The Video Game Industry Claims Its Products Avoid Politics, But That's a Lie. (theoutline.com) 108
Josh Tucker, writing for The Outline: Retired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North was a Marine platoon commander in Vietnam, a U.S. Senate candidate, and eventually, a National Rifle Association president. At the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan, he helped manage a number of violent imperial operations, including the U.S. invasion of Grenada. Due to televised hearings in the Summer of 1987 where he gave horrifying testimony about the things that he and the United States government had allegedly done, he is probably best known for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. Alternatively, you might instead recognize North as a minor character from Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In the game, he makes an appearance, service ribbons and all, to talk a retired Alex Mason -- the game's protagonist -- into joining a covert mission in Angola. The cameo was accompanied by North's role as an advisor and pitchman for the 2012 title. It was very bizarre, and, according to the developers, not at all political.
In an interview with Treyarch head Mark Lamia, Kotaku's Stephen Totilo asked if the studio had expected the controversy around using North as a consultant. "We're not trying to make a political statement with our game," Lamia responded. "We're trying to make a piece of art and entertainment." This answer would be farcical under any circumstances, but to be clear, Black Ops II was already a jingoistic first-person shooter in a series full of dubious storylines and straight-up propaganda. Its writer and director, Dave Anthony, would later go on to a fellowship at D.C.'s Atlantic Council, advising on "The Future of Unknown Conflict." Regardless, Lamia felt comfortable insisting on record that there was nothing political about getting the Iran-Contra fall guy to shill for its game. In the time since, this brazen corporate line has become the standard for blockbuster games, including the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. "Are games political?" continues to be exhaustingly rehashed, because game companies continue to sell an apolitical delusion.
In an interview with Treyarch head Mark Lamia, Kotaku's Stephen Totilo asked if the studio had expected the controversy around using North as a consultant. "We're not trying to make a political statement with our game," Lamia responded. "We're trying to make a piece of art and entertainment." This answer would be farcical under any circumstances, but to be clear, Black Ops II was already a jingoistic first-person shooter in a series full of dubious storylines and straight-up propaganda. Its writer and director, Dave Anthony, would later go on to a fellowship at D.C.'s Atlantic Council, advising on "The Future of Unknown Conflict." Regardless, Lamia felt comfortable insisting on record that there was nothing political about getting the Iran-Contra fall guy to shill for its game. In the time since, this brazen corporate line has become the standard for blockbuster games, including the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. "Are games political?" continues to be exhaustingly rehashed, because game companies continue to sell an apolitical delusion.
Not sending their best headline writers (Score:5, Funny)
You mean "fake news".
Over general, Minecraft not political? (Score:4, Informative)
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At least Pacman is still safe though...right?
Eating small pills in a dimly lit room with a maze and drony electronic sounds? Gotta protect the kids from drugs!
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Don't forget the subjugation of the incorporeal.
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"Although come to think of it it does seem to involve deforesting areas for fuel for your furnaces, enslaving the local population to grow crops for you and building contraptions to kill and harvest the remains of the local wildlife so perhaps it is sending a message of support for tyrannical enslavement"
Nah, it is just showing how the works by default. If it appeals to you then it isn't because it is trying to persuade you, it just means you are an anarchist.
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You can ignore politics, but politics will never ignore you.
Nope Not Political at all! (Score:5, Insightful)
Fair and Balanced Article?
"he helped manage a number of violent imperial operations, including the U.S. invasion of Grenada. Due to televised hearings in the Summer of 1987 where he gave horrifying testimony about the things that he and the United States government had allegedly done..."
Yeah right!
Re:Nope Not Political at all! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah right!
Agreed. Unclear if funding wars behind the backs of congress, profiting from it, and trading arms for hostages while campaigning on never negotiating with hostages is "horrifying". We can probably say that's a value judgement that should be left up to the reader:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Well... maybe to an American it IS horrifying. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well... Horrifying to an American who still holds on to some form of patriotism or at least to faith in law and order.
To everyone else that's simply committing crime and treason. And a bit of ye old regime toppling.
You know... that thing which democracies are not supposed to be doing... but empires and dictatorships do all the time.
And we all know America ain't a democracy... And by that we don't mean "it's a republic".
It's an oligarchy. [bbc.com]
But hey... what to expect when half of the people in it are illiterate [washingtonpost.com]
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"You know... that thing which democracies are not supposed to be doing... but empires and dictatorships do all the time."
