Aside from the fact that Bono is perhaps the most hypocritical "anti-poverty" activist the world has ever known... his credibility as a peace-activist is gets another good double flush every time he attempts to deny the pro-war, pro-US propagandic slant contained in the video game, "Mercenaries 2", of which he is a prime financier.The political controversy generated by the game is essentially over its depiction of gung-ho American mercenaries invading Venezuela with the express purpose of overthrowing a "Leftist Oil Tyrant."
Understandably, this piece of digital garbage is drawing attention from a number of Venezuelan politicians concerned that it will add fuel to already fiery Venezuela-US relations.
Bono, of course, hoping to make a mint off its sales, denies any political agenda in the game.
Yeah buddy... and I'm sure you lent your name to Ipod out of the goodness of your heart as well.
Or, as most of us have known all along, you're just another money-hungry boot-licker trying to make a buck off the poverty-guilt market.
Save the last shred of dignity you possibly have left Bono, and scrap this piece of pro-imperialist garbage.
4 comments:
I don't know about you, but I like games that involve war and even games that involve pretty anti-progressive stuff (a la Grand Theft Auto).
I also like to keep a nice thick line between game world and real world because otherwise you get crazies with an agenda censoring games.
So my question to you is, what's your beef with Bono? Is it really hypocritical? And if so, any more than anyone who already enjoys capitalist video entertainment and violent games?? Sure taking out a Venezuelan oil tyrant is pretty expressly political but so is kneecapping a prostitute.
Yeah, the violence against prostitutes never should have been put into the Rockstar games. At the very least, there should have been some equivalent of an "R" rating slapped on the GTA series. The video game industry is screaming bloody murder over the new rating systems that are being imposed, and I don't think it has very much to do with a fight against censorship at all. It has everything to do with the loss of sales a distributer feels they'll suffer if they get an "R" rating stickered on their box.
Sure, there's a few religious right fanatic senators down south who would like to see all things "ungodly" removed from games. That kind of legislation is unlikely to go anywhere. A lot of the bills coming out of the Democrats right now, however are aiming to sync the video game industry up with the Movie industry. There's a lot of movies I enjoyed which I would never show my kids, (if I had any)... like Kill Bill, Sin City, etc. And those are the kinds of movies which should have "R" ratings on them. I don't think a similar system applied to the gaming industry could be considered censorship. The games can still be released, albeit with a warning on the cover about the content.
I'd be pretty hard pressed to name any of the millions of war games produced over the last decade that I could say I liked. I could say the same for pro-American war movies. In fact, as I've written quite a few times in the past... a lot of those war games represent everything that's wrong with the gaming industry. They're propagandic, overly nationalistic, mindless, and in my opinion, completely void of creativity or innovation. I also think they've been the main reason game developers have been complaining about market stagnation over the last console generation. People were simply getting tired of first person military sims.
It's one of the main reasons I bought a Wii... and I think it's one of the main reasons the Wii is doing so well, (alongside its accessible price)
Oh and sorry... explain to me what is so capitalistic about gaming? I'm still a bit unclear on how, exactly, a personal hobby like playing video games fundamentally alters my relationship to the productive forces in my sheet metal shop.
I'm sure once you remind me, it will all come flooding back.
"Oh and sorry... explain to me what is so capitalistic about gaming?"
"...video game, "Mercenaries 2", of which he is a prime financier."
"Bono, of course, hoping to make a mint off its sales, denies any political agenda in the game."
"Or, as most of us have known all along, you're just another money-hungry boot-licker trying to make a buck off the poverty-guilt market."
"The video game industry is screaming bloody murder over the new rating systems that are being imposed, and I don't think it has very much to do with a fight against censorship at all. It has everything to do with the loss of sales a distributer feels they'll suffer if they get an "R" rating stickered on their box."
Answer the full question man... No one disagrees that the development of games is capitalistic. No one thinks workers in the game industry need unions more than I do.
But how does a personal hobby like playing video games fundamentally alter a gamers' relationship to the productive forces in their place of employment? Because that's the supposed contradiction you were initially trying to demonstrate.
Movies are capitalistic in their development process too. Are we capitalists for watching them?
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