MINDGAMEZ ideas

[AmericanGLADIOtor]

just thinking of the games I played throughout the years and how looking back, I can see how they might relate to the nature of capitalism, the deep state, and the military-industrial complex. last episode was about Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, which was a positive, if violent, example of a game with a counter-reactionary and anti-fascist message. Which leads me to remember another game I played a little growing up: Red Faction, which tells the story of a worker on Mars rising up against the corporation that exploits the workers and allows them to die to the plague.

One of the game series near and dear to me was the Command and Conquer series, which itself was three different subfranchises of real time strategy games. The first game, Command and Conquer, came out in 1995 and is apart of the Tiberium universe, in which a meteor crashes on Earth carrying Tiberium, a substance which extracts minerals from the soil (in game currency for buying units) but also wreaks havoc upon the environment. The Brotherhood of Nod, led by a bald guy named Kane, inspired by the cults and domestic terror of the 90s, has covert control of banks and patents regarding Tiberium. To stem the populist tide that Nod represents, the UN creates the Global Defense Initiative, a task force designed to root Nod out and regain control of seized territory. The first game is stylized by the military aesthetic of the 90s, and as the series continues delves into cybernetic themes and transhumanism.

The second game released, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, came out in 1996, and was the same mechanically speaking as the 1995 game. In this game Einstein uses a time machine (chronosphere) to go back to 1926 to kill Hitler, causing the Soviet Union and Stalin to become the megalomaniacs of the mid-20th century. This game definitely reeks of anti-communism, and uses every Soviet stereotype in the book. That being said, the inclusion of naval units and balanced gameplay makes this one pretty fun; its sequel Red Alert 2 is one of the best RTS games.

Both the Tiberium and Red Alert games feature full motion video sequences, and as the series developed more famous people joined the cast. This was not continued in the third franchise, Command and Conquer: Generals. This series only got an expansion pack and the sequel was cancelled. The game departs from the other two franchises and EA tried to emulate Starcraft's popularity and implemented mechanics from that series that felt off when compared to the Command and Conquer formula. This game was released in weeks before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and is definitely the most propaganda RTS game that I know. Three factions are featured: the USA, the Chinese PLA, and the Taliban analogue GLA. The US forces are depicted to be heroic everymen keeping the world safe. The Chinese and GLA are offensive portrayals of the people they are supposed to depict. In terms of units fielded, the US uses laser technology and drones, and in true "saying the quiet part out loud" fashion, a building available to the US is a literal Guantanamo Bay copy that uses tortured captives to find the enemy. The Chinese units are cheap and replaceable, and use flame technology and nuclear weapons to achieve their goals. The GLA uses chemical and biological weapons, and the vehicles are outdated relics or civilian in nature retrofitted with toxic weapons. This game is pure propaganda. Fun, but propaganda.

Anyways, this topic/thread is just suggestions for the MINDGAMEZ crew; I'm not affiliated.

[pussy___teeth]

hell yeah brother those are all good suggestions. i just kicked up red faction a few weeks ago briefly and was pretty impressed with how well it holds up, and command and conquer is sick as hell, i haven’t played one of those since i was a kid but i remember loving them a ton 🙏

[ih8navyseals]

i'm just waiting for the MGS2 episode

[dmoney]

It's sort of a bigger topic but I'd be interested in something on the whole video games cause violence phenomena. It's a weird thing because I think those people are kind of right but not for the reasons they think. As they talk about on the show, there is a lot of dehumanization and subtle mind control/psyop stuff going on in games and I think its a lot more complicated than video games are either morally bad or perfectly healthy as the debate usually goes.