War Perspectives

Being a pacifist, I have not always liked idea of war-based games that seemingly only display the side of the aggressor or invader, such as Command and Conquer. In this game, the player controls the whole army with the main objective being its name, command and then conquer. Yet, I have found war-based games that express war from the receiving end of the war, one being Red Fraction Guerrilla. The premise of this game is that the player goes to the planet Mars to assist his family living there and while there he sees that the Earth Defense Force, the EDF, is capturing resources that have been depleted on earth; in doing this the EDF is harming the Martian citizens, who are seen as second-class humans.

Game play footage of Command and Conquer.

One of the missions in the game requires the player to attend a peaceful protest; after the EDF opens fire, the player is instructed to retaliate.

I felt like this could be beneficial because of showing resistance and or liberation movements from their perspective. I felt that this could provide an understanding of the people that are usually portrayed as the enemies or terrorists and the negative consequences that occur to the people when their government is pushed around and or have their resources exploited. After thinking about why I thought this counter-informative game could be beneficial, I realized it in actuality is not. I came to this conclusion because regardless of stance, the aggressor or liberator, the male characters have to go about their missions of conquest or expelling the foreign invaders with the use of violence. I, personally, see the instigator, referring to whoever attacked first, of any war as being more morally and ethically accountable, but there is no justification of violent attacks on either end. The game industry and developers have been taking the easy way out by using a proven system of knowing that war and violence sells and only occasionally changing the storyline. The game industry and developers should take a risk; video games are suppose to be entertainment but also innovative and creative and I would like to see more of that creativity and innovation in new game options that don’t limit men to one ideal and game play.