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on splinter cell;
i had a discussion with a friend about his unease at the pro-US government activities you take part in,some of them clearly poor representations of the reality of the political scenes they seek to portray.
i was defending the game.
i love stealth games.
i liked the first tenchu when it came out as well, and used to play the checkpoint mission regularly and often even after completeing the game.
i see the two as very similar.
while one is set in the past and the other the near future(practically the present), basically they are the same.
in one you play a ninja.
in the other you play a super-tech ninja.
in both you are working for your government and have little or no choice in what missions you accept.
i also feel that in both in both the portrayal of the political scene is not accurate.
i can understand that the closeness to our time makes splinter cell more potentially offensive, but i dont really find it too bothersome.
ninjas will always be working for a government, and they are, by their nature, violent and unethical dealers of death.
if you wanna be a ninja, you have to be a ninja, basically.
i dont pretend to like the politics, and the shamelessly jingoistic, clancyesque interpretations of reality do suck as education.
i find i can usually rise above/ignore it.
i can play the game as a game without feeling brainwahsed and i usually laugh at the ridiculousness of uncle sam's exploits as a member of third echelon.
(ohmigod! them foreigns are hating our freeness! kill someone! quick! quiet!)
i guess basically i extract from the experience what i like and ignore what i dont and cant laugh at.
i dont like FSW or its ilk at all, to be honest, so i am usually more harsh in my thoughts towards it and its message.
as they get more real, i find that these games often become less about playing a game and more about living vicariously.
i like to pretend to be amazing at martial arts and infiltration. playing thesegames lets me experience in some small way the mindset of someone who is. as games get better, i like the idea that many more experiences that i would not wish to have for real will become available for me.
i dont ever want to have to kill someone.
the prospect terrifies me.
i do want to know what goes through the mind of someone who does, though.
i would love to see a game in which one plays a terrorist, for example. i wonder what goes through your mind when you are attempting to steer clear of suspicious cops and jack bauer types while planning spectacular acts of destruction and fearmongering.
i am curious and have a voracious hunger for understanding the shit that piques.*
ethics totally come second, i'm afraid.
*FSW et al dont.
i have enough understanding of the experience of being US military personell for my liking already, and it isnt an experience i desire to embed myself in regularly. |
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