Overwatch's latest hero, Sigma, was revealed recently - along with the fact that he's Dutch. I was rather delighted by this reveal. I haven't played Overwatch much lately, but the team puts a lot of effort and detail into each character and seeing a Dutch character brought to life like this is a remarkable experience. I look forward to seeing all the references to Dutch culture in his voice lines, sprays and skins. And all of this got me thinking about being 'represented' as a Dutch person.
During my childhood years, I consumed a lot of American (and some British) media and noticed that a lot of European countries would come up depending on the stories and setting. Germany, France and Italy were big names that characters would visit or at least refer to - but never really the Netherlands. And when the Netherlands would come up, the depiction would either be insulting (like Austin Powers' Goldmember) or just plain wrong, having the "Dutch" people speak German (like in the Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever). At the time, this irritated me a lot, but I've come to understand that there are simply many factors working against "proper representation" for the Dutch. For one, our country is tiny, smack dab in between of Great Britain, Germany and France and the English name for our language is Dutch, which sounds an awful lot like the Germans' name for German, 'Deutsch.' No events in recent history can set us as easy heroes or villains, either, and the Dutch accent is hard to pin down and imitate - not iconic at all. So rather than getting annoyed at lacking or incorrect representation, I've just come to appreciate the times when we get acknowledged at all.
And to celebrate this occasion, I wanted to have a look at a few random examples of that:
Windmillville
Mario Party 7 has a 'vacation' theme, so the boards are all based around famous locations. For example, the 'Grand Canal' is based on Venice in Italy. But my favorite board is Windmillville, and it's easy to see why.
Windmillville is an idyllic fantasy representation of some Dutch stereotypes. Meadows and tulips (an important Dutch industry), accompanied by windmills (for which we are famous) which also function as banks you invest in (referring to the Dutch's historical financial savvy). Windmillville gets it right by not trying to be accurate, it's just a glorious exaggeration of some clichés made into a Mario Party board.
Age of Empires III
This example relies more on history than the last, but the Dutch are a faction in Ages of Empires III. While the voice lines for the units are a bit stilted and awkward, the faction itself is interesting and well realized, hinging primarily on the Netherlands' history as a financially forward thinking and trading nation by allowing you to build banks, among other things.
Red
This is a minor example, but in Pokémon Black & White (and its sequel), there are a few members of Team Plasma named after colors in various languages. One of the sages is called 'Rood,' which is the Dutch word for red. This is cool, but it would've been even better if it had been Orange (Oranje) - because that's the name of our royal family, and thus considered our national color. Still a neat detail, though!
Red Alert 3
Red Alert 3 is a goofy and downright entertaining RTS. One of its greatest strengths is its all-star cast crazy factions and charming presentation. This all comes to a head when the Empire of the Rising Sun (one of the factions) led by George Takei leads an assault on final allied base in Amsterdam.
source: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpXhAuN6DstHgc5fE6ZaEww
It's not a literal copy of Amsterdam, but the canals are there and the architecture of the civilian buildings is noticeably Dutch. I thought it was a really cool location for the finale of the Empire's campaign.
Nintendo in General
This pertains less to the actual content of games and more to their localizations, but starting with the Wii U Nintendo has been translating more of their major games to Dutch. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey are both the first major games in their respective franchises that were given a Dutch translation. I recently completed Mario Odyssey, and I really appreciated the translation even though I didn't need it.
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So, that's it! Just a few examples of how Dutch and the Dutch are represented in videogames. There are Dutch developers, of course, but I specifically wanted to look at how non-Dutch parties handle it.
How about you? Are you from a country or culture that you feel is or isn't properly represented? Please share your experiences down below!
Originally posted on my blog: https://arjenartdesign.blogspot.com/2019/07/dutch-representation.html
