What came first, the robot or the egg?... well, uh... the inventor, obviously. (What's wrong with you? Robots don't come from eggs. Sheesh.) If you recall, 2009 saw a game called Little Wheel that was just a wee bit ragingly popular and went on to win Best of 2009 in its category. Ever wonder how those robots came to be? It's Mogo-Mogo from One Click Dog, the point-and-click prequel that tells the story of the Mogos, a small island tribe that toils day in and day out until one little inventor has an idea. By which we mean he gets a visit from Goldy, the little flying golden avatar, who takes him on a journey through the realm of dreams in search of ultimate inspiration. Obviously. I mean, how do you get your ideas?
Once again, you use your mouse to navigate, clicking on hot spots throughout the game represented by small white circles to make either your inventor or Goldy interact with the object. You'll be presented with a variety of odd puzzles as you progress, but the goal is always to find and touch the glowing blue orb to open the next doorway. The adventure is divided up into levels, and upon completing each one you'll be given a password so you can pick up where you left off if you have to go do some toiling of your own.
While Little Wheel had a moody, industrial, shadowed aesthetic, Mogo-Mogo presents a vibrant world full of strange landscapes and stranger creatures. Sky whales, flying portal worms, and giant... bouncing... colour changing... um, things, abound in this dreamworld that make it a joy to explore, even if the puzzles are just weird and a little awkward rather than particularly inspired. But while it's interesting and bizarre and all that happy business, Mogo-Mogo just isn't as memorable as its predecessor, and those that go into it expecting a game sharing much of the same qualities are going to be a little disappointed. There's a certain emotional connection that it's lacking, making it fun but not really memorable.
Mogo-Mogo's biggest issue, in fact, may be the somewhat questionable design choice for the Mogos themselves. There's no malicious intent behind it, but the developers have inadvertently chosen a very distinct design that shares similarities with iconography that has a very negative history in the United States. What they may have considered cute and goofy in fact may be offensive or insensitive to some people, so please think before you play or recommend to others.
Which is not to say Mogo-Mogo is bad by any stretch of the word. While fairly short and definitely pretty easy despite its controls, it's an entertaining trip into another realm. It's got all the bouncy energy and funky design of a cartoon. One from the 70's. It's the perfect size to sneak into your day if you felt you were lacking a little adventure, or just want to find out where robots come from.
Am I the only one who thinks these little black big-lipped dancing characters are a little, um, racist?
No, no you are not the only one, Rev Jon. I opened the game hoping it would be different when I saw the mogo-mogo in action. It was worse.
I thought this game might make JayIsGames. I really got a kick out of it until I got to the whale; jump over the red jellies.
Then.. I stopped playing. Either I've lost my magical mouse mojo or I'm doomed to dream of jelly. After a half hour or so I got too frustrated to continue.
In between the above-mentioned social cluelessness and the lobotomized gameplay, I'm pretty sure this game would fit comfortably in the year of our Ford 2540.
I know, seriously. You'd better have a darn good reason to make your characters look like Golliwogs, and I'm failing to see see one.
Witness! This funny little tribe of black primitives, with huge cherry-red lips and fat dreadlocks. See them live their simple, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Here is Bogo (what a hilarious name!), the greatest inventor of the Mogo-Mogo people. See how he struggles to invent even the wheel, funny little man!
Is there a reason to make such a dedicated stream of highly questionable design decisions? None that I can see, other than a lazy and unpleasant artistic shortcut to represent "simple, tribal people."
I hate when people make trouble where there isn't any. It's just a game with ambiguous characters. If you take offense don't play the game. It's that easy.
Anyways, I too got to the jelly level and quit. It seemed that no matter what I did, I could never time the jump right. I'll play again when someone can give me a tip or the next level code.
While I do feel the character design choice was an unfortunate one, I don't feel that it was malicious. I expected fallout when I wrote the article, and I still decided to post it because it's well made, and because of its connections to Little Wheel. We encourage people to speak their minds, and to remember that EVERYONE is welcome to do so as long as the discussion stays civil. Please respect one another and remember that just because you don't agree with someone's viewpoint, that doesn't make it any less valid.
I hated that whale level myself. The timing was annoying and out of place in the relaxed pacing of the rest of the game. Stop expecting me to have reflexes or be good at games, developers.
In addition to the above-mentionned issues, the game sometimes takes it sweet time reacting after I click. Pretty annoying considering that a lot of the gameplay is about timing.
