Why Russia?

[Wutaiflea]

Whats the deal with games like MW2,BFBC2, and Black ops having Russians as the antagonists? Have game writers really run out of ideas?

My theories are:

1. They were America's supposed bad guys in the Cold War
2. Even dumbasses can enjoy the ideological differences between Capitalism and Communism
3. Russia seems laid back enough to not get upset about being portrayed as the bad guy. I think other contenders for the role might not be so nice about it in this day and age.
4. Russian/former communist bloc country accents are sexy
5. I don't have a 5, but 4 seemed like a stupid place to leave off.

 

[nomis101uk]

Short answer: laziness.

Long answer: Laziness. There is no country in the world that can threaten America, so they go back to the last enemy they had which actually could threaten them. Plus it caters to the many American morons who still see the world through anti-commie Cold War glasses. And its still pretty recent history.
The other lazy option is China, because they could have similar relative military strength in the nearish future. Though China won't actually start anything because they just wants to sell shit. Make clothes not war is their moto.
I think just not playing as Americans would open things up a little to new enemies. A game where you get to fight a big evil imperialist America would spice things up and would sell like hot-cakes in the Middle East and South America! It would be on every Palestinians Christmas list...

Just so you know, not as many Americans are actually paranoid, obese, warmongers as people seem to think. In my experience it's just the vocal minority and those idiots on news stations who give that impression. Also, most Americans I have met actually think of Russians as bad ass vodka-drinking bear-riders. That's a good thing in my opinion .

I know, I know. But America does seem to elect a disproportionate amount of these paranoid warmongers into office.

Hey, now there's an idea for a new enemy in games. Paranoid, evangelical warmongers take over the country and launch the Crusades Part II! And only one country can stop them...Papua New Guinea!

 

[jshap243]

It's kind of simple really I think.
We've exhausted every other option of people gamers want to fight. Germany and Japan have been done too much, Korea has been milked, the Taliban is too controversial because we're fighting them right now, Mexico is unrealistic, and nobody wants to fight the Australians. So that leaves Russia, except now we've run that dry too

 

[Nomanslander]

Потому что Россия является удивительным

Google translate, huh?

I would try to fix that, but I'm sort of lazy. But, really, that last word is incorrect.

It says because Russia is Awesome, and it is, so stop with your constant intolerance towards the Russian culture and we'll stop making fun of your stupid accents and disgusting food

Umm, he was saying that Google Translate isn't very grammatically correct, and it's a pretty half ass program in translating anything.

Copy paste a sentence in a different language and translate it to English and you'll see what I mean.

i have a better theory. americans secretly all love russian accents and the russian language. but most male gamers aged 18-25 cant relate to russians, so russians cannot be the protagonists. so they must be enemies! its basically fan service, i guess.

valid theory?

Close but no cigar, truth is they just want their women, and considering American women I can see why..=P

 

[Vryyk]

I know, I know. But America does seem to elect a disproportionate amount of these paranoid warmongers into office.

Hey, now there's an idea for a new enemy in games. Paranoid, evangelical warmongers take over the country and launch the Crusades Part II! And only one country can stop them...Papua New Guinea!

It would help if we had more than two choices for president. We keep getting bad draws and no good alternatives have any chance of winning. Like you said, we end up with too many of these guys messing shit up for everyone. Also your game idea made me laugh.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Because they're f**king games. Seriously, relax.

I mean, both Russia and the US acted like jerks after WW2. Jerks are known to pick at each other.

 

[moose_man]

Because they can FIGHT BACK. The more recent 'wars' haven't been as interesting as the ol' WW series or it's Cold War spinoff.

 

[Brawndo]

I would like to see a military shooter game that does not involve America, Russia, the UK, or China. Recent history is rich with conflicts that could be exploited by the gaming industry:

India-Pakistan conflicts
Sri Lanka civil war
Iran-Iraq War
Six-Day War or the Yom Kippur War

Or my personal favorite, the Ethiopian-Eritrean War:

Imagine playing an Ethiopian conscript ripped from his peaceful life of sheep herding and thrust into the front line trenches of Eritrea. All he has is his trusty AK-47 and a chipped bayonet to fend off waves of Eritrean conscripts, antiquated T-55 tanks, and barely flying MiG-17s. He fights with utmost zeal, for he knows if he is injured, the Napoleonic-era medical care on the battlefield will surely mean he will have to have surgery without anesthetics and will likely die of infection. The final level is our hero trying to stop the international court from awarding the disputed territory to the Eritreans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrean%E2%80%93Ethiopian_War

 

[UberNoodle]

Because American war games are essentially just propaganda and its in the best interests (it would appear) of this propaganda machine, to keep the Cold War fear going.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

Also they have the second best villain accents, after Germany.

Have you never seen James Bond? People with proper British accents blow the Russians and Germans out of the water!

 

[Thwarted]

because if you cast Ruskies as the baddies you dont get death threats.

