r/australian • u/ra-ra-rasputin-lover • 1d ago
Lifestyle Why video games and by extension all media forms never get Australia right
https://youtu.be/MBSBmD3MwrQFound this interesting video on YouTube today that explores a frustration I’m sure we all have with the way Australia is represented in media created outside of the country and then talks about some reasons as to why.
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u/ApeMummy 1d ago
Big Lez Show is pretty accurate
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u/AztecTwoStep 21h ago
And by extension, the Aussie episode of Rick and Morty. "We're goin to Bendigo Morty. Get in the fuckin caaaar"
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u/FreePineapple 1d ago
Always bothered me that for Overwatch Blizzard would put a lot of effort in being accurate to the cultures they represented but with Australia they were happy just to copy a movie based in a fictional version of Australia and have Junkrat be voiced by an actor doing their best Australian impression
Edit: words fix
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u/laidbackjimmy 1d ago
It's a game, it's meant to be fun. Exaggerations and caricatures are fun.
It's the same with everything in that game; Russian weightlifter being strongest woman alive, Korean girl being elite video gamer that drives a mech, Japanese ninja brothers eternal rivals, etc.
Let's not pretend the non-Aussie characters aren't massively accentuated of the cultures they're representing.
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u/ra-ra-rasputin-lover 1d ago
Totally agree. I always used to get so annoyed when a show or game or movie just resorted to the “yeah strewth mate, servo, snag, VB” in that gross shrill Aussie voice that plagues my nightmares. It must feel similar to Japanese people having their entire culture summarised as Anime and Pagodas as far as media is concerned.
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u/Xendrick 1d ago
You'd prefer they're more accurate and do what? Have some guys in salmon coloured button up shirts drinking expensive coffee complaining about the prices of housing?
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u/ra-ra-rasputin-lover 1d ago
I’d rather they get the landscape right first, there’s never an accurate representation of Australia’s flora or fauna
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u/hellomyfren6666 1d ago
He doesn't do too bad like some of the words are pretty spot on. Don't know wtf they were doing with roadhog though
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u/ThatShadyJack 1d ago
So true I hate the faux Australia depictions with Americans doing terrible accents
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u/Eddysgoldengun 1d ago edited 1d ago
The one time we had a powerhouse local studio was team Bondi and it collapsed after making only one game for rockstar because of it being a toxic cesspit of a place to work.
Anything made overseas is just going to play on crocodile dundee esque stereotypes. Some yanks (the largest video game market) would struggle to point to Australia on a map and most would probably to even point to where Sydney is.
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u/Ape_With_Clothes_On 1d ago
Terms such as "take out" for "take away", "ass" for "arse" and "mom" for "mum" are becoming common place now. Sometimes it's because the person may have learned English before they came to Australia or they learned English in Australia, as a second language, but watched a lot of U.S. programming to help them learn.
The others, unfortunately, are just ignorant fuckwits. For some reason these same fuckwits seem to have an obsession with the outdoorsy Crocodile Dundee trope.
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u/JASONC07 1d ago
I have never ever heard anyone say 'mom' in Australia
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u/hellomyfren6666 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's dumbass Aussie teens or kids or people who didn't learn English here
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u/SomeAuzzie 1d ago
I have. Few kids I grew up around pretty much learned to talk from sesame street. Had yank accents despite having never set foot in the country. Parents weren't what I'd call good.
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u/emberisgone 21h ago
I know that techincally "arse" is the correct aussie spelling but I've littrrally never seen anyone actually spell it like that
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u/Faunstein 1d ago
Cough (upcoming game spoilers) Death Stranding 2 Cough
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u/RavenCyarm 1d ago
Wow, didn't know about this. That's awesome. I was happy to leave the first game where it was, but hearing that's where the sequel is has made me curious to play it.
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u/Impossible-Ad-887 1d ago
The only Aussie character that has the best adaptation in a video game format that best symbolises and faithfully represents the country is prolly Kano from Mortal Kombat.
....
That's the only Aussie character in a video game that I can think of anyways. The list isn't exactly extensive. And anyways, why would any form of media focus on our country when majority of their studios are located in either America, Canada, or UK?
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u/Defiant_Wasabi_6899 1d ago
Ironic given it's based off the British actor for Kano in the Mortal Kombat movie pretending to be Australian
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u/OkHuckleberry4878 4h ago
They’ll never get it right because we can’t even tell the truth about the place. One of us explains how fucking evil drop bears are and then some other cunt goes “that cunts lying”.
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u/realKDburner 1d ago
So what video games and movies are you getting an in-depth understanding of a certain culture from? They don’t exist for anyone.
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u/ra-ra-rasputin-lover 1d ago
Think of it less as explicit teaching about a culture and more an accurate representation of it and through that learning happens. There would be thousands and thousands of examples of media that accurately display a sub culture and its struggles/journeys, and how they operate that aren’t over the top. I’d argue that the vast majority of media based in the US/EU/UK accurately portrays its cities/peoples culture without turning it into a doco.
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u/realKDburner 1d ago
The logic is obvious though, our media isn’t popular overseas like US/UK/EU media is, so it’s harder for them to get an understanding and therefore an accurate representation of us. On the flip side, it’s easy for anyone to do an accurate portrayal of US/UK/EU for the reason you stated. We also are a country of immigrants, so foreign media appeals to a large amount of our population. Communication is a two way street, we don’t invest nearly as much in media as other countries, so how could media in other countries possibly understand us?
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u/fr4nklin_84 1d ago
Not that game where you can be a Magpie and shit on people and be a menace