> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>
> Is this for real? I was just innocently browsing through a MacMall
> catalogue in search of printer cartridges (btw, anyone know where you can
> still get cartridges for a dinosaur Deskwriter 310?), when this software
> title jumped off the page:
>
> Imperialism II
Oh, it's absolutely real, as are games like Rail Baron, which allow people to take on the role of a railroad Robber Baron in order to squeeze profits out of both the general population and out of rivals.
But then so is Quake where you commit mass murder against whole legions of evildoers.
That said, the politics and violence of computer games are a double-edge thing. There are no doubt some gamers that play the games, then want to go out and "play" the real thing. But because games reduce both politics and violence to their gory basics, stripped largely of any covering ideology, they are in many ways an innoculation against a lot of ideology around ideas like imperialism.
An old favorite game of mine (board not computer) was called Nuclear War. The point of the game was you were dealt cards containing missiles and warheads, along with some propaganda cards. You would systematically deploy the cards, nuke your opponents population, and whoever was the last person with any population left "won." It was a horrifying game, but that was the point; it showed the absurdity of nuclear war planners.
--Nathan