Maoist Computer game reviews.

[Heksefatter]

The Maoist International Movement (MIM) has devoted part of their home page to discussing popular culture, including computer games.

The games are discussed from a class-struggle perspective: In which way do the games represent late capitalistic bourgeois assumptions or criticism thereof? Do they accurately describe the actions of imperialist powers or the social mechanics of religion? Do they have hidden feudal implications or do they contain relevant social commentary?

Two reviews may be of particular interest to Gamebanshee members: the reviews of Knights of the Old Republic and Fallout (actually BOTH Fallout games). KotoR recieves what is, perhaps, the harshest review of all the games for its open feudalist assumptions:

"The universe of Star Wars is not unlike our own. There are the common people, and there are the "great" people. Unlike in our own world, however, the "great" people in Star Wars have their own caste of warrior slaves with special powers who, under the guise of "maintaining stability" move against any insurrection and crush any move to advance the society(*).

In this game, the player takes a role of one such warrior that calls him/herself a Jedi KNIGHT. The manufacturer doesn't even try to hide the connection to the exploitative feudal system of the Middle Ages. "


(* Said move to advance society obviously referring to the Sith, an interesting interpretation of the Star Wars universe).


Fallout 1 and 2, on the other hand, recieves very positive reviews. The games have intelligent commentary on the destructive actions of imperialist powers, racism and economic exploitation, religion as a scam and the perversion of science under oppresive, capitalist governments. The reviewer goes as far as to actually use the adjective "Maoist" in relation to the Fallout games:

"In this way, in the opinion of this reviewer, Fallout is more of a Maoist Role Playing Game than "linear" RPGs such as Myst. Just like there are many roads to socialism, where some are better than others and some are false turns, the player in Fallout will discover ways to do much better or play the game from an entirely different perspective the second, third, and further times through the game."


Some criticism is given due to the gore, the individualist assumptions and the gender-specificity of the skill "outdoorsman". However, the game is clearly recommended by the reviewer.

Note: The spelling may be initially confusing. "Wommyn" means woman in bourgeois English, but the latter is discarded due to its implication that women are a kind of inferior men. Likewise AmerKKKa means America, particulary the United States, a comment on the racist tendencies of bourgeois society.

Knights of the Old Republic Review:
Science fiction strategy games: Star Wars: "Knights of the Old Republic"

Fallout review: Fallout 1 and 2

Overview of game reviews:
MIM bookstore

Mim homepage:
Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect or represent those of its author.

[Heksefatter]

I hate making typos in the thread titles. Makes me feel like a moron. Luckily Xandax fixed it for me.

[Xandax]

Can't figure out if it is for laughs or for real .... but some funny (curiosity rather) stuff in the reviews.

[Magrus]

*coughs* Those people need to get out more and stop thinking for a while. I'm sure if the designers of the games were to read this, they'd get a good laugh and show it to all of their friends. Games like that aren't made with any grand political or philisophical goal in mind. They are made to make money off of people wanting to play shiny pretty games where they can kill stuff in them.

Now, why didn't they attack Romance of the Three Kingdoms at the top of the list I have to ask.

[Heksefatter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xandax Can't figure out if it is for laughs or for real .... but some funny (curiosity rather) stuff in the reviews.

I had the same doubt initially, but looking at the MIM home page, I became convinced that these were the real deal.

[Xandax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magrus *coughs* Those people need to get out more and stop thinking for a while. I'm sure if the designers of the games were to read this, they'd get a good laugh and show it to all of their friends. Games like that aren't made with any grand political or philisophical goal in mind. They are made to make money off of people wanting to play shiny pretty games where they can kill stuff in them. <snip>

Now see, that is what the power brokers want you to think so they can keep sending subliminal and indoctrinating messages via computer games, it is .... a conspiracy

[Magrus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xandax Now see, that is what the power brokers want you to think so they can keep sending subliminal and indoctrinating messages via computer games, it is .... a conspiracy

*blinks* OH GOD NO! Seriously, the time I spent truly processing what was said and done in a game is years behind me. Now, I'm generally drinking when playing, and giggling at the weird things the characters say and do as they split open rendered bad guys. I pity the fools that would put their intelligently thought out ideas into a video game nowadays in hopes of changing the world.