This just doesn't recreate the wonder of Little Wheel. It's not an emotion-filled adventure, it's just mindless wandering in various "levels".
I really think that black people will be mad because you think this game is racist just because it has black people.
I liked this game, not as much as Little Wheel, but it was fun.
Possible design issues aside, I really hate the smilies level! I know what sizes to make them, but this kind of puzzle makes my nemesis(es), sliding puzzles and circle stacking, look like a "put square in square hole" puzzle. Gah!
Had to cut my gaming short on this one. Finally got past the jumping of the jellies (the most frustrating thing in a game that I have encountered since God of War on Hard/Titan mode), the game decided to freeze on the little clock waiting thing. And of course I don't remember the level password. :(
I tried the game again after giving up once because of the "jump the jellies" level... and now I'm stuck on the color-changing sky because mouse clicks on circles are failing to register at all. Between the unfortunate design choices, poor controls (esp. in time-sensitive challenges), and bugs, I have to say thumbs down! Too bad, because I found Little Wheel totally enchanting.
Not a fan.
The weird design choices (which HairySammoth correctly diagnoses as a lazy attempt to communicate "primitives", which actually makes it much much worse) are distracting at best, offensive at worst. Seriously, guys, this could be so easily avoided by not hiring the same designers as the Russian ice-dancing team.
The blatant ripoff of the golden snitch is mind-boggling.
And once that's all said and done, it's just not that interesting. Click on the places it tells you to click, then go to the next level.
The level passwords aren't in real characters, so keeping them would require drawing a bunch of little pictures. The game should save progress automatically.
I got bored pretty quickly, and since I certainly didn't bother sketching the little codes I won't be going back.
Had the same problem with the game freezing on the jelly level, Christina. A cute game, but not worth a replay for me.
Jellies level:
You need to click the up arrow at the time where there is about as much space between you and the jelly, as the length of the jelly.
Smilies level:
Click the button for each row until the left smiley in the row is correct according to the solution. When you have done this for all the rows, click the buttons for all but the first column until each column is correct according to the solution.
Level codes:
http://www.oneclickdog.com/mogo-mogopasswords/
Stopped at the jellie level. Scrappy.
I kept wincing at the sight of Bogo and the Mogos, all I could think of was...well what was already mentioned.
The game was pretty looking but I really didn't like it. It was boring.
I found the jellies level quite easy! I'm jumping on fish now, and i'm finding that much harder
For the jellyes level (their spelling, not mine) all you have to do is jump when the jelly gets to the bubble looking outline on top of the whale. Just stare at where the color changes from dark yellow to light yellow and click as soon as the jelly gets there, worked like a champ for me.
But now I'm on the smileys level and hating it.
I got past all that... i'm at the 'boss'.
Tried to use the 'walkthrough' provided, but damn them for saying 'you must have facebook to get access. Almost as annoying as 'mochicoins'.
but I blather.
Anyone have any idea on how to defeat the squid boss thing?
I have no idea on how I beat the squid, I just klicked the little guys for a bit, then all of a sudden a huge fish came swimming and the octopus shrunk. Dont know what I did.
Aside from that I loved the design and art in this game.
@Ashiel
Notice the fish. I think it eats the yellow colored squid and shrinks.
Make the boss eat a yellow colored squid.
I think that's what did it for me, but at this point I was just clicking my way through all four squids.
I didn't see any racism. I did see a race of mogos ripping their environment off resources and worshiping false idols though. :) I was hoping for a dr.seuss-like ending.
I don't necessarily think the game is racist. That's a huge accusation to level at such ambiguity and I think it's one that different people have different sensitivities to. The designers are Eastern European from what I can tell, and there the sensitivities to depictions of Golliwogs are probably not as fierce as they are further west.
No, these characters are not actual depictions of Africans, but the design choices seem to draw a lot from those depictions called Golliwogs. To me that is design ignorance, and I don't find it to be insidious so much as it is lazy.
Some might say that such laziness is inexcusable, but I don't think the people who make these choices understand the extreme sensitivities involved.
Personally I think there are some other more acceptable stereotypes which are far more deleterious than these little Mogo Mogo abstractions. But of course, I understand why someone might be unable to get past these character's appearances.
I agree. The resemblance to a Golliwog is quite unfortunate, but I think it is just that, at most. However, I didn't really care for the game myself. It ran very slow, and the puzzles were not engaging enough to keep my attention. The design was pretty (except for that whole golli thing) but on the whole not enough to encourage me to play the game through to fruition. I stopped at the music game, but I almost quit at the Jellies game. With the way the game was designed, that was darned near impossible.