Democracy vs Empire/dictatorship is simply a matter of leadership structure, it says nothing about what sort of actions that leadership is supposed to be engaging in. There is absolutely nothing about democracy which is contrary to toppling and absorbing every other nation on Earth... especially to grant them the people subjugated to them the same freedom you enjoy within that democracy.
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Horrifying to an American who still holds on to some form of patriotism or at least to faith in law and order.
You're not even sure what patriotism is, so you added on that 'at least' clause to cover for you.
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Ummm... faith in law and order isn't what Patriotism is. You don't have to think the coach is playing the right strategy to be a fan of the team.
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Horrifying is irrelevant but yes obviously judgements should be left to readers. Anyone who uses the term "imperial" to describe an action by an entity other than an emperor we can safely say it is biased trash and has no business being a headline here... and probably wouldn't have been if it had been properly user submitted and voted on.
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I'm glad someone pointed out the article's 'tell'. Once I saw that in there, I expected him to tell us we should be an anarcho-syndicalist commune.
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Why the fuck negotiates with hostages?
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I think you can figure it out.
Re:Nope Not Political at all! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure Grenada see's the US invasion as an "imperial operation".
October 25th, the day of the invasion, is Thanksgiving Day in Grenada. It's an official holiday.
Re:Nope Not Political at all! (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you mean to say that the new government established on the back of a foreign invasion would declare a national holiday commemorating said invasion? Shocking.
Re:Nope Not Political at all! (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you mean to say that the new government established on the back of a foreign invasion would declare a national holiday commemorating said invasion? Shocking.
No, it was declared by the government that was democratically elected more than a year later.
They would have liked to restore the legitimate government to power, but they had all just been executed by the People's Revolutionary Army.
Marxists backed by Cuban troops (Score:2)
Do you mean to say that the new government established on the back of a foreign invasion would declare a national holiday commemorating said invasion? Shocking.
Uh, that "old government" you seem so fond of were Marxist revolutionaries who took power in a coup, who banned all political parties except theirs, who never allowed elections and who were backed by foreign Cuban troops.
That "new" government you seem less fond of was democratically elected, just like the one the Marxists overthrew, and just like all the governments since then.
Seems like the day the Marxists were thrown out is a quite legitimate holiday.
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We might not have been right to do it, but that doesn't mean it was a 100% cynical act of oppression that endures to this day. It just might be (i don't claim to know) that the people of Grenada nowadays are thankful for not having to go through a bunch
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"And so you're claiming the USA has been suppressing the will of the people, preventing a truly democratically elected government from assuming power... ever since then?"
That would be a ridiculous claim to make of Grenada... but not at all ridiculous to say about what the US government has done in the US.
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Grenada is part of the U.S. Empire now? Silly me, I thought they kicked out a Military Junta and set up Democratic Elections, which happened the next year. The invasion was October 1983, US Troops left 2 months later in December, and elections happened in December 1984.
Re:Nope Not Political at all! (Score:5, Insightful)
This article is itself biased trash. Should I use Grand Theft Auto as evidence that the video game industry is left leaning and cop hating?
This guy obviously has an axe to grind.
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Probably since the video game industry is left leaning and cop hating... really anything you can find to help prove what we all know to outsiders is helpful.
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This guy obviously has an axe to grind.
And so does msmash, if you hadn't noticed already.
Re: Nope Not Political at all! (Score:4, Informative)
It's a pretty stupid blog site to be honest (yes blog, not news.) I skimmed through most of it as it seemed to be very repetitive, but towards the end there's a bit of complaining that games aren't progressive, and they give an example of games involving going overseas and shooting brown people.
It sounds like this guy wants a game of hide and go run to your safe space. Or perhaps a game that teaches about the virtues of social justice. Or maybe a game where you're supposed to find weapons, and instead of shooting them, you're supposed to recycle them.
Either way, I'm pretty sure it will be boring as fuck.
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Agree it's a bit of an overreaction, but I don't think the argument is completely without merit.
I played CoD; WW2 for example and felt a bit sick in my mouth when there was a line from one of the generals about how their American division was the first to hold off a German advance in WW1. This was a grim rewriting of history that had absolutely no historical merit whatsoever given America didn't even join WW1 until 4 years in, by which point the Germans had been well and truly held off. It's not simply the
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a line from one of the generals about how their American division was the first to hold off a German advance in WW1
It's hard to remember that not all Americans are like this.
