Why do we always fight the same guys?

[Spoon E11]

In modern shooters we are always fighting the same guys. I mean generally they are Russians or Middle East extremists. Why can't developers think of new nations to fight and link them very well into storylines?

I'm not the best writer or whatever the job title is called; but I can think of a couple ideas:

1. Play as British elite unit fighting USA after political fanfare about Brits not being America's pet anymore. Not playing as American's as it would be less engaging I.E. more firepower, and more numbers ect.

2. You are in the navy off the horn of Africa, fighting piracy. A mission goes badly and leaves you (with perhaps a group of men) taken prisoner on a pirate ship, you escape and have to find your way back into allied ground, through militia and possible riots ect.

Now I'm not saying those ideas are good. No they are probably a pile of turd. Just I?m fed up of fighting the same dudes again, and again, and again.

What are your thoughts on fighting as the same guys (US troops, Hey perhaps it would be good to play a WW2 game as a reluctant German*) and fighting the same enemies


* but that would not make it modern, I feel really stupid now.

 

[Judgement101]

Because we don't want to offend any other country besides Genericenemystan and they are used to it by now.

 

[Blazingdragoon04]

Because new ideas are scary and might not sell well, and everyone gets pissed off over controversy.

We've had two different games in the past few years that have detailed the combat that has been going on over the past 7 years, Medal of Honor had one multiplayer side be the Taliban, and Six Days in Fallujah was set in, where else, Fallujah in Iraq. So what ended up happening? People bitched that six days in Fallujah was an insensitive game so it never got published, and people got offended that you could play as the Taliban and complained enough to get that removed.

And these are just MINOR changes, making it so we aren't just fighting a nameless force. I may have missed the point of your argument slightly, since these are both middle eastern groups, but the point is that people react to change and uniqueness in video games just as well as someone being mugged.

 

[oplinger]

Number 2 would end up like RE5. >.>

But it's partly because of current events, and the different generations. The cold war saw a lot of stuff with russia, so people stick with that (I mean come on, what DIDN'T we see russia doing? even if it was insane.)

And we kinda have that war on terror, which makes people want to kill arabs >.>

Honestly many other cultures don't really bother us. However it would be nice to see you know...different stories. They usually just end up involving aliens though. ...They respresent other cultures though! ...sort of.

It doesn't really bother me though. If they make it fun, then hey, it's fun, but it has been going on for years.

 

[Judgement101]

Number 2 would end up like RE5. >.>

This made me laugh.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Because we don't want to offend any other country besides Genericenemystan and they are used to it by now.

Exactly.

Well, maybe it's cause everyone knows the Middle Easterners and Russians are evil, cause they always are in movies.

I mean, when have you ever seen something about the Arab-Israeli conflict in which the Arabs weren't baby-eating monsters out to destroy the poor defenceless Israelis? [small]If anyone plans to make that movie, don't film it anywhere near my house.[/small]

It's safe to stick with the tried and true, middle of the road stuff. Nobody wants a controversy, unless its a safe one like putting even more blood in, and the odd prostitute.

 

[Bobic]

What about that upcoming game who's name I forget, I think it's homefront. Where you fight an invading north korea. That's different. And laughably stupid.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

You ever play Far Cry 2? Genericenemystan must have had a fit when they realized they weren't included for the most part.

 

[Gahars]

Well, because it depends on how "acceptable" the enemy is

The British and US, though we each call the other "pricks" and "wusses", among other terms, we're still pretty strong allies. The country equivalent of drinking buddies.

Why would either want to play a game where most of it is spent killing others you deem as "friendly"

Taliban, as the Medal of Honor controversy showed, comes off as Too Soon. Pirates are kind of hard to sell as a big threat, and fighting them would be more about small skirmishes, rather than all out war that most FPS games try to go for.

Pretty much, we stick with the Nazis because, well, they're evil, so it's easy to justify. The Russians because, well, a lot of us are still sour about the cold war, I guess, so if say some Russians are too, well blam. Instant conflict, just Capitalists vs. Communists, like "the good old days"

 

[RatRace123]

Because people aren't comfortable fighting anything else because it might be "offensive" and "disrepectful" to certain people, apparently "certain people" don't include Russians or Middle Easterners.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Because people aren't comfortable fighting anything else because it might be "offensive" and "disrepectful" to certain people, apparently "certain people" don't include Russians or Middle Easterners.

I'm reading your posts in Tali's voice.

And you opinions frequently match what I believe she would say.

I'm calling you a girl...

 

[Sixcess]

What about that upcoming game who's name I forget, I think it's homefront. Where you fight an invading north korea. That's different. And laughably stupid.

Crysis beat them to it with North Korea 3 years ago. Presumably North Korea is so isolationist and crazy noone cares about offending them.

If we're comparing alternative FPS ideas, here's mine: in 1941 a desperate Stalin unleashes a self replicating alien war machine discovered in 1908 at Tunguska. The aliens immediatly turn on them and conquers the Soviet Union before turning their attention to the rest of the world and only YOU, an elite soldier of the 3rd Reich, can stop them!

(On the basis that if you're going to make the Nazis the good guys then the bad guys have to be even worse... Besides, this way you'd have an excuse to start off with the FPS weapon of choice - the MP40.)

 

[RatRace123]

Because people aren't comfortable fighting anything else because it might be "offensive" and "disrepectful" to certain people, apparently "certain people" don't include Russians or Middle Easterners.

I'm reading your posts in Tali's voice.

And you opinions frequently match what I believe she would say.

I'm calling you a girl...

That's fair, now I have to get this engine cleaned up, maybe we'll talk later.

 

[hermes]

Because we don't want to offend any other country besides Genericenemystan and they are used to it by now.

Good point, and developers don't want to offend americans... so, any game where americans are the bad guys in unlikely (unless you are playing as an american too)

 

[Spoon E11]

But its a game, how many times have films, art, books and other media offended a majority of people. Why are video games not allowed to do the same?

Sure we could have bland generic cold war based shooters. But do we really want that? No I want detailed story lines, and characters I can believe in.

But we sit and accept 2nd rate storys. If a film had a bad story, it would be considered to be watchable only if it had some decent action scenes ect. and even then, it would only be a summer action film. Not a brilliant piece of movie making. Very few games pull that off.

I'm not saying games should be as good as films all the time. The film industry has a lot more experiance and they have a century's worth of material to draw inspiration from, we have about 1/3 of that. But I don't want to sit for 2nd rate storys.

Number 2 would end up like RE5. >.>

really never played RE5...