[Silur]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xandax Now see, that is what the power brokers want you to think so they can keep sending subliminal and indoctrinating messages via computer games, it is .... a conspiracy

Actually, you don't need a hidden agenda. The game system will reflect the views on right and wrong of those creating it, so if you have them duly brainwashed by television, they will act accordingly without thinking. That's the beauty of the current system. Like many other parts of popular culture, it consolidates your belief system with others in the "us" group and alienates you from the "them" group by playing on familiarity and demonising the traits of the opposition. It even works regardless of which side you chose to play. This kind of polarisation is what makes it possible for people to treat other people like dirt, since you can sustain a system where human life is valued differently depending on creed, culture, religion, etc. Don't underestimate the power of the dark side...

[Heksefatter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silur Actually, you don't need a hidden agenda. The game system will reflect the views on right and wrong of those creating it, so if you have them duly brainwashed by television, they will act accordingly without thinking. That's the beauty of the current system. Like many other parts of popular culture, it consolidates your belief system with others in the "us" group and alienates you from the "them" group by playing on familiarity and demonising the traits of the opposition. It even works regardless of which side you chose to play. This kind of polarisation is what makes it possible for people to treat other people like dirt, since you can sustain a system where human life is valued differently depending on creed, culture, religion, etc. Don't underestimate the power of the dark side...

You have a good point. Games like KotoR are not the direct result of a conspiracy, but rather a product of the self-reinforcement of the ideological structure of society.

Take the Sith, for instance. They are portrayed as semi-mindless, sadistic killers. This is obviously bourgeois propaganda, however, as the Sith actually represent historical progress. This can be seen fra the following facts:

The Republic is obviously corrupt, with little or no direct representation of the lower classes. It is a de-facto aristoracy, comparable to the Roman Republic. The existence of slavery further reinforces the parallel.

The Republic survives through patriotic propaganda. This is exemplified through the person of the basically decent, but simple-minded Carth Onasi, who, despite being able to percieve the most blatant examples of social injustice, blames said injustice on circumstances and not the societal structure of the Republic itself. Carth Onasi is reminiscent of Uncle Tom.

Religion in the Republic is vague, but centered around an intangible concept known as "The Force". Proponents of the "Force"-Religion emphasize personal serinity rather than social change.


The Sith, on the other hand:

Are composed mostly of common people, ie. dispossesed military veterans and low-ranking members of the Jedi Order. These are the people who would have a stake in Sith policies.

Emphasize changing the world, focusing on utilizing their passions in order to overcome obstacles.

Are respectful of local costums (they changed very little on Taris).

Are united behind a strong leader, rather than an aristocratic coalition. In Marxist theory, monarchy is considered more advanced than an aristocratic slave-holding society.


Furthermore, the most obvious historical parallel to Darth Revan is Julius Caesar, who was actually a progressive reformer for his time.

Yet, the historical progress represented by the Sith is vilified, the Sith being represented as treacherous, brutish and misguided, whereas Republic flaws are glossed over - for instance, the slave-trading, genocidal Czerka-corporation is associated with the Sith, in spite of the fact that it is based on the Republic Capital world of Coruscant.


This is not carefully thought-out propaganda, but rather it reflects a state of mind.

[fable]

Funny stuff, and a very droll wit. Kinda reminds me of a book that came out in the US nearly 40 years ago: The Pooh Perplex. It was a series of essays/reviews analyzing Winnie the Pooh from the vantage point of many different pre-conceived ideologies and disciplines. Cleverly done. I'll have to look for that, but I'm sure it's buried somewhere in our garage, with the last several thousand years of humanity's detritus.

[Chimaera182]

I remember from my Critical Approaches to Literature class, my teacher mentioned that book (he even had it and read a passage in class while we did the Marxist approach). And he mentioned the example of how Pooh got stuck in Rabbit's hole, and Rabbit's solution was to make a shelf out of his rump. It was described as a clear case of the bourgeois exploitation of the Proletariat.

