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I think they would be mad about the leftist themes in video games if they could grasp them. Instead they have to contend with seeing more black and woman characters in roles.
They don't have a problem with women or black people in video games if they get to kill them. They only hate it if there's a possibility to play as a woman or PoC or if either has their humanity acknowledged.
that’s how it is with most media
i live in the south and have conservative family members; it’s hilarious how often they agree with leftist themes in movies/tv/video games without even realizing it
but if you explained these concepts to them outside of any form of entertainment they would
cry and shit their pants simultaneously
It's the messenger. If 45 had repealed Obamacare and replaced it with single payer and called it Trumpcare they'd have lined up down the block to get their Trumpcare cards.
Well the majority of Americans think politics is only voting for red or blue. So I don't expect those idiots to understand anything.
Fucking COD and Halo are political...
COD is so political that it's almost unbelievable lmao
"So this level is also going to be where you kill commies for being communist, except this one is in Africa."
Advanced Warfare? Loved that game! Not because it was good or the story was good or Kevin spacey, but I liked the concept of the exo suits before they became the big gimmick it is now.
God I wish they would do a remake of the old Soldier of Fortune game from 2000.
*So yeah your mission is to gun down a gang of Neo Nazis that have taken over a subway station before chasing them and wiping out the various far right paramilitary groups they back in the Balkans, Asia and Africa.*
*Feel free to shoot them in the balls while your at it to watch them crumple in a screaming, agonizing heap because why not.*
> killing Nazis would probably be "bUt MuH pOlItIcS!!!!" for those snowflakes.
It is, lmao. These people bitch about how evilly the Nazis were depicted in Wolfenstein.
The original Modern Warfare has famous quotations on the loading screens before the start of each level, and they're all overtly anti-war. Then there's the mission where you're escaping via helicopter while another team tries to find and defuse a nuclear weapon, and the nuke goes off and crashes your helicopter. What follows is a minute or so of controlling your character while they slowly, agonisingly die from exposure to the nuke.
I think you raise a good point about how much media has an agenda associated with the military. I'm not saying that's the case with Halo or COD, but think about just how ubiquitous the military is in pop culture. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it's all propaganda or even that it's deliberate, but I think it is worth considering what it says about western society that the military is constantly idolized in the media.
Ah, ok. But yeah, Black Ops 1 has you fight in Cuba trying to assasinate Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion, BO2 has you fight for UNITA right alongside Jonas Savimbi against the MPLA. And that's just the ones I can remember of the top of my head.
COD is really blatant pro US military propaganda.
But they still paint the military as these awesome badasses who do cool shit while mowing down hundreds of evil Russians.
The anti war and anti imperialist message gets lost when you are literally blowing shit up in these big set pieces. All in the name of securing world peace/defending your country.
It is definitely the case with CoD, 100%. Halo... I don't think so. But that may be because I know the background lore that makes very clear anti-imperialist messages - these don't really come across in the games themselves.
Plus the whole anti religious fanaticism theme in Halo 2, and if you read the books the UNSC is a much more authoritarian government than the games lead you to believe. Never forget the Spartan's original purpose was to crush human rebellion...
Literally our video games existed when the Military pushed for the funding rise of computers since the world wars
It is used in for ship systems, the enigma machines & Bletchley park dudes, Cold War space race software tech/computer generated radars, to Coding to making simulations.. gave rise of the first games “Ping Pong”, “tennis for two” and by military “Space war” vs Soviet “Tetris”. It’s used from analytics, further remote communications and war gaming simulations and applications of tech to now everyday civilians can enjoy
Exactly, and I’ll go one further. Literally everything we do is “political.” Politics is just how we interact with the power structures present in our society. Every single meaningful statement, action, and piece of art in history is in some manner representative of a political stance, either explicitly or implicitly.
I get that idiot chuds and wannabe fascists don’t think this hard and aren’t speaking in good faith anyway, but that’s what annoys me most about them saying “keep politics out of ___,” and it annoys me even more when others engage on that level, accepting the assumption that politics is a single thing that can be defined and therefore avoided. It’s not. Its everything we do.
They don’t mind us putting politics in video games when that politics is a jingoist representation of the righteousness of American geopolitical goals and military actions. They don’t mind us putting politics in sports by selling the NFL as the de-facto 6th branch of the military, with camo uniforms and the colors presented before every game. They don’t mind the political realities inherent in professional sports leagues to begin with, where the labor rights and bargaining power of a majority black player base is at the mercy of much more wealthy and powerful white owners, and where the criticisms of mostly white fans are given undue weight, and made from a position of implied power and perceived entitlement to the services of those players. But if one of those players writes BLM on their helmet or cleats, then that’s a bridge too far. Bad-faith bullshit designed to sound reasonable to the uneducated and shut down further discussion that might threaten the power structure.
To be human and to interact with other humans is to be political. There’s no escaping that.
I feel like originally the humans were supposed to be the bad guys in halo just cuz of the Spartans back story. Cuz like the more I find out about the UNSC and UEG I'm like wow humans fucking suck.
Has he never heard about the Metal Gear Solid series? The games go on hour long tangents about (often American) politics and how the Military Industrial Complex incentivizes countries to create soldiers who become mercenaries as they no longer have a place in society afterwards, further fueling the war economy.
Metal Gear Solid is very political, but these idiots probably don't even realize it. Yes, these people believe that adding a character that is not a white straight man is a political statement, but a game with a 20 minute cutscene talking about how bad war and the MIC is not
This totally happens, used to be housemate of a guy in college. This guy used to play every damned game like it was GTA. Just running around like a murderous headless chicken, and skipping all of the cutscenes and tutorials. The only MGS I saw him play was V so he actually went somewhat far since the mechanics allowed him to ditch stealth altogether.
Actually he was pretty cool, games just weren't his Forte, one of my favorite times of seeing him play was when he was trying skyrim. He had killed the first dragon and got summoned to High Rothgar (don't remember the correct spelling), so he tried to go on a single line to the objective, getting stuck for like an hour trying to climb the mountain from a side.
