Lileks on gaming

Games
1

I didn’t know if this should go in Politics & Religion, or in Games. I apologize in advance if I made the wrong choice.

The most interesting news of the day is rarely in the A-section; it’s buried in the back pages of the Wall Street Journal, where you get a glimpse into some small aspect of the future that will die or flourish in months to come. My favorite article today concerned the French computer game industry, and yes there is such a thing. Turns out that it’s in the pissoir for all the usual reasons - the companies can’t fire anyone when business heads sud, the taxes are onerous, and, uh, the games suq. But the French PM believes that the industry deserves to be subsidized, because French computer games reflect European values.

Well, yes, if they’re subsidized, bought by no one. It got me to thinking about French versions of some popular games:

Half-Life. An interdimensional gateway opens up, and thousands of murderous creatures from another world spill through. Your mission: help them establish their own parallel society in your country.

Doom: An interdimensional gateway opens up, and the minions of Hell itself enter a Martian moonbase. Your mission: nothing! Lucky you, they invaded in August, and that’s your month at the beach.

Grand Theft Auto: You steal Deux Cheveaux and attempt to escape from the police at speeds up to 30 MPH

Medal of Honor: WW2. This was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the Resistance. At its peak it had 400,000 members who logged on and did nothing. Then someone named “Yank44” signed on, and the system crashed when all 400,000 members attempted to remove the picture of Marshal Petain from the wall of their cottage.

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/index.html

2

Written by someone who has never actually seen (and been terrified by) French driving in action.

Usual petty racism. Not sure I approve (even if I consider Infogrames the worst game publisher evar!)

Industry Dwarf

3

Ugh. Can’t he pick funny ones? Like, you know, they smell bad.

4

Usual petty racism.

What? The French are a different race? Besides Caucausian?

When did this happen?!

I just wish he had worked “Cheese-eating surrender monkey” into his little dig.

5

Bloody Canadians!

6

The typical EUrocrat solution to any failing business… subsidies!

The silliness of this approach is illustrated, followed by a smattering of french jokes.

Racisim you say? Bah. You must be one of those -ism people. Able to be offended at the speed of sound!

7

Wow! You really don’t know what’s wrong with it?

I did take quite severe offense to the anti-French sentiment in the good old US of A during the current Gulf War.

If nothing else it showed a grievous lack of good breeding.

And yes, it is racism.

Industry Dwarf

8

And yes, it is racism.

Industry Dwarf

No, it isn’t. Or if it is, could you please define “race?” It seems you’re pulling the “Hitler was a so and so” defense, substituting race.

H.

9

Get thee behind me troll.

If you honestly don’t think its racism your parents failed in your moral education.

Industry Dwarf

10

So it’s racism when you call an white American a ‘cracker’, right?

So if I call the Gauls ‘French Bread’ that’s racism too? Oh, I understand now.

11

[BEGIN KOONTZ BLOCK]

Making fun of citizens of France is not racism.

The reason is as follows:

In the English language, we use the word “race” to denote a set of humans that share general traits. For instance, the “black” race is commonly denoted by a dark pigmentation of the skin. Now, while it is somewhat simplistic to lump every person with dark skin into one category (most people would not consider Indians "black), generations have used this simplistic technique. Hence, we have “black,” “white,” “red,” and “yellow” races etc. Now, in order to further delineate the races, scientists have used genetics and other more complex methods to make further dinstinctions.

While these delineations–both simple and complex–seem to offer a way to easily refer to groups of people politically and socially, the fact remains that doing so is incredibly stupid and extremely unfortunate.

Because race doesn’t matter.

You can be a scintillating individual with fine moral sense if you happen to be of African descent, and you can be a pleasant and intelligent person if you happen to be of caucasian descent.

In fact, this fine country has many many intelligent, pleasant, and morally fine people of every race. Unfortunately for France, while it has many people of many different races, very vew of these people (of any race) currently exhibit intelligence, pleasantry, or fine moral sense. The upsurge of anti-semitism in France (which, while also not racism, is just as horrible)serves as a good indication of this trend.

And so we see that because of the wide variety of spineless weasels of many different races in France, using the word “racism” to describe attacks against French citizens is a ridiculous and pathetic attempt to racialize yet another failed left wing cause–the defense of our cowardly surrender-monkey “allies.”

Now, if you would like to suggest that criticizing the citizens of France is in some way reprehensible, feel free to do so! Perhaps it is! But please don’t attempt to turn it into a “racial” issue since that is clearly fallacious.