[Tricky]

Meh, they can do whatever they want. I bet the Christian Review makes them chuckle too.

[Lady Dragonfly]

"As is well known for the fascist bastards, they take enjoyment in killing others, and the game rewards the player for killing common people. In fact, it is not possible to progress in the game without killing commoners, and the manufacturer plainly tells the player: those who have the courage to kill, are strong. Those who don't are weak.

In one part of the game, the player fights for money--to the death. This serves well to illustrate the society, where money is everything and human life is worth nothing. The worth of a corpse is solely a function of its personal properties, which have to be looted to advance in the game."

What a wonderful description of a computer game! Please note that if the same text was written by any one of us it would have been a decent example of dry humour. LOL.

Yours truly,
Reminding you that your corpse
is a function of your personal property

LD, a fascist bastard

[Heksefatter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Dragonfly "As is well known for the fascist bastards, they take enjoyment in killing others, and the game rewards the player for killing common people. In fact, it is not possible to progress in the game without killing commoners, and the manufacturer plainly tells the player: those who have the courage to kill, are strong. Those who don't are weak. In one part of the game, the player fights for money--to the death. This serves well to illustrate the society, where money is everything and human life is worth nothing. The worth of a corpse is solely a function of its personal properties, which have to be looted to advance in the game." What a wonderful description of a computer game! Please note that if the same text was written by any one of us it would have been a decent example of dry humour. LOL. Yours truly, Reminding you that your corpse is a function of your personal property LD, a fascist bastard

Heh, if I didn't know better, I would have tagged your quote as being a tribute to the immensely cool Rick Pratt from the TV show 'The Young Ones'.

[Kipi]

I actually had a good time when I read the article about Fallout 1 and 2...
It seems that at least they DID play the games completely, at least the second one...

First of all, about finding politic propaganda or something like that from games, you can actually find anything from games, books, films etc. if you really want to. For example, based to his son J.R.R. Tolkien didn't think about religion (Christianity especially) when writing The Lord of The Rings, and still I have heard several people lecturing about how the serie represents the war between Devil and God...

Okay, some comments about the review...

Quote:

Interestingly, the mayor of Vault City is a black wymmyn. She probably doesn't realize the irony of supporting a system of slavery

Not sure about his thoughts as Lynette is not real woman. Looks like the writer(s) forgot that minor fact...

Quote:

On the downside, the game is too individualistic. In theory, your single character can be responsible for great changes without too much observable mass action. At best, you can have a team, or more accurately, "posse" that travels with you.

Name even one single RPG which isn't imdividualistic. Can any of you think any? I can't.

Quote:

In Fallout, mutants and ghouls take the place of the black population in the 1880s "Wild West." Signs in human stores or storeowners state "No Mutants Allowed" and ghouls are used by Vault City to maintain a leaky nuclear power plant.

This chapter made me wonder if they really DID pay enough attention to the game itself rather than finding proves to their claimings. Firstly, Vault City and Gecko did NOT appear in Fallout 1, but in Fallout 2. Secondly, ghouls weren't used by citizens of Vault City, in fact they were almost in war since VC wanted to eliminate the polluting power plant... This is something that IMO takes a bit away from the base of their claims, as they don't get such obvious thing correct. So, can we be sure that other claims are well based in the game?

Quote:

The psychologists postulated that the people in the vault with the tapes from the bad comedian would go insane first.

Okay, so did they actually find this from inside the games, or is this something they just assumpted? I have never find this specific info while playing Fallout 2. Mentions about the Vaults beeing tests, but nothing this specific...

Quote:

Such sick experiments on captive populations demonstrate the moral bankruptcy of psychology under capitalism

Again, they find what they want to find. In reality, how could one game demonstrate that the whole capitalistic system is evil? (it's totally different thing that is it...? )
And what does the capitalism even have to do with the experiments? As far as I know capitalism is mostly about money and economic thing, and it doesn't have anything to do with scientic experiments with human and such...
So, again linking without any worthy base...

Lastly, what annoyed me most was that even though the review was meant to be about both games, only Fallout 2 was well covered. Does it mean that they didn't find anything to fit their ideology from the first game...?