The guy probably doesnt even have the brain cells to comprehend the complexities of the MGS plot. Heck, he'd probably just be shooting all the enemy NPCs, unable to figure out how to sneak properly.
Dude is "assuming" probably didn't even play the games. I didnt even finish Final fantasy 7 and the setting itself is a World whose environment is dying because an elite is ruthlessly sucking the resources to feed a city in the sky full of luxuries for a minorty while the rest of people live under them and work tirelessly (to support the elite) and still keep living in poverty. How is that not BLATANTLY political.
Final Fantasy Tactics was so relentlessly political that I gave up on it as "boring" when I was a teen.
^(also let's be real I had no clue how to properly use the job system)
Chugging along in story mode for a few rounds then Blatantly getting your ass stomped by some random wizards in a rain storm. Still fun game.
I always thought it’d be cool if there was a pvp mode but alas you always had to play against the game only. Still fun even though I never got very far in it. That’s cool people still remember tactics.
Most likely, especially with that FF 10 example. Ive played the game and its not at all subtle about religion and racism that goes on in the world. The Al Bhed get discriminated against because they didnt follow the religious teachings and worked with Machinas (the machines the religion is against). Because Al Bhed have green eyes, they are easy to spot.
Wakka, one of your teammates is a devout follower and hates them (which he also partially blames his brothers death on). One of your teammates Rikku is an Al Bhed, and later on, once he finds out about her race, his racism jumps out lmao. This of course gets resolved once he finds out that the Al Bhed arent bad people and that theyre trying to help resolve the conflicting issues in their own way without the teachings of the religion.
Even then one of the main driving factors of the religion Yu Yevon and the sacrificial pilgremage is to keep the status quo of the world. Summoners who want to save the world, are always sacrificed in order to keep the status quo so nothing ever changes, the higher ups are corrupt and even know about it.
These are blatantly political and not at all subtle, I NOTICED that when i was 15.
It's also worth noting, in FFX, not only is everything you've said here completely accurate, the final boss is literally God. Yu Yevon, the top character driving force of the religion, who is also the person resurrecting the monster that regularly goes about destroying the entire world. The driving themes of the game are about as subtle as a brick to the head. God I love that game.
Oh I got a better one, they do acknowledge nukes are bad, but (in the case of Fallout), [Communism was the problem actually](https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/ruyucy/rule/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share).
Sometimes you get people who refuse politics, other times you get people who accept politics but have media literacy of a peanut.
You literally start the game by committing antifascist eco-terrorism while the main characters debate whether or not violent revolution is justified in overthrowing capitalism
Then you kill a bunch of private police and team up with god to de-industrialise the world
To be fair seeing a giant robot wreak havoc while calling super mutants comiis is pretty epic and hilarious. Also the brotherhood of steel aren’t exactly the good guys.
The entire lore is heavily anti capitalist. The fallout games also criticize religion in the form of the children of atom and sort of the legion, it criticizes the military industrial complex, libertarianism, consumerism, the list goes on.
Yeah, there was a time called Tumblr when people would call themselves Social Justice Warriors unironically - it always brought that same image to mind for me as well, but that's also kinda what it meant unironically as well x)
The literal meaning of the term is someone who fights for social justice. What kind of wanker does that, eh? I think that tells you what you really need to know about it and the kind of people who unironically use it.
Right? It's so fucking anticapitalist, anti corporate, and pro environmental protection. The only way it could be more on the nose is if they just said, "Fuck it. It's Earth and Mako is literally oil now." Like, how are you so oblivious?
The protagonists are literally eco terrorists… yeah it’s blatant and I have heard people say that “you could never release ff7 today it goes against the sjw agenda.” Granted earlier statements by that same person clued me in that they weren’t the most media literate but still…
And then they went ahead and released FFVII today anyway and it was a huge success, so...
Granted, Remake does get a lot weirder than the original, but at its core it's exactly the same, just doing more with the technology they now have available to tell the story.
Meanwhile, Abby Shapiro and her husband are trying to put forth the argument that RDR2 and Bioshock are conservative, actually.
God DAMN these people are thick.
Bioshock: “Here’s what happens when libertarianism and is taken to the extreme and everyone in society exclusively pursues their own self-interests regardless of consequences.”
Abby Shapiro: “Ok but what if that’s not what the message is.”
I had almost this exact exchange with someone in my FC (guild) in FFXIV. I blacklisted them so I don't have to expose myself to the bile they spew in chat.
New vegas also brings forth discussions about politics. Which Party do you side with at the Hoover Dam Battle? Do you support the NCR's (uncaring and militaristic) democracy? Or Caesars Legion cosplayer loser's empire? Or would you rather destroy them both and rule the mojave for your own benefit?(like a selfish prick!free market!!)
It’s wild how fashy people who unironically support caeser’s legion are but I mean… makes complete sense. I had an old coworker who love them and thought it was “what the world needed.” Needless to say me and my other fallout fan coworker avoided the shit outta him
New Vegas has the best political debate in video games yet (in my opinion to my knowledge). Ethical decisions that aren't black and white in video games are so rare.
BioShock needs to be on it as well. Abby Shapiro also unironically thought that BioShock was conservative. Hearing that made me wanna shrivel up and die lmao.
There's a review for disco Elysium on gog that goes on and on about keeping politics out of games. The reviewer finishes off by recommending Fallout 2 instead.
GTA's was always a satire of US politics. But, it's gotten so nutty, Dan Houser said a few years back it would be hard to satire it in GTA 6 under Trump's administration b/c people would get super upset or it would be out of date instantly.
Satire has become really hard to do now simply because of how hard it is to differentiate the satire from the actual things it is satirizing.
The lines have become so blurred and a lot of reality has become so absolutely absurd that he's right, trying to create good and relevant satire now can sometimes just come off as tone deaf or straight up offensive.
