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Our man Niko
Posted 2008-05-08 05:02 under Off The Record by Viktor Marković / 11 comments
How much damage can a video game bring to a country’s already devastated image? We’ll just have to wait and see: new episode in a violent series GTA4 is out one week ago and it already seems according to both critics and fans that it will be one of the most talked about and most popular video games in history. So what’s it got to do with us over here at the peaceful little Balkans and our image?
Well, the main character, the guy you get to control – killer, thug, wifebeater, childhater, beerdrinker weapons and trafficking expert and drugdealer is – Serbian.
So much for our pitiful attempts to improve the dangeraously bad but still somewhat blurry picture foreigners have about Serbs – thanks to all the wars in the previous decade – all it takes is one fictional Niko Belic, Serbian veteran, from Bosnian war no less, to bring us back to the drawing board. This is not the first time Serbs have been depicted as bad guys – Hollywood movies have not been very kind to us, but most of them were flops that didn’t reach such a broad audience and didn’t leave such impact of the collective conciousness. With Grand Theft Auto IV – well I hope I’m wrong, but it seems to me that this one is going to stick around for a while.
Niko Belic, main character from the GTAIV series
If it is of any consolation, Niko (ironicly “niko” means “nobody” in Serbian) is not a common Serbian name, his Serbian accent sucks pretty bad and his “real” Serbian in the video game is pretty lousy. Also, despite being the bad guy, it’s the good bad guy – the one you want to be. So if you ever wanted to be a Serb for a while, now you can.
Ian Cresswell on 08/05/08 09:03 PM
I’m about half way through GTA4 and I was wondering when this angle was going to be picked up on Balkan blogs. He’s a war vet as well and it sounds like he fought in Bosnia.
He has some problem from this era that has meant he had to leave home to seek his fortune his with his cousin in New York. Revenge seems to be his motivation.
So far at least he’s portrayed pretty sympathetically, he’s warm hearted and loyal to his family and friends as well as being a gangster. Compared to the characters he meets in New York he’s pretty sane. He’s not a wife beater, not a child hater and the drinking mini game is hilarious.
From reading about this on gaming boards, barely half have even realised he’s a Serb. A lot of people think he’s Russian, and even some reviews of the game say he’s Russian.
Miro on 09/05/08 04:06 AM
This probably is an improvement on the usual image. After all the character is technically the good guy and the hero of the game. Not only that but the average person playing the game is 16 years old and probably won’t build a negative opinion on Serbs because of it.
Not only that but the releas eof the Borat movie actually helped improve Kazakhstan’s image. So, who cares about the game besides people with too much time on their hands?
smokva on 09/05/08 08:11 AM
I agree with Ian and Miro, I’ve played the game and I was surprised to see that Niko is portrayed in a fairly positive way (much more than expected any way) so I don’t think it’s bad really.
Viktor, If you are genuinely concerned about Serbia’s image, you would stop writing ridiculous blogs demeaning every single aspect of Serbia’s culture, religion and people. I’ve read many of them and every one that I’ve read seems to have a cynical and mocking tone and very exaggerated. That last ‘Tomorrow belongs to them’ post was definitely one of the worst. There are still Serbian people alive from the WWII era, that survived the onslaught from the Ustase. Why don’t you talk to them and see what REAL fascists are like. I wonder if you had been through what they’ve been through would you still be posting that kind of material. What is someone who knows very little about Serbia supposed to think if they come across your blog and see a video where the first picture is an agressive looking man missing teeth and wearing a black hat with a ‘kokarda’ on it and THAT song playing in the background? They may be nationalists, but come on. See what I mean by EXAGGERATED?
nikola on 09/05/08 10:07 AM
problem is not just in devastating image of serbia … this kind of propaganda is devasting us all, because most of americans doesn’t even know where serbia or even europe is …
Ian Cresswell on 09/05/08 07:02 PM
Grand Theft Auto is in many ways a satire on American society. The games have always had parody radio stations, but its now extended to cable tv and the internet. Fox news and the New York Times have the piss taken mercilessly. People often get the impression that GTA is an American game and that it reflects an American view of the world but its made in Edinburgh and has a British sensibility. So its more likely to reinforce stereotypes about Americans, such as the notion that they are stupid and have never heard of anywhere else in the world.
