Schlagwort-Archive: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

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Das internationale Recht (oder der Mangel desselben) in Tom Clancy‘s Ghost Recon Wildlands

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von Daniel Staudigl*

Krieg und Gewalt sind – so liest man nicht nur in den populärkulturellen Darstellungen von Geschichte – ständige Begleiter der Menschheitsgeschichte [1]. Da nimmt es also nicht wunder, dass auch die wesentlich kürzere Geschichte der Videospiele vom Kriegs-Topos dominiert ist [2]. Krieg im weiteren Sinne als eine mit militärischen Mitteln geführte, gewaltsame Auseinandersetzung zwischen politischen Einheiten, ist der erzählerische Hintergrund nicht nur von „Kriegsspiel“-Franchises wie Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios / EA Los Angeles US 1995-2010), Metal Slug (SNK J 1996) und Valkyria Chronicles ( SEGA J 2008), sondern von unüberschaubar mehr, von Space Invaders (Taito J 1978) über Fire Emblem (Intelligent Systems J  1990-2019) bis Star Fox (Nintendo J 1993). Ja, selbst im Narrativ von Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo J 1985)  geht es letztlich um eine Invasion, die zurückgeschlagen wird.

Alle hier exemplarisch genannten Franchises stellen keinen nennenswerten Anspruch auf Realitätsnähe, es gibt aber eine große Anzahl an Kriegsspielen, die bewusst wirklichkeitsnah sein wollen, auch wenn der Grad des Gelingens variiert. Ein im Marketing prominent platzierter „Authentizitätsanspruch“ [3] wird hier zum Verkaufsargument. Das Gefühl von „Authentizität“ wird manchmal besser, manchmal schlechter vermittelt. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward US 2009), bekannt und berüchtigt aufgrund eines Levels, in dem eine Terrorattacke auf einem Flughafen nachgespielt wird, wurde beispielsweise von Peter Just als „surreal“ und „verfälschend“ kritisiert [4].

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Methode

On Political Communication in Digital Games

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The following essay is based on the second part of my keynote speech at the FROG conference 2017 on October, 14th 2017 at the Wiener Rathaus. The first part “Keep your Politics out of my games!” can be found here, as well as an impromtu reply by Tobias Winnerling. The third part “Games Are Never Innocent” on political myths in games can be read here.

by Eugen Pfister

Why a better Understanding of Politics in Popular Culture matters

It is true, not all video games have a conscious or an intentional political message but they communicate political aspects nonetheless. Games are not developed in aseptic laboratories under vacuum and without contact to the exterior. They are the result of their culture and society of origin. Their developers are not creating games ex nihil but are falling back on the world they know. They are – most of the time – recreating the world they are used too.  To give you a simile: just think of the “aliens” in the Star Trek Universe. Therefore all games can be analysed for traces of a political discourse. Video games are an excellent source for ideological values and worldviews in mass media.

Classical political history traditionally focuses on political elites, on parliamentary protocols, memoirs of politicians, party programs, diplomatic correspondence, campaigning etc. This sources however represent only the political action and thoughts of a very small elite. The mass of the citizens however has to stay unheard by most of the historical researchers. If we are really interested in the popular understanding of a good government – what makes a good head of state for example – it’s not enough to analyse newspapers and TV reports or to question a sample of hundreds or even thousands on people with predetermined questionnaires. To fill this blank, this yet unanswered question of what people expect and how they understand their government, it helps to take a closer look at popular culture, and especially the so called pulp genres, like horror, science fiction, etc. On Political Communication in Digital Games weiterlesen →

Methode

„Keep your Politics out of my Games!”

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The following essay is based on the first part of my keynote speech at the FROG conference 2017 on October, 14th 2017 at the Wiener Rathaus. The second part on Political Communication in Video Games can be read here and the third part on Political Mythologies in Games here. The remaining third part on political myths in games will be published subsequently.

by Eugen Pfister

Games and politics

To start a discussion on games and politics was for the past decade a sure bet for at least a handful of flaming ripostes: “Keep your politics out of my games” was one of the more polite examples. For many self-proclaimed “gamers” games and politics appear to be two antithetical concepts. In their logic they form two independent and incompatible spheres. A contact  – or worse a blending! – of games with politics appears to be a sacrilege for many. When analysing the vocabulary of the relevant commentaries, you’ll see that political agendas in video games are understood as a sort of contamination. The “Political” is here understood as a stain, as something corrupting the fun. This alone is indication of a fundamental political problem of our society; we will get to that later.

In the following short essay (as well as in two following texts) I will demonstrate, that on the contrary games and politics cannot be thought separately and – what is more – that the interaction of every game with politics is something natural and in fact prerequisite for every media to work. I will try to prove, that every game is the result of a very specific cultural and political environment and therefore gives evidence of very concrete world-views.

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