Prigogin is dead, but abstraction does not perish.
While "Black Goku · Goku" amazed the world, Prigogin's former subordinates quietly released their games on Steam.
01 Who is the "Dawn of Africa"
On July 12, 2024, the African Dawn (African Dawn) was born.
African Dawn is a new mod for Iron Ambition 4, claiming to be the first African-themed Steel 4 game.
In the screenshot of the game, France President Macron sighs like a lost dog on the right, and the masked tough guy on the left, called Ibra·him Traoré (Ibrahim Traoré), is the coup leader of the small African country of Burkina Faso, and the red Russian word "ликвидировать" in the middle is murderous, which means "liquidation".
Ibrahim · Traoré
In this game, you can choose to become a Burkina Faso, Malian or Nigerien warrior who fights alongside Wagner mercenaries to oust Western powers like France and United States and create a Greater Sahel Alliance.
The game "Dawn of Africa" is a media product of Russia and France competing for influence in the West African region.
And before it, Russia had already created a large number of literary and artistic works for this purpose.
02 Wagner in Africa
Wagner is well known for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but what is often overlooked is that Africa is becoming the second battlefield of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, or the current round of conflict between Russia and the West.
Prigogin in Africa
From 2016 to 2021, Wagner has been involved militarily in more than 20 countries, including the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.
Orange is the country where the Wagner group has intervened
Sahel means "coast of the Sahara" and refers to the narrow strip of land between the Sahara Desert and the Sudanese steppes, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean west of Africa to the Ethiopian highlands, including Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and other countries.
Sahel region
The natural landscape of the Sahel region
From the end of the 19th century to the 60s of the 20th century, it was part of the French colonial empire and controlled by the Viceroyalty of French West Africa.
Postage stamps issued by French Equatorial Africa
After the 60s of the 20th century, the Sahel countries gradually broke away from France's colonial rule, but they still rely on France in terms of currency, military and economic development, speak French, use francs, and send resources to France cheaply, and also accept the protection of the French army, so that it is called "France's back garden".
One of Wagner's tasks was to compete with its former overlord, France, for influence in Africa.
After 2013, in the face of the threat of the spread of religious extremism from the Middle East, at the request of the Sahel countries, France launched Operation Opération Serval and Operation Crescent (Opération Barkhane) to begin its armed intervention in West Africa.
For the next decade, France was locked in a desert war with terrorist groups. The long garrisons of the former overlords also awakened painful memories of the colonial past, and anti-French sentiment grew stronger.
In this situation, Wagner threw an olive branch to the West African countries. In the eyes of many Africans, they position themselves as trusted, equal partners (as opposed to France) and support a coup d'état to overthrow the pro-French civilian government.
On May 24, 2021, a coup d'état took place in Mali.
On January 31, 2022, a coup d'état took place in Burkina Faso.
On July 26, 2023, a coup d'état took place in Niger.
Celebrating the inauguration of the Nigerien military junta
The military junta that came to power without exception adopted a pro-Russian, anti-French, and anti-Ukrainian line.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in fact, is this round of conflict between Russia and the West, extending from the quagmire of eastern Ukraine to the distant Sahel.
In late July 2024, Ukraine was accused of providing intelligence to Malian separatist forces, leading to a crushing defeat of Malian government forces and Russia mercenaries, killing 131 soldiers.
In August 2024, Mali and Niger announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
In the second battlefield of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in addition to military and financial assistance, Wagner, in the past and present, needs to become a propaganda machine.
03 Anime takes the lead
Initially, Wagner came up with the idea of animation.
Since 2023, Wagner has made a series of efforts to create a series of interesting anti-French animations:
Animation 1: Resident Evil
In this anime, France soldiers are depicted as abominable skeleton zombies who wander the yellow sands of the Sahara Desert and chant strange spells in their mouths.
In the face of a steady stream of France zombies, the Malian soldiers in green berets are unskilled and ask for help from the walkie-talkie: "There are many enemy soldiers, I have no ammunition!" ”
In a moment of crisis, a muscular Slavic tough guy with the flag of Russia and a Wagner armband, descending from the sky on a parachute, said to the black brothers:
"Need help, my friend?"
Immediately afterwards, the two of them turned on the Musou mode, and you supplied ammunition and I shot.
In the rain of bullets, France zombies fell to the ground.
