Bono's Anti-Chavez Video Game

[icymist]

The Nation
Mon Jul 10, 1:52 PM ET



The Nation -- The New York Post's Page Six reports that Bono , supposed savior of the world's disenfranchised, has, through his private equity firm, invested in a video game which depicts Venezuela as a "banana republic led by a 'power-hungry tyrant.'" According to Page Six, "Players assume the role of a mercenary sent to a fictitious Venezuela, where a dictator has seized control of the country and its oil. The gun-for-hire is instructed, 'If you can see it, you can buy it, steal it, or blow the living crap out of it.'"

Read the Yahoo article

U2's Bono backs USA propaganda: Videogame with Venezuela invasion theme

US Venezuela Solidarity Network (Washington D.C.): U2's Bono, well-recognized for his campaigns to reduce poverty and treat AIDS in Africa is backing a videogame which promotes the invasion and destruction of Venezuela in order to check "a power hungry tyrant" who has "seized control of Venezuela and her oil supply."

Bono has failed to respond to concerns raised by the Venezuelan Solidarity Network about his funding of this project.

"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," created by Los Angeles based Pandemic/Bioware Studios, simulates a mercenary invasion of Venezuela in the year 2007. Pandemic is a subcontractor for the US Army and CIA funded Institute for Creative Technologies, which uses Hollywood techniques to mount war simulations in California's high desert in order to conduct military training. "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames" simulates destruction in downtown Caracas, and promises to leave no part of Venezuela untouched.

Read the Venezuelan article

[ret5hd]

1. Anyone who has actually visited Caracas...

could not conceive of doing anything to harm the beautiful and generous people there. I have never been to a city that has affected me as much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mAY_GhPS8

[LA lady]

3. Caracas is great.

I loved Caracas but preferred Maracaibo, so laid back! We lived there for years.

[rucky]

12. Stop, I'm getting jealous!

Venezuela is looking more and more like a part of our escape plan.

[bullimiami]

2. its a GAME. Not reality. Chavez is not a dictator and the banana republic

is run by republicans.

is grand theft auto in miami real? not that ive noticed.

[rman]

8. You're saying there's no motivation behind the theme of the game?

[bullimiami]

37. im not saying anything about the motivation. i just dont think

its important.

there is too much screwed up reality to deal with.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Eh. The previous game was set in North Korea.

I'm sure Mercenaries 3 will be set in Belgium or Prince Edward Island or wherever the next enemy du jour is.

That's kind of like saying the producers of Independence Day hate America because they blew up the WH.

[laruemtt]

5. we actually lived in caracas for two years

when i was younger. pa always wanted to go back. i remember the vibrancy of the people and how gorgeous the mountains were.

[warrens]

6. It may just be an investment, but this is putrid

I dislike Bono anyway, but if he doesn't yank this investment, I will be surprised. His music may suck, but he seems to be authentic in his political opinions.

[TheWraith]

7. Okay, lot of bullshit here.

For starters, it's a fucking video game. Get over it.

Second, exactly what proof is there that Bono or anyone associated with him knew about this game? A game company associated with an equity firm whose members include Bono? This reads like six degrees of propaganda, trying to tie some famous name to some supposed insult in order to make hay.

And as far as I'm aware, it's a complete and total fabrication that Pandemic/Bioware has any connection to the military or the CIA at all. They're a video game company. For that matter, the Institute for Creative Technologies is an independent organization with only marginal ties to the military.

[acmejack]

10. But about the ICT...

snip>
Housed in a six-story office building "campus," just blocks from the yacht basins at Marina del Rey, Calif., ICT is a university-affiliated research center (UARC) initially established between the University of Southern California and the U.S. Army, with the early goal of applying Hollywood special effects and other emerging technologies to military training scenarios.

In September 2004 ICT completed its initial five-year task order, which was valued at approximately $45 million. Institute funding comes through the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology with contract management performed by Research, Development and Engineering Command's Science and Technology Training Center.

ICT's new five-year contract is estimated to be worth $100 million.

edit forgot link http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3723/is_200504/ai_n13632751

[MadHound]

11. Excuse me, but a little research shows that you're wrong

As the article states Pandemic/Bioware was doing subcontract work with the ICT, who is indeed deeply connected with the military/intelligence complex<http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffpiu0005.pdf#search='Institute%20for%20Creative%20Technologies%20ties%20to%20military'>, being as ICT was ESTABLISHED by the Army.

