Poll: Anyone here sick of seeing Russians as bad guys in every movie/videogame/novel?

[Aedes]

You won't worry for much longer. Chinese are becoming the new russians. And I'm already getting sick of them too. <.<

Now why the russians remains as the bad guys (and the nazis too) bugs me. I can presume it's because people are lazy. Even though it's an imaginary story where you can make a war between pandas and rhynos because they found an infinte source of lolipop and didn't want to share, no one is intersted to write it from scratch. It's just easier to go back in time when 2 countries didn't like each other and pretend something happened so the war could explode.

 

[open trap]

Its a better alternative to nazies, and it allows for alot of cool alternat realities.

 

[Nemu]

Don't care.

On the off-chance that I do care: it's a LOT easier to make Russians/Germans/Japanese the bad guys than it is the make the more recent enemies of the US the evil villians in video games.
Hating a country is okay, hating a religion isn't, apparently, so people aren't comfortable with the idea of creating games about killing Muslims[footnote] or wotever other religion people seem to have issues with, I was only citing an example[/footnote].

 

[brunothepig]

You know, I'm not even sure they are the villians in entertainment as much as people say. Certainly, they're probably villains the majority of the time, but I think because of this idea we have that they will always be the villains, we remember when they are, and ignore when they aren't. Not to prove our theory is right, but just subconsciously. We don't really think about it, because it seems to be of little importance.

 

[garfield2326]

i wish i could player a shooter with a Russian perspective BUT being in the US it wouldnt be a great idea. anyone know a game where you can be Russian?

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Set on the Eastern Front during World War II between 1941 and 1945, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 depicts the struggle between Soviet and German forces. The game's creators, Tripwire Interactive, developed the game out of the previous Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Red Orchestra: Combined Arms.

As of April 2009, the game has sold "around 400,000 copies".



Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad

The title will focus heavily on the Battle of Stalingrad. Publisher of the title, the 1C Company, have indicated the release date will be around Q4 2010.
Platforms available for the game are yet to be announced.
The game will contain many new features including a new first person cover system combined with blind firing, first person collision detection as well as an entire new system of statistics tracking and enabling player development.

Their are a few Russian FPS games If I made one I would make it about this lady

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko

Wow that would be awesome and i would join u on the development team

 

[Angerwing]

One thing that really irks me is the way Russians are treated in Western Media. In WWII, Russia lost fucking MILLIONS. They sacrificed more than anyone, and they were the deciding factor in the war. They were basically the global heroes. Then comes the Cold War, a war of passive-aggression and propaganda, and now Russia is demonised in pop-culture.

What the fuck America?

 

[coldshadow]

I agree, the next big thing should be the austalians and irish are evil and want nothing but to kill or inslave all of mankind!

 

[Elburzito]

Yes, I am. I have some Russian relatives and friends who get VERY offended to see this. The Cold War ended ten years ago, Fucking deal with it. Not to mention, It gets boring after a while. What's even more pissing is that it is always said that the Russians started the war, although it seems that America is trying to pick a fight.

 

[spartan231490]

don't care, one bad guy is the same as another to me. I just wish that these games would fix some of the minor gameplay issues that every game seems to have. try to reduce lag, and for the love of god, no more mutuals! Halo reach is especially guilty of this last one, it was soo bad, i couldnt even play the beta, and i liked the beta otherwise. Like, instead of fixing it, they made it even worse than it was in halo 3.

 

[jamesworkshop]

i wish i could player a shooter with a Russian perspective BUT being in the US it wouldnt be a great idea. anyone know a game where you can be Russian?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko

Wow that would be awesome and i would join u on the development team

Shame i'm working on a Indie oblivion style RPG at the moment

 

[Korolev]

Because it allows us to pick a bad guy without any of the connotations of being racist. Remember the furore over RE5? Even though the game was made by Japanese folks? Can you imagine what kind of grief you'd get if you depicted the Chinese as the bad guys? Or the Japanese? People would be calling you racist in seconds. The only time it is ever okay to kill non-white people (according to the PC crowd) is if the protagonists are not white or it is an RTS or it has a historical setting (i.e WWII).

But the West portrays Russians as White guys. In reality, Russia has MANY MANY MANY ethnic groups, and a lot of Russians look Chinese or Asian, and not all of them look or are white. But in the West, that's how we see Russians - as bad white people we don't feel uncomfortable about killing, because their skin colour is similar to what most Caucasians have.

And Russia has a big army. You couldn't make a realistic war game and have..... Mozambique has the main enemy. Or Canada for that matter. Russia still has one of the best armies in the world, and one of the largest. Yes they aren't a economic or cultural superpower any more and their tech is behind that of the US, but their weapons are still surprisingly lethal. And their weapons are well known - we all know of the T-90, the AK-47 (or the newer AK-103s), the Mil-28 Helicopter or the Russian ICMBs. What does Swaziland have? What weapons does Singapore or Japan use?

