It’s no surprise to anybody who works with me, reads my work, or knows me that I’m not a fan of . I’ve long held that the series is explicitly prᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚopaganda forღ the US military, and that nothing that comღes🌄 out of it will ever really have political nuance. I&rsquo♛;m not interested in playing the games because I’m no🌺t interested in contributing my dollars towards a franchise that so obviously pushes a political agenda that I disagree with.
Editor-in-chief Stacey Henley’s piece on a particularly 🅷egregiou🧸s section of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 really hi♚ghlights how Call𒁃 of Duty acts as fascist propaganda.
But I’ve also recently seen a specific argu𒈔ment about Call of Duty that made me think. A Twitter user suggested that to say Call of Duty normalises violence against the victims of American imperialism is dressing up the same old my𒈔th about violent video games making gamers more violent. They claimed that it was just hysteria dressed up in leftist politics.
We all know there’s no real evidence that violent video games make players more violent. Lots of perfectly normal people play games with guns every day and don’t commit violent crimes. But equating that with a series that has been actively collaborating with the military, glamourising real acts of violence through fictionalisation, and rewriting stories to make Americans the moral victors isn’t quite fair. Even when video games use violence as a core mechanic, they can mak♋e a point about the morality of that violence, though they might do this with varying levels of success. We’ve seen it with The Last of Us Part 2, a game about ending cycles of violence, and we are seeing it ever more clearly with Helldivers 2.
If you don’t think too hard about it, Helldivers 2 could be classified as just another shooter where you reduce other living things toﷺ blood and guts. But the series, of course, has its own complicated and wonderful political history. published a great dive into the series’ origins, but here’s a summary.
In 1959, a guy called Robert A. Heinlein wrote a book called Starship Troopers. The book was described by many critics as “fascist” for its glorification of the military and conservative politics, though the truth is likel𝄹y more complicated. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1997, directed by Paul Verhoeven, and satirised the book’s fascism. Most satire attempts to be subtle and 🐬thought provoking, but Starship Troopers the movie doesn’t bother. Its satire is obvious and loud, purposefully deconstructing far-right propaganda. It has child soldiers, for god’s sake. It’s very clearly anti-fascist.
Despite the obviousness, some reviewers said that it was a fascist, neo-Nazi film. This is especially painful when you consider that♈ the director, Verhoeven, made the movie partly because he had grown up in Nazi-occupied Holland and wanted to criticise fascist ideology.
This is important because Helldivers 2 is an𒈔 unabashed, obvious homage to Starship Troopers. They have more or less the same premise, with soldiers who fight to spread democracy through violence and bugs that you have to squish. And just like the movie, Helldivers 2 is a satire of fascism. Where Call of Duty says that we, the military, are the good guys, Helldivers 2 shows you the propaganda your soldiers are subjected to and, with the same ridiculous sense of humour as the movie it draws from, lets you watch as they die in more and more ridiculous ways in the name of “managed democracy”.
I hate games about war because of the way they typically treat the subject matter, but Helldivers 2 isn’t afraid to suggest that, yes, actually, you are the bad guy. The over-the-top violence, the blood, the guts, it’s all part of the point. Maybe the future of🧔 shooters isn’t so bleak, after all.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Helldivers 2 Works Because It’s🥀 Fun To Die
There is no better feeling than ⛄sac𒀰rificing yourself in the name of democracy.
