Luftrausers Isn't About Nazis But Vlambeer Is Sorry Anyway

[d3s4nN]

Hah, that's some quality bullshit right there. If Vlambeer weren't deliberately going for a Nazi aesthetic, they must have done it subconsciously, which would be far more concerning.

But still, it's been almost a century now, get the fuck over it. People who get offended over such trivial bullshit don't deserve an apology.

Spoiler

And before someone tells me to check my privilege or whatever, both my granddads lived in London during the Blitz, so I have just as much right to be "offended" by tongue-in-cheek depictions of the Luftwaffe as anyone else.

I suggest you read this list and I would really like to see you tell them that should get over surviving a concentration camp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_survivors

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be called a nazi because of this, but still...
I am from Germany, born and raised. I have a general interest in history and seeing how it's rather recent history for us, WW2 and the holocaust in particular. I've gone as far as to live in concentration camps twice, for 2 weeks a time, learning and volunteering, so this is coming from an informed point of view.

While I do acknowledge what has been done by germans in the 1940s (primarily, before too of course), I, personally, accept no guilt or responsability for what has happened WHAT SO EVER. This has happened a rough 50 years before my birth, so i personally CANNOT be at fault for anything that has been done. And dont give me any crap about the sins of the father, that is the same kind of medieval, prejuidiced thinking the nazis had going for themselves (neither of my parents were born by 1945 btw).

So yeah, all my sympathies go out to all holocaust victims and/or survivors, but leave my generation out of it.
Oh and btw: I'm pretty sure that none of those who really "have a right to be offended" and are still alive have ever heard of this game.

 

[Illessa]

Hah, that's some quality bullshit right there. If Vlambeer weren't deliberately going for a Nazi aesthetic, they must have done it subconsciously, which would be far more concerning.

But still, it's been almost a century now, get the fuck over it. People who get offended over such trivial bullshit don't deserve an apology.

Spoiler

And before someone tells me to check my privilege or whatever, both my granddads lived in London during the Blitz, so I have just as much right to be "offended" by tongue-in-cheek depictions of the Luftwaffe as anyone else.

It's been 70 years, still well within living memory. The main people I saw discussing this on twitter were Jewish, and oddly enough WW2 has left something of an imprint on Jewish culture. It's not like I saw any cries of "Ban this sick filth" or anything, just some pretty reasonable people saying that it made them uncomfortable, that they were weirded out and a bit upset that what they saw as obvious Nazi imagery on the protagonist's side caused no discussion beyond a footnote in some reviews, and they wondered whether Vlambeer were being given a bit of a free pass for being indie where a AAA publisher would probably get chewed out over it.

So yeah, I can't directly relate to those feelings myself, but I can definitely sympathise, and it seems the Vlambeer guys too (Rami Ismail has demonstrated repeatedly that he's a considerate and empathetic guy). And there's nothing wrong with apologising, if I stand on someone's foot, even if it wasn't my fault I'm going to apologise to them. I might explain that it was completely accidental, but at the end of the day they're the one that's hurting and I can still be sorry that it happened despite not feeling the pain myself. Same thing goes if I accidentally hurt someone emotionally.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Just wondering if anyone else has ever played Bugs vs. Tanks for the 3DS. You play as the driver on a German tank crew whose entire battallion got shrunken down smaller than an ant. In Nazi Germany, during the war. From what I've played of it (I got stuck early on, it's hard as balls), your crew is sympathetic, but your commanding officer is a Nazi dick. It was made by Keiji Inafune[footnote]yes, the Megaman guy[/footnote] of all people.

Anyway, just kind of a random though. It's one of the higher profile digital only releases for the 3DS, and you openly play as a Nazi, but you don't see much mention of that outside of reviews of the game itself. Meanwhile, some random indie game uses a Nazi aesthetic, without actually using the Nazis, and people get (understandably) up in arms. Just kind of odd the things that fly under the radar.

Just in case anyone's wondering how I wound up with a game like this: it's one of the Level 5 games, the ones where they gave funds to a bunch of small teams and let 'em run wild. I bought all of them (minus Weapon Shop de Omasse, which wasn't part of the sale) for a couple bucks a piece when they were last on sale. Attack of the Friday Monsters, Crimson Shroud, and Liberation Maiden are the standouts, but they're all pretty good, questionable content of Bugs vs. Tanks aside

 

[kuolonen]

Yeah right mate, next you will be telling me the Swastika came from India so it shouldn't be counted. I have no respect for the wehrmacht whatsoever. There is the upwards of 10 million rapes committed by them for for start. How about the mass executions for partisan activity or clearing minefields by driving civilians through at gunpoint. Real nice guys, you want to invite them round for dinner. Before posting about the germany army please try reading some history that wasn't written by Von Manstein. The Wehrmacht was up to its rotten little neck in war crimes.

Oh how rich. "This army commited rape and mass civilian killings, therefore it is not ok to play as them." By that logic, no army of the WWII is playable, am I right to assume you protest every time a new WWII game comes out?

 

[Braedan]

So am I missing something? I looked at this game a while back, and again just now, but where is the genocide? All I can find is a low-res 2d flight game. No war crimes, no atrocities. Just nondescript black airplanes shooting nondescript black enemies.

Yes it uses imagery to look like it takes place in or around the time of world war 2, and yes it looks like the player is a part of the German air-force. So what? Why is it OK to shoot several hundred planes with a star on your wing, but disturbing to shoot several hundred planes with an Iron Cross?
Hippocrates.

 

[1337mokro]

I'm sorry that you were offended by a non existent thing.

Allow me to apologize for the hard life you have ahead when you realize nobody cares about you and will shit on you your entire life. In fact from this day forward you will suffer indignity after indignity, be it small like the subway operator staring you in the face whilst you are running to catch the subway and he just drives off, or be it big where you get shanked in the gut and your wallet is taken from you.

