Comments on: Mirror’s Edge: on the margins of the nanny state

By: Friendlyjoe

Friendlyjoe — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:50:29 +0000

The game simply criticizes the government of Singapore from the perspective of neoliberal capitalists imo. The devs. of course do not say this explicitiely.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:44:26 +0000

Hello,

I liked the blog entry Jeriasko. My problem with “totalitarian state” in this instance, is that its not specific enough. The state could control its population through sheer brute force and still be one, but that isn’t the case in Mirror’s Edge. “Police state” is a better fit, but is such an overused term, its just a boring word.

Personally, I like the term “nanny state” because of the image it conveys. It’s as if the government is some dumb, hulking nanny that would be almost comical, if its invasions of privacy weren’t so frightening.

By: JeremyR

JeremyR — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:57:56 +0000

No offense, but the fact that you use the term “neo-con” means you can’t be taken very seriously about politics. It has a very specific meaning, but has co-opted by the left as a sinister term to describe pretty much everyone that’s not a lefty themselves.

By: Aoshi00

Aoshi00 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:43:59 +0000

While I’m honestly not too crazy about the looks of the heroine (the stereotypical Asian chick look like Heavenly Sword and not so pretty one at that), I’m intrigued by the premise and architecture design.

I’ve seen some parkour videos before and those stunts are really crazy, wonder how people actually learned the skills, by falling on the ground flat from a 3 story building? Doesn’t seem to leave much room for trials and errors.

The first person view seems kind of disorientating though..

By: Jeriaska

Jeriaska — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:56:02 +0000

This was the term used by the developers at E3 themselves, Flynn. The usage refers to a controlling state whose concern for its citizens’ welfare takes the form of constant monitoring, ie an overbearing nanny.

By: ECM

ECM — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:06:02 +0000

flynn:

You are aware that both liberals and conservatives use the term to describe different elements of government intrusion, yes? You also realize the phrase was coined long, long before the word “neocon” existed, right? By an Englishman, as it turns out.

Now I realize that you’re probably a pretty PC person (anyone that comes on a gaming blog and complains about ‘ideologically charged’ statements can be little else) but by the definition you have employed, you do realise that Britain is a “police state”, right?

By: flynn

flynn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:50:14 +0000

In my experience “nanny state” is a construct neocons use to mean “any state that cares about the welfare of its citizens” as opposed to laisse-fair capitalism, which is called “freedom” in these circles.

A less ideological charged word for the thing you are describing would be “totalitarian state” or “police state”.