North Korea Angered Over Ghost Recon 2 227
Fennario writes "According to Stars and Stripes Pacific's translation of a North Korean government newspaper article, UbiSoft's forthcoming Ghost Recon 2 videogame, which envisions a near-future North Korea/China conflict with US involvement, has already attracted the reclusive country's attention. In a curt review, a North Korean government-run newspaper called the game proof of U.S. warmongering. 'Through propaganda, entertainment and movies,' read a recent online commentary in the Tongil Newspaper. Americans 'have shown everyone their hatred for us. This may be just a game to them now, but a war will not be a game for them later. In war, they will only face miserable defeat and gruesome deaths.' Given the steep learning curve of previous incarnations of Ghost Recon, it's conceivable many may face miserable defeat and gruesome deaths anyhow."
Guess i'll be the first in saying... (Score:3, Insightful)
Video games don't dictate foreign policy, Kim Jong-il needs to put a sock in it.
Re:Guess i'll be the first in saying... (Score:2)
Not saying the games are being used in that manner, but rather like films they could be.
Re:Guess i'll be the first in saying... (Score:2)
Quite a few wars without video games (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Quite a few wars without video games (Score:3, Informative)
An Avid Fan? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:An Avid Fan? (Score:2, Interesting)
The producer from hell [guardian.co.uk]
Wow, that article is crazy (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps he would prefer videogames that are cell-shaded?
Re:Wow, that article is crazy (Score:3, Interesting)
Stomp Tokyo: Pulgasari [stomptokyo.com]
I like the way Kim Jong-Il turned the Marxist version of the historic class struggle into a monster movie. (***Caution Spoilers:*** I. E. Like capitalism, Pulgasari fights the evil king (aristocracy) on behalf of the peasantry, but after defeating him turns on the working class....) I just wish it was available on DVD...
Re:Wow, that article is crazy (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps he would prefer videogames that are cell-shaded?
More likely, he's trying to get a piece of the recent anime explosion. Though somehow, given his track record in direction and screenwriting (judging solely from this thread), I doubt many people would want to watch hi
Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle.. (Score:5, Funny)
Day of the Tentacle: Weird green and purple blobs are evil and want to take over the world
Leisure Suit Larry: men only care about sex (ok, maybe they're right...)
Grand Theft Auto: It's totally ok to kill a hooker as long as no cop sees you do it.
Worms: Worms are bad creature and I should use wind direction and missle bomb loft to kill them in the most efficent manner.
UT: Other people are only good for cannon fodder
I could keep going...
hey NORTH KOREA, IT'S A FUCKING GAME. I highly doubt that every game that's ever been produced over seas portrays Americans in a good light, but do you see us complaining? Hell no, because we are too busy trying to get "kill all haitians" removed from our games (because haitians are a good and kind people who deserve no ill-respect).
Re:Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle.. (Score:4, Informative)
MOD PARENT UP! (Score:2, Funny)
This malignant slander and hate speech against green tentacles has gone way, way WAY too far! It's time that we, as a community, draw a line in the sand and say; "This far, but not further! Don't slander the green tentacles!"
What's next, hate rallies against Monkeys?!
Re:Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle.. (Score:2)
North Korean paper doesn't get it. (Score:4, Interesting)
Is this North Korean gov't-run paper aware that UbiSoft is not an arm of the American gov't? I could see if America's Army had a similar storyline due to its US Army ties, but this is a Tom Clancy game.
Even if the paper is referring to US citizens instead of the US govt, this game isn't something that a large percentage of our general population will play. This game will be played by video game players who like war games. How much of our population is that? I imagine it's somewhere around 5% - 10% at most. Also, these games seem to me to have no bearing on players' opinions of real war situations. I imagine there will be some people who would be very upset about a US invasion of North Korea who would still enjoy this game, because they have the ability to separate reality from fantasy.
YOU don't get it. (Score:5, Interesting)
Is this North Korean go>v't-run paper aware that UbiSoft is not an arm of the American gov't?
If you ever have the chance to actually watch the NK news or read it's papers, EVERYTHING is further proof of the US's warmongering. If it rains next Tuesday, it's proof of the US's warmongering. If a French guy eats a taco while on vacation in Mexico, it's proof of the US's warmongering. If something sitting on some guy's desk is a particular shade of red... well, you get the idea.
It's actually quite entertaining to read.
Re:YOU don't get it. (Score:2)
Maybe that has something to do with the USA invading two countries recently, both times without the full approval or back
Re:North Korean paper doesn't get it. (Score:5, Insightful)
The North Korean leadership are a bunch of inbred wackos that live in their own reality in which all Americans are aware of them and are focusing their efforts on destroying them. In reality most Americans couldn't find North Korea on a map and never give the country a moment's thought.
Hypocrites! (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.epicentregallery.com/DPRK_posters.html [epicentregallery.com]
Re:Hypocrites! (Score:2)
Re:North Korean paper doesn't get it. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:North Korean paper DOES get it, just.... (Score:3, Insightful)
The US posuturing over Iraq and Afghan
Re:North Korean paper doesn't get it. (Score:2)
Re:North Korean paper doesn't get it. (Score:2)
Incredible, isn't it?
You'd think that a propaganda outlet run by the worst regime on this planet would be honest and fair... Who else is left to trust!
Truth is stranger than fiction (Score:2, Interesting)
As a furriner living in South Korea, I'd be interested to see what part South
Re:Truth is stranger than fiction (Score:2)
Aaaaaah, now it makes sense. I was wondering why NK's government would be so uptight about it (aside from the totalitarianism thing, of course), until I read this. Thanks.
American Warmongering? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:American Warmongering? (Score:2)
Haha (Score:2)
Huh. Maybe it's because they don't allow that kind of music in North Korea, since it would speak against the glory of the supreme leader.
Maybe we should play the world's smallest violin for the world's smallest violin.
Wait til they see Mercenaries (Score:4, Interesting)
Mercenaries is a revolutionary 3rd person action-shooter game set in the near future and inspired by real world events. On the eve of a historic reunification of North and South Korea, a ruthless general stages a military coup to take control of North Korea and threatens the world with nuclear war. As one of the top operatives for a private mercenaries company called Executive Operations, you have been called in to help collect bounties on the general's top military and scientific advisors.
http://www.lucasarts.com/games/mercenaries/
North Korea is a Troll (Score:2)
I wonder if Kim Jong Il is a regular troll here on Slashdot.
Re:North Korea is a Troll (Score:3, Informative)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Woops (Score:2)
what the rest of the world seems to forget (Score:2)
Re:what the rest of the world seems to forget (Score:2)
The solution is to declare war on game developing terrorists.
America's Hate for them? (Score:2)
Film at 11 (Score:2)
This is not news. Many of us noticed this years ago [thirdworldtraveler.com]. And picking a French-made video game as an example just makes the whole thing seem ludicrous to the US citizens who could stop the whole process if they really wanted to.
On a side note... (Score:2)
In a classic case of dumbing down for consoles, they're replacing the incredibly innovative gameplay features of the original with a more SOCOM style feel for the sequel.
The original was brilliant in its use of the whole unit. You could toggle between troops, setting up truly complex strategies. No longer did you have to deal with AI companions who'd never display human level intelligence - you could simply swap to them, position them, use them for the
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You know... (Score:2)
A war with N. Korea. A ground war in mountanous terrain against a entrenched, well trained and native troop. Sounds like that as close to unwinnable short of WWII type public support.
Modern war is as much getting your own populace to support it as it is bombing the fuck out of your opponent.
Re:You know... (Score:2)
In defence of your own country, pay has little to do with it. A effective fighting force is unrelated to how much it's paid or how much it eats. It has more about how well their trained and how motivated they are. The Viet Kong were completely unpaid, starving, and eventually corrupt but they defeated the Americans, forced a retreat and shamed them. Terrain has more to do with it then anythign else. Cities/Jungles/moutains are all very very difficult to assault. The
What history are you reading? (Score:2)
Re:What history are you reading? (Score:2)
This is true. That was a point of another post [slashdot.org]. Did America withdraw? yes. Did the Viet kong win? the Americans withdrew so yes. So America was defeated. A internal socio/political defeat is still a defeat. Did this shame the Americans? yes. A large well funded army being defeated by it's own populace is a pretty shameful defeat. The viet kong has chinese support but the americans s
Re:What history are you reading? (Score:2)
Was is independence. The ability to make choices for youselves. How often is that choice really really stupid? America's isn't the most enlightened but it sure beats bowing to our new "Iranian" overlords who out law dancing...
