island level is generic and
sparse in its presentation of both a Pacific village and its natural environment.
Unspecified species of ‘tropical’ foliage provide natural boundaries for the level, while
abandoned wooden/bamboo shacks with thatched roofs express a broad, largely
historicized interpretation of Makin island (Fig. 2). This basic village lacks ornamentation
and signs of past life, which effectively denies the historical presence of Pacific peoples
within their own homelands whilst creating an image of the Pacific without actually
having to show Pacific people. Pacific Assault’s representation of Guadalcanal
continues this trend by displaying the primitive technologies of the Pacific - such as a

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spiked barricade made of bamboo - in conjunction with the superior firepower of both
Allied and Axis forces (Fig. 3).
The visuals and narrative of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (Developer: EA Games,
EA Los Angeles) continue this active denial of Pacific cultures. Rising Sun’s protagonist,
US Marine Corporal Joseph D. Griffin, begins the game with the attack of Pearl Harbor
identical to that of Pacific Assault. This quintessential event was a point of common
interest and community for the US, who used the attack as reason for entering WWII.
With Japanese forces being the only represented peoples in the Pacific theatre (other
than Americans), they are incorrectly established as representations of Pacific Island
cultures; the subsequent silencing and complete denial of native Pacific populations
draws focus away from the theatre and islands themselves and instead focuses on the
enemies of the US. Like Pacific Assault, Rising Sun’s depiction of Guadalcanal is bare,
lifeless, and merely a stage for violence. Drums with Japanese script are one of the only
props found within the game’s levels (Fig. 4). This inclusion erases the native presence
by repurposing the environment for the Japanese forces, who are then established as
the main Pacific power merely through their occupation of the Pacific space.
The Medal of Honor series genre is First Person Shooter (FPS). The active
denial of the main character’s visual representation allows the player to assume an
anonymous role in perpetuating violence against Pacific Island cultures through the
execution of Japanese forces. This asserts US (Western) dominance over both Eastern
forces and the Pacific theatre without putting the blame on a single, distinguished
individual. Furthermore, the FPS genre ‘allows’ the disregarding of environment due to
the nature of its gameplay, which is focused on eliminating enemies and moving forward

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through levels to a given objective; visual design and composition of levels is relegated
as mere accessory to a game’s overall narrative.
Barbie: Super Model (Developer: Tahoe Software Productions, US) game
features the American fashion doll Barbie in a series of simplistic arcade-style levels. In
one level, the player controls Barbie as she roller skates along the Hawaiian coast.
Visuals include ‘staple’ components of the Western conception of Hawaii, including a
continuous strip of beach, palm trees, far-off volcanoes, sailboats, and canoes (Fig. 5).
White tourists are shown sunbathing, holding a surfboard, and walking along Barbie’s
path. As the product of colonialism, the Hawaiian landscape is reimagined as a Western
paradise catering to a decidedly White community, which is brought to the forefront of
the level and closer to the player. Tanner-skinned people (native Pacific peoples) can
be seen surfing and swimming in the distant backdrop of the ocean. They are farther
from the player, who is to dismiss them as mere decor; the action, gameplay, and focus
is in the foreground, or White population. With exclusively natives swimming in the
ocean, the Pacific existence is essentially deleted, as their bodies are obscured under
the waves, leaving but a blob of color to represent their head. As compared to the White
populace grounded on the shore, the Pacific peoples are characterized with a free, wild
nature as being the only souls brave enough to traverse the open expanse and breaking
waves.
As an educational action-arcade game, Barbie teaches hand-eye coordination
and enforces memory skills. Action-arcade games blend the characteristics of the
arcade game (simple controls, short levels, and increasing difficulty) with the hand-eye
coordination, reaction time, and emphasis on surmounting physical challenges found in

