do other countries get offended?

[Archamedes 10]

This has been a question i have always wondered the answer too for many years now. But any combat game, be it medal of honor, COD Flashpoint/flashpoint 2, Arma, World conflict. The games in general always seem to favor the americans. So do people in Germany and russia in particular get annoyed when playing these games that you are in effect forced to fight against your own country? Mainly for ww2 or cold war games. I know that arma and flashpoint favor each depending on the mission editor but it just seems to be a genralisation in most games. When i played medal of honor allied assault i always wanted to play it from germanies point of view, but no option to do this

[dm 9]

It gets boring, but offensive? Hardly.

There are some groups of close minded individuals who get offended by anything that doesnt protray their people/religion/country in a positive light, but thats their problem.

[maddogx 13]

I'm not actually german, but from living in Germany for almost twenty years I think I can say that german gamers generally aren't offended by games where Germany is the antagonist. And there is a simple reason why: in WW2 games you aren't fighting "the german people", you are fighting "the Nazis". There's a major difference.

It's the same thing in films really. People don't generally identify with the villains, even if they're of the same nationality. When I watch Braveheart or The Patriot, I don't get angry because the brits in the film are portrayed as the evil villains. :)

[Master gamawa 0]

Well I am greek and I was pretty pissed off with the portrayal of the Spartans in 300.

A bunch of pretty-boy poseurs.

Spartans were trained for war, not for the catwalk!

ps: I am not really pissed off but I can understand how it may feel.

Edited April 27, 2010 by Master gamawa

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

I am German. If the game tells a story from the American perspective I don't mind playing as an American and if Germans are the villains, I have no problem shooting at them. If the story puts me into the role of a German and I have to shoot Americans I will do that, too. To me a video game is like a film, with the difference that I can play a role in a game. The role is determined by the game. It does not necessarily have to reflect may own political or ethical opinion.

In online games it adds to the immersion to play in a uniform which represents the country of the language spoken on the server (provided that it is one of the few languages I speak).

The best online experience I can imagine would be something like a virtual World War with players from all countries wearing their own uniforms, speaking their native language and you'd need liaison officers to take care of international communication.

[Serclaes 0]

I am german too and can agree with alpha-kilo.

[...]I think I can say that german gamers generally aren't offended by games where Germany is the antagonist. And there is a simple reason why: in WW2 games you aren't fighting "the german people", you are fighting "the Nazis". There's a major difference.

I think its more because patriotism is considered a disease. Btw many Wehrmacht soldiers were drafted, not volunteers.

[dmarkwick 261]

I am German. If the game tells a story from the American perspective I don't mind playing as an American and if Germans are the villains, I have no problem shooting at them. If the story puts me into the role of a German and I have to shoot Americans I will do that, too. To me a video game is like a film, with the difference that I can play a role in a game. The role is determined by the game. It does not necessarily have to reflect may own political or ethical opinion.

In online games it adds to the immersion to play in a uniform which represents the country of the language spoken on the server (provided that it is one of the few languages I speak).

The best online experience I can imagine would be something like a virtual World War with players from all countries wearing their own uniforms, speaking their native language and you'd need liaison officers to take care of international communication.

In the Silent Hunter series of games my favourite scenario is playing as a German on a German sub, taking out American, British and other allied shipping. I prefer this scenario over say the Pacific scenario, most probably this is due to the effect the film Das Boot had on me. I cannot say it worries me any, I'm more interested in the situation and game than the political shenanigans :)

[Baff1 0]

I'm not actually german, but from living in Germany for almost twenty years I think I can say that german gamers generally aren't offended by games where Germany is the antagonist. And there is a simple reason why: in WW2 games you aren't fighting "the german people", you are fighting "the Nazis". There's a major difference.

It's the same thing in films really. People don't generally identify with the villains, even if they're of the same nationality. When I watch Braveheart or The Patriot, I don't get angry because the brits in the film are portrayed as the evil villains. :)

I get angry when the IRA are portrayed as hero's in American films however.

You know, the lovable IRA guy, Brad Pitt...Richard Gere.

American's send these people money and these films encourage them to by glamorising it.

I can watch Michael Collins and not get annoyed at all. I can watch the scene where British tanks fire on football supporters in a stadium knowing full well that it never happened and misrepresents history to demonise my nation....and still enjoy it.

But er... Brad Pitt, Richard Gere... That just winds me up. It doesn't just trivialise a very real problem it promotes very real terrorism. Imaginary adventure stories made for public entertainment that end up encouraging very real acts of violence in which people die.

Edited April 27, 2010 by Baff1

[dmakatra 1]

An interesting counter-question would be why nearly all games are centred on Americans as the good-doers. Why can't they be villains? I seem to remember Americans on this very board exclaiming that they'd never, ever fire at Americans even if they're virtual representations.

