Ethnic Cleansing (video game)

Ethnic Cleansing is a short first-person shooter set in a single level. As a neo-Nazi skinhead or a Klansman, the player runs through a ghetto that has been compared to New York City and shoot African-Americans and Mexicans, before descending into a subway system to kill Jews. Finally, the player reaches the "Yiddish Control Center", where a fictionalized version of Ariel Sharon, then Prime Minister of Israel, is directing plans for world domination.[2][3] He carries a rocket launcher, and the player must kill him to complete the game.[4] The head-up display contains a map of nearby enemies and a counter of remaining ammunition.[5]

The game's soundtrack consists of white power rock music. The game's art assets and sound effects feature racial stereotypes: when shot, black enemies make monkey noises and Jews are dressed as Haredim rabbis and shout "oy vey".[2] Mexicans shout "I need to take a siesta now". In addition, black enemies are drawn to resemble apes,[6] and some wear T-shirts with the lettering "NIGZ",[3] while Mexicans wear sombreros.[6]

Ethnic Cleansing was developed by members of the National Alliance, an American white supremacist organization, and published by Resistance Records, its subsidiary record label that specializes in white power music.[8] It was developed for Microsoft Windows personal computers using Eclipse Entertainment's open-source game engine Genesis3D along with the Reality Factory development kit. The source code was not substantially changed from the original. Instead, the developers simply plugged in images and sounds that they had created in freely available editing programs.[9]

Shaun Walker, the chairman of the National Alliance, explained to the United Press that the intent was to produce a racially provocative video game and promote racial segregation.[4] National Alliance founder William Luther Pierce, who also appears in the game to discuss an "upcoming white revolution", considered video games to be simply another medium to promote his organization's messages. Resistance released the game on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 21) of 2002.[2][9] It was priced at USD $14.88,[2] a reference to the white supremacist Fourteen Words slogan and the neo-Nazi numerical code "88" (which stands for "HH" or "Heil Hitler").

Here, the player shoots two black men. The game received backlash for its racist themes.

The game's reception from critics was extremely negative. In January 2003, Stuff named Ethnic Cleansing the 40th most controversial video game of all time. The staff opined that only "very stupid children" would be susceptible to its message and that it would make players feel like "small-minded assholes".[6] Complex[10] and UGO ranked it as the single most racist video game in history. UGO staff writer K. Thor Jensen called it "profoundly stupid".[3]

The game is currently prohibited from being broadcast on live-streaming service Twitch.[11]

The National Alliance and Resistance Records released a similar game, White Law, in June 2003. It starred an Irish-American police officer taking up arms to protect his territory from racial minorities. The game was based on the events of the pseudonymous novel The Turner Diaries. The National Alliance expressed an intention to create an entire line of racist games, but no further games have been produced.[2][12]

• ADL article
• Archive of developer