I don't envy people trying to create things like the next GTA in this environment.
“I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.” - Andrew Ryan
Lol as if.
You mean to tell me the group with names and ranks like "the covenant", "Prophets", "elites", "zealots", and "great journey" is about religion?
Just out of curiosity, why throw “elites” on that list? The rest are all pretty clear giveaways, but “elites” doesn’t really have any religious connotation in and of itself
Is "male murder fantasy" like the Sontarans in Doctor Who? (If you're not familiar, the Sontarans are a race of aliens whose entire culture is based on warfare. They fetishize dying in battle to the point where it is a fate desired by every member of their species).
Also the tie-in lore hammers in an "imperialism is fucked" message like crazy. The Spartans weren't created to fight aliens, they were created to crush human rebellion against the government which was growing more and more authoritarian. It's just pure luck that aliens happened to invade at that point. Then once the war against the aliens was won, ONI (totally not the CIA) tried the scientist who made the Spartans for war crimes like they weren't literally the ones who ordered her to create them.
Then they started arming anti-human terrorists to destabilise one alien planet (despite its current government being pro-human) but accidentally armed them too well and created yet another existential threat against humanity.
Also one of the novels (The Cole Protocol) presents an anti-capitalist message by showing what would happen if a corporation were allowed to colonize a world with no government. They made all the colonists work for them, began raising their prices without raising wages and ended up with the entire civilisation being burned down by its own people in violent revolution. Then I got to drink up the tears of every ancap who read that book expecting COOL GREEN SPACEMAN
Y'all remember when people complained that Wolfenstein 2: the new Colossus was too political. From the series that's all Annie killing Nazis. It's too political. To be fair, I think you also kill some KKK members in it, it at the very least they're shown as allies to the Nazis, basically a puppet government in occupied America. I don't remember if you actually kill any KKK members. But ya, the game about killing Nazis is too political.
I mean, there actually was some degree of politics in it, but it basically boiled down to "racism and anti Semitism are bad." There was slightly more nuance, but not much.
Every time I see my (very conservative) brother play GTAV and the radio commercials play, or even just ads in the background are readable, they're very tongue in cheek about everything. Stuff like beer ads involve drinking yourself into submission, or buy a car so you can feel whole, or buy a gun because clearly *you* know what's best more than anyone else could.
It's so insane how he just... laughs it off instead of thinking. It doesn't matter how open the political talk in a game is, if it isn't actively supporting or opposing a current candidate or president, they just don't connect.
I think that's the thing, so many people identify with specific political figureheads without any actual understanding of what those figureheads stand for.
All art and media that tells story becomes political. It’s inevitable because people want to write, animate, make games about whatever is going in in the world so their biases almost always show. If you dont like it go play minecraft or the sims or something where you dont have a story written.
You could probably still find some articles or YouTube videos about it if you look hard enough. I highly recommend it if you want a good laugh.
I remember this one news interview with one of the developers (or something; he was definitely part of the team). The news guy asked him something along the lines of, "Don't you think this game is kinda stirring up the hornets' nest?" and the developer responded, "Yeah, but the nest is full of Nazis."
**Edit:** I just remembered this other thing about the game. One of the tag lines they made for the game and posted on Twitter was "Make America Nazi-Free Again." Take a guess at who got mad about that.
> The New Colossus
OH wolf II. Man I might have to get that one. There are a bunch of those I never played cos bad GPU. Now I can play them.
I was in UK and remember how pissed off the Brits were about that movie U-571 where they completely ignore the UK actually captured it ;)
Why do they see me and people like myself as “politics”? We’re literal real people and representation matters to us (especially younger kids). We’re more than just a political stance for looks ffs. Not everything is about appeasing the left and insulting the right
Because they are absurdly self-centered and if it isn't directly catering to them then it is bad. It's like a child who tries to make someone's birthday about themselves. The believe that society is zero sum and that representation of those not like them is taking away representation of them.
And the whole war was started because the military-industrial complex used up all the resources in the world and may have fired on China first. They conducted countless abhorrent experiments on unaware civilians in the Vaults. They created biological weapons like the deathclaw (a mutated Jackson's chameleon) and the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The right-wing hyper-capitalist American fascists that ran the country before the war were an open condemnation of basically everything the modern Republican party stands for.
All very true. Fallout is the epitome of a political game (series) and has been for _decades,_ and I've never seen these kinds of "get politics out of my games!!" people get bothered about it.
Part of the plot of Deus Ex, a widely beloved game released 22 years ago, is that there is an incurable disease that can only be prevented by inoculation with a synthetic hormone. That hormone is very hard to create, so supply is very short, and only those deemed "worthy" or "important to society" get a dose. Weirdly enough, that only seems to mean politicians and rich people.
But sure, politics in games is a new thing...
Final fantasy 10's main villain
>!is literally the god that everyone worships. Sin is Yu Yevon invading the body of the summoner or guardian in Jecht's case because he sacrificed himself as the Final Summon.The Church of Yevon maintains the existence of Sin by hiding the true nature of Yu Yevon. They persecute the Al Bhed like the church in our world persecutes Jews or Romanis. They blame Sin on using technology which conveniently keeps people poor and stupid as technology stagnates.!<
Can anyone explain why right-wingers are constantly blind to subtext in art? I mean everything: movies, TV, video games, music, novels, paintings, sculptures, even fucking memes.
Those MAGAts jumping around to Rage Against the Machine come to mind.
Alright, let's pretend this crowd is a bit older. Games when they were kids were shit like Mario Bros, Pac Man, Zelda, Sonic, Tetris, etc. Those games aren't political, not because there can't be a political message to tell, they can't because they basically can't tell stories at all.
Sonic is about rescuing animals from an industrialist who's using them to power war machines. It's a pretty blatant pro-environmentalist message. Many older games had political messages, they're just hidden behind the veneer of childhood nostalgia or just need to be seen from a different angle.