One thing I forgot to mention. As well as Niko there is another Serb character, his cousin Roman. He’s an idiot and a bullshitter who gambles incessantly and is obsessed with ‘American titties’ but he’s loveable. The bond between them and what they need to do to stay alive and pay the rent is Niko’s motivation for the inevitable crime spree that is GTA.
bganon on 12/05/08 11:26 AM
Sorry to sound immature but I love the idea that such a brilliant game has a an ethnic Serb as a leading character. I can’t wait to play it and am jealous of both Ian and Smokva for doing so.
I totally agree with Ian on what the concept of GTA is, even if some American won’t realise the ‘critique’.
Yeah maybe I am sad, but I haven’t felt this enthusiastic about playing any game since I was a teenager. The problem is my comp isn’t fast enough to run it – so is it time for the long promised laptop or is it time to buy a new desktop system?
bganon on 12/05/08 11:28 AM
oh and check this link out – another reason to like GTA:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2008/05/07/cnn_presenter_provides_objective_gta_analysis.html
Ian Cresswell on 12/05/08 07:47 PM
Chortle…...
That bit from CNN looks a lot like the piss takes in GTA.
My favourite line so far, there is a Governors race going on so you
see attack ads all over the place, one concludes a crescendo of absurd war on terror fearmongering with the line Governor so and so has plans to install cameras in every home and charge you $5 every time you jerk off. I had to park at the side of the road and put the pad down I was laughing so hard.
Just thinking about the VIP ringtones makes me cackle.
bganon, no sign of a PC version just yet although it usually gets a port eventually. Don’t even think about it unless your machine has a multi core CPU, 2GB of RAM and a graphics card no more than 2 years old with 512MB of RAM or more. There is lots if fancy new technology in there that won’t run if your machine doesn’t have the grunt.
bganon on 12/05/08 11:57 PM
Damn it would I really have to consider buying a play station 3 in order to play? And more importantly whats the story with pirate games for playstation 3 Ian? I mean you know I might be prepared to pay through the nose if I can wing it on the software, as is usual in Serbia.
Do we have a date for the PC release, I’m not sure I can take the pressure any more? There is also something quite exciting and comforting (probably on a guilty level) about playing the same game as hundreds of thousands of other people at the same time.
Guess its my inner child again.
You know I could quite imagine if Serbia was a bit developed (people had higher incomes) that Sony could launch a blitz here and Nico could become an icon in Serbia. :) Now theres a guy who lived the American dream!
Ian Cresswell on 13/05/08 02:08 PM
PS3 isn’t your only option (and it’s far from cheap at the moment) as its also available on XBox 360— that’s what I’m playing it on. I don’t know what the official price is in Serbia but its cheaper everywhere else (approx £100 less in the UK).
As for piracy, the game got cracked before it was even released and I’m sure you could find it on bittorrent but you’ll need a modified console to play it which will likely cost more than the game.
I’m sure it will get a PC release but don’t expect it until the end of the year— no official date yet but as they are in the middle of the marketing campaign for console that isn’t surprising.
Your cheapest option would likely be the cheapest XBox 360 (£159 in the UK) plus game but that usually comes together in a bundle for the same price. The same PS3 bundle is £319 in the UK. I think that is 279 euro for 360 and 399 euro for PS3.
Jonathan Davis on 14/05/08 10:21 AM
Since the war “Nazis” in various forms have been the main non-gangster badguys. For a while white South Africans had the mantle, but since the mid-90’s it has been Serbs.
I recently watched the Danish “Pusher” trilogy. Miro and Radovan are portrayed as loveable and charming, but they also literally slaughter their enemies, with one gruesome scene that had Miro washing entrails (of a violent polish pimp) down the sink.
There are hundreds of such stereotypes in films (and now games), but I think they trade on established stereotypes rather than create them.
The real damage is done by the relentless unbalanced news coverage of the Balkans, where typically Serbs are portrayed as murderous baddies and everyone else the weeping victims of Serb evil.