Book Review: Video Games in The Netherlands

[VideoGameCritic]

So a few months back Tom Lenting asked if I would review his video game book. Tom's collaborated on the site for many years so I said "sure". The problem was, it was printed in Dutch. Send it anyway! How hard can it be?

Let me know what you think of my review.

https://videogamecritic.com/extras/books/dutch.htm

[CaptainCruch]

Thanks, Dave! It was very funny to read a piece on my book by an American reviewer! Laughed out loud when I read how the Dutch are viewed from an American perspective . Biggest, latest news from the Dutch gaming scene: Herman Hulst, who is one of the co-founders of Guerilla Games, is now going to lead Sony Worldwide Studios!

[ThePixelatedGenocide]

So, all I knew about the Dutch were that they were very, very tall. And that, if rants from a frustrated Dutch friend could be believed, they're very practical minded and not worthy of a larger entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide. ("Mostly harmless.")

Kind of like 21st century Hobbits, but displayed in an incorrect aspect ratio.

But now, thanks to your book, I know that the Dutch have also created a lot of educational and healthcare software, which is making me lean towards Vulcan, instead.

Still, Vulcans have Pon Farr to release their tensions. The Dutch idea of wild rebellion, meanwhile, was throwing a virtual soccer riot. And this act of imaginary aggression was very controversial, in the same way Americans pretend Rockstar Games still is.

Are we even the same species?

Also, you apparently enjoy shooting Space Nazis with evil demon glowing eyes, because regular Nazis weren't quite evil looking enough to justify the bodycount of another AAA first person shooter franchise. Judging by their backstory, your country's developers even took the time to sensibly ask "Did we perhaps have something to do with causing this problem?" before letting the player wipe them out anyways, Terminator style.

Which is very practical indeed. They're both Nazis and Space Invaders, after all. They're lucky to even get a sympathetic backstory.

So ultimately, what I learned through this journey, is that my friend was completely right and some stereotypes deserve to become more widespread. No wonder why your country's contribution to the fairy-tale canon was "The tragedy of the impractical little mermaid and her unfortunate decision making."

[CaptainCruch]

Kind of like 21st century Hobbits, but displayed in an incorrect aspect ratio.

This post was almost as funny as the VGC's review!

[C64_Critic]

Question: was the drink at arms length any variety of General Foods International Coffee? And if so, did it give you a nice warm feeling - like old songs and special friends?

gfic.jpg (71.77 KiB) Viewed 1760 times

Totally true about the German aversion to certain things in video games; when I moved to Bavaria back in 1993 I invited my neighbor's son over for some gaming as he was roughly my age and I assumed must be into video games as all truly cool people are. I booted up Wolfenstein 3D of course, and he whispered conspiratorially to me after a minute or two "Vhere did you get dees game!?" Of course I had just brought it with me along with the rest of my collection, but he quickly informed me that the swastika's portrayed in the game were illegal in Germany and I should be careful not to play it around any other Germans, especially older ones. He didn't mention the blood being an issue, but maybe that was the lesser of the two evils?

The American in me was immediately offended at the idea of such Government censorship, but of course "when in Rome...". In hindsight, I totally get it, and naturally kept my contraband game on the down-low for the remainder of my time living there.

I also remember trying to watch shows like Seinfeld and the Simpsons on satellite television, and the only stations we could find them on were Dutch stations. The language seemed pretty similar to German, so we could pick out a word or two here or there and generally track what was being said, but sadly I don't think we ever made it in the Netherlands proper while we were over there. I regret that now!

[Retro STrife]

"100% gobbledeygook" lol. Great review.. somehow you still made it sound like a great book to buy, despite not understanding any of it. Are there any plans for an English translation?

Loved seeing that Jazz Jackrabbit screenshot on there. Jazz came out in 1994, during the height of the "cool mascot" phase. But Jazz was cool, and a good game, and I had a lot of fun playing it on my PC in the mid 90s. Also I just beat Horizon Zero Dawn this past weekend - another great game - and I never realized it was made by Dutch developers.

A couple typos.. First paragraph you say "a warm shaw", I assume you mean "a warm shawl". And under the Horizon Zero Dawn photo, it says "Tom's book covers even touches on some controvery", from which the word "covers" should be deleted. Also, "controverSy" is spelled wrong, missing the S.

[CaptainCruch]

For those interested, I wrote another little book (again, only in Dutch), called Guerrilla Games - een kleine geschiedenis van de grootste gameontwikkelaar uit Nederland. (translated: Guerrilla Games - a short history of the largest game developer of the Netherlands). You can order it here: https://bit.ly/gamegeschiedenis, price is 9,99 euro (around 10 dollar), excluding shipping.

[MSR1701]

Here's hoping for an English version. Would love to learn more about these games and their developers.