The Political Problem of Wildlands and Games Set in "Real" Places

In March 2017, 1 month after the release of WILDLANDS, the Bolivian government complained to the French Embassy in Le Paz about the Bolivian depiction in this open-world Tom Clancy Ghost Recon game.

I've played WILDLANDS on-and-off for the past five years. This game has always troubled me. How can we be OK with a game about playing as American operatives on an extra-jurisdictional mission to subvert a narco-state and shoot up the countryside of yet another Latin American country?

But I think there's more to WILDLANDS story than that. So join me as I get into a pseudo-documentary Ubisoft funded to market this game; some of the Spanish online response to this game; and how much of the widely-read story never really talked about what exactly was going on in Bolivia in 2017.

(also, I had to watch that 90-minute documentary so please help me make it worth my suffering)

Sources,
United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes, Crop Monitoring and Bolivia, https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/crop-m...
Wall Street Journal, Opinion, "Morales Made Bolivia into a Narco-State", https://www.wsj.com/articles/morales-...
Eurogamer, "Ghost Recon Wildlands Analisis,"
https://www.eurogamer.es/ghost-recon-...
Reddit, "Bolivian Reviews of Wildlands?" (me asking reddit),
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wildlands/co...
Kotaku, "Ghost Recon Bungled Bolivia, So At Least They're Going Somewhere Fictional This Time," https://kotaku.com/the-new-ghost-reco...
Atomix, "?Vale la pene Ghost Recon Wildlands?", https://atomix.vg/vale-la-pena-ghost-...
Culture Trip, "How a High Budget Computer Game has Offended an Entire Nation," https://theculturetrip.com/south-amer...
Reuters, "Bolivia complains to France about its portrayal in video game," https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bo...
Games Industry.biz, "What to do when Bolivia hates you," https://www.gamesindustry.biz/what-to...
Waypoint, "I Can't Outrun the Malice of 'Ghost Recon: Wildlands'," https://www.vice.com/en/article/bm4da...
Death is a Whale, "Ghost Recon Wildlands: Art or Politics?" https://deathisawhale.com/2021/04/28/...


Footage Sources,
Canal 26, "Evo Morales le vendia cocaina a Pablo Escobar,"    • Canal 26 - "Evo Morales le vendía cocaína ...  
Econ, "Why Bolivia's Economy Is Collapsing: The Global Balance of Payment Crisis,"    • Why Bolivia’s Economy Is Collapsing: The G...  
Game Informer, "How Ghost Recon Breakpoint Compares to Wildlands,"    • How Ghost Recon Breakpoint Gameplay Compar...  
National Geographic, "Street Scenes from the Notre Dame Fire,"    • Street Scenes from the Notre Dame Fire | N...  
Netflix, "Narcos - Main Trailer,"    • Narcos - Main Trailer - Netflix [HD]  
Netfix, "Narcos - Season 3 Official Trailer,"    • Narcos - Season 3 | official trailer (2017)  
Polygon, "GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS Goes to Bolivia - Interview with Ubisoft's Benoit Martinez,"    • GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS Goes to Bolivia — I...  
VICE News, "Bolivia's Evo Morales Has Not Given Up on Returning to Power,"    • Bolivia's Evo Morales Has Not Given Up on ...  
Colin Offland. Wildlands. Chief Productions and Ubisoft, 2017. 1h 35m.



Games referenced, in order of appearance,
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon WILDLANDS
Assassin's Creed Unity
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon BREAKPOINT
Far Cry 3
Assassin's Creed 3

#wildlands #ghostrecon #bolivia