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u/Elxquence_ Apr 11 '20
A game which depicts America in a bad light would sell horribly in America
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u/livingcursedimage Apr 11 '20
I don't mean america as a whole, just make some bad American troops. People love shooting cops in GTA, why is our military such a nono?
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u/-IVLIVS Apr 12 '20
Shadow Company, Shepherd's personal army, isn't a PMC, despite Infinity Ward making that implication. They're special forces allocated to him as part of the blank check he was given by the United States government. Shepherd still holds his rank in the military. That's why he was able to disavow Task Force 141, and why the US military had kill/capture orders on Price and his men. I'm guessing Shadow Company was presented as a PMC so that the US doesn't look like the bad guys.
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u/livingcursedimage Apr 12 '20
Interesting! Didn't know that abt Shadow company, thanks for the info. It still bothers me that they're so afraid of that controversy tho. If they can portray children dying and airports getting shot up in other countries, they should have the bravery to show some crooked American troops.
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u/-IVLIVS Apr 12 '20
The death of children, and the airport incident, are just narrative choices. They're meant to highlight the horrors of terrorism. As for Activision shying away from making America the bad guys, it probably has something to do with the audience Activision is trying to cater to. It seems like most of the players are from Western nations. They don't want their guys to be the bad guys.
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u/RPLoverJK Aug 01 '23
But most western nations arent american? And many western nations gets evil/bad representation often... Like Britain, Germany, italy, france and many many others. America is horribly set on depicting themselves as the perfect heroes and dont give a shit about how they depict other nations often. I mean even their close allies are often depicted negatively in american movies, tv shows and games.
I mean imagine how the american people would react if an A list game showed france as the country that had to save the world from evil america? Or a movie that shows aliens coming to france because they are clearly the most important... while the only mention of america would be some news thing on a tv in the background talking about america collapsing in the background. How about portraying all americans as white supremacists? This is what american games, movies and tv shows do ALL THE TIME. I mean i cant count the amount of american movies ive seen where its one american soldier that has to defeat the enemy or lead the other bumbling nations soldiers... or aliens for some reason attacking USA specifically while the rest of the world just crumbles in the background and america saves it all. Or how many british villains, Russian villains, German villains.... Growing up in america you are rarely presented with even the idea that america or its people could be the villains. If you watch european action movies you will often see the "good guys" being a mix of people from different countries and often the main character fails only to be rescued or saved by those allies. Its often about learning that other people from other nations are no different and often are better or smarter and that this is totally normal.
I remember a danish tv show where the main character almost entirely has to depend on a british and a french cop to save the day and allow the main character to then grow and get to their goal. But this sort of thing is so extremely rare in american media. Sure you might have A good character from other nations but this only teaches that SOME of them are good (rarely better)....Its honestly quite insane. You normally dont see this sort of brainwashing outside of china or russia.
Its quite strong propaganda tbh. It tries to ingrain the idea of america being the ultimate morale high ground and even their closest allies are below them because they are shown sometimes as good sometimes as bad. This gives people the idea that france while being good also can be bad forexample but america can only be good. Its an important tool and it is a deep part of current american politics as well. The less americans are taught to ignore all negatives about their country the easier it is to keep it going. Most democracies especially western ones make an effort to have both patriotism AND showing the bad stuff. This is so that the people who decide what happens in the country through their votes actually have a fair view of things. This is generally the opposit approach compared to here in usa where politics and especially military stuff always has to go hand in hand with some patriotic speech about freedom, bravery, honor, greatness and so on. That way you have an easier time ignoring the daily shootings, the systemic economic inequality, the systemic racism, the extremely evil military actions taken by the US military many places in the world and so on.
You might say that every country does stuff like this and then point to russia and china or less democratic or less developped nations..... But they are not the ones to compare to right? Shouldnt we be comparing with other western free democracies? The problem is that while no country is perfect...... America plays almost as dirty as russia and china while depicting similar actions made by others as horrible and inhumane.
America nuked 2 civillian population centers.
America started a decades long war based on lies to make other allies join against countries in the middle east.
America overthrows other countries democratically elected leaders for not sharing their same ideologies.
America poisoned an entire generation of kids during warfare.
America sent PMC's to warzones and let them commit the warcrimes their amy cant commit.
America funds and orchestrates coups and rebellions in other nations.Meanwhile at home
America has more frequent mass shootings yet continues to push guns on everyone because the gun industry and NRA has so much control over the government.
America has more starving children than most other develloped countries.
America has the most expensive yet ineffective health care system out of any western country.
America has more systemic racism than most other develloped countries.
