I watched the GS video review of the game earlier today and i thought, its mid 2009 and there are STILL new games where we kill and fuck up nazi bastards.. there have been tons of em for the last 10 years.. how do germans feel about it? being reminded everyday of that disgraceful era of their history..
Wolfenstein
Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Aug 18, 2009
B.J. Blazkowicz returns, guns blazing, to stop the Nazis from harnessing the power of an alternate dimension known as the Black Sun.
How do you think Germans feel about nazi-slaughtering games?
I'm going to go ahead and say that not all Germans were Nazis, not even all of those in the war. And I don't see why the generations of today should feel disgraced at all.
i got the idea that they're disgraced, from this one time where i was trying to participate in a student-exchange program with germany, and somewhere on the german embassy website or something, the 1930-1945 section (about the german government) was concluded by a few lines that said something like: "the german people are sorry for that terrible era in the german life and govenment".. its been years i dont remember what it said but thats where i got the idea." I'm going to go ahead and say that not all Germans were Nazis, not even all of those in the war. So I don't see why they should feel disgraced at all. "
Anyway, whether its a disgrace to them or not, we're STILL killing and butchering 1940s germans and thats gotta provoke some sort of emotions for the germans
" Germans =/= Nazis "the nazis were german people, no ? and its not like they were german tribes hundreds of years ago.. they existed just yesterday
The Germans hated what Hitler did. Mention anything related to Nazism, they'll burn you like a little witch (over exaggerated statement, btw).
In short, Germans don't give a shit if you kill off the humans that made them look bad.
" @Ahmad_Metallic: There were some Nazis that aren't Germans.do you know any nazi-killing games that didnt take place in germany, against german nazis ? even if you do, the majority and the popular ones are all in germany against german nazis so thats what im talking about here
" @Ahmad_Metallic said:Well, its not necessarily "getting mad" at it, it could be any kind of uneasiness or feeling... plus, i think its different when it comes to germans cause, i think, there are anti-nazi games ten times as much as any anti-nation games.. i could be wrong but i havent seen games against japan or vietnam as much as against nazis.." @dcpc10 said:You've got a point, but honestly the nazis aren't the only ones look down apon in most video games these days. Actually, if everyone took this kind of stuff personally, then we would never see games based around war ever come out. Look at a game like world in conflict, if you never purchased the expansion pack (that had the soviet campaign) for that game, then you would be killing russians throughout the whole playtime. If they got mad about that, and if the Germans got mad for games based on WWII, and if the japanese got mad about COD:WAW, then we would never see these games which would be a shame. "" Germans =/= Nazis "the nazis were german people, no ? and its not like they were german tribes hundreds of years ago.. they existed just yesterday "
except for arabs, hah, TONS of games in the desert and against MEC forces and shit, but arabs dont belong to the civilized societies which are open to other societies which allows them to notice the games and have an attitude. im not being racist im arab myself and i know what im saying.. arabs are in a coma
"Well modern Germans aren't Nazis so they shouldn't feel anything. It doesn't matter if you're Spanish, English, American, German or from anywhere the Nazis where bastards no matter where you come from. "He is right, I bet they're more worried about how this makes them look to the ignorant people in the world, who go "ALL GERMANS ARE NAZIS." Which is both racist and stupid.
I think all known ex-Nazi's have been punished by some extent, so I don't know why the Germans should feel anything concerning Nazi-themed games.
That's like saying I should feel angered by all the Communist-themed games. Yeah, I'm Russian, but I wasn't a Communist so why should I care?
" @Scooper said:i didnt say all germans are nazis. i said the nazis we kill in the games were GERMAN PEOPLE, the germans of today are GERMAN PEOPLE, they're 60 years away from each other... theres a connection isnt there??"Well modern Germans aren't Nazis so they shouldn't feel anything. It doesn't matter if you're Spanish, English, American, German or from anywhere the Nazis where bastards no matter where you come from. "He is right, I bet they're more worried about how this makes them look to the ignorant people in the world, who go "ALL GERMANS ARE NAZIS." Which is both racist and stupid. "
They shouldn't care it wasn't them, even a lot of Nazi's thought they were fighting for there country.
