15/10/12 Behind the game story

15/10/12

Chris Brindle and Patrick Sweeting
Task: find the meaning behind the stories in games

Behind Red Faction

Red Faction has plenty of connections and hidden messages within its game, it points out much of the floors in human society today, and how easily big company’s can exploit those that are vulnerable.  The story goes that the miners on mars, who are mining for resources for planet earth, are being mistreated, work long hours, beaten for no reason, kept in poor conditions, and to top it all off an illness they call the plague, is spreading around with in the miners killing them all off. All the miner unit and rebel against Ultor complex, the company that runs the whole process on Mars.

Many of these exploits seen within the game can be seen in todays world, for example the miners in South Africa’s, are currently on protest against the low pay, poor work conditions and living conditions they have to endure. When protesting for their voice to be heard, South Africa’s police force open fired for no reason, on the protesters killing people and arresting them under false allegations, this is very much connected to Red Faction. The protest for better working condition and pay can also been seen in 1972 and 1974 where miners strike within the UK, many protest were undertaken and arrests were made. These connections show us, how miners through out history and the world have been taken advantage of, even today, like in South Africa, miners in china or any poorer state are having to work in terrible work conditions and long unbearable hours, simple because it’s cheap and they are all easily replaced.

Red Faction has many meanings behind its name, for example the word RED, can relate to communism, where everyone is equal and together, Red has the connection to the red flag of Russia, which was created in 1917 when removing royal family and reuniting the nation. And the definition of the word faction means a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, combining the two together forms a strong message of power.

The plague within red faction, is a man made disease treated by scientists, who use some of the miners for lab rats, the connection and exploits of this can be again seen in our history, usually war, for example the Nazi did many weapon testing and experiments on the capture Jews. These heartless treatments were used for purposes for making bio weapons and better equipment for the use of the field. 

Red Faction underlines that even when these miners are under poor conditions, and living in terrible life, there is always someone looking for more ways to make money. 

Ultor complex, the company the rules the whole operation can represent any big financial corporation, such as Microsoft, Sainsbury’s, and Next, can be seen as good example, they can easily have the opportunity to take advantage of people, whether this been in work factory’s or cheap labour, without the rest of the world knowing, until something goes wrong, much like todays banks, using the country’s money to gamble for there own benefits.


(Reference from personal view, Lecture, and Wikipedia)