And besides, they used to be enemies. Both Russia and the US put out a lot of propaganda demonizing the other guy. You think Americans portray Russians as bad, well the Russians did the same as well. America knows that Russia no longer takes it very seriously.

Frankly, if I was Russia, I'd be honoured to be taken seriously again. Russia lost a LOT of prestige after the Cold War ended and its economy tanked.

And Westerners don't take it seriously - I don't hate Russians nor do I view them as a threat. Yes Russia doesn't like NATO, and it never will. But I'm not afraid of an imminent Russian Invasion and Russia isn't afraid of an imminent US invasion (Russia's still got a lot of nukes guys). Almost every single Russian person I have met has been weirdly hospitable and friendly.

Simply put, using Russia as the "bad guy" is easy, lazy and unlikely to promote any serious reaction from the "PC" brigade. And if anyone could ever take on the US, it would be you guys. China would never fight against the US because all of its customers are in the US and China only cares about money. The Islamic terrorists could never actually invade the mainland and lose every fight they are in with the US (their plan is to outlast and wear down the US, not beat them in a fight). Germany is part of NATO now. So who else is left? Who else can we use as a potential boogeyman? Aliens are strictly sci-fi, so are monsters. As for using the Chinese as the bad-guys, you might provoke a backlash from sensitive folks.

So Russians it is. But I am noticing that North Koreans are being used as bad guys in games like Crysis. Arabs and Persians also get a bad knock from the games industry. So Russians aren't alone in being demonized. And of course, there's no one Americans like demonizing better than other Americans.

 

[Nueemann]

I'm sick of Russians being treated like villans, and I am even more sick of modern day shooters that do it. Cold War was 20 years ago, WWII was 70 years ago. If writers (Movie, Game, etc.) seriously can't think of some original properties to start milking, they are obviously in the wrong business.

 

[RatRace123]

Yes, it's time we focus on a new enemy

Like the swedish. I can picture it now.

"When you've given up on neutrality, where are you supposed to go.

EVIL"

 

[Mordahel]

How about the english for a change. I mean how many revolutionary war first person shooters are their. True the guns would sorta suck, but that's what those pointy things on the ends of the barrels are for.

How about America is the enemy and you play as britain? much better in my opinion, since im a LOYALIST

 

[garfield2326]

i wish i could player a shooter with a Russian perspective BUT being in the US it wouldnt be a great idea. anyone know a game where you can be Russian?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko

Wow that would be awesome and i would join u on the development team

Shame i'm working on a Indie oblivion style RPG at the moment

well im only a junior in high school so i wouldnt be much help but good luck with your game

 

[Nueemann]

Yes, it's time we focus on a new enemy

Like the swedish. I can picture it now.

"When you've given up on neutrality, where are you supposed to go.

EVIL"

That makes some sense. Or what about a middle eastern nation that refused oil to America unless they payed them more, oh wait, they would just keep strip mining the Alberta Tar Sands and mining offshore deposits until they got bored and invaded the Middle East all over again. See, it's not because people are uncomfortable killing other people (Except for Russians.). It's because games try to be "Realistic" so the enemy is supposed to be a plausible threat. Hell, what about France? They have plenty of Nukes in their hands, all they need are more troops and tanks and problem solved, we have a new enemy.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I don't really care much. Yeah, it is cliche, but then again Russia is so bad ass that it seems to work. And they seem like more of a threat then say Spain or France.

god, I'm more sick of this "Russians =evil" thing than I am of the "white people=evil" thing we're seeing in scifi nowadays

You must admit though, it's not entirely undeserved.

god, I'm more sick of this "Russians =evil" thing than I am of the "white people=evil" thing we're seeing in scifi nowadays

Ummm...

What?

I think he's referring to Avatar.

I thought that was more of a "government = greedy imperialistic pricks" instead of "white people = evil"...

 

[Assassin Xaero]

How about the english for a change. I mean how many revolutionary war first person shooters are their. True the guns would sorta suck, but that's what those pointy things on the ends of the barrels are for.

How about America is the enemy and you play as britain? much better in my opinion, since im a LOYALIST

October 19th, 1781? But that is a lie! America can never be evil! How dare you!

 

[linkzeldi]

How about the english for a change. I mean how many revolutionary war first person shooters are their. True the guns would sorta suck, but that's what those pointy things on the ends of the barrels are for.

How about America is the enemy and you play as britain? much better in my opinion, since im a LOYALIST

Marching in straight lines, wearing bright red jackets. . . meh. If they were to make such a game, I guess it would be possible to choose whether to be British or American though.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

ya its annoying can;t the US become the big bad 800LB gorllia I mean there are 6 or 7 ways to turn the US into a really awesome bad guy!