" @Mikemcn said:" @Scooper said:i didnt say all germans are nazis. i said the nazis we kill in the games were GERMAN PEOPLE, the germans of today are GERMAN PEOPLE, they're 60 years away from each other... theres a connection isnt there?? ""Well modern Germans aren't Nazis so they shouldn't feel anything. It doesn't matter if you're Spanish, English, American, German or from anywhere the Nazis where bastards no matter where you come from. "He is right, I bet they're more worried about how this makes them look to the ignorant people in the world, who go "ALL GERMANS ARE NAZIS." Which is both racist and stupid. "
Well ya theres a connection, its the same connection that every person in America has with every criminal in prison in the country. Ya we are all Americans, but that doesnt mean we think or act even remotely the same.
And when was I referring to you in all this?
Look, a lot of the premises here are flawed. WWII was of such a large scale that the lion's share of Germany's fighting-age male population either enlisted or were conscripted into the Nazi Army, REGARDLESS of their political views. The issue being that at a certain point, you're still killing Germans, including those who did not fall goose stepping after Hitler.
This is a sensitive analogy, but saying that Germans shouldn't care or aren't connected in some form to WWII because they're not Nazis now is kind of like saying that African Americans shouldn't care about slavery because slavery long since ended in the US. Granted, the parallels are VERY DIFFERENT, I know. But I still have family members who fought in WWII for the Allies, I'm sure many, many Germans have family and friends who fought with the Axis.
Just something to think about.
" Look, a lot of the premises here are flawed. WWII was of such a large scale that the lion's share of Germany's fighting-age male population either enlisted or were conscripted into the Nazi Army, REGARDLESS of their political views. The issue being that at a certain point, you're still killing Germans, including those who did not fall goose stepping after Hitler. This is a sensitive analogy, but saying that Germans shouldn't care or aren't connected in some form to WWII because they're not Nazis now is kind of like saying that African Americans shouldn't care about slavery because slavery long since ended in the US. Granted, the parallels are VERY DIFFERENT, I know. But I still have family members who fought in WWII for the Allies, I'm sure many, many Germans have family and friends who fought with the Axis. Just something to think about. "exactly !
" Look, a lot of the premises here are flawed. WWII was of such a large scale that the lion's share of Germany's fighting-age male population either enlisted or were conscripted into the Nazi Army, REGARDLESS of their political views. The issue being that at a certain point, you're still killing Germans, including those who did not fall goose stepping after Hitler. This is a sensitive analogy, but saying that Germans shouldn't care or aren't connected in some form to WWII because they're not Nazis now is kind of like saying that African Americans shouldn't care about slavery because slavery long since ended in the US. Granted, the parallels are VERY DIFFERENT, I know. But I still have family members who fought in WWII for the Allies, I'm sure many, many Germans have family and friends who fought with the Axis. Just something to think about. "This is a good argument.
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure any game depicting Nazis or even so much as a swastika is banned in Germany. Though I'm sure there are still ways to get them it isn't like they are bombarded with WWII imagery when they walk into their local game store. That said, yes I think there are probably still some uncomfortable feeling among Germans whenever Nazis are brought up. However I think something like Inglorious Basterds, that will theoretically be experienced by way more people worldwide than WWII games, has more potential to cause this discomfort.
By and large the German people of today may have hated what Hitler did but that does not mean their predecessor were not supportive of his actions in the 1930's and 40's. This historical revisionist bullshit has got to stop. They supported Hitler, through a very large propaganda campaign mind you, and thought that what they were doing were for the best. Now that's not to say ALL Germans supported Hitler but a very large majority of the nation did. Hitler offered them a way out of the Great Depression and rampant Hyper-Inflation in Germany at the time, and they followed him.
There was also some support for the Third Reich in Britain and America as well, many fascist sympathies especially with the rampant anti-Judaic sentiment which flourished at the time.