In a spin-off, the France Zombie Legion that attempted to attack Mali wandered to Côte d'Ivoire and was defeated.
Animation 2: Shuo Rat, Shuo Mouse, why eat me
Compared to "Resident Evil," the anime has a stronger narrative, in which the France go from zombie to little mouse.
The little rat breaks through the floor and breaks into the home of an elderly African, while the radio next to the old man is playing a deceptive notice (a metaphor for the propaganda of pro-Western forces) that the rats are friends of humans and that they have come to help us and not harm them.
The old man listened to the rhetoric of the radio and let the rats sweep away the food. The rat grew fatter and fatter as it ate, and finally became a fat giant rat, its eyes reddened, and its sharp teeth bared to the old man. The rat tried to occupy the magpie's nest: "Now this is my room, get out of here!" ”
In a hurry, the old man dialed the distress number, and soon, another heavily armed Russia soldier wearing a Wagner armband descended from the sky and took out a mousetrap with a "W" written on it from his tool bag.
The Wagner mighty man swung a sledgehammer and sent the France rat to the western sky with one move.
At the end of the video, the Wagner mercenaries and the old man's family sit in a sunny courtyard and enjoy a rat BBQ.
Of course, the story is not over, and Wagner gorgeously introduced the rattrap hammer souvenir.
Now you can beat France rats in the real world.
Animation 3: The France snake destroys Africa City
In the third anime, the France finally don't have to pretend to be zombies or rats, they become close relatives of dragons: tricolor snakes.
Dressed in red, yellow, and blue, the giant serpent had yellow eyes and spat blood-red letters, spat out balls of fire from its mouth, and ravaged the cities of Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso soldiers put up a hard fight, but to no avail.
At this time, the Wagner tough guy and the Malian friends once again descended from the sky and subdued the giant snake.
In short, the people of West Africa united and joined the Russia mercenaries in bringing down France imperialism.
However, these straightforward animations and the reality of losing ground in West Africa did not attract enough attention from the France, who reacted with this:
04 Russia's game offensive
Perhaps due to aesthetic fatigue, or perhaps the discovery that games have a far greater impact on young Africans than animated shorts, Russia began to foray into the "ninth art": games.
In the beginning, Russia people "borrowed other people's wine glasses and poured their own blocks".
In the sandbox game Minecraft, designed by Sweden game developer Markus Persson, young Russians are happy to reenact and show Russia's military operations against Ukraine, drawing maps in the virtual world that match the geographical characteristics of Russia and Ukraine, building cities modeled after the city of Bakhmut, the focus of the war, and displaying Russia's armed forces in the cities.
Gradually, the Russia began to make domestic substitutions, and they developed their own Russian-Ukrainian themed real-time strategy games against the backdrop of the chaotic present.
On April 15, 2024, the Vladivostok-based game studio "No Name" released the first-person shooter "Best in Hell", the title and plot of which are based on the documentary of the same name "Best in Hell" produced by Prigogin.
At the beginning of the game, you'll see the familiar old man again. Immediately afterwards, a soldier held a portrait of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Russia, to the shrine with both hands.
The game-setter of "Nameless" claims:
"We believe that Russia lacks a game of patriotism based on the events of modern Russian history. Best in hell is both a game and a social good."
Game proxy wars have also extended from Ukraine to Africa.
The result of this effort is "The Dawn of Africa" mentioned at the beginning of the article.
In an interview, Gri·sha Korolev, the developer of African Dawn, said:
"Russia should develop games as the most effective tool for communicating with the world's young people. The history of Russia is full of military glory, and we can draw resources from the heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the Special Military Operation. Today, like books and movies, games have become the new bearers of world history. ”
Korolev is not a professional game designer, he is 17 years old and previously worked as a game streamer.
Grisha claimed to be a young believer in the United Russia Party, and in February 2022, the day before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Grisha uploaded a tutorial video on YouTube "How to conquer Ukraine in Iron Ambition 4", and became famous for a while·.
Grisha quickly gained the attention of the military administration, and in 2023, Grisha was invited to a mysterious place: the headquarters building of the Wagner Group in St. Petersburg, where he was fully dressed and wore a "Z" armband symbolizing the "special military operation" to play "Iron Ambition 4" for four hours in an empty live broadcast room.
