Diversity in Gaming and Cultural Melding, or "Why does that Aussie character have a Maori skin?"
I'm not too sure where to post this essay as it encompasses a lot of different games and diversity, I eventually decided on here. I want to preface that I'm half Australian and half Pakeha (NZ European). I don't claim to know the ins and outs of Maori culture, but I do have experience first hand as a New Zealand born.. New Zealander, and have lived in the country my whole life, so I still wanted to voice my perspective.
We've moved more and more from the older gaming trends of 'straight white guy saves impoverished people/country from shady group/tyrant' in recent years for modern gaming. A lot of fps games that had a scowling man on front cover walking/holding gun have changed tone and bucked the older ways to try and be more diverse and open for people, which can either be viewed cynically ('they just do it for more money') or as a genuine effort for change and growth. I'm honestly not here to debate either side of that as both arguments have merit, though I will say that I prefer the expanded range of characters regardless of original intention. This also isn't a post about the companies behind the games and the things they've done or still do, this is just a discussion on characters in the games.
Games having a diverse roster, be that culturally or even from various alien or fantasy races, inherently make a game a more enjoyable experience for me and many other people. If they're crafting in a fun and respectful way as well then that improves that factor even more. A suite of playable characters in a game needs those characters to behave differently from each other in order to keep things fresh and not allow things to feel the same with just a minor voiceline change and nothing else.
There's a reason why games such as Apex and Overwatch characters are much more loved and respected by their communities than the majority of playable characters in Call of Duty. Yes, all 3 of these games have different models, backstory and voicelines from the others in the game, but Apex and Overwatch cultivate a much greater personality to their characters which is showcased through animations, voicelines with more character and dedicated media outside of the game to expand on the lore and backstory of the characters.
Which is, unfortunately, where I need to put in the 'but'; due to a variety of factors, my culture is constantly mistakenly combined with another, or ignored entirely.
I come from New Zealand, a small country in the lower right hand side of the world, under Australia. To some, my country not showing up in media often may not even be a surprise. It's a fairly decently known meme that it never even shows up on maps in film and tv. A lot of people know us either from the director Taika Waititi or the Lord of the Rings movies. In recent times we've definitely made strides to be seen more in media but there still seems to be a mix of cultures that happens to people unaware of the differences. I don't claim to be an expert on my or any other bit of culture, but at least putting out some information and my viewpoint as born and raised Kiwi (NZer) may hopefully help at least one person better understand, which will make all this writing worth it.
I'll be talking specifically about 3 games and 6 characters in total; Maui in Smite, Mad Maggie in Apex Legends and Junkrat, Junker Queen and Roadhog in Overwatch.
Maui is the new character being added to Smite very soon, the second Polynesian god to be put in to the game. Maui is an incredibly important figure in many mythologies around the islands in the Pacific, but the decision was made to focus on his Hawaiian interpretation. I personally have little issue with this because I know and respect how prominent he is to various cultures. In mythology, he founded my country by fishing up the South Island and his boat was made the North Island.
This is actually shown in the game in his abilities with him pulling up an island as an ultimate ability. I love this, honestly. I'm a bit disappointed that they don't have more ties to Maori culture but they even specified in the dev notes on creating him that they wanted to shift mostly on to Hawaiian folklore instead of Maori. I more than understand that and I'm honestly just happy that the rich mythology is getting more coverage in media.
I adore Mad Maggie. She's legitimately the first full on Kiwi in a major game that I know of, alongside having strong Maori characteristics. She has a distinct accent and tone accurate to the role (she's literally voiced by a Maori woman), she has a skin inspired by Maori culture including tribal tattoos *and* she actually speaks Maori in game via voicelines. That's why it's so upsetting to me that people were mostly dreading her release due to an event in Apex she took part in.
For those unaware, Maggie has a history with the character Fuse, a man with a very strong Australian influence. Maggie featured in an event before she released, trying to chase him down and essentially making a bonus game mode. Unfortunately, she suffered from some of what other characters like Newcastle and Vantage did in that she repeated voicelines several times. This lead to a lot of people mocking her voicelines and openly exclaiming that they didn't want her in the game due to just 3 or 4 voicelines from a single event. Thankfully since release this has died down, but it did still temper my excitement due to how rude people were about her. I still love her though and probably always will.
Finally we have Overwatch, one of the first big games that really tried to push for an incredibly diverse roster that I can think of. I'm not fully invested in the deeper factors of the story but I do know that Australia was nearly destroyed during the Omnic Crisis and this caused a liberation group to be formed, a group of scavengers to pop up and the like. During this however, New Zealand is barely even mentioned, if at all in the lore.
Junkrat is probably the most overtly Australian (aside Junker Queen). He has a strong accent and says some common Australian slang. Roadhog is.. a bit more concerning.
