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"Hooligan: Nazi Entertainment.?"

Finding out about a game that has been released in a couple of European Countries has brought me out from my enforced hiatus to post my feelings about this:

Usually I’m the first person to defend “freedom of choice” and will stand up for a game/movie like GTA3/State of Emergency by saying “It’s a game, it allows you to do things for fun with no consequence”.
Except I’ve become aware of a game that has me genuinely concerned as to who would play it and why.
“Hooligans – Storm Over Europe”. A PC game about football hooligans.
Now it’s not cartoony, it’s very realistic and real-world like in appearance. The aim of the game? According to the website:

The object is to become the most notorious group of Hooligans in Europe. You must kill, maim and destroy the opposing Hooligan teams. You muster and control your faithful troops by administering drugs, alcohol and of course a good dose of violence every now and then. They must become true followers of your faction, for better or worse.
Not only good strategic skills are required but also a good political mindset and managing capabilities to keep your troops happy and violent.
Whoever is victorious and catches the publics attention in the media, will end up the most notorious Hooligans in Europe and the world! A title that every Hooligan with his heart in the right place loves to fight for!

You get bonus points for “attacking civilians to increase your wanted rating and bonuses for targeting minority groups”.
If you go to the website, you are greeted with a nice black and red image of a skinhead glaring out at you.
The forums are filled with racial hatred and “Firms” organising meetings and the most viscious racial abuse directed at other countries.
Some of the avatars you can choose are swastikas and other nazi symbols.
Game Ltd have refused to carry this game, and HMV and Virgin are coming under serious complaint from watchdog groups for stocking it.
It’s also not being released in Germany or America and Trading Standards are investigating the game to see if it contravenes the “Incitement to Racial Hatred” act passed since Sept 11th.
In Germany, it is illegal to have games displaying any symbolism of fascist iconography, and it is also illegal to use Nazi ideology as a basis for entertainment – rightly so but the UK has no such restrictions, we rely on public decency and morals.

Now I know this is just a game and all that, but what makes me unhappy is the reasoning behind the game. It’s one thing to play an undercover/ex cop trying to bring down a crime syndicate (GTA3), but it’s another thing entirely when the idea of a game is to commit racial murder and acts of hooliganism for the sole purpose of “Being the number 1 firm in Europe”.
And if I had any doubt about the intention or morality behind this game, then a visit to the forums for this game (I wont give out the URL as I object to Nazi propaganda) will indicate just where the game developer’s feelings lay. Several moderators have joined in the boasts about “the good old days” and making continued racial slurs and abuse towards people.

A game is a game, I understand that. And I’m not suggesting that by playing this game you will instantly become a nazi thug.
But seeing as we are in the 21st century, and especially since Sept 11th, I find it abhorrent that somebody still thinks it’s a good idea to bring out a game that rewards murder and racial hatred as if it were a noble thing.
If there was a game to be released called “Auschwitz Death Camp 2002: The Revenge” then there would be international outcry and, hopefully, condemnation from the world. But having investigated this game as best I can and as best as I can tolerate, I can see no difference between this game and tattooing a swastika on your head and “bashing p***s” as one poster proudly boasted.

The main game that caused contention last time was “GTA3”, but that had a strict moral guideline in it.
You could attack pedestrians if you wanted to, but you were working to bring down a criminal organisation. The wholesale slaughter was just there if you felt inclined to do so, and you would be arrested or shot after a few moments mayhem. You were working towards a goal that was pro-legal, you fought gangs etc to bring order and calm to Liberty City.
However, Hooligans exists solely to murder and cause violence for the sake of it.
You could say the same about State of Emergency, but they use the “Globol Corps” plot and you get penalised for attacking civilians, and if you look, all of your opponents are faceless white-people, there is no mission that involves attacking minority groups.
I’m not going to demand that Hooligans be banned, or that stores shouldn’t stock this game, I stand by personal choice and, unfortunately, that extends to allowing right-wing Nazis their say as well.
But I am extremely offended and unhappy about the notion that a game exists that promotes and actively encourages murderous, racist, thuggish behaviour for the sake of it.
The reward in commanding loyalty and devotions amongst your skinhead followers suggests that the feelings and emotions of the games developers involved in this game are not being ironic or making a comment about society.

This is bigoted, Nazi behaviour under the banner of “entertainment” and that is what I object to, not the game, but the ideology behind it.

Goatboy wrote:
> Hell yes, that's enough thinking for this month

-----------

Don't want to over heat your brain

Mefinks SR are trying to bribe Goatboy into staying.

But then again, this is one brilliant post *end suck-up*

Hell yes, that's enough thinking for this month

Congrats on the well deserved GAD Goatboy.
All that hard slog and passionate speaking was worth it.

Maybe we can have a few more light-hearted topics now :)

Ok, I've read what YH had to say, and they are perfectly reasonable comments, he went and checked for himself.
But as I've explained to him, I spent the better part of 2 hours trawling through those forums and going to links provided in some posts there, and they links to Nazi/Facist homepages - one with a review of the game where the reviewer says "the minority target bonuses are fantastic"
I didnt spend a lot of time on those pages, as I find it hard to reconcile what they are preaching with what I deem acceptable.

There is an avatar of a Swastika being used by a moderator,and they are joining in with race-hate comments.
I can't pinpoint the exact thread because I have no desire to revisit that site to be honest.

I posted what I felt to be as much information as I could stomach in exploring this game, I may not have 100% of every single fact, simply because I couldn't force myself to read the material on that site and the linked pages.

An interesting point though:
The amount of people that started posting here without checking it out themselves and the ensuing arguments show what people with a little info from someone can generate.
Now apply that to someone claiming "jews are evil" and it's not hard to see how easily you can start to create a belief in your statements, without any further investigation needed.

That is why I think this game, and similar material, is dangerous. Because of the issues explored.
And even removing the racial aspect of it, a game that promotes soccer hooliganism is at best tasteles, and at worse glorifying senseless and hateful violence.

I'm not trying to tell people what to do or think, my post was stressing my unhappiness and my unease with this game and the sorts of ideas attached to it from reading the forums and some of the pages of posters there.

And if nothing else, the amount of replies in this thread prove that complacency is not likely in the face of serious issues more important than "Xbox sux".

And it is also reassuring to note that 99% of this thread has been rational discussion between people with differing viewpoints trying to get their emotions across in a way that demands explanation.
Which is exactly what facism/racism/race hate is not.
That is a blinkered and unwavering refusal to listen to others under any circumstances.

I stand by my original preference that this game should not have been made available, but I haven't demanded SR do not stock it, merely suggested they look at the ethics of it.
I do stand firm in my belief that fascist material should not be allowed for public consumption, yet that's just my opinion.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to join in this argument, it makes me realise that, despite minor differences, we all feel the same away about issues like this.

unknown kernel, you make some good points.

The main point of my post was not to discuss the morality of the game, but rather to highlight the fact that many posters on here jumped on the bandwagon without looking into this themselves.

I admit that the developers of the game will try to make their game look as harmless as possible by putting disclaimers on their site, so that does not prove much.

But why would the moderators clean their forums up suddenly?

Also, call me stupid, but at EVERY football match you get chants and "monkey noises", by both sets of fans. So does that mean that everyone who goes to a football match is a Nazi racist hooligan?

But, as I've said before, I'm suprised at the number of people who seemed to have an opinon without looking into the facts/game/web-siite for themselves.

Have a buthchers at my new topic.

Why did you just post all that without adding anything yourself?

Was it just to get your word count up? You sad, sad man.

Well, be-z-boy, that's one way to get your word count up, I suppose. ; )

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