How do non-americans feel about being the president of the USA in Saints Row 4

[Guitarmasterx7]

So if you know absolutely nothing about SR4, the premise is that you're the president of the united states with super powers, and the over the top quality of that scenario is played for laughs and fun. I'm sure everyone is familiar with our nationalistic dickwaving, and the game plays that up tongue in cheek for sure, but does the appeal of getting into a big eagle shaped bullet and rocket spewing mounted turret fall flat with foreigners, or is it pretty much the same? Just curious.

 

[Miss G.]

Well its not like I'm The Chosen One in real life, or a goddess of the sun in wolf form, or an elf, so I don't think it matters much, if at all. I have seen a little of it in a Let's Play and if it weren't tongue-in-cheek and for shits and giggles, if I had picked it up, I'd feel like I was playing something much too America-fuck-yeah for my taste... but that's not what the game is like, so it's fine. CoD is probably the definitive nationalistic game and knowing there exists Americans just like it makes me very uncomfortable, scared almost.

 

[LaoJim]

Haven't played it, but I'm guessing its pretty much the same. The US President is so important a figure on the national stage that if the game is lampooning the "national dickwavery" then I'm sure we'd just find it funny, if not more so.

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

I don't know if this is actually the case, but I love to see this as commentary on the American election systems and maybe modern election systems in general. It's all about a popularity contest where the most charismatic and popular person wins. The Saints have always been popular within the game world and now you have a gang thug elected president because, here in America, having your own energy drink gets you more votes then having a solid plan for running the country.

But like I said, I don't know if that's the message the developers were going for. I think that level of satire might be above the heads of the guys who gave us the dildo bat.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I don't know if this is actually the case, but I love to see this as commentary on the American election systems and maybe modern election systems in general. It's all about a popularity contest where the most charismatic and popular person wins. The Saints have always been popular within the game world and now you have a gang thug elected president because, here in America, having your own energy drink gets you more votes then having a solid plan for running the country.

But like I said, I don't know if that's the message the developers were going for. I think that level of satire might be above the heads of the guys who gave us the dildo bat.

I don't know, Saints Row 2 was pretty good in the writing department.

Personally I find the entire sequence funny as hell. You character even sticks his/her hands beside their face and wiggles them about, similar to a what a child would do.

 

[RickyChinese]

Yeah, Saints Row is a much smarter game than a lot of people give it credit for. Also the game had at least two foreign voices which kind of mocked the whole election process/birthers thing.

 

[SonicWaffle]

So if you know absolutely nothing about SR4, the premise is that you're the president of the united states with super powers, and the over the top quality of that scenario is played for laughs and fun. I'm sure everyone is familiar with our nationalistic dickwaving, and the game plays that up tongue in cheek for sure, but does the appeal of getting into a big eagle shaped bullet and rocket spewing mounted turret fall flat with foreigners, or is it pretty much the same? Just curious.

Meh. It's no different from assuming the role of any other fictional character. It's just more believable when the game is set in the US, because nobody would take it seriously should the British Prime Minister go around with superpowers fistfighting with a tank. America though, it's easy to accept, because that's the way America likes to portray itself; the absolute awesomest and fuck you if you don't agree!

 

[Zhukov]

*shrug*

I think us dirty foreigner types are pretty used to the president of the US being equated to a god in American media by now. Our reaction, if we bother having one at all, is just something along the lines of, "America, lol".

Besides, I don't think a series like Saints Row is going to be doing any genuine nationalist dick waving. Granted, I haven't played the game, but it doesn't seem like their style. They'd be more likely to have the president strip down and start literally waving his dick around while yelling, "Woo, I'm the US president, choke on it!"

 

[Joccaren]

I don't really care?
As far as I'm concerned I'm just some guy with superpowers. What does being the president of the US have to do with anything other than being a convenient plot device?

 

[TeaCeremony]

It feels like a jab at the current government from a conspiracy theorist kind of view i.e. nothing you do matters because all control is taken from you by an external force (the aliens if you didnt notice). After that you go on a massive killing spree to take back your power (hasnt happened yet in the real world though)

 

[OneCatch]

Besides, I don't think a series like Saints Row is going to be doing any genuine nationalist dick waving. Granted, I haven't played the game, but it doesn't seem like their style. They'd be more likely to have the president strip down and start literally waving his dick around while yelling, "Woo, I'm the US president, choke on it!"

This.

Saints Row seems to be basically the Team America of video games - ie played for laughs and thus not to be taken seriously.

In contrast stuff like COD actually makes me more uncomfortable because it's un-ironically nationalistic.
I mean seriously, had anyone in Infinity Ward seen this scene:


before doing this one:



It's literally beyond parody.
And that's not even the most gratuitous of the COD series.

EDIT: wording

 

[Genocidicles]

I thought it was hilarious, especially because I could make a British president too.

 

[DarkSeraphim02]

I think you mean "The fucking president of the united states", as the Boss so elloquently put it herself (I play a female character).

Seriously though, you (meaning the developers) could give the player character the title of "Pulsating spider christ, child of the flying spaghetti monster" and it'd be about the same to me, if the games enjoyable I don't care what my characters title is, well, within reason anyway.

You wanna cast the character as the president or prime minister or emperor, or tsar or whatever else, ok fine. You wanna cast the character as, a war criminal or dictator or something, then I might take issue.

Though to be fair I would give the person credit if they tried to make say, a historicly accurate game where you play as Stalin or something. I wouldn't play it personally, but I'd at least give credit where it's due since I'm sure pitching such a project would make the publisher piss nails and shit bricks.

*reads what he just typed*

OK yeah, I have no idea how the hell I came up with that in a thread about saints row of all things, I think I'm going to take that as a sign and go to bed. Goodnight everybody! *walks off*

 

[Evil Smurf]

It's a nice plot device. It's nothing more then that.

 

[Senare]

I am indifferent to the whole affair. I'm used to American <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvinism>chauvinism by now and it has been lame and boring for quite a few years now. The only fun thing about it is to sometimes wave it about ironically to make fun of Americans, and even that is getting stale.

I don't know if this is actually the case, but I love to see this as commentary on the American election systems and maybe modern election systems in general. It's all about a popularity contest where the most charismatic and popular person wins. The Saints have always been popular within the game world and now you have a gang thug elected president because, here in America, having your own energy drink gets you more votes then having a solid plan for running the country.

But like I said, I don't know if that's the message the developers were going for. I think that level of satire might be above the heads of the guys who gave us the dildo bat.

Interesting take! "Team America - World Police" gave me the message that the US military is on the level of children playing make-believe with their coolest toys.

 

[VanQ]

I like to think it's an accurate representation of what being the President of the USA would be like. I'm thinking of running for office next year so I can fight off an evil alien menace with dubstep guns and superpowers.

But to be serious, we foreigners are more than well aware of the American tradition of waving their dicks at the collective world. We laugh at it when in a normal context, in this exaggerated context, I can't help but slap my knee and laugh at how true most of it is.

 

[Neonit]

before i got to play it i was like "oh shit, not again...." thinking it will be overblown nationalistic bs.
then i got to play it.

i feel that the us president was a pretty small part in game tbh. after about 2 hours i forgot that even was there in the first place. (with the occasional mention, but they are really non intrusive.)

and even than, the first 2 hours of the game, are so overblown that you could consider it a parody of us nationalism. frankly, you shouldnt ask us what we think about it, you should ask US citizens if they feel they are made fun of