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action games. Visually, however, the game perpetuates a colonial mindset in its active
denial of the Pacific presence with a romanticized representation of Pacific spaces.
Western (White) peoples are given more importance than Pacific peoples in terms of
design and physical placement within the game’s landscape. As the products of the
Barbie franchise are geared toward adolescent girls, the game is essentially a tool for
young girls to passively learn and absorb colonialist behaviors and mindsets. Barbie
thus stands as an unfortunate example of the Western denial of Pacific identities that is
passively implanted at a young age.
Based on the 2002 Disney film Lilo and Stitch, Lilo and Stitch: Trouble in
Paradise (Developer: Blitz Games, Warwickshire, England) features main characters
Lilo, a native Pacific Islander, and Stitch, her alien pet. The player controls either Lilo or
Stitch and guides them through various levels defeating enemies, traversing terrain by
jumping over obstacles, and collecting tokens. These tokens are items contextualized
within a Western concept of Pacific cultures, including plumeria flowers and golden
pineapple, which serve to enforce a constructed “island narrative”. As products of
“Disneyfication”, the environments, objects, and concepts of the Pacific landscape are
reinterpreted in a lighthearted fashion: thick jungles are transformed into generic forest
paths; colored pots and expressive tiki guide the player along said paths; various forest
animals and insects constitute enemy forces easily defeated by bouncing on their heads
or flashing them with Lilo’s camera (Fig. 6). This Disneyfication converts an “unfamiliar”
Pacific landscape into a more accessible, carefully manicured environment of safe
entertainment suitable for the Western gaze and participation.

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The two traverse the island of Kauai, which is incorrectly populated with a level
area dubbed “Haleakala”. As Haleakala is a volcano located on the island of Maui
(another, separate island of the Hawaiian archipelago) the inclusion of the level is
evidence of the developer’s laziness and unwillingness to correctly represent the island
of Kauai and Hawaii as a whole. By clumping the islands in collective narrative, the
game denies the island of Kauai’s independent identity and instead opts for a catch-all
Hawaiian identity. Furthermore, the native population of Kauai is denied representation
beyond standing as props within levels (Fig. 7). Native characters serve as background
detail and are part of the game’s landscape, assigned without clear identity or purpose
other than to antagonize the player and prevent them from completing a given level.
Despite having a cultural consultant on its design team, Nancy Drew and the
Creature of Kapu Cave (Developer: Her Interactive, Bellevue, Washington) exhibits a
rather colonial reading of the Hawai’ian landscape and its native inhabitants. The player
assumes the role of the White detective Nancy Drew, interrogating various NPC, solving
puzzles, and hunting for clues in a point-and-click adventure format. The point-and-click
genre provides a static image that is intractable by clicking on specific, narrative-driven
objects. Nancy’s assignment debriefing at the beginning of the game instantly sets the
Hawai’ian landscape as a paradise of palm trees, volcanoes, and beaches (Fig.8). As
opposed to a land of rich community and identity, Hawai’i is reduced to an idealized
image for Western consumption. Set on the Big Island, the game’s narrative concerns a
case of rightful land ownership between the native Big Island Mike and non-native
Malachi Craven, which effectively echoes the historical struggle between the native and
colonial powers looking to expand their holdings for their own benefit. In a repetition of

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this colonial history, Pacific peoples are framed as wretched, barely clinging to
existence and in need of help (Fig. 9).
The non-native characters of Nancy Drew work together in a collective effort to
assert Western dominance over the Pacific and its inhabitants. Nancy is called to the
island in order to help Asian scientist Dr. Quigley Kim, who is attempting to find the
source of a local scourge plaguing crops. As a non-native outsider of higher education,
Quigley can be seen as the alien saviour the island needs in order to survive, as it is
unable to produce learned individuals capable of solving the problem domestically and
within the Pacific community. White, haughty entrepreneur Malachi Craven continues a
trend of non-native superiority through his ownership of the hi-tech horticultural Hilihili
Research Center. His involvement with Big Island Mike and subsequent legal victory
and acquisition of native land furthers a markedly colonial agenda in declaring the
influence of the Westerner over the Pacific, which is unable to defend itself. As friends
of Nancy, the detective brothers Frank and Joe Hardy serve as the final Western force
meant to keep Pacific powers in check. Their role is to perform a background check on
Big Island Mike and keep him under surveillance for Malachi, who is intent on finding
any evidence that will allow him to take Mike’s land. The Hardy Boys thus act as a final
White savior and warden, intent on finding the injustices and misdeeds of the Pacific
man for the benefit of the colonial Western power.
Big Island Mike and his daughter Pua are the lone representations of Pacific
identity. Mike - whose nickname is problematic in itself - is depicted as a large man
dressed in a palm tree-patterned shirt, who speaks in slang and is apparently rooted in
Pacific legend (Fig. 10). His daughter Pua bears a resemblance to her father in both