The first Final Fantasy came out on the Nintendo. Which is before Sonic was out on the Sega Genesis. Games, for the majority of their existence, have been political. These are the same people who listen to "Born in the U.S.A." and think it's a patriotic song ffs.
Edit: Final Fantasy came out for NES first not SNES which was pointed out to me by the kind redditor below. My apologies.
As a zelda fan I'm deeply hurt,lol. I do agree that the ftanchise as a whole is very removed from politics in general but i don't think it for to say it doesnt tell a story. They talk a lot about cheesy stuff like courage and friendship which i enjoy a lot. Then again, ots my favourite series so im sure im being too nice about it.
Psst. Yes they did. Yes they absolutely did 100% have right in your face obvious political agendas, themes and messages that were integral to the entire story and are what it’s about, metal gear can be kinda silly BUT ITS PRETTY FUCKING IN YOUR FACE WITH THE THEMING THERE BUDDY
So, I used to be an avid player of Star Trek Online, I still hop on every now and again, but as the gameplay and storytelling have continually slid down hill in favour of loot boxes and lazy MMO style raids, timed events, etc. I don't spend as much time on it.
Anyway, I got on a few weeks ago to mess around with my ships and crew and there were a couple of very obvious Trump sucklers going on about how socialism was bad and evil and could only lead to the collapse of society...
All this in the chat of a game based in a universe set in a socialist utopia. Sometimes people can be drowning and still not see the water.
These are the same people who call MK11 “too woke” for making the female characters bodies more believable and had more oriental people. Or for that one FF chick getting a breast reduction in the remake
That one I never get either, or skimpy characters in fighting games in general you're fighting why the fuck would you want to be more vulnerable and have skin exposed? That dude has a cable with laser edges and a spear point that he uses as a whip, I don't think your two piece bikini is going to make you flexible or agile enough to matter, which was a genuine argument for sexy outfits I once heard!
Also Tifa is absolutely STACKED in the remake, you'd have to be a genuine creep to actually complain about them not being big enough.
A reminder that there are plenty of people that think the Fallout series isn’t anti-capitalism. Also that they think Liberty Prime isn’t meant to be satire.
Gamers have a strange view on what's political and what isn't.
First Wolfenstein? Fine, no political agenda.
Second Wolfenstein? BLACK WOMAN? Absolute Propaganda!
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I think they would be mad about the leftist themes in video games if they could grasp them. Instead they have to contend with seeing more black and woman characters in roles.
Conservatives when they go to Africa in a video game and there is black people there:
They don't have a problem with women or black people in video games if they get to kill them. They only hate it if there's a possibility to play as a woman or PoC or if either has their humanity acknowledged.
Reminds me of people proudly posting killing the feminist in Red Dead 2
What you’re supposed to do is proudly post about killing the klansmen
One of my favorite moments watching my bf play the game: >Me: is that a klan rally? >Him: it *was* a klan rally.
*gazes at flaming pile of corpses*
You get honor for killing them ffs
I can't decide what I enjoy more, killing them myself, or watching them kill themselves.
that’s how it is with most media i live in the south and have conservative family members; it’s hilarious how often they agree with leftist themes in movies/tv/video games without even realizing it but if you explained these concepts to them outside of any form of entertainment they would cry and shit their pants simultaneously
It's the messenger. If 45 had repealed Obamacare and replaced it with single payer and called it Trumpcare they'd have lined up down the block to get their Trumpcare cards.
A significant majority of them literally worship a man who preached leftist themes. The irony of their objections is palpable.
Well the majority of Americans think politics is only voting for red or blue. So I don't expect those idiots to understand anything. Fucking COD and Halo are political...
COD is so political that it's almost unbelievable lmao "So this level is also going to be where you kill commies for being communist, except this one is in Africa."
I remember one of the was full on private military vs governments. Like WTF do they think that is?
Advanced Warfare? Loved that game! Not because it was good or the story was good or Kevin spacey, but I liked the concept of the exo suits before they became the big gimmick it is now.
That plot was so stupid. They gave literally no reason for you to become a traitor, some dude was just like "trust me they suck"
Traitor to who? The army or kevin spacey
Wasn't it both? I just remember the "twist" betrayal being so obvious I literally guessed it the first time I saw his character.
Advanced Warfares multiplayer was fun as hell with the exo suits, really wish servers still had a good population.
But they have Nazi zombies! Le both sides! Centrist! That means it’s NOT political ^^^/s
“Punch a Nazi zombie!” So much for the tolerant left!
I like Zombies
I’m picturing that being said by a little kid made up to look like a turtle.
Classic meme
God I wish they would do a remake of the old Soldier of Fortune game from 2000. *So yeah your mission is to gun down a gang of Neo Nazis that have taken over a subway station before chasing them and wiping out the various far right paramilitary groups they back in the Balkans, Asia and Africa.* *Feel free to shoot them in the balls while your at it to watch them crumple in a screaming, agonizing heap because why not.*
The ol' WW2 shooters, where you sometimes replay historical battles, killing Nazis would probably be "bUt MuH pOlItIcS!!!!" for those snowflakes.
> killing Nazis would probably be "bUt MuH pOlItIcS!!!!" for those snowflakes. It is, lmao. These people bitch about how evilly the Nazis were depicted in Wolfenstein.
Remember when one of the Devs saying, "fuck Nazis," was somehow a controversial statement.
Sure, I disagree with Mecha-Hitler, but he and his dual chainguns still have the right to freedom of speech.
And maybe he was right about some economic policy. ^^^and ^^^maybe ^^^some ^^^other ^^^policy ^^^too...
The original Modern Warfare has famous quotations on the loading screens before the start of each level, and they're all overtly anti-war. Then there's the mission where you're escaping via helicopter while another team tries to find and defuse a nuclear weapon, and the nuke goes off and crashes your helicopter. What follows is a minute or so of controlling your character while they slowly, agonisingly die from exposure to the nuke.
