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there's a reason there's such a hate in the media. because when you play as a nazi in the old CoD or a russian in the Newer CoDs, no one bitches about it, not even Vladamir putin gives a crap, i bet he might even find it funny in a way. but the the very second there's a reference to muslims, EVERY DAMN MUSILM GETS ENRAGED. what i don't get is why some people can't just take a joke. ok, so you can play as the taliban in medal of honor, big deal, IT'S A VIDEO GAME, IT'S NOT REAL, IT'S JUST REFLECTING MODERN POLITICAL ISSUES. i don't even know why you brought up prince of persia, that game's set in a completely different time than post 9/11. back then the muslims were fine, so why not send one little trouble maker who looks like jake gyllenhal based of an old platforming game in there with the power to stop time? big deal!!! i looked up for 2 seconds, AND WHY ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT MAFIA 2 BEING AN ISSUE? sterotypes? DUH!!! didn't you watch the godfather??? how about part 2? if you're gonna make a video game about italian mobsters in the 20's, WHY NOT MAKE THEM ITALIAN FROM THE 20'S??? the game would suck ass if you were an asian mob from the 20's, there weren't any asians in chicago at the time either. how about just a bunch of bland white guys? HELL NO, THAT'S BORING!!! i want lines like "he's sleeping wit de fishes" done right, italian mobster. this has nothing to do with muslims by the way, just a reminder, unless you can find me an italian muslim, then smack him for "ruining the family name" as the don would say it. BACK ON TRACK, if you really want game developers to stop making games where you kill muslims; PAGE 10! W00T! | |
Companies that make games, at the end of the day, need to bring home the bacon (no pun intended for ethnicities that don't eat pork). The bottom of the line is that it is an industry that needs to make money. I'm sorry to say it, but these companies just make what will be popular generally. If it happens to be portraying a certain society poorly, then that is just a reflection the the market the game companies are attempting to sell their product to. Certain Muslims, and in the past Russians and Germans, have done some very bad things and as a result, not unreasonably, the world is suspicious and feels hatred towards some. aforementioned bad things make good plots for games, but I don't think that ALL muslims/russians/germans are caricatured. If they are the bad guys, they should not be likable, otherwise we would not enjoy killing them as much - and this goes for monsters and aliens as well. Also, you have to remember that the gaming companies are largely American or from the UK. As such, their games tend to (but not always) have caucasian heroes/heroines. You may call this racist. But if there were game companies in Lebanon or Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia, do you really think they would be any less preferential towards themselves? To be honest, I think that the article is a little naive. Why should a company cater to the needs of a minority at the possible expense of income? They are just a business trying to maximize their profits (like any other business) and they don't see that changing their portrayal of certain ethnicities is going to increase said profits. If someone comes to them with a good idea (e.g. Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia), that they think will sell, then they'll make it. It's not racism, it's just business. it's the people they cater to that are racist: society. If your purpose is to raise awareness of the innaccurate portrayal of certain ethnicities in games - to try and open minds a little, then i guess thats not a bad thing. But if you're saying it's not fair and the gaming companies should change?... well.... you're wasting your time. | |
Just a recent article I read an hour ago while on Yahoo, thought it kind of fit with the arguments that are going on.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100903/wl_nm/us_dutch_wilders My apologies if I messed up the link :P Past five in the morning and I'm dead tired. x3 | |
I've never looked at the race of people when I play a game, I don't think "filthy *insert race here*" I'm shooting enemies, should I care if they're exaggerated or what colour they are? I'm not sure if the people making these games are consciously trying to say "Arabs are evil" or if Arab enemies just fitted the setting they used at the time, I might never know... | |
whatever happened to the old human vs alien, where no religions are involved, no races are comparable, no accents, no nationality. so now let's just finish this thing up and let's play MAG!!! | |
You'll note though, that British actors only play the intelligent villains. The thugs are usually played by dudes with a Brooklyn accent. I guess that's a compliment of sorts? :P | |
dude, chill | |
Being Texan or a gamer has no ideology to conform to, it's just not comparable. The difference is there is a source of inspiration for religious violence deeply routed in the ideology. You would have to ignore a lot of evidence to equate Islamic terrorism with random psychopaths, they are gullible but quite sane. | |
