Poll: Americans as the bad guys

[northeast rower]

How about we have Canada, or Poland, or Wales? Any country can be a bad guy if you want it bad enough.

As self-proclaimed ambassador for Poland I can say that we will gladly invade the world in Game. We would just want to have some time to de-rust all of our five military jets and de-termite our catapults.

Also I think our only bomber was recently sold for parts in order to pay for new grinders for our ten tanks.


So please do hold up while we make the arrangements :].

Just using Poland as an example.

 

[DeleteThisAcc]

huh?

i thought that in every game where you were playing as the americans, you were the bad guys... >.>

if you mean a game where you actually fight against america, then yeah definately. i already find it fun shooting the civilians/soldiers/etc. that speak in that awful accent... that said, saints row, and many similar games already exist.

Damn ninja

Honestly speaking I am waiting for an game where they show "terrorists" fighting against americans that wants to rob / oppress them (like C'n'C Generals GLA campaign like just FPS) . Such game could show that bigger and louder doesn't mean "good guys".
Problem is, if such game would be released americans would nuke someone for sure....

 

[Smorlock]

Games with US enemies (that I have played):
Grand Theft Auto IV
Bioshock (don't nitpick, this pretty much shits on American ideology)
Fallout 3 (demonized the American culture from the 50's)

Games with Russians/Terrorists (that I have played):
Call of Duty (combining them all into one)
Medal of Honor
Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Maybe I don't play enough games, or maybe not enough of my games are set in the real world. I know that some of the ones in the first category were a stretch, but games with US bad guys DO exist as much as ones with Russians/terrorists.

For that matter, how about a game not with US enemies, but with generally "good" guys becoming the bad? The USA isn't the only capitalist country out there. The only game I can think of where Britain is the "bad guy" is Black Ops, and that's only for one level. How about we have Canada, or Poland, or Wales? Any country can be a bad guy if you want it bad enough.

The thing is, the games with American enemies that you listed aren't war games. A game depicting America as an enemy in a realistic depiction of a war, like CoD, MoH, and BC2, is a lot different than games that take place in the States, and are about Americans fighting Americans.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Oh hell yes I'd play that game. Hell, it could be one of the shittiest games ever made and I'd still buy it just to make a point. I have to live in this ridiculous man-baby of a country (by which I mean America... where I live), and I'm sick of the image that most of my fellow countrymen have of their country. Even if all the game would do is piss them off, it'd still be nice for them to get the wake up call that there are some differing opinions to the America #1 bullshit.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

It's been done, but yes. Anything presented and handled well is worth playing.

 

[Captain_M]

I'm surei t's been said a million times already but bo put it simply: I don't really care which country is the bad guy in a game. You had better hope to hell though that the reason that America is the bad guy is a well written and convincing one.

 

[teebeeohh]

but modern warfare 2 had american baddies? or were all those guys in rio(or whatever souther american city that was) all imported russian soldiers?

 

[geldonyetich]

Technically speaking, we've already had games where Americans were the bad guys. Haze and Alpha Protocol feature the "corporate douchebag" American bad guy. Then there's games like Dead Rising where the bad guy is an American soldier trying to cover things up.

 

[Wintermute_]

I have begged inwardly for years for a WWII game played from a German perspective.

Think about this: By the end of the war, Hitler was drafting soldiers from the age of 14 to 56. Not every soldier was even a nazi party supporter. A good majority were just people, average teenagers in some cases like those fighting among the allies ranks that were swept up with the glorified image the government portrayed the conflict as and joined to fight for the home country and defend it.

Imagine playing as the 16-19 year old German farm boy, handed a gun and sent to the eastern from, fight in the most morbid conditions in the war (Read the book, "Sniper on the Eastern Front". Its reveals A LOT, and is a GREAT read) or fighting the onslaught of American troops, driving across europe to your home country, looking to kill you and every german and sight, because as far as they are concerned, your an evil bastard that takes pleasure in killing and burning and marauding, when thats just not true.

I would play the shit out of that game, and it would at least mix up the WWII formula Call of Duty established... Fighting battles from a german perspective? interesting... Storming Normandy again? eh... Defending Normandy against all odds and inevitable defeat? Very interesting

 

[valleyshrew]

Because america's enemies are largely not sympathetic enough to be good guys. I wouldn't like to play as a muslim who believes homosexuals and apostates should be put to death. If it was a historical perspective and not presenting america is the big bad then fine. Or if it was speculative fiction with legitimate reasons for america to be the bad guys, that could be interesting. But currently america are far from the bad guys some seem to make them out to be. The iraq war was morally justified for numerous reasons. Economically it was arguably not worthwhile but that's not most people's objection. Surely there's been a game where you play as the nazis before? You could argue that FFVII has american style corporate greed as the villain, and you play a terrorist.

 

[Sad Face]

If Russians can be villians why not Americans?

Or Germans, or Brits, or Canadians or Brazillians?

It's a video game, it's fiction.

 

[Mr Somewhere]

I care not.
I would care if people concentrated more on quelling the surge of war based videogames.
Although, if the game were some subversive parody, I wouldn't mind... We need more laughter in videogames, less gritty "realism". Which is somewhat hypocritical coming from me. I never smile.

 

[V8 Ninja]

As long as it's handled well and all the Americans don't have twirly handlebar mustaches, I say go for it.

 

[Virtual-Goose]

as we all know america think their somekind of savior of all people on this otherwise empty planet so they would kick up a fuss on the grounds of big headed right wing nationalism

 

[MaVeN1337]

<-- American.

We play the bad guy everyday.

 

[cthulhumythos]

Americans aren't nearly witty and charming enough to be the villians.

If the British have to be the villians, then we're the best damn villians around.

yeah, but we've got fat corporate business ceo's that are greedy cutthroat bastards.


we may have difficulty being a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard
but we can pull off being a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CompleteMonster

 

[MrRetroSpectacles]

The English are rarely depicted as the antagonists in games, i think every once in a while it would be interesting to have an English antagonist as quite frankly we're very good at playing the role. Not that difficult when you invaded the majority of Earth really. However i would like to see less English antagonists in movies because the stereotype has been done to death, seriously guys give Alan Rickman a break and let him smile in a movie, you typecasting fools. Lets have an English protagonist in a hollywood blockbuster action movie too, you do know that it isn't just Americans who can bodybuild and carry guns around?

 

[Snotnarok]

Have we not seen at least a hundred movies where the U.S. government are doing twisted things? It's already happened people, we make ourselves out to be the badguys alraedy.

 

[albear]

Ive noticed the trend seems to be Americans are only allowed to be the bad guy if an American is also the good guy.(there are few examples, but they are rare)


how about American baddie, Non American Goodie

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Wasn't that Shepard guy the real bad guy in MW 2? And he was American? And the Russians were bad too? And you were a brit for the most part?

It was a bit lame, actually. But whatever.

Also, I'm pretty convinced that America is decidedly a bad guy in the Fallout universe. Pre-apocalypse and otherwise.