So I've talked a bit about Homefront, the upcoming video game depicting a nightmare scenario in which America is invaded and occupied by evil North Korean forces. You, the player, fight back as part of the resistance.
Turns out, Homefront's villains were originally conceived as Chinese invaders, but the game makers changed their minds for two very important reasons: China Is Both Too Scary and Not Scary Enough To Be Video Game Villains.
First, Danny Bilson, one of the executives of the game's publisher told Kotaku in an interview, "They're just not that scary."For some, the thought of a Chinese takeover is scary. For others, it's kind of already happened. But you know what's even scarier? A billion irate Chinese people, angry about a game that makes them look like evil invaders and oppressors. I guess the makers of the new Red Dawn remake aren't really concerned about that.
Homefront needed a scary enemy, a nation that gamers could believe would be capable of invading the United States in a decade or so. Russians? No, too 80s. Chinese? The Chinese seemed like good candidates for this and were initially going to be the ones development studio Kaos used as their villains. Except: "China is like America's factory," Bilson said. "Everything you buy is made in China. It's all friendly. Everything's made there, from games, to every toy to everything. So they're not that scary."
Well, there's also the other problem with our un-scary friends across the Pacific. They may not be the kind of guys to laugh off some fun American video game about the Chinese invading and oppressing the U.S. of A.