 

[Razgovory]

The most important reason is because Russians are notorious game pirates. Black market pirated versions of games are everywhere and really hurt sales. That doesn't endear the Russians to game developers.

 

[wammnebu]

its the game industries way of flipping Russia the bird for its piracy. we should expect Call of Duty: Baltic Warfare soon, where Americans must defeat the evil Swedish and Norwegian empire

edit: damn ninja'd by Razgovory

 

[Lonan]

Because it's prefectly acceptable to widow a Russian mother, but not to kill a madman who thinks he's going to get an infinite number of virgins for the rest of his life if he blows himself up and takes a few non-believers with him. Russians are far worse then that, they're RUSSIAN! Also, it's okay to play as the Russians killing whatever the supposed good guys are, because it's just accepted that that's what Russians do. Bah.

 

[Vakz]

Yeah, why not have North Korea or something like that as an antagonist? Why Russia?

Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory and Homefront, which is released in a while.

More to the point: My guess would be that, as mentioned earlier, Russia is still considered one of the few which could still be a match to the US/Nato. It's VERY unlikely that US and NATO would ever go to war AGAINST each other, so that pretty much leaves Russia and China as possible invaders against the US or Europe. China has been used a few times as the "bad guys", but I guess there's still some bad blood going on between Russia and the US, which is why Russia is almost always picked. Don't quote me on this, but iirc, China hasn't invaded someone in quite a while, no? Russia, on the other hand, are in constant conflict in Chechnya, and "invaded" Georgia not so long ago. Tbh, the reason why it's only these two, are that all other countries which would actually be a match, are allied or at least neutral to the US, and have no incentive to invade. The only other option would be to either make up an enemy (thus losing all the "real world"-connection") or having US be the invading force. If having US be the invading force (and invading another country than China, Russia or NK) you would have to come up with a pretty darn good reason for having the US invade a country that simply can't match the technological level and the manpower the US (and it's allies, usually) have.

 

[Quazimofo]

... In the case of Black Ops - the game takes place during the cold war.

Who else would be the bad guys?

-m

edit: point of note: in CoD 1&2: Russians were protagonists.

and world at war, and the world at war guys come back as vengeful protagonists for other more asshatty russians.
as for my theory,
americans are beginning to realize that russia helped more in world war 2 than they did, and also that their dictator was kinda a douche at the time. so now that theres no real reason to make games where we kill germans we have to fight russians to prove that we are better and couldve won ww2 without them, since america hasnt fought a real war since then
and the asshat dictator as well as a phobia of any government system that isnt a republic is enough for them to be painted as bad guys

 

[Volothos]

Why cant America be bad these days?

I know MW2 experimented with that but he's just a psycho in my eyes, i want it to where the whole damn country is evil

Off the top of my head, say America is a "Constitutionally Theocratic" nation and is at war in the name of god to purge the world of sinners or something

Reminds me of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Imperial America invades the Republic and Mexico and tactically nukes a hospital because its a sniper nest.

I fucking love Ghost in the Shell!

 

[seryoga]

Потому что Россия является удивительным

Google translate, huh?

I would try to fix that, but I'm sort of lazy. But, really, that last word is incorrect.

It says because Russia is Awesome, and it is, so stop with your constant intolerance towards the Russian culture and we'll stop making fun of your stupid accents and disgusting food

Umm, he was saying that Google Translate isn't very grammatically correct, and it's a pretty half ass program in translating anything.

Copy paste a sentence in a different language and translate it to English and you'll see what I mean.

i have a better theory. americans secretly all love russian accents and the russian language. but most male gamers aged 18-25 cant relate to russians, so russians cannot be the protagonists. so they must be enemies! its basically fan service, i guess.

valid theory?

Close but no cigar, truth is they just want their women, and considering American women I can see why..=P

Actually, while terribly inaccurate in spanish(i speak spanish so i can tell) it seems mostly correct in russian, latin, and the like 2 hungarian phrases i know.

 

[Xanadu84]

The history of warfare where technology was advanced enough to facilitate a modern shooter is quite short. You have WWI, which is really tricky to do, and as such is in a limited number of games. WWII has been done to death. Gulf War and it's relatives cover most modern shooters. Vietnam has been pretty popular. For the most part, that leaves the Cold War. And frankly, I think they went with the Cold War because they have used other wars so much, they need to add a little more variety. Then, if you want a sense of story, and even a hint of historical versimilitude, you have to have America fighting some enemy they have fought before. Russia has had it's hands in the most of these things the longest. As such, they get assigned the bad guy position. Also, in the 60's, 70's and 80's, a very distinctive time period with distinctive weaponry, who else is America going to fight?

I'm curious if game designers are ever going to try to use the Korean war.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

Because we never had to have a real war with them, the Cold War kind of fizzled out, none of the battleship-dogfight-secret-agent-OSS-artillery-flamethrower-sabotage-tank-battle-army-on-army excitement of WWII, and since the game industry has taken the piss out of WWII they decided to make the Cold War more awesome retrospectively.