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CBC: "Killing Nazis, fighting religious fanaticism the focus of upcoming video games"

Khoryos

Member
Who would disagree? The common family whose father and sons left for the war to never return? The soldiers who killed and suffered PTSD for the rest of their lives? The people in power who could claim they governed more land that they probably never visited anyway in their lifetime?

Wars looks good to people only on history books.
The last inhabitants of Treblinka, Belsen, and Dachau, for starters.
 
Duuude, I've never played a Wolfenstein before, but now that I know what this one's about, it has my attention. Plus I'm sure it's going to produce a ton of glorious salt from a bunch of Neo-Nazis and Gamergaters.
 

Kinyou

Member
Remember when every fps and military game villains were Islamic terrorist

Or are they still I'm out of loop
There's definitely an overabundance of middle eastern villains but I cant really think of a game that ever really dived into the religious side of it
 

G.ZZZ

Member
The last inhabitants of Treblinka, Belsen, and Dachau, for starters.

Survivors of a war would disagree wars are bad? Ok. Or are you arguing that genocide isn't an act of war?

You're arguing for killing people to stop them from killing other people. Don't you see how that is logically inconsistent?

I'm not arguing that war is always worse than the alternative. I'm arguing that while it can be the least worse option it's still never a good thing.
 

Khoryos

Member
Survivors of a war would disagree wars are bad? Ok. Or are you arguing that genocide isn't an act of war?

People that were liberated by armed struggle would probably be glad that their liberators didn't just sit around wringing their hands, yeah.
 
Duuude, I've never played a Wolfenstein before, but now that I know what this one's about, it has my attention. Plus I'm sure it's going to produce a ton of glorious salt from a bunch of Neo-Nazis and Gamergaters.

Oh it's gonna be glorious. Can't wait to paint some white hoods red.
 
There's definitely an overabundance of middle eastern villains but I cant really think of a game that ever really dived into the religious side of it

I think game developers struggle to truly tackle the ideology of ISIS etc. for what it is (equal to Nazism) without being buried in #notallmuslims so they go with areligious middle-eastern millitias.
 
I think game developers struggle to truly tackle the ideology of ISIS etc. for what it is (equal to Nazism) without being buried in #notallmuslims so they go with areligious middle-eastern millitias.

I think a good way to tackle Daesh without painting all muslims as terrorists would be to have a lot of main characters (in the good guy camp) as muslims, including the player character.
 

Lois_Lane

Member
Survivors of a war would disagree wars are bad? Ok. Or are you arguing that genocide isn't an act of war?

You're arguing for killing people to stop them from killing other people. Don't you see how that is logically inconsistent?

I'm not arguing that war is always worse than the alternative. I'm arguing that while it can be the least worse option it's still never a good thing.
What are your thoughts on the US Civil War?
 
Duuude, I've never played a Wolfenstein before, but now that I know what this one's about, it has my attention. Plus I'm sure it's going to produce a ton of glorious salt from a bunch of Neo-Nazis and Gamergaters.

Well, technically they've all been about killing Nazis, but I know what you mean about this particular one.
 
Personally can't wait for CoD, I swear like half if not more of my time is spent killing Nazi Zombies.

and you are aware of how much race has been part of such religious cults?

Depends, I think there are a good portion that don't care about race so much.
 

PillarEN

Member
In a roundabout way I'm glad that Call of Duty is going back to WW2. Bunch of young people play that series (let's be honest nobody waits till they're 17 to play such games) and while most are probably not super impressionable, if them being CoD obsessed makes them not fall prey to the alt-right Nazi loving BS then fine. If video games rule your world and thought process then at least the super mainstream game will be a reminder that Nazis are the ultimate big bad.
 
I think a good way to tackle Daesh without painting all muslims as terrorists would be to have a lot of main characters (in the good guy camp) as muslims, including the player character.
A narrative-heavy military shooter with one of the US soldiers being muslim while also having the Kurdish + peshmerga (female soldiers = diversity!), Iraqi security forces, Shia militia, etc while having a parallel narrative of an ISIS soldier who will eventually defect could be interesting. The devs would need quite a bit of consulting and research work.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
In a roundabout way I'm glad that Call of Duty is going back to WW2. Bunch of young people play that series (let's be honest nobody waits till they're 17 to play such games) and while most are probably not super impressionable, if them being CoD obsessed makes them not fall prey to the alt-right Nazi loving BS then fine. If video games rule your world and thought process then at least the super mainstream game will be a reminder that Nazis are the ultimate big bad.
Which developer is making the game? Treyarch seem to love adding torture, disfigurement, and painfully slow immolation in their games so if they are the dev I imagine it will not be an pleasant experience.

The only CoD devs I trust to do this justice are the good folks at Sledgehammer (and Raven, if they ever give them a large enough team/mandate again)
 

Loxley

Member
Which developer is making the game? Treyarch seem to love adding torture, disfigurement, and painfully slow immolation in their games so if they are the dev I imagine it will not be an pleasant experience.

Sledgehammer - they've said in interviews that they're really going to hammer home the brutality of war in the game, as well as strive for as much authenticity as they can.
 

Oriel

Member
Wild times when killing Nazis is considered a political statement.

