Most of the games tend to promote an ideology. Im not american and I care not too much if I have to shoot russians, nazis, americans, arabs, vietnameses or whatever, but I just think that the fact that all of the games, even japanese ones, tend to put the player in the role of an american soldier sucks. Not because im not american, but because its just plain brainwashing and propaganda. Once I played Counter Strike Deleted Scenes and there was a mission in which you had to kill argentinian terrorists (Im from Argentina, South America) that had kidnapped some german pilots (what the hell were they doing in Argentina? Like we ever had a war with germany). The problem with this is that there are no terrorists in my country. And the fact that I had to sneak in an underground tunnel and shoot shitty-spanish voiced thugs and see my own countrys flag hanging from the wall just pissed the fuc.k out of me. This kind of thing gives the player false information and tends to make him actually more ignorant. Do you think games should be subject to a content control aside from the violence? I say yes, not censorship, which I hate, but at least to see if the game does actually give fake, false or flawed information on REAL events.
This is where your bias kicks in. The fact that you are from Argentina means that you would of course, defend it's name and flag. In all countries there are terrorist organizations, guerilla groups, armed gangs, etc. etc. Take the United States of America for example; have you heard of the Ku Klux Klan? Neo Nazis? Black Panthers? Bloods? Crips? They are/were deemed terrorist organizations, armed gangs, etc. etc. Mosts games are just based on fictional storylines and apparently they need to put you in a role with someone mostly everyone can associate with. You hear the news on Americans this, Americans that and instantly someone can associate Americans with being bad and vice versa. Also what's wrong with German pilots visiting Argentina? Perhaps they had to fly Europeans to the country, or they were stopping for a refueling, or they were there on vacation. The scenarios are endless! These games are not propaganda pieces. Your Counter-Strike example just told you to kill Argentinian terrorists and rescue hostages. It did not tell you that Argentina as a whole is a bad country and that the people should be killed because they are a terroristic, kidnapping people. Triborder (Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay) In 2000, the triborder region of South America--where the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet--remained a focal point for Islamic extremism in Latin America, but no acts of international terrorism occurred in any of the three countries. The Governments of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay continued efforts to stem criminal activities of individuals linked to international Islamic terrorist groups, but limited resources, porous borders, and corruption remained obstacles. Investigations continued into the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and the terrorist attack against the Argentine-Israeli Community Center (AMIA) in 1994. The above are excerpts taken from reputable sites such as FAS.org. It is just a game! Most are not even based on real world events. Sure they do place you in real world locations but like I said earlier, It is something people can associate with. Also you seem to be targeting a single genre here, there are literally a lot of game genres around. I don't see an RPG with me as an American Soldier but as an Elf Warrior. I don't see an American as a Pacman eating up smaller countries. But you know this is just my view.
Yeah but you are a smart man, and you already know islamic fundamentalist cells are different from terrorist guerillas from the country itself, even worse if they bear their flag. We all know america, and if we see a KKK guy with a confed and an american flag in a game, we know he doesnt represent his country... which makes me wonder anyway: Are there games in which you go into a Clan town and shoot everyone? Never heard of one. Even if it is a game, it should avoid not political content, which I think its fine and even fun, but avoid untruthful accusations. I should point out the fact that whoever chose my country as a stage for the game probably was some ignorant redneck who thought that latin america is a selvatic land of narcos, the middle east is a sandbox filled with fanatics, russia is a corrupt nation of delinquents and that the IRA are just a bunch of idiotic assholes who deserve to be totally annihilated by the rightful hand of the Queen. Who knows, maybe someone who reads this right now may think that way. And I think so not because I dislike the idea of my country being asociated with terrorism, its just because I read the signs on the wall of the stage and the spanish was full of mistakes. Obviously it was done with a translator. Come on, the US is filled with mexicans, have some dignity and respect and ask one how to write signs in spanish. Not even that was done. Of course this games serve political intrests, but is it right to try and make young americans more ignorant? I think not. Remember Rambo? His friend was a taliban I think, and it was "cool", cos the russians were the enemies and the afghans the allies at that time. Hell, they even say that the CIA trained Bin Laden. As a matter of fact, Osama Bin Laden could have perfectly been Rambo's buddy. Now a movie in which an american soldier teams up with the taliban would be a scandal, for obvious reasons. But it would also be controversial if it was about the war in the 80s. I just dont like the idea of the gaming industry being twisted into propaganda, either by ignorance of those who make the games, or by just plain manipulation. It has already happened with the movies, the news and what not. Keep it clean, its games, kids play them. We all do. Besids, if you want some evidence of the ungiveaf**kness of the matter, just check out that this topic has like 25 views, and only you answered. Either im just another "mexican" talking shit that no one cares about, or plain ignorance is in fact present around here.