Oh, I'm sorry, then. Truth, and goodness then depends on the perspective, and it's proponents. Your logic is flawed. You are then implicitly justifying anything, depending on when, where, and whom it matters to. I'm sure the Nazis were right in their own mind, and all the Jews should suck it up, because the moderate anti-semits in Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, should have just raised their voices when the Nuremberg laws were passed. EDIT: Just an fyi: goodness, truth, and morality is just a matter of perspective. Nothing, and everything is justified. I'm only assuming that you believe in some sort of a constant "truth" or "morality." | |
I always found it strange how whenever there are Russians, Muslims or Germans in a video game, they are the bad guys and people rarely react, but when one resident evil game was set in Africa, everyone was screaming about racism. | |
I agree with the article, but I would like to point out that 24 got a tad more nuanced in the later seasons. | |
That's a lazy excuse to justify xenophobia. Just because others might do the same to you does not mean you should treat them that way, especially in a country like America that boasts about freedom and having the moral high ground. | |
Well, folks, this really is the last post I'll be able to make for a while -- need to work on the novel and take the kiddies out this weekend. So I'll try to address some broad arguments that people are making. A lot of this thread is not really about games. People are asking me to weigh in on all sorts of things that aren't part of the original article. This really isn't the place to talk about Palestine vs. Israel, or comparative religion, or about why hate crimes might be understandable (!?), or the Muhammad cartoons, etc. So I'm going to keep my points brief and gaming-related: 1) To those who say "It's just a game" or "Get over it": as I said before, I know gamers don't automatically form all their ideas about people/places based on games -- any more than the columbine shooters did it 'because of' violent games. If that was the case I'd be going out and committing assassinations after playing the bazillion hours of Oblivion that I've played. But if you think that movies and games and TV aren't part of where we get our notions about the world, then you're just not paying attention to reality. There's a reason that governments and religions throughout history have used songs and posters and movies and cartoons and, yes, video games, to spread their messages. There's a reason our government recruited Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney for WWII propaganda. There's a reason '24' was cited as a source of inspiration by Guatanamo interrogators (http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/04/report-jack-bauer-gave-people-lots-ideas-gitmo). And there's a reason that the US Army and Hezbollah both have used gaming as a recruitment/propaganda tool. Because cartoons, movies, tv, and yes, GAMES, matter. They matter a whole lot. 2) The argument 'Get in line, lots of groups have been demonized' isn't really a counter to my article. How does a long history of wrongs add up to a right, exactly? And as to the related point 'the Taliban is the enemy, so of course war games feature the enemy' -- well, that doesn't address my main point either, which is simply 'Gee, maybe we could have a game here and there where there are muslims who aren't terrorists.' 3) The argument 'game companies don't owe Muslims anything' isn't much better. Variety of depiction in games isn't just -- or even primarily -- about making my little Muslim heart warm and fuzzy. It's about making better games. Again, plenty of non-muslim people in this thread and in private messages have made it clear that they, too, would appreciate some variety in their games. The same-old same-old isn't just stereotypical. It's BORING. 4) Finally, to those who really believe that these games DO reflect reality because most Muslims, or a whole hell of a lot of us are violent fanatics, I have to say you need some better evidence for that claim than the TV news. Because, if you really believe that you get the whole picture of a culture from watching tv or reading foxnews.com (or cnn.com, for that matter), then you've got bigger problems than I know how to address. It's been real, folks. See you on the flip side. | |
uhg.. Internet Religion debates... It's a black hole from which you cannot return. and now it's time to throw myself into it. You cannot compare Islam, a religion, with the Nazi Party. A better choice would be, say Hesbollah, or Al'quadia (spelling I know), As they both are parties/organisations who follow certain ideas. What the writer of this article is mentioning, is that there in alot of videogames tends to be a stereotype of "Muslim->Scary ass motherfucker". I think it's important to remember, that we shoot Nazi's because they are Nazi's and not because they are German. But, alot of the time in other games, we shoot Muslims, or "generic middle eastern guy" because, well.. "They are all bad" My point here is, the argument "suck it up, the germans don't complain" is flawed, as acutally very uninformed. | |
