Nordreich

"It should be noted that many claims of this article are impossible to verify due to the largely anonymous nature of online gaming."

Nordreich was the name of a alliance in the online game Cyber Nations, which existed from October 14, 2006 to May 2, 2007. The premise of an alliance is for individual nations with common interests to cooperate in matters such as mutual defense. These shared interests often give alliances a distinct persona which they use in their role playing (which constitutes the "in character" side of the game). This alliance has a persona of radical nationalism similar to that held by Nazi Germany and other Neo-Nazi grops. Members did attempt to separate their "in character" and "out of character" personas as to address allegations of the alliance being a real life white power organization.

The alliance made the front page of Verdens Gang's web edition (VG), as well as stories in other online newspapers. The headlines referred to Nordreich as a Nazi organization due to its propaganda films. In one of these, "Nordreich Anthem: Ja vi elsker/Yes we love", they used the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker" as background music for a slide-show which allegedly contained Nazi imagery (although it later turned out that this was not the case). This and other recruitment videos are available on Youtube [cite web |title=YouTube – Nordreich videos |url=http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Nordreich&search=Search |accessdate=2008-03-21] . This came around the same time that another video had been released by an impostor posing as a Nordreich official which depicts Holocaust atrocities associating with the film Soylent Green. Kaiser Martens, Nordreich's head of state at the time, has confirmed that the video was not official.

The government of Nordreich officially denied any associations with Nazism. A small minority of Nordreich members hold or have held white nationalist or white supremacist views in the past, most notably Wartides14, a former member of the band RaHoWa, who publicly stated on the Cyber Nations forums that he had renounced the white supremacist community and its goals.

According to VG, both the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Police Security Agency reacted to the alliance's "abuse of the Norwegian national anthem and other symbols" [cite news |accessdate=2008-03-20 |date=2007-01-02 |publisher=Verdens Gang |title="Yes, we love" in Nazi film |url=http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=146989 no icon] , as did Norway's embassy in Berlin, in spite of the alliance itself claiming to be mainly localized in United States of America.cite web |publisher=thelonglines.com |title=*new* official statement emailed to various officials |url=http://www.thelonglines.com/nordreich/viewtopic.php?t=2859 About extreme right: "Our 'group' (clan, alliance, etc.) is based in a popular online nation simulator/Role playing game called Cyber Nations; located at http://www.cybernations.net. The game consists of tens of thousands of players, of which participate in several player created alliances of all different types of affiliations, be they conservative, communist, nationalist, libertarian, or "far right". It is for the sake of fun gaming that such political diversity exists in the game, for the sake of 'role playing', as politics are heavy in the alliance politics that keep the game running between all of these player created groups.
"It may come as a surprise to you, that Nordreich is one of these in game alliances. We are a fictional organization comprised mainly of political minded teenagers that harbor a conservative/nationalist/European pride ideology; with a few exceptions to the rule; even non-European peoples with a nationalist mindset are welcome to the alliance."
About nationalities: "we are multinational, with members all over the world; even Norway […] We broke no laws here, and since we practice freedom of speech in America (a practice outlawed long ago in central/northern Europe) we have the right to use whatever song or speech we wish."]

In such gaming cultures, it is common to make propaganda for the alliances. This is pointed out by members of Nordreich on their web pages. Several other clans in Cyber Nations have similar recruitment videos available online.

On January 25, 2007 the alliance had approximately 340 members, some of which were Norwegian. Its membership increased significantly after the publicity in Norwegian media.

After the publicity, Nordreich published an official answer to the Norwegian media, rejecting any affiliation with right-wing organizations.

Aftenposten wrote, [cite news |accessdate=2008-03-21 |date=2007-01-03 |publisher=Forbruker.no |title=Rekrutteringssted for nazister |url=http://forbruker.no/digital/nyheter/data/article1586258.ece no icon "The people behind the Nazi video using "Ja vi elsker" belong to an online game that is used as recruitment grounds for extreme right-wing groups."] [cite news |accessdate=2008-03-20 |date=2007-01-03 |publisher=Aftenposten |title=Not "real" neo-Nazis |url=http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1587626.ece "But the (genuine) neo-Nazi group Stormfront does define Nordreich as a potential recruiting ground for their extremist organization, and in their online forum they discuss precisely this. The white supremacist group Stormfront has a number of members who admit to being active in Nordreich."] that the white nationalist website Stormfront considers Nordreich as a recruitment base for their own association.

Nordreich disbanded in early May 2007, with about half of the alliance's members reforming as the [http://www.nordenverein.com Norden Verein (NoV)] . They have since ceased to recognize Norway as a country, although this is done in an "out-of-character" fashion to mock Norway for what the Norden Verein saw as a ridiculous action, that is, mistaking an "online country" for a real life organization.

In May 2008, Nordreich reappeared in the online game Galava and contained many of the original members, reaching a total of 180 members by July 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.nordreich.org Nordreich's home page (now defunct)]
* [http://www.cybernations.net The online game Cyber Nations]
* [http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=146989 Article in VG] no icon
* [http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1585789.ece Article in Aftenposten] no icon
* [http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/01/02/487622.html Article in Dagbladet] no icon
* [http://www.nettavisen.no/innenriks/article848594.ece Article in Nettavisen] no icon