No Russian

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Same goes for WW2 games and nazis. British vs Germans, Americans vs Germans, Soviets vs Germans.. Even Americans vs Japanese. Where's the other side?

Red Orchestra 2 will feature a "nazi" campaign. Playing from the German side on the eastern front. That should be interesting.

The Sudden Strike series of WWII RTS games have always allowed for this. In the first game there was just a German campaign, but in later games there was a German campaign as well as a Japanese campaign.

Honestly, you could probably find Axis campaigns in quite a few RTS and simulation titles. I know there was at least on simulation game about German Panzerkampfwagens.

ANYWHO....

On topic. I honestly don't see that much of a problem. I can distinguish the difference between video games and reality, and I know these games play off stereotypes and old rivalries. I've played an enjoyed quite a few games where Russians have been portrayed as bad guys. Do I hate Russians? Nope. I actually find them and their country to be pretty interesting. If I made more money and could actually afford to take vacations, Russia would probably be at the top of the list.

If anything the common usage of Russia as an antagonist is kind of a compliment. What it says is that America in general considers Russians to be a potent enough threat to be worth fearing. It says that Americans consider Russians to be on equal footing in military might. And what do rivals typically do to each other? They poke fun, jab at each other's insecurities to try and promote themselves. It's a big back-and-forth game of posturing.

And with regard to the people saying that Americans are never the bad guys...

DID ANYONE ACTUALLY PLAY MW2?

Spoilers, Lieutenant General Shepherd ain't exactly an American hero.

And even beyond the CoD series... really... I see Americans as the main bad guys pretty much all the time. Evil American corporations, evil American businessmen, evil American mercenaries, evil American conspirators, evil American spies...

Then there are games like Deus Ex where the American government and military are being used by villains with agendas, completely unaware of the fact that they're being used for evil.

I dunno. I guess in the end I just really don't see what the big deal is. Games need antagonists, and the only way to make an antagonist that won't upset anyone would be to have every single bad guy be an alien. Not only would that get increasingly stale and boring, but we'd have an awful lot of explaining to do the day we finally make first contact.

 

[Asehujiko]

The CoD games have always been great at portraying things without a simple good/evil line.

wat

Cod 1: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 2: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 3: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 4: Anglophone countries good, russians and arabs evil
Cod 5: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 6: Anglophone countries good except for the ones scheming with russians, russiand evil
Cod 7: Anglophone countries good, communists of all nationalities evil

Notice a pattern here?

I notice you seem to have not played CoD 1-3 or 5. Or studied even a brief history of WWII.

You are wrong on both accounts and you are making accusations without backup so /shoo.

 

[drummond13]

The CoD games have always been great at portraying things without a simple good/evil line.

wat

Cod 1: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 2: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 3: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 4: Anglophone countries good, russians and arabs evil
Cod 5: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 6: Anglophone countries good except for the ones scheming with russians, russiand evil
Cod 7: Anglophone countries good, communists of all nationalities evil

Notice a pattern here?

I notice you seem to have not played CoD 1-3 or 5. Or studied even a brief history of WWII.

You are wrong on both accounts and you are making accusations without backup so /shoo.

What backup do I need other than the fact that Russians were allies during the war, and all four of those games deal with WWII? Are you a troll, or are you for real? I honestly can't tell.

 

[numbersix1979]

So if you haven't noticed the times of Joseph Goebbels are back with Anti-Russian propaganda, with games like MW2,BFBC2,COD:Black Ops,MW3 and many more.
Writing this i am watching the mission "No Russian" from MW2 and to tell the truth, in my opinion it is disgusting, and the amount of anti-Russian games coming out of the american game industry is quite worrying.
It seems that in almost every american game Russians are the enemy and not only that, the amount of stereotypes that get worked in to these games is also worrying because in the news stand at the Moscow airport in MW2 you can see magazines like "vodka today" and "Satanist dictionary" and my favorite "duck killer" What?! you thought that Russians read Tolstoy and Pushkin Fuck no, we read "vodka drinker".
And what if Russia brought out a game where you go around killing hyper-fat Americans and the magazines they were reading were "How to bomb brown people" and "How to get you IQ up to 73" and "The REAL way to clean a shotgun" well, you get my point.
So it is time for us to get rid of this insulting, lazy and old way of writing scripts it may have worked in "Rocky IV" but not in the 21 century...