Grisha · Putin at Wagner headquarters
A year later, the streamer became the developer of African Dawn, which happened to be based on Iron Ambition 4.
The game's narrative begins with the coup d'état in Burkina Faso on September 30, 2022, and players can choose to play as the main character, coup leader Ibrahim · Traoré, and join Mali, Niger and Russia mercenaries against France and United States, as well as the West African Community, and finally completely expel the troops stationed in both countries and establish their own monetary systems.
Only, his partner is no longer Wagner, but the African Iniative. Wagner and the "African Initiative", breaking bones and connecting tendons.
In 2023, after Prigogin received a long-overdue supply of ammunition, Wagner was reorganized, and a significant part of its staff was incorporated into the new organization "African Initiative", which was established in September 2023.
Prigogin
On the Africa Initiative's website, the organization describes itself as a Russia news organization focused on the continent, focusing on the neocolonial legacy that has plagued African countries for decades, as well as the activities of Russian military, business, academic and journalist personnel in Africa.
The Africa Initiative has high hopes for Korolesha, calling him "a hero against NATO in the world of online streaming."
However, for now, the publicity effect of "Dawn of Africa" is not ideal. On VKontakte, the main Russia social media, the game has fewer than 1,500 subscribers.
The house leak happened to rain overnight, and on July 26, 2024, Steam officially removed "African Dawn" from the shelves.
It can really be said that the death before the birth is successful, and the hero is full of tears.
Game Fundraiser: Ukraine Strikes Back
When Russia's game collapsed, the gamers of the pro-Ukrainian camp on the other side were also trying.
In 2023, Germany game studio Remote Control Productions released a game called "Death from above", the Ukraine version of the game is translated as: My Eagle Falcon.
The game designer is closely following current events, and the "falcon" here refers to the drones that shine on the battlefield of Russia and Ukraine.
In the game, players need to play as a Ukraine soldier who goes deep behind enemy lines and disrupts the Russian front, and his duties are very simple: control multifunctional quadcopter drones and FPV suicide drones, freely explore sandbox maps, and bomb Russia soldiers and armored vehicles marked with "Z" everywhere.
In the game, players can constantly switch between the soldier's perspective and the drone's perspective, and experience the horror of "death falling from the sky".
The material design of the game scene is quite careful, the sunflowers bloom on the vast plains, and from the perspective of the drone, the player can see the arrest warrant issued by the international court against Putin, and see the "Moskva" sunk in a sea of sunflowers, and when the drone flies by, the fuselage still leaves blue and yellow colored smoke in the sky.
The game developers announced that before the game becomes profitable, they will donate 30% of the game's profits to the Ukraine military for public welfare and drone technical support, and after the game becomes profitable, they will donate 70% of the profits, leaving only 30% for subsequent development.
Even so, the sales of "Death from the Sky" are still not ideal, with only 362 reviews on Steam's official website.
However, it has a high positive rating, with "Death Falling from the Sky" receiving 91% positive reviews, with one Chinese player whose ID is Hunter96 writing: "It's much more interesting than spending money to sign a cannonball."
When the real battlefield is becoming more and more like a game due to the development of drone technology, the game is also integrated into the war, and every player who downloads the said game, regardless of position, feels as if they are actually participating in the war. The real money that players contribute to the game will be played to both sides.
The barriers between the virtual and real worlds are disappearing.
War is a catalyst for new technologies, but also for new models of social organization.
In its dispersion, suffering, near-death experiences, and ideological fanaticism, war amplifies the potential of new mediums and the madness of art.
For example, in the Soviet Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century, constructivist art and montage films came to the fore:
Soviet Constructivist Poster: Defeating the White Army with a Red Wedge, 1919
Similarly, in Hitler's Third Reich, the Nazis threw away paper pamphlets and used new acoustic devices such as loudspeakers to preach directly to tens of thousands of fanatical and restless masses in huge city squares.
During World War II, in order to build Berlin into a New World Capital comparable to ancient Babylon and ancient Rome, Hitler authorized the urban planner Albert Speer to launch the "Germania Project" to build a new imperial central axis, including the Imperial Chancellery, the Arc de Triomphe and the Grand Plaza. The American drama "The Man in the High Castle" restores Hitler's new imperial capital:
Germania Plan
Project Germania for the restoration of "The Man in the High Castle".
Today, the combination of war and new art forms is writing a new chapter.