Rattle & Hum & Censor?
In between saving Africa and wearing my grandmother's sunglasses in places with very little light to begin with, U2 demigod Bono is being called upon by a group called the Venezuelan Solidarity Network to use his celebrity-who-cares magick to rid the world of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
Pandemic's Mercs 2 is about, well, mercenaries. Who topple a tyrant in Venezuela. And don't have a problem with collateral damage. In short, it's like a hundred other games out there that have pissed off the residents or officials of their locale: remember Las Vegas and Juarez? But because our President controls the game industry (are they high?), this game calls for...Bono:
The aim of the video game is full devastation, so any ‘person’ who moves should be ’shot,’ and all the buildings, such as the headquarters of PDVSA, the Venezuelan public oil company, can be ‘destroyed.’ Our concern is that this game will only deepen an already antagonistic relationship between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments.
Millions of Venezuelans fear an invasion from the U.S.; knowing that a company that works for the US military has created a game in which their country is completely destroyed will increase those concerns.
Pandemic had previously worked with the US military on Full Spectrum Warrior, for whom a special training version of FSW was built. And Bono is a principle with VC firm Elevation Partners...a major inverstor in Pandemic. So it's not entirely random, but still. Pandemic's response pretty much sums up the truth of it:
While we’re flattered that people think Mercenaries 2 is a commentary on the real world, it is just a video game… More to the point, the characters are categorically not based on any real political figures in Venezuela or elsewhere.
Scene.
Group Petitions Bono to Cancel Mercs 2 Over Venezuelan Missions [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 23 March 2007
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: bono, merc2, mercenaries 2 world in flames, pandemic, u2, venezuela
When I first heard this all I kept thinking of is that Bono's kicking back looking over his massive "to do" list and all he's thinking is "They're asking me to do what?"
Oh c'mon, and 300 has no input at all in the minds of people in what they think towards Iran (or more accurately, that whole brown sand toilet)?
Seriously, there was a time when they'd just vaguely say "some country in South America". It could be awful and stupidly prejudicious in their generalization (I'm from Brazil), but at least it didn't target a real life "red-hot" country (don't even bring a excuse about "adding realism" to the game or something). If americans aren't employed in their subtle schemes to remove "non-friendly" government leaders like in their 20th century history towards South America (in Brazil's case, enabling a violent brazillian right-wing dictatorship that lasted almost 30 years), they're either subtler (non violent economics) or just aiming for a more blunt manner, and this game is the sort of shit (the "realism") that seeds all the wrong people's heads.
And it doesn't really matter if the leader's name in the game is or isn't "Chavez" when in real life your average americans just call him "that fucking spic", or some generalized real spanish name (Jesus, they'd even call brazillians in the same spanish term).
But... Bono?
it is odd that 1) UbiSoft has based enemies in GRAW, Rainbow 6, and GRAW 2 on 'terroristas' from Central American countries, and Mercenaries2 in Venezuela. It's almost as if these companies decided, 2-3 years ago, to base the enemies on people that wouldn't seem to ACTUALLY be enemies - like say, actual foes of America, like the North Korean government (Ghost Recon 2) or Middle-Eastern enemies (anything pre-9/11).
The funny thing is, U.S./Mexico border relations and immigration issues have worsened in that time, so it actually has become MORE of a point of contention to have your enemies Central American. Can't win for trying it seems.
It's not that far fetched to distantly relate a lot of games pre-911 and their zeitgeist with a way too easily accepted preposterous war.
Although this attempt in censoring the game might have fueled more hatred than 20 warmongering games put together (and of course, Chavez's media will worsen things by antagonizing U.S. in general with this -- and american media will show venezuelan citizens like they did with iraquis, "they hate their dominator and would give us flowers if we brought him down").
Bono should put a sock in it already.
They should have picked a country like Liechtenstein or Tonga...
Man, Bono is just not aging gracefully...