Forums → Support Forum → Reich of Darkness -- Poor Taste

Promotion of game = the reason you don't have to pay to use the site.
AG gets their money through advertising, and you can't afford being picky when that is the sole way of earning money for the pay of the employees, the domain, servers, sponsoring, prizes for contests and all the other stuff they need money for.

So, let's see if we can't combine the replies this would get otherwise:
It has been 50 years, there have been plenty of other things to be terrified of, and nazis stopped being hot around the time of the cold war.
If you don't support the game, don't play it.
And:
If you don't agree with the choice of advertisements, AG get money by, as long as they are not breaking the rules, you either need to get an adblocker or stop using the site, because they rest of us don't want to pay for our accounts, because some people are sensitive on the internet about stuff that is not breaking the rules.

That said, I enjoyed the bit I was playing of the game, I do not think it is putting Nazi Germany in a positive light from what I saw, rather, even the non player characters try to either point out the horror in the incarnation of the nazis, or they are scarecrows themselves.
Still, not something to get all complainy about.

Something else: The admins rarely read the forums. If you want to be heard, you got to contact them directly.

Cenere -- Thanks for your reply. So those sidescreen items are ads from the game's creators? I just thought those were promotions from Armorgames. Thanks for the clarifications.

When it comes down to it, the old "If you don't like it, don't [buy/watch/play] it" argument is fairly definitive. However, I would maintain that there are certain values that should be upheld. For example, and using an extreme example, if a games highlights a child rapist as a hero or at least a sympathetic character, I would hope that all of us would demand that Armorgames pull that game immediately. I would classify Nazis into this classification -- it is one of the most abhorrent events in human history, and any book/film/game showing support for the Nazis ought to be rejected. This (and pardon the language here) stupid argument about it being more than 50 or 60 years doesn't ever mean we should give credibility to one of the clearest incarnations of evil we've ever witnessed. It's been more than 130 years since slavery was abolished in the U.S. -- clearly if we had a game about how good those slaveowners were, anyone outcrying against the game should be called "complainy" as well.

Furthermore, how can we not see this game as pro-Nazi? If it were only for the fact that the icon of the game is a sexy blonde bombshell, it would be enough to show that there's something attractive about this particular army. Silly argument? I would point you to how many guys in the game's discussion have hinted at what they'd like to do with her. Sex sells, and what they're selling is repellent.

So, in short, we should be better than this. This is a game that clearly tries to put Nazis in some sort of sympathetic or attractive light, and any complaint against the game is not whiney or stupid -- it is righteous moral outrage against something that simply should not be.

here's what i believe: its just a game you can just think of it like US vs. Nazi instead of Nazi vs. whoever and i bet you at least 50% of the guys playing this is playing this for the (and i quote)

sexy blonde bombshell

Furthermore, how can we not see this game as pro-Nazi? If it were only for the fact that the icon of the game is a sexy blonde bombshell, it would be enough to show that there's something attractive about this particular army. Silly argument? I would point you to how many guys in the game's discussion have hinted at what they'd like to do with her. Sex sells, and what they're selling is repellent.

When i first began playing the game, i did think it was a little odd that i was playing as the Nazis.

However, i soon realized (i believe that they somewhat mention this in the game) that the reason you are playing on the Axis is becuase they lost the war and that they wanted the game to have more of a "changing history" effect.

I'm pretty sure the reason wasn't to say in any way say that the Nazis are good or whatever.

@Example: You see, that would actually break rules. Let's take an example that can actually relate to this:
Playing any kind of war game out there, that in any way glorifies it by making it a game, a sport, you can partake in to entertain yourself.
Nazi Germany was not a perfect playing in the war, but neither was anyone else. The reason we have "issues" with the Nazis now, is because they used concentration camps to get rid of people they didn't like. Not unlike the prison camps all the "terrorists" end up, having to, apparently, deal with torture and humiliation in a modern, civilised world, that should have learned from the horrors of the last World War, or any other war for that matter.

The game is, as far as I know, and as far as I can see from the other replies, not a game of war crimes. It's simply a war game where you play a different role than usually, like that Call of Duty version out there, where you play the terrorists and not the Americans. There is no more glorification of anyone than there is in any other game, and if they are glorifying war and the war effort and what not, they should probably be taken down as well.

Also, the "It's a long time ago" really should play in here. What happened was horrible, but so is everything else going on, and after this much time, we should be able to play games where you play the - enemy, just as a game on slave owners would be fairly amusing if done right, though I will assume it wouldn't get anywhere because of the antidiscrimination rules. But then we could always include all slave owners, and not just the ones in the US. Like the slave owners from the Middle Eastern countries, that kidnapped nordic people, or the fact that most civilisations has had slaves at some point, usually people of their own - race, but of a different caste.
If they play it like I believe the makers of RoD have played their game, it would still not glorify anything, but it would give the events a different perspective.

Also, to end off my rant, because I need some food and I better leave the spot to someone calling me a nazi-loving *******:
It's a game. Please don't underestimate the minds of the people playing it. They are aware it is a game, otherwise they would most likely have done something horrible by now in their lives.
If you can play an assassin without anyone getting their panties in a knot, or play strategy games where the A-bomb or napalm are ways to give you the victory, then playing Nazis should really not the one thing you get mad about. Then you might as well get mad at everything.

