Returning to Castle Wolfenstein

Robert writes: "Voodoo Extreme has posted an interview with id Software regarding its upcoming next-generation engined sequel -- Return to Castle Wolfenstein. " Mmm ... this may be the first person that gets me back into it. Sounds gorgeous.

Comments

"id's upcoming FPS"?

[Keelor]

According to the interview, and just about every other bit I've read about this game, this is primarily Gray Matter's game (formerly known as Xatrix), with some development input from id. Let's not forget the little guy!

~Keelor

Um...how about teaching a little history?

[clary]

It isnt as easy as you say. Imagine a kid playing that game. It wont know all the historical background that well, and if it sees then these banners in real life, it wont just think them bad, but be strongly reminded in the game. In that way their resistance to Nazi Propaganda may grow somewhat less.

My kids will know the basic historical background of WWII by the time they are playing FPS games. How pathetic is it that someone can grow up and not know at least the general outlines of one of the most important periods in the last century?!

My kids have grandparents, great-aunts, and great-uncles who can talk to them first-hand about WWII. I make sure they get a chance to spend time with those relatives. I also talk to my kids about things like this when they come up. And they do come up often enough to provide ample opportunity for education.

Come on folks. Teach your kids about the world, so that they can handle its challenges and face its dangers. Don't just try to shield them from the icky parts...that is a losing battle.

Killing Nazis

[tmark]

While I don't think the point of killing Nazis in the game is Nazi-glorifying, I have lately begun to wonder whether or not the game is in bad taste and whether they point to some hypocritical double standards.

Yes, I know, "it's just a game", but I can't think of another game anywhere where you run around and kill an identifiable group of people, no matter how evil they are deemed to be. Can you imagine a game where you're a US GI trying to escape from a Japanese POW camp with Rising Suns everywhere, killing caricatures of (probably bespectacled) Japanese soldiers and invading Japanese labs where experiments are being conducted on Filipinos and Chinese and American servicemen ? What about if a game were released where you are a Palestinian in an Israeli prison and you walk through Star-of-David-festooned hallways trying to kill Israeli stormtroopers while trying to halt their nuclear weapons research program ? How well accepted would those games be ? What kind of uproar would we expect then ?

Trouble in High School

[Rayonic]

Heh, this reminds me of when a bunch of kids in my high school got in trouble for installing a few copies of the Wolf 3D on a couple of the computers.

Did they get in trouble for installing games on school computers? No. They get in trouble because it was violent? No. They got in trouble because the game "displayed Nazi symbols." i.e. Sometimes there would be a swastika on the wall, etc..

I tried explaining it to the vice principal of the time, "Uh... in the game you're an American soldier and you have to kill the Nazis. I even think your guy is Jewish." But he would have none of that. There were Nazi symbols on those computer screens, and darnit, somebody was in big trouble. I don't remember what happened to the kids, though. I suppose nowadays they'd get expelled because the game involved shooting. Add Nazi propaganda, and I guess they'd be in jail for life.