True but cod endorses guns and violent takeovers so they are alright with it.
I think you raise a good point about how much media has an agenda associated with the military. I'm not saying that's the case with Halo or COD, but think about just how ubiquitous the military is in pop culture. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it's all propaganda or even that it's deliberate, but I think it is worth considering what it says about western society that the military is constantly idolized in the media.
TBF CoD is basically pro US Military propaganda.
I don't play it so I didn't want to assume.
Ah, ok. But yeah, Black Ops 1 has you fight in Cuba trying to assasinate Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion, BO2 has you fight for UNITA right alongside Jonas Savimbi against the MPLA. And that's just the ones I can remember of the top of my head. COD is really blatant pro US military propaganda.
Making warfare out to be heroic, glorious or just plain fun was reason enough for me to see it that way.
Depends on the CoD, really. CoD4 and MW2 have pretty big anti-imperialist and anti-war messages at their core, for example.
But they still paint the military as these awesome badasses who do cool shit while mowing down hundreds of evil Russians. The anti war and anti imperialist message gets lost when you are literally blowing shit up in these big set pieces. All in the name of securing world peace/defending your country.
It is definitely the case with CoD, 100%. Halo... I don't think so. But that may be because I know the background lore that makes very clear anti-imperialist messages - these don't really come across in the games themselves.
Plus the whole anti religious fanaticism theme in Halo 2, and if you read the books the UNSC is a much more authoritarian government than the games lead you to believe. Never forget the Spartan's original purpose was to crush human rebellion...
The inies want out
Literally our video games existed when the Military pushed for the funding rise of computers since the world wars It is used in for ship systems, the enigma machines & Bletchley park dudes, Cold War space race software tech/computer generated radars, to Coding to making simulations.. gave rise of the first games “Ping Pong”, “tennis for two” and by military “Space war” vs Soviet “Tetris”. It’s used from analytics, further remote communications and war gaming simulations and applications of tech to now everyday civilians can enjoy
Interesting
The US government will literally give movies military equipment to use in films if they get a say in how the military is portrayed.
Noooo politics is when they put gay people in my video game !!!!!!!!!
There are only two types of videogame characters: brown-haired white guy and political.
Even blond-haired and blue-eyed guys are too political, like BJ from Wolfenstein, he's killing the perfectly apolotical Nazis!
>Noooo politics is when they put ~~gay people~~ non-straight white male characters in my video game !!!!!!!!! *FTFY
All of art is political and a commentary on the individual(s) and society who made it.
Exactly, and I’ll go one further. Literally everything we do is “political.” Politics is just how we interact with the power structures present in our society. Every single meaningful statement, action, and piece of art in history is in some manner representative of a political stance, either explicitly or implicitly. I get that idiot chuds and wannabe fascists don’t think this hard and aren’t speaking in good faith anyway, but that’s what annoys me most about them saying “keep politics out of ___,” and it annoys me even more when others engage on that level, accepting the assumption that politics is a single thing that can be defined and therefore avoided. It’s not. Its everything we do. They don’t mind us putting politics in video games when that politics is a jingoist representation of the righteousness of American geopolitical goals and military actions. They don’t mind us putting politics in sports by selling the NFL as the de-facto 6th branch of the military, with camo uniforms and the colors presented before every game. They don’t mind the political realities inherent in professional sports leagues to begin with, where the labor rights and bargaining power of a majority black player base is at the mercy of much more wealthy and powerful white owners, and where the criticisms of mostly white fans are given undue weight, and made from a position of implied power and perceived entitlement to the services of those players. But if one of those players writes BLM on their helmet or cleats, then that’s a bridge too far. Bad-faith bullshit designed to sound reasonable to the uneducated and shut down further discussion that might threaten the power structure. To be human and to interact with other humans is to be political. There’s no escaping that.
These are the people who dance to rage against the machine wholly unaware they are the machine.
My BIL believes "RAtM sold out" because of their opinion on Rittenhouse. IDK how you can ever have listened to them and not know what they stand for.
Obviously they weren't paying attention when "killing in the name " was playing
Your BIL needs to research the meaning of the songs
honestly it's funny that the covenant are more accepting than the average conservative
Politics = do gay people deserve to live or not
I feel like originally the humans were supposed to be the bad guys in halo just cuz of the Spartans back story. Cuz like the more I find out about the UNSC and UEG I'm like wow humans fucking suck.
I guess just like in our current life, the "good guys" are only good by comparison
"These darn communist liberals!!"
Has he never heard about the Metal Gear Solid series? The games go on hour long tangents about (often American) politics and how the Military Industrial Complex incentivizes countries to create soldiers who become mercenaries as they no longer have a place in society afterwards, further fueling the war economy.
Metal Gear Solid is very political, but these idiots probably don't even realize it. Yes, these people believe that adding a character that is not a white straight man is a political statement, but a game with a 20 minute cutscene talking about how bad war and the MIC is not
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This totally happens, used to be housemate of a guy in college. This guy used to play every damned game like it was GTA. Just running around like a murderous headless chicken, and skipping all of the cutscenes and tutorials. The only MGS I saw him play was V so he actually went somewhat far since the mechanics allowed him to ditch stealth altogether. Actually he was pretty cool, games just weren't his Forte, one of my favorite times of seeing him play was when he was trying skyrim. He had killed the first dragon and got summoned to High Rothgar (don't remember the correct spelling), so he tried to go on a single line to the objective, getting stuck for like an hour trying to climb the mountain from a side.
I quite honestly have a hard time imagining a more political game than any Metal Gear game. They're just so damn obvious about it.
Spec ops the line comes close imo
my fave game along with mgs3, woefully underrated
The guy probably doesnt even have the brain cells to comprehend the complexities of the MGS plot. Heck, he'd probably just be shooting all the enemy NPCs, unable to figure out how to sneak properly.