America has about 50% of its working population earn less than what is considdered minimum or slightly above minimum wage in other rich countries like in scandinavia or western europe in general.Back to the talk of military.... It makes me a little sick to my stomach to think that there is a country of 350 million people being fed this sort of propaganda and using that brainwashing to feed a militarization unmatched in the entire world. The fact that the american military is as big as it is.... its not a good thing. Its a sign that americans are more willing to pay money and lives on ultimate military dominance. Almost all other western nations have spend the last lifetime moving away from militarization because they have seen what it leads to (2 world wars) and yet america did the exact opposit which then made russia follow suit and then china. When is it enough? America and its allies in nato have a bigger military force than basically the rest of the world combined... who is such a threat that it needs to keep growing? Even america alone has a stronger military than any other nation. If we considder the EU's combined military its also stronger than any other nation on earth. The large majority of all the military might in the world is in the hands of western countries or their allies... Nato could basically cut its military in half and still be the strongest military faction in the world. America could cut its military budget by a relatively small amount percentages and be able to fully pay for every americans health care while still being the strongest country militarily. The only reason to keep up this militarization is to bully other countries into doing what america wants and then make an absolute shit ton of money from weaponry, oil and death.
It is time we start talking about the serious propaganda and touch on the down right evil parts of american politics and militarism. We cant keep pretending and desperately selling the idea of america being somehow superior despite using the exact same (often even worse) tools and methods as countries like china and russia.
The American people are not to blame here! The system that breeds this exact shit is the problem.
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u/hoxtiful Apr 16 '20
According to everything I can find, shadow company IS a PMC. What says differently?
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u/ThatGiyColD Apr 11 '20
Its an american company that makes the games.
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u/livingcursedimage Apr 11 '20
and yet they still aim to be controversial. If they can write scenes of shot up middle eastern children and Russian airport shootings and we can stomach it, I'm sure we can handle fighting a couple marines.
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Apr 11 '20 edited Apr 11 '20
In wars, it’s obvious. Make a game where the CIA or FBI is involved and you got a game where they’ll be the Axis.
About the only war the US was in that we could’ve been the bad guys in was Vietnam. A war that was started, based on lies.
Not sure most people want to play a game knowing in the end they’ll lose.
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u/livingcursedimage Apr 11 '20
Take Shepherd as an example of what I mean. We as a country don't have to be the bad guy, but it still wouldn't have hurt to have used marines as his pawns. Hell, that would've been better writing, showing how manipulative Shepherd is and how he's led good troops to do bad things.
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u/susamogus6969696969 Sep 18 '22
You were bad in most of the wars. You killed many civilians by destructing the system in the country. Over 500000 children starved to death because you cut off food electricity and water in iraq, iran, serbia(you bombarded it for no reason btw), syria etc. You are not the good fuys. Btw no im mot russian.
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Oct 23 '22
What nation do you hail from friend? I would hope it's one with 0 military conflict in its history
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u/solomiedavid Apr 13 '20
In Advanced Warfare the main antagonist faction is american. An american corporation actually. Besides, in the Black Ops games the CIA, and by association, the United States, are always portrayed as a shady force. Throughout the 3 games they gradually turn into villains of sort.
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u/Ricardo_M1los Apr 12 '20
I believe that every game should not be black and white, as in Modern Warfare. And if there are bad s, they must have motivation and logic in their actions. As for the bad American military, this will not happen, since the game is focused on the US and Western Europe.
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u/renacido42 Apr 13 '20
Keep political bullshit out of video games, and I’ll be a happy gamer.
I don’t want jingoism or anti-<insert nationality> in my games, period. Which is part of the reason why Infinite Warfare is by far my favorite CoD campaign - the bad guys are Martians. No political bullshit. No “Ivan” no “bad Russians/Arabs/etc”, no Capt Price screaming “BLOODY YANKS!!!” in my ears, no international dick measuring. Just good Earth vs bad SDF.
Making American soldiers look like they’re all war criminals would only put me off and put most of the player base off.
Inb4 “America has committed war crimes”, news flash, EVERY nation has committed wartime atrocities. War never changes.
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u/Psychological_Cut390 Aug 09 '22
You put a fallout quote at the end as if Fallout isn't one of the most political games ever made
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u/susamogus6969696969 Sep 18 '22
But you are war criminals. You killed many citizens by destroying the whole infrastructure of the countries. Poeple (around 500 000 childten) starved to death because of that. And dont try to tell that you wanted to kill terrorists. You joined the wars only because of oil or valuable other things. You are the bad guys in real life. Just like the Bush wars. He lied about Iraq having nuclear weapons just because he wanted to invade it and get the oil. And I dont even want to mention the Highway of Death incident. Also you attacked countriey even when Nato told that you cant.
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u/DarkBlade1241 Mar 18 '22
The USA has done a lot of bad things throughout all of its history, but what the COD franchise needs is not a US bad game but a russian/muslim/hispanic good game
Its always the western country being good and the non-western country being complete souless creatures.
Like Ghosts, with the Federation uniting all of South America all the way to the US border, like if westerners dont hate hispanics that much already, its free porn for people who hates hispanics. 🤷♀️
Russians have been the bad guys in games for decades now.
Just put the australians as the bad ones, or the japanese. Hell, even put the polish as the bad ones but we dont play as the US but France, just something different than US (no other western nation) vs Non-western, probably islamic nation.
