PC games too PC?

[Kléber]

There is a disturbing trend in historical computer games to leave out those areas of history which deeply embarrass the bourgeois class producing the entertainment. This often occurs under the guise of not digging around in old wounds, not hurting feelings, even maintaining the cultural pride of the oppressed groups in question - the same arguments used to forgive the fascist butchers of our comrades in Argentina, Chile, Spain etc.

The Holocaust is ignored in virtually all WWII games to avoid lawsuits from stupid Zionist groups, but they should instead try to have the Holocaust represented correctly, because its removal is a great thrill and almost a "confirmation" to holocaust-deniers, who love to play "Hearts of Iron" as Nazi Germany (whose flag has the Swastika cut out). That game is actually banned in China because their revisionist-obscurantist government insisted that all Chinese warlords be represented as subservient Nationalists.. even though (I thought) the game positively depicted the plight of the CCP and what an incredible struggle they faced to go from Yan'an to national reunification.

Another ugly example of this is the videogame-historiographical fate of Afro-Caribbeans. They are a huge cultural group, they have an impressive military history (the Haitians defeated Britain, Spain, and Napoleon during their 1789-1804 revolution), but they are almost completely left out of historical games. Empire: Total War pretends that there was no slavery (which raises a big WTF are Europeans doing in a Caribbean they cleared of indigenous laborers?), as a result, the glorious Haitian Revolution, the most important land war and social upheaval in the pre-20th Century Caribbean, is completely left out of a game that claims to extensively cover that area and period. Sid Meier's Pirates has no Africans at all despite the fact that they would have populated the cities, ship crews, and taverns viewed by the player. CDV's American Conquest is off the hook because its historical blurbs are very favorable to indigenous American resistance. Maybe that's because they are not an American company.

At the risk of sounding like a stereotypical revleft poster who raises a hysteric fuss about quasi-political minutiae, I declare that, in a world where education budgets are being slashed in virtually every country, and those young people who still care may be expected to get more and more of their history from video games in coming years, it feels to me like the Holocaust and slavery are being written out of the human experience in an under-handed manner.

[RHIZOMES]

I agree. Video games on a whole when expressing politics or history are quite reactionary.

[Rusty Shackleford]

it sells to appeal to the reactionaries... they make up a large portion of youth and gamers, especially those who play strategy and shooter games.

[Dr Mindbender]

More left wingers should aspire to get into the creative side of the game industry to redress the balance.

It can happen in other media forms so i dont see why it cant happen. The game industry needs its own 'Ken Loach'.

[9]

Alternatively, relying on video games for an accurate depiction of/education about history might be the mistake. I don't play video games, but I don't know, this just sort of seems like a non-issue to me anyway. I think it might be more important to get accurate information in history textbooks issued to students at publicly-funded schools first.

[Dr Mindbender]

Alternatively, relying on video games for an accurate depiction of/education about history might be the mistake. I don't play video games, but I don't know, this just sort of seems like a non-issue to me anyway. I think it might be more important to get accurate information in history textbooks issued to students at publicly-funded schools first.

Ignoring games as an equally legitimate media to drama or even the written word in my opinion, reeks of techno-conservatism and is naive in that it misses the point that its an instantly accessible port of information to modern youth culture. People like being able to immerse themselves in an imaginary world on more levels that previous eras of technology could not offer.

[Dimentio]

There is a disturbing trend in historical computer games to leave out those areas of history which deeply embarrass the bourgeois class producing the entertainment. This often occurs under the guise of not digging around in old wounds, not hurting feelings, even maintaining the cultural pride of the oppressed groups in question - the same arguments used to forgive the fascist butchers of our comrades in Argentina, Chile, Spain etc.

The Holocaust is ignored in virtually all WWII games to avoid lawsuits from stupid Zionist groups, but they should instead try to have the Holocaust represented correctly, because its removal is a great thrill and almost a "confirmation" to holocaust-deniers, who love to play "Hearts of Iron" as Nazi Germany (whose flag has the Swastika cut out). That game is actually banned in China because their revisionist-obscurantist government insisted that all Chinese warlords be represented as subservient Nationalists.. even though (I thought) the game positively depicted the plight of the CCP and what an incredible struggle they faced to go from Yan'an to national reunification.