Re:You know... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:You know... (Score:3, Interesting)
After
Re:You know... (Score:3, Interesting)
That's not the start of a slippery slope, that's the end of it.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or how about a game that let you play as Osama Bin Laden. How do you suppose Americans would like the game? Would there be a public outcry? Would the government try to censor it?
Re:You know... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm a Canadian. I'm just curious what your reaction would be if someone in Canada made a game that depicted a revolution against a tyranical US President (just for argument's sake let's say George W), and put you in the role of a terrorist/revolutionary?
Sounds like a cool premise actually. I do recall a recent game that involved some bad stuff happening in the US, and you taking control of a band of freedom fighters. Think it was a PS2 game.
Or how a
Mod parent AC up (Score:2)
i just blew all my points, but this is the best slashdot comment of the day
Re:You know... (Score:2)
I would expect to see stores like Wal-Mart not carry the game, but not out of a gov't mandate. More out of a Wal-Mart staying away from almost anything controversial. Also, even though I would be surprised if Wal-Mart carried such a game, I would not be upset about it. They can sell or not sell whatever they want as far
Re:You know... (Score:2)
American's don't understand that their system of covernment has at it's base the government controlling what private corperations are supposed to do. So when McD cuts down a rainforest YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.
And when you release a video game depicting violence against a nation based on their communism well you're votes did that too.
Re:You know... (Score:2)
If your point is "these games are bad, have some sympathy for the North Koreans" then I think your point has backfired.
Some would suggest it was yet another indication of how estranged Canadians have become lately, to be sure. But not a single person would suggest that
Re:You know... (Score:2)
Re:You know... (Score:2)
"Have some sympathy" and "shouldn't bash" == same concept, different words IMHO.
In any case, let's go with your correction. I'm suggesting that the 8 or 9 replies to your comment all refuted the idea that the US would do the same thing.
Re:You know... (Score:2)
Three Kings [imdb.com] is a celebrated movie about Iraq that initially focuses on some US soldiers, but switches into a story about "removing the American threat from Iraq." It wasn't as extreme as your "what if" scenario, and didn't glorify the massacre of US soldiers, but it did portray the people killing US soldiers as sympat
Re:You know... (Score:2)
You asked a loaded question anyway. The United States, no matter what you read in your local papers, is not close to becoming some kind of tyranny. Our various freedoms are still on par with, or better than, the rest of the Western world.
And lo
Re:You know... (Score:2)
Think of it this way. You play as an Iraqi soldier. This is an adventure style game, with RPG elements. (so very story based). You st
Re:You know... (Score:2)
But that's nothing new. One of the reasons that sf&f literature is so dynamic is that you're able to restated real-world problems in a way that don't make people immediately reject them
Re:You know... (Score:3, Insightful)
That, sir, is why you're wrong and the AC is right.
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:3, Insightful)
But at what cost? You do realise that NK can pretty much destroy central Seoul (pop ~10,000,000) in the first 24 hours of their artillery bombardments... and that's presuming they DON'T use chemical/biological/nuclear weapons.
In this case, it's not about "kicking butt" - it's about finding a way to defuse the situation without massive carnage. Unfortunately, most USians, including those in offic
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:5, Informative)
You'd be surprised just what kind of developments we've made in the past few years in counterbattery technology. Using tools like the AN/TPQ-47, our forces can detect incoming artillery shells, pinpoint the point of origin of those shells, and have a firing solution to destroy the artillery emplacement that fired them, all before the initial incoming shell hits its target.
Against a modern counterbattery force, a fixed artillery piece would be lucky to get two rounds in the air before being destroyed. And as the Iraqis learned, the same applies to mortar teams that aren't smart enough to fire and move, fire and move.
We have such counterbattery forces all along the DMZ. The artillery barrage by the DPRK wouldn't last anywhere near 24 hours, and the damage inflicted while significant wouldn't be anything like what you're intimating.