Thanks!

:D

P.S. Jason does this kind of thing a lot better than you. Instead of using the primitive “nuh-uh, yuh-huh” argument pattern, he often crafts wordy arguments that contain complex ideas. While his arguments are patently absurd, they’re much harder to completely rip to shreds. This technique is called “sophistry.” You may want to consult him on how to implement it.

P.P.S. Perhaps in your reply you might try to draw parallels between anti-semitism and anti-frenchism. Now, this will not work because anti-frenchism attacks a largely corrupt culture, while anti-semitism attacks a religion that spans many races and cultures, it may still provide some valuable practice in crafting arguments that don’t fall apart like French cars.

[END KOONTZ BLOCK]

12

Let me get this straight.

The French (when polled) did not even want the US to emerge victorious from Iraq. So, they wanted Saddam Hussein, one of the most immoral/amoral, bloodthirsty, vicious, and cruel tyrants our modern world has known, to stay in power and continue committing various atrocities against humanity. And yet, it is racism and immoral for the people of the United States to resent that and urge each other to not buy French products and to question whether or not the French were our friends or even worth having as friends.

If that is immoral. Then yes, I lack morals. If that is racism, I’ll certainly own up to it.

But let me guess, you wish Saddam had won too. Ah! A true moralist.

[size=1]I’m guessing Industry Dwarf is a little light on the logic…[/size]

13

And the Americans, when polled, thought that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.

Listen up everyone – polls are wonderful for pointing out how stupid, irrational, and otherwise lame a group of people is. Actually making up your mind about a whole group of people because of a poll just makes someone seem even stupider.

…

Wait a minute, I clicked on the games forum. WTF. The forum must be broken.

14

LOL… Me likey.

Did you come up with that yourself? If not, then tell me where you got it.

15

Enough of this morals crap. Let’s make fun of the French some more!

Here, I’ll help:

16

This is ludicrous. The anti-French sentiment in America right now isn’t racist, it is political. I don’t see French tourists being dragged to death behind cars, stoned, or discovering burning, upside down camemberts on their lawns. Rather, Americans have voiced their political dissent by boycotting French products - which is probably one of the most mature ways possible to voice any sort of political dissent. You have the few nutjobs who get all the attention with “Freedom fries” and the rest, but the average joe is just speaking with his wallet and quietly putting pressure on France when he reaches the wine aisle at the local supermarket. So unless you are saying it is racist not to collapse into a gelatinously-willed heap every time the French issue forth one of their snooty, hypocritical condemnations, or try to thwart US interests, you’ve just got no point here.

17

You’re right DrCrypt, but I think that this also goes beyond politics. I also think it’s cultural.

But the “hard” style of multi-culturalism insists that all cultures are equally valid and equally good. And since the left is consumed by issues of race, it’s an obvious step for them to identify culture with race even though this makes no sense. Then, given that race and culture can’t be separated in their minds, they assume that what’s true of race (that all races are equal) is true of culture.

Race is an innate attribute that cannot be changed. Culture is learned and taught.

Also…pass the Freedom Fries.

18

[BEGIN KOONTZ BLOCK]

Making fun of citizens of France is not racism.

The reason is as follows:

In the English language, we use the word “race” to denote a set of humans that share general traits. For instance, the “black” race is commonly denoted by a dark pigmentation of the skin. Now, while it is somewhat simplistic to lump every person with dark skin into one category (most people would not consider Indians "black), generations have used this simplistic technique. Hence, we have “black,” “white,” “red,” and “yellow” races etc. Now, in order to further delineate the races, scientists have used genetics and other more complex methods to make further dinstinctions.[/quote]
Right, so the French are a race of humans who’ve evolved with a yellow belly, no spine, no guts and no balls.

19

Damn them silly lefty morons. Can’t they see that there’s only one true way? We oughta come up with, I dunno, some kinda LIST! And put their names on it, in BLACK! Yeah!

20

Though the discussion continued unabated, a terror had gripped the boarders - a terror that tore through their hearts unlike any since the defeat of Supreme Commander Derek Smart. With the arrival of Dr Fear, yet another supervillain had taken residence on the board, and it was only a matter of time before he and Dr. Crypt would set aside their petty differences to forge a joint practice of evil. And though they had heroes to protect them, the boarders could muster little hope for a superteam composed of men named Supertanker and Gladguy.