Before getting into this blog post, I must say that I did not grow up in Chicago. My experience with the city is that of my four years here at the university which 100% affects how I interact with this game and its perception of Chicago.
We touched upon how Chicago is depicted in a certain light in We Are Chicago in class and how this perception might work for the game’s goal but against the city itself. The game makes an obvious push against gang violence and youth recruitment into gangs with the not-so-subtle advertisement of Reclaim Our Kids, a non-profit that helps curb violence and provide positive opportunities to kids in Chicago. This is a great message to spread as youth recruitment into gangs is a real issue, especially when we see Aaron’s friends fall into gangs because they don’t see a personal future in higher education or in the job market. These are real struggles that youth may face when in a lower-income neighborhood and they have little means with which to provide their own future. This aspect of the struggle of living on the south side of Chicago is highlighted well through the story lines of Aaron’s friends. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the biggest thing that the game highlighted.
By highlighting the gang violence aspect of Chicago without highlighting other positives about Chicago with nearly as much impact, I couldn’t help but feel that Chicago was not being portrayed correctly. Although Aaron is seen performing spoken word, this doesn’t nearly have as much shock value or memorability as being ganged up on when walking back home with one of your friends. The amount of times that the player was made to consciously think about gangs and violence in the neighborhood far outnumbered the times that the player was made to think about the positive outlets and opportunities that such a community could provide to its kids. If someone who had never lived in Chicago experienced this game, I’m not sure if they would ever want to visit. Chicago is a painted as a place that is scary – a place that is full of rampant violence and the only solution to these problems is to eventually leave the neighborhood.
This brings us up against a wall as the creators of the game want to raise awareness about the realness of youth gang recruitment while also recognizing that they are titling the game after a real city. This title leads the player to assume that the game is what Chicago is like, even though the story unevenly focuses on the negative aspects of living in the city and barely mentions any positives. How can you gain support to fight against a bad thing while still recognizing and displaying the reality that Chicago is not all bad? Can you only have one at the expense of the other? I’m sure that with how Chicago was portrayed in this game, it made people feel compassion and empathy out of fear but I would personally have held off until I could have found a way to better balance both valuable truths.
I made a blog post similar to this where the game highlights this one aspect of the violence in Chicago but seems to ignore the other factors that make these situations in the game happen in real life, like political corruption and economic disparity. Although very true that violence is a severe problem in Chicago, I agree that it isn’t all that Chicago is. The title of the game was definitely done in order to achieve a “Rise Up” approach to the issue, by showing the kids that live in these communities make Chicago, and they are the ones that can create change in the city. However, I totally agree with what you said: if understood differently by another player, the title can be extremely misleading and Chicago is portrayed incorrectly. It really shows how carefully developers have to think about their game so that their message is portrayed and understood correctly
I agree with you that Chicago has many positive aspects and the title of this game might be misleading. I think it is better called Chicago South Side. However, we should never forget that the aim of this game is to point out how people struggles to live at Chicago South Side. It is really a shame on this city, or even on America that people are put under the threat of being shot and robbed daily. I didn’t have much experience of Chicago before coming to UChicago and honestly speaking, the fear to be shot or robbed far outweigh any other positive sides of Chicago. I feel as if we are living in Afghanistan everyday. The root cause is poverty, is the lack of strength in government.