And the next big thing is a weapons system that can intercept and destroy incoming artillery shells. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, and I think it's still in the proving-ground stages, but it's coming soon to a theater-of-war near you.
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Still:
1) the US would need to be able to match the artillery batteries in numbers - maybe not 1:1, but they'd need quite a few thousand to deal with the ~16k pieces the DPRK has.
2) Presumably the US would need to know with a reasonable degree of accuracy where the pieces are located. This is a problem; many are located in caves or underground, and they're apparently moved on a regular basis.
3) It doesn't take many chem/bio/nuke rounds to kill a shitload of people in a city like Seoul. one or tw
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Look up operations by the SAS (the majority are successful).
Generally only in bad soaps are Hostage situatiosn resolved by negotiation. Now, with the new wave of "kidnapping" hostage situations, they fact we cannot locate them makes negotiotion (they always ask for dumb propaganda motivated things which cannot be done) impossible, and force (Can't storm the buiding if you don't know where it is) useless.
My gut reaction to many of these situatiosn is to remove the
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Technology like counterbattery radar is a force-multiplier. Besides, it doesn't necessarily take an artillery piece to counter another artillery piece. The counterbattery radar acquires the firing solution then transmits the coordinates of the target via Joint STARS to a loitering B-2 equipped with JDAM bombs. A bomb is programmed with
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2, Insightful)
That is what we were told about Vietnam and Iraq as well.
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Vietnam was botched, but it also ended up as a victory. South Vietnam lost by itself a few years later because we didn't give it financial aid (like the Soviets were funding the North).
Sense a pattern? We can only "lose" a war via politics. The actual fighting and killing is a breeze. Thankfully, the rebuilding of North Korea would be
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
>>occupation, but we certainly won the war phase.
>>Quickly and decisively.
how was there any question about this? the US has no better as far as their willingness to spend their entire gdp on military research and equipment, and they have more than enough suckers to send into the army to go die for some rich moron.
For the US to really become a global leader, they need to show a willingness to NOT send troops in everytime georgie sees a shadow.
Unt
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
You do realize that the total number of American soldiers killed since the invasion began is still less than 1,000, right? The invasion started in March, 2003, and it's now nearly July, 2004, which means the rate of American soldiers dying in Iraq is roughly comparable to the murder rate of Chicago, Illinois.
And that guerrilla warfare has been taken up by the true believers in that country.
Which "true belie
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Seymour writes some good stuff and he is pretty careful to check his facts, unlike Twirp. This a pretty good read on a view that suggests the Bush administration failed in the war on terrorism in the beginning and where it should have really been
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Um, you might wanna check on what that pesky word "rate" means. This may be just crazy liberal talk, but I interpret rate to be number of murders per unit of population.
last year there were 599 d [usatoday.com]
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Michael Moore, Robert Fisk, Ted Rall... Seymour Hersch. All men who care more about advancing their own agendas than they do about the truth.
Seymour Hersch is the same "investigative reporter" (I feel like I need a shower after typing that) who cited MG Taguba's report on the prisons in Iraq by saying, "Sixty per cent of the civilian inmates at Abu Ghraib wer
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
who cited MG Taguba's report on the prisons in Iraq by saying, "Sixty per cent of the civilian inmates at Abu Ghraib were deemed not to be a threat to society." That wasn't an exaggeration, a misstatement, or a typographical error. It was a bald-faced lie. MG Taguba's report said no such thing."
Well it actually says more than 60 percent were no threat to coalition forces and of no intellige
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
It was Karpinski's lack of leadership and discipline at the prison that led to the abuses that happened there. She's a disgrace to her rank and her uniform. She was summarily relieved of command and officially reprimanded, and when she got back to the States she went public with all s
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Let's talk about the bin Laden family for a second. It's fucking huge. Let me make another point about the bin Laden family. It's fucking huge.
The patriarch of the bin Laden family, Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, died in 1968. He left no fewer than fifty-eight sons and daughters, and hundreds of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is estimated, and I'm seriously not making this up, that the bin Laden clan, including relations through marriage, numbers around 4,000 people.
Seriously.
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
I think Twirp has had therapy, per his journal he apparently has the med's he needs he just doesn't take them. You need to take your med's, Twirp.