Roadhog has several strong connections to New Zealand and New Zealand culture. His real first name is Mako, a shark that while admittedly seen in many locations around the world, is well known for being in Polynesian waters, including a common appearance in New Zealand. His voice is muffled by a mask so you can't hear his accent, but a few of his voicelines are more commonly heard in New Zealand than Australia. 'Sweet as' is a very well known Kiwi phrase and 'I'm beached as bro' is a reference to a viral youtube video making fun of Kiwi accents.
The strongest connection however is his 'Toa' skin. A Toa is a Polynesian warrior, or in Maori is used to mean being bold, experienced and capable. This in tandem with the skin itself having an obvious Maori influence with (an attempt at) tribal tattoos, Huia feathers and a mask with the tongue out to echo the end of a Haka (a dance to celebrate achievements or sometimes as a method of intimidation of an opponent) makes it pretty obvious they wanted him to be a New Zealander.
Mako is never mentioned being a Kiwi, his story begins with him being displaced due to a peace accord in Australia. In fact, aside from a leaked map datamine early in release, New Zealand is never mentioned at all, anywhere. With Roadhog being enraged at the treatment him and his people received to the point he joins a liberation movement, you would expect him to be a lot more proud and open about his heritage, yet he gets a couple of New Zealand sounding voicelines and an obviously Maori warrior inspired skin and he's still labelled Australian.
This has been a painful sticking point for me since I first played Overwatch several years ago, honestly. Overwatch released in 2016 and was the first character in a large game with a Kiwi influence. It took a 6 year wait to get Mad Maggie this year to get a much more genuine feeling character and it frustrates me. At best this feels like Blizzard accidentally mixed some cultures together but at worst the skin feels like an Australian man cosplaying as a New Zealand person and it honestly leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth even now.
To be honest I wouldn't make as much of a big deal out of this if it wasn't for Junker Queen, one of the newest characters in the game. JQ is a very obvious Australian, with another thick accent and very Australian voicelines ('get moving you drongos' etc). It honestly breaks down in to two problems: Overwatch having yet another Australian and allegations of being Mad Maggie 2.
The first part is fairly minor for a gripe as they also just brought in a third Japanese character; Overwatch now has 3 Australians yet no Kiwis. I find it frustrating that the only Australian with some NZ links is called Aussie and they just give us a third Aussie. It makes me disappointed because they always tout how diverse and vibrant they are, but they relegate New Zealand to some voice lines and a skin but give Australia 3 characters.
The next is about the gaming community as a whole, wherein Mad Maggie and JQ have been compared to each other several times by many people. I feel a decent amount of this is because they sound *somewhat* similar, however I won't say that I don't find it kind of harmful when New Zealand has always been underrepresented in media. In my opinion, JQ has a bit of what's known as a 'bogan' accent. It's typically used to describe an 'uncultured person' which can either be a pejorative or a term of endearment, but I feel it fits as she has a notable twang and is quite obviously a bit more blunt personality wise. In comparison I'd say Mad Maggie just has a fairly common New Zealand accent, with some of the similar bluntness (though dialed up to 11 just like JQ).
I'm not a linguist and may be inaccurate in terms of region specific accents. Saying this however, I've noticed a lot of people claiming they're basically the same character. I can see parts of this argument but as a New Zealander I still have to express it makes me sad that they get conflated together in a similar way to Roadhog and his Maori inspired cosmetic, especially when Maggie is very strongly inspired directly by New Zealand and our culture.
This ended up being a lot longer than I intended. I suppose it's been stewing in my mind for years, ever since I played Overwatch and found that Toa skin. I would honestly love to see New Zealand featured more and more in games as we have a diverse array of people and a rich history but it seems like very slow progress. I expressly remember when I was interested in Rainbow Six: Siege I made a New Zealand operator called Katipo, named after one of only 3 dangerous spiders in our country. I posted this fan creation online, excited to just share a *tiny* bit of my country and the response from other fans was literally "they'll do Australia well before this". It shattered me, because it was true.
Australia is big, they're much more well known. That doesn't mean that other, smaller countries don't deserve some attention and it *certainly* shouldn't result in smaller countries having their culture subsumed into an Australian character via a single skin and a couple of lines of dialogue. Maybe part of it is that Australia and New Zealand have always had a partial rivalry and respect for each other that makes it hit different, I'm not sure.
What I do know is that I love gaming. I loved it since I was a child, I've been a gamer for nearly two decades now. I love that more cultures are being shown and embraced. It's time for more Kiwi representation. I want others to learn about my culture, I want to learn more about my culture that I don't know. I felt so much pride seeing Mad Maggie release and I want to feel that again.
People really don't understand how impactful diversity can be until you experience your own culture being shown in a game for the first time.
