Non-Americans Can Like Homefront, Too

[VulakAerr]

Yeah, this game has bored me to death even before it's released. It's another reason for Americans to get all right-wing and happy about kicking the foreigners out of their country. For some reason that would be laughable if it weren't so distasteful, the designers have put scenes of civilians getting tortured and murdered to make you feel "more connected" to them.

Just seems like a completely shocking excuse for a story.

 

[Canid117]

but the creative director of the game thinks that its themes and values are universal.

It really would have helped if you'd picked a slightly less controversial and slightly more believable scenario. Like Episode 3 coming out on time.

After playing the game, I actually really don't have a problem with the scenario. They present it well, and as he says in the piece, it's completely speculative fiction.

And I'm becoming increasingly convinced that people don't actually read our news posts beyond the headline and the teaser.

Maybe if your next teaser was "Read the whole fucking article bitches!" someone might read the whole thing but there are always going to be tl;dr people out there.

 

[Jewrean]

Of course non-Americans will like Homefront. The big bully United States taken down by North Korea? They'll be laughing at us all the way to the end credits.

Not really seeming as America will be victorious. I will say this though, the rest of the world (including myself) would definitely buy this game if we got to play as invading army instead. It would be unique and original for once to kill Americans.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Well Japan are hardly friends of North Korea either...

 

[Cousin_IT]

power fantasies about the small man exercising his 2nd amendment right to rise up & fight the evil occupiers is a rather American thing

 

[Layzor]

Where's the game where we get to take over America?

 

[Daveman]

I'll say, isn't this more or less the same thing as MW2s plot.

 

[Staskala]

No, I can not.

Even disregarding all that stuff about American patriotism, Americans as the underdogs, the retarded plot, etc.,
I will never play a game by a developer that tries to push its own political agenda.

I'm sorry, but I prefer my entertainment without propaganda.

 

[Blind Sight]

I do! I'm probably gunna get this game anyway. But the premise IS pretty retarded.

The Half-Life series is about a mute, bespectacled genius with a legendary crowbar that's more epic than... Anything ever, and it follows his time travelin' adventures and alien slaying, and yet it's one of the best FPS series around.

Bad/"retarded" plots do not make a bad game.

But the plot for Half Life is still WAY more plausible than Homefront >)

See, you wouldn't be saying that if you studied physics, I've seen science students rant about how implausible and 'retarded' a resonance cascade (i.e. when the thingy goes boom in Half-life) is haha.

Personally I don't really see this plot as any more ridicious then most video game plots. Hell, it's called speculative fiction for a reason. If you want to see some REALLY silly plots, go look up Harry Turtledove's speculative/alternative history fiction:

Yes, that's Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and yes, he's holding an AK-47. Very silly, but very awesome.

I'm sorry, but I prefer my entertainment without propaganda.

If I may ask, what video games do you play and what tv shows or movies do you watch? I guarantee you I can easily dig political and social commentary out of them (especially Bioware, Bioware loves Thomas Hobbes so much it's insane).

 

[chadachada123]

I'm American, and I would defend my homeland against invaders.

Hence, many of the people in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't terrorists, they're just siding with actual terrorists because we straight-up invaded their land. Yes, many of the leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan were horrible, but then again, so are most American government leaders. For every horrible leader/terrorist in the Middle East there are plenty of normal every-man's just trying to make a living and protect their family, something the US is, frankly, failing to do, when our soldiers are allowed to murder innocent Arabs/Muslims without punishment.

Anyways, this game looks cool, but I hope they make it a bit more Guerrilla, because the gameplay videos I've seen look like a fairly standard FPS fare.

 

[chadachada123]

power fantasies about the small man exercising his 2nd amendment right to rise up & fight the evil occupiers is a rather American thing

Considering that's how the US was founded...Yeah, it is a very American thing.

Better than most modern FPSs that just have the US flexing their e-peens by invading small countries and whatnot.