I must be blind or something, because I thought the Mogo-Mogos looked like cows standing on their back legs lol. I also gave up on the Jellies level :/
Reverend Jon, have to disagree.
What do you mean "a little"?
Call me crazy, but I love this game. O:
I didn't even begin to think of it as racist until the comments pointed it out.
He's a little square dude. Let him be, I say.
(And the little sprit seemed more like a golden Navi to me. XD
Especially with the 'Bogo, wake up!' bit. XD)
Anyhow!
I had a bit of trouble with the Jellies level, too.
But for whatever reason, the way he just flopped over was so hilarious, I didn't really mind. XD'
You needn't jump over every one. Just so long as you catch the two that are closer together, you can be on your feet to hit the blue ball as it flies by.
If it doesn't seem at all possible, here's the code for the following level, described to the best of my ability:
-Short circle, surrounded by three small triangles.
-Vertical slash, or I suppose you could call it a 1.
-1-Slash again.
-Circle/triangles again.
Have fun. <3
Meanwhile, my worst level was the one with the monkeys.
I'm terrible at repeating things like that.
XD'
And I also wish that the Bonus level was available to all, instead of solely on Facebook. :/
But I simply loved the design of everything. It was gorgeous, and all the creatures were adorable. <3
I would love to find more games that play like this. ^^
monotonous does not come close to describing this game - I use the term game very loosely. Where is the game play?? click on the highlighted circle, level complete! this is 5 mins of my life I can never get back and I feel cheated!
To everyone crying that the game is "racist":
You obviously didn't reach the end of the game where the enlightened and intelligent vision in his dream who bestows upon mogo the great knowledge of the wheel... Turns out to be a white guy.
this is so steriotyped they might as well say booga booga
They really need to do a better job in showing what the solution is for the smilies level. I spent 20 minutes trying to get them all the same size until I accidentally clicked on the red button, which showed me the solution they were actually looking for. Maybe I was a bit dense, but it didn't seem obvious to me at the time.
I don't think this game could move any slower. Soooo boring.
So, you think the game isn't racist because the little obviously Golliwog dude turns INTO a white person when the light of knowledge is shone on him? That makes it worse.
I agree that the Eastern Europeans who designed the game might not "get" whats offensive, but the whole thing just reminds me of the Australian game show contestants in minstrel blackface didn't "get" what would be offensive. Just because you're stuck in the past and find racism acceptable, I don't think it excuses you from the implications of something you've created.
I don't think anyone is being particularly "PC" or reactionary to claim that the little dudes look like the dolls they made in the South (US) while slavery was still legal. It's an observation. There's a reason that fat, dreadlocked, dark black characters with huge red lips don't appear in pop culture. Especially when they're supposed to be "primitive" and the intro with the lines of mogos working looked too... slavy.... for me.
Which is too bad, because I thought it was a fun game. I just couldn't get past the Mogos. Had they been bright orange with purple lips, it might have changed things. It isn't a matter of outcry or anger, just the deep uncomfortableness that would happen if we heard the n-word on the subway.
The jellies are an absolute deal-breaker. The mouse response is so bad, quicktime events are the last thing you want. There's simply not enough time to recover for #4.
Firstly I would like to say that it didn't strike me as racist until I started reading the comments. All I saw was a race of people struggling to stay alive and one of them decides he wants to fix things. Also, the little flying thingy, Goldy or whatever it's called, looked a heck of a lot more like Timcampi from D.Gray-man. Minus the markings on its face and the occasional maw of sharp teeth, but I thought perhaps it was facing away from the screen. I mean, doesn't a snitch have white wings? Maybe I'm just remembering wrong. But snitches can't talk, and the golems in D.Gray-man can at least function as telephones.
Anyways, I need help on the level with the fishies you're supposed to jump on. I can't seem to get the timing down and it'd be a great help if someone could help me out.
Didn't have a problem with the Jellies :P But I like timing-type things. The monkeys is where I gave up - too slow, and theres really no help in the branches or colours seeing as the don't even mirror the monkeys position of even height. Gave up.
And @ Matt - Don't worry, I did the exact same thing!
Agree with just about everyone else though - could have had potential if it wasn't so slow and repetitive, maybe they needed more testers :S
Nevermind, the power of posting strikes again! And to those having trouble on the final level with the boss, pay attention to what's happening in the foreground. Hope that's clue enough without giving it away.