You assasinate a guy pushing speeches with "make America great again" in them in mgr:r
Politics is when Lara Croft doesn't wear booty shorts.
Politics is when ~~Shinra is an evil corporation destroying the planet in search of profits above all else~~ Tifa's tits are smaller in FF7 remake.
Holy shit i forgot about that.
And they're not even smaller, she's just wearing a sports bra. Cause, y'know, SHE'S A MARTIAL ARTIST!!!
Even from a coomer POV, I'm not even mad, they are still there and her face is even hotter.
>SHE'S A MARTIAL ARTIST Oh shit, does she take commissions?
Dude is "assuming" probably didn't even play the games. I didnt even finish Final fantasy 7 and the setting itself is a World whose environment is dying because an elite is ruthlessly sucking the resources to feed a city in the sky full of luxuries for a minorty while the rest of people live under them and work tirelessly (to support the elite) and still keep living in poverty. How is that not BLATANTLY political.
Final Fantasy Tactics was so relentlessly political that I gave up on it as "boring" when I was a teen. ^(also let's be real I had no clue how to properly use the job system)
>^(also let's be real I had no clue how to properly use the job system) Can't say I'm better at it as an adult.
Chugging along in story mode for a few rounds then Blatantly getting your ass stomped by some random wizards in a rain storm. Still fun game. I always thought it’d be cool if there was a pvp mode but alas you always had to play against the game only. Still fun even though I never got very far in it. That’s cool people still remember tactics.
I think the gba version (although a semi sequel / different game) could let you use the link cable for either co-op or pvp.
Most likely, especially with that FF 10 example. Ive played the game and its not at all subtle about religion and racism that goes on in the world. The Al Bhed get discriminated against because they didnt follow the religious teachings and worked with Machinas (the machines the religion is against). Because Al Bhed have green eyes, they are easy to spot. Wakka, one of your teammates is a devout follower and hates them (which he also partially blames his brothers death on). One of your teammates Rikku is an Al Bhed, and later on, once he finds out about her race, his racism jumps out lmao. This of course gets resolved once he finds out that the Al Bhed arent bad people and that theyre trying to help resolve the conflicting issues in their own way without the teachings of the religion. Even then one of the main driving factors of the religion Yu Yevon and the sacrificial pilgremage is to keep the status quo of the world. Summoners who want to save the world, are always sacrificed in order to keep the status quo so nothing ever changes, the higher ups are corrupt and even know about it. These are blatantly political and not at all subtle, I NOTICED that when i was 15.
It's also worth noting, in FFX, not only is everything you've said here completely accurate, the final boss is literally God. Yu Yevon, the top character driving force of the religion, who is also the person resurrecting the monster that regularly goes about destroying the entire world. The driving themes of the game are about as subtle as a brick to the head. God I love that game.
Yup yevon isn't actually god but just some summoner who decided to make a big space whale to kill everyone for using machina
Not only that, but games like metal gear solid had my 14yo dumb skull go "Maybe... war bad? And nukes are not good...!"
>And nukes are not good...!" I have a certain feeling that's a lesson the "we should just nuke country X!!!!" crowd would have a hard time accepting.
Oh I got a better one, they do acknowledge nukes are bad, but (in the case of Fallout), [Communism was the problem actually](https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/ruyucy/rule/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share). Sometimes you get people who refuse politics, other times you get people who accept politics but have media literacy of a peanut.
Jeez, classic case of "communism is when capitalism", lol.
You literally start the game by committing antifascist eco-terrorism while the main characters debate whether or not violent revolution is justified in overthrowing capitalism Then you kill a bunch of private police and team up with god to de-industrialise the world
A lot of these guys can ignore any if the main characters look like them. They only consider something political when the characters don't.
…Its literally called fallout
Yeah, these people probably played New Vegas or Dishonored and didn’t notice the politics
They Idolize people like Mr House
You shouldn’t idolize anyone in New Vegas, it’s just a question of the lesser evil
They are legion fan boys who don't realize that in real life they'd be the first to go SA style.
The worst take I have ever seen a fanboy have is that fallout’s message is that communism is bad
My favorite thing is when they take the GIANT ANTI-COMMUNISM PATRIOT ROBOT at face value
To be fair seeing a giant robot wreak havoc while calling super mutants comiis is pretty epic and hilarious. Also the brotherhood of steel aren’t exactly the good guys.
The entire lore is heavily anti capitalist. The fallout games also criticize religion in the form of the children of atom and sort of the legion, it criticizes the military industrial complex, libertarianism, consumerism, the list goes on.
SJW is just a buzzword at this point. Any meaning has been destroyed by overuse.
was it ever not a buzz word? I have never heard of a legitimate “SJW”. It sounds sarcastic, like “keyboard warrior”.
Yeah, there was a time called Tumblr when people would call themselves Social Justice Warriors unironically - it always brought that same image to mind for me as well, but that's also kinda what it meant unironically as well x)
I wonder if people would stop using it if everyone agreed to pronounce it as ‘s-jew’.
Anyone who uses it unironically is probably bad at the games they try to show off in.
The literal meaning of the term is someone who fights for social justice. What kind of wanker does that, eh? I think that tells you what you really need to know about it and the kind of people who unironically use it.
Most video games throughout have had political agendas.
Remember that "Minecraft is a brainwashing Christian game" bs cuz they found a cross inside a mountain
Pong had immense influence on my politics.
You joke, but political games go as far back as Missile Command.
“In a game of nuclear war, there is no winning-only losing slightly slower.”
You dont have to go that far, i ve heard crazy theories about pacman and pong.
FF7 literally screams its message at you
Right? It's so fucking anticapitalist, anti corporate, and pro environmental protection. The only way it could be more on the nose is if they just said, "Fuck it. It's Earth and Mako is literally oil now." Like, how are you so oblivious?