 

[mb16]

Hence, many of the people in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't terrorists, they're just siding with actual terrorists because we straight-up invaded their land.

yes this man!
the Taliban isn't a terrorist group. its a freedom fighting group which has been made one by the news. as they shoot BACK at us

 

[johnman]

So its basically a spiritual sucessor to Freedom Fighters? Not a bad thing by all means, I loved Freedom Fighers and theres not alot else like it.

 

[The Random One]

"Homefront is really less about America per se, and it's more about defending your homeland, your living room, the place you sleep, your family, things that are dear to you. And that's what the sort of Homefront name really applies to, that it could happen in France - in Paris, London, Beijing or whatever. Any country is applicable, it's about defending something that you care about and that's dear to you."

[...]

"In this, you're a civilian who's being oppressed, who has turned freedom fighter and you're doing whatever you can to fight for something that you care about - your home, as opposed to being told by a general, 'go take this country' and not really having any associations or connections." It's this take on the human side of warfare - and the things worth fighting for - that Votypka and Kaos hope will strike a chord with gamers. "I think there's a lot of the resistance side - the guerrilla resistance feel - and the emotional storytelling and human cost of war, that you don't really see portrayed in, really, any other shooter I can think of."

The weird thing is that, if I had to think up a story in which my country got attacked and I had to defend it, I'd think of one in which we're invaded by the US. In fact I have thought of that already. Hey you, have my speculative fiction! Anyone?

 

[Exort]

I do! I'm probably gunna get this game anyway. But the premise IS pretty retarded.

The Half-Life series is about a mute, bespectacled genius with a legendary crowbar that's more epic than... Anything ever, and it follows his time travelin' adventures and alien slaying, and yet it's one of the best FPS series around.

Bad/"retarded" plots do not make a bad game.

Exactly my point^
But the plot for Half Life is still WAY more plausible than Homefront >)
No problem with the game itself, just the writing.

"Just the writing"?

You played the game already?

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

From what I've seen of the game, the story of Japan in this setting would have been a better plot. A once mighty Economic Power, hamstrung by its past, unable to resist a territory once perceived as backwards and doomed to fail, a former Colony of theirs even! The Japanese, like the English, have never been subjugated by the foe without, making their absorption into this new power even more difficult to comprehend.

And it's not like there isn't a big market of Japanophiles in the West.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Who the hell pissed in your cheerios? Nobody's saying that the next foreign horde is over the hill. Watch some interviews about the game, the staff hardly comes off as "nutcase rednecks."

Can't argue with people who don't understand what an analogy is.

Learn to read, dude. He's not saying that people in Chechnya or Afghanistan will sympathize with the poor americans. He's saying that the idea of wanting to defend your family and the place you sleep at night is pretty universal, no matter if you're American, Mexican, Afghan, or whatever.

Let me quote the article for you, 'dude'

"Any country is applicable, it's about defending something that you care about and that's dear to you."

So I took his little claim and applied it to some countries where people have actually been invaded. Of course, it would be remiss of me to assume that they actually want to market the game in those countries. But you see, it's blanket statements like this that create ill will towards the West. The idea that anyone in America, a country that has never been invaded in its history (unless you happen to be a Native American) could know the pain of invasion is just condescending.

These guys are releasing a fictional game about North Korea invading the USA at a time when tensions on the Korean peninsula are at an all-time high. That is the height of diplomatic insensitivity and they know it, but they're doubtless keen to cash in on the political climate - notice how he admits North Korea only became the antagonist later in the game's development? So in order to deflect any incoming flak about releasing such a game, they're making all these pretensions to sensitivity. It's about as transparent as an air curtain.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

power fantasies about the small man exercising his 2nd amendment right to rise up & fight the evil occupiers is a rather American thing

Well, I don't know about 2nd amendment rights, but Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden was pretty fucking similar. Admittedly much smaller in scope, but then Aussies don't have nearly as many firearms per capita as us.

And Tomorrow When The War Began was just as much of a fantasy as this. I remember I refused to believe it when I was 12. I will say this though: at the very least, John Marsden had enough taste to not name the aggressing country even though it was painfully obvious that they were Indonesians.