Also, as far as the ending goes, since when are white people the only things that are white? Last I checked, ghosts, spirits, and the like are generally represented in all-white.
I'm enjoying the game, the music, the visuals. Not too taxing in puzzle-solving but certainly in the timing. Will come back to the red-blob size puzzle later.
With complete respect for the opinions expressed before mine, I understand how 'racism' might be perceived, but I personally don't see it. I can't comprehend why people view primitivism as negative or backward. Tribal people produce barely any greenhouse gases, and they live within a true community spirit.
I didn't play for long, but I can't say that I'm overly fond of the gameplay. It seemed to mainly be a "click on the white circles" game, and didn't engage me in the first few levels. That, combined with the discomfort I felt because of the portrayal of the characters, caused me to quit the game.
I think it's interesting to read the discussion about racism here. It's a fairly well known stereotype here in the us, though I know that in other parts of the world it isn't widely known. To be honest, I didn't play long enough to see the bit about the ending that somebody mentioned above, but I was turned off of the game almost immediately when I saw the stereotypical character design for a "simple" tribe of island natives. Since the game designers aren't from western nations(I saw someone say eastern europe), I'm going to assume ignorance of how hurtful the stereotype is to some people, rather than any sort of intent to exploit the stereotype. It is a shame though, because if they had chosen a different character design I might have been inclined to stick with the levels for longer than I did.
I personally see nothing overtly problematic with the content, although I only made it up to level 10 because the game seems to have hung there on me.
I will say that the Twitter Failwhale sure seems to have been putting on some weight lately though...
To those who saw racist content in the game, I just have to say... It's a puzzle game folks! The characters don't resemble anything human that I'm familiar with, and I've traveled around the world. I find the comments about racist aspects incredible assumptions. And to say the developers are "insensitive" is even more incredible. Do you really think they should explore the entire world and seek out everything that might possibly be offensive? I'd venture to guess that if I chose to analyze every game for some "offensive" content, I could probably find something in 99% of them that was offensive by someones standards. Why are there more red jelly beans than blue in a game? Are the designers prejudiced against blue? I'm outraged!
People are different and that's a good thing. My niece posted this on FB today... "You were born an original. Don't die as a copy." I thought that was a great perspective!
Just sayin...
I don't know whether these designs were inspired by Golliwog caricatures but they sure look like one. Here is one example in a Rupert cartoon: http://uk.altermedia.info//images/rupert.JPG
Notice the deep black skin, the cherry-red lips and the "dreadlocks".
Does this mean that the developers had ever seen one of these depictions? No. But clearly enough people have noticed the similarity that it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.
What I do know is that the "Golliwog" is a culturally loaded gun that not everyone is sensitive to in the same way.
I agree Zeke.
Heck, I've seen games poke fun at Italian and I don't mind(in fact I think it's a riot).
Eastern European here.
I didn't see anything racist or in any way offending while playing the game.
But I saw a lot of steretotypes after reading these comments. Stereotypes of paranoid PC Americans, that is.
What a culturally ignorant thing to say, Toni. Not only that, but it's also quite ironic that you're exhibiting a stereotype yourself with that remark. I suppose ignorance is bliss, though, amirite? Everything looks rosy through rose colored glasses.
Loved the general aesthetic.
Apart from an initial 'uh-oh' on the character design (and since it's obviously not a spiteful or malicious) I'm opting for the more positive stance and that they could have thought about it a bit more' in case people were offended but the actual designs of the characters were quite stylish.
Game-play it was light and diverting although I didn't suffer from the problems that other people have been mentioning about unresponsiveness etc... which I can imagine was extremely frustrating.
Loved Little Wheel, like this a bit.
Wow, I honestly didn't notice anything offensive or racist about the main character. Purely because in my mind, a black blob with a bright red mouth does not equal a black person. I wasn't really familiar with the word Golliwog, or the cartoons of the like that Keep.One.Step.Ahead posted. But after looking at them I guess I can see how it could be construed as racist (though still, the main character doesn't even look like a HUMAN to me!).
I thought the game was fun though! Not difficult or anything, and nowhere near as good as Little Wheel, but it was a colourful, funny little game with all sorts of weird creatures. It's a shame so many people find it offensive, as I'm sure it's just meant to be light-hearted and whimsical.
Click here.
Wait.
Now click here.
Click there again.
Wait some more.
Ok, click here again to proceed to next level.
Repeat.
How can this be construed as a game??
Just because you don't think it's racist doesn't mean it isn't. You don't get to make that decision, or you're perpetuating the same sort of intellectual control and suppression that created the problem in the first place.