Oh, hello Prime Minister Putin. It's nice to see that you have an account with The Escapist now.

 

[Gindil]

Yeah i'm with the op here, the middle east and asia as a whole get hit hard by american studios too. It seems due to a lack of america having no great opposite on an international scale any more, causing the studios to go for old stereotypes and relying on nobody questioning them for hostile factions you don't have much dialogue with.

Take homefront for example. Big bad asians coming in and being generically evil, as the easiest way to make an asian antagonist is just to base them on the very worst memories of the Japanese that ww2 has to offer. It's a shame the very worst is used rather than the very best when it comes to stereotypes.

I just want to make sure of this...

Are you SURE it's just American studios that use old stereotypes?

Remember, Capcom had a great underlying message in Resident Evil 5. And Ryu has been the whitest Japanese guy in the history of Street Fighter.

 

[lacktheknack]

And what if Russia brought out a game where you go around killing hyper-fat Americans and the magazines they were reading were "How to bomb brown people" and "How to get you IQ up to 73" and "The REAL way to clean a shotgun" well, you get my point.

They'd think it was utterly hilarious. Except for the few overly-sensitive ones.

This isn't anything to get uptight about. The Nazis had their day, the Russians are next, the Americans are probably the next on the firing line anyhow (unless the Taliban get there first).

 

[Asehujiko]

-Reading comprehension fail-

I was specifically commenting on how russians were portrayed in cod games and that can roughly be summed up with "penal battalions and commissars, also soviet union=russia". But since you're such a great history teacher, you can probably tell me(without cheating with wikipedia) which country fought against both sides.

 

[Zeema]

Mw2: Fake Russian's
un real plot
silly No Russian lvl

its just another AI its like in Uncharted with nearly every character being not white and your killing all of them.

and really if you get upset playing a video game i think you need to get over it.

Sticks and stones

 

[The Virgo]

Te be honest, as an American I am sick of Russians being the bad guys as well.
Mix it up a bit games industry, lets have a robot takeover or a not shit alien invasion!

Agreed! I'm American and I, too, hate that there are, for the most part, only four enemies in videogames: Russians, South Americans/Hispanic People who live is Caribbean islands, Nazis and Islamic people.

I would love a game where you're a Russian soldier guarding the Berlin wall when suddenly the Allies attack, and you have to fight them back all the way to Spain and Britain. It would be an interesting game (in my opinion).

 

[ResonanceSD]

So if you haven't noticed the times of Joseph Goebbels are back with Anti-Russian propaganda, with games like MW2,BFBC2,COD:Black Ops,MW3 and many more.
Writing this i am watching the mission "No Russian" from MW2 and to tell the truth, in my opinion it is disgusting, and the amount of anti-Russian games coming out of the american game industry is quite worrying.
It seems that in almost every american game Russians are the enemy and not only that, the amount of stereotypes that get worked in to these games is also worrying because in the news stand at the Moscow airport in MW2 you can see magazines like "vodka today" and "Satanist dictionary" and my favorite "duck killer" What?! you thought that Russians read Tolstoy and Pushkin Fuck no, we read "vodka drinker".
And what if Russia brought out a game where you go around killing hyper-fat Americans and the magazines they were reading were "How to bomb brown people" and "How to get you IQ up to 73" and "The REAL way to clean a shotgun" well, you get my point.
So it is time for us to get rid of this insulting, lazy and old way of writing scripts it may have worked in "Rocky IV" but not in the 21 century...

a) you can skip the mission and it has no effect on the storyline

b) you dont HAVE to shoot at civillians.