Everyone who wish to post in here, please be careful and mindful with what you post. I've had too many horrific experiences with political discussions in some other forums.
lol, i remember, i used to have a pic of bush with a nazi flag behind him, that spiked up 3 pages of controversy, good times..... ^_^
Tis' fictional, mate. Ok. Now, my personal standpoint is to just not get offended by these things. For example: i'm from sweden, if i ever played a game where there was swedish terrorists compared to Nazi's, for example (in certain ways, the Swedes actually did support the Nazi's by remaining "neutral" and selling our iron to them... sure, we didn't like them but we were pansies who didn't dare stand up to the guys...) i wouldn't really take it personal, because it's just a game. And about the whole "american-soldier-hero-dude-man-thing-marine-F.E.A.R-operative-george robertson of the US navy-W/E", we are going to see craploads of games looking like that, because fair and square, a majority have that image of USA, non-americans do particularly, and when these non-americans make games depicting war, of course the main character is gonna be American... that's just how it works, and we should all just accept it with the single fact that can prevent arguments like this: "Tis's fictional, mate."
A game's bias doesn't matter to me much. I am, however, very annoyed when there is a strong political bias and no reviews even mention it. But that's not really the game's fault. If I have a problem with a game's ideology, I don't buy it, simple as that. After all, playing a game you hate doesn't make much sense...
ZzZzZz I swear nationalism is a bad thing not a good thing.... This is just like violence in games... If ur weak minded then ull be affected by it. Seriously only complete idiots without any self control would actually take a game so serious.
i like the kind of bias there is in, not just in games but, everything publicized! it tells you a lot about people you meet who cant see past them. and you discover how ignorant many large communities are. and you get to understand more about your own parents...
Yeah, I know how you feel. I have that game Red Steel for the Nintendo Wii, and there is a lot of racism towards everyone who is not Japanese in that game, where you play a white guy pwning Japanese guys with swords and guns. The Japanese mafia guys are always calling you a "Gajin", which I can translate to be racist towards all people not Japanese.
goin off topic here, srry but @ danhillman693, how was the game redsteel? i heard it did terrible, but i havnt talked to anyone that actually played it.
It was a bad game. I beat it fast because of all the racism against me, so I felt like blasting em' to pieces. Sometimes it helps you beat the game faster when you are offended.
Thats ****** up. Specially in a Nintendo game, which tend to be so "nice, innocent and fun". Anyway, even Disney can be racist in the hard times hahaha: http://www.encyclopedia-obscura.com/printmovieswar.html
Haha, three of the most hellish topics - religion, politics and the social state. Almost always turns into a feud. On a base level I do not believe these games make players feel any bias or hatred for the people they are destroying. Most times in games for me and those I know it's 1) the shooting and explosions allow them to act out a general kind of aggression, not with racial intent and 2) they see it as objectives to complete and completely different from similar real world actions. However, social and political changes affect all aspects of our lives no matter what you believe. To think that an underlying theme of American superiority isn't in these things is just plain wrong. It's there but most people are controlled enough to understand that it's our nation's involvement in the world that creates these fictional representations. Alternatively games such as Starcraft allow us to play from multiple points of view. If you don't like the mean people, play as the aliens and obliterate them. This could be interpreted as forcing a human to choose a side though and thus as a game that would cause bigotry. Ah I'm getting too tired for this psycho-babble-bullshit. If games piss you off, go smoke ganja and listen to music. No more sorrow.
Edited out quotes. Please read the forum rules and refrain from quoting unnecessarily. wait...are you saying that counter-strike doesn't give factual information?