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Well just the original point that you glossed over as you always do. You said Seymour lied when he said the Taguba report said 60%. Once again I proved to you it did say that. Seymour didn't lie, you did. I don't care that you don't like who and why it was said in the report. You were wrong. I know you hate that. You better take a shower.
I think its been established that military intelligence was given control of most of the problem areas in Iraq's prisons over Karpinski's objection
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Yes, the words "sixty percent" are indeed to be found in MG Taguba's report. They are not, however, to be found in any context even remotely similar to what Hersch said they were. So that was a lie.
Messing up chain of command like that was bad and against military doctrine so its not suprising it went really bad.
You've got your timeline confused. Operational control over the prison was taken from
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Well if you point me to the exact text of what he said I will be glad to look at it and if you are correct that he lied I will be the first to pat you on the back. I haven't studied his work in the extraordinary detail you apparently have so maybe he is a bold faced liar. But, I've found the stuff of his that I've read to be thought provoking, plausible and he cites a lot of credita
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Well the same clips were on Larry King Live last night so I was paying closer attention. In the first inteview which was recent with a lady reporter I don't know sitting in a badly lit office, Cheney claims he never said that the Iraq/Al Queda meeting in Praque had been "pretty we
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
It's crazy liberal talk to the extent that you're trying to argue definitions, semantics, and trivialities instead of meaningful points.
For the record, "murders per unit time per geographical area" is a perfectly acceptable definition of "murder rate."
The larger issue remains untouched: the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq is not overwhelming. Every soldier's death is a tragedy, but there's no ne
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
If I gave two shits about garnering your approval, that might be a tempting offer. As it is... not so much.
I haven't studied his work in the extraordinary detail you apparently have so maybe he is a bold faced liar.
Yet again, it's "bald-faced." Not "bold faced."
And if you haven't studied his work very closely, why were you so excited about
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Definitely lying. Definitely, definitely lying. No question about it, definitely lying.
Sigh.
I guess that last bastion of objective journalism, "The Daily Show," and hard-hitting investigator Larry King both neglected to mention the correction that Scott McClellan gave at the press g
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Yes, twirp. Definitely lying. Thank you for finally agreeing with me. If you can't tolerate the Daily show you can probably check it yourself. I can't find official transcripts for the CNBC interview but the text is below and there is video. Hopefully this will shatter your illusion that the people in the Bush administration never lie. Hopefully it wont push you in to another schizophrenic episode now that you have
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
OK since once again you can't support what you were saying, which I think WAS slandering Seymour Hersh I'll have to assume you were the one lying until you prove otherwise. I do really want to find the truth in all of your bombast but you make it impossible. If I am wrong I was hoping you would help me see the light.
"Never miss an opportunity to slander people who leave their homes and families an
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Nukes are a first strike weapon. Nukes are only effective if you launch them by surprise, and shower your enemy in such a way to completely cripple them causing them to have no chance to respond. North Korea can not do this, the US simply has too many nukes in too many places. If their nuke program has actually evolved into weapon form, they could take out South
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
Re:Game not at all realistic. (Score:2)
good objectives:
-Take and ocupy hill 1 mile north of this point
-Kill person X
-Anihalate air field
bad objectives
-bring democracy to those people
-eliminate communism/terrorism/scabbies/radial scie
Our butts were not handed to us, our TV sets were (Score:2)
Despite the fact that the US military was hampered the US military was not handed it's butt. The Vietnam War was lost politically not militarily. Look at the Tet Offensive for example. North Vietnam committed th
Re:What about China? (Score:3, Interesting)
--trb
Re:What about China? (Score:2)
Re:What about China? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Game developers: "More wars, please!" (Score:2)
Re: Illegal things (Score:2)
Yes.
Regan deliberately placed US warships off the coast of Libya (imagine how the US government would have reacted if the Libyan navy had placed warships off the coast of the USA), and when the Libyan air force flew some planes too close to the ships, he used that as an excuse to bomb Libya.
It was revenge for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, which the Libyan government supposedly aided and/or abetted.
Yes.
The US government took it upon
OffTopic: N. Korea is a tactical nighmare. (Score:2)
The resulting shitstorm would basically obliterate South Korea and Japan. Regardle