 

[Asehujiko]

So if you haven't noticed the times of Joseph Goebbels are back with Anti-Russian propaganda, with games like MW2,BFBC2,COD:Black Ops,MW3 and many more.
Writing this i am watching the mission "No Russian" from MW2 and to tell the truth, in my opinion it is disgusting, and the amount of anti-Russian games coming out of the american game industry is quite worrying.
It seems that in almost every american game Russians are the enemy and not only that, the amount of stereotypes that get worked in to these games is also worrying because in the news stand at the Moscow airport in MW2 you can see magazines like "vodka today" and "Satanist dictionary" and my favorite "duck killer" What?! you thought that Russians read Tolstoy and Pushkin Fuck no, we read "vodka drinker".
And what if Russia brought out a game where you go around killing hyper-fat Americans and the magazines they were reading were "How to bomb brown people" and "How to get you IQ up to 73" and "The REAL way to clean a shotgun" well, you get my point.
So it is time for us to get rid of this insulting, lazy and old way of writing scripts it may have worked in "Rocky IV" but not in the 21 century...

a) you can skip the mission and it has no effect on the storyline

b) you dont HAVE to shoot at civillians.

Out of curiosity, did you read the OP before commenting based on the title?

 

[drummond13]

-Reading comprehension fail-

I was specifically commenting on how russians were portrayed in cod games and that can roughly be summed up with "penal battalions and commissars, also soviet union=russia". But since you're such a great history teacher, you can probably tell me(without cheating with wikipedia) which country fought against both sides.

Ooooookay. I need to be a history teacher to notice you play as soviet soldiers fighting against nazis in CoD 1-3? Look, you don't need to be an ass. If you have an actual point to make, then make it. I'll listen. You're initial argument was along the lines of CoD1: Russians=evil. This is not an argument. If you have some historical knowledge that I don't about Russian soldiers in WWII then please share it, rather than making snarky comments and being a dick.

As for the later games, it's true that you fight against a lot of Russians But many of these games also have you fighting alongside Russian soldiers allied to your current cause. They seemed to be going for shades of grey, rather than Russians=evil. But again, this could be open to debate.

But if we're going to debate it, then let's actually debate it. Your sarcasm is pointless.

 

[Booze Zombie]

You take a nation, boil it down to sterotypes, humanise it's non-millitary elements and you've got enemy of the day with some tears to lend your story emotion.

 

[Da Orky Man]

So if you haven't noticed the times of Joseph Goebbels are back with Anti-Russian propaganda, with games like MW2,BFBC2,COD:Black Ops,MW3 and many more.
Writing this i am watching the mission "No Russian" from MW2 and to tell the truth, in my opinion it is disgusting, and the amount of anti-Russian games coming out of the american game industry is quite worrying.
It seems that in almost every american game Russians are the enemy and not only that, the amount of stereotypes that get worked in to these games is also worrying because in the news stand at the Moscow airport in MW2 you can see magazines like "vodka today" and "Satanist dictionary" and my favorite "duck killer" What?! you thought that Russians read Tolstoy and Pushkin Fuck no, we read "vodka drinker".
And what if Russia brought out a game where you go around killing hyper-fat Americans and the magazines they were reading were "How to bomb brown people" and "How to get you IQ up to 73" and "The REAL way to clean a shotgun" well, you get my point.
So it is time for us to get rid of this insulting, lazy and old way of writing scripts it may have worked in "Rocky IV" but not in the 21 century...

I had an idea for game which starts you out as a Russian soldier in the Army. A plain soldier. America attacks, and the campaign gets harder because you have to resort to sneakier tactics to win. Slowly morphing from WaW to a better version of Homefront.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Out of curiosity, did you read the OP before commenting based on the title?

I did read it. My point sticks though, read the middle bit of the OP.


addendum: The nature of the title probably doesn't do anything for this post. Might as well have called it "racist games" to achieve the same impact.

