Games Without Frontiers
May 18, 2004 4:40 PM   Subscribe

Games Without Frontiers It'd be much funnier if it weren't so true.
posted by Fupped Duck (18 comments total)
 
Beautiful!

But it had better run on Macs as well as PCs!
posted by fenriq at 4:58 PM on May 18, 2004


[this is good]
posted by dg at 5:01 PM on May 18, 2004


I think it's insanely funny - and true.

Hmm..actually, Balance of Power from waaay back in the day came close to this kind of realism. I just remember giving up because it was too damn hard - no matter what I did, I ended up with revolutions, economic crises, and usually Nuclear Holocaust. Granted, I was like 10, but I *still* wake up thankful I'll probably never have to be a world leader.
posted by freebird at 5:12 PM on May 18, 2004


Although most of those suggestions are meant to be taken with a grain of salt, I can see a lot of them being used practically in an RTS, particularly the one about taking prisoners and revealing parts of the map after interrogating them.

Also, a public support meter would be a good idea.

Besides the social commentary this article provides, it's also something game designers should look at for suggestions!
posted by whoshotwho at 5:23 PM on May 18, 2004


So, I leave the battlefield...

...and brush the flaming chunks of bomb victims off my boots to address the worldwide outrage over the enemy soldiers who had their self-esteem damaged.


fuck this guy. The emphasis was his.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 5:30 PM on May 18, 2004


Item 10. That's all I'm saying about this. Item 10.
posted by wobh at 5:31 PM on May 18, 2004


"...particularly the one about taking prisoners and revealing parts of the map after interrogating them.

In the Bullfrog game Dungeon Keeper one of the structures you could build was a torture chamber in which you could do exactly this to enemy creatures.

As for the article, it was very funny except for the part where he implied that real-life torture is both justified and is only equivalent to damaging someones self-esteem anyway. This suggested to me that his fuck-nuckle quotient is disturbingly high.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:31 PM on May 18, 2004


Dude, item 17:


 
posted by nicwolff at 7:48 PM on May 18, 2004


So is it bad to laugh when a fuck-knuckle is funny and clever?
posted by freebird at 7:49 PM on May 18, 2004


Also, from item 19: "Truth Status: Not Handling It"
posted by nicwolff at 7:50 PM on May 18, 2004


Oh, I laughed a lot. I'm just getting a little tired of the way many people are attempting to reduce the significance of what happened in that prison in any way they can.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:12 PM on May 18, 2004


thatwhichfalls, it is possible that this was created well before the tortures became public. I've looked for a publish date for the page but didn't find one.

Of course, your basic point is quite right though.
posted by fenriq at 8:19 PM on May 18, 2004


The jokes are pretty clearly pointed at the prison abuses, methinks. I agree that part verges on poor taste - but, you know, so does the joke about blowing up orphanages. How come no-one's complaining about that?
posted by freebird at 8:35 PM on May 18, 2004


Ctl-Z..damn, on the Mac...Accel-Z....
Um, Can I Undo My Last Post? Please Hope Me :)

I don't want to fan the fires of any argument about what it's OK to laugh at and politics. I thought the article was funny, but it certainly trivialized some issues. Can't we all get along?
posted by freebird at 8:43 PM on May 18, 2004


In the Bullfrog game Dungeon Keeper one of the structures you could build was a torture chamber in which you could do exactly this to enemy creatures.

Assuming you torture them to death, of course. There's something to be said for converting an army of giants in the torture chamber.

It was a sad day when Bullfrog announced they were suspending development on DK3.
posted by DaShiv at 8:44 PM on May 18, 2004


He forgot that his game would have to make it so that no matter what combination of enemies he fights, even all the enemies put together, he still overpowers them by a wide margin.
posted by Hildago at 9:28 PM on May 18, 2004


The secret is out, David Wong has some of the best comedy writing on the net right now. He is the new Onion.
posted by BartFargo at 10:43 PM on May 18, 2004


seriously, item 10
and yeah, truth status: not handling it is great.

And i am a little torn on the whole humor/torture thing..i mean, ther eis always something that is 'just too much' for some people, and Ok for others. There was a good point about the 'talking heads' from companies, the press and different government agencies changing the objectives constantly. ..liked that...i don't know...yeah, it was all messed up (the torture thing), but MORE messed up than the entire premise of this war?
posted by das_2099 at 12:54 PM on May 19, 2004


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