I recently saw an ad on television for a new video game. I was not paying too much attention to it so I did not get the exact name. What I did pick up was that it is based on Operation Desert Storm and the first war in Iraq. It features the usual gambit of military vehicles and weapons and looks like it plays as a first person shooter. (The game itself looks pretty good.) The ad even goes so far as to show Saddam H. in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle. I was just wondering if maybe we hadn’t just crossed a line.
Now lets get a couple things straight……I am a DOOM baby. When ID released Castle Wolfenstien & DOOM back in the day, I was hooked. Have been ever since. Quake, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam, you name it. I have no problem with violent video games. I enjoy most of them. (he, he) I love to come home and unwind from my daily commute with a little GTA3. (Still have not picked up Vice City.)
That being said……I know there are people out there that are diehard against these types of games. There are people out there that want to ban the games we have now. Is one of these video game companies going to go to far and give these people the ammunition they need to enact some sort of radical law? Will they find yet one more reason to make a criminal out of me? In just about all the shooters I play, the bad guys are either fictional or faceless (of no specific origin). Where do you draw the line when we start putting games out there that endorse the killing of real peoples in another country based on current events? (Regardless of your personal opinion of them.) Are there other games that have pointed such a finger at a specific race or creed?
I think that there is way too much money in violent video games for them to go away. Congressional palms are easy to grease. I think, at most, we may see a more stringent ratings system and carding of kids who buy them.
Oh, and I guess the Medal of Honor games, as well as other WWII games target Nazis, not that Nazis shouldn’t be targeted, but they were REAL, I guess. I don’t know if any WWII games have Hitler as an enemy, but I don’t think too many people would object if one did.
That Operation Desert Storm game was in development for quite a while before the current situation with Iraq, and I believe it was being worked on before 9/11.
I don’t think it will make a huge difference. Usually the people who do the complaining about video game violence are the type who are pretty gung-ho about killing Saddam. They might think this game is a rare example of a violent video game that isn’t bad.
If any game would have been the stimulus for new attacks on video game violence, it would have been GTA3, where people are encouraged to kill cops and innocent civilians. Killing Saddam is nothing compared to that.
It’s funny, a NES game from the mid-80s, Bionic Commando, ended with your character killing Hitler. In the US version Hitler’s name was changed and the Nazis you killed throughout the game were generic enemy soldiers.
In Wolfenstein 3D, Hitler was the end boss. That game is over 10 years old. I believe the goal in the sequel to the original Castle Wolfenstein (not the 3D game, but the old top-down game that was popular on the Apple IIE) was to kill Hitler as well, though you did that by sneaking a bomb into his bunker. There is also a map for Return to Castle Wolfenstein with Hitler as the target, but it is not an official map.
There was a mod for Doom that turned the Cacodemons into the head of Bill Clinton, and replaced the monster’s growls with Clinton saying ‘Chelsea’. Very little controversy over that, if I recall correctly, even though it was included on some collections of user-created content.
On second thought, I think I would have to agree about the GTA3. Thats one twisted mother.
When I think about it…are there any missions in GTA3 that actually require killing a cop or an innocent civillian? Or is it just that the game creates an enviroment that allows people to indulge in thier darkest fantasies.
I mean, I’m not the only one who shot a hooker to get my money back, right?
Hey wait a minute, I just remembered I dont have any morals.
GTA3 - Innocent Civillians killed in my wake= 2331.
Whats in your wallet?
GTA3 had some rampage missions where you have to kill a certain number of people in a certain amount of time with certain weapons. On some of them, it’s impossible to do without killing civilians, and of course when you start killing people the cops show up. There is also one mission I remember where you have to kill an undercover cop - I only got a short way into the second island before I got bored with it, though, so there may be more cop-killing missions.
I think it’s perverse to show the assassination of a world leader in a video game - and you’re the killer. I guess it’s alright since Huseein is Irredeemably Evil™, but imagine, if, say, Schroeder were in the crosshairs.
It’s just really perverse that something as “light” as a video game commercial would feature the assassination of a world leader.
I just remembered, Soldier of Fortune had Saddam Hussein in it but you did not kill him (instead you assassinate one of his generals). Screenshots of Saddam in crosshairs were used in some of it’s ads, though.