 

[88chaz88]

The CoD games have always been great at portraying things without a simple good/evil line.

wat

Cod 1: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 2: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 3: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 4: Anglophone countries good, russians and arabs evil
Cod 5: Anglophone countries good, germans evil, russians evil
Cod 6: Anglophone countries good except for the ones scheming with russians, russiand evil
Cod 7: Anglophone countries good, communists of all nationalities evil

Notice a pattern here?

I notice you seem to have not played CoD 1-3 or 5. Or studied even a brief history of WWII.

Ninja'd.

Also Asehujiko (however you're supposed to pronounce that) you're falling into the trap of "they're shooting at me and therefore must be evil".

 

[Mariena]

Same goes for WW2 games and nazis. British vs Germans, Americans vs Germans, Soviets vs Germans.. Even Americans vs Japanese. Where's the other side?

Red Orchestra 2 will feature a "nazi" campaign. Playing from the German side on the eastern front. That should be interesting.

The Sudden Strike series of WWII RTS games have always allowed for this. In the first game there was just a German campaign, but in later games there was a German campaign as well as a Japanese campaign.

Honestly, you could probably find Axis campaigns in quite a few RTS and simulation titles. I know there was at least on simulation game about German Panzerkampfwagens.

RTS games.. sure. That's probably because they're not very, well.. personal. How many FPS games can you remember where you play a nazi campaign?

(Im trying hard, but I cant think of one Ive played)

 

[thirion1850]

Thank god someone brought this up. I recently read back to the old comments regarding this, with roughly 90% of them consisting of "Russia, I am disappoint." towards the unsurprising but temporary ban and "this is just a game, relax" sort bonanza. I don't think people realized then and possibly even now that regardless if it's a game, hell, regardless of context, it's disturbing that people would find murdering unarmed civilians in any way alright.

I don't care if it was somehow a 'powerful scene'. If a game was released in Russia pertaining the exact same circumstances of an undercover Russian agent among 3 other American terrorists, shooting unarmed civilians in an airport while cynical and stereotypical jabs like overweight people scrambling for their lives were thrown in, I reckon the entire bloody country would be in an uproar. Instead, this gets dismissed by the larger gaming community when it actually matters. :/ Maybe it's just me, but I think something's wrong with that picture.

Edit: Oh, and cookies if you can name at least one bloody game where Russians are the good guys, or for that matter, disregarding Russians, Americans being bad guys.

Edit 2: And just in case people will misinterpret my point - releasing a scenario as one presented is wrong regardless of who does it. Russians, Americans, Italians, whatever.

 

[Asehujiko]

-Reading comprehension fail-

I was specifically commenting on how russians were portrayed in cod games and that can roughly be summed up with "penal battalions and commissars, also soviet union=russia". But since you're such a great history teacher, you can probably tell me(without cheating with wikipedia) which country fought against both sides.

Ooooookay. I need to be a history teacher to notice you play as soviet soldiers fighting against nazis in CoD 1-3? Look, you don't need to be an ass. If you have an actual point to make, then make it. I'll listen. You're initial argument was along the lines of CoD1: Russians=evil. This is not an argument. If you have some historical knowledge that I don't about Russian soldiers in WWII then please share it, rather than making snarky comments and being a dick.

As for the later games, it's true that you fight against a lot of Russians But many of these games also have you fighting alongside Russian soldiers allied to your current cause. They seemed to be going for shades of grey, rather than Russians=evil. But again, this could be open to debate.

But if we're going to debate it, then let's actually debate it. Your sarcasm is pointless.

I did made a point, but you read over it, again.

 

[MrGalactus]

Actually, in Call of Duty, there is a Russian Civil War. Russian Loyalists are fighting Russian Ultra-nationalists. A lot of your allies are Russians, in fact, your life is saved in CoD4 at the end by a Russian Loyalist.