I'm not sure if the writer was ignorant or whether they were cynically trying to appeal to an ignorant American audience. My experience with Americans is that it's likely to be both.
So long story short, when video game authors start rewriting history with a whole bunch of jingoistic lies then frankly yes, they deserve some criticism as much as any blatantly biased propaganda source should.
I'm not sure though that this makes them inherently political. They're storytelling and trying to tell a story that their target customer base will want to hear.
That's very different to imposing political views on people. There are games that do that too, but many games
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It sounds like this guy wants a game of hide and go run to your safe space. Or perhaps a game that teaches about the virtues of social justice. Or maybe a game where you're supposed to find weapons, and instead of shooting them, you're supposed to recycle them.
What about those games would be a problem? Nobody is going to force you to play them.
Games can be about anything. It is very odd when people try to take ownership of an entire medium just because some examples of that medium don't suit them. Worse, some people don't just complain but are indignant when games are more than they imagined them to be.
There is so much more that games can be beyond mere entertainment but the very loud and aggressive pushback from a minority of gamers makes those efforts mo
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"Violent Imperial Operations" (Score:5, Interesting)
What, did we start posting content from the Daily Worker? "Today, the running-dog capitalists at Apple further oppressed ..." etc etc.
Whether it was intended or not, the wording of this story sure sounds like blatant editorializing.
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More like content from the daily click baiter.
TFA Headline: No shit, video games are political. They’re conservative.
TFA Subtitle: The video game industry claims its products avoid politics, but that’s a lie.
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Re:"Violent Imperial Operations" (Score:5, Insightful)
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It sounds like someone has their panties in a wad over the fact the following games are popular
1. Shooters - we can't have any guns in society. Not even imaginary ones.
2. Driving - Why must they have muscle cars and other supercars? Wouldn't you rather drive a Prius and look at the pretty scenery?
"Video Games Industry" too nebulous (Score:2, Offtopic)
What does that phrase even mean? Anytime you see someone lump an entire industry under one umbrella it means they have some agenda to sell you.
I don't even think there are many game companies that are political per se. You think EA is political? Heck No, they only care about money and how to make it.
Where politics comes in is at the game producer level, where thy direct the story (if any) and the people who are hired to produce content. That is where politics can come in, but I don't feel like all games
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TFA article is the result of finding out at 3pm on Friday you have to churn out some good clickbait for the weekend.
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When talking about the political leaning of an industry, it only matters when a particular political side is actively trying to hurt or help the industry as a call out.
That leaning will only really be based on a particular issue.
An industry may support one side or an other, if its customers tend to strongly trend in a direction. But don't that the industry marketing to mean there is real support to that side, if the customer change, they would drop their marketing methods and switch overnight.
But when we
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I agree with what you say, but I think the video game industry as whole covers such a vast range of experience that you can't really think about it having even a general "leaning" as you can with other industries as a whole. There probably are leanings across some specific grouping of companies but it wouldn't even be a majority.
I really doubt the guys that made Journey or Life is Strange have even a slight rightward political bent...
Quick: all sissies clutch your pearls! (Score:1)
Ollie North shows up in a video game. So fucking what? If it offends you, who cares? It's not like you were ever going to be their customer, is it?
I just deleted Slashdot from my bookmarks (Score:2)
Re: I just deleted Slashdot from my bookmarks (Score:1)
It's still very easy to just type in slashdot.org.
Not as easy to remember as People's Daily, the official news organ of the Communist Party of China, though.
That one is eee enn dot people dot cee enn:
en.people.cn
Where you can read the official news 'line' from China. Yes, it even has a comments section.
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I've heard of the paper but never looked. Just read some of their About Us page:
"People's Daily Online is 12-time winner of the China News Prize, with its credibility, influence and comprehensive disseminating power topping the list of China's news websites for a long time."
I literally laughed out loud.
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Their article today about the ruffians and thugs in Hong Kong is pretty rich. The comments section on the article is bristling with Chinese patriots.
Commentary: Hong Kong rioters must be severely punished for beating reporter [people.cn]
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Oh my... a 3.4 million ID holder is lost forever... how fuckin sad.
Pity party will be held at the basement of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria, at 5037 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Bring your own suicide utensils.
