Dismayed by the negative way it is portrayed in computer games, Russia is planning to promote itself with a series of patriotic titles based on the heroic deeds of its soldiers in the Second World War.
The country’s parliament is also discussing plans to ban “anti-Russian” computer games after MPs complained that games, mostly American, portrayed Russians as Cold War stereotypes, villains and alcoholics.
The Russian version of the best-selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game already has a scene cut where gamers shoot innocent passengers at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, but if the parliamentarians get their way it could be banned altogether.
The Ministry of Communications has asked the government for 500 million roubles (£11 million) to fund the development of several games based on the heroic wartime exploits of Russian soldiers.
[…]
Last year Russian President Dmitry Medvedev set up the Commission to Prevent the Falsification of History to the Detriment of Russia’s Interests, which could lead to prosecutions of people who seek to “rewrite history”.
No more American sarcasm from moose and squirrel.
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The next thing ya know, Japan will ban the term “Japs” in reference to World War II. Well, my uncle, a sailor in the Pacific, who enlisted at age 17 after the “incident” at Pearl Harbor, continues to refer to Japanese people as “Japs”, and I don’t see why he shouldn’t. He saw his buddies killed by Japanese pilots, and he still has a good image of the events burned into his retina.
‘prosecutions of people who seek to “rewrite history”’
HAR!! Aren’t the Russians experts at rewriting history??
Didn’t they, not to long ago, kill millions of their own to protect the official government version of history?
Commission to Prevent the Falsification of History to the Detriment of Russia’s Interests
The CPFHDRI ? Say what you will about the Ruskies but at least they’ve avoided our American habit of making an acronym out of everything. Or do they? Any Russsian speakers on here who can put it into Cyrillic and see if it turns into some cute word?
BTW, those Russian hero games out to be pretty interesting: Ivan Ivanovitch goes into battle against the Germans. It’s winter in Leningrad and Ivan is clothed in a patchwork overcoat and armed with a wooden practive rifle and a tin bayonet.
I shouldn’t make fun of Ivan. While Rissia was losing 18 million to the war, there were some amazing acts of heroics from many Russian soldiers. Hell, even armed with a tin bayonet, Ivan probably took out a dozen Gerries.
I definitely agree with this content.
Why didn’t we embrace the USSR after Stalin died?
Was it their intention, or ours, to maintain the Iron Curtian?
Boris and Natasha? Were they Russian / Soviets?
I think it was Pottsylvania. Your CIA dis-information!
[True dat – h.]
Ever hear of the Katyn forest massacre? Its true that the butchers were not really Russian.
Awe. The poor Russians. Portrayed as bad guys in movies and video games. Boo hoo. I suppose we should now cheer Russian history and certain Russian leaders like ol’ “Uncle Joe” (Stalin). After all, uncle Joe knew the difference between an “tragedy” and a “statistic.” (I just can’t imagine why ‘ol Adolf didn’t get away with it.)
Then again, didn’t America do something like that to their “natives” about a hundred years earlier?! (OMG!)
It’s all about perspective people. Get a grip! Russian history in the 20th century was ripe with evil men. And I can’t think of anything better than to portray those evil men as WHO THEY WERE! I just thank god that those evil men are not there NOW! – or are they?!!! (cue the Twilight Zone music…)
Well we can’t have Muslims as bad guys…
Um, why exactly?
In Soviet Russia, ….
So they are going to fight their image of being paranoid fascists who curtail free speech and censor opposing opinions by being paranoid fascists, curtailing free speech and censoring opposing opinions? How surprising.
@Faxon #1
My grandmother, a Norwegian, who went thru the occupation, had no love for the Axis powers till her dying day. I never heard her reefer to the Japanese ever, other than Japs, that was one of the nicer terms. I wont mention all the names she referred to the Germans.
Why not have a version of these games where America is the “bad” guy and have them for Russia? Wouldn’t they sell more games? What the heck, they’re just games.
Oh, before I forget. I’d love to see a game where I get to shoot Rebloodlican Extremists. The bad guys can wear red and tell lies through the whole game. Extra points for fragging the female leader Palindon and extra point for getting to Cirly Forina too. Make it to the last level and you get to face Ronaldo Ragando.
Man, revenge is soooo sweet.
Rewriting history is not a area Russians want to bring to the attention of the courts. There are many millions of “erased” people whose philosophies and ideas we will never hear about, and Russian courts have better things to do than apportioning blame for hurt feelings. The worth of a civilised society is measured in their capacity for tolerance and forgiveness.
Why don’t the Russians just make a game about the Vietnam war where you have to play a VC that has to kill GIs who otherwise will kill his relatives for supporting the VC…
Well, that’s how some Russians feel if they see Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
A real gamer (Russian or American or European or Chinese or… ) would just play this (if it’s any good), whereas some moron US senator would immediately balk at the idea and make a lot of noise just to get more votes!
>:)
Just food for thought!
It’s a win, win, situation. The Russians can protect their national and historic pride and gamers get what gamers always want, more games!
We’re all in agreement here, Busheeples included, that this is a Russian national pride objective. I bet the Germans cringe at Halo, Wolfenstein, Quake and the rest and some day would do the same for similar reasons.
Rewrite history? We do the same with TV, movies and even history books. Check any elementary school history book regarding Indians and who’s the villain in Western shows.
It’s all a show.
In some ways it’s actually a compliment that Russia still shows up as the enemy in games and such.
I mean, the world has yet to be impressed by Taliban engineering and manufacturing. Anything they have that’s worth a damn in combat these days are Soviet left overs. (They used to have stinger missiles though, funny how things go down.)
So, if you want an enemy that is suitable dangerous to the world, you either have to involve the Russians, or go with the old rogue element within the government conspiracy thing. Or both like “24” usually does.
It seems funny to me that “alleged adults” have nothing better to do with their lives than playing with stupid computer games and silly cell phones. They need to GET A LIFE.
Hey, let’s face it, the USSR was the best, biggest, and most challengeing enemy the US has ever had. For the most part things went pretty well for our nation while we had them as enemies. Not destroying the earth in a nuclear nightmare was fun and it kept us on our toes.
#22 Anatoly
Lighten up, dude. History’s this funny place where bad things happen to other people and they write heroic stories about it.
I’d love to play a 9/11 game. Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there incensed with rage, because they read those heroic stories, and like little children they believe.
Maybe someday we’ll all overcome societal conditioning, till then, we’ll just have to try to be tolerent.