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Another cool looking Weird War 2 Zombie Horror game…

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legionsofsteel/escape-from-stalingrad-z/description

I feel this is somehow bad timing, at best. And dismally poor taste, at worst.

There are both Nazi and Soviet zombies in the game from what I can see.

Can we please keep real world contemporary political issues out of this fictional game discussion?

I‘d give them the benefit of doubt. Seems to be someone from Canada. Adding the capital letter Z for zombie into titles isn‘t exactly new and I think we shouldn‘t let negative current events own popculture icons like that.

But yeah, reading the thread title I too expected something … different.

I stumbled upon that too a week ago and it looks good. But I have so many unplayed KS games amassed here, that I will skip it.

But I was very pleasantly surprised that you could play mixed nations survivors against general zombies instead the usual dumb heroes vs Nazi Zombies nonsense.

 Grumpy Gnome wrote:
There are both Nazi and Soviet zombies in the game from what I can see.

Can we please keep real world contemporary political issues out of this fictional game discussion?

Um... dude.

Listen to yourself.

You show up with a game set in russia, emblazoned prominently with a Z.

Could you actually be anymore tone deaf?

If you want to keep real world politics out of game discussion, then you should ship that game right on down the road and not bother.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

TheGoodGerman wrote:
I‘d give them the benefit of doubt. Seems to be someone from Canada. Adding the capital letter Z for zombie into titles isn‘t exactly new and I think we shouldn‘t let negative current events own popculture icons like that.

But yeah, reading the thread title I too expected something … different.

Sure. We should totally start using swastikas because we shouldnt let nazis ruin a perfectly good buddhist symbol, right? In an ideal world I agree with you, but this is a world of dog whistles, and I think its stupid to defend the indefesnible.

Count me in with Wiz Warrior - you can't divorce modern war themed games from modern wars, no matter how much you want to, even if there are zombies involved.

I doubt the creator had any intention of supporting Putin, but it's a terrible look all the same.

 Wiz Warrior wrote:

 Grumpy Gnome wrote:
There are both Nazi and Soviet zombies in the game from what I can see.

Can we please keep real world contemporary political issues out of this fictional game discussion?

Um... dude.

Listen to yourself.

You show up with a game set in russia, emblazoned prominently with a Z.

Could you actually be anymore tone deaf?

If you want to keep real world politics out of game discussion, then you should ship that game right on down the road and not bother.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

TheGoodGerman wrote:
I‘d give them the benefit of doubt. Seems to be someone from Canada. Adding the capital letter Z for zombie into titles isn‘t exactly new and I think we shouldn‘t let negative current events own popculture icons like that.

But yeah, reading the thread title I too expected something … different.

Sure. We should totally start using swastikas because we shouldnt let nazis ruin a perfectly good buddhist symbol, right? In an ideal world I agree with you, but this is a world of dog whistles, and I think its stupid to defend the indefesnible.

Do YOU honestly believe they got all this developed since the beginning of the Ukraine war? Both (living and zombie) sides have Germans and Russians and it is in typical Zombicide fashion of multiple types of zombies. The large Z in the title is more likely a throw to the World War Z movie than the Z on the Russian tanks at the beginning of the Ukraine Invasion.

Stop trying to politicize everything, it’s a game. The money isn’t being funneled to support Putin as far as I can tell...but maybe you have better normative than the rest of us.

I won’t back as it is simply zombie game number 897 that has been released in the last decade, nothing innovative. Maybe a different time period, but really we also have plenty of WWII games that have zombies.

Not that I would ever really consider a WW2 Zombie wargame in good taste per se… taking what is clearly a pop culture Zombie reference and turning it into a contemporary political statement is a bit over the top in my mind. Just as conflating historical Nazis and Soviets with contemporary Germans and Russians might be (as I have seen elsewhere when I mentioned this Kickstarter).

I am not planning to back it as I am not that keen on the actual sculpts at that price and I am after more minis for my own Twilight ‘49 project rather than another game but there are some interesting ideas there and I also like the “forget the War it is the living versus the dead” aspect.

Edit: I also notice the graphic it uses is a Z with a line through it drawn with blood. I am not familiar with a current political movement using that specific Z but I am prepared to be corrected. If I seem a bit irritated it is because normally I am the one being called an overly sensitive liberal social justice warrior (which I tend to correct to Social Justice Paladin, thank you) and being called tone deaf on this seems a bit much. I am not prepared to let a contemporary political movement confiscate the letter Z out of the English language.

