The source for this blog post is actually very unique. When I received my issue of Gameinformer for last month, I was quite surprised by the cover. It has an image of the statue of liberty in red, with a censorship bar across her eye’s, and her body melting into buildings that are faintly visible in the pitch black surroundings. Beneath it, there is white and red text that reads “Ubisoft explores the volatile political climate with a groundbreaking and controversial look at homegrown terror”. Intrigued, I flipped to the cover story (about the newest “Rainbow 6”) and began to read it. “American’s are angry. And why shouldn’t they be? With an exponentially expanding national debt, crippling foreclosures, corporate bailouts, degrading infrastructure, dwindling job market, and widening income gap between the haves and have-nots, it’s getting harder to believe politicians when they speak of American exceptionalism as if it were a fundamental truth. In response to gradual erosion of our beloved nation, resentful citizens of all kinds of political backgrounds are rising up in the form of new political movements like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. But unlike in the 1960’s, when protests and activism resulted in the discontinuation of the military draft, the Civil Rights Act, and the sexual revolution, the contemporary bickering government parties have proven largely ineffective at slowing or reversing the downward spiral. The media isn’t helping matters. Rather than promoting discussion about viable solutions moving forward, ad-driven 24-hour media outlets and radio programs are content to stoke the fires and sensationalize political differences. History proves that if leaders don’t move swiftly to address these grievances, the political rage can sometimes find a more violent channel of expression. Case in point: the meteoric rise of militias over the past few years. In 2009, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported a massive resurgence in anti-government paramilitary groups, which have jumped from 43 militias in 2007 to nearly 300 in 2010. The sudden surge has captured the attention of the Department of Homeland Security, NSA, CIA, and FBI, who all view these groups as a real threat to the stability of the nation. Moreover, many of these disenfranchised groups frequently put their members through intense military training exercises–for what, no one knows.” (Gameinformer issue 224, Pg 55). This entire introduction is all factual. After this, the story goes on to discuss how the game takes place in an America where these groups are constantly attacking the government and the wealthy. The title “Rainbow 6”, comes from the group of special operations agents that the player controls in the game.
When reading those first few paragraphs of text, I thought that it was all part of the game’s fiction. Upon discovering it was all real, I re-read the introduction a second time and though “this could be a good topic for my Arts in NYC class”. There are 300 paramilitary groups in the United States? With all the trouble that Occupy Wall Street has caused already, the chances of a violent outbreak occupying are high, and if one were to occur, echoes of the event would surely happen across the nation.
In addition to this interesting plot, the fact that a big name game manufacturer (Ubisoft is extremely well known–as a matter of fact, “Rainbow Six” is a Tom Clancy endorsed video game series) is using this scenario as a narrative shows how much of an impact Occupy Wall Street has had. With all of the money that goes into commercial/entertainment products, these game developers do not randomly pick a storyline for their game. They have teams of workers that perform research–both in the facts supporting the narrative, and into which story will appeal most to the public–and spend months, even years, creating the basis for the game. Settling on an experience that focuses around Occupy Wall Street and the current state of the American economy reveals just how much Occupy Wall Street has permeated American culture. It is now a term that everybody–children and adults alike–are used to hearing, and is referenced in all sorts of media. However, before this game, there was no video game that incorporated Occupy Wall Street into its plot, especially not on such an intricate level.
(I tried to find the Cover Story Online, however Gameinformer only has their newest issue available on their website. That is why I typed up the introductory paragraphs from the article.)