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Cuban Video Game Recreates Revolutionary History
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Guardian reports that Cuban programmers have unveiled a new 3D video game that puts a revolutionary twist on gaming, letting players recreate decisive clashes from the 1959 uprising in which many of their grandparents fought. 'The player identifies with the history of Cuba,' says Haylin Corujo, head of video game studies for Cuba's Youth Computing Club and leader of the team of developers who created Gesta Final – roughly translated as 'Final Heroic Deed'. 'You can be a participant in the battles that were fought in the war from '56 to '59.' The game begins with the user joining the 82 rebels who in 1956 sailed to Cuba from Mexico aboard the Granma. Players then fight their way through swamps shoulder-to-shoulder with bearded guerrillas clad in the olive green of Fidel Castro and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara to topple 1950s Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The game lets you pick from three player profiles, one in an olive hat similar to the one Fidel Castro was known for, another wearing a Guevara-style beret and the last with the kind of helmet worn by the ill-fated Camilo Cienfuegos in many revolution-era photographs. Rene Vargas, a 29-year-old gamer who tried his hand at 'Gesta Final' when it was presented at a technology fair in Havana last week, says the graphics were surprisingly sophisticated. 'Bearing in mind the level of technical support there is in Cuba, it looks pretty good,' says Vargas. There are about 783,000 computers in this country of some 11 million inhabitants, according to government statistics from 2011. Private ownership of computers is low, but many Cubans access them at work, school or cyber cafes. 'We developed (it) keeping in mind the purchasing power and reality of Cubans,' says Corujo. 'It doesn't require incredible technological features.'"
You're comparing the Cuban Revolution to the rise of Nazi Germany? Congratulations on almost completing your American primary public education little guy.
This may surprise you, but actual history is distinct from freerepublic hyperbole.
Well, technically they were called labor camps.
But hyperbole? So we have a guy who fought for "freedom" and ended up being in power all his life. And passed that power to family members. I cannot say what it was like under Batista, but good grief! Castro couldn't have created a democratic system? He could have at the very least done a George Washington and been the first President. And then peacefully left office.
It makes me really appreciate the Founders of the US. There were so many opportunities to turn this country into another Western Hemisphere dictatorship shithole and they didn't.
Of course a democracy doesn't guarantee anything -see Mexico.
Of course a democracy doesn't guarantee anything -see Merica.
FTFY
crikes look at how many "democracies" America has established against the will of the people that have turned ugly that's a far worse track record than Cuba. I mean Vietnam for crying out loud. Ho Chi Minh looked to the US for help breaking free of it's colonial status (like US/England) and then when they wanted to establish a govt of their own choosing .. war.
Just another second banana
Uhh... Bullshit? It always amazes me that so many people are willing to credulousness accept "statistics" like that from total propaganda. You probably also believed that the Soviet Union was a massive economic powerhouse for it's people in the 80s, right?
Hint: People don't take leaky boats and swim across oceans to get elsewhere because where they live is just too wonderful for them to handle. Try talking to someone who's actually lived in Cuba and then escaped.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
was Call of Duty banned there? I thought I recalled hearing about a mission where you assassinated Fidel Castro which I thought was rather ballsy considering Castro was alive at the time and not at war with the country. That'd be like the NAACP making a game where you assassinate former President Bush.
Just another second banana
So... you doubt the propaganda of other countries but you believe the one fed to you by your leaders.
Hint: My working colleagues did not leave the US because it was so great to live there...
People don't do the same thing to escape the wonderful capitalistic democracies of Mexico and various Central American states?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Every single cuban citizen who has to escape in a raft suffering 90 miles of sunburn while traveling a few miles per hour hoping you make it across the Gulf stream quickly so it doesn't carry you far enough into the Atlantic that no one ever finds you. The fact that people live there make the choice to ride a raft with THEIR KIDS in what is essentially their own personal death march should be enough to answer your question.
I use common sense and the actions of the people there to draw my conclusion. You're still trying to argue which political side is right.
10% of the countries population (roughly) has been so distraught that they elected a trip thats got less than a 1% chance of survival over staying and dealing with it.
We punish our soldiers when we find them committing crimes you speak of. Its well known fact (from those who escape the country) that the Cuban army on the other hand do commit those crimes ... and you yourself give an example of them doing so.
America has its own set of issues, but its hard to believe America and Cuba are even on the same planet, putting them in the same class just makes it clear that you have no concept of what you're talking about.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
You realize when you say something stupid like 'Meruca' you instantly lose everyone in your listener group except the other idiots such as yourself with an axe to grind?
You lose any credence you had instantly and make it clear that you're not out about the truth or facts, you're out to promote your agenda.
If you actually wanted to spread truth, you wouldn't try to drag your own personal agenda into it. You end up letting everyone around you know that your 'facts' aren't trustable.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager