#161543 - cyberwarfare - Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:46 am
just found this new radical game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHfMYC8NdFI
you can download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/984b88/n/olympic_battle_nds
i like the cute graphics, but gameplay is completely boring after 5minutes!!!
#161546 - gauauu - Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:55 am
Hehe...getting offtopic a bit, but when I lived in China, gbadev was blocked by the great firewall. I could never figure out why. Now, we can at least give them an excuse...,
#161684 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:01 am
I commend this game for attempting to bring an overt political message to a video game. It's always struck me as more than a little strange that video games or pretty much the only form of art/entertainment where political criticism is totally absent, even from independant works. Truly a disappointment to me since they are my favorite form of art/entertainment.
Unfortunately, as you pointed out this game isn't terribly fun. The simple change of making it so that you "brush off" the invading ethnicity in broader strokes rather than having to actually pick them up and move them individually would make the game a lot better, in my opinion.
...word is bondage...
#161687 - sonny_jim - Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:31 pm
| Quote: |
pretty much the only form of art/entertainment where political criticism is totally absent
|
Going OT but never heard of the Grand Theft Auto series of games? Listen to the radio stations.
EDIT: Also see Rush'N'Attack
#161688 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:11 pm
| sonny_jim wrote: |
| Quote: |
pretty much the only form of art/entertainment where political criticism is totally absent
|
Going OT but never heard of the Grand Theft Auto series of games? Listen to the radio stations. |
I don't think it's off topic, since it's the whole point of this game really. Anyway, no believe it or not, I've never really played GTA other than a couple times at friend's houses. What kind of stuff is on the radio stations?
| Quote: |
| EDIT: Also see Rush'N'Attack |
Well, it has Russians, but I wouldn't say that beyond that it tackles any actual political issues, per se. It's about as political as Call of Duty 4, which is to say that it is political, but not openly so.
A better example along these same lines might be Guevara on the Famicom, which was localized as Guerilla War and stripped of its real historical context, but still dealt with the same theme.
Ultimately, though, none of these games are political in the way I'm talking about. They don't attempt to provoke political thought in the player. The political situaion that underlies them is just the background or at best a plot device.
...word is bondage...
#161689 - sonny_jim - Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:51 pm
The trouble is that any game that attempts to educate it's players falls into that horrible category of 'Edutainment' (/me vomits)
Personally I play games to enjoy myself, not to educate myself.
#161695 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:37 am
| sonny_jim wrote: |
The trouble is that any game that attempts to educate it's players falls into that horrible category of 'Edutainment' (/me vomits)
Personally I play games to enjoy myself, not to educate myself. |
Well then, games with a political theme may not be up your alley. Many people don't like movies or music or books that tackle politics either.
My point wasn't that everyone should love political video games, but simply that it seems odd to me that there aren't any video games that deal with politics even for those of us who do like to think about these things. As I said, video games seem to be really the only form of art or entertainment that lacks a subgenre of political commentary.
Education and provoking thought are not at all the same thing at all, by the way. For instance, this Olympic Battlefields game does not contain any educational material. It assumes that the player already knows the facts about the conflicts between China and Tibet or Israel and Palestine and it simply presents a commentary on those facts intended to make the player consider the facts in a possibly new way.
...word is bondage...
#161698 - sonny_jim - Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:22 am
| Sweater Fish Deluxe wrote: |
It seems odd to me that there aren't any video games that deal with politics even for those of us who do like to think about these things.
|
You do get the occasional game where it's a side plot to the story (think nuclear proliferation in the Metal Gear Solid series), the RPG based around the Columbine massacre, this, this and this. Notice how all these examples are American btw. Can anyone else think of any more? Do Simcity and Risk count as political games?
| Quote: |
As I said, video games seem to be really the only form of art or entertainment that lacks a subgenre of political commentary.
|
When your target audience (traditionally) is under 25 it doesn't make much financial sense to to try and use political themes that your audience won't understand. You rarely get political works in Children's fiction for example, (Animal Farm being an exception?). It's a sad fact that most young people don't give a crap about politics due to disenfranchisement.
| Quote: |
Education and provoking thought are not at all the same thing at all
|
Aren't they? I always thought the best teachers were the ones who inspired you to learn for yourself.
I understand where you are coming from and the games market is expanding to include an older generation of players but I don't think we'll see any mainstream political games for a while.
p.s This is a mildly interesting read:
http://www.slate.com/id/2092688/
#161699 - OOPMan - Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:15 pm
As a form of entertainment, video games have been around for a lot less long than movies or books and hence as a medium are less well developed.
Thus, a lack of political commentary is to be expected. Early cinema was largely non-political (With exceptions like Metropolis and RUR). The same is true of novels (Tom Jones, etc...)
Give games another 50 years or so and things will probably change :-)
_________________
"My boot, your face..." - Attributed to OOPMan, Emperor of Eroticon VI
You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...
#161709 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:32 am
| OOPMan wrote: |
Thus, a lack of political commentary is to be expected. Early cinema was largely non-political (With exceptions like Metropolis and RUR). The same is true of novels (Tom Jones, etc...)
|
This isn't really true. One of the very first major feature length films ever, The Birth of a Nation, dealt with very controvesial political issues. As did many of D.W.Griffith's other early films. And it wasn't only Griffith, there are whole subgenres of early silent-era films that deal with social and political issues like sufferage, temperance, labor and poverty.
The American National Film Institute has even put out a 4 DVD box set chronicling some these films. Many of them are documentaries rather than narrative films, but that was true of early (especially pre-1915) film more generally.
Of course early cinema was still "largely" non-political just as it is today, but there was always a subgenre of political commentary films, even from the very beginning.
I think sonny_jim comes makes a good point about the people who make video games assuming that their audience wouldn't be able to understand or wouldn't want to play games that have such a political element. This false assumption is what leads to their disenfranchisement in the first place.
...word is bondage...