This is another installment of “Skin in the Game,” a special project of Marketplace Morning Report. Video games, a bigger industry worldwide than movies and music combined, are changing the economics, business, We look at what it can teach us about money, career, and business. capital.
This time: A video game where violence only takes place in the economic realm.
Dot, short for Dorothea, is a character in a 2D interactive video game from Detroit called Dot's Home. In the game, there is a dream-like sequence where Dot goes back in time and finds a portal.
“She obtains a magic key and travels through time to understand the choices her family has made about housing and opportunities. It's not easy,” said Tom, a community activist and free gamer on Steam or mobile platforms. says co-creator Cristina Rosales.
“We wanted to tell a multi-generational story, because when you think about housing disadvantage, it's cumulative,” she said. “The worse your family's situation is, the worse this disease can get. And if you come from privilege and wealth, you have an opportunity to improve by leaps and bounds.”
As Dot and the game players progress through the game, she learns about her grandparents' roots as sharecroppers in the South who worked in auto factories and moved to Detroit in search of a better life. In search of a place to live, they encounter discrimination and predation. These require difficult choices. The game has cartoon-like speech bubbles.
In the 1950s, Dot's grandmother is seen saying, “We want a house, but that guy at Murphy is just giving us a choice between signing a deed and renting out the house.” Masu.
When a bank refuses to lend to a black person, the real estate company may create something called a deed contract. It's like renting. Depending on the situation, it can be dangerous. Your contract may state that if you miss even one payment, you'll lose the equity you built paying for the house and start over.
Dot's grandfather said: “Never mind the fact that it could take anywhere from five to 50 years to pay off the house in the first place. I wish I could get a loan.”
Dot's parents find themselves at a crossroads in the early 1990s. Maintain community ties within the city or move to the “better” suburbs? Players must choose from options such as “A place where I can grow up with my children safely,'' “A street where everyone knows my name,'' and “A neighborhood where I can shop at the supermarket without being seen.''
“When you think about video games, I think the predominant image in most people's minds is something like a very violent first-person shooter or a power fantasy,” says Dot's Home creative team member said one Evan Narcisse. He was the lead writer and essentially the designer of the story. “But video games, like movies, books, and music, are a storytelling medium, and many different kinds of stories can be told within that medium.”
Among Narcisse's many credits are three Spider-Man games.
“I was fascinated by the idea of trying to talk about social issues and policy through video games,” he said. “But then you get to the blackness of it all, to be honest. Like housing justice, things that impact marginalized communities, especially Black people. I feel deeply connected to that. I am.”
The game is a collaboration between multimedia storytellers and housing justice advocates called the Rise-Home Stories project. Funding comes from philanthropic organizations such as the Ford Foundation. A nonprofit social mission gives you more freedom.
“Most commercial and mainstream entertainment, including video games, needs to make a profit, so they have to adjust how they present their worldview, right?” Narcisse said. “I didn't have to think about it.”
And this 2D game is taken to a new 3D level. Anthony Barber is director of communications and culture at the advocacy group Detroit Action. He's also part of the team that turned the video game into a full-fledged stage production, with the on-screen character Dot becoming the live-action Dot.
“There were kids in the audience who were like, 'This is one of the best things I've ever seen in my life,'” Barber said. “And I think there's some importance to having people of color involved in the gaming industry and having a say in how our stories are told.”
Learn more about Dot's Home's stage production in “Marketplace Morning Report” on Tuesday, March 19th.
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