I love Command & Conquer: Generals. I love it to death.
But so many years ago it dawned on me that a franchise, or even a sequel for that matter, may never come to being.



My rationale in this statement? Simple.
Generals probably pissed off alot of people.

Firstly, there are the C&C fanboys (such as myself) who cried bloody murder because the game didnt have Tiberium or Ore or Frank Klepacki. Or even Westwood. You know what I think? Boo-dy-fucking-hoo. Red Alert 2 had giant squids that fought dolphins. Tiberian Sun just sucked and ruined the Tiberium-series. EA screwed up both of those excellent franchises when they took over Westwood. Generals was where they did their own thing, and the results? Awesome.
Maybe Generals had more in common with Warcraft than C&C. Maybe Supply Depots are a lousy idea for resources. But they both worked, and worked well (although I personally liked the production tab).

The rest of my points stem from the next sentence;

Generals is a political satire at best and overtly racist at worst.

Honestly, I have no idea what EA was thinking when they made this game. Were they poking fun at national stereotypes or were they just manifesting some of the incredible jingoism which pervades every facet of their evil multinational corporation?

Dont get what I'm saying?
I'm struggling with where to start.

Generals paints the Middle Eastern team as mindless, evil zealots. Generals not only features suicide bombing but utilises it as a perfectly valid military tactic. To add insult to injury, the 'free' powers of the US and China essentially gang up on the 'terrorists'. Alright, there is a GLA campaign, and they are the most fun to play. But considering the game was released several months before the beginning of the latest Iraq war, the game is decidedly topical and almost guaranteed to offend.

Generals pissed off the Chinese so much so that the game is permanently banned within its borders. Throughout the course of the game, the player blows up the Hong Kong Convention Centre breaches the Three Gorges Dam. Chinese units include Speaker Towers, Hackers and a whole stack that use nuclear-fucking-fallout as a weapon. The Chinese units are voiced so hillariously badly ("I build for China!") that a player almost cant help but think that someone is taking the piss.

The most damning representation in Generals is the Americans themselves. Generals bashes the reputation of both Asia and the Middle East, but presents America as the good guys, the defenders of peace, justice and all that is right in the world. I'm sure such a clean representation of the US would also cause waves amongst some groups.

But back to the satire/racist dilemma. If the former, Generals is a truly great game. It has successfully poked fun at the Western attitudes of the time and created some of the most interesting gameplay whilst they have been at it. But if Generals is in fact taking itself seriously, then its makers obviously cannot grasp the complex issues which pervade international politics and should avoid setting a game within the real world ever again.

In any event, I truly believe that EA would never again even try to release a game which featured such contraversial content. Rather I expect them to work on their existing strategy franchises.

Despite this, I do hope Generals and I meet again sometime down the road. I personally believe it is a satire and harmed noone because it maintained a tongue-in-cheek attitude throughout the game. Not only that, it also had great music, great gameplay and an interesting story. It would be a shame that mere political correctness killed such a winning combination.

Oh, and if you thought that EA wouldnt fold like a house of cards from external pressures and media contraversy, check out the NFS:Prostreet demo press release:

Need for Speed: ProStreet will take the Need for Speed series in a new direction of gameplay. Instead of an arcade style of gameplay which has dominated the series, ProStreet will focus much more on realism and move closer to, but not into, racing simulation, and still with options to use driving assistants to make driving easier and more arcade-like. Unlike its predecessors, all racing in ProStreet will take place on closed tracks, thus making it the first game in the series not animating illegal racing behaviour since Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, hence there will not be any police in the game.

PS. I myself was merely pointing out the stereotypes as portrayed in the game. I do not believe in such small-minded views. I wish to offend noone.