American Indians Launch Boycott for Gun

Quite a bit after the fact representatives of the AAID (Association for American Indian Development) are launching a boycott against Activision for publishing Gun, which they believe portrays Native Americans, primarily Apache Indians, in a negative light. The AAID boycott asks that the negative content be removed and if not they are "demanding the recall of this damaging, socially harmful and insensitive video game and for the complete removal of this Activision product from all retail locations worldwide, including the worldwide web."

Set in 1880 Wild West, which was a torrential period of violence and racism, the content is severely stereotypical. It is entirely possible that Gun was just intended to be the Wild West through the eyes of your average "cowboy" of the time. To develop a game based on that time period with the cowboys and the Indians getting along and making dandelion wreaths for each other would have been a grievous injustice to history. Now, if you haven't finished this game stop here, and join me at the next paragraph. Thanks. It is also very possible that brutalizing the culture of the Native Americans was an attempt to make the ending more emotional; give it more substance and impact, though taking liberty with the entire Apache tribe to illustrate that effect was pretty bold.

When do we cross the line between creative liberty and true offense? Who's to say? Due to the fact that the boycott comes in after the game has been on the shelves for a couple of months it's pretty safe to assume that the title won't be going anywhere. We'll see.