Video game Bioshock Infinite accused of being anti white

[DonCoquixote]

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/bioshock-infinite-racist-racist-morons-have-serious-issues-with-bioshock-infinite.452795275/
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox-360/forum/white-supremacists-view-bioshock-infinite-as-white-person-killing-simulator-64924245/

Ok, I will try to be polite, but I am seriously annoyed.

Now, does the game show some very disturbign images of stykled styled confederates doing bad, ugly things? By all means it does. It manages to do so without flinching, and with hard storytelling. However, for all the fictional nature of the game, a game that admittedly has loads of sci fi, there is not one thing the villains do in that game that was NOT done in real life.

The fact that blacks were segregated, and that separate but equal was anything but? Yes, it happened, and there are penty of images much more offensive than any to prove that.

The fact that the city of the villains had lots of jingoist, racist propaganda? You could find that in the history books, and on many sites like stormfront and others run by the people who just happen to be complaining.

The fact that the bad guys considered Jonh Wilkes Booth a hero, and villfied Lincoln? Come on, you have seen that in many other places besides a video game.

If anything, the game actually turned down a notch images that were all too real. But the game forces peopel to look at the ugly side of America, also the potential for good, but yes, the ugly side that many do not like to see or admit, particularly the part that treat war and capaitalism as sacraments. These people get mad about a video game where the bad guys worship the founding fathers, but they guve a pass to the many white "churches" that do JUST that?

And keep in mind, we find examples of this in the present day, not a fictionalized 1912.

I am not going to post said images, Google will help you find them, and I know that if I post them, someone on here will say "well you are being offensive and unfair to white people." While there ARE many who do understand that yes, priviledge is real, there are many that shout it down, as if Obama made it disappear. Even in the better Video games,like Bioshock, you cannot wipe away the big mistakes by pushing a button. That does not mean all white people are a certain way, the main moral forces in this game are in all colors, including the male and female lead characters.

It does mean that this game manages to sneak in a lot of things that would already get censored in the older arts, because the people in charge of bullshitting and hoodwinking are well seated. It is not for nothing that the people ion the article I quote made a big point about the fact Ken Levine was a Jew. He is no zionist though, as the villain of an older game was nothing less than Ayn Rand, with the gender and nothing else changed. Funny how stormfront forgets that, or that he took hell from some Zionists because he dared lampoon St. Ayn Rand.

So, to sum up, if you hear hype about this game being propaganda, no. It is just the same whining from a group that whines whenever someone questions their version of history.

oh, and if they keep complaining that the images of racism are too disturbing, ask them about this one:
http://blog.ericharmatz.com/?p=3

or this:
http://www.altoarizona.com/history-of-racist-us-laws.html

These images were around long before any Video game, and Minorities did not have the option of turning the Playstation off.

[LittleBlue]

1. Ugh

Politics and social justice don't belong in games. The designers should ultimately have the creative freedom to do what they wish without worrying how their art is interpreted.

[DonCoquixote]

3. I hear you

and what is odd is that the game was going to have a more anti religion tone, but then some fundamentalist designers tried to resign.

[Javaman]

7. While I understand what you are saying

the fact of reality is: art, good art, has always been political.

Prior to motion pictures and still photography, art was used as a means to convey social and political occurrences in society.

And when an art trend changes as from the impressionists to cubism or "modern art" there were all sorts of uproars both in the art community and in the political spectrum.

If you follow classical music, very much the same examples are on display with various music pieces.

There has been "protest" art for as long as there has been art.

and while I haven't played the new Bioshock, I can guarantee you that politics and social commentary has been in video games for a while, the only difference is with this game is: it's obvious.

How one stands one either side of the issue in regards to this game and future games, will yet to be determined, but like it or not, politics in art, games, music has been with us forever.

Hell, chess, one of the oldest games around, is a political game.

[HipChick]

2. Hands off video games

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Its anti christian and anti american too

From the Blaze .... right wing asshole site.

