Water Cooler Games - Maoist game reviews

Maoist game reviews
February 7, 2005 - by Ian Bogost

For those of you bemoaning the lack of red reviews available, you can now read Maoist Game Reviews. Most interestingly, as Clockwork Grue points out over on Game Girl Advance, the maoist reviews focus almost entirely on content and story, while most western reviews focus almost entirely on technical aspects (Maoists on Fallout vs. Gamespot on Fallout). Clockwork Grue segues into a discussion on games journalism, but I'm more interested in what this sort of example suggests about a topic of ongoing research for me: game criticism. It's not surprising that a communist perspective on any videogame would attempt to expose the "ruling class propaganda" inherent in those games. Of course, we've been arguing for a long time that games -- even commercial games -- carry ideological bias. One could argue that the Maoist perspective is just one frame on that bias.

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Comment from Alex on February 8, 2005

What kind of ideological bias?

Comment from Jean Dupree on April 2, 2005

Wow. I don't mean to laugh, but the line "Knights of the Old Republic ... or should we say Cossacks of the Old Republic?" just made me crack up.

Having said that, these reviews presented a very interesting perspective, and were definitely food for thought.

Comment from Severian on September 29, 2005

Jean Dupree wrote:
"Wow. I don't mean to laugh"

No, please laugh. And then check out their movie reviews and laugh some more. The Shrek 2 review was especially funny.

Also the first line of their Harry Potter review: "This movie would not be banned under the dictatorship of the proletariat."

This group, the Maoist Internationalist Movement, is generally considered a hilarious inside joke by far leftists.

Comment from Bolivar on September 29, 2005

Wow. Those are great. Truth and irony.

Their movie reviews are even better. They have some great writers. These folks are a welcome change from the bland and stale formulations of "revolutionary left"

Comment from rebel on September 30, 2005

What is funny is how true those reviews are... Glad someone is saying it!

Comment from Andy Bowden on October 15, 2005

Slience you Amerikkkan scum! Long live the MIM! :D

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