Just because it's just a game doesn't mean it isn't racist. There were children's games from the 19th-century US that were racist in their depiction of African-American slaves. You can't claim that "it's all good" simply because the game is meant to be light-hearted and fun...do you think that minstrel shows were serious drama pieces or meant for amusement?
The question of who made the game and what their understanding of racial sensitivities might be is a moot one; the fact is that JIG isn't an Eastern European website and its contributors should be very aware of these sorts of stereotypical connotations. In fact, they have admitted that they are, and they just don't care because the game is "well made" (a dubious claim) and has connections to another game that is well made and fun.
Regardless, they (you) should have exercised some sensitivity and discretion in this instance, especially given that the game in question apparently isn't all that great to begin with. I hope that they (you) will do so in future.
Also, I'm sorry, but hiding behind the "let's all get along and respect each other's opinion on the boards and just play games" veneer won't hold because that veneer has been cracked through the very act of reviewing and promoting a game such as this. Racist stereotypes are hateful, whether they're of Italians or Africans, and if they're included in games and children's books then they're even more insidious because of what they teach implicitly.
JIGuest: I mostly agree with you.
We do care and we had talked about this very issue before publishing the review as we knew that it would come up in the comments. We even conveyed this point to the sponsor of the game expressing our disappointment. But refusing to publish the review would have made this discussion impossible, and I am pleased to see it being discussed here.
As for the game's merits, I stand by our decision to feature the game despite the cultural ignorance displayed by the artistic director for the game. It is well made save for a couple potentially frustrating areas and the disappointing save system employed.
to add my twopence
When I first saw the characters of the game I did think aw cute..but um is that PC
I played till end (play/game wise agree its a little simple but we need a spread of difficulty in our games)
I was a bit more taken aback when the gift of wheel wisdom came from a 'white mogo'
'Thats gonna upset someone' I thought.
I'm not black, I dont have big red lips (well only when I'm going out to the pub)and my hair is sleek and sadly not dreadlocked...so I dont think I can get totally out of my pram about a racist issue that may or may not be intended HOWEVER I thought ....I dont condone any racist action...but then I remember how I bought my kid up...and thats to look at all the attributes of a person on a scale of normality .....every shade of hair, skin, eyes, height, weight, defomity, exsists normally and all are equal. Then I realised a major possibility apart from what if the little 'golliwogs' where based on the person who made the game?
Then I thought: There are sooo many games that have characters in many forms..there is a game about animals in a nut house..mutants...white guys...camp limp wristed men..big busted women..stereotypes of all sorts should anyone get touchy? should we all?
I mean have you thought about it when you are playing shift? Is it a little black guy or a white guy in silhouette?
I'm sorry you felt I was hiding behind any sort of veneer. I posted what I did to remind people that debate is healthy, and to keep things civil here while discussing the game. Simply not talking about something isn't being PC; it's ignoring an issue.
Regardless of whether or not you (that is, YOU) feel the claim that the game itself was well made is dubious, I still enjoyed it. Yes, it has problems in its design; I think part of those problems stem from trying to outdo themselves after Little Wheel (which MANY characterised as being "too simple"), and instead they overcomplicated something that in fact needed a simple design. I didn't find this enough to cripple the game, and I can't remember a time when I have reviewed a game that actually was perfect in every design.
That day will come when they finally start taking my calls and decide to make "Super Morgan Freeman Wonder Journey: The RPG". Then his buttery soft tones will carry you all away on a wave of adventure.
In all seriousness, I DO apologise if anyone was seriously offended by the visual design of the game.
Ok Jay, fair enough, but why don't you consider placing reference to this discussion in the review itself and removing the "rating-g," tag?
As it stands, your site characterizes the game as family-friendly and lighthearted: "silly and off-beat, the easy to pick up gameplay makes this one accessible to the whole family." There is no hint that anyone is upset with the artistic choices made, or that the game is marred by a rather grotesque characterization of "primitives." Readers who don't take the time to peruse the comments (especially young, impressionable readers) are receiving the message that you approve of this game and that thus this is acceptable.
If your site had, "social commentary," columns and you posted this game to spark debate on the acceptability of this type of "art," I don't think anyone would be upset. It is not that you featured the game in an article, it is the way you featured it; you are promoting it and thus helping the creator and the sponsor make money.
[You make a good point here. I'll remove that part from the review and change the rating to yellow to indicate caution. -Jay]
I agree with you, Steve, and I've added a short paragraph to the review better explaining the content therein.
