Please, give us anything but Russia

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I get why people complain about this, but I have to ask...What does it really matter?

I mean, the most common complaint I've heard is that "Russia couldn't invade America!" which is invalid for two reasons:
1. The series takes place in an alternate history/near future.
2. Even considering this, the plot of these games is clearly meant to be taken with a grain of salt.
3. NO country can actually invade the US right now! So no matter who they chose to be the bad guys, it wouldn't be any more or less plausible then Russians.

The only real effect the Russians have on the game is what language your enemies repetitively yell at each other.

So I ask again: Would it REALLY make that much of a difference?


As to WHY we're always fighting Russians...The accents. I'm serious, I'm pretty sure it's because Russians have really evil-sounding accents.

 

[Wintermoot]

maybe people still have a bone to pick with Russia/Eastern Europe.
(even though China , Western Europe or Martians is more likely then the USSR)
But it makes a interesting "What If" scenario.

 

[Reaper195]

There are games with China as the bad guys. Operation Flashpoint has them, and the Mercenaries games (they're not the main antagonist, but they're presented similar). Hell, even C&C substituted China for Russia in Generals.

I was gonna add Homefront there, then I realized that was the Koreans. Granted, they did take over China, but...whatever.

The problem with most modern war games is that the developers want to have a sense of believability (...yep...), and there are not many countries that could be widely involved in WW3.

This is why I love the Gears series so much. It's a war, you get the whole war concept, but instead you are fighting monsters on another planet. I wish more games would go along this line, and keep as little sci-fi-ness as possible (I.E. No lasers, space ships, etc. Gears did it quite well).

 

[v3n0mat3]

Actually, it's really only the super popular games (like Modern Warfare) that have Russians as the big, bad guys. WWII shooters are far greater in number, and we have more Modern day shooters that depict Arabic opponents than Russians, like SOCOM, Full Spectrum Warrior, and the new Medal of Honor.

 

[loc978]

I guess I can't really relate... the last Russian I saw in any game was an allied commander in an RTS... and the last massively popular shooter I played with any sort of real-world factions involved had me siding with remnants of the US Army against remnants of the US federal government... and occasional Chinese spies.

 

[Infernai]

I honestly think someone should make an FPS where you play as Russia and you're enemy is like..the CIA or something. Why? Well, we need to make things fair and all so we might as well have one where the roles are switched.

 

[Laser Priest]

For the love of fuck, what difference would it make?

It's a big country that isn't too fond of America and America isn't too fond of it.

And either way, you'd just have different languages being shouted by the guys shooting at you. CoD isn't deep. It doesn't even fucking try to be deep. It's a playable action movie. Just sit back and enjoy it or ignore it.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

I think a greater problem than the constant abuse of Russia (which is getting tiresome and a wee bit offensive) is that of scale.

Why does every game have to be about the fate of the world? Why can't some games be about a more ambiguous, regional conflict?

For example, just off the top of my head:

Denmark is going through a financial crisis, and many people at home see Greenland as an economic liability. Canada, being unaffected by this economic downturn, offers to take Greenland into confederation.

Greenlanders, mostly being divided between Danes and Inuit peoples, become actually divided by these developments, as the leaders of the Inuit "faction" see being a Canadian territory as a good thing, while those who identify themselves as more Danish protest against becoming Canadian.

Events develop, and then it turns out that a massive deposit of a valuable substance (uranium, gold, doesn't matter) is discovered in an uninhabited part of Greenland. The process of Greenland's joining of Canada is going ahead, but once this discovery is made, the Danish government sees this resource as an opportunity to get out of the situation they're in.




So there we have it. A multi-tiered, mostly reasonable foundation from which an armed conflict could be built off of. You could throw other Northern powers (yes, even Russia and America) into it with actual weight to their actions. Do America and Canada stick together and bully Denmark? Does Russia back Canada in an effort to become friendlier? Do Canada and Denmark go into all-out war (which pretty much must happen for the game to work)?

Why developers can't come up with better stories than "Cold War gets Hot", and "China as an expy for the Soviet Union" is beyond me.

 

[moon2doggy]

Don't like fighting Russians, go play Singularity. It's a Activison game where at the end the Russians win in very ending.

 

[Korten12]

I totally agree that Russia is way overused as the bad guy. In MW3 I really hope to fight the Chinese or N. Koreans just to add variety. I'd also like to fight alongside the Russians. That's something I liked in CoD4. There was the "bad" Russian faction, but there were other Russian guys on your side.

But why would you? I mean China and K. Koreans aren't in the MW story as villians so it would be wierd to have them just come in.

 

[Captain Bork]

Haha, no. See becuse then they would have to do some actual goddamn work...
I can just imagine how they come up with these uninspired abortions they call plot.

Jim: Ok guys, modern warfare 3, any ideas?