Exactly. Instead of slandering a company that has obviously no intention to be in any way affiliated with current affairs - as that is only detrimental, one should rather be mad at the Russians for slapping the letter Z on their vehicles nowadays.

I like Z. It's a nice letter. It deserves better. Why didn't they use Ö or ñ or something...

 Garfield666 wrote:
Exactly. Instead of slandering a company that has obviously no intention to be in any way affiliated with current affairs - as that is only detrimental, one should rather be mad at the Russians for slapping the letter Z on their vehicles nowadays.

I like Z. It's a nice letter. It deserves better. Why didn't they use Ö or ñ or something...

This. Don’t let the Nazis (Russian or otherwise) have our beautiful letter Z. (By the way, they’ve also used V quite often to mark their vehicles). I refuse to let them have that much power over me.

If people are happy to abandon the use of any established symbol that an unpalatable group is repurposing, you will always be on the retreat. The use of the swastika in the west is different because it's always a matter of context and there’s hardly a non-Nazi related context for that here (that will be different e.g. in India). In Germany you aren’t allowed to show the swastika except for education purposes etc., and rightly so. Also, if you use the Russian army’s Z to show support for the invasion here, you might be fined. Again, context is everything.

But it’s also happening the other way round: Yesterday I’ve watched a youtube video (channel '1420', I think) where a point was made that the color combination of blue and yellow is being 'cancelled' in Russia now, even where there is no context to the invasion. People being fined for the colour of their clothes, some public spaces being repainted, stadium seats replaced etc. That’s really dumb. Please don’t fall into the same type of paranoia.

TheGoodGerman wrote:

 Garfield666 wrote:
Exactly. Instead of slandering a company that has obviously no intention to be in any way affiliated with current affairs - as that is only detrimental, one should rather be mad at the Russians for slapping the letter Z on their vehicles nowadays.

I like Z. It's a nice letter. It deserves better. Why didn't they use Ö or ñ or something...

This. Don’t let the Nazis (Russian or otherwise) have our beautiful letter Z. (By the way, they’ve also used V quite often to mark their vehicles). I refuse to let them have that much power over me.

If people are happy to abandon the use of any established symbol that an unpalatable group is repurposing, you will always be on the retreat. The use of the swastika in the west is different because it's always a matter of context and there’s hardly a non-Nazi related context for that here (that will be different e.g. in India). In Germany you aren’t allowed to show the swastika except for education purposes etc., and rightly so. Also, if you use the Russian army’s Z to show support for the invasion here, you might be fined. Again, context is everything.

But it’s also happening the other way round: Yesterday I’ve watched a youtube video (channel '1420', I think) where a point was made that the color combination of blue and yellow is being 'cancelled' in Russia now, even where there is no context to the invasion. People being fined for the colour of their clothes, some public spaces being repainted, stadium seats replaced etc. That’s really dumb. Please don’t fall into the same type of paranoia.

Exactly this! Well said.

I find the morally outraged crowd is usually very picky about what to be morally outraged about. Bet all of the above are perfectly fine with modern games of "good guys" vs "sand people"

Every one has their own lines they draw and everyone can find something to criticize or judge in another. Some find the idea of any form of entertainment involving violence to be offensive. I have my lines in the sand and others have theirs. I am aware of that and try to respectful of it. If someone sees this game and is offended, I am genuinely sorry. This game must not be for them. I am not going to judge someone for what they find offensive. That is their issue. That said, I want to add I did not bring real world issues into this discussion and asked others not to. Sweeping statements about all of any crowd is not helpful either.

World War 2 themed Zombie apocalypse games seem to be a dime a dozen nowadays, and I'm not really sure what this game does to separate itself from the rest. Nice minis for a small board game, though, but for minis I'd almost prefer one of the specifically-designed-for-minis games like Project Z (just sub in WW2 figs)

Great idea, but it just looks dumb.

Pretty much just a generic zombie game. Nothing to distinguish it from any of the other better games already out there.
Judgedoug pretty much nailed it.

There's nothing but a couple of the miniatures that is any different. They don't even showcase the miniatures, they are almost an afterthought.

Hell, Stalingrad, you would halfway expect some terrain, or some tanks or APC's in there, your people decked out in scrap winter gear, and everyone tooled up with weapons and ammo, and rocking it battle worn.

Those minis are an insult.