I don't understand how simply having a character similar to an african tribesman is racist. To take offense to this is to claim that no such black man now or ever existed. This is an incredibly arrogant attitude. Would this have been racist if the creatures resembled primitive american indians, or white cave men?
I simply cannot fathom how creating a story that takes place amongst an african tribe of the past is discriminatory, or offensive.
As for those saying that the white character at the end is just another jab, perhaps the deity is simply emitting a large amount of light, you know, just like every other deity in all of history, including the gods of many dark skinned people.
I honestly believe that most of you are just picking at anything just for the sake of an argument. To top it off, I would bet that Jay is agreeing and making adjustments simply because he has to. This is a business and he has to please his customers.
whats next? Is someone going to jump in complain that none of the characters of power were female?
That's a straw man argument, JIGuest, and deserves no response.
You're free to think and feel what you wish, but willfully ignoring the issue doesn't make it cease to exist. Also, you don't get to suggest others are wrong for feeling different than you do.
Instead of denying and ignoring it, read up about it somewhere. Here's a couple of online Wikipedia references to get you started:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golliwogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darky_iconography#.22Darky.22_iconography
It's definitely an unfortunate choice of imagery for the little creatures. A similarly unfortunate choice might have been putting swastikas on their chests like little Sneetches.
Truthfully I had never heard of Golliwogg or saw anything racist in the game not being familiar of the image, which I have now seen in the post about Rupert. Unfortunately racism is taught and I know that we cry out "be sensitive" but sometimes we create racism by pointing out it is there where it is not intended. Golliwogg would have been something I didn't ever need to know about. Our nation has made many mistakes in its history as have all nations and we need to learn from the past but I feel that a lot of times when we do this in such an angry and insulting manner we are teaching more hatred and more racism, sexism, ageism, whatever-ism. I am not saying we shouldn't right wrongs but how long must the tip-toeing go on. Africans are not the only people on the planet that have been slaves. The American (and British for the matter) trafficking of slaves was a terrible thing and white and black people helped perpetuate it. What?! How could that be? Unfortunately many African tribesmen sold their fellow African from a rival tribe into slavery. So should we hate all people for their contributions to racism forever? Should the American Japanese forever hate all Americans for the interment camps of WWII? Should all Jews hate all Germans? Should all Nubians hate all Egyptians? Should Romans be forever hated because of their many conquests and subsequent procurement of slaves from many lands? What about the Native Americans, not only slavery for them but also the taking of their land!? Should they continue to hate? These are important lessons to learn however there is a time when we need to not look for racism around every corner or we are forever condemned to be racist.
JIGuest, it's not that they were depictions of African tribes people, but that they were caricatures of African tribes people.
And also, the game basically called them too stupid to invent a wheel.
I just don't get it. Whats wrong with caricatures? People go to amusement parks and PAY to get caricatures of them drawn.
As for calling them stupid, someone had to invent the wheel. If anything this creature is making a huge accomplishment. Would it make sense if all white people became insulted every time they saw a depiction of white cave men inventing/discovering fire? No one would see that and say, "I don't like that! They're calling me dumb." Would it be proper for a white person to become insulted every time there was an below par white male in a game or on tv? Same as I said before, to be insulted by that would insinuate that no such man has every existed. Why can his story not be told?
I'm not sure how you could see this and think, "omg, thats supposed to be me!"
You're right. You just don't get it.
The race thing is irrelevent to me; this game is just awful.
I persisted past the jellies. I persisted past the horrible Simon-like tree full of monkeys, where the buttons you click have almost no correlation to the ones you are imitating. I even persisted through the monotony of "Click-wait-click. Yay you win. Here's a biscuit!"
But then I got to the stupid fish jumping level. Seriously, I see how to beat it. It's stupidly obvious. However, it takes too darn long to reset if you make a mistake.
It looks nice, and Little Wheel was awesome. This is just... boring, and feels like a waste of time. Or maybe something for a Leap Pad (those kids' games). This is one time where I really disagree with Dora: this one is bad, without stretching my mind at all.
There should be no argument. This game is racist by the fact that it promotes an inaccurate and generalized stereotype, with deep international roots, historically used to make an entire race of human beings seem foolish and ignorant in the hopes that they will accept those images of themselves.
What year is this? 2010 or 1930? Would you post a game if it involved the "N" word?
Sensitive? Damn Straight! We should NOT be callously ignorant about images of oppression and racism.
