Russia Takes Its Ukraine Information War Into Video Games

@technology

Propaganda is appearing in #Minecraft and other popular games and discussion groups as the #Kremlin tries to win over new audiences.

www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/tec…

Wait what has COD been doing for the last decade? Don’t they have state dept and US military advisors advising on every game for message control?

Yeah I think they do that for movies as well. If directors want the real thing (because who doesn’t like practical effects and having the real thing in shot?), they’ll have to contact the DoD.

The DoD reviews the script for the movie, and they just water it down to absolute propaganda (they even say it out loud, they don’t hide it). US is always good, enemy always bad, US wins and saves the day. If there’s any criticism of the army, it’s usually brief and with a very weak point.

Full Metal Jacket isn’t approved by the DoD. Says everything you need to know about the, imo.

Yeah, and they’ve also had more explicit efforts like America’s Army. That being said, while it is propaganda, it’s not quite as deceptive and pro-warcrimes as what Russia’s putting out there.

I heard in the campaign for the COD MW (2019), the devs put the Highway of Death in the game (which is an American war crime) but in the story they depicted it as something Russia did. This obviously sparked some outrage, as people read this as the game dismissing American war crimes.

Seems pretty deceptive to me.

If there’s other games (and maybe some probably much to the equivalent of America’s Army to Russia) that water down Russian war crimes, then that’s just as deceptive.

I think all propaganda is equally bad. Putting certain ones on pedestals because “At least it isn’t XYZ” doesn’t jive with me, and it distracts from the real issue.

I think all propaganda is equally bad. Putting certain ones on pedestals because “At least it isn’t XYZ” doesn’t jive with me, and it distracts from the real issue.

False equivalence and whataboutism is not helping anyone.

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