Sure CoD and some other war games (Score:3)
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Most women, 85%+ of them, are weaker then average man and it would be good for guy to help them if under attack or held hostage..... how is saving damsel in distress a bad thing? "Oh but that portrays women as weak" . well, yes, when it comes to physical attack, most in fact are. Deal with it, there is biological basis and reason for it.
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oh really? I've never had to change a tire for a guy, light the pilot light for a furnance for a guy, lift the 40 lbs. water jugs at work into the water cooler for a guy, put 50 lbs. battery in car for a guy and jump it...
the list of those things I've done for "damsels in distress" is quite long, and purely because they are female.
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How much is of that because they were shown that their place is to be that damsel in distress? If they saw more capable women they would realize they too are perfectly capable of those things themselves and have no need for some else to take care of them.
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wrong, average woman cannot lift and place a 50 lbs car battery or sedan wheel with tire, and yes some tried.
it's pure biology, your imagined "they only need to be empowered" is utter B.S.
Yes, I know some gals that do body building and martial arts, different story for those (and yeah they can kick my ass too, lolz). but that's the minority.
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It's damsels in distress because people *give a shit* about females. You're supposed to help them. Look at all the "think of the women and children" campaigns that exist. That's the same thing devs are tapping into when the object to rescue is a woman. If a guy got captured, people would laugh.
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Also, there is the (Anita Sarkeesian type) claim that the damsel in distress trope means that the hero (mario etc) is claiming the female as a "mere" personal possession. But This is clearly wrong as I'll outline.
The object of a quest is almost never a personal possession. It has to be *something worth dying for*, so a higher cause. There's "save the world", "save the city", or retrieving some special (sacred) item that has significance to the community. In all examples, it's about the hero being part of so
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Clearly, we need to go back to when video game protagonists were unlikable, unrelatable, and no fun to play as.
SJW Shitheads (Score:1, Insightful)
North appearing in game was funny and for fun. Go whine elsewhere.
Re:SJW Shitheads (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not sure this was SJW so much as run of the mill dipshit. To a significant fraction of the population I'd probably be pigeon holed as a SJW (I see no point in being a dickhead to somebody based on what they are physically though I don't make a big deal so maybe Social Justice Reservist or something) I was an adult during Iran Contra, I despise Oliver North but having him play a role in that game makes perfect sense and only reflects on the game, not some greater mystery. It's a game for fuck sake.
So maybe give the SJW crowd a pass on this one ... it's just a shit head, no need to further slice which branch of shitheaddom.
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Except the refrain about all games being inherently political is found throughout the SJW gaming contingent. What's more, when a developer recently said that the game was not politcally charged or meant to lecture the player, said contingent immediately started bitching about it.
https://www.videogameschronicl... [videogameschronicle.com]
https://archive.fo/LeSvi [archive.fo]
https://archive.fo/lnqla [archive.fo]
https://archive.fo/7XiZM [archive.fo]
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Except the refrain about all games being inherently political is found throughout the SJW gaming contingent.
Any time you're going to write an actual plot for a game, it's going to be political in some way. It's always going to reflect someone's values. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just the way things are.
To try to cast videogame as a... (Score:2)
.. serious political force is a bit of a farce when you got news networks and media blaring bullshit 24/7. To use an example... Fox news is more of a threat to our world then any call of duty game ever will be. Willfully spreading misinformation and misinforming the world and riling people up.
The world has serious problems and well financed special interests who's only concern is profit trying to prevent us from solving serious threats to our future survival are the real shit disturbers in our world.
I'm confused here (Score:5, Insightful)
So, CoD:BO2 glorifies American imperialism and is super conservative because it has a cameo and was pitched by Oliver North (who was actually contemporary to the setting of the story so it actually made sense to have him in). Yet another CoD game, MW2, has you shoot up an airport and supposedly glorifies terrorists attacks. So is CoD pro or anti-American?
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So, CoD:BO2 glorifies American imperialism and is super conservative because it has a cameo and was pitched by Oliver North (who was actually contemporary to the setting of the story so it actually made sense to have him in). Yet another CoD game, MW2, has you shoot up an airport and supposedly glorifies terrorists attacks. So is CoD pro or anti-American?
You're supposed to focus on the first one, and ignore the second one, just like you're supposed to focus on the mass shooting in El Paso [vox.com], but ignore the mass shooting in Dayton [aim.org].