Right? It should never be an issue of whether killing Nazis is morally acceptable. It sure as hell wasn't a problem up until now. WTF sort of world are we living in?
 

Gattsu25

Banned
Sledgehammer - but they've said in interviews that they're really going to hammer home the brutality of combat.
Ahh, good. I had just edited my post to say that Sledgehammer were the only CoD devs I trust to really handle the subject matter. So this is good news.
 

Orb

Member
Well personally I want to play the new wolfenstein because of the fantastic blend of old school and modern shooting mechanics that bethesdas shooters have had recently and i loved far cry 3 and 4 so 5 is a must regardless of politics as well
Lol
 
A narrative-heavy military shooter with one of the US soldiers being muslim while also having the Kurdish + peshmerga (female soldiers = diversity!), Iraqi security forces, Shia militia, etc while having a parallel narrative of an ISIS soldier who will eventually defect could be interesting. The devs would need quite a bit of consulting and research work.

I'd play the next Call of Duty (after WWII) starring Sergeant Bob Ahmed from Dearborn, Michigan as he takes apart ISIS with the help of a multicultural team of various religions, faiths and beliefs.

Not /s btw.
 

Moonstone

Member
If Wolfenstein was unpolitical, none of those details would be in the first game. They wouldn't bother having KKK being buddies with the Nazis in the second game. They wouldn't invoke black panthers in the characters.

There is political stuff in there I give you that. But it is foremost a shooter about supertech Nazis (which Neonazis love). I can guarantee you that german Neonazis with a gaming PC will have Wolfenstein on their PC. So this is a so - so. It does also cater to them and it wasn't made to show problems with Neonazis.

IMO it is bad to use this pulp shooter as a meaningfull contribution to the debate. And as said in the article - it was made before charlottesville and also in Sweden.
And Neonazis aren't really something new.

Could be that my view on this is skewed because in germany had to deal with Neonazis as long as I can think and the US view on this is different. IMO this whole debate is tainted because "vidya games". The game is still basically a AAA "mass murder" shooter which was designed to sell not to critisise Nazis. And the topic isn't new. We got Fatherland and The Man in the High Castle before.

It just reads to me: " Well now you recognize the Neonazi problem? Because of a videogame about supertech Nazis?". But that could be related to my german PoV.

And:
But for video games to engage in such charged political themes at all — even those that depict the villains as outlandish caricatures — is "a good thing, because it's something we have to deal with right now," Weiss said, calling it a "necessary reminder."

Is a very questionable line. Outlandish carricatures are not a good thing at all. As said I can understand this with Nazis - but this line seems very questionable in general. You could use this line on muslims/russians as well. CoD would show us then how bad muslims/russians are. A "necessary reminder"? No.

And it is nothing new.
And it gets turned into something meaningfull because of the things that happened, although the game was made way before and not in the US. This is just reading something into stuff,IMO.

IMO there are better sources/media to discuss this issue.
 
I can't wait for both of these games. It's going to be cathartic.

Is that really the ethos of Infinite? I only played shortly after the beginning where the slave auction/show is happening and thought this game has to go somewhere
Oh it goes somewhere. Also at one point you fight a ghost lady three times.
 

kirblar

Member
and you are aware of how much race has been part of such religious cults?
Branch Davidians are the most notorious example in US history and I'm not finding any info specifically tying them to race. Polygamy, child abuse, isolated land in a rural area, weapon stockpiles, post-apocalyptic worldview though? Those things are definitely there.

I would assume there's racial stuff there by virtue of these cults being a "white people/culture" thing, but it's not been something that's associated w/ them by default. (The history of the Mormon Church and it's splinter groups being a pretty good example of one where those issues definitely were/are there.)
 
I think a good way to tackle Daesh without painting all muslims as terrorists would be to have a lot of main characters (in the good guy camp) as muslims, including the player character.

I never knew I wanted this game

I want this game

Something like an Iraqi or Afghani in the police when the invasions started. Maybe make it twisted ala Spec Ops

Yeaaa
 

Gattsu25

Banned
And for historical inaccuracy because you have diverse choice in character creation in a series with zombie mode

Isn't that also from the very same series that is known for people basically empty their bowels and shitting out a live grenade when they die?
 

caliph95

Member
Isn't that also from the very same series that is known for people basically empty their bowels and shitting out a live grenade when they die?
And when you can casually call for air strikes to kill one dude right next to you (though that's modern warfare tbf)
 

kikiribu

Member
MafiaIIIRally.gif
Dayum. Gif + $20 on Amazon = sold.
 

bomma_man

Member
A narrative-heavy military shooter with one of the US soldiers being muslim while also having the Kurdish + peshmerga (female soldiers = diversity!), Iraqi security forces, Shia militia, etc while having a parallel narrative of an ISIS soldier who will eventually defect could be interesting. The devs would need quite a bit of consulting and research work.

A movie about these guys is probably inevitable, but a game could work too.
 
I never knew I wanted this game

I want this game

Something like an Iraqi or Afghani in the police when the invasions started. Maybe make it twisted ala Spec Ops

Yeaaa

yeah. I mean, it makes sense when 99% of the victims of Daesh are other muslims. You'd think these muslims would want justice or revenge against the terrorists fuckers.
 
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