Stop trying to paint the past in a rosy colour which befits modern day sympathies, it's a lie. It would be a bit like me saying Japanese did not support their Imperialist armies, when clearly they did. Now you might say the people did not have full knowledge of the crimes these armies were committing (when does a nation ever fully reveal its military crimes), but that does not mean that they did not support up to the best of their knowledge.
As to how the Germans feel about Nazi's nowadays, from what I can gather they're thoroughly ashamed and wish it never happened. You sometimes get games that replace soldiers with robots etc, and some games don't get released. Some of the younger generations detached from what happened don't particularly give two shits about killing Nazi's, so all in all there is quite a wide reaction to how to deal with the past.
You know what really pisses me off? The fact that Germans shouldn't have to feel guilty for what their ancestors did, yet white people are forever getting shit for what their ancestors did to black people. Yes, not all Germans were Nazis, but not all white people were racist, black killers either.
I dunno, I'm pretty shit when it comes to history so I'm probably way off base here, but I wanted to say it anyway.
" You know what really pisses me off? The fact that Germans shouldn't have to feel guilty for what their ancestors did, yet white people are forever getting shit for what their ancestors did to black people. Yes, not all Germans were Nazis, but not all white people were racist, black killers either. I dunno, I'm pretty shit when it comes to history so I'm probably way off base here, but I wanted to say it anyway. "and those german ancestors existed 60 years ago while the white slaveholder did hundreds of years ago .. good point!
I'm a dual German/us citizen so I feel the need to chime in here. My grandfather fought in the German army during WWII. He was never a member of the Nazi party, or an anti-Semite, as far as I know. (Although he was pretty grouchy). He was sent to the eastern front where his company was capture by Russians. The Russians treated the the German POWs terribly and all of his company except for himself starved to death.
I don't feel bad being the terrorists in CS or being the Russian "hero" in CoD because they're videogames, it's all good fun. I wouldn't feel bad playing either side in a civil war game either. They're shooters, just with a historical environment rather than a fictional one.
If I had to make one complaint about WWII game though, it'd be that the Germans are always completely dehumanized. Can someone name one instance where a German in a WWII shooter actually did something nice/deep/compassionate/emotional/non-aggressive/human, even? Complying with the German army was a terrible thing to do, but many soldiers were there because they were scared or forced into it, not because they were sociopaths.
"how do germans feel about it? being reminded everyday of that disgraceful era of their history.. "What troubles us far more is that other countries still think that we give a shit while it's in fact them who are stuck in the past.
ok guys, ive been reading alot of these threads regarding germans playing ww2 games and im in awe as to how ignorant everyone is!!!
This is how it really is.... There was Nazi Germany in the 1930's and 1940's, and now there is Germany today. Two completely different countries in every respect!!
Everything from the ideologies of every citizen, politics, economy, and world relationship. Although the Germans regret the actions of a few of their relatives, they have moved on and forgiven themselves. If the rest of the world wants to keep bringing it up in Movies and video games and so on then so be it.... The country has moved on because they are proud citizens and have strong identities.
I recently spent a year living in Australia where i was surprised to meet a ridiculous amount of Germans. I had the same question about todays WW2 games and so I decided to ask a close German friend of mine. He looked at me like I was joking and this is exactly what he said, " Dude, we love those **cking games man, we play the shit out of them and are not ashamed to shoot the crap out of Nazis!"
The idea that Germans alter the endings of these games for Nazi victories is absolutely ridiculous!!! The only only way to get the answer to these type of questions is to get out there and make some friends and ask them!
Oh i know i answer very Late but i'm from Germany And i want to Tell you something =) (Sry 4 My Bad english) i Never heared anything about Nazi Killer Games . Soo wie arent nazis :D What about this "Germans arent funny " Why ? We always have a lot of Fun Here xD We arent nazis me best Friends are from india And from Turkey . I really Love America And i always wanted to go there but then i Saw all These "Germany is Dirty Germany are nazis" And i am shocked :( Now i afraid of u ... No I'm Not :D I dont have to say much more
Please Log In to post.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment