National Stereotypes, Violence, Language and Gaming

March 10, 2003 7:05 AM

But I Thought The Danes Were Good Guys... so what are they doing offering this Godwin's-Law-begging, nasty, violent Flash game? I mean, if it had been a ****** [nationality protected by political correctness] game, I don't think I'd have been half as shocked. National stereotypes - don't you hate them? But just how strong are they, when they're splattered, as it were, even over online gaming? [Via good old b3ta.com, who were just as aghast as me at the provenance. Hey, even the URL is scary!]
posted by MiguelCardoso (13 comments total)

Is it the language?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:09 AM on March 10, 2003

zulu is a tv channel in dk.
posted by dabitch at 7:15 AM on March 10, 2003

hehehe. The cop yells things like "den rammer bedre nær man siktar" (it hits better if you aim) when you fail, and "Sådan!" (There ya go!) when you hit them in the head.
posted by dabitch at 7:20 AM on March 10, 2003

Miguel - they seem so nice in public that they have to errr....overcompensate! in private.
posted by troutfishing at 7:20 AM on March 10, 2003

the house is a "occupied youth house" run by crusty type kids, and cops raid it fairly often. That is a real place, just up the street [points] there. They do some fun parties. :)
posted by dabitch at 7:22 AM on March 10, 2003

Thanks, dabitch - I guess. I'm not at all assuaged by the fact it's an occupied youth house. I'm an inveterate admirer of all things Danish - I shall never forget how welcome I was made to feel in Copenhagen by a group of people who just sort of adopted me and took me everywhere. It's the friendliest city I know. I love Denmark.

My point is that my perception of Danish culture must be very superficial if it only takes only little game to challenge it. To be honest, I was disappointed. So my love can't be all that solid - though I'd hate to think it wasn't.

Stereotypes are very dangerous and perhaps good ones - such as those enjoyed by Danes, who figure for us Southern Europeans as the quintessential anti-Germans - are the most vulnerable of all. I was reminded of my mother's reaction, another lover of all things Danish, when she read a book about Danish collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War. She threw the book down, even though it was an academic history and she knew that there were collaborators in every single country...

Stereotypes scare me; as they're a form of ignorance which we sit upon and use, without questioning. In a way my surprise was "How can I be so unforgiving/easily led?"

I'll shut up now.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:44 AM on March 10, 2003

Yeah, cause b3ta is so righteously indignant when it comes to exploitative flash games.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:52 AM on March 10, 2003

And Miguel, you're clearly much too intelligent to be surprised that a nation include various groups with various attitudes. You're just looking for justification for your low-brow, enjoyable post.

Listen to the whole of the Hammer the Whore song, by the way.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:55 AM on March 10, 2003

Hey, they got the year of my death wrong.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 7:57 AM on March 10, 2003

This game is a spin off of a faux-documentary following a danish police swat team. PIS the name of the game and the tv-show is short for police deployment(maybe?) force also means piss (its just as rude in danish).

I really enjoyed the game and so did most of my family and friends. The comments are really funny because they play on stereotypes not in spite of it.
posted by FidelDonson at 8:21 AM on March 10, 2003

Denmark. What is Denmark but a parking lot North of Germany?

Kidding. Copenhagen is probably my favorite city in the world, and the Danes I have met probably in aggregate the nicest and most decent bunch of people I have run into. That being said every shade of human character is still there and there's no reason to be surprised.

Take Norway (much better war record than Denmark, I believe) - same area and many of the same type of work hard/be good/human rights/fresh food/physical activity beliefs (although much different - poor for so long, isolated, etc.) and they still have maniacs burning down Norman churches.

I find national stereotypes to be useful on the whole - there's often quite a bit of truth to them. You just always have to be aware that the actual instance always trumps the general sentiment.
posted by fluffy1984 at 9:10 AM on March 10, 2003

Wait, I didn't see what stereotypes the game is playing off of. It looked like all the bad guys were wearing black masks. Were they actually black or something? Did I miss some white supremacist symbolism?

To me it just looked like a crazy arcade game where you shoot everything in sight and a sweaty guy yells at you in Danish. What did I miss in my frantic rush to gun down people?
posted by Hildago at 11:08 AM on March 10, 2003

That rat bastard on the roof hit me with a brick!

Thanks, M.C.
posted by hama7 at 7:31 PM on March 10, 2003