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I don't know anyone who hates the mass shootings who is ignoring Dayton at all.
North is an appropriate choice (Score:5, Insightful)
So what (Score:2)
If videos games have no influence in violence acts then clearly it can't influence people politically.
Tell that to the U.S. Army. (Score:1, Troll)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
America's Army is a series of first-person shooter video games developed and published by the U.S. Army, intended to inform, educate, and recruit prospective soldiers.
Launched in 2002, the game is branded as a strategic communication device, designed to allow Americans to virtually explore the Army at their own pace, to determine if becoming a soldier fits their interests and abilities.
America's Army represents the first large-scale use of game technology by the U.S. government as a platform for strategic communication and recruitment, and the first use of game technology in support of U.S. Army recruiting.
Or you know... Hezbullah and PLA.
HEY SNOWFLAKES! Tell that to the U.S. Army! (Score:2)
As I was saying before some incel snowflake got its dick stuck in its mom's purse so it tried to mod me down for posting info already known to anyone above the age of... 9?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
America's Army is a series of first-person shooter video games developed and published by the U.S. Army, intended to inform, educate, and recruit prospective soldiers.
Launched in 2002, the game is branded as a strategic communication device, designed to allow Americans to virtually explore the Army at their own pace, to determine if becoming a soldier fits their interests and abilities.
America's Army represents the first large-scale use of game technology by the U.S. government as a platform for strategic communication and recruitment, and the first use of game technology in support of U.S. Army recruiting.
Or you know... Tell it Hezbullah and PLA, snowflakes.
Because politics (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people think the politics they personally agree with are purely neutral opinions, and only other people's perspectives are political.
Book to read about North, McCain and all that (Score:3)
I'm ignoring the "video game industry" aspect of this article, and I have a book I recommend to read.
The Nightingale's Song by Robert Timberg.
Timberg is an Annapolis graduate and fought in the Vietnam war as a US Marine.
Author interview: http://booknotes.org/FullPage.... [booknotes.org]
Review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/... [kirkusreviews.com]
His book is not kind to North, McCain, Poindexter, Mcfarlane, Webb, etc, nor is it a polemic.
It certainly does not contain any bullshit like "number of violent imperial operations, including the U.S. invasion of Grenada"
Trash article (Score:5, Insightful)
The author of this article is looking for a fight and nobody is giving it to him. Video games must certainly can be political commentary: Bioshock, Deus Ex, Fallout, Bully, Half-Life. Really, anything with a good story probably ties into current philosophies or social concerns or they wouldn't be interesting. But trying to say that Call of Duty is social commentary is ridiculous. It's a military shoot-the-bad-guys that focuses on military *tactics* not the philosophy of war. Heck, they try to avoid politics as much as possible because if anybody stopped to think about it, the games are basically American dudes shooting at America's political enemies. They don't want their players thinking at all, they want them shooting!
The cameo was accompanied by North's role as an advisor and pitchman for the 2012 title. It was very bizarre, and, according to the developers, not at all political.
Why is it bizarre that an advisor for the game made a cameo in the game? Why is it bizarre that his character did something just like what he did in real life? A retired army colonel sounds like *exactly* the kind of person you would want to advise you in creating a game about war.
Black Ops II was already a jingoistic first-person shooter in a series full of dubious storylines and straight-up propaganda.
Aha! *That* is the real nature of the attack. The author doesn't like that these games are one-sided and don't address the politics of war. So the author is looking for an angle to attack them. These games are mindless shooters, so the storylines are as dubious as the wars they represent. There's lots of them - Call of Duty, Wolfenstein, Counter-strike, Battlefield. (P.S. I found an article commenting that there were black female Nazi soldiers in Wolfenstein 2, much to many people's confusion) They really are just trying to make settings where you can shoot wave-after-wave of bad guys, and immerse yourself in the military experience.
Re: Trash article (Score:2)
Yeah, maybe the author would like Spec Ops:The Line. Basically Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now set in a devastated Dubai. Different ending depending on your choices too.
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Is RTCW MP leftwing or rightwing? (Score:1)
I just can't decide!
Who? When? (Score:2)
The cameo was accompanied by North's role as an adviser and pitchman for the 2012 title.
So the proof that 'video games are political' is... Oliver North (who most kids playing these games won't even know) making a cameo/working on a game... seven years ago?
Wow. I've never seen such overwhelming and convincing evidence to support a position. Ev-ar.
