Ethnic Cleansing (video game)
The colorful pseudoscience Racialism |
Hating thy neighbour |
Divide and conquer |
Dog-whistlers |
“”[T]he fact that the game doesn't have "White Power-ups," in some extremely conflicting way, makes us think that they missed an opportunity.
|
—Larry Hester[2] |
Ethnic Cleansing is a video game developed by Resistance Records, an underground record label specializing in neo-Nazi and white supremacist "music", which is owned by the white supremacist organisation National Alliance. Based on that information and the game's title, one could probably make a guess as to the game's content and quality and not be far off.[3]
Gameplay
Exactly like you expected, the game is a first-person shooter in which the extremely, extremely threadbare plot concerns a Jewish takeover of the United States. (Apparently Resistance Records didn't get the memo about the Zionist Occupation Government.) The player takes the role of either a skinhead or a klansman, who, operating out of a crack house, runs through a ghetto killing blacks and Mexicans before descending into a subway to kill Jews. They eventually reach the "Jewish Control Center", where they must kill Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of Israel, in order to win the game.
In the game, blacks are portrayed as gangbangers who make ape noises on death (the game claims these noises were "recorded using real life negroes"), Mexicans are portrayed as banditos who say "I'm gonna take a siesta now" when killed to come back again seconds later, and Jews are portrayed as Haredim who say "Oy vey!" when killed.
By default, the game plays a cover version of the racist band Skrewdriver's song "When the Boat Comes".[4] Sample lyrics from said song: "Take no shit from anyone cause the white race rules! We'll fight the communists, 'cause communists are fools! Try to take our nations, and give em to the blacks! Won't take it anymore, we're gonna take our nations back! So we say: nigger, nigger, get on the boat!"[5]
Quality
“”I think the quality of this game accurately reflects how intelligent the white supremacist crowd is.
|
—Raptures Lost[6] |
Ghastly sentiments aside, the game is also pretty dismal from a technical perspective.
Developed using the Genesis3D engine, this broken game features hideous graphics with supremely terrible models and textures, dismal collision detection, and ridiculously short draw distance (about 10 feet, making it look like you're walking in a perpetual fog and making it impossible to spot enemies before they shoot you). And more typical features associated with terrible games. There are only two levels, and it crashes regularly.[7] Oh, and there's only one weapon: a machine gun.
Also, for some inexplicable reason, instead of using the W, A, S and D keyboard configuration for movement that every other computer game ever made, ever, uses, Ethnic Cleansing uses S, Z, X and C(???). And despite the fact that there's a keyboard configuration menu, it doesn't work.[6][8]
Publicity
The Anti-Defamation League publicized the existence of the game[9] and (being apparently somewhat unfamiliar with the ideas behind open source software) unsuccessfully lobbied the developers of Genesis3D to change their licensing conditions to prohibit the use of the engine to develop racist games. They have also lobbied the Interactive Digital Software Association to encourage their members to adopt such policies.
Stuff Magazine named Ethnic Cleansing the 40th most controversial video game of all time in January 2003. In 2010, UGO ranked it as the #1 most racist video game in history.
The game was featured in an episode of the History Channel documentary series Gangland that focused on skinhead gangs.[6]
Getting the game
As you can probably guess, this isn't a game you can just pick up at your corner video game store. It can only be ordered directly from Resistance Records.[note 1] For $14.98.[6] These days, of course, you might also be dumb, bored or curious enough to download it illegally for free. (Though you'd still likely be overpaying for it.[citation NOT needed])
Sequels
The game has spawned three even more spectacularly unsuccessful sequels, White Law,[10] and ZOG's Nightmare and ZOG's Nightmare 2.[11][12] The gameplay of the latter is slightly better and the racist message is slightly toned down -- as in, instead of killing non-white civilians, you kill non-white soldiers. Resistance Records wanted to create an entire series of games based on The Turner Diaries, but this seems to have fallen through.
See also
- Racial Holy War, its role-playing game equivalent.
External links
- See the Wikipedia article on Ethnic Cleansing (video game).
- Ethnic Cleansing, TVTropes
- Beware: the links below lead to literal neo-Nazi sites:
Notes
- ↑ RationalWiki will not link you to a place where you can purchase it. You'll thank us later.
References
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy-rJWDcuEM
- ↑ http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/06/the-10-most-racist-video-games/ethnic-cleansing
- ↑ But just in case, here's the Wired article on the game.
- ↑ Skrewdriver - When The Boat Comes In With Lyrics: Again, offensive. And dumb.
- ↑ A YouTube play through. WARNING: As you can guess, the game seen in the video itself is highly offensive. As is the soundtrack.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 http://www.trueachievements.com/gamerblogcomment.aspx?gamerblogid=30200
- ↑ A review of the gameplay itself
- ↑ heather riot. "Ethnic Cleansing Video Game Review. Lovely." RIOTgamer. 2009 February 2.
- ↑ ADL Report: Growing Proliferation of Racist Video Games Target Youth on The Internet
- ↑ http://www.popmatters.com/feature/040226-whitesupremacists/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR1Jme2AuNw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGDmLvZUO-I