http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/
Posted on 11/08/2004 2:01:36 PM PST by Republican Radio™
Halo 2, the sequel to the top selling game for Microsoft's Xbox, will be released on November 9th.
Joe Staten, the Microsoft employee and writer responsible for the storyline of both games, will use the new game (targeted at teens) as a political protest against the Bush Administration.
For those who don't know story of the Halo games, it takes place in the future when vicious and radically religious alien forces called "The Covenant" are in a war with the human race and have trapped a lone human warship light years from Earth near the heretofore unknown Halo, a huge ring-like world manufactured and abandoned millennia ago by a powerful race. Unfortunately, Halo is still inhabited and activating its immense power will bring forth "The Flood," a bio-mechanical army that will wipe out all human and Covenant life in the universe. Your mission a genetically-modified human soldier in the game of Halowas to fight the Covenant, the Flood, and destroy Halo before it is activated and all life as we know it ceases to exist.
Halo scribe and Microsoft employee Joe Staten was interviewed in the November 5, 2004 issue of Entertainment Weekly (subscription required) about the new game. In the interview Staten says the Halo 2 story follows the Covenant "holy war" invasion of Earth brought on by the fact that Earth military forces destroyed Halo at the end of the first game. Unlike in the first game where Halo was a life-destroying superweapon, in Halo 2 we are now told that Halo was one of many and are "utopias, safe havens in a universe filled with terror." Halo 2, according to Staten, will show the story from "both the humans and aliens" and makes militant Earthlings into the imperialist bad guys against the religious Covenant aliens who consider Halo as a religous relic. "You could look at it," Staten says of his Halo 2 storyline "as a damning condemnation of the Bush Administration’s adventure in the Middle East." Microsoft has taken a straightforward action game classic in the original Halo and decided to make a political statement with Halo 2.
It begs the question: Why would a gamer or the parent of a gamer pay $50 to play a game that will force the player to shoot hundreds of "bad aliens" for hours to advance in the game and then at the end of it admonish the player for shooting the bad aliens? "These aliens weren’t really ‘bad’—they were just misunderstood and we awful human beings had no business ever leaving our little corner of the universe. You, and all humans like you, are violent and bad but the aliens are more highly-evolved, peaceful, caring beings that we should have respected and loved rather than murdered."
If Joe Staten and Microsoft want to make a political statement (and as anyone living near Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA will tell you, the overwhelming majority of their employees in Redmond, WA are violently anti-Republican), they can do it without my money funding their next political statement. It will be a drop in the bucket, of course: Halo 2 has a rabid fanbase clamoring for the product and over $50 million is pre-order sales means the game is already massively profitable prior to its retail release.
To the gamers that will say "I’m going to play it because it’ll be fun and I can see past the politics to enjoy myself"—fine, that’s their right. However, I urge those concerned about the rot in American pop culture to spread the word about Halo 2 and Microsoft's hateful view of the Bush Administration.
"Next you're going to tell me Ender's Game is also a slight towards W, even though Card has been outspoken in his support of our President.
I'm not a fan of FPS games so this is a non-issue for me, but it occurs that if this Mr. Staten thinks he's making a big statement that he's a) loopy and b) going to be ignored by 99.99% of purchasers, who will see the ability to play as the aliens as a fun multiplayer option. "
This is the best post on this thread and one that I entirely agree with.
Bill Gates in particular, and Microsoft as a corporation, are quite GOP-friendly. It's just their techies that are largely anti-Bush.
Is this anti-Bush message blatant, or would one have to be a member of the looney left to possibly arrive this interpretation? Can't believe they would risk 'alienating' a large part of their customer base. They may be leftist, but they like their money as much as the next guy.
That seems ridiculous. In Halo, you fight alongside your fellow marines to save the free world.
The Covenant are the Islams, if anything, and the Flood is a biological WMD that the terrorists are looking for.
Is Halo just a rip off of Larry Niven's RINGWORLD?
BFD..Like me and you coughing up a 100th of a cent for GWB
August Caesar used to declare his ultra-rich opponents "enemies of the state" and seize their fortunes for the treasury. Of course, I am not suggesting that W pursue this course of action against his decadent dissidents...just that Gates, Soros, et al read their history.
I wouldn't worry about the political angle. I love to play the Oddworld games. In them I play a revolutionary "Mudokan" who frees his fellow slaves from their evil overlords. The overlords ruthlessly suppress the peaceful "Mudokan" religion and essentially rape the planet. And this sounds like who......?
Never crosses my mind while I play.
For some ridiculous reason, I think the political undertones may be missed by the players.
And people don't believe me when I say Microsoft is evil.
http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/
And who's the boss?
How else can one maintain a permanent bad mood? Some people need to have someone to boycott, be pissed at, or feel as though they are out to get them.
I'm glad to see evidence that the universe is still in good working order.
Or you can simply register as a Democrat ;)
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Yawn. It is a GAME! Even if there is a political subtext to it, no one will notice. Who cares. Personally I am addicted to Codename Panzers, Call of Duty, and Combat Missions: Afrika Corps.
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