Metal Gear Solid (Score:3)
Like in any artistic medium there are viewpoints on politics. You can find movies, books, and yes, games, that provide political commentary. Just look at the Metal Gear Solid series of games.
https://www.theguardian.com/te... [theguardian.com]
https://www.gamesradar.com/how... [gamesradar.com]
Call of Duty is less political than others... (Score:3)
There are a few games that clock in far more political than Call of Duty. Yes, CoD shills toward the military fantasy. Just so, to some the idea of having Ollie North in the mix of it was a good play by them to shill further toward that fantasy. Just as including stand-ins for presidents sell it. And having a ship named The Obama isn't political at all. It is all marketing to those you want to market to. So yea, it's politics of the salesman... not politics in the sense this person wants to make it.
Other games that sell the politics much more: BioShock... all of them. Red Faction series. Assassin's Creed... again all of them. Mario... well, all of them if you look *really* hard.
Doesn't bother me. I loved playing CoD single player campaign. I loved BioShock, Red Faction and AC campaigns, as well. Mostly because I'm not going to be gullible enough to let any of the narratives from a made up game world/alternative time line affect my world view in general. They're telling some fiction... not rewriting history.
I kinda feel bad for the author for being so crazy as to let the video games affect them like this.
Art is Propaganda. Water is Wet. (Score:2)
Ollie was also a Liar (Score:1)
And so was Barr.
I know half of what happened is still not cleared for civilian knowledge, but we always knew they were Big Liars, and they still are.
Believe him if you want, but you'll wish you hadn't.
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All politicians are liars, and North was and is as much a politician as a soldier. Those debates they've been having the past few weeks? Lying sacks of shit. Trump? Pretty much the same.
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True, except Trump has something that only 2, maybe 3 of the dem candidates have. He genuinely loves America. Of the dem candidates, the only ones for whom that rings true at all are Gabbard, Bullock, and maybe Yang. None of whom have a snowflake's chance in hell of clinching the nomination. Woo Woo child is in love with her woo woo, and the rest are ONLY interested in power.
Why would you avoid politics? (Score:1)
How could you avoid politics, or even want to? Without politics, SMACX would have almost nothing left.
(I prefer to not make comments about games other than Alpha Centauri, but even Tron has politics: should the system serve the users, or someone else?)
Misleading title (Score:2)
Some In The Video Game Industry Claims Its Products Avoid Politics, But That's a Lie.
FTFY.
I would go even further to say, this is a Trumpian sort of thing to be doing. Deny you're doing something you're obviously doing. By extension, I'd say, any video game studio that goes out of their way to declare their games don't have political messages in them, most certainly do have just that.
Kotaku (Score:5, Informative)
This is your typical Kotaku bullshit.
There's a reason why sites like Kotaku, Polygon, etc. are being sold off for pennies on the dollar, repeatedly. They're trash. Or, to use their words,they're "jingoistic" "propaganda".
Really... (Score:2)
As someone inside said industry (Score:4, Informative)
This is one of most absurd complaints about the videogame industry I've heard. There is no single entity that speaks for the entire industry. So I'm not sure how the "video game industry" avoids or embraces politics. Every studio has different priorities. Most large studios shy away from politics, at least too overtly, because its a very divisive topic. You're guaranteed to alienate half your fans with any firm position you take for no real gains. The quotes I heard from large studios and developers deem to dovetail with my experience.
So, yeah, no shit. Videogame makers would rather avoid unnecessary controversy and lost sales. Or... here's a radical thought. Maybe not everyone views the world through the lens of politics, and maybe... just maybe... they're spending their time and energy trying to make a fun game for everyone. Nah, that's crazy talk. And speaking of crazy talk...
“The process of deciding what is and is not politics is an act of power and an act of politics in its own right,”
Oh, that's a twisted little bit of logic right there. That means it's impossible for a game NOT to be political, because the very act of trying to stay apolitical is an act of politics. Let that one roll around your head a bit. And if you therefore don't support the politics this writer approves of, choosing to (gasp) focus on making money like a capitalist, then you're obviously a conservative.
It's beyond absurd.
Re: (Score:2)
Today I learned (Score:2)
Mark Lamia is the entire video game industry and, when he makes a statement, it's the entire industry making that statement.
Games are made by people. (Score:2)
Politics is people. How is this news?
