Iran Bans Arma 3

[Geth Reich]

You know what I'd like to see? A lot of things but the most relevant to this thread would be a game depicting both sides of the Iran-Iraq war: religious fanaticism, trench warfare and modern weaponary combined to make quite possibly the greatest war setting this side of 40K.

You could even be intelligent and put depth and characterisation in it!

If you were one of those queerosexuals who like that sort of thing of course....

 

[Geth Reich]

I doubt a game set in a "fictional alternate reality" where US are portrayed as evil imperialist invaders would get the green light here in America.

Spec Ops: The Line would like to have a word with you...

"How many Americans have you killed today?"

 

[Darks63]

The real question is how long is the list of approved games in iran because it seems like the list of banned ones should be pretty long.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

To be fair, Iran isn't being fairly depicted in this game.

Am I the only one who thinks this constant use of countries like Russia or Iran as evil invaders is getting a little annoying?

People can't argue that Iran is evil for making anti-Israel games at the same time games like this are being released.

I actually agree with this. Why can't we have some countries like 'Merica or the UK or even Australia (where I live) be the bad guys for a change. I understand why some countries get pissed off at little things like this, it's because they're being bullied by other countries constantly.

Okay, I'll bite, make a halfway plausable story with Aus as the bad guy.

Hmm... okay! Julia Gillard wants to utilise the deadly creatures in Australia to release on the world because everyone calls her a ranga!

Yeah, I'm not good at stories.

 

[Andy Chalk]

When a game gets released that depicts some country like Iran, Russia or China as a horribly evil invader then nobody has any problems with it, but when they release a game that depicts the west as evil then all of the sudden lots of people flip.

I don't recall anyone "flipping out" when a Western nation has been portrayed as the bad guy, but then I don't recall any games that portray Western nations as the bad guy either. The trouble is that in order to have a well-defined bad guy, you need to have a well-defined good guy, and while the US, UK and other nations have done some pretty deplorable things, they've done absolutely nothing even remotely close to what Iran, China, the Soviet Union, North Korea and the usual gang of idiots have pulled over the years. Yes, the Iran-Contra affair was ugly; on the other hand, the Americans never gassed thousands of their citizens.

In order to make it work, you'd have to craft an entirely fictional scenario - the US runs out of water and invades Canada, for instance. (And gets the stupid slapped out of it in the process, btw.) Which could work, but not as a "real world" shooter. Like it or not, in the real world, the Americans are the good guys.

 

[the clockmaker]

To be fair, Iran isn't being fairly depicted in this game.

Am I the only one who thinks this constant use of countries like Russia or Iran as evil invaders is getting a little annoying?

People can't argue that Iran is evil for making anti-Israel games at the same time games like this are being released.

I actually agree with this. Why can't we have some countries like 'Merica or the UK or even Australia (where I live) be the bad guys for a change. I understand why some countries get pissed off at little things like this, it's because they're being bullied by other countries constantly.

Okay, I'll bite, make a halfway plausable story with Aus as the bad guy.

Australia started as a place to dump all of Britain's worst people... Australians are tired of having this shameful mark on their history and start a campaign to prove that Australia is no longer a place of confinement...

See it would either have to be a dominion of the draka style alternate universe or a commedy,
it could not work as a serious modern day story without, for example, casting the player as a unionist INdonesian militiamen gunning down the Aussies as they support those traitor timorese.

 

[1337mokro]

If I was a politician I would actually use this game that basically says. "Iran will become a superpower" as a moral booster. Think about you are running a government that spends 90% of it's time oppressing it's people and demonizing the West (the West of course taking equal time to demonize Iran). How great would a game be made by the West in which you have taken over an area the size of the old Persian Empire?

 

[llyrnion]

Like it or not, in the real world, the Americans are the good guys.

In the real world, there are no good guys.

There's just an Axis of A**hole, and everyone keeps rising and falling along it.

I'll grant you, though - some countries are rather stationary in their positions along said Axis.