And this isn't the first time that Pandemic has done Army work, check this article out from a few years ago<http://www.gameinfowire.com/news.asp?nid=2382> "Full Spectrum Warrior is based on a light infantry-training simulator designed by Pandemic Studios for the U.S. Army as a tool to reinforce Army doctrine and squad tactics among troops."

And frankly, since this is an investment firm that Bono helped to create, one would think that he would be paying some serious attention to his business, and hence should know what both ICT and Pandemic/Bioware is all about. If not, he's the most clueless businessman on the face of the planet.

And quite frankly, it's more than a video game friend, it is both a piece of propaganda and a desensitizing agent. Get more and more brain dead people pissed at a fantasy version of Venezeula and Chavez, while simultaneously getting them used to the idea of using military force in that country. Typical propaganda piece.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Right, right.

And "Dig Dug" is a propaganda piece to get kids enlisted in the war against the mole men.

:eyes:

[gatorboy]

19. Is it so hard to believe?

The military's been doing it for a few years now:

www.americasarmy.com

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. Oh, I believe it.

Bono and the military-industrial complex are trying to pollute our precious bodily fluids.

That's why I only drink rain water and play ColecoVision.

[gatorboy]

23. Bono aside which is far fetched...

You don't think the military uses video games as recruitment tools?

So the army gives America's Army away for free cause they're so gosh darn generous? :eyes:

And I wouldn't drink that rain water. Might get the runs... ;)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. No shit they use them for recruitment tools.

They use ads on TV, before movies, and in comic books too.

[gatorboy]

26. Chill out, Hoss.

Sounds like you need to hit the Coleco man!

[MadHound]

27. So you admit that the military uses propaganda in TV and print

But you can't wrap your head around the fact that they're using computer and video games as propaganda tools too. OK, so explain to me why it is that a US army training tool is now an Xbox videogame? <http://www.gameinfowire.com/news.asp?nid=2382>

It is just more and more propaganda friend, designed to provide ever more cannon fodder for the never ending war, and to desensitize kids to violence and death. Deny it if you wish, but it's still the truth.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

35. I said that they use video games as propaganda.

But getting upset because Bono has stock in the company that makes Mercenary 2 which is set in Venezuela is like getting upset because Depeche Mode owns stock in Atari and Q-Bert is set, clearly, in Egypt.

Fortunately the enlistment age is still 18 and that's old enough to know better than to enlist because of what you saw in a video game.

[Marr]

28. Oh, give me a break.

I don't know about Pandemic, but Bioware is just a video game studio, and a damn good one at that. They've got some very talented people working there and they've made alot more than just this particular game or even this genre.

This is like labelling someone a theocrat for for having invested in the studio that eventually produced the Passion of the Christ.

[MadHound]

30. Hey, sorry for trying to open your eyes,

And pulling your head out of the sand. But gee, it's not this hasn't been a common tactic of the military/intelligence complex for years. Hell, back in the sixties the CIA was bragging about how cheap and easy it was to put pliable and willing journalist in almost every major news network.

And sorry, but now that Bioware has been bought up by Pandemic, well it seems that they're now part of the propaganda machine too. Just because they've made great games in the past, and publish other genres of games does not eliminate the possibility that they're also participating in the propaganda wars. Those "very talented people" are now doing their work for a corporation that has very close ties to the military and intelligence communities.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but propaganda has spread rapidly over the past decade, infecting everything, TV, print, movies, and yes, video games. About time you woke up and smell the stench.

[Marr]

31. You're not bursting any bubbles here.

I didn't say the military doesn't use video games as propaganda recruitment tools. I said it's ridiculous to call an individual some kind of collaborator for having investments connected to a studio that has a connection to a connection to a connection to a...

The thrust of this thing is that Bono is some kind of sellout. That may be- I neither know nor care. But this investment thing is a clumsy, flimsy, flawed argument.

[MadHound]

32. You are understating the degree of connection that Bono has

To this project. Read the link in the OP, and you will find this quote: "Elevation Partners is an investment firm that Bono helped create in order to exploit marketing opportunities between U2 and its fans, including projects from Pandemic/Bioware Studios. Pandemic states that as a partner in Elevation Partners, Bono "has visibility into all projects at Pandemic and Bioware."

Sounds like one degree of seperation, at most. Like I said earlier, if Bono didn't know the background of Pandemic/Bioware and ICT, well then he is one clueless businessman. Such business research into the background of a potential partner is SOP for any wise investment firm.