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form and function. Pua matches her shell jewelry with a bared midriff, both components
of a laid-back island surf culture (Fig. 11). Her mentality in that she and her father “have
everything [they] need” may perpetuate a dreamy image of the humble, yet self-
sufficient Islander perfectly happy with a slow-paced life. Like her father, she
perpetuates the myth of Kane Okala, the island’s guardian cryptid.
In order to reach the end levels of the game, the player must participate in two of
Mike’s island-themed activities: shell collecting and ulua fishing. For their efforts, players
are awarded ‘Big Island Bucks’, or ‘play money’ with which they may purchase tangible
goods. This exchange of material goods for a false currency denotes that the natural
gifts of the island are essential worthless to the Westerner, who has their own value
systems (Big Island Bucks) to apply to the goods they bring in for exchange. While the
Westerner derives pleasure in a custom system of exchange tailored for their
enjoyment, Mike must use the Westerner as a mediator in order to make an actual
living, as he sells the shells and fish the player presents to him. This fantasy fulfillment
of the Westerner and subsequent benefit to the native finds resonance in today’s
tourism industry, which serves as a main source of income for many Pacific
communities. By recreating the romanticized, quiet existence of islanders living off the
land, the native ensures a method of survival through service to the Westerner and by
appealing to their yearning for an ‘authentic’ Pacific experience.
A reboot focusing on the origin story of adventurer Laura Croft, Tomb Raider
(Developer: Crystal Dynamics, Redwood City, CA) serves as one of the few
representations of Pacific Island cultures and peoples that is not particularly aggressive
in a colonial mindset while attempting to express the Pacific identity in a naturalistic

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display. While the player controls Laura Croft, the character Jonah Maiava, a friend of
Laura’s with interests in fishing, the outside, and inventing new recipes, serves as the
representative of Pacific Island culture. According to one of Jonah’s personal journal
entries, though born in New Zealand, he was raised by his grandmother, a cultural
notion he personally affirms to be necessary in order to pass knowledge and tradition.
While his heritage suggests a pan-Pacific dialogue that is indeed emphasized in cultural
conversations that occur between Pacific cultures, Jonah’s character is poignantly
rooted in the Pacific tradition of the continuation of custom with a respect for
genealogical wisdom.
Jonah’s visual design is geared as a complete head-to-toe representation of
Pacific identity (Fig. 12). He wears a garland of kukui nuts, Polynesian decorative seeds
that represent tranquility and spirituality, and has his hair pulled up in a topknot, a
traditional Maori hairstyle (Hawaii Jewelry and Gift 2016). The New Zealand rugby shirt
alludes to his homeland; the “XL”, however, may perpetuate the Western stereotype of
male Pacific rugby players being larger than Westerners and effectively causing a
“white flight” from the sport (Grainger 2008: 131). The tattoo designs on his right arm
and leg are identical - this is most likely a technical shortcut of the game design
process, which can forgo design details in order to save time, money, and effort on
behalf of the game’s developers and coders. Koru (spiral) designs, symbolizing new
beginnings, growth, and harmony, make up most of the tattooed space and may allude
to Jonah’s personal history (Zealand Tattoo 2016). According to game lore, Jonah
escaped his abusive father by enlisting in the army. There, he forged a comfortable,
amicable existence until he was honorably discharged after being injured in battle. This

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attempt to replicate Maori tattooing design is significant for its faithfulness to aesthetic
design as well as its symbolic meaning for the wearer, as Pacific tattooing is never
merely cosmetic.
While Jonah is visually marked with multiple instances of the Pacific identity, his
writers extended the notion to his psychological view of the world around him. He is
characterized as a spiritual individual with an innate connection to land; in the game, he
senses an unnatural energy on the island he and other characters take refuge on after
their ship is wrecked in a storm. Jonah’s “6th sense” can be understood as a nod to a
heritage spiritually and physically tied to both the land and sea. This connection is
strengthened by his journal entry detailing his self-imposed fate were he the sole
survivor of the shipwreck: left without family, friends, or a way back home, Jonah
asserts that he would swim out to sea to allow Pania of the Reef to take him. A part of
Maori mythology, Pania is a mermaid-like sea creature who fell in love with a human,
only to be dragged back down into the depths by her own kind and transformed into a
fishing rock (Wikipedia 2016). As a symbol of the New Zealand city Napier, Pania
serves as yet another cultural tie to attach Jonah to his native culture.
The multiplayer FPS Overwatch (Developer: Blizzard Entertainment, Irvine, CA)
pits two teams of six players each against each other squad-based online competitive
play. Although the game does have background lore, there is effectively no active
narrative in the gameplay, with the plot and character backgrounds having no effect on
game mechanics. Players simply assume a role out of a roster of 23 character of
various genders and cultural identities and fight to win. One such character is Roadhog,
otherwise known as Mako Rutledge, a 48 year old Australian criminal fond of chaos and

