This is more of a rant to get it off my chest and hopefully make me feel better so bear with me.
(Keyword:Modern-A sign that one continues to this day to inovate and create, to keep up to date with the standing culture's expectations)
A couple days ago I was reading the Mass Effect wiki http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Codex/The_Master_Thief%3A_Kasumi%27s_Secrets when I stumbled upon something that most people would dismiss as pure fantasy and move on yet it felt like a punch to the gut for me. What was it? Canada and Mexico had been annexed into the United States of North America.
Oh no not another whiner, it is not even real, get over it, suck it up butter cup!
CANN IT! and let me explain why this bugs me so much. Since the dawn of time people have poked fun and made jokes about other people's nations. Something that is completely understandable but after a while it starts to hurt through either ignorance or design. A nation is one's birthplace, their cultural center, their sense of home, the image they as a group or individual project to the world, their identity itself! Thus one almost always feels the need to defend it because people sense making fun of the nation is making also not only fun of you but what you are and who you are as a group and an individual. To lose that figurative backbone would be devistating to the majority.
In the case of the States ridiculing, making fun of, or being indifferent to Canada you generally are not supposed to take it seriously as it is in most but not all cases done in jest. We here in Canada do it all the time so it goes both ways, but I am going to explain where the problem lies. Because the States have a vastly more influential media and cultural backing than Canada, anything that comes out of the States tends to have more of an impact on our own culture.
Think of every joke towards Canada from the States as a poke, harmless and forgetable. But if you are repeatedly poked in the same area it starts to bug you then eventually climaxes in anger, despite that in most cases that was never the intent, they just did not know when to stop. The only solution is to walk away. Problem Solved. But...
Bioware being a Canadian videogame developer I could not help but feel a sense of pride from their artistic accomplishments they were sending out to the world and Canada as well. Mass Effect felt like a real stepping stone in establishing a image of a good Canadian game that quite possibly had a Canadian as a protagonist and thus represented Canada(depending on what upbringing you chose). "Almost" all games that come out (NOT INCLUDING SPORTS GAMES) of Canada have someone from the States as the protagonist. This matters how? Remember what I said of ones nation being the image and identity that represents you as an individual or group. Thus by others intentially having ignored this results in a sense of "My culture does not matter enough for others, even fellow Canadians to care". Thus by outright removing Canada from the picture, I feel it as another outright careless throw away to Canadian audiences who are looking for a real, modern Canadian cultural videogame icon that our own developers are depriving us of. This was clearly not the intent, a writer may blow up a country they have just read about that morning in a book they are writing that evening and may offend somebody from that nation, but it cannot be helped.
It is done all the time but someone from a Nation that has no real standing "MODERN" cultural icon in a medium we are pioneers in, the lack of said national support and pride in the industry makes every statement crippling rather than dismissable, ie. A Candian video game writer blowing up Canada compared to a writer from the States blowing up the U.S. We lack the integrity because of our own money based refusal to represent our own nation starting with and resulting in a weak sense of pride and cultural identity in the industry. One might argue that their country say Norway has never been featured in any recent high profile media, but you most certainly have closely held modern cultural icons within the nation itself that many can feel proud of. Even if it is not video game based because it can rival that, i.e. Devastatingly powerful Heavy Metal Scene.
That is why it hurt so much coming from a Canadian Developer where it could have been dismissed coming from a foriegn one. It ignored its own nation, something all other Canadian videogame developers do.
What say you fellow Canadian Gamers? This not a sensitivity issue but rather a self cultural acknowledgement issue alone.
P.S. I did not forget money is a key factor, but that excuse can only hold for so long.
EDIT: I guess only a couple of people saw what I was saying and gave a thoughtful comment in oposition or agreement. The rest are just too dismissive to the topic to take seriously. Thankyou for the comments but I did not get out of this what I hoped for.