Nah, this stuff’s been going on for years. Sure it’s a wee bit more realistic these days, but back in the Commodore 64 days I distinctly remember a game called Libyan Commando. After certain graphically simple 8-bit missions, you round up Qadafi’s family against a wall and proceed to empty an M16 cartridge into them. At the end of the game, when you have to type your three initials for the high score, each letter is entered by having a Libyan POW step up to a chopping block and slicing off his head. The falling head then turns into the letter of your choice. How cute.
One of the blurbs for MOH (at least over here) was " Medal of Honour: Puts the fun back into killing Nazi’s"
I had a German housemate not not so long ago. He heard German voices coming from my room and knocked on my door to find out what was up. I was playing MOH. He asked what was I doing and I replied “Killing Nazi’s” He looked at me and said “Cool” and left. I love the MOH games.
The only thing I find offensive about the game is the commercial with the faux newsreporter exclaiming that the war on Iraq has started. I think that’s irresponsible.
i pistol whipped a guy in ‘Soldier of Fortune II’ until he bled profusely from the head and neck, then died. Then i took a chunk out of his skull with a bullet.
gave me the willies, now i don’t go poking the corpses anymore.
how could you get bored with gta3 and only get to the second island? were the missions to hard for ya? i played it for a year and found many ways to entertain myself. I bought vice city on it’s release date and love it. Just for the record, you dont have to kill anyone while in free play, some missions require the killing of others but goddamn it, it’s just a digital representation of an individual, that’s all…it’s a game, it isn’t real…also there is a mature rating so kids shouldn’t be able to buy it, yet i’ve heard so many exclaim that their parents are getting for them…i’m okay with it, i let my 6 year old fool around with it…she knows its a game…
as far as some military leader being featured in a game, why not…again, it’s only a game why waste time fretting over nonsense…i remember playing desert strike on sega, what a blast…
people spend way too much time blaming video for problems…i’ve heard recent talk over the fact that maybe video games do notcause violence…who knows…
That’s it? i was around 22000 after two months (and only 89% complete, including the full storyline not complete) when GTAVC came out, and GTA3 got abandoned. (only 8000 dead so far with 55% done, but i havent spent as many hours sniping innocents in this game as the last, as driving around on bikes is more fun.
I personally love GTA3 and GTA:VC. From my experience, it isn’t encouraged to kill policemen or innocent civilians. Killing a civ may get you a one star police level, killing a cop immediatly gives you a two star. That isn’t good! To get out if a two star rating you need TWO cop bribes, or a trip to a safehouse to change clothes. Sure there are rampages, but I believe in VC you only kill gang members for the rampages. From memory, you never have to blatantly kill innocent people. Yes, you do have to scare jurors, blow up buildings, carjack, rob stores, sell drugs to children, kill gang members, etc. But the blatant murdering of innocents is purely out of individual entertainment (And I’ve completed the storyline of both games).
Ok, so there is that one Biker Gang mission where you have to kill/destroy/blow up/cause as much havoc as possible in the allotted time, but that wasn’t really your choice. If Big Mitch tells you to, you gotta.
(Ok, so I’m 100% wrong. GTA games are the most degrading, most graphic, yet most entertaining games in electronics history. Since GTA2 I’ve been hooked on it’s open endedness and replayability and incredible entertainment. But look! I’ve never killed anyone, yet.)
To get back on topic, I don’t think showing Sadaam (or anyone else) being a target in a game is that bad. There are plenty of games for various wars, even Desert Storm. I see your point though. Killing a pixelated hitler in Castle. is quite different from killing a detailed mod of Sadaam, who actually looks real. I also can see how since he’s still alive (Not for long, maybe) it may seem wrong. But I still don’t find it any more innapropriate than any other violent game out there.
I couldn’t pull the trigger and break Lucy’s heart, myself.
Trivial game-geek nitpick: the goal of the original Castle Wolfenstein was simply to escape the castle, with the War Plans, if possible. The sequel, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, featured the bomb-planting angle, including a cartoon Hitler wandering back and forth in the final room saying “Heil!” over and over.
