Tonight, I have finished probably one of the best games that I’ve played in the past two years, Detroit: Become Human.
The story is well layered and follows 3 protagonists on their journey to achieve freedom. Markus, coming from a home of a wealthy artist in Lance Henriksen’s Carl Manfred. Markus and Carl have a father/son relationship, despite Markus being an android.
Kara, who is an AX400 android model designed to take care of children and household duties (cooking, cleaning, etc)
Connor, a specialist range of android designed to assist in Police investigations – who is hunting deviant androids (think Ryan Gosling’s character in Blade Runner 2049)
There are a number of important topics and themes covered in the game such as racism, (sexual) minorities, biased media coverage and fear mongering. In this article in particular I wanted to write about Kara, and some of the media coverage that has been garnering attention to the game.
In the media, a story has been flying around regarding part of Kara’s arc dealing with domestic abuse. Her owner – Todd – is a drug addict/alcoholic and prone to mood swings, and takes out his anger on both her (at the start of her arc, she’s being collected from a Cyberlife store after being damaged – her arm was torn off – with Todd citing she was hit by a car) and his daughter Alice. Conservative MP Damian Collins, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, has said that it is “completely wrong for domestic violence to be part of a video game”. In a time where raising awareness of these topics is important, very much in the spotlight, but also still widely viewed as almost a taboo subject and one that falls into the victim blame ideology, should the Detroit: Become Human story not be applauded for raising the topic into the spotlight in such a way that almost puts the player into the shoes of the victim? There is no other medium that can achieve this type of relation, in my opinion.
Let us not also forget that it’s common for the media and public to cite violent video games as the cause for real life violence – whereas on the opposite side of the spectrum, here we have the player not instigating the violence, but being at the receiving end of it – and allowing them to emotively and emphathically react to the situation. It can be argued that it channels the players thought process into only one “correct” reaction – to defend the child, however, is this not the correct action to take? no child, or adult, for that matter, should be abandoned to a life of abuse if there is an option or knowledge to stop it. I believe it’s wrong to shun a a medium for bringing up sensitive subjects or we just remain in a closeted society where the taboos of the last hundred years exist for a hundred more.
