Article of the Day

The Gentrification of Videogame History, by Felipe Pepe

Last year, the New Taipei City Youth Library organised an exposition about the Golden Age of RPGs, celebrating games from 1980 to 1999.

It had all the classics you might expect — Wizardry, Ultima, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Diablo, Fallout, Chrono Trigger, Baldur’s Gate, etc… But also many you probably never heard about, such as Legend of the Sword and Fairy, Xuan-Yuan Sword, Heroes of Jin Yong and The Twin Heroes.

You see, during the late 90s and early 00s, Taiwan was a powerhouse of game development, arguably only behind the US & Japan. They produced hundreds of games, played by millions of Chinese language speakers, going as far as influencing local literature and TV. Modern hits like Naraka: Bladepoint are openly advertised as spiritual successors of that lineage.

But we don’t talk about Taiwanese games. For a myriad of reasons, from language barriers to plain old sinophobia, they are not part of the “video game canon”. They don’t matter, it’s a small, local thing.

And is not just Taiwan.

An article about how non-American videogames, and ways of playing games, get erased by American cultural hedgemony.