Cross-Cultural Exchanges
The Internet has pulled the whole world together. Cheaper airfares have also enabled people to travel the world quickly and easily. They break the distance barrier, enabling people from different places with different cultures to come together. Different cultures mix, evolving the older cultures to newer ones.
Anime and Manga are prominent in modern Japanese culture. Manga is a form of comic in Japan, and they emphasizes on exaggeration of physical features like big eyes and pointy noses. Manga has spawned off animations too, which are called Anime. Western cartoons and comics work the same way but the styles they portray are different from the Japanese. Western cartoons and comics emphasize on heroic acts and most of their characters are masculine. However, in recent times, there has been appearance of Western Animes. Shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Animatrix have blurred the contrast between different cultures, even going as far as to merge 2 different cultural styles together. Cultures are mixing. So hypothetically, will there be only a single culture in the future? Will the culture turn out good or bad for humans?
Other emerging and growing trends are spies, crimes and violence in mass media. Movies now portray crimes and violence as normal and acceptable. Gore and mutilation in horror games has also been regarded as an ‘art form’ now. Dangers of spies are regarded as heroic acts and spies are thought to emit sexiness and hotness. Influence of the mass media has shaped children’s minds. Physically, they can look innocent but psychologically, they are killers. The violence in mass media, because it’s mimicking reality, in turn gets mimicked by people watching them. This bad cycle may continue on for years to come.
In relation to Games Design, I think that merging of cultures does generate some interesting and fresh ideas. However, we must not forget our roots too, since they are what brought us up. Also, as time passes, violence seems to be gradually ‘accepted’. I think a certain amount level of violence is important in bringing out the action, but overdose of it is unacceptable. Balance is important.
Anime and Manga are prominent in modern Japanese culture. Manga is a form of comic in Japan, and they emphasizes on exaggeration of physical features like big eyes and pointy noses. Manga has spawned off animations too, which are called Anime. Western cartoons and comics work the same way but the styles they portray are different from the Japanese. Western cartoons and comics emphasize on heroic acts and most of their characters are masculine. However, in recent times, there has been appearance of Western Animes. Shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Animatrix have blurred the contrast between different cultures, even going as far as to merge 2 different cultural styles together. Cultures are mixing. So hypothetically, will there be only a single culture in the future? Will the culture turn out good or bad for humans?
Other emerging and growing trends are spies, crimes and violence in mass media. Movies now portray crimes and violence as normal and acceptable. Gore and mutilation in horror games has also been regarded as an ‘art form’ now. Dangers of spies are regarded as heroic acts and spies are thought to emit sexiness and hotness. Influence of the mass media has shaped children’s minds. Physically, they can look innocent but psychologically, they are killers. The violence in mass media, because it’s mimicking reality, in turn gets mimicked by people watching them. This bad cycle may continue on for years to come.In relation to Games Design, I think that merging of cultures does generate some interesting and fresh ideas. However, we must not forget our roots too, since they are what brought us up. Also, as time passes, violence seems to be gradually ‘accepted’. I think a certain amount level of violence is important in bringing out the action, but overdose of it is unacceptable. Balance is important.
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