Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

[DiamanteGeeza]

TAdamson its a wider issue. We all know the western world experiences a higher quality of life then most other areas but there's no need to attribute that to 'whiteness'. Checking your white privilege lumps all whites into a super rich elite group that all laugh down at the poor minorities attempts to break even with the institutionalized racism that they face everyday. In reality there is an underclass and the rich. Most people live in the underclass including most whites and most of the minorities.

This goes hand in hand with the guilt complex that many white people in the public eye have adopted because its the populist mindset at the moment. The fact that white history is solely made up of us oppressing everyone and being the demons of the world when white history is responsible for much of the advancement of the human race. Name me one race that hasn't waged war against another people in the past?

The white privilege buzz word is just the latest attempt to guilt whites for simply existing. As an Australian you should remember this on your national sorry day.

National Sorry Day? When we acknowledge things done by my ancestors to Natives Australians?

Should I not acknowledge the things that were done? Should they never be mentioned because it makes some Anglo-Celtic Australians uncomfortable? Sorry. No. That would be shameful, as denying the holocaust is shameful. But when people talk to Germans about World War 2 they don't get all touchy about us guilting them "for simply existing".

There is no reason to deny that Australian Colonisation involved the dispossession of a Native people from their land, sometimes murders and massacres, and later the removal of native children from their families leaving a legacy that still bears living witnesses.

The idea that there is some agenda to guilt whites for simply existing is preposterous. You should be ashamed of making such a weak argument.

If someone is trying to make you feel bad then you have the option of not feeling bad. It's not hard. Its not like they're killing or enslaving you.


Checking your white privilege just means the

You can feel bad about history, that's your personal decision. When you hear about the past atrocities committed in the past most people cannot help but feel sorry about it and to make sure that it never happens again but that's a personal decision. You or anybody else has no right to attribute the guilt of the past onto someone like me who has had no part in the whole affair. Its up to the history lessons to teach people so they can make up their own minds about history, not guilt the current generation for the mistakes of the very distant past.

I feel sorry for you that you feel the need to accept the personal responsibility for the sins of your ancestors (plus the need to push this onto all white people). Isn't it enough that you simply agree that it was wasn't right instead of falling into the trap of self deprecating behavior? Isn't that national sorry day, where YOU personally say sorry for something you had nothing about? Isn't history classes enough for you? Why must you flagellate yourself so?

I'm telling you that you have no reason to feel sorry because of your white guilt, privilege or past? Won't you agree with me and embrace this and in doing so, removed this self imposed burden off your and your families back?

Well said. Couldn't agree more.

 

[TAdamson]

I don't think that Yahtzee nor i mean to shit on your disadvantage but there is a very loud section of your media that such as the aforementioned Glenn Beck , Hannit y etc that plays on the idea that white Christian heterosexual America is under attack when really it's just minorities claiming civil rights. This is the sort of stuff thatfiltres back to Australia. It's this sort of thing that i believe Mr Crowshaw complains about.

Again, Hannity and the other Squealers (that's a pretty good parallels, I think I'll stay with it.) are the not the advocates for anyone with white skin; they're advocates for the Old Boys Network, and nothing more than that. The American OBN had it so good that anything even remotely threatening to...well, hell, not even their survival but their complete dominance of the media, political, military, and commercial spectrum sets off their alarm bells and they get downright stupid in their rush to defend it.

Just, again, tired of "Old Boys Network=all white America" because I promise you, unless you're the right kind of White American Male, you ain't welcome in their club.

Well this OBN is what we foreiners see as white America. And it's largely that kind of WHAM (Makes a nice acronym if you add Heterosexual, wonder what George Michael would think?) that is being targeted.

Yes we are aware of "trailer trash" but I guess the realities of being poor in the US don't really sink in in other predominantly white Western countries for the reasons I've stated before. It's almost impossible to completely fuck up in any western democracy except the US. And in Australia we don't really have a political class. And no discrimination if you're white.