[Bulldogs 10]

I'm Australian and my mortal enemy is this one guy in Rainbow Six : Lockdown. The game itself was bad enough but there's one terrorist that screams out things with a strong Aussie accent and I can't kill him because I have a laughing fit every time I hear him.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Games are games. Films are films.

If people arent able to see the difference between fiction and reality they have some serious issues. For many people the virtual world is better and easier to understand if its only painted in black-and-white. Biggest market for many mainstream games/shooters is US. ;)

[FalornHope 10]

I don't get offended at all, I just wish that we Brits were in more video games other than just WWII ones ;)

I'm pretty sure there are MoD forces in Arma... pretty cool.

[jakerod 254]

I'm American and don't mind shooting Americans in games. I am kind of sick of playing as Americans all the time though. Its not a big deal if the story requires it but I would like to have a few games that are a bit more original where I am not playing on the same side all the time. Looking forward to OA so I can be KSK.

[celery 8]

It's annoying that WW2 fps games almost never have single player content for any other than major Allied countries (USA, UK and USSR), leaving all Axis countries and minor Allied countries untouched no matter how much good material there is without the need to recycle the same scenarios from the two last years of the six-year war. Call of Duty 5 was the bottom of the barrel for me, with the second battle of the Reichstag depicted within the same series, and the CoD5 one was ridiculously overdone.

[Baff1 0]

Men of War: Crimson Tide has the Romanian campaign in it.

That was a nice look at some history I've never learnt.

I think games programmers do it best when they use their own nationalities as the subject matter.

[Herbal Influence 10]

I have no moral problems whereas my grandfather would never play this game for he has survived a real war, WWII, being not a Nazi, though we are German.

I am happy that also the subtle coldwar has ended.

Before Gorbatshov, the Pope and the Solidarnosc in Polonia and last but not least the East German people opened the iron curtain there was a lot of subtle ideology:

In every media may it be video games or movies: West guys were always good looking, suntanned and heroes and the sun was shining whereas East guys looked like criminals and had rainy, nasty wheather all the time.

I think we should stay aware of that kind of media "racism".

As much as we should realize that e.g. TOP GUN with shiny-pseudo-smart Tom Cruise was supported by the US Government like every Hollywood movie who throws a positive light on US military - they get the inevitable military equiment for no costs or very low costs. At last that is what I read on the internet. This means: No critical mass-attracting-film is possible without this massive help from the US military for it's immensely costly to hire up-to-date military equipment.

[dunedain 48]

Personnaly I'm a "bit" well totally offended with the massive anti french "racism" particularly since the after 2003, "our choice to not invade Irak with the coalition", it was a really bad time to be french online back then.

So now I get a bid annoyed with people calling us surrender monkeys ect.. ect..

Even in movies, when in Hollywood it appears ok to steal french heroes such as Jules Brunet "Nathan Algren" or that American ship in Master&Commander that is now a French American made ship, plus all those anti french jokes in US movies, jokes on google and so on ...

All this is really irritating by dint of .. Well that has the merit of making me much more interested in my own country history and there is nothing to be ashamed of, even the fall of France when about 300 000 casualties were accounted French side, a tragic defeat indeed but no cowards in French army there ..

I would not like, if German, to play all those games with allies killing dozen of German soldiers, that was the Nazi germany of course but all those people were Germans and not all evil spirits... As an example, in Brittany, Germans "not the SS" had a good reputation during the occupation, my grandfather sometimes talks of the war when he was a child and while the allies were annihilating our cities those soldiers were helping getting everyone in shelters. Just do not mix the SS and the German Army, especially while the British Expeditionary Force before the German invasion had a very poor behaviour towards French citizens same goes for Allies during France invasion and occupation.

But er... Brad Pitt, Richard Gere... That just winds me up. It doesn't just trivialise a very real problem it promotes very real terrorism. Imaginary adventure stories made for public entertainment that end up encouraging very real acts of violence in which people die.

Well and who's the problem ? people think they are guys fighting for their freedom, who just want their country to be one again... It's not like Britain was wanted there first or that you're blamless.

Edited April 27, 2010 by dunedain

[PogMoThoin 10]

I can watch Michael Collins and not get annoyed at all. I can watch the scene where British tanks fire on football supporters in a stadium knowing full well that it never happened and misrepresents history to demonise my nation....and still enjoy it.

Eh, Sorry to stop You there, but it did happen, 14 people died in Croke park that day including 2 children, 2 footballers, along with dozens of other wounded and injured. You've read the wrong history books m8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281920%29

http://gaaweb.sitesuite.cn/page/bloody_sunday.html

Edited April 27, 2010 by PogMoThoin

[SASrecon 0]

I'm half mexican half german, the sort of comments I sometimes (very occasionally) get at school are... well... somewhat creative :D

But it's all casual racism; which I take as laughing 'with me'.