The "Naive" argument does not work. Educate yourself.
As Bill would say, all this discussion is "much ado about nothing". Sure they're black and have big lips. So what? Why do some people take offense with almost everything? Grow up already.
"it promotes an inaccurate and generalized stereotype"
what does that even mean? Are you claiming that there were never any tribes that had such little technological advancement? Or perhaps your saying that the lips of the average african are not usually larger than the average Caucasian? These are false claims. Theres nothing wrong with this image.
and of course they wouldn't post a game with the n word in it. That is such a gross exaggeration. This games doesn't do that.
"historically used to make an entire race of human beings seem foolish and ignorant in the hopes that they will accept those images of themselves."
This is incredibly old fashioned thinking. No one thinks that way anymore, and to promote a defense against it only refreshes this way of thinking. Whats wrong with letting racism fade away?
Half the people here don't even know what a golliwogg is. Whats wrong with keeping it that way? No young black person would look at that image and find any offense to it and no white youngster today would use that image in a malicious way. They would see it and just think that its an old cartoon version of a black man. No offense taken, and certainly no plot to effect the mindset of anyone. Is that really a problem?
Instead you keep bursting and and crying foul. You teach them that they should be insulted for reasons they don't even understand for an attack that never existed. Now you have a child who's angry and insulted without a clue as to why exactly, and another who's confused as to why someone is mad at them when no ill will was acted.
You said it yourself. This isn't the 1930's anymore. Someone just made a cartoon character, end of story. Theres no reason to try to find a conspiracy plot against you that doesn't exist.
WOW.
Ignorance abounds.
My point is you cannot resurrect these kinds of images of peoples frivolously. It is a very historically charged image. One that remains racist and degrading. That did not change with the passing of a decade or with the first black president.
The "N" word is historically just as racially charged but would you throw that word around Bed-Sty? Detroit? I really doubt it.
Try it. Wear this image on a Tee-Shirt in downtown Brooklyn. See how many smiles you get.
Go Back to School.
JIGuest, what makes these images hurtful is not the images themselves, but it is the years of connotations of degradation and mistreatment that they convey. For years, images similar to the ones in Mogo Mogo were used to paint a humiliating and disgusting portrait of black people.
The culture of racism and ignorance past and present cannot simply be "ignored" to see images as being simply images. As Jay said, a swastika will forever be a symbol of horror for Jews such as myself, and will cause equal discomfort to many non-Jews. Its original context, however innocuous, is lost to many.
I can't say whether the developers of this game hold certain attitudes about the superiority of one race over another. I honestly can't know for sure whether they consciously designed these characters around Golliwogs. What I can say is what others have said: whether intended or not, it is a potentially hurtful image that people should be aware of.
I agree with Keep.One.Step.Ahead. I'd like to give some articulate dissertation on the historical dynamics of American race relations but I think many people have said what needed to be said and said it better than I could.
I doubt the intentions of the developers were malicious. I'm not surprised that a lot of people are perplexed by some people's interpretations, that the character's design is racist, because they are not American or have never learned the basics about blackface or American history in regards to race/slavery(that's understandable).
If you don't know about blackface minstrels maybe you should go learn about it before dismissing its significance and potential offensiveness to other people.
I had the exact same problem as Christina... Initially, I was just having trouble timing it right, but when I did, the game decided to freeze on me (not in the usual sense - it just decided to freeze on "the little clock waiting thing"), and I didn't remember the password. Thanks to whoever posted the link.
...Also, the page with the level skip passwords isn't loading properly for me. >.>
And as far as the imagery evoked by the look of the Mogo-Mogos, I didn't realize it at first, but I can see why some people might be offended. I think it was an accidental (but bad) design choice.
Now, the blatant stealing of the look of the Golden Snitch, I'm pretty sure was not so accidental.
Graphics were very nice, but the gameplay and story were nothing special. A puzzle, a point-and-click game, a skill (kind of ) game - nothing original. And, really, the whole thing seems to lack originality. The Golden Snitch? The, "Here you go - haha, sike!". Whales in the sky seem to remind of something too. Even the whole Newton fruit-falling-on-head thing seems stolen, even though at first I just though it was a bit comical. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the developer purposefully coined the Mogo-Mogos after a remote african tribe. I doubt it was meant to be purposefully degrading, but he/she really ought to have been a bit more sensitive on that regard.
