There are so many games where the object is to kill not only Nazi’s, but the Vermacht (sp) as well. I was wondering if any Germans are offended by this. Its one thing to pit the Nazi’s as evil as they could be said to be independent of the German state, but the Vermacht is another story. From what I’ve seen, and I could be wrong, it seems the Vermacht were pretty gentlemanly as far as those fighting in a war.
I don’t know about the games, but I do know that they weren’t particularly fond of Tarzan. In one of the early books (actually written during WWI) Tarzan actually gets down in the trenches and fights The Hun, with descriptions that the Germans found offensive. Years later, Tarzan fought the Nazis in Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (Burroughs was still churning them out – this was one of the last he wrote). The Germans still weren’t happy.
I wonder how they feel about things like the Indiana Jones movies? It’s one thing to say that it was Nazis, not Germans in general, but people often don’t see the distinction (I understand that a lot of Indians found the second Indiana Jones movie offensive). Besides, I’ll bet everyone had at least a relative affiliated with the Nazis.
Not at all offended, the Nazi’s were fucking assholes (Excuse my french).
I have played the game and noticed no racial stereotypes… err whatever about germans, just about nazis (there is a big difference). Anyways just my opinion…
Well Rye,
I cant remember but I thought there was some regular vermacht as well. And if not I know there have been in other games.
On another note, are these games even released in Germany?
I think what would offend them is if you portrayed Modern Day Germans as a facist, soulless, godless group of no good niks.
Germans that I know readily admit to past atrocities. They hate NAZIs and enjoy shooting them as much as we do.
Now Medal of Honor. There’s a game.
jar
Actually, sale of Return to Castle Wolfenstein is outlawed in Germany, because it contains Nazi symbols. Strangely, “art” (such as movies) can be made about the Third Reich, but computer games do not count as “art” for this purpose. I like to think few people are really offended by this game though, provided they can separate computer games from reality, but rules are rules.
Naturally the Third Reich is a very touchy subject, likely to cause awkward silences if you bring it up.
In response to the OP, you really need to clear up what you mean by “Nazis” and by the Wehrmacht.
When you say “Nazis” are you thinking of uniformed members of the SS?
As regards the conduct of the Wehrmacht during WWII, let’s just say that there was some variation in the level of gentlemanliness in evidence.
For those of you who read German, here is some information about legal questions concerning Nazi-related computer games in Germany:
http://www.planet-wolfenstein.at/start_special_rechtliches.shtml
(Note the Austrian domain name. RCW is not illegal in Austria.)
The games are not anti-German, they’re anti-Nazi. Huge distinction. And as has been stated, they are banned for their use of nazi symbols. Perhaps a bit of an over-reaction, but what German politician is going to argue for making these laws less strict ?
There’s still a lot of guilt in Germany about the Nazi atrocities. There’s no problem with games, movies etc. where people fighting for Nazism get killed in droves, even if they’re “just” regular Wehrmacht. (Anyway, the Wehrmacht were responsible for their part of atrocities as well.) However, there’s not quite the same level of disgust directed at the Wehrmacht as at the SS - it’s conceivable to think of the Wehrmacht soldiers as misguided and sometimes simply victims of circumstance. Look at the movie “Stalingrad” for an example.
Anyway, the nazis are the Bad Guys over here. Even the word “Nazi” is rarely used - they’re “NS” or “the Brown ones” (“die Braune”).
Kill all of them you want, and if you make a good movie about it, it might get dubbed into German and aired on Sunday evenings on German TV. As happened with Indiana Jones recently…
S. Norman
As there was among the U.S. Army soldiers who opposed them. War is ugly. War games, however, are quite fun.
Actually, in the multiplayer test of Return to Castle Wolfenstein that is out right now, half of the time your objective is to be a German and kill Americans. Most of the servers out there periodically switch you from one side to the other, to keep the teams even.
Moreover, in the second version of the test, the swastikas are now almost completely removed from the game. Most of the German symbols have been replaced with the stylized “W” that id Software has created for the game.
Late Sunday night I got absolutely smoked in RtCW by a gang of German-speaking kids. Man, were they good, playing both sides. (Incidentally, there was one game I played where some Russian-speaking guys and some German-speaking guys were lined up on one side, while most of the English-speaking guys were on the other. They whipped us as Americans, snagging our documents in two minutes.) Whether or not the public test is illegal in Germany, there are definitely a lot of German-speaking people playing it.
Oh, yes. And if RtWC player “Gomer von Pyle” is out there, I just want you to know that my performance decreased dramatically when you joined my game. It’s difficult to play well when you’re laughing.
I knew a German exchange student that enjoyed playing Axis & Allies.