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destruction. Two of his skins, dubbed “Toa” (Fig. 13) and “Islander” (Fig. 14), display
him in two color variants of the same Maori-based costumery. A “skin” is a cosmetic
costume available for the characters of Overwatch. They have no effect on gameplay
and are purely decorative.With “toa” meaning “warrior” and “mako” meaning
“shark/shark tooth” in Maori, both the character’s name and his costumes suggest that
he is of Maori descent - his homeland of Australia, located close to New Zealand, which
houses a large Maori population, furthers this notion.
In both variants of the skin, Roadhog wears a traditional tatua, or wide belt, with
geometric designs visually resonant with those featured in Maori taniko weaving
designs (Fig. 15) (Shorten 2016). The braids hanging from his waist are part of the
piupiu, or flax-strand kilt, which would originally have numerous strands as opposed to
thick braids; this recontextualization may have been necessary to allow the game to run
smoothly, as an overly detailed character model with lots of complicated, individual
parts can impede the game’s performance - the more detailed the character, the harder
the game’s given system has to work in order to render, or display, that character. He
carries a shark tooth club, the leiomano, which was a weapon mainly used by
Hawaiians (Hawaii Alive 2016). While the leiomano is not necessarily associated with
Maori culture, it visually suits the character’s original weapon, a metal chain hook.
Whilst the leiomano may serve as an easy, visually pleasing way to recontextualize the
original hook, it may also hold significance in its expression of a cross-cultural pan-
Pacific dialogue. Roadhog’s masks are relatively congruent with traditional Maori
design, although they are poignantly reliant on the visual aspect of the haka, with an
tongue outstretched and mouth open wide. The fierce facial expressions made during

21. 20
the war dance contextually fit within both Roadhog’s and the game’s violent nature. The
tattooing on both skin variants emulate the complex weaving of koru spirals with thick
bars of filled space as opposed to the intricate patterns seen in most Maori tattooing.
This simplification of form may once again be a necessary degradation in the name of
game performance.
Although the skins do not have any real purpose other than cosmetic decor, they
both represent the character’s (heavily) assumed cultural identity and express a Pacific
- specifically Maori - culture with little to no contextualization within a Westernized
perspective. Although the game takes minor liberties in the name of gameplay
functionality, Roadhog’s alternative skin designs present a massive improvement in
regards to a worldwide visual digestion of Pacific cultures.
Based on this visual analysis, video game representations of the Pacific are
deeply rooted in Western-based narratives and design - though newer games show
considerable improvement in the visual representation of Pacific identities. In some
games, the Pacific is boiled down to a theatre of war, or the environment that housed a
US victory over an Axis defeat. The internet query “games set in the Pacific” yields
resonant results in establishing the area dubbed ‘the Pacific’ as merely a historicized
space of war (Fig. 16). Other games characterize Pacific environments under the
dominance of Western and non-Pacific tourists, who inhabit and infest Pacific spaces
for personal pleasure and deny Pacific peoples room for personal expression. Decor
reliant on imagined, created, and colonial images perpetuate a false image of Pacific
cultures and people whilst serving to benefit Western superiority.

22. 21
Considering that six out of the seven games analyzed in this essay were
developed in the US, this imagined cultural and social rhetoric of the Pacific cultures is a
definitively home-grown Western phenomenon. US society has continued to perpetuate
its colonial past through a continuous cultivation and circulation of these unjust
representations. Once again, however, more recently created games show evidence of
a cultural sensitivity not found in earlier technological works. They may be the result of a
more ‘politically-correct’ American and global environment that is slowly adapting to the
cultural and emotional needs of Pacific peoples and otherwise non-Western cultures.
This research draws attention to the problematic visual and contextual
representation of Pacific cultures in the context of video games, which serve as
prominent carriers of meaning and sentiment in modern society. Video games as a
creative medium will only continue to develop in terms of technological sophistication
and narrative construction. Games’ intimate, psychological connection to the player will
subsequently blossom, with any and all information transmitted to the player magnified
as a result of this technological and narrative growth. As such, it will be imperative for
the future of the gaming industry to pay close attention to the narratives they present
and perpetuate, lest they spread misinformation harmful to certain communities -
especially those that are unrepresented or otherwise left to the throes of historicization
by being locked within a cultural past.

23. 22
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Image List

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

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Fig. 4
Fig. 5

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Fig. 6

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Fig. 7
Fig. 8

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Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

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Fig.12
Fig. 13

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Fig. 14
Fig. 15

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Fig. 16