So yes, I'm fairly certain that Bono knew what these two were about. And yet he chose to go ahead and invest his money in propaganda anyway. How pathetic is that, all so he can make a bunch of money he has no good use for anyway.

[TheWraith]

34. A little research shows that you're paranoid.

Okay, I'll cop to missing the fact that ICT was partially backed by the Army. Bearing in mind that I'd never heard of them up until two minutes before I posted my message, it doesn't distress me that much.

Out of curiousity, do you really believe what you're saying? An international celebrity/millionaire/philanthropist should have a complete working knowledge and approval of everything, down to the level of a video game, that is being done by any company that is connected to an organization he's involved with? Good God, cut the man a little freaking slack.

And if you seriously look at video games as a viable propaganda tool in the way that you're suggesting, I think you need to get a grip. Pandemic also produces the "Star Wars" strategy games--does that mean they're an unofficial wing of Imperial Intelligence? They made a game called "Destroy All Humans!", does that mean they're working toward an alien invasion? Of course there are going to be video games about invading pretty much any country that's in the news. It gives more realism than a game about invading Canada, and it helps sell units. To look at it as an intelligence covert op designed to brainwash teenagers is in the realm of tin-foil-hat theories. It's a damn video game. "Doom" didn't lead to people running around on killing sprees, "Lemmings" didn't produce a crusade to save the arctic rodent population, and only the most feeble-minded of ultramorons would ever be induced to sign up with the military based on playing a damn arcade game.

The only propaganda here is the original article, which is making some pretty outlandish claims in order to push the idea the US is threatening Venezuela, when right now the US military could barely threaten a large rock.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

36. LOL.

Odd that you mentioned that. Some kook started a similar thread a few days ago on the same subject and noted that the same developers of "Mercenaries" developed a truly horrible game called "Destroy All Humans."

Honestly, what sort of sick person would play a game called "Destroy All Humans."

:rofl:

[acmejack]

9. The game's website.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

[Blue_In_AK]

13. I can't stand Bono

Never have, never will. I believe all his "good works" are pure self-aggrandizement.

[The Stranger]

14. I can't stand Bono, either.

He stands for nothing and he is nothing.

[warrens]

33. Remember Lenny Bruce as the mediocre comedian

Threatening his agent that he BETTER find him a disease to be the spokesman for, and not one of those shitty diseases no one ever heard of, either. "All the BIG guys have diseases. Look at Jerry Lewis!"

That is the way Bono strikes me. Plus, his music SUCKS.

[Touchdown]

15. Whatever happened to Pitfall Harry jumping over snakes?

Everything in gamedom is warmongering these days...
Command and Conquer
Call of Duty
Halo
Metal Gear Solid
Cannon Fodder
...the list goes on.

I guess Mario and Sonic aren't bloodthirsty enough for our modern fascist trainees. When I was a teenager and needed to touch my maleness, I did what all teenagers did back then, whacked off.:eyes:

Before I'm flamed...I'm not advocating censorship, just lamenting the daffy fun that video games used to be, and disturbed by this base adolescent drive for shooting hookers in a brothel the most graphically realistic way ATI's video cards can give them.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. Pitfall was set in the jungles o f Nicaragua.

And you know what that means...

[Touchdown]

18. The original had a 2 page leaflet of instructions

...Nicaragua was never mentioned. I don't know which one you're referencing.

Remember Mattel Intellivision? If not, that's my point.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. clearly, you never watched the saturday morning cartoon.

Clearly it was a pro-sandanista hit piece.

Really propaganda.

[Touchdown]

22. Didn't know there was one. I was a teenager then

I do know that David Crane, the creator of Pitfall was a pacifist that tried to design games that were non-violent.

You must mean pro-contra. The Sandanistas were leftists that we tried to overthrow with the Contras.:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. That's just what David Crane wants you to think.

He's really working for the Army.

[Touchdown]

29. Ok, you got me.

You had me going for a while.:dunce::rofl:

[rockymountaindem]

39. Not everything is war-mongering

There are new games coming out like Civ City: Rome, City Life and many others that encourage building and other activities. Remember that the best selling game of all time is The Sims, which is completely non-violent (unless you count being slapped when you try to kiss someone who doesn't want it).

[OzarkDem]

38. And the OP disappears...n/t

[icymist]

40. What do you mean?

What are you implying? Both links still work. The story is intact. Are you intending that I man my computer 24/7 or shut up? What?

[kiahzero]

41. What an absolutely retarded premise for an article

*eyes*