 

[Tanis]

Iran already banned 'The Holocaust' as true, so what's a video game to them?

 

[llyrnion]

Okay, I'll bite, make a halfway plausable story with Aus as the bad guy.

How about "The Death of Beer"?

A virus spreads out in Australia that kills every plant used in beer production. At the same time, the rest of the world, fearing that the same could happen to them, hoard their beer reserves, thus abandoning the australians to their cruel fate.

And, for a touch of awesome, the australian invasion of "those evil rest-of-the-world bastards" would feature genetically modified kangaroos, with computerized visors/helmets and laser rifles.

 

[A Weakgeek]

Having Finland listed as neutral would probably be more accurate.

 

[Lieju]

To be fair, Iran isn't being fairly depicted in this game.

Am I the only one who thinks this constant use of countries like Russia or Iran as evil invaders is getting a little annoying?

People can't argue that Iran is evil for making anti-Israel games at the same time games like this are being released.

I actually agree with this. Why can't we have some countries like 'Merica or the UK or even Australia (where I live) be the bad guys for a change. I understand why some countries get pissed off at little things like this, it's because they're being bullied by other countries constantly.

Try making Israel the bad guys and watch the resulting shitstorm.

I think Iran has kinda a point, and it's understandable they'd be upset at being portrayed like that, but dealing it with this is just wrong in so many ways.

I don't recall anyone "flipping out" when a Western nation has been portrayed as the bad guy, but then I don't recall any games that portray Western nations as the bad guy either.

Germany is constantly portrayed as the bad guys.

But a big reason why you don't see many big games with US as the villain is because they, are a big part of the target audience, and if there are games where they are the bad guys, it's less likely you're ever going to hear about them because they aren't marketed to you.

 

[munx13]

I did not notice it before but why is Iceland (where I live) claimed to be under "Russian influence"? Did the social democrats get elected or something?

Not just Iceland but many of the Central European countries too. No way could Poland or the Baltic States could be under Russian influence when the population is heavily anti-russian. That and they're already part of Nato.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Like it or not, in the real world, the Americans are the good guys.

Tell that to the Afghanis / Iraqis / Iranians / Chinese. The Americans are no more the "good guys" than any of these people are "bad guys" -- I wish we could get away from this Manichean world view, things really aren't that simple.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Like it or not, in the real world, the Americans are the good guys.

Tell that to the Afghanis / Iraqis / Iranians / Chinese. The Americans are no more the "good guys" than any of these people are "bad guys" -- I wish we could get away from this Manichean world view, things really aren't that simple.

Perhaps there are too many individuals in the world to be able to transparently deal with each individual.

Cue MLKjr's speech, "...judged not for...but on the content of their character." Applies across the board.

 

[Alatar The Red]

In order to make it work, you'd have to craft an entirely fictional scenario - the US runs out of water and invades Canada, for instance. (And gets the stupid slapped out of it in the process, btw.) Which could work, but not as a "real world" shooter. Like it or not, in the real world, the Americans are the good guys.

You don't even need a completely made up situation. Everything in the US is already pretty much set for them being them bad guys. The US already has religious extremist with big companies in their minds as the country leaders, a habit of attacking smaller 'under-dog' countries, lots of influence over the economical situation of the whole world etc. Sounds to me that it's not far fetched that some good guys could pretty easily get stomped to the ground by the US and it's not like the country is the human rights paradise either so I guess you could see the US as the baddies morally as well.

It's just a matter of perspective.

 

[Meight08]

I did not notice it before but why is Iceland (where I live) claimed to be under "Russian influence"? Did the social democrats get elected or something?

Not just Iceland but many of the Central European countries too. No way could Poland or the Baltic States could be under Russian influence when the population is heavily anti-russian. That and they're already part of Nato.

In arma 3 those countries are bankrupt and don't have the oil and gas needed for getting through the winter, which russia offers in exchange for leaving the nato and comming under their influence.