Itâs a proud part of American mythology that people from all over the world get to come here and pursue their dreams. Navid Khonsari has one of those stories. The Iranian-American used to work at Rockstar Games as cinematic director, where he helped steer the vision on games like The Warriors, Midnight Club II and Bully
However, for all the best-selling, critically acclaimed games Khonsari worked on, it wasnât until he went back to the Middle East that he really saw the surprising cultural impact of video games.
Khonsari spoke at this weekâs Games for Change conference about 1979, the real-world political action game that heâs making through his iNKstories development studio. That gameâs set in Iran during the infamous hostage crisis that followed a violent regime change in that country. Part of that gameâs inspration comes directly from his resume.
Thereâs not much retail infrastructure in Iran but that wasnât really an obstacle with regard to getting games. âIran has no copyright laws,â Khonsari explains. âItâs all black market. So you can buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto for $1. You can buy anything for $1. And Iranians are hardcore gamers. Itâs a huge gaming community. Whatâs amazing is that itâs not gender-specific. I was talking to girls like 16 years olds who were throwing lines back at me from San Andreas.â
Itâs a given that gamers in Gombadâa small community in Iranâs northeast region near the Turkmenistan borderâwould seize on the opportunity to peer at American culture through the PC version of GTA: SA. But it was the things they enjoyed most that surprised Khonsari.
âWhat was amazing was they werenât necessarily drawn to what the media and the critics always attacked about GTA games. The sex, nudity or the violence⊠none of that stuff was a big deal to them,â he relates. Instead, it was the more mundane parts of San Andreas that resonated.
âThey said it was a great venue for them to just listen to music, which is harder for them to do. And they canât just hop into a car and go places, either,â he continues. âSo they were like, âI just drive around in my car and listen to music. And itâs wonderful.â They really got into the everyday kind of things you could do in the game, like being able to go and get your hair cut. We put these things in the game because we believe that these are part of our activities in our daily lives. We take for granted that these are part of our activities in our daily lives.â
When I mentioned that such a level of personal freedom must seem like a fantasy to players like the ones he met in Gombad, Khonsari agreed. âFor them, itâs a hyper version of kids who live in the suburbs and what they think the cityâs like. In this particular situation these guys are going, âI get to make choices.â And, on top of that, look at the power and strength I have as a woman playing as this character. Itâs not gender-specific. Itâs not limited by who I am. Itâs my journey because I get to control that journey. I might be the shell of this person that Iâm playing, which is CJ. But my desire is whatâs shaping this experience.â
âThe fact that CJ was black had a huge implication over there, too,â offers Khonsari. âBecause it wasnât the white character thatâs being pushed forward. And theyâre like, âWow, thereâs a sense of openness. Theyâve taken their main character and theyâve made him black. Thatâs amazing.â
Khonsari says that his experience in Gombad drove home something he always knew in his gut, which is that games can make foreign countries and cultures feel alive in a way that other mediums canât achieve. Iâll have more about how he hopes to do just that for Iran with 1979 tomorrow.
