The Soviet Gaming industry
- Thread starter ArKhan
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Yes, of course I do mean 640 KB. Stupid me. /dies of embarrasment... again./
CanadianGoose
Banned
See Stalker's description. It is as good (or bad) as Rambo in terms of the plot (light years ahead of multicolored Dawns), but obviously loses in special effect department. All in all, passable action movie with good portion of Cold War ideology mixed in.
Not likely, but not impossible. I can't imagine a game which gives bonus point for starving extra big number of people (that seems to be Holodomor caricature peddled by Ukrainian nationalists and generally accepted by Western public) but I can see one where player gains high scores by either being ruthless bastard and industrializing Motherland no matter what or letting events unfold naturally and thus minimizing human casualities.How about Sim-Holodomor?
This was different and almost documentary. Overzealous American fighter pilot jock ramming Soviet flying tanker by accident over neutral waters.
Yes. However, I have to admit that my distaste of Soviet propaganda decreased a fair bit after I witnessed campaigns of lie over Yugoslavia in 1999 and Georgia just past summer. Soviets rarely soared to this level of contempt toward facts on the ground.
Yes, it was recurring problem of the Soviet computer industry. However, hardware was adequate for educational games (I, being a parent, own a fair bit of them and they're not resource hogs, to put it mildly).
That's why EA, as well as number of other game development companies which has development centers in Vancouver, are facing uphill battle to stop Russian from being most used language in office (PM being the only team member not speaking Russian in many development teams)
Stalker
Banned
That's why EA, as well as number of other game development companies which has development centers in Vancouver, are facing uphill battle to stop Russian from being most used language in office (PM being the only team member not speaking Russian in many development teams)
Паццталом!
CanadianGoose
Banned
Одиночное плавание. It had been released in 1985 and I couldn't find IMDB entry. Fair number of torrent links, though.Name it so I can look it up please.
You know about Cossacks, don't you? It would be very possible for this kind of game to be produced by Soviet game industry. And Russian folklore has enough magic creatures to put any Tolkienist game into shame.
P.S. I forgot. Soviets did enter 32-bit era. Soviet clone of 80386 had been developed and was undergoing compatibility trials by 1991.
JohnJacques
Banned
You guys are assuming localization to be far more inherent than it is.
American games mostly mimcked the Japanese and made little which was recognizably American.
I see no reason for Russia to do anything but ape America and Japan. Its what they commonly did in film as well. (Osterns, etc....)
American games mostly mimcked the Japanese and made little which was recognizably American.
I see no reason for Russia to do anything but ape America and Japan. Its what they commonly did in film as well. (Osterns, etc....)
It's not that simple. After all almost all of russian culture and technology are borrowed, but both have distinct local flavor even today.
It depends on if computer games are considered there as something serious like "art" or just children's pastime. If former, there may me some interesting twists and turns. For example as there is not nessesary (only desirable) to make a profit some fairly complex games may be made for "adults" featuring high quality sophisticated gameplay. Probably in strategy/simulation genres. In OTL such games unlikely to make a good profit for big developers and indies lack resurses to pull them off.
It not more impossible then USSR surviving to 2008 anyway
In general though I think you are right and genres and gameplay would be copied from west/japan for most part. Then there is a question how closed that "modern" USSR is and how diffficult to obtain western games there and will they run in soviet hardware. If access to originals is limited and censorship freely applied there may be some interesting pecularities to soviet video games (actually PC-likes as I am vague in consoles). Assuming ideology and political standings do not change too much from 1980-th.
No sexual themes. Even in adult-oriented games (though there may be hints thrown here and there). Strong educational flavor, especially in children-oriented. Very few games would be for pure entertainment and free from ideology however slight.
Low violence. Even in action games where actual people may be killed and harmed (like WWII, Revolution or any historical wars) visual bloodshed will be minimal and nothing compared to bloodfest in some modern shooters. I think there probably will be not many actual shooters at all. Arcades are more common.
Space-sims definitely will be focusing on peaseful exploration (though thwarting militaristic plans of imperialists also possible).
Global strategies and wargames mostly will present some abstract world or country with little connection to reality. Alternatively games may be based on ancient or medieval history. Modern setting is difficult to make through censorship as no censor will be happy with young pioneers nuking Moscow as Americans in Civ-like or komsomol members winning WWII as Nazi Germany in HOI. Also any game in which soviets may be presented as agressors (or actually be ones) is unlikely to see the light.
Everything else probably won't differ much. I doubt also that traditional westrn rpgs may be done in USSR but attempts on jrpgs-likes are possible, though probably pathetic. Logical, puzzle and adventure games on the other hand may be numerous and likely not bad.
the_lyniezian
Banned
Another thought though- what if the USSR had gone the way of modern-day China in its economic reforms?
the_lyniezian
Banned
Which of course would mean they would pretty much be open to the rest of the world, I might have thought...
Wasnt that just because that in the game it is impossable for communist china to win? And cause it shows the flag of tibet. Victoria is out cause it lets you play as the empire. For HOI though i wouldent be suprised if they made a version that only lets you play as the soviet union. Also there is ton of educational value as long as you know the subject reletivly well before hand, for example you could do a bloody sealion if you want
. For some reason when thinking of this topic i get a mental image of a Call of Duty ripoff called Call of The Rodina used to get people to enlist in the army (which has all the problems inherent in the draft system). It would have to be dumbed down on the blood but i see it possable if they open up like china did (look at all the stuff china rips off of the west).
There is a decent sized europe industy but dont they have weapons to build to stop the USSR from running over them?
Anyways the soviet gaming industy causes the Soviet union to collapse when every one realizes the other side has better games AND the electricty to power them.
CanadianGoose
Banned
I have to admit that regular brownouts were unheard of in Soviet cities and biggish towns pre-collapse. Yes, some fried transformer or shorted line, sure, but nothing on "periodic shortages" scale. On the flip side, residential AirCons were much less widespread. Not unheard of, by any means, but not too widespread in Caucasus and Central Asia and virtually not used North of Black Sea. However, that does not make USSR different from, let's say, Germany.