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

This is really simple: if you like Call of Duty style games, you're going to enjoy Black Ops 2. If you don't like Call of Duty style games (for whatever reason), you aren't going to like this one.

It's hardly rocket science.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

Sorry, but... what fantasy-land version of the US do you live in?
New England?
Racial mistreatment and institutional inequality is still rampant. The only reason its coverage isn't as visceral is because the conflict has become more subliminal - and because everyone wants to convince themselves the US is a post-racial country.

For example, as of 2006, roughly 5% of America's black male populace was incarcerated [http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1006]. A study by the Bureau of Justice in 1997 showed that the likelihood of black and latino men serving jail time in their life is 28% and 16% respectively [http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/press/LLGSFP.PR], compared to 4% for white men.
On average, black men are given 10% longer prison sentences than white men for the same crime committed. [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1985377]
In 2011, 41.6% of those who were stopped and frisked by police in New York City were men of colour [http://www.nyclu.org/node/1598], in spite of the fact that they only make up about 4.7% of the NYC population. At the same time, a mere 11% of stops and frisks [http://www.nyclu.org/node/1598] were based on an actual description of a suspect, and 9/10 people stopped were found completely innocent [http://www.nyclu.org/files/stopandfrisk-factsheet.pdf] of any actual crime.

I would absolutely argue that race remains the single most pervasive issue in the US.

What version of the U.S. do you live in? Minorities make up about 65% of NYC's population according to 2010 census data. White people have been in the minority there since 1991! Honestly, since when has New York or the NYPD been a representative of the U.S. as a whole? Would it be fair of me to make judgements about the whole of Australia based on Michael Atkinson?

OT: I can remember a glorious time when Yahtzee wasn't stuck so far up his own ass, and this show was actually about fucking video games. Those were the days.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

{Snip}

What I'm getting at is that while the British are loathe to openly admit it, they're just as prone to glorifying their jingoistic romps as people from the United States are. I'm less than impressed that after Kill Zone(developed by Netherlands-based Guerrilla Games ), Assassin's Creed 3 (made by a Canadian-based branch of French company Ubisoft) and Call Of Duty's obsession with a certain John Price becoming an increasingly faded distant memory that now is the time for Brits to collectively snap and decide that anything that depicts the Americans in a positive light ruins just about everything.

 

[newwiseman]

I've only installed one part of this game, Zombies.

The zombies game play is fun and the only part of the series I've liked since world at war. At this point I'd like to just see a COD: Zombies game, that comes with like 10 maps, or map circuits like the new tranzit level.

 

[Battenberg]

Wow this has touched a nerve with some people. Chill out, it's just a game review, it's not like commenting on it is going to have ANY serious impact on the world and I would be amazed if Yahtzee reads half these comments. Just reading the first page made me want to cover myself in gasoline and stick lit fireworks into every orifice.

As far as the game goes the CoD franchise has been stagnant for far too long, particularly the gameplay which has barely changed and Yahtzee's review reflected that (i.e. the lack of any noteworthy features meant he talked about other stuff such as the whole racism thing). Although admittedly I am suprised he didn't mention Zombies, thought that might be the one bit of the game he found tolerable.

 

[TAdamson]

{Snip}

What I'm getting at is that while the British are loathe to openly admit it, they're just as prone to glorifying their jingoistic romps as people from the United States are. I'm less than impressed that after Kill Zone(developed by Netherlands-based Guerrilla Games ), Assassin's Creed 3 (made by a Canadian-based branch of French company Ubisoft) and Call Of Duty's obsession with a certain John Price becoming an increasingly faded distant memory that now is the time for Brits to collectively snap and decide that anything that depicts the Americans in a positive light ruins just about everything.

I'm not sure that that is true. The last Major UK lead engagement was the Falklands, a war I barely remember as I was about 6.

Otherwise since WW2 Britain hasn't really been involved in unilateral engagement. There's been a bit of following American Expeditions but warfare is seen as a necessary chore rather than something to take pride in.

If you're saying that there is glorification of the "Days of Empire" or wars even further back then I'm not sure that people exalt in it so much as get excited by history.

