How do non-americans feel about being the president of the USA in Saints Row 4

[Techno Squidgy]

I suppose the fantasy aspect of it does become a tiny bit more engaging knowing that you have the whole world supporting you rather than being against you for example

Do you mean that you have the world's support by being the U.S. president? Well perhaps in game, but in real life certainly not.

It confuses me when Americans think that they/their country are universally loved. I was involved in an argument with someone the other day, where he thought that America were the "good guys". There was literally nothing more to it than that. He truly believed that in the story of humanity, the United States of America were the heroes. It took a couple of hours, and more research than I would have liked to find enough information to make him consider that the world might be a bit more complex than he thought, and that his government don't exactly play nice, tell the truth, or do most of the things one might expect "the good guys" to do. In fact, there was a pretty strong argument that from the point of view of multiple other countries, the U.S. might actually be the "bad guys".

The scariest thing isn't the U.S. government though, it's what the British Government is up to. I worry that one day in the future there's going to be a knock at the door, a black bag and a white van. All this talk of online censors and monitoring, it makes me uneasy. Then there's what is potentially Iraq 2.0 occurring in Syria and details of what's happened are extremely hard to find, there's a lot of speculation, rumour and unconfirmed details. I'm not saying that there are ulterior motives for military intervention, but rather that I don't know and there are rumblings that there might be. It all seems extremely shady and there simply isn't enough information for me to jump on the intervention band wagon.

Guys, where did it all go wrong?
I thought we lived in the future, I thought we were an advanced society, we're supposed to be exploring space, not blowing holes in each other.


...How on earth did I get so far off topic?

OT:
Well, if I can make the president representative of who actually runs the U.S. I might be able to have some fun as a sweating overweight rich old white man.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Even with it's literal dick waving SR4 probably does some of the least nationalist bullshit in the market today.
But otherwise I just don't enjoy the game as I have a very low parody tolerance.

 

[teebeeohh]

your average shooter is more nationalistic than SR4. it's not even red white and blue, most of the decor in the white house is actually purple and gold. and you can pass a bill that is called "fuck cancer".

oh and you don't actually have super powers.

 

[Thr33X]

It's a nice plot device. It's nothing more then that.

Pretty much this. Volition literally said to themselves, "how could we make the boss character even more larger than life?" after having wiped out two cities worth of gangs and criminal syndicates? For those who haven't played the game though, BEING the actual President has little to any correlation to the storyline or gameplay outside of the opening sequence you've surely seen inside of the pimped out White House. It's only purpose literally is that now the other characters have another descriptor to address your character as aside from "boss".

EDIT: Oh yeah, it also bears mentioning that they just released a costume pack that features caricatures masks of Presidents Lincoln, G.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama. Take it for what you will.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

as far as the game's 'ism of being 'American' goes, you could also play as the Princess of China and it would not make a single difference at all. It's just a setting.

 

[Razmas]

To be honest, I really enjoyed it. I thought that my cockney President's first order of business would be to make tea drinking mandatory. Except they're the Saints so... Stripper-tea? Is that a thing?

 

[gavinmcinns]

Do they ever do anything interesting with making you president? Can you give speeches and make deals with other influential people? Or is it just some throw away gimmick that is forgotten after the hallway intro like the rest of the game?

 

[Raikas]

The president bit is hardly even relevant an hour into the game - it's there for a bit of low-brow humour, not political commentary.

I did laugh on the voice selection screen when the sample of the Russian-accented voice was "am I even eligible" (or something along those lines - the exact quote might have been different).

 

[Genocidicles]

To be honest, I really enjoyed it. I thought that my cockney President's first order of business would be to make tea drinking mandatory. Except they're the Saints so... Stripper-tea? Is that a thing?

Well he does mention renaming football to rugby for pussies.

 

[Nosirrah]

Well, considering that me and my friend played the game as intergalactic crossdressing pope and his alter-ego sergeant major marvelous, it didn't change much.

Aside from the benefit of walking around with 70 guns glued together, and flying an eagle shaped jet. Those were fun.

