Falafel, Hummus and Baba Ghanoush: A Middle Eastern Perspective on Cultural Engagement Through Games
summary
Meena Shamaly looks at how Middle Eastern culture has been portrayed in video games, using examples like his consultancy work on Innchanted and collaborations with composers such as Christopher Tin (Baba Yetu) and his score for Old World. He focuses on practical issues of cultural consultation and representation—authenticity vs. kitsch, errors like misplaced accents or backwards writing, and how having cultural consultants can change musical and design choices—drawing on his upbringing and experience writing game music for cultures other than his own.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:22The value of consultation
- 4:05Complexity of Middle East
- 5:58Case study: Uncharted 3
- 9:17Character design in gaming
- 10:44Lessons from Hitman
- 13:07Musical representation
- 20:14Collaborating on Old World
- 34:32Reflections on process
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