Detroit: Become Human Offers Great New Opportunity For White People To Avoid Engaging With Racism
Quantic Dream’s next magnum opus, Detroit: Become Human, poses the controversial question of “what if black people were androids?” – and creator David Cage says he can’t wait for people to experience it for themselves.
Sections from Detroit: Become Human witnessed by Point & Clickbait show a dark, gritty and entirely imaginary world where androids are discriminated against, bought and sold like property, used for sexual services, forced to stand in separate ‘android-only’ areas, and treated with hostility and suspicion.
Cage’s fictional world might sound disturbing – but the creative auteur says he intends his masterpiece to be “very confrontational, just like real racism was.”
“I was reading history books, and I saw that, in the past, black people were treated very badly by some people,” said Cage to Point & Clickbait. “I imagine that it was probably quite terrible. Then I thought – what if that sort of poor treatement was happening to me, or to someone I could speak to, or relate to in any way? But that was a dead end.”
“Then I came up with the android thing, which is an original idea of mine,” he added.
In Detroit: Become Human, players take control of three different androids – Markus, Kara and Connor, all of whom bring a “unique perspective” to the various ways in which we should be grateful that racism in the real world has been solved forever.
“For example, Kara may look like an attractive white woman, but she is actually an android,” says Cage thoughtfully. “Of course because she is actually an android, her skin could be literally any colour, and she could be any shape and size, but she is attractive and white because it makes players think ‘Wow! Discrimination is bad!’, which is a powerful, BAFTA-winning message,” he adds.
Gamer Matt Singleton says he can’t wait to get his hands on Detroit: Become Human, and that he’s glad Cage is willing to take such risks with his storytelling.
“I was worried that the whole thing would be too intellectual for me,” said Singleton, “But knowing that they are androids has really helped me wrap my head around it. Thanks to Detroit: Become Human I will finally be able to hear from vulnerable minorities who have been discriminated against and understand what they have been through.”