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The line between escapist entertainment and Problematic fantasy can be thin, but I think Indiana Jones’s dislike for the German National Socialist Party of the 1930s and 1940s is fairly clearcut. “Nazis – I hate these guys!” he says in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Let’s play Devil’s Advocate and try to Lionel Hutz that quote: “Nazis? I hate these guys!” [pointing at some Communists]. Yeah, I’m not really feeling it.
I guess Indiana did sleep with a Nazi once, but only by accident, and yes he did once cosplay as an SS officer and get Hitler’s autograph, but again, only by accident. Aww, he’s such a ditz! I think his political stance is abundantly obvious in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle – the new Wolfenslike from MachineGames, in which you will blast and bludgeon literally hundreds of Shitlerites in unambiguously one-sided first-person view. So it’s amusing, if not wholly unexpected, that MachineGames and Bethesda have slapped the game with an explicit disclaimer stating that the game’s depictions of Nazis are not, in fact, Nazi propaganda.
I saw this on the start-up screen during my hands-on with the game a few weeks ago. I meant to email for a copy of the text and write it up, but I forgot, and then those chancers at Gamespot did an article, so here I am playing Journo Come Lately. Here’s the disclaimer in full:
Please note that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a fictional story, inspired by historical events and characters. Names, characters, organizations, locations, and events are either imaginary or depicted in a fictionalized manner, not intended to disrespect any historical or cultural beliefs.
The story and contents of this game are not intended to and should not be construed in any way to condone, glorify, or endorse the beliefs, ideologies, events, actions, persons, or behavior of the Nazi and fascist regimes, nor any other regimes or to trivialize any war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity.
It’s likely just the usual legal arse-covering, of course. The game itself might be bruisingly frank about the fash, but there’s nothing to stop an opportunistic far-right chowderhead cherry-picking a screenshot or video for the sake of a meme, or modding the game to let you play as the goose-steppers.
It’s also possible the disclaimer is designed to ensure compliance with Germany’s qualified lifting of prohibitions on depictions of Nazis in video games back in 2018, following which “symbols of unconstitutional organisations can be used in games in individual cases, as long as those symbols serve an artistic or scientific purpose, or depict current or historical events.”
Still, it does look a bit ridiculous. This is Indiana Jones! I’m curious about whether the developers have any internal guidance about how to avoid counter-intuitively glorifying Nazis while teaching you to beat them to death. I guess you could argue that Indiana Jones And The Great Circle might inadvertently build a little sympathy given that it is basically a Third Reich Bullying Simulator.