Except it wasn't an excuse, it was putting your remark in context, the fact remains that the US, while far from perfect is far better then many other states. Xenophobia is of course bad but acting like the US and the west in general is specially intolerant is stupid. | |
basically what i was going to say. i know im not necessarily one of the main groups that being attacked, but seriously? its a fucking video game. they have done much worse in movies before and you HARDLY hear anything about them having to stop anytime soon. people complain and complain, over shit that literally does NOT affect them beyond there own self esteem issues. | |
Frankly speaking, for me Muslims fall into the same category as all other religions. I hate them in equal to the ratio of how much they are trying to interfere in my own life. Muslims and Christians both try to change laws that don't fit their religion... Laws effect me regardless of my beliefs... thus they are trying to change my life, and thus I hate them both a great deal. | |
It's easier to appeal to a larger crowd if the other side in a game is a 'bad-guy' we all know and it remains appealing to simply keep it 'us versus them'. Mainstream trying to stay mainstream, oh my. Just like it's easier to get anyone's attention if you use the race/religion card in your article title even though the message you're trying to get across is that the media needs more imagination and flair. Person wanting opinion heard, oh my. It's as boring playing said games as it is to see another "Muslim this" or "Gaymers flaming over.." or "Africans go waaaaaah". It makes sense if it's news. It's pointless segregation and invites the wrong critical approach if it's simply an article to say "Grow up games.". | |
Eh don't sweat this, in 10 more years Christians will be the extremist/terrorist in games. By then Muslims will have finished taking over Europe; and have a majority party stranglehold on the U.S. Congress and Senate. | |
oops it didn't show his name my bad | |
Agreed. | |
This. I'm real sorry, but however beautiful Islam may be as a religion (and I'm sure there are loving, caring & generally accepting people of faith in Islam), it's still a religion. This means its core is based on the belief that a Big Daddy Figure In The Sky wrote (or in this case, dictated to an illiterate) Everything You'll Ever Need To Know, Ever. (Seriously, that's one of the tenets of Islam--everything you'll ever need to know about the world and how to interact with it is contained within the Qu'ran.) So long as religion maintains its stranglehold over the Middle East (and the West as well, actually), any kind of peace or "live & let live" is extremely unlikely. On a related topic--the Community Center presently under construction in NYC--I fail to see why Muslims should be so upset over popular resistance to it. Let be honest: How many Christian churches are constructed in Muslim countries with fanfare and confetti? If Islam truly is a religion of peace, love, understanding and acceptance of "the other", then damnit, PROVE IT. Reclaim your faith from the extremist mullahs and the psychopaths with the AK-47s. Don't just shrug and wriggle and whine about how "it's just a small but vocal minority...". Take the hint. Be vocal. | |
No, the source of the inspiration is, at its heart, a hatred of Americans and American ideology. The teachings of Islam are antithetical to most of the practices of the Taliban, except by radical reinterpretation. In this case, the religion is used as a tool. Patriotism, money, ethnic pride, or any number of other incentives could have been used. My point is that the issue is far too complicated to blame on any one particular factor, be it Muslim religion or Arab culture, and if one does the conclusions one will reach are no better or morally justifiable than those of the Taliban themselves. | |
Muslims should not be always considered bad guy's,we all are sinners,But Islamists are. | |
"The aliens of the Halo franchise are more humanized than the bad guys in America's Army..." lol and yeah...I mean it comes down to a WW2 game with Nazis, a COld War game with Communist Russians, or a modern game with turban-wearing Muslim extremists | |
not everyone in America is a redneck cowboy haha...well, some educated students (hey, we have Muslim students here too!) know that there's a different between a Muslim and a Muslim extremist so technically the game portrayals aren't incorrect stereotypes (unless it so happens they depict a wrong model of an RPG launcher) until they declare all Muslims are Terrorists though honestly I would've expected more games to feature the North Koreans as the bad guys | |