Steve: "Well, i thought we could try making a thought provoking, interesting narrative that will weave togeather the events from the past two games and leave our audience breathtaken and filled with awe-"

Resident idiot: "MOAR GUNS!"

Other idiot: "Ya, moar guns!"

Jim: "More guns it is then."

 

[Shirokurou]

As a Russian I approve this message, comrade.
The Russian bear wants peace and is tired of this Cold War crap...

I am agree with Ivan on this one issue. Russian bear wants peace not war.

[http://img850.imageshack.us/i/p16p.jpg/]
(awwwwwwww its so cute)

Well shown comrade.
This bear used to be in the Russian Bear cavalry and was mounted with an ICBM, but not anymore.
Да настанет мир во всем мире.

 

[alrekr]

How about we have I don't know: USA as the villians?

The question is who the other side would be in something like that. Making America the "bad guys" isn't so much of a stretch, but making any of the countries that would actually want to attack us (China? North Korea? Iran?) the "good guys" definitely is. And aside from maybe China, none of them could plausibly win, which is of course a requirement in a video game. If your character dies, you can always assume that the rest of your countrymen can carry on without you, but if you don't, your side has to win at the end of the game.

Then again, a game that ends in failure is the sort of "different" thing the sort of people who would want the US to be the villains might like.

How about this situation:

Plot 1: USA "bad guys" who attack I don't know some small country and you play as the freedom fighters in that country

Plot 2: USA main villian, UK as the hidden villian who uses the war to seize power from other countries, results in the failure you mentioned as you play as say a Russian

Plot 3: You play as say a USA (any other country generally seen as good guys side) soldier and mabye change sides e.g. your one of the bad guys

Plot 4: Haze style you start off as one of the Big well armed superpower country's soldiers and then realise your the bad guys and switch sides and thus help the resistance.

Plot 5: Nazi-Communist-Jew-Marxist-Muslim-Christian-Pastafarians from neptune create robo hitler to fight 100ft stalin who then team up to fight Mothra

Plot 6: Centres around fights over resource rich regions in Eastern Europe,Africa between rival factions; you play as a UN Peacekeeper trying to prevent things such as mass murder for example. Could have different endings based on how successful you are at saving people.

 

[RA92]

What I don't get is how Russia has enough power to attack N. America and all of Europe simultaneously...

Especially without Tesla Coils!

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I would say that they would probably think Russia would be the only ones who could launch an attack on the US. China has been used in a few games not least Fallout where they invade through Canada.

It's not like Europe would or could attack the US, Britain would probably drop out straight away as we are pretty close allies.

I always wonder how the Russians must feel always being the bad guys. At least when English people are used we are more the maniacal lone genius sort and not the whole country.

Bear is for hugs not for fights.

 

[Charm Offensive]

They were unbalanced as they glossed over any country other than USA being involved in the war. Most WW2 games forget that the british won in North Africa and that the Russians did most the work in Europe. The Germans couldn't advance past France as we won the battle of britain.


*EDIT* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill
why hasn't he got a game? he ran round with a sword killing nazis who had guns?

No they didn't. The major selling point of the early games was exploring the conflict from so many different perspectives.

Call of Duty 2 featured a British campaign in Tunisia, so i wouldn't say they overlooked North Africa.

World at War (okay, not really an "early game") focused primarily on the Russian advance to Berlin.

Hell, CoD 3 featured Polish and Canadian campaigns... with perhaps the Poles successful defence of "the Mace" being the biggest moment of the game.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Yeah i always wonder why it's Russia that's like the default bad guy in a lot of games. I mean it must be at least a little disheartening for them.

Also i was wondering, in any game with say Americans in, or British for that matter you usually get a bit of variation in the accents i.e. you'll get a guy with say a New York accent and another with a Californian one etc..
But all the Russians sound the same! I mean come on Russia is a BIG place...there must be more that one type of accent...they cant all sound the same...can they?

As a Russian I approve this message, comrade.
The Russian bear wants peace and is tired of this Cold War crap...

I am agree with Ivan on this one issue. Russian bear wants peace not war.

[http://img850.imageshack.us/i/p16p.jpg/]

(awwwwwwww its so cute)

D'Awwwwwwwwwwww!!1!!1one!!1 I want him, he shall be my pet and he will be the best pet in the worldz, and he shall be called Garry :OD

 

[Riddle78]

Why russia? Because some game developers think that,since they were the most famously communist people,think that they're demons as communists ot psuedo-communists. Personally,I wanna see the USA as the bad guy in a video game for once. It'd be an interesting role reversal. JTF-2 TO THE RESCUE~!

Side note: Communism,in theory,is amazing. Nobody owns anything,so ownership is moot. If you need it,take it. Once you don't need it,make it available for other people. Human nature just gets in the way.