Another ugly example of this is the videogame-historiographical fate of Afro-Caribbeans. They are a huge cultural group, they have an impressive military history (the Haitians defeated Britain, Spain, and Napoleon during their 1789-1804 revolution), but they are almost completely left out of historical games. Empire: Total War pretends that there was no slavery (which raises a big WTF are Europeans doing in a Caribbean they cleared of indigenous laborers?), as a result, the glorious Haitian Revolution, the most important land war and social upheaval in the pre-20th Century Caribbean, is completely left out of a game that claims to extensively cover that area and period. Sid Meier's Pirates has no Africans at all despite the fact that they would have populated the cities, ship crews, and taverns viewed by the player. CDV's American Conquest is off the hook because its historical blurbs are very favorable to indigenous American resistance. Maybe that's because they are not an American company.

At the risk of sounding like a stereotypical revleft poster who raises a hysteric fuss about quasi-political minutiae, I declare that, in a world where education budgets are being slashed in virtually every country, and those young people who still care may be expected to get more and more of their history from video games in coming years, it feels to me like the Holocaust and slavery are being written out of the human experience in an under-handed manner.

I think if slavery was depicted in strategy games, there would be a huge shitstorm.

Nevertheless, slavery is actually existing as a concept in both the Europa Universalis, the Europa Universalis Rome series and Victoria: An Empire under the sun.

In Crusader Kings, your realm could even go all antisemitic, expelling "the moneylenders".

I would say that I understand all concerns from those who would want to stop any depictions of the Holocaust or of genocide. To allow computer players to start the Holocaust would be quite disturbing and would almost glorify vile treatment of fellow human beings.

Yet, if the Holocaust was depicted as something abhorrent and computer games did not glorify all the violence so excessively, I actually think it would be more acceptable.

[mykittyhasaboner]

Ignoring games as an equally legitimate media to drama or even the written word in my opinion, reeks of techno-conservatism and is naive in that it misses the point that its an instantly accessible port of information to modern youth culture. People like being able to immerse themselves in an imaginary world on more levels that previous eras of technology could not offer.

Yeah, and when the politics of a game sucks the "immersion factor" gets played down horribly. It's like reading a book that looks really cool and initially is entertaining, only to find out it was written by some capitalist prick.

[Jazzratt]

Saying that we shouldn't bother with videogames is like saying that Atlas Shat and The Sword of Lies should be completely ignored. Yeah it's popular fiction but that doesn't mean that the message it carries isn't pernicious. For fuck's sake.

[khad]

Yeah, and when the politics of a game sucks the "immersion factor" gets played down horribly. It's like reading a book that looks really cool and initially is entertaining, only to find out it was written by some capitalist prick.
You're missing the point. You may find the immersion factor shot to hell, but for other less politically astute people, they will simply passively accept whatever messages are contained therein.

None of these idiots will ever ***** about Fallout 3's racism and xenophobia, but they will all their shorts in a bunch about the "fascism" of Fallout Tactics, even as the game is explicitly anti-elitist and anti-racist (under 3 of the game's 4 endings, discrimination is outlawed under the penalty of death).

[Kayser_Soso]

Call of Duty's production team seems to think that accurately depicting the Red Army in WWII means re-watching Enemy at the Gates every time they release a game.

[Bright Banana Beard]

Call of Duty's production team seems to think that accurately depicting the Red Army in WWII means re-watching Enemy at the Gates every time they release a game.

Hahaha! They even literally take "not one step backward" seriously!

[Dimentio]

Everything that calls for the overthrowal of a ruling elite is viewed with suspicion today. Unless the ruling elite is non-western or non-human (as in many sci fi stories) and the heroes are distinctly western.

[NecroCommie]

Call of Duty's production team seems to think that accurately depicting the Red Army in WWII means re-watching Enemy at the Gates every time they release a game.
That alone is not a surprise, but a tragedy is born out of the population that is nowadays certain that CoD is 100% accurate about this.

[Tyrlop]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-C6lUiL8NE
About politics in the game half life.

[Kayser_Soso]

Wow, this guy is a fucking moron. First off, who in a "totalitarian" system doesn't know, at least according to the rulers, how they got there, or what happened to make their society that way? And the Lamda symbol related to anarchism? Idiocy; this symbol has been associated with Half-Life since the first one, which had dick to do with any kind of politics, didn't take place in a dystopian world, and partially took place in a facility known as....wait for it...THE LAMDA COMPLEX!!!

This sounds like some pseudointellectual who thinks he will sound astute and intelligent by reading messages into video games. Hell I can do that.

In Super Mario brothers, we noticed that Mario's outfit is red and brown(talking original here). These were Red Army colors. His hat is also very similar to that worn by Lenin, and it is often associated with working class types. After eating a red and yellow mushroom(USSR colors!!), he becomes bigger, stronger, and able to break through the bricks of the capitalist society that imprisons him. Every three worlds, he must storm a castle, overthrow Bowser, and find that the princess has fled to another castle, clearly trying desperately to escape the wrath of the proletariat. Finally he tracks her down in the eighth castle, and finally deposes the monarchy over the Mushroom Kingdom, which is promptly renamed the People's Mushroom Republic.

