sambino510
Senior Member
- Jul 2, 2013
- 324
- 27
- 51
Not sure if anyone else has seen this, but the other day I was reading an article about some uproar that was caused by a low-budget Iranian video game that was released. Critics of the product were offended by the fact that in the game, the player was killing American soldiers. This caused me to think back on my earlier experiences playing games as a child, and made me realize just how hypocritical such a thought was.
I'm a bit younger than the average person on this site, so I'll have to speak from first-hand experience. I played much, much too many games as a young kid (waste of time, I know), mainly focusing on games involving the Marines or Navy raiding some nameless Middle Eastern country and keeping them from detonating a nuke, or causing the apocalypse, or something of that nature.
What I've noticed throughout the years is that as our real-life enemies change, so do our fake enemies. That is, early on in series such as the popular "Call of Duty" series, they were focused on World War II, refusing to deal with the modern wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn't until Call of Duty 4 that the maps and story and such took place in the Middle East, rampaging through all sorts of Iraqi-esque ghettos and mowing down "towel-heads" like weeds. If it wasn't the Middle East, then it was Russia, our other favorite enemy, who over and over in every installment was trying to bring about world destruction with reckless abandon.
The REALLY interesting game I've seen is one from another series, called Battlefield 3, where NINETY percent of the online multi-player maps are real locations in Iran, such as Mount Damavand, the Caspian Sea, the Azadi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar in Tehran itself. This game was even released right at a point of heightening tensions between Iran and the international community.Recently new footage of the next installment, Battlefield 4, has been released, showing that this particular game will focus on maps in China, with a mission called "The Siege of Shanghai". I think it's one thing to fight a fake enemy, but another thing entirely to portray our "real" enemies in a game and then shoot them up with our buddies like the whole thing is a joke.
Anyways, what I'm trying to convey here is an interesting and perhaps slightly disturbing trend; one where the games that children or young adults play are trivializing modern conflicts, turning them into a simple toy one can play with with their friends in one's spare time. I don't mean to take these GAMES too seriously, as that is exactly what they are, but games, movies, and other media all reflect a larger social status quo. Every movie involving a takeover of the White House today involves North Koreans, people absolutely flocked to see "Argo" due to the Iranian nuclear issue, and there is simply an overall, shameless generalization of these countries or people as the quintessential wrong-doer. If we are to continue to portray other countries in such a manner, I see no reason why we should criticize other nations if they choose to portray us in the same light.
I'm a bit younger than the average person on this site, so I'll have to speak from first-hand experience. I played much, much too many games as a young kid (waste of time, I know), mainly focusing on games involving the Marines or Navy raiding some nameless Middle Eastern country and keeping them from detonating a nuke, or causing the apocalypse, or something of that nature.
What I've noticed throughout the years is that as our real-life enemies change, so do our fake enemies. That is, early on in series such as the popular "Call of Duty" series, they were focused on World War II, refusing to deal with the modern wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn't until Call of Duty 4 that the maps and story and such took place in the Middle East, rampaging through all sorts of Iraqi-esque ghettos and mowing down "towel-heads" like weeds. If it wasn't the Middle East, then it was Russia, our other favorite enemy, who over and over in every installment was trying to bring about world destruction with reckless abandon.
The REALLY interesting game I've seen is one from another series, called Battlefield 3, where NINETY percent of the online multi-player maps are real locations in Iran, such as Mount Damavand, the Caspian Sea, the Azadi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar in Tehran itself. This game was even released right at a point of heightening tensions between Iran and the international community.Recently new footage of the next installment, Battlefield 4, has been released, showing that this particular game will focus on maps in China, with a mission called "The Siege of Shanghai". I think it's one thing to fight a fake enemy, but another thing entirely to portray our "real" enemies in a game and then shoot them up with our buddies like the whole thing is a joke.
Anyways, what I'm trying to convey here is an interesting and perhaps slightly disturbing trend; one where the games that children or young adults play are trivializing modern conflicts, turning them into a simple toy one can play with with their friends in one's spare time. I don't mean to take these GAMES too seriously, as that is exactly what they are, but games, movies, and other media all reflect a larger social status quo. Every movie involving a takeover of the White House today involves North Koreans, people absolutely flocked to see "Argo" due to the Iranian nuclear issue, and there is simply an overall, shameless generalization of these countries or people as the quintessential wrong-doer. If we are to continue to portray other countries in such a manner, I see no reason why we should criticize other nations if they choose to portray us in the same light.