Life sucks and you should relish the time you have left to worry about imaginary issues. The time for when you will be drowning in real ones is fast approaching.

The pussy-fication continues.

Hippocrates.

Please leave the grandfather of modern medicine out of this.

 

[itsmeyouidiot]

We

"The Nazi link was never intended"
Umm, bullcrap. Yeah, I'm overall happy how Vlambeer is taking it, but no. One look at the logo tells me that yes, the Nazi link is very much intended, the aesthetic just screams "Third Reich".

So what of it? With so much US war porn on the market I think we can handle one indie title that adopts some German military aesthetics from 1940s?

Not to mention how the character on the options screen looks suspiciously like Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS: http://i.imgur.com/qboIbZn.png

 

[lacktheknack]

"I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" depicts "totally not Jews" with bones removed, eyes cut out, and strung up on barbed wire in a "totally not a concentration camp" with freaking ovens full of corpses, as you play an honest-to-God Nazi scientist.

It was critically acclaimed, received with open arms, and remains a classic to this day.

"Luftrausers" has a Third Reich aesthetic.

People complain on Twitter, resulting in a full-on apology.

^How is this fair?

 

[ThreeName]

Hippocrates.

Please leave the grandfather of modern medicine out of this.

These are my favourite parts of this forum. It happens all the time. Typos are great.

 

[JimB]

Spoiler

And before someone tells me to check my privilege or whatever, both my granddads lived in London during the Blitz, so I have just as much right to be "offended" by tongue-in-cheek depictions of the Luftwaffe as anyone else.

There are no qualifications required to have an emotional response to anything. Your grandfathers do not bestow upon you more right to have a feeling about this game than any other person's grandparents. Anyone who feels uncomfortable is one hundred percent within their rights to do so, just as anyone who doesn't feel uncomfortable is one hundred percent within their rights to do so.

It's very weird to me how so many people in this thread have this need to tell others that an emotion is wrong. What is the basis for such a judgment? I mean, so far as I know based on the article, no one has even asked the developer to change the game or anything, but just expressed their own reservations.

 

[lacktheknack]

besides, that was a point and click game, and had rape victim shaming in it.

Seriously? The "shamed" Ellen? I didn't detect that. Care to elaborate?

EDIT: Wait, you're talking about AM's dialog? If so, got it.

 

[Louzerman102]

I think that it needs to be mentioned that the person who complained about Nazi implications in Luftrausers has a video on Youtube complaining that there are no female players in the male only league of FIFA 2014.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

I think that it needs to be mentioned that the person who complained about Nazi implications in Luftrausers has a video on Youtube complaining that there are no female players in the male only league of FIFA 2014.

That's really funny. Now tell me you're not being serious, please.

 

[Something Amyss]

I saw this game and ultimately decided to pass on it because I wasn't sure it was for me., I've got to say, the attitude does help my future buying choices.

 

[Louzerman102]

I think that it needs to be mentioned that the person who complained about Nazi implications in Luftrausers has a video on Youtube complaining that there are no female players in the male only league of FIFA 2014.

That's really funny. Now tell me you're not being serious, please.

The Tweet:
https://twitter.com/tha_rami/status/452102051028557824

The Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkVMM_xB7U

Also why are there no female players in the NBA? Also why are there no male players in the WNBA?

 

[Bluestorm83]

Everyone here needs to get over something. None of us were in Concentration Camps, none of us fought for Germany in the war, none of us survived the Blitz, none of us were taken prisoner on Wake Island. We're the sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, and great granddaughters of heroes, victims, and monsters alike. If we get offended and whiny then we dishonor them all. It is to us to be more and cause peace and understanding, not to vicariously feel emotions that are not our own.

The guys who made Luftrausers are not members of the Luftwaffe. Hell, the members of the Luftwaffe weren't the men operating the death camps or making policy. Though not as horrific as the crimes committed against the Jews, Gypsies, the disabled, soviet POWs, the Polish, Gays, and anyone who might have disagreed, or even agreed but not vehemently enough with them, the Nazi Party did horrible things to their own country too.

Imagine a Nazi party bus comes by to take your 14 year old daughter on a camping trip, and a month later you get a letter from her explaining how she's pregnant because this "camp" is actually a breeding program because Hitler decided that his war of global domination and extermination will need waves upon waves of young men BRED to kill. Imagine expressing your shock and horror about this, and having your pregnant 14 year old brainwashed daughter threaten to inform the SS about your disapproval of one of the "Fuhrer's Brides" if you ever speak to or try to see her again. Imagine fighting for your country with pride for a decade... and then hearing that your father's father's father was 1/4 Jewish, and you are immediately stripped of rank and honors and are dishonorably discharged to a life where you know you will be shunned by everyone. Imagine living in constant terror that your smiling friendly neighbors might call up and inform on you if you don't inform on them first about something, because everyone, EVERYONE out there is living in terror that the Party might turn on them at the drop of a hat.

Christ Almighty, hate the Nazi party, hate Naziism, hate what abominable and incredible evil humans can inflict upon others that are 99.9% identical to themselves compared to every other form of life on the planet because of that 0.1% that's different.

But don't jump on a company that made a fun game about fast paced side scrolling aerial combat that has no ideology, no story, and even no aesthetic besides things looking sorta 16-bit German-like.

 

[SidheKnight]

People who are offended by Nazi references should get over it.

WWII was almost a century ago, and has already been exploited for entertainment so much that the presence of Nazis in media is almost inescapable, unless you live in a bubble (or Germany, where even depicting the swastika in works of fiction is forbidden. Morons.).