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I’d also like to point out that in the society of Starship Trooper, service didn’t have to be military – essentially community service (though more difficult than contemporary community service) was also acceptable.

Also also I enjoyed the Forever War as well.

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What totalitarianism? Perhaps you guys mean authoritarianism. And waaaay upthread, actually The Forever War is a book about armoured infantry being sent to their horrible deaths despite being hopelessly obsolete.

Pretty sure The Forever War was more about the sense of alienation experienced by returning soldiers, as Haldemann himself felt. Yeah, the war turned out to be pointless and stupid, but I don’t think that was the pre-eminent theme of the book; just a side plot point (also, if it has been a ‘just’ war, then it’d perhaps have made it less believable for the returnees to be completely alienated and effectivelys rejected by Man).

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I think the problem with this game, thus far (aside from being totally unnecessary and therefore needing to prove itself from the ground up), is that it hasn’t shown any signs of having what makes everybody love the comic so much. Watchmen achieved many things, among them extremely deep characterization; in fact, I would say that any success this game enjoys would be predicated largely on the audience’s familiarity with its characters. The only reason anyone would really care right now is that we all know Rorschach and Nite Owl II. If the developers somehow managed to absolutely nail their characterization and give them a good, moody, ambiguous plot to go through, it would be a great success for tie-ins, which everyone justifiably hates based on prior experiences. The trailer focused only on stylish fighting, so I’ll stick with my skepticism.
The funny thing is that I rather like this genre and would probably be openly interested if it were using an original fiction. I’d probably even be fine if Alan Moore had actually been behind this sort of thing. He hates these adaptations for reasons that I entirely agree with, and it doesn’t sit very well with me that his work gets adapted by whoever has enough money to get the options. All I’m saying is that the stakes are high.

Also, my earlier comment about an adventure game being more appropriate definitely doesn’t apply to the plot of the comic. I was thinking that it would work for the period they’re using for this game, where a story could be made without everyone knowing what happens next. I just don’t see these guys operating by beating up legions of mooks, you know? It’d be more like a few interrogations, a few dangerous scraps, and then some sort of set-piece at the end.

As for that link about the movie: it sounds fine, but a bit uninspiring. I think the only thing that can really make this work is fantastic acting, so I’m hoping for that.

Finally: having just watched that Dante’s Inferno trailer, I’m entirely unconvinced that it isn’t a joke. If it’s for real, it is absolutely the worst idea I’ve ever heard of related to gaming.

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@Iain – Rico’s dad and his voteless, non-combatant friends have plenty in what appears to be a time of plenty. As they don’t have votes, what’s to stop the MI changing this situation very rapidly should the time of plenty end?

What I find insidious in the book is that decision is framed in exactly that ‘you have to do your part’ argument – ignoring that in the process of ‘doing your part’ you are placed in the ‘meat grinder’ and emerged changed – in some ways less human than when you went in, certainly more willing to commit acts with sympathy or remorse. For me the film took this idea and ran with it, and was all the better for it.

@Funky – On the evidence of ST I’d call Heinlem a totalitarian apologist rather than a Nazi – that he could express other view points will equal skill is lovely, though does excuse him from the lack of counter points in ST. Also, Paddy Ashdown would probably have lost to Iain Duncan Smith.

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Thanks, man. Looking for more info on that game, I found out that a film of Ubik is going into production next year. Sweet.

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There is already a very little known Ubik game. It is something of an Action+RPG+Tactical game that sucks.

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