Again I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at with the later parts of that paragraph... So there's shooters made by European/Canadian companies and there's no SAS man in COD so British people are upset? Wha???

 

[maninahat]

a

Man there's a lot of bullshit in this thread. It's a sad fact that a person can't make glib references to politics or race without it turning into a massive debate. Yahtzee is snarking about video game jingoism, not writing a essay. Treat his remarks for what they are, and think before you launch into a 1000 word counter-argument on the subject of white guilt. There is no point in arguing with a slogan.

Not when said slogan maker is revered as a demi-god and the last final word on a hobby by so many people.

No, he's not snarking on video game jingoism, he dived right into the pit of political discourse, and if he's gonna act like a gladiator in that arena, he's gonna tangle with the lions just like the rest of us.

Well that is something we just have to disagree on. As far as I'm concerned, casual remarks about the obnoxious political sentiments in a video game do not count as a political discourse. Either you find the American-centric messages of COD/MOH games annoying, or you don't - that's all there is to it. There is no need to start "tangling with the lions", or trying to debate the finer points of American foreign politics, when the issue is really about taste and story telling.

 

[TAdamson]

What version of the U.S. do you live in? Minorities make up about 65% of NYC's population according to 2010 census data. White people have been in the minority there since 1991!

That's not what minority means. Really. There are more non-white people than white people but the only ethnic group that can really call themselves a minority in NYC are Asians with double points for Pacific Islanders.

Demographically there are more whites than any other section of the population in every Borough of NYC apart from the Bronx.

 

[TAdamson]

OT: I can remember a glorious time when Yahtzee wasn't stuck so far up his own ass, and this show was actually about fucking video games. Those were the days.

If you don't like it when we point out how and why American Jingoism in videogame format is somewhat repulsive America then you know you can change don't you?

Don't make horrible videogames that glorify your wars past present or imaginary,.. unless you're willing to do it with a modicum of circumspection or satirical intent.

It's not a diatribe against white people. It's a diatribe against this sort of mentality. Most powerful nation on the planet, can't take a spoonful of criticism without crying to teacher.

 

[TAdamson]

But how the hell do we jump from that phenomenon to the usual "You're white, so you suck" bigotry?

I have no idea, because no one here has fucking said that.

Except, of course, for Ben Croshow and his show.

Sigh.

What he actually said:

"People fortunate enough to have been born white in the first world are the most privileged motherfuckers on this unequal fucking planet and Modern Warfare games are basically those people complaining about how tough it can be when every body is jealous of you. It's like when white dudes complain of racism because all the people they used to enslave are making fun of them."

I'm not sure that this in anyway implies "You're white, so you suck".

It definitely implies that some white people suck. Especially rich ones who complain of jealousy and reverse racism while living as a 75% majority in a country mostly run and policed by people who look like them.

 

[TAdamson]

Remember guys, check your white privilege at least twice a day. And if any minority insults or is racist towards you, its your own fault for being a privileged white male cis.



Seriously, i was very disappointed Yahtzee, never expect this kind of thing coming from you.

You're an American. Come to Australia and try the white privilege here. It rocks.

 

[TAdamson]

*GROAN* But what Ben, and apparently a lot of people here don't get, is that just because you might look like them, it doesn't mean you ARE them, or are even accepted by them. Just because you're white doesn't mean jack squat to the OBN, and people liek Croshow imply that just being white is enough to be in power when my lily white skin can't even get me elected dog catcher, let alone pulling the purse and cultural strings of an entire civilization. I'm simply tired of being made by him and the rest to feel ashamed just because the OBN happens to share the same skin color as I do.

Who's saying he trying to make you feel ashamed? Did you write Black Ops 2? Do you complain about reverse racism, class jealousy, anti-Christian persecution?

If the answer's yes, then yes you should feel ashamed.

I am white, male, wealthy. Privileged. I don't feel ashamed nor does Crowshaw's rant bother me because I don't walk around telling people they shouldn't be jealous of what I have.