And the guide/sex bomb is sexy, yes, but even in the first few missions, she will be telling you stuff about the military, logical things. Protect this, take over that. When mr. I like to torture shows up, she is visibly uncomfortable and doesn't seem to like what he is and what he does. So, if anyone is really going for the "sex sells!!" (I believe it has been long disproved because people have been desensitised to the effects), then she is actually making the player like the horrible things even more.
I don't know how it plays out in the rest of the game, but if it continues like that, there will still be boobs telling you that that horrible man is horrible with horrible on top. That man, that might be considered the stereotypical evil nazi, and not just one that joined the forces to fight for their country.

/blahblahblah.

So this is my thought on the matter; this game does not try to, in any way, justify what the nazis did. You play as a bad guy, of cartoonish levels of villainy. Evil is sexy is played up, as it is in many games. Basically, this is no less wrong than a game where you played a necromancer and laid siege on a town.

It'd be different if the pho-nazis were portrayed heroically, with their race politics being argued for, their fascistic ideals held as just. But i don't see that, i see a game where half the fun is being bad. I think it'd be wrong to deny game creators inspiration from one piece of history over another.

It would also be different if they were making light of the Holocaust or something, but they've turned things into a generic empire. No specific group demeaned. So in short, this game is not wrong because it is practically parody, albeit a parody that acknowledges black uniforms can be sexy.

This is only tangentially connected, but i was thinking of how the ancient Romans ***** and pillaged and destroyed culture, but their time has been relegated to myth and therefore is fair game. I kinda feel WW2 is slowly becoming myth.

The game isn't doing anything wrong. All it is doing is saying "Play me for entertainment" which is not saying "DEATH TO JEWS, BLACKS AND GAYS!!!" which would be extremely bad and deserved to be deleted. But it is just a creative game that allows you to be one of Adolf Hitlers men in an 8 bit arcade game.

If the game were deleted alot of people would be sad, mad, annoyed etc. and not to mention how the creator would feel. These types of games are just for fun, and come on how can a game be hurting anything? I would agree though if it promoted hate but clearly it is not.

the game doesn't even use a swastika in it? this isnt promoting Nazis at all! and believe me i would hate to see a racist or otherwise demeaning to a group of people game. the game is purely fictional for entertainment, it seems you are finding something to complain about bakkart.

I miss the game, please bring it back. If it offends you, then simply DON'T play it.

bring the game back, i was enjoying it, has nothing to do with nazis, why does some imbecile always try to mix things? its a **** FLASH GAME bring it baaaaaaaaack

I am disgusted with ArmorGames for this decision. If the minority are offended, take the main banners off, but for god's sake, don't remove the game from the website. The game absolutely contains links to the Nazis in WW2, but the point of the game is not to inflict a vicious, systematic genocide against Jews, it is about upgrading some units, stacking them strategically to crush the enemy, gain more abilities, and become more efficient at winning battles. It was a FUN GAME, and did not in any way legitimize the Holocaust.

There were no swastikas in the image, but for one thing, swastikas are a Hindu symbol to invoke shakti, an auspicious sign.

The Holocaust is an overglorified event that occurred nearly A CENTURY AGO. There have been numerous events of comparable scale, like the Rwandan Tutsi genocide, the genocide in Turkey, and similar events. The British Soldier that Alderon defends committed thousands of atrocities, possibly greater than those committed by the Nazis in their imperialist conquests around the world in China, India, Africa, and around the world. [url=http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Sanctions-against-Iraq-are-genocide-1086527.php]America itself has performed repeated genocides (defined under the UN charter) against countries in the Middle East, killing MILLIONS in a devious, cruel way and HIDING it from its citizens and the world.
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US soldiers and British soldiers have committed atrocities far greater than those of the Nazi's. Why the double standards? Just because white people were targetted by the Nazi's and the imperialist west won the war, only the Holocaust is dubbed the greatest evil, and over petulant pricks like Alderon can whine and moan about a game that doesn't perpetuate Nazism? There are hundreds of games on this website that promote Imperialism, which is an even greater evil that ACTUALLY EXISTS TODAY.

The thing is, these are games. There is NO REASON to remove the game because some people got offended and whined about it. If they truly are offended, they should not play the game. Not get it removed in a fit of righteous indignation. They are HYPOCRITES for playing games as terrorists, british armies, or US armies on imperialistic conquests. If you remove this game, then you must remove all games featuring the US army or armies on imperialist agendas. Games that promote violence and unnecessary bloodshed should be removed, as we've got to protect the children and not trivialize violence. Games with bad words should also be removed, and with that, you might as well remove the shooting games category. Heck, just remove the site, because the complaints of a few people that are butthurt is grounds for a removal of a game.

At this rate we could forbid all movies were there are nazis such as Inglorious Basterds or tons of others, burn every book on WW2 etc... This is just paranoïa ! Good games deserve to be played as well as good movies deserve to be seen.

put the game back online, theres nothing wrong on it

There was plenty wrong with it, especially in view of the increasing activity of Neo-Nazi groups in some parts of Europe today. They don't use swastikas either - doesn't stop them from being radically nationalist and anti-minority (not just anti-Semitic).

Those who wish to consign the Holocaust to the past should realise that the more recent genocides (e.g. in Rwanda, as mentioned in other posts) are exactly WHY we should not forget what has gone before, and try to prevent it from happening again. One step towards this is not making heroes out of the perpetrators of mass murder.