Bethesda head of PR about Wolfenstein ad campaign

I'm on mobile, so forgive the lack of a quote box. When asked about if Bethesda was appropriating Trump campaign slogans and other alt right themes to goad them in the ad campaign for New Colossus, Pete Hines said:

“Maybe a little bit,” he said. “But the hornet’s nest is full of Nazis. So **** those guys.”

https://news.vice.com/story/wolfenstein-2-confrontational-black-panthers-and-very-reasonable-nazis

So, congratulations. It's not like it wasn't obvious... Just like it's also obvious that the alt right are just a bunch of Nazis. For the rest of us, do enjoy a well-thought article about the social dynamics within the game and their juxtaposition to social realities in real America.

Wolfenstein leans all the effing way way into it.

https://twitter.com/leslieleeiii/status/924457004281843713

The article was an interesting read and does raise a good point. A lot of these extremists- whether they be a Nazi or an Islamist - are normal people, despite appearing to be two-dimensional fanatics. And this can apply to anyone, whether they be Republican or Democrat.

@drunk_pi: It's the system that radicalizes people to make them easy to exploit.

Wolfenstein II is an awesome, awesome game. Glad I paid full price for it at launch.

In fact, aside from a handful of truly sadistic characters, most of the Nazis in the this series are pretty reasonable. Some of them are deliberately depicted as sympathetic characters.

This is the main problem I have with the Nazis in this game. I'm only 4-5 hours in (cause the shit keeps crashing), but I've yet to see any Nazi atrocities that are as powerful as they were in TNO, like the hospital raid or concentration camp.

@Shewgenja: Interesting article and it shows that if you look games can be taken a bit more serious but Wolfenstien is not doing anything other games haven´t done.

Go into GTA V and listen to the two candidates for political office, and think of Clinton and Trump. And that is not the only reference you can find if you want find them.

Same goes for a lot of other games.

But with that said tho, the article made me a bit more interested in getting Wolfenstien and as lt also says, the game hits those who want to be hit, the rest just have the entertainment value.

The nazis are sadistic assholes in this game. I mean yeah you overhear the grunts talking and they are just making idle chatter like you and I would, but it's a much more subtle depiction of it. Whereas in The New Order it's about witnessing the Nazi's actions, in The New Collosus it's about witnessing the results of those actions. It's less about seeing cruelty and more about seeing how the world has responded to that cruelty. Maybe not as gory, violent, or traumatic as seeing a concentration camp, but it is a lot more telling, insightful, and significant.

We get to see an irradiated, devastated New York City

Multiple decapitations of positive figures, something the Nazis actually did a lot of (fun fact: the nazis decapitated more people than the French ever did)

They bullied a KKK member for being an idiot, someone they would call their ally. You can only assume how they would handle someone that was not their ally, just a regular citizen.

But you know, the above can be said for a lot of things. You could compare it to Nazi Germany (duh), Nixon's presidency, Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge, Communist Russia, and so forth. People are going to see ghosts, shadows, and "black helicopters" (to quote Boehner) where they want to.

The real subtle, yet obvious when you think about it, indicator of Wolfenstein's commentary is a certain family member:

BJ's dad, a nazi sympathizer, not only turns in his Jewish wife/BJ's mother to the Nazis for political and economic gain,but also tries to kill his son. Not to mention his bigotry to non-white, non-christians during BJ's upbringing. I mean, if there is one thing that really really really is indicitive of the Trump supporters and alt-right movement and Wolfenstein's commentary of it, it is BJ's dad. The guy is a red-blooded Texan, an American, a nationalist, racist and prejudiced...he is an amalgamation of the alt-right.

Conversely, BJ's mom is a living representation of founding American values: protective of the innocent, especially against the malevolent strong; an immigrant, being a European; religiously tolerant, having married a Christian but being a Jew herself, and birthing a "mixed blood" son; and finally, she is a true capitalist and American, criticizing her husband for poor business decisions while saying he should own up to his mistakes. That's what America is about: protecting the weak, accepting all cultures and religions, and being personally responsible in both personal life, economics, and the larger scheme.

You might be thinking I am reading too much into it, but whatever, play the game, take your time, explore all the nooks and crannies and read every little thing. It's all there.

Yup People will see what they want to see.

It´s like if you drive a certain car brand, you will start to notice that car brand a lot more than before..

This reminds me of a scene from The Man in High Castle. Can't find the video but it was from season 1 ep1 where the spy was driving to Japanese-occupied California until his car broke down and he had to change his tire. Police officer stops by, they have a friendly chat and is helpful but then it starts raining ash. The spy looks up and the officer nonchalantly remarks they're just burning degenerates and Jews. As if it was a normal thing.

It wasn't the death and killing that struck me but the whole normalcy of it that was disturbing.

There are so many games that are top notch out right now. I wanna play it eventually.

@n64dd: I’m playing Super Mario Odyssey right now.

Same here. If I go down a few blocks, I can probably see your house. (I can see Windsor from the Island I live on).

@n64dd: I don’t live in Windsor

Trump supporters are not Nazis but people who feel (rightfully so) that they have been disenfranchised by a political system so they voted for a man who they felt gave an outlet to that anger, calling them names and marginalizing them is only driving the wedge further so is counter-productive. I don't think this country has been so politically divided since the civil war maybe the extreme partisan rhetoric is funny to some but to me it stopped being a joke when people started not talking to each other hating each other and even killing each other. Are we all really so different?

Mr.Trump is not a Nazi but the 2016 election has given manifest a very dangerous situation, imagine a man like Mr. Trump but with a working brain coming along with his talk about punishing China, draining the swamp and making America great again and meaning it especially if this country was in the midst of a crises, we could all be in very deep trouble. The American people had better start asking themselves some very hard questions because they may not realize just how precarious the world situation really is at the moment and does not appear to be getting better any time soon.

Stalker alert.....

YOU'RE NEXT.

@drunk_pi: OMFG that scene haunts me to this day. This totally nice, polite, helpful country-bumpkin police officer is just chatting up this guy, offering to help, and it starts snowing ash of "undesirables" and he comments positively about it. That is exactly how Wolfenstein TNC felt to me.