I think casual racism is only just acceptable but taking jokes too far and aiming the racism at a certain person/saying it out of hate and with the intent to start a fight etc. should be dealt with seriously and isn't at all funny.

But these countries also have many good sides, I would confidently say that I wouldn't trade my nationality for anything (afaik I have to become 100% British if I want to join the army here, which is a kind of turn-off for me, but I can still represent the country in sport :p)

Edited April 27, 2010 by SASrecon

[sic-disaster 311]

I am not easily offended.

I do get offended however by obvious, well, lets call it flamebaiting for lack of a better word.

For example, we have a politician here who made an anti-muslim 'movie', with 'facts' of violence stated in the Quran, leaving out all the peacefull stuff and at the same time ignoring the fact that the bible is also full of violence.

It was an obvious attempt at provoking the 'right people' (meaning those dumbfuck extremists blowing themselves up) so he could say "See, i was right! Now deport all those foreigners!" and effectively labeling an entire community as lunatics.

Also carefully labeling it as an act of freedom of speech, again ignoring the fact that freedom of speech too has it's limits in social behaviour, especially in his position as a polotician.

I'm not muslim and have only known a few, but i get very offended by crap like that.

However, burn a Dutch guy on a stake in some movie for all i care, if it's fiction or educational.

I just cant see demonisation of any kind, to any one.

[baddo 0]

I think the game producers are a bit too American-centric. When it's Americans making the games then I can't really blame them for liking their own country, but others should not blindly follow them into that. I argue there is enough profit to be made elsewhere than in America that everyone do not have to kiss American ass to be a profitable game company.

And they are being too "politically correct", too. I hate political correctness. And no I am not a 'punk', or an anarchist, far from it. I've just noticed that "political correctness" is used as an excuse for a lot of things I don't like. Hypocrisy. It's very much an American thing. Sure, others are hypocritical, too, but I see there is a massive concentration of hypocrisy in America. It's not welcome. Fortunately not all of them are so hypocritical.

[*LK1* 10]

This has been a question i have always wondered the answer too for many years now. But any combat game, be it medal of honor, COD Flashpoint/flashpoint 2, Arma, World conflict. The games in general always seem to favor the americans.

so boring yeah.i'm really interested to fight with/against uk forces,french forces(1 of the good armies on the world)or chinese for example.

And there is a simple reason why: in WW2 games you aren't fighting "the german people", you are fighting "the Nazis". There's a major difference.

mmm...you gave me an idea about a new thread on OT sub-forum concerning

the moral responsability about the german people :rolleyes:

[Archamedes 10]

I guess films are to blame as well, especially coming back to this thread now and seeing some of the other comments.

Americans love to glamerise themselves in war films. WW2 especially I mean come on, there where lots of other countries in the war too fighting against the nazis and the japanese. The genre i love the most is the vietnam ones. Pretty much all Vietnam films I have seen always show the americans win the battles rather than the actually losing the war.

I would love to see a british film based on the falklands or some of our own fights. Better still I would love to see a film from the talibans point of view. They are always considered evil but i guess good and bad is a point of view depending on who's side you are on. But yeah, lets see why they are so pissed or deluded into thinking their fight is justified. However i know that as soon as there is a scene of an american soldier being killed there will be a shitstorm because its perfectly ok to see "ragheads" being drilled but its unacceptable when the bullets fire the other way.

[Scrub 0]

The genre i love the most is the vietnam ones. Pretty much all Vietnam films I have seen always show the americans win the battles rather than the actually losing the war.

Besides that being the more-right portrayal of how the 'police action' went, it would be pretty damn booooring to watch a disgruntled politician sign a piece of paper. :p

I prefer the battles. :D

Another spin of your original question:

Are gangs and other criminal thugs insulted with their portrayal in GTA1-4? lol

[Barely-injured 0]

Here is the thing, it depends on the game or to be more precise it depends on the target audience.

Call me close minded if you want but I do get annoyed to say the least at games like modern warfare or C&C generals or world in conflict for example. My problem with those games is the they trivialize real-life-like events into simple white vs black (or in this case evil brown ragheads, or evil red russkies). The issue here is that those particular games are clearly targeting young teens (nobody pays attention to game ratings). I know it may sound ridicules but the unfortunate realty of this world is that a lot of young people (and some adults) take a lot of their perception of the outside world from movies and games. That obviously doesn't mean that they would go on thinking that Russians are pure evil for example, but since they cant be bothered with researching history or at least listening to real slightly objective news, it will be all that much harder for them to form a real uninfluenced opinions about real world events.

On the other hand I don't mind games like Operation flashpoint, Arma 2, Operation Arrowhead or combat flight sims like lockon or falcon 4. they might also have some of those "enemies" but they either put it in a real world context or make things a bit more complicated than simple black and white. But most importantly the target audience here is very different those are people (adult and young) that have patience and hopefully are not influenced by games or movies except in the pure entertainment sense of course.