Top Secret Files of a Mental Fugitive, Exposed

So okay.

A few weeks ago, I played an online flash game named "Reich of Darkness" at Armorgames.com. Reich of Darkness, RoD for short, is made by Toge Productions, an Indonesia-based game making company. And the games' setting is an Alternate Universe of World War 2 in 1944, where the Axis powers are already being fucked by the Allies and the war is closing for them. Then suddenly, they just recovered some sort of magical relic that they used to regain ground and fight back, so they reassembled themselves again. The graphics of the game resembled Toge's earlier games, such as Infectionator, and the gameplay is from Necronator. To make it precise, the game wasn't as good as I expected it to be, but it was still enjoyable.

During the course of the game, there was not a single "Nazi" or "Hitler" word in the game, as well as it doesn't make any references to the Holocaust. You might say that it might be ignoring the Shoah, but it could also mean that it never happened. This is Alternate Universe anyway, so all speculations are open. Anything is possible.

Of course, some people will still be offended by suggestive implications about their experiences and their shortcomings, especially if you are paranoid as fuck and you think people are talking behind your back. In short, Anti-Defamation League has sent this letter to Armor Games. (Source is Toge Productions' Blog)

“We were recently contacted by a user of your site who reported that Armor Games is hosting the online game Reich Of Darkness, created by Toge Productions. Featuring Nazi symbolism, this game purports to take place in an “alternate” 1940s when the Reich discovers an ancient relic that can enable them to change the course of the war. The game’s premise, to reverse history and allow “the Axis” to prevail, is highly offensive and deeply disturbing, particularly to groups targeted by the Nazis.

Reich Of Darkness, with its allusion to and celebration of Nazis, certainly falls into the category of prohibited materials and should therefore be removed.”

See the blog title? That is what I am feeling right now, as a history lover, a gamer and a Filipino.

Let me examine the points:

Featuring Nazi symbolism...

I visited ADL's website and I saw their catalogs of Nazi symbolism. I saw this:



Compare that to Reich of Darkness' symbol.


(Take your eyes off from the blonde animu-style woman on the side or the sketchy man on the other side. Look below the damn Eagle. Seriously, the fact that blonde woman Helga is wearing that uniform or she is in the ranks is already a testament that this is an AU game.)

Do I need to say more?

The game’s premise, to reverse history and allow “the Axis” to prevail, is highly offensive and deeply disturbing...

First of all, one of my favorite flash games in the Internet is Warfare 1944, created by Con Artist Productions. You guessed it, it also takes place in 1944, World War 2 and allows you to play the German Campaign. It isn't an AU like a Reich of Darkness. Go to Newgrounds, find that game and you might notice something on the loading screen regarding the German Campaign.

That's right, that certain Campaign can only be played on the Armor Games website. To add a coincidental insult to wrongful injury, Con Artist is an admin of sorts on Armor Games. Now that is highly disturbing and deeply offensive.

Reich Of Darkness, with its allusion to and celebration of Nazis, certainly falls into the category of prohibited materials...

Let us define the word "allusion", according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictonary.

al·lu·sion noun \ə-ˈlü-zhən\
1: an implied or indirect reference especially in literature; also : the use of such references
2: the act of making an indirect reference to something : the act of alluding to something

And I also did a re-research to on Germany's Criminal Code Section 86a. (Warning: PDF file) To give this a Too Long: Did Not Read version, it does not say on the law that you can't allude to the Nazis.

And let us not start with the claim that RoD is "celebrating" Nazis. Seriously, mentioning Nazism is already celebrating them? I could name many media that mention Nazis or even just allude to the war. For example, Inglourious Basterds. Or Schindler's List. Or first three Indiana Jones movies. Or Order of War. Or Himitsu Sentai Gorenger. Or Sympathy for the Devil.

Seriously, if I will sum up the history of the Philippines in one word, that would be "colonization" or "invasion". We have been invaded by many countries already, including Spain, the British Empire, US and of course, the Japanese. The Land of the Rising Sun ain't the Empire anymore, but it sure does manage to do things that are historically insensitive, like the Yasukuni Shrine or the sugarcoating or denialism of history. Not to mention the city of Nanking.

And here I am, blogging in a forum that talks about a Japanese ero-game franchise. My brother, on the other hand, is a Japanese major in Linguistics. And my Grandmother still remembers her first encounter with a Japanese soldier asking for chicken and eggs while pointing a bayonet-mounted barrel of a gun, and she tells it to us in a fascinated tone. And I am not alone as a Filipino, not just in this forum, but also on the Internet, who knew what the Japanese did back in the war yet likes anime or Japanese media.

If the attitude of ADL in this game is like this, they will have a massive heart attack if they visited 4chan. Or if they saw A. Wyatt Mann's cartoons. Seriously, I can't express the disappointment that I felt when they were offended on something that's logically and legally not offensive. They have a catalogue of Nazi symbols, for crying out loud. And they got the German law wrong. And I saw a lot of comments for Jewish people themselves that they weren't offended at all.

Seriously, I could name a lot of games that are more "celebrating" to Nazism, and RoD is not one of them.

What were they thinking?