Poll: can a game be propaganda?

[Anarchemitis]

I think Psyconauts is propoganda for Tim Schafers army of awesome people destined to become slightly more awesome by experienceing the game. Of Awesomeness.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

Battlefield 2 pitting the US against Iraq and China, Crysis being against Koreans, both push the idea that "THESE are the bad guys, kill them". If tomorrow the US went to war with Canada, I'm sure the next year's Medal of Honor would be "MoH: Northern Strike" and we'd probably see Battlefield Moosejockeys soon too.

Am I misreading your statement, Khell ol' buddy, or are you implying that EA was in the thrall of the DoD (or the Illuminati, or the Zionist Banker Orbital Mind Control Satellites, or whomever) when they write these games? That sort of thing might fly in the Middle East, where Syria pulled this sort of stunt not too long ago, but it doesn't pass the horse-laugh test over here.
For my own part I thought the CoD games did a good job with the Brits and the Ivans, by the way- it's hard to imagine Kursk or a Desert Rat raid not being fun. I wish the ANZACs and the armies-in-exile would get a shake too.
Side note- the games which have an official U.S. military buy-in, such as JTF or America's Army, or that one RTS that came out circa 2001 (I forget the name) consistently line you up against fictional opponents, or loose non-aligned factions IIRC.

 

[Cowtippers]

Well I think that Americas Army is as nationalist as it can get, and it is so very simply... You always play as the US forces, no changing teams, you just change wether you attack or defend. Whatever you do, you and your allies will always be America, and the badguys will be insurgent forces and whatnot. Even if you change sides mid-round you will find the opposing team to be the Americans, which I find to be very "US is hero, everyone else is baddy!"-ish.

 

[Fire Daemon]

stompy:

Fire Daemon:
What is the deal with freedom Fries? Why not call them chips like the rest of the sensible world?

I think it stems from their hatred of the French... which is funny, because I remember reading something, where the same question cropped up, and this statement followed:" It's kinda funny that they're changing the name 'French Fries' to 'Freedom Fries'. It means they equate the French to freedom..."

And with that, I'll take my leave...

Hey I'm American and don't hate the Fench( even though they never thanked us for freeing them fro the Nazi's) and I think that you Britts are just anry thhat you have no more clonies or power really and jealous at the fact that one of your rouge colonies beat you guys and became a bigger power in the world than you. Get over it!!! Now why don't you be a good litle Titty Britty and eat some crumpets, tea, and serve me Bacon on The Disney Cruise ship?

I would, but the way your Dollar is going, you couldn't afford a seat next to the kitchen.

Your dollar aint doing well either asshat, in casev you havent noticed it's as unstable as ours, example: last Friday it became worth as much as ours you titty britty!

Nope, just checked. Our British Pound is still worth two of your American Dollars. Yes, our economy ain't great, but it could be a damn sight worse.

Oh, and reported for racism.

And get a spellchecker, for the love of god.

iT'S NOT RACISM, it's nationalism man. Please for the love of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu gods, don't bann me! I swear I want say another word to you if you let me be!

Calling someone a Titty Britty isn't racism? Whatever.

It is not racism and is not nationalism. What it is is being a twat. Cut it out!

 

[Joeshie]

Propaganda, or in this case, just political sway and opinions happens all the time in video games.

The most recent example is Grand Theft Auto 4, which blatantly criticism and mocks American life. Of course, that's half the reason it's so enjoyable.

Also, in regard to the American dollar, it's clear that none of you have taken even a basic macroeconomics course or you would realize that in some cases having a depreciating currency is a good thing. Why the media keeps spinning it as a bad and horrible thing is beyond me.

 

[SimpleReally]

2 recent incredibly shallow attempts to influence minds, which sadly probably worked on some people: C&C generals (just reading the description of the different factions makes me sick) and that retarded movie 300 where the handsome white guys show us that war is cool and run around killing Persian orcs

 

[FranicalFrazical]

How can I game be propaganda... when was the last game you played that said Nazi powers are our superior... or when did a game say OH chose Hillary over Obama because we say so.... no a game is just for entertainment... unless i've never noticed the propaganda

 

[Pseudonym2]

I've played quite a few games which haven't had any moral 'take' on the subject matter when they probably should have. Like in Age of Empires and similar games, on random map games you actually have to commit genocide to win. You have to hunt down and kill every last unarmed civilian, plus sometimes raze their houses, farms etc. It's pretty fucked up when you think about it.

Also, there's a few FPS where you are told to go in and kill the bad guys... how do you know they're bad guys? How do you know YOU'RE not the evil invader/terrorist/whatever? There's a bit in Crysis where you have to do what looks suspiciously like killing a bunch of villagers who are just defending their homes. As an aside, that would make an awesome twist - like you spend the first half of a FPS killing the evil Russian commmies... then it's revealed you're a Nazi stormtrooper.

Read Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett. I found that book oddly enlightening.

 

[Mystery00]

In theory there certainly can be propaganda games, but I don't think I've ever played one. I don't really see how you can inject propaganda into a game without making obvious it's there, which would most certainly get a lot of complaints since gamers in general tend to be fairly rebellious.

Games and their audience just don't make very good propaganda subjects.

Take America's Army for example, it most certainly does seem like propaganda, the only game I can think of actually that resembles it, but I'm yet to hear of it pulling gamers into the army en masse.

 

[Billabong Pobblecock]

Well just because it conveys a message doesnt mean its propaganda. Or everytime we spoke it would be propaganda. The definition is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. So pretty much its speading it around in order to scare people to your side. I think the biggest propaganda game out there is definitly Whites vs. The World: Ethnic Cleansing.

 

[Captain_Planet]

America's Army is a good example.
al Qaeda actually programmed an fps called Delta Force to get more recruits.
Any form of media can be used as propeganda.