From Russia with LoveRussia to improve image by developing patriotic video games
The Russian government has complained that the videogame is “Company of Heroes,” which is popular among Russian teenagers, distorts history by depicting a Second World War Russian soldier as a criminal and arsonist. The government is considering banning the game – and has also launched its own videogame project to produce games which contribute to “patriotic education.” In the meantime, a Belgian videogame developer is set to release a mobile game, titled “You Don’t Mess with Putin,” which depicts Russian president Vladimir Putin and a fictional sidekick, an alcoholic American named Mike, battling zombies who attack a Putin news conference.
The newspaper headlines have not been kind to Russia lately. In fact recent events – the short list would include throwing members of the feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot in jail; passing homophobic laws; violent ultranationalist anti-immigration riots; demands by fans of leading Russian soccer clubs that their teams not include black players; and more – have made Russia look a bit thuggish.
Russia’s leaders, though, appear more worried about how Russia is portrayed in video games.
Arseny Mironov, an aide to Russia’s culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, pointed to Company of Heroes, developed by Relic Entertainment, which is popular among Russian teenagers, as a game which is particularly problematic: The plot depicts a Second World War Russian soldier as a criminal and arsonist.
“The main thing we expect from the producers of video games is the realistic and historically truthful representation of events,” Mironov said, telling Izvestiya that the creation of a “negative image of the Russian warrior” is inadmissible.
“A video game has to have not only an entertainment value, but it also has to teach and be conducive to patriotic education,” he went on to say, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Culture Minister Medinsky instructed the Russian Military History Society, of which he is the director, to assume responsibility for the newly launched government’s video game project. The first video game the History Society is now developing focuses on the early days of Russian military aviation during the First World War. The game will be released in 2014.
Mironov told Izvestia that the government is in negotiations with several local video game developers, but no names have been mentioned.
The culture minister also said that the government is considering banning foreign video games which “discredit the Russian soldier” and “distort historical facts.”
Video games should be conduits of “patriotic education,” he said.
The Russian Culture Ministry will soon have to make a decision about another video game, as Belgian game developer Michele Rocco Smeets announced he is in the final stages of developing a mobile video game in which Russian president Vladimir Putin bravely fights a horde of undead zombies.
RIA Novosti reports that the game, titled “You Don’t Mess With Putin,” depicts Putin and a fictional sidekick, an alcoholic American named Mike, battling zombies who attack a Putin news conference.
Smeets said that the Putin character in the game, which is scheduled to be release 31 October and which will be available for iOS and Android, uses actual one-liners uttered by Putin in public events over the last five years.
“Putin has this tough guy image and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty,” UPI quotes Smeets to say. “He hunts, he rides, he shoots. A leader should be strong, and in my opinion Putin is the only world leader that really fulfills this image.”
Smeets stressed that the game does not endorse or approve of Putin’s policies. “I’m not supporting socialism — I just like the guy [Putin], as a person and as a leader,” Smeets said.
