Chickens have been appearing in video games since the 1980s, where they first showed up in Atari game called ‘Chicken’, a reskin of ‘Avalanche’, which involved a chicken attempting to catch eggs in basket as they fell from the sky. From the run of the mill chickens in games like ‘Fable’, ‘Assassin’s Creed’ and ‘Resident Evil 4’, to the chicken adjacent Chocobos and Cuccos of ‘Final Fantasy’ and the ‘The Legend of Zelda’ respectively, chickens are constant presence in gaming. The question is: why?
On this episode of ‘Reality Check’, Emma Fyffe takes a critical look at the role of chickens in video games and how those roles differ between fictional worlds. While games like ‘Stardew Valley’ and ‘Harvest Moon’ romanticize farm life, others like the ‘Spyro’ series allow for or encourage violence towards chickens with little to no consequence. Further still, games like ‘Skyrim’ and ‘Zelda’ actively discourage violent treatment by meeting it with violent retaliation.
So what does it all mean? Watch and learn as Emma attempts to unravel the complex relationship between human player and pixelated chicken.
Video Notes:
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
0:39 – Historical Overview of Chickens in Games
1:34 – Types of Chickens in Games
3:32 – IRL Chicken Facts
5:11 – Debunking Chicken Falsehoods
6:32 – The Treatment of Chickens in Games
10:11 – How Chickens in Games Reflect on the Real World
12:18 – Conclusion
#gaming #gamespot #zelda #skyrim #finalfantasy #fable #residentevil #chickens