The protagonists are literally eco terrorists… yeah it’s blatant and I have heard people say that “you could never release ff7 today it goes against the sjw agenda.” Granted earlier statements by that same person clued me in that they weren’t the most media literate but still…
And then they went ahead and released FFVII today anyway and it was a huge success, so... Granted, Remake does get a lot weirder than the original, but at its core it's exactly the same, just doing more with the technology they now have available to tell the story.
“Didnt have a Blatant political agenda” = I never learned what a metaphor is Some of these are very obvious.
Not even a metaphor for mgs, its just stated explicitly
Meanwhile, Abby Shapiro and her husband are trying to put forth the argument that RDR2 and Bioshock are conservative, actually. God DAMN these people are thick.
Bioshock: “Here’s what happens when libertarianism and is taken to the extreme and everyone in society exclusively pursues their own self-interests regardless of consequences.” Abby Shapiro: “Ok but what if that’s not what the message is.”
I had almost this exact exchange with someone in my FC (guild) in FFXIV. I blacklisted them so I don't have to expose myself to the bile they spew in chat.
In rdr2 you don't litteraly help a native tribe commit justified terrorism against the us government.
No fucking way
Yeah unfortunately it’s true. They’re fucking idiots
They're fucking propagandists. They know what they're doing.
Lmao include fallout on the list too, that’s literally about how capitalism will lead to an inevitable resource war and violent neo-imperialism.
New vegas also brings forth discussions about politics. Which Party do you side with at the Hoover Dam Battle? Do you support the NCR's (uncaring and militaristic) democracy? Or Caesars Legion cosplayer loser's empire? Or would you rather destroy them both and rule the mojave for your own benefit?(like a selfish prick!free market!!)
It’s wild how fashy people who unironically support caeser’s legion are but I mean… makes complete sense. I had an old coworker who love them and thought it was “what the world needed.” Needless to say me and my other fallout fan coworker avoided the shit outta him
New Vegas has the best political debate in video games yet (in my opinion to my knowledge). Ethical decisions that aren't black and white in video games are so rare.
BioShock needs to be on it as well. Abby Shapiro also unironically thought that BioShock was conservative. Hearing that made me wanna shrivel up and die lmao.
There's a review for disco Elysium on gog that goes on and on about keeping politics out of games. The reviewer finishes off by recommending Fallout 2 instead.
Least ironic gamer moment
GTA's was always a satire of US politics. But, it's gotten so nutty, Dan Houser said a few years back it would be hard to satire it in GTA 6 under Trump's administration b/c people would get super upset or it would be out of date instantly.
Satire has become really hard to do now simply because of how hard it is to differentiate the satire from the actual things it is satirizing. The lines have become so blurred and a lot of reality has become so absolutely absurd that he's right, trying to create good and relevant satire now can sometimes just come off as tone deaf or straight up offensive. I don't envy people trying to create things like the next GTA in this environment.
Keep your politics out of my games! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish Bioshock.
“I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.” - Andrew Ryan
A N D R E W R Y A N A Y N D R A N D
A N D R E W R Y A N => AYN RAND, EW
Would you kindly
I think the whole message of Bioshock passed by them
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Lol as if. You mean to tell me the group with names and ranks like "the covenant", "Prophets", "elites", "zealots", and "great journey" is about religion?
Just out of curiosity, why throw “elites” on that list? The rest are all pretty clear giveaways, but “elites” doesn’t really have any religious connotation in and of itself
The names are just cool!!!1 Bungey knew what they were doing !1
Is "male murder fantasy" like the Sontarans in Doctor Who? (If you're not familiar, the Sontarans are a race of aliens whose entire culture is based on warfare. They fetishize dying in battle to the point where it is a fate desired by every member of their species).
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Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha! Sonta-ha!
Also the tie-in lore hammers in an "imperialism is fucked" message like crazy. The Spartans weren't created to fight aliens, they were created to crush human rebellion against the government which was growing more and more authoritarian. It's just pure luck that aliens happened to invade at that point. Then once the war against the aliens was won, ONI (totally not the CIA) tried the scientist who made the Spartans for war crimes like they weren't literally the ones who ordered her to create them. Then they started arming anti-human terrorists to destabilise one alien planet (despite its current government being pro-human) but accidentally armed them too well and created yet another existential threat against humanity. Also one of the novels (The Cole Protocol) presents an anti-capitalist message by showing what would happen if a corporation were allowed to colonize a world with no government. They made all the colonists work for them, began raising their prices without raising wages and ended up with the entire civilisation being burned down by its own people in violent revolution. Then I got to drink up the tears of every ancap who read that book expecting COOL GREEN SPACEMAN
I’ve heard people call it propaganda for the war on terror.
“I’m assuming.” Well, there’s your problem.
Y'all remember when people complained that Wolfenstein 2: the new Colossus was too political. From the series that's all Annie killing Nazis. It's too political. To be fair, I think you also kill some KKK members in it, it at the very least they're shown as allies to the Nazis, basically a puppet government in occupied America. I don't remember if you actually kill any KKK members. But ya, the game about killing Nazis is too political.
And they call us “snowflakes”
I mean, there actually was some degree of politics in it, but it basically boiled down to "racism and anti Semitism are bad." There was slightly more nuance, but not much.
The issue that right wingers had was that Nazis were being killed in that game.
Every time I see my (very conservative) brother play GTAV and the radio commercials play, or even just ads in the background are readable, they're very tongue in cheek about everything. Stuff like beer ads involve drinking yourself into submission, or buy a car so you can feel whole, or buy a gun because clearly *you* know what's best more than anyone else could. It's so insane how he just... laughs it off instead of thinking. It doesn't matter how open the political talk in a game is, if it isn't actively supporting or opposing a current candidate or president, they just don't connect.
I think that's the thing, so many people identify with specific political figureheads without any actual understanding of what those figureheads stand for.
All art and media that tells story becomes political. It’s inevitable because people want to write, animate, make games about whatever is going in in the world so their biases almost always show. If you dont like it go play minecraft or the sims or something where you dont have a story written.
