Shortly after finishing Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, I called up my friend who had also
just finished the game.
We were talking about how much we enjoyed it, but then we inevitably came across the
subject of people complaining over how political the series has become.
And the hours of talking that followed was what made me want to make this video.
Before the game's release, the official Wolfenstein twitter promoted the game using slogans like
''Make America Nazi-Free Again.''
Which is an obvious nod to the ''Make America Great Again Slogan.''
Now, a lot of people didn't take lightly to this and got upset.
Wolfenstein was called propaganda and Bethesda was accused of mixing politics into their
games.
In an interview with VICE, Pete Hines, Bethesda's PR director, was asked if he didn't feel as
if they were being too provocative by making use of such a popular slogan.
Hines replied by saying that they were talking about Nazis, and that there's no politics
involved whatsoever.
Meaning that if they were provoking anyone, it'd be Nazis.
And if that was the case, then it didn't matter anyway.
There was really no hesitation around the marketing for The New Colossus.
Which makes it easy for the people that were uninformed on the subject to assume that Bethesda
was trying to push some sort of political view with the release of The New Colossus.
This gained them a lot of attention real quick and soon, the game was the hottest subject
of debate all over the internet.
It's hard to say if it was ''right'' or ''wrong'' of Bethesda to market their game in this way.
Because for one, the game clearly doesn't push a political agenda.
But by using the parody of the political slogan, they've automatically, for lack of a better term,
''tainted,'' their promotion with politics.
We know for a fact that it got people talking about it, which is good.
A series like Wolfenstein deserves to be talked about.
But the truth is also that a lot of people aren't willing to do the research behind claims
that they see.
If they see that Bethesda is pushing a political propaganda with the release of Wolfenstein:
The New Colossus, they're sadly going to jump the bandwagon.
This is a super negative thing that the internet does but it happens regardless so we shouldn't
deny it.
Even though it's very clear to anyone who's played the game that there's no political agenda to be pushed,
not everyone's going to go that far.
The sad truth is that a lot of people don't seek out games like Wolfenstein that'll challenge
their comfort zones.
Because a lot of gamers don't want to deal with stuff that
challenges their current political views.
So they're very quick to dismiss stuff as propaganda.
Just by looking at the Wolfenstein series in itself, we can see how the earlier entries
make their Nazis more cartoon-y, whilst The New Order and The New Colossus both build
up a terrifyingly real world.
But regardless of if it's the first entry in the series or the last, Wolfenstein has
consistently always been about killing Nazis.
This is what confuses me a lot when it comes to the people that are complaining about the series
suddenly turning political and pandering.
Because they only seem to care because the world is now better built and more realistic.
Meaning that they were fine with killing Nazis when they were low-poly and goofy-looking?
But now that we're given real Nazis, we're suddenly political?
Would adding in funny sound effects when you shoot the head off the Nazis soften the blow?
I'm not sure.
Saying that you're against the people that consider their race to be the superior one
and the only one that deserves life, is political.
And somehow, Bethesda are the ones that are stepping over the line?
Wolfenstein's big controversy isn't that it's pandering or that it's political, it's that
people, in 2017, are trying to make it seems that way.
Just think, can you imagine hearing ''let's fight the Nazi's'' and then disregarding that
as political propaganda?
I feel like it's important to mention that I'm not trying to say that Wolfenstein is
the only game that is ''justified'' in using Nazi's as bad guys.
I can see how generic bad guys who are just bad because they're Nazis are a bit stale
but games that actually explore themes like racism and fascism are not.
It's fine to feel as if Nazis are an overplayed type of enemy in games but there are no excuses
for debating against them being the big baddies.
This makes me think that a lot of people that complain about Nazis being an overused enemy
type haven't actually played any of the Wolfenstein games because that is exactly why Wolfenstein
is so important: instead of simply making the bad guys Nazis, it actually shows us the
awfulness of the world that's been built.
Saying that Nazis are an overused enemy type and then faulting Wolfenstein for doing what
it does is like complaining that machine guns are an overused type of weapon and not ducking
when someone points one straight at your head.
There is a very logical and very simple explanation as to why Nazis are commonly used as the bad
guys in not only video games but other types of media as well.