Could a video game released this week really offer your children the chance to shoot at robotized versions of the Founding Fathers? Does that same game openly mock American exceptionalism and conservative ideals, and is it made by a committed Marxist? That’s the argument being made about the recently released and critically acclaimed video game Bioshock Infinite, which hit stores on March 26 and is already sparking viral controversy

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/29/bioshock-infinite-the-video-game-that-lets-you-shoot-robo-george-washington-should-you-be-worried/

A rebuttal.


"No. If anything, given that it takes place in 1912, it’s much more an attack on the sort of jingoistic sentiments that motivated Americans at the turn of the 20th century, and that caused writers such as Sinclair Lewis to openly fret about America itself going fascist. Its Christian and Founders-oriented iconography is not meant to reflect the evils of Christianity or the founders, but rather how easily the concepts advanced by Christianity and the Founders can be perverted in the service of authoritarianism."
"[...]In other words, the game is less a dedicated attack on conservatism than an attack on the most dysfunctional elements of American politics generally.
"it’s [also] easy to see how conservatives might find the game especially distasteful, given that the the player is required to do things like shoot at giant, mechanized statues of George Washington with angels’ wings made out of American flags, called “Motorized Patriots,” who recite quasi-Biblical statements of faith.
However, even these elements of the game make more sense in context. Physical resemblance aside, the Motorized Patriots are first presented in the game as frightening propaganda-spewing robots intended to whitewash the racist and fascist (they refer to Columbia as “the fatherland” much the same way Nazis did) vision of the game’s villain. In other words, their resemblance to George Washington is meant to reflect on the delusion of the people who run the city, who see themselves as latter day Washingtons, not as an attack on Washington himself."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. "Ok, I will try to be polite, but I am seriously annoyed."

Why? The gamers are laughing at them.

[DonCoquixote]

10. Not the real gamers I worry about

It's the idiots that eat up the propaganda. A lot of what allowed artists in video games to have an edge is that they were off the mainstream radar. It's the same thing that made rock and roll, animation and comic books have the ability to say things that no one else would have the guts to say. They knew they would never get respect or attention from the critics, and this allowed them to say things that would end up trashed by movie studios and editors.

What gets me a bit worried is that, like punk rock,the more the mainstream pays attention, the more it will try to control it, to absorb it, or if nothing else, to cage or kill it. The right wing knows that with this game and the orginal Bioshock, two very good shots have been fired at their "culture war." There was a second game that actually tried to lampoon Maoism, but Ken levine had less control, and it is considered the weak sister of the series. Infinite, just like Columbia's grand exhibits and shiny white paint, puts the worst of right wing beliefs out in bright, clear, wizard of Oz technicolor.

I will not be surprised to see some right wing try to do their version, and I also predict like, when Fox did it's show that imitated the daily Show, it will fall hard.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. "I will not be surprised to see some right wing try to do their version"

I can see it now.

They'll start with the old Leisure Suit Larry platform.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. That's what they get for tackling serious issues, like racism, poverty, labor exploitation as well

as, when the kettle finally blows, the tendencies of demagogues to take "the revolution" too far.

Very Animal Farm.

A brilliant game on a lot of levels, and like you said, the first one did a great job of Skewering Rand and Objectivism.

Plus, where else can you get a Robot Abe Lincoln to battle it out with a Robot George Washington?

[MineralMan]

8. We have a Gaming Group on DU.

Check it out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1211

[alp227]

9. When most video gamers' brains have been fried by all that game-playing,

OF COURSE a buncha fools will scream this stupid "ANTI WHITE" BS.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

12. The Tea Party maybe

That's kind of the feeling I got traversing Columbia- beautiful on its surface but with extreme prejudice and disgusting beliefs.

Plus the protagonists are both white as well as SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT-------- the way the vox became villains themselves and the killing of Fitzroy






Spoiler over

Anti white? No- anti bigotry- yes- and maybe even a swipe at the religious right in this country

[DonCoquixote]

13. true,although Booker

is part Lakota (aka Sioux&gt That has to add to his guilt at how wounded knee turned out.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

15. Yeah- the scene where he confronts part of that

Was great. Gaaah- such an amazing and deeply moving game. I think I fell in love with Elizabeth

[Dragonbreathp9d]

14. Plus it's the best game I've ever played. <--- that's a period

[Dragonbreathp9d]

16. Just finished the game

Simply brilliant