Tom Clancy's The Division

[Gromit]

"it's just a game"

No you fucking don't. These things aren't created in a vacuum, they exist in a wider cultural context.

It's a Tom Clancy game. Tom Clancy writes shadowy government agents saving the world and always has. End of discussion.

The only interesting aspect of the division...

You know all those apocalypse films?
The people are often searching for the government to solve everything. Shelter, the cure etc.
More often than not in these films the government has fallen apart and been destroyed by the tragedy.

In this game we get a glimpse of a government successfully rebuilding from the base building block of a joint task force in a old post office. This is slowly built (with your help) into a proper crisis centre, security and public order and a team to rebuild crucial infrastructure.

Hindering you are criminals taking advantage of the chaos, paranoid knee jerk reactionist citizens and a military figure who decided that the current power vacuum is his chance to take over and run the world how he sees right.

 

[NoXion]

It's a Tom Clancy game. Tom Clancy writes shadowy government agents saving the world and always has. End of discussion.

Wrong. What an author writes is only the beginning of the discussion. The audience is under no obligation to uncritically accept a writer's work at face value.

 

[Gromit]

Wrong. What an author writes is only the beginning of the discussion. The audience is under no obligation to uncritically accept a writer's work at face value.

So you're one of them.

Analyses a work and comes up with a load of pretentious crap to prove how clever you think you are.

I love a scene in a film where a rich guy hires the author of a book to write his book report for him and the teacher marking it fails him. Criticising him for misunderstanding the intentions of the author. When the author himself should have known wtf his intentions were.

Also I remember another author saying he loved reading papers analysing his work and inventing all sorts of crap and symbolism etc. He found it funny.

 

[NoXion]

So you're one of them.

Analyses a work and comes up with a load of pretentious crap to prove how clever you think you are.

People have all sorts of reasons for analysing a work. Some people have an interest in science and will examine the accuracy of a work from that angle. Some people analyse works because they're interested in the mindset and motivations of the author. Some people might even be doing it just to prove how clever they are, but only an anti-intellectual fuckwit dismisses any and all attempts at analysis on that basis.

I love a scene in a film where a rich guy hires the author of a book to write his book report for him and the teacher marking it fails him. Criticising him for misunderstanding the intentions of the author. When the author himself should have known wtf his intentions were.

And you have no questions as to why the scene was written that way? You don't think that perhaps the way it was written reflects the author's worldview?

Also I remember another author saying he loved reading papers analysing his work and inventing all sorts of crap and symbolism etc. He found it funny.

Which just goes to show that readers aren't passive recipients of the author's intended message. The audience brings their own interpretation to a work, whether the author means for them to do so or not.

 

[Gromit]

Which just goes to show that readers aren't passive recipients of the author's intended message. The audience brings their own interpretation to a work, whether the author means for them to do so or not.

I've got no problem with that. But some people overdo it like David Brent trying to prove he can dance.

 

[NoXion]

I've got no problem with that. But some people overdo it like David Brent trying to prove he can dance.

I don't think viewing Tom Clancy's works through a more nuanced lens than just slavering over militaristic technology porn counts as overdoing it. And I say this as someone with a taste for militaristic technology porn myself.

This isn't degree-level stuff really! Surely you can agree that there are certain themes which are very common to the works of Tom Clancy and his imitators; the centrality of governments and their armed agencies to his stories, the ubiquity of advanced technology and it's portrayal as an effective and necessary part of what makes the protagonists and/or antagonists have an impact on the world, and so on.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

"it's just a game"

No you fucking don't. These things aren't created in a vacuum, they exist in a wider cultural context.

Oh get a grip, the article is pure wank for handwringing liberals and has no substantive contribution to make to the debate on game content and its implications.

It also makes the age old assumption about games that other media doesn't get; that people are just mindlessly being brainwashed by it and can't think critically about the content. The fact is you're not robbing or killing anyone who wouldn't kill you first in the game.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

It's a Tom Clancy game. Tom Clancy writes shadowy government agents saving the world and always has. End of discussion.

The only interesting aspect of the division...

You know all those apocalypse films?
The people are often searching for the government to solve everything. Shelter, the cure etc.
More often than not in these films the government has fallen apart and been destroyed by the tragedy.

In this game we get a glimpse of a government successfully rebuilding from the base building block of a joint task force in a old post office. This is slowly built (with your help) into a proper crisis centre, security and public order and a team to rebuild crucial infrastructure.