No Shit, Sherlock. (Score:2)
Gee, ALL art can be political. Why focus on games when newspapers, movies, books have been around for much longer?
Did the retired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North forget about the Hemp For Victory (1942) [youtube.com] propaganda (*) by the Dept. of Agriculture?
(*) One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Did the cotton industry [rollingstone.com] bad mouth Hemp trying to lump it in with Cannabis because it would cut into their profits?
--
Cutting your dick off doesn't make you female; it makes you a pussy for not respecting the
Can "The Video Game Industry" Claim ANYTHING? (Score:2)
There is no voice for the video game industry. There are developers, sellers, publishers... there may even be some lobbying groups. But how the hell can the entirety of an industry make any such claim?
Hint: They don't and can't. Someone is speaking out his/her ass.
There is no single entity here (Score:2)
Hence there is nobody "lying" either. Rather obviously so. Most game makers avoid too direct references to politics, but not all do. Also obviously.
In addition, historically accurate facts and well-established scientific facts are already "political statements" to some people (there are a lot of stupid people around, so that is no surprise) and even completely fictional scenarios that do not reference anybody real can be taken to be political in most cases, because there are people somewhere in the story.
What to change games into? (Score:1)
Car racing games? All electric now?
Action-adventure game? Do they have to have the correct political setting and context? No cultural appropriation?
War games? Must have art/plots approved by the German gov?
Sport games? No cultural appropriation.
Food in games? No cultural appropriation.
Iran-Contra happened. Why cant any computer game reflect that reality in any way it wants? Govs and mil do things all over the
Duke says (Score:4, Interesting)
It even brought tears to the eyes of Crazy Bob. “This guy is the real thing,” he said when North went off the air on Thursday. “I want to send him a check.”
I stared at him for a long moment, then I whacked him on the side of his head. “You fool!” I said. “I’m tired of your lame Nazi gibberish.” He leaped off his stool and went into a fighting stance, but I quickly jumped back and hissed at him: “Semper Fi! Semper Fi! 269 dead boys at Beirut Airport! Two hundred and sixty-nine dead U.S. Marines, Bobby!”
He stiffened, then dropped his hands.
“Yes!” I shouted. “And we know who did it, don’t we?”
“Iranians,” he muttered. “That stinking Ayatollah.”
I knew he had been in the Navy – nine or ten years in one of the super-elite SEAL units the Marines get a lot of publicity and they look good on TV commercials, but even drill sergeants at Parris Island will admit that 99 out of 100 Marine recruits would be routinely rejected if they ever tried to qualify for the SEALS. A pencil-necked weekend warrior like Oliver North couldn’t get hired as a male nurse in a SEAL unit.
I put my arm around Crazy Bob’s shoulders and sat him back down on his stool. “And who was it, Bobby, that sold all those bombs and missiles and rockets to the Iranians?”
“Jesus Christ,” he said. “It was Oliver North, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, Charlie,” I said. “It was him – and he was well paid for it, too. Ronald Reagan called him a great American hero, and George Shultz put his arm around him and thanked him for doing good work.”
So much for Ollie mania. - Hunter S. Thompson Generation of Swine
Why tech needs the humanities (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
That's a lot of words to say "I found out I sunk a lot of money into a degree that has no demand and I desperately try to create some".
Who gives a fuck? (Score:2)
90% of the people playing the game probably don't know who Oliver North is. 99% of them don't know what he looks like. 100% of them don't give a fuck about him because they're only playing the multiplayer portion anyway and ignore the campaign.
Your point being?
Even if, so what? (Score:2)
All kinds of art make political statements, most of it for "progressive" ideas, as more artists are "left". See all those anti war movies, songs etc. "Full Metal Jacket", "Apocalypse now", "Good morning Vietnam", "Saving Private Ryan", just to name a few. There's even a more or less open discussion how to cram more progressive ideas into films, books, music and video games.
And you can hardly make any game that depicts/simulates some part of the real world that can't be interpreted as "political" in one way
Not political? (Score:2)
The article is a lot more political than any game I have seen. And has a lot more propoganda! 8-}
must stop! (Score:2)
i've had it with all these political statements in games, i stopped playing tetris because of it.
Is Nothing Sacred? (Score:2)
I'm fairly certain my beloved World of Warcraft isn't political. Not the Classic version coming out in a week or so anyway.
Has anyone checked out "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" ??