The USA’s Immigration Customs Enforcement service, aka ICE, have started using imagery of Microsoft’s sci-fi shooter Halo for recruitment posts on social media, even as Gamestop and the US administration indulge in some bantz characterising Donald Trump as Master Chief, and even as Microsoft attempt to flog a new Halo game.
As reported by journalist Alyssa Mercante, the US Homeland Security account put out a Xeet on October 27th with the message “Finishing this fight”, a reference to Halo 3‘s tagline, alongside a picture of Mr Chief driving the legendary Warthog humvee across the original Halo ringworld from Halo: Combat Evolved, with the label “Destroy the Flood”.
For context, the Flood are an enveloping, parasitic lifeform who want to overrun and consume all other species. You can see how that framing of an overwhelming invasion might appeal to the top brass at ICE, who have carried out a brutal mass deportation campaign that has placed tens of thousands in detention, including thousands who have no criminal record.
Separately, US retailer GameStop have declared “the console wars over” in a Xeet from October 25th. The impetus for this is Microsoft’s announcement of a Halo: Combat Evolved campaign remake, which will be the first Halo project to appear on PlayStation consoles – much to the public outrage and secret voyeuristic delight of Xbox fanboys – and introduces a few prequel missions featuring Chief’s buddy Sergeant Johnson.
“Console loyalists are instructed to cease hostilities, disband militias, and enjoy this new era of gaming,” goes the GameStop post, in jocular legalese. “GameStop will continue to operate as a demilitarized zone, offering hardware, accessories, and trade-ins to combatants on all sides”.
A couple of days later, the official White House twitter shared GameStop’s post with the message “power to the players”, adding a dinky little image of Donald Trump dressed in Spartan armour with a plasma sword, saluting on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in front of the Stars and Stripes.
GameStop replied with an image of their own, featuring Master Trump and a remarkably unpleasant version of Chief’s AI mission handler/love interest/mother figure Cortana, who has been doctored to resemble US vice-president JD Vance. The speed at which the images were shared implies that they were AI-generated, though I can’t confirm this.
It’s often and not unreasonably claimed that reactionary gamers played a major part in Trump’s rise to power, with the Gamergate hate movement of 2014 onwards introducing various “alt-right” demagogues and Trumpist politicians to an embittered segment of players who think feminism and progressive politics are a blight on society. The Trump administration’s tweets above certainly reinforce that chain of connection.
In general, the banter between GameStop and Trump together with ICE’s latest recruitment drive is an absolute triple-concentrated circus of contemporary demons. Fascism, chan humour, and the military entertainment complex spinning around in a toilet bowl, exchanging possibly Grok-derived high fives. The trade-in shelf as DMZ. The marketing fiction of a war between rival consumers re-deployed as a MAGA meme.
Neither GameStop nor Microsoft have responded to Mercante’s requests for comment. The White House press office has replied to her with some snippy (and in Mercante’s view, likely illegal) emails referencing the current US government shutdown, which they blame on their Democrat opponents in Congress.
This isn’t the first time the USA’s Homeland Security organisation has invoked a videogame for recruitment purposes. Back in September, they put out a jokey Pokémon video on Xitter with the caption “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”, which shows immigration enforcement agents rounding people up, with bleak gags about Pokémon being vulnerable to ice-based attacks. It seems obvious that the aim is as much to troll progressives as to draw recruits.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have pushed back against ICE, albeit gingerly, stating that “our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.” We’ll see if Microsoft do likewise. I’ll send them a request for comment now.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