 

[Vivi22]

So if you know absolutely nothing about SR4, the premise is that you're the president of the united states with super powers, and the over the top quality of that scenario is played for laughs and fun. I'm sure everyone is familiar with our nationalistic dickwaving, and the game plays that up tongue in cheek for sure, but does the appeal of getting into a big eagle shaped bullet and rocket spewing mounted turret fall flat with foreigners, or is it pretty much the same? Just curious.

The US government is already a joke, so I like the idea of Saint Row IV because at least it's jokes should actually be funny. XD

 

[Irridium]

Yeah, Saints Row is a much smarter game than a lot of people give it credit for. Also the game had at least two foreign voices which kind of mocked the whole election process/birthers thing.

Kind of wish they kept the foreign voices of SR2 and 3, though. The Latino and Latina voices, respectively, to be exact. I really liked my Latino psychopath who wore a purple pinstripe suit

 

[Drauger]

So if you know absolutely nothing about SR4, the premise is that you're the president of the united states with super powers, and the over the top quality of that scenario is played for laughs and fun. I'm sure everyone is familiar with our nationalistic dickwaving, and the game plays that up tongue in cheek for sure, but does the appeal of getting into a big eagle shaped bullet and rocket spewing mounted turret fall flat with foreigners, or is it pretty much the same? Just curious.

When ever I see any signs of "nationalistic dickwaving" in anything, be that a game, movie, novel, series whatever I just lose interest and that's actually what happened to me with SR4 I just couldn't care to play it, I just dont give a shit for nationalism....

BTW : yeah I love the term "nationalistic dickwaving" it just hits the spot.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Really, how else could they make the Saints bigger? First taking over a city (then losing it,) then taking over the same city plus a huge multimillion dollar company, THEN becoming international celebrities who defeats an entire syndicate of crime in another city and save that city from the increasingly desperate STAG forces who decide that blowing up half the city and blaming the Saints for it was a good idea.

I take it that the rescue was the canon ending anyway. The music for that scene was rather clear on which choice you're meant to go for.

So where to go from there? Politics! Which position in the US can you get away with shooting people and being a dickhead? President!

"Fuck you, i'm the President of the United States!"

I never sensed any nationalistic crap anyway. When you have several billion voice options including a Russian and a Cockney there's no way in Christ they are going for the unironic "America fuck yeah" shit. I don't really think they even do much with it later on actually, apart from just using it as another name for Boss. They're too busy parodying Mass Effect for more America jokes.

Oh and on the side, the sound and music direction in SR4 was fantastic. Seriously awesome.

 

[kmkzipedestrian]

doesn't really mean that much. and that i'm free to run around with an English voice that talks about how wrong America is to call football football and soccer soccer, is a great bonus.

 

[SunyiNyufi]

While I didn't really care for being the president of the US, I didn't mind it that much, since it was a logical step up for the character, and after the first couple of quests no one really cares anymore that you are the president anyway.

Never used the plane or the suit that came with the Commander in Chief edition though. Actually I literally forgot about the plane...then again after the first hour I stopped using cars too so...

 

[Bostur]

From the perspective of someone living in Denmark, Europe.

I'd rather play as Putin, he makes for better joke material I think.

I haven't played SR4 so I can't comment specifically on it. But American jokes tend to come through, unless it's about something obscure like chocolate bars or talk show hosts. But sometimes I can be hit by US fatigue and get a craving for a solid Czech, Polish or Russian game.

American nationalism can be hard to stomach when taken seriously, as in CoD for instance. And many games do have subtle Americanisms that may not even be intentional. Even in fictional settings like Mass Effect or Dead Space American culture seeps through in a way that can feel a little cheesy.

But we are used to American movies, TV shows, snacks, food, clothes, drinks etc. The cultural imperialism is almost absolute. ;-)

 

[Aesir23]

I don't mind it at all. It's primarily because Saint's Row is so ridiculous that it's impossible to take the game seriously. I'm more bothered by a lot of the military shooters because their over the top nationalism is on a more serious note. Well, that and I'm really tired of playing as an American G.I. when venturing into the military of other nations gives you more options than sticking to just one. The Russian campaign in World at War is still my favourite out of all the others I've played in other military shooters.