This is where you are wrong. Truth is not based on perspective, if we still believed that, the earth would still be flat. Unless you are a flat earther? In that event,let me introduce you to what is in fact truth. For instance, truth is indivisible in it's definition as: Conformity to fact or actuality. Which is objective, and not subjective as you have stated. This invalidates your claim in it's entirety. Therefore it is your logic that is flawed. Allow me to drive the point home further. There are absolute truths, ones that cannot be questioned. Because to say that there is no such thing as an absolute truth is a self-defeating statement. Because if that statement were not in itself an absolute it would be false! Truth is a constant, and is supported largely by the factual, not the opinion. In the case of the flat earth, people believed that the earth was flat because that was all the knew. This didn't make it the truth, simply because they believed it. In fact 500 years later, we now know that the earth is round. Perspective can change, the truth, however, remains the same. Unless you actually believe that upon thinking the earth is round, that it suddenly became round? Morality is another story that is subjective and is based on perspective. As are the concepts of good and evil. For the record, I never said anything about morality. You did. Truth supersedes the subjective. I spoke in terms of truth as in factual evidence that you can find anywhere. On the subject of morality. Look up Honor killings some time. If you don't think that is evil, well, then there is nothing that can be done for you. | |
This is clearly a difficult issue, one that will divide the Escapist for many years to come. And as much as I would like to go back To Team Fortress 2 and try to pretend this all never happended, I feel something should be said. A protagonist's skin color or religious belief's would not make for an interesting character. the way a protagonist behaves and responds to the world around him however, does. I do believe that more game developers should try and differentiate the idea of what a protagonist should be, But at the same time, I am worried that the game may be hurt because of it. For Example, lets take...Uncharted. if Nathan Drake skin color was changed to what you would call a "middle eastern" skin color, for example, do you think Uncharted would sell less? Nothing about the character would change, except his skin color. you might not think it would, as would I, but i quickly learned that changing something people take for granted, will very quickly get you few friends. During our social studies class, we were discussing the birth of Christianity during Roman times. I brought up that while most Medieval age paintings depict Jesus as white, it is more likely that he would be of middle eastern decent, with a tanned or even black skin color. let me tell you, I got more question glares that day then when I did a project about the Rape of Nanking. I'm sorry for turning this discussion away from it's original intention, but I do think that for the most part, the western world is...well, afraid of having a middle eastern protagonist. | |
America has freedom of religion laws, the Middle East does not? False equivalence.
Like moderate Christians do exactly the same way? Talk about a double-standard, huh? | |
..You realize you just linked to a Christian fundamentalist website for "proof", right? | |
no, YOU chill..... ok, i'll chill. go buy mafia 2, that game is fun as hell | |
Have to say, this is one of the best articles I've seen on the Escapist. Well done sir, its nice to see somebody challenging the cultural stereotypes so deeply ingrained into western culture that we hardly ever even realise we ascribe to them. And doing so in a well worded, entertaining and thought provoking way simply adds to your argument. As for those naysayers who are saying, in essence, "Shut up and Put up". Might I recommend you think about what your saying here? Your saying that because other groups of people are villainized in computer games, and western culture generally, that people in those groups should just get used to it. Your saying that they don't have the right to be angry at the way their cultural group is being portrayed because others are also portrayed in the same light. I hate to bring Godwin's law in here but; that's like saying the Jewish people had no right to complain during the Holocaust because all those disabled and homosexual people were also being persecuted and murdered. If your comfortable defending that position then by all means do, just don't stand too close to me as I have a violent allergy to bigotry. | |
I sympathize with Mr. Ahmed. I'd like to see more games where people from ethnical or cultural groups that are so often vilified are protagonists instead of one-dimensional big bads or as nameless hordes. PS. Saladin is an awesome name.
Good lord, did you just unironically refer to something created by JACK CHICK as evidence? | |
I would argue however those saying Shut uip are stating that how do you intend to resolve htis other then legislating against people and interfering with freedom of speech to an unneccesary degree. Your example does not fit, there is no government laws exclusively against Mulsims (if there were I would oppose them) and there is certainly no campaign to eradicate them. The thing is Ahmed can be as angry as he wants to be but what does he expect that to translate as? I would instead suggest that any Muslim within the games industry see about creating games with Mulsim heros or set in a Middle Eastern context. That seems a far better response then "How dare you cast part of my identity group as villians and not enough as heroes! You bigot!". | |
You know what I'd like to see in a game? A chance to beat up those damn dirty Amish Buddhists! I hate them so much what with their renouncement of technology and harmony for all! >:( | |
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