It's cause they're evil.
It's like a fail-safe to ensure that you definitely won't like them and to ensure that you won't
question that they're evil.
If you're just given a normal bad guy, you might question his motives and what has brought
him to do whatever bad deed he's done.
Nazis though?
Not that many people are going to be willing to hear you out first if you openly support
the idea of a racial hierarchy.
There are no arguments that can be made.
There are no 'if's,' 'and's' or 'but's' when it comes to Nazis.
The Wolfenstein games are very special because of how they set out with little to no regard
for comfort zones, but still manage to perfectly deliver their message.
Although we know that almost anything's possible in this universe, it doesn't push too far
when it doesn't have to.
In the same interview that I mentioned earlier, Grace Walker's voice actor Debra Wilson said
it the best.
When she was asked if white men, which is the largest demographic for games in the US,
would feel uncomfortable with the games themes, Wilson replied with ''I think gameplay should
make you uncomfortable.
I absolutely believe that.
Why?
Because you don't learn from comfort levels.''
Even if you're not someone who would actively seek out games like Wolfenstein and play them,
I figure you'd still reasonably be able to say ''Okay, even though I don't appreciate
the violent and graphic nature of this series, I still understand the message that it sends
about the people taking back the power from an evil oppression.''
Wolfenstein really isn't about ''big beefy hero dude punching out everyone who has a
political opinion that differs from his own'' it's about a boy growing up in an abusive
household, realizing that the world around him is chaotic, joining the army, fighting
against an oppressive power and trying to end the Nazi regime with the help of other
people that are all suffering because of the Nazis.
Wolfenstein is about the people taking back their right to live freely.
They're taking back their human rights that were stolen from them by the Nazis.
So many people will point at Wolfenstein and scream about it being too political when this
very obviously isn't a matter of differing political views, it's about human rights and
human lives.
In Wolfenstein's case: making a character like B.J Blazkowicz the main protagonist is
the best way to give the middle finger to the antagonists.
As he's a tall, muscular, white, blue-eyed, blonde beast of a man - also known as the
exact thing that the antagonists idolize.
Yet, he's the world's number one Nazi killer.
But the fact that The New Colossus features BJ as a child and shows us that he wasn't
always the hero that he became later in life is extremely important.
He was raised by a racist father who abused his Jewish mother.
He wasn't allowed to play with a young girl in the same neighborhood as him because of
her skin color.
He smiled as he looked on when a small animal died.
It's directly shown to us that BJ wasn't always a hero, but with time, he learned to fight
for what he believed to be the right thing.
Had he grown up in another way he might've ended up exactly like his father.
He had a troubling childhood, which helped shape him into the person he became later
in life.
Instead of obediently listening to his abusive dad and following along in his footsteps,
he wanted to fight for what he thought was right.
This gives Blazkowicz an entirely different role in the Wolfenstein games.
He's not just a plain sheet of paper for the player to use as a self-insert.
He has seen injustice with his own two eyes and he wants to put an end to it.
He's met so many people that have suffered because of the Nazis, and all he wants to
do is help the people be safe.
Wolfenstein naturally gets under you skin and makes you uncomfortable.
It's portraying a very violent and unfair world.
But I'm beyond happy that series like Wolfenstein exists which creates an alternate timeline
in history and yet explores themes that are still very much present in our own world.
In this awful messed up timeline where Nazis have taken over the world, themes that are
still very relevant to our modern day pop up.
I find this to be a lot more worrying than the fact that we're getting a Nazi killing
video game.
The fact that making the game is seen as taking a political stance is a lot more terrifying
than any of the content that's in the game.
In conclusion: Wolfenstein isn't revolutionary by any means because they made Nazis their
bad guys.
The series has just been put in some weird state as of late because it features Nazis.
There wasn't even an uproar like this when The New Order came out in 2014 and that was
only three years ago.
It upsets me that a game that is so important and does so many things right is reduced to,
''it's already overdone,'' because if Nazis were truly overdone as the bad guys in media
today, I can't help but to think we wouldn't still have any of them.
I really hope you enjoyed this video, thank you so much for watching.
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