Pac-Man represents the worker attempting to get the crumbs from the table of capitalism, hassled by the pigs(the ghosts) for doing so. As he negotiates the labyrinth of life, going through his meager wages month to month, he occasionally gets a taste of the sweet life, in the form of a cherry or pretzel. But it is only when he eats the big dots, which represent revolutionary theory AND arms, that the cops begin to flee.

Doom is more of a liberal game, but otherwise an excellent attack on the military-industrial complex. It shows that with the proper training, a shotgun is all that is necessary to defeat all the forces of hell.

Street Fighter II teaches us that all nations have great, beautiful cultures, and no matter where we are from, we can all enjoy beating the shit out of each other for sport, or money, rather than prejudice or hate.

[Tyrlop]

Wow, this guy is a fucking moron. First off, who in a "totalitarian" system doesn't know, at least according to the rulers, how they got there, or what happened to make their society that way? And the Lamda symbol related to anarchism? Idiocy; this symbol has been associated with Half-Life since the first one, which had dick to do with any kind of politics, didn't take place in a dystopian world, and partially took place in a facility known as....wait for it...THE LAMDA COMPLEX!!!

This sounds like some pseudointellectual who thinks he will sound astute and intelligent by reading messages into video games. Hell I can do that.

In Super Mario brothers, we noticed that Mario's outfit is red and brown(talking original here). These were Red Army colors. His hat is also very similar to that worn by Lenin, and it is often associated with working class types. After eating a red and yellow mushroom(USSR colors!!), he becomes bigger, stronger, and able to break through the bricks of the capitalist society that imprisons him. Every three worlds, he must storm a castle, overthrow Bowser, and find that the princess has fled to another castle, clearly trying desperately to escape the wrath of the proletariat. Finally he tracks her down in the eighth castle, and finally deposes the monarchy over the Mushroom Kingdom, which is promptly renamed the People's Mushroom Republic.

Pac-Man represents the worker attempting to get the crumbs from the table of capitalism, hassled by the pigs(the ghosts) for doing so. As he negotiates the labyrinth of life, going through his meager wages month to month, he occasionally gets a taste of the sweet life, in the form of a cherry or pretzel. But it is only when he eats the big dots, which represent revolutionary theory AND arms, that the cops begin to flee.

Doom is more of a liberal game, but otherwise an excellent attack on the military-industrial complex. It shows that with the proper training, a shotgun is all that is necessary to defeat all the forces of hell.

Street Fighter II teaches us that all nations have great, beautiful cultures, and no matter where we are from, we can all enjoy beating the shit out of each other for sport, or money, rather than prejudice or hate.
you go, and make him a video response, I'm sure he will be very happy for someone responding now. And does it makes him a complete moron for telling you what he thinks of a video game?

[Kayser_Soso]

you go, and make him a video response, I'm sure he will be very happy for someone responding now. And does it makes him a complete moron for telling you what he thinks of a video game?

I decline. I have no need to be on Youtube. It just goes to show that one needs to do some research before making a video like that.

[Tyrlop]

I decline. I have no need to be on Youtube. It just goes to show that one needs to do some research before making a video like that.
Your pointing out only two mistakes in his video and telling that he is a moron and should fuck of because of that?.
The Lambda Symbol?
The Lambda symbol is the same as the scientific symbol for "half-life" the decay of an isotope. But the symbol can also have different meanings in the game, maybe they did not include that meaning to the first game, and only the second.
Where did it said that in all totalitarian systems people doesn't know how they got there?

[Jazzratt]

Doom is more of a liberal game, but otherwise an excellent attack on the military-industrial complex. It shows that with the proper training, a shotgun is all that is necessary to defeat all the forces of hell.

I thought I was the only one sad enough to complete Doom using nothing better than a shotgun (for the record I can do it on Hurt Me Plenty but get stuck about half way on Ultra-Violence).

[Kayser_Soso]

I thought I was the only one sad enough to complete Doom using nothing better than a shotgun (for the record I can do it on Hurt Me Plenty but get stuck about half way on Ultra-Violence).

I have to be honest- I've never done it, just never tried. It seems like it would take a long time. However, through most of the game I generally use the shotgun. It really is the most handy weapon because you rarely need to make long-range shots in the game, if at all.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Grand Theft Auto is hardly PC

you actually attack a new york airport in the "Lost and the Damned" Expansion.