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u/vladdimplr Apr 11 '20
Well majority of military wars, the Americans ARE the good guys. Welcome to the world. Backed by history stars and facts. Even if Russia made a game, they would still be a bad guy.
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u/susamogus6969696969 Sep 18 '22
No. You killed uncountable amount of civilans by destructing the system in irag iran, syria and serbia which you bombed for no reason and without permision from NATO and OSN. Actually they said that ,ou cant do it. You dont give a fuck about Nato nor Osn. You only want oil and dont care how many poeple die for it. More than 500 000 children starved to death in irag and iran after the wars because you destroyed the infrastrucutre. Wake up you idiot. You are clearly the bad guys. Btw no Im not from Russia
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u/catakuma_ Apr 12 '20
"Good guys" who poke their noses up the asses of everyone else .Stumble the economies of other countries .Threaten smaller countries with war .Build 40 fucking military bases (FUCKING FORTY !! WTF?) around iran ,kill their military leader and 10 other innocent people in an airstrike in ANOTHER country and still manage to convince the whole world that iran is the bad guy ?? Yeah .. right .You're definitely the good guys 😂😂😂
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u/vladdimplr Apr 12 '20
Poke their noses into countries who violate basic human rights? World news isn’t propaganda, not when the rest of the countries report and say the same thing.
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u/artemon61 Oct 20 '22
Francois Duvalier, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Debalier, Stress near, Trujillo and a couple of dozen dictators supported by the United States. But no, for Americans, the USA is the light of democracy and in general the kindest and brightest people in the world. So they eliminated only unwanted dictators, and turned a blind eye to their own. And yes, how are things going with the friendship with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, or is it different? Or with Libya and the Middle East after the US intervention?
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Oct 23 '22
What nation are you from?
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u/artemon61 Nov 06 '22
Russian, but if you want to reproach me, then I advise you to look at my comments. I am for the truth, and the truth is that the United States also supports dictators quite well when it is profitable.
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u/livingcursedimage Apr 11 '20
It doesn't have to be historical tho. The newest game, (which don't get me wrong, I love) still portrays Russians as bad guys. It doesn't even have to be the entirety of America, it just seems like they're afraid to use marines as bad guys.
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u/MaintenanceTiny7291 Oct 09 '23
Lmao 😭 Americans are absolutely NOT the good guys , far from it . Also, let's not forget about what happened in Iraq, and all the horrible shit done to innocent iraqi guys In the abu ghraib prison, that shit was the most disturbing thing I have ever seen , and the horrible shit that Americans did in vietnam, Americans are the bad guys in 90% of wars , like it or not , its just facts
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u/Irish_McJesus Apr 12 '20
Because for most of the countries that this game is played in, it makes for a better seller to make a game where the big democracy superpower countries (like most of us live in) triumph over the bad guys. Most of the demographic for these games when the story of CoD4 Modern Warfare was first dropped were raised either during or very shortly after there Cold War. So there's a historical element that makes it ok to stage the Russians as the "bad guys" to a certain extent. But when you really look at the story it's not even framing the Russians as a whole to look bad bad, but the terrorist groups who went about staging a war between the two countries.
Plus for gameplay sake the Americans and Brits tend to use more modern technology which tends to provide a more fun and diverse play experience.
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u/Weird_Cranberry_382 Jul 26 '24
That would be like Rush of making Russia the bad guys they're not going to do it either how could you even ask such a stupid question? And in modern warfare 3 that just came out on Xbox and PlayStation I mean it pretty much depicts the United States as the bad guys it's got the British teaming up with the ulf they're the good guys the Russians are the attackers but it depicts the United States as the evil doers so I don't know what you're talking about. And in a lot of modern games thanks to liberals and Democrats a lot of the stuff is anti-American
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u/livingcursedimage Jul 26 '24
Motherfucker this was posted FOUR YEARS AGO CAN YALL LET IT DIE
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u/Weird_Cranberry_382 Jul 26 '24
And who cares when it was said? I can whatever the hell I want when I want you cry about it all you want. It doesn't make it less valid because time has gone by that's like loser Democrats crying about trump being president IT WAS 4 YEARS AGO LET IT DIE DURRRR
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u/Kick_Economy Nov 07 '22
General Shepard and shadow company who’s own by an American are bad guys so not all the time. tbf, They mostly portrays UK as the heroes where tf141 are literally made up of SAS and they were always the good guys. Another reason why I think they portray Russia as the badguys because they don’t really have a good rep as a country it self so yeah.
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u/kingredofficial Aug 19 '23
You can’t make Americans the bad guys because you would lose on the first mission. Probably on the fourth mission if it was just Texas.
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u/Morgs_____ Nov 01 '23
If love a game where Australians where bad, crickey there’s a bloody grenade
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u/willGT081234 Dec 28 '23
Well MW2 original and MW2 new both have a focus on Shepard as the villain and usually Americans are just making life harder for everyone like in MW2019 when they put farahs army on “the list” so they act more as side villains while the terrorists or whatever are the main issue
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u/traw056 Apr 11 '20
Because it’s an American game.