Hindering you are criminals taking advantage of the chaos, paranoid knee jerk reactionist citizens and a military figure who decided that the current power vacuum is his chance to take over and run the world how he sees right.

Yup the level of social analysis displayed on this thread is embarrassing.

 

[NoXion]

Oh get a grip, the article is pure wank for handwringing liberals and has no substantive contribution to make to the debate on game content and its implications.

It also makes the age old assumption about games that other media doesn't get; that people are just mindlessly being brainwashed by it and can't think critically about the content. The fact is you're not robbing or killing anyone who wouldn't kill you first in the game.

It's clear that you haven't fucking read the article, because it makes no mention of brainwashing at all. So on what basis exactly do you presume to dismiss it?

 

[Gromit]

It's clear that you haven't fucking read the article, because it makes no mention of brainwashing at all. So on what basis exactly do you presume to dismiss it?

Its clear that the author of the piece is talking shit and hasn't fully appreciated the underlying narrative thats being built.

It’s a muddled fiction to step into, one that casts you as an authoritarian enforcer with an unlimited license to kill, as well as “the savior of New York.” But when the game says New York, it isn’t referring to the citizens or the culture, instead it is referring to that most important of features in a capitalist society—property.

When you upgrade the Crisis Center in the medical wing its so that the Mental Health of citizens affected by the crisis can be helped not just the physical needs.

When you upgrade a certain section in the security wing its so secure convoys can be arranged so that supplies will reach needy citizens instead of been robbed and horded by the brutal gangs.

The government cares soo little about the citizens thats its air dropping in supplies to the city constantly.

I could go on.

The article is basically arguing that Martial Law is immoral and that the game is wrong to support martial law by making an agent of martial law a hero.
Its anarchist paranoia projected onto a video game. They'll use a pandemic to rule us all like dogs!!!11!!!1

I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone from Urban isn't the author.

 

[ffsear]

Just another blogger looking for attention!

I bought the game this weekend and am enjoying it.

I was surprised, I went to 3 of the CXE type trade in 2nd hand shops and they all had 30 + copies on the shelves. A lot of people don't like it. They guy at CXE said he'd never seen so many copies of a game come in for trade so soon after release.

Hopefully this should keep me occupied seeing as Fallout 4 was a flop for me.

 

[mwgdrwg]

I have it on PC and haven't been bothered to play it for some reason.

 

[DotCommunist]

I love a scene in a film where a rich guy hires the author of a book to write his book report for him and the teacher marking it fails him. Criticising him for misunderstanding the intentions of the author. When the author himself should have known wtf his intentions were.

Also I remember another author saying he loved reading papers analysing his work and inventing all sorts of crap and symbolism etc. He found it funny.

how astonishing that gromit understands niether how critiscism works or has ever encountered the idea of the death of the author. To busy gurning away to cheesy dance and on the lech

 

[Kid_Eternity]

It's clear that you haven't fucking read the article, because it makes no mention of brainwashing at all. So on what basis exactly do you presume to dismiss it?

Oh man you clearly didn't read a fucking word! Try reading it again idiot.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Its clear that the author of the piece is talking shit and hasn't fully appreciated the underlying narrative thats being built.



When you upgrade the Crisis Center in the medical wing its so that the Mental Health of citizens affected by the crisis can be helped not just the physical needs.

When you upgrade a certain section in the security wing its so secure convoys can be arranged so that supplies will reach needy citizens instead of been robbed and horded by the brutal gangs.

The government cares soo little about the citizens thats its air dropping in supplies to the city constantly.

I could go on.

The article is basically arguing that Martial Law is immoral and that the game is wrong to support martial law by making an agent of martial law a hero.
Its anarchist paranoia projected onto a video game. They'll use a pandemic to rule us all like dogs!!!11!!!1

I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone from Urban isn't the author.

Yup. It's infantile nonsense and anyone who buys it should go back to six form government and politics and try again...

 

[NoXion]

Oh man you clearly didn't read a fucking word! Try reading it again idiot.

Go on then, quote the relevant paragraphs.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Go on then, quote the relevant paragraphs.

Waste of my time you're clearly too stupid to asses any point I make using them with any clarity...

 

[NoXion]

Waste of my time you're clearly too stupid to asses any point I make using them with any clarity...

The article mentions nothing about brainwashing. Why did you use that word?

 

[treelover]

played the free weekend on PC, looks really good, but not for me, really didn't like the generic hooded enemies, no real single player, etc.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Survivor is good fun, well worth checking out!


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