Ok. So the game is set in a tropical island, as may be inferred by the coconut trees or palm trees or whatever they are. And tropical islands' original inhabitants are... what? All blond and blue-eyed? Duh! What's wrong with them being black? And as for the Golliwog thing, remember that the world is not made of just the US, so it's natural that there are cultural differences. And please don't compare it to the use of swastikas. Everybody knows about that symbol's bad reputation, since there was a WORLD war and it had GLOBAL repercussions. Golliwogs were, by comparison, a local phenomenon. Racism is awful, yes, but don't see it where it doesn't exist. Some of us are black, some white, some brown, some yellow, some red... so what? Should one be called "melanine-challenged" because the word "white" may not be politically correct? Stop tip-toeing. Sheesh!
I think claiming the golden snitch copy is just a little on the crazy side.
Harry potter was huge to the point where everyone knows what/who harry potter is. However, not everyone watched the movies or read the book. I had to go look up what the golden snitch was.
The image is that of your typical fairy. That image is used everywhere with many varying colors. He just happened to choose a gold colored fairy. He went with the usual fairy design.
To say that he copied the golden snitch is like saying TMNT; turtles in time copied super mario brothers' koopa design.
I'm not saying it was necessarily intentional, but the fact remains that it looks exactly like the golden snitch from Harry Potter.
"should one be called "melanine-challenged" because the word "white" may not be politically correct? Stop tip-toeing. Sheesh!"
That is another straw-man argument and it's an absurd one.
To some people these characters will look like Golliwogs. Golliwogs were not a US-based phenomenon, in fact the term originated in England. I grew up in England and trust me, it's no longer "PC" there to sell those dolls or anything depicting them.
I am not saying these guys should not be allowed to publish this game but that people should be aware its content could be offensive.
If it doesn't offend you, great. Don't go around asking people not to be offended. It's like if I insulted your mother and said "Don't be offended, man. I don't find it offensive, she's not MY mother."
It isn't that there is anything wrong with little dark cartoon-y inhabitants living on a tropical island. It's that the developers were just a tad insensitive in the way they portrayed these people-creatures. They made them stupid, and their greatest inventor could not invent the wheel. Their life was primitive to exaggeration, and so were lips in regard to their size. They took every negative black stereotype and exaggerated it.
It's okay to make the inhabitants stupid and primitive, and it's also okay to coin them after real people. But it's not okay to do both in the same game.
Blatent racism is in the past exactly the way blatent sexism is in the past. Yet somehow we expect females not to care how oppressive men were.
I do agree that portraying big lips and dark skin is a racist stereotype, in exactly the same way that portraying sexxxy hot females is a sexist stereotype. Yet somehow no one acts outraged except a few feminists who are then typecast as hairy legged feminazis.
Which should tell a reasonable person that the current level of sexism is far more entrenched than racism. Acting all outraged over the ocassional crap like this when people don't even take a second look at the constant barrage of stereotyped female images is annoying. Do you honestly believe that all women are white or that black women don't care about sexism? As a dark-skinned female who passes for almost every ethnicity under the sun EXCEPT white, I can tell you that sexism has far more of an impact on my life TODAY.
Talking in broad terms about whether sexism is more entrenched than racism is nigh on impossible. I would agree that there are certainly a lot of sexist messages out there, but that's another discussion for perhaps a different forum.
I think this discussion has been derailed far enough. Further rants are being moderated.
As a black girl born in the 90s, I didn't catch the "Golliwog" similarity at all, or even realize that the people were supposed to be black. Little Wheel's characters were also simply silhouettes, I assumed it was the same thing and didn't think twice, until I went down to the comments.
I think the younger rating was fine because, like I said, people my age and younger don't even know what any of the stuff the adults on here are talking about is. I had never heard of Golliwogs, and I still don't understand what a "minstrel doll" is?? Anyway, I don't think this is a problem for younger kids, I don't think they would even understand the images older people get from this, since we never learned them.
That said, the game was otherwise okay. The graphics were amazing, but a lot of the circles didn't respond well, so I skipped the jellie level. Then I gave up when I got to the fish, since it was so boring by then.
I would have played longer, but the password thing was annoying! The pictures weren't in the same order on each of the buttons, so you had to basically slowly click through so you wouldn't miss. Ugh.
I didn't have any trouble with the jump-over-jellies-on-a-whale level at all.
I'm black, and the character design doesn't bother me because I'm not hypersensitive. If Bogo were pink no one would be having that discussion. It's just a game, and a fun one to boot. Simple as that. Now go play it.
I just think that a game should not be telling me what to do on every step. There was nothing to solve...
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