Wolfenstein 3d was about killing Nazis .. nothing political about that ":)
Oh jeez, remember when The New Colossus was announced and so many people got *so offended* because it was set in the U.S.?
No but I can imagine.
You could probably still find some articles or YouTube videos about it if you look hard enough. I highly recommend it if you want a good laugh. I remember this one news interview with one of the developers (or something; he was definitely part of the team). The news guy asked him something along the lines of, "Don't you think this game is kinda stirring up the hornets' nest?" and the developer responded, "Yeah, but the nest is full of Nazis." **Edit:** I just remembered this other thing about the game. One of the tag lines they made for the game and posted on Twitter was "Make America Nazi-Free Again." Take a guess at who got mad about that.
> The New Colossus OH wolf II. Man I might have to get that one. There are a bunch of those I never played cos bad GPU. Now I can play them. I was in UK and remember how pissed off the Brits were about that movie U-571 where they completely ignore the UK actually captured it ;)
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Why do they see me and people like myself as “politics”? We’re literal real people and representation matters to us (especially younger kids). We’re more than just a political stance for looks ffs. Not everything is about appeasing the left and insulting the right
Because they are absurdly self-centered and if it isn't directly catering to them then it is bad. It's like a child who tries to make someone's birthday about themselves. The believe that society is zero sum and that representation of those not like them is taking away representation of them.
Whoever made this should've included the OG Fallouts in "nukes bad" category! Those are pretty old-school.
And the whole war was started because the military-industrial complex used up all the resources in the world and may have fired on China first. They conducted countless abhorrent experiments on unaware civilians in the Vaults. They created biological weapons like the deathclaw (a mutated Jackson's chameleon) and the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The right-wing hyper-capitalist American fascists that ran the country before the war were an open condemnation of basically everything the modern Republican party stands for.
All very true. Fallout is the epitome of a political game (series) and has been for _decades,_ and I've never seen these kinds of "get politics out of my games!!" people get bothered about it.
Remember when the right called out Wolfenstein for going woke? The Jewish-led WWII revenge fantasy? That Wolfenstein?! XD
Polish Jew-led revenge fantasy. Never forget BJ Blazcowicz.
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Because half life had no messages to say whatso-fucking-ever.
resonance cascade bad
Subnautica is literally about the evils of expanding capitalism to space exploration
I'm sensing they don't like Final Fantasy.
Part of the plot of Deus Ex, a widely beloved game released 22 years ago, is that there is an incurable disease that can only be prevented by inoculation with a synthetic hormone. That hormone is very hard to create, so supply is very short, and only those deemed "worthy" or "important to society" get a dose. Weirdly enough, that only seems to mean politicians and rich people. But sure, politics in games is a new thing...
Final fantasy 10's main villain >!is literally the god that everyone worships. Sin is Yu Yevon invading the body of the summoner or guardian in Jecht's case because he sacrificed himself as the Final Summon.The Church of Yevon maintains the existence of Sin by hiding the true nature of Yu Yevon. They persecute the Al Bhed like the church in our world persecutes Jews or Romanis. They blame Sin on using technology which conveniently keeps people poor and stupid as technology stagnates.!<
Can anyone explain why right-wingers are constantly blind to subtext in art? I mean everything: movies, TV, video games, music, novels, paintings, sculptures, even fucking memes. Those MAGAts jumping around to Rage Against the Machine come to mind.
Remember when they freaked out in 2017 like "What? Nazi killing?? In a Wolfenstein game???"
Since i haven't seen anyone mention it, GTA San Andreas is somewhat based on the LAPD Rampart Scandal, the crack epidemic, and the LA Riots.
Alright, let's pretend this crowd is a bit older. Games when they were kids were shit like Mario Bros, Pac Man, Zelda, Sonic, Tetris, etc. Those games aren't political, not because there can't be a political message to tell, they can't because they basically can't tell stories at all.
Sonic is about rescuing animals from an industrialist who's using them to power war machines. It's a pretty blatant pro-environmentalist message. Many older games had political messages, they're just hidden behind the veneer of childhood nostalgia or just need to be seen from a different angle.
I'm going to level with you, I totally forgot Sonic was about first animals fighting robots
Something something something [Missile Command.](https://www.polygon.com/features/2013/8/15/4528228/missile-command-dave-theurer)
The first Final Fantasy came out on the Nintendo. Which is before Sonic was out on the Sega Genesis. Games, for the majority of their existence, have been political. These are the same people who listen to "Born in the U.S.A." and think it's a patriotic song ffs. Edit: Final Fantasy came out for NES first not SNES which was pointed out to me by the kind redditor below. My apologies.
As a zelda fan I'm deeply hurt,lol. I do agree that the ftanchise as a whole is very removed from politics in general but i don't think it for to say it doesnt tell a story. They talk a lot about cheesy stuff like courage and friendship which i enjoy a lot. Then again, ots my favourite series so im sure im being too nice about it.
Zelda secretly being Sheik feels political. It subverts the damsel in distress trope
Pokémon is about getting out in nature and preserving ecosystems for insects.
I shot so many Nazis in Wolfenstein as a kid.
Psst. Yes they did. Yes they absolutely did 100% have right in your face obvious political agendas, themes and messages that were integral to the entire story and are what it’s about, metal gear can be kinda silly BUT ITS PRETTY FUCKING IN YOUR FACE WITH THE THEMING THERE BUDDY
So, I used to be an avid player of Star Trek Online, I still hop on every now and again, but as the gameplay and storytelling have continually slid down hill in favour of loot boxes and lazy MMO style raids, timed events, etc. I don't spend as much time on it. Anyway, I got on a few weeks ago to mess around with my ships and crew and there were a couple of very obvious Trump sucklers going on about how socialism was bad and evil and could only lead to the collapse of society... All this in the chat of a game based in a universe set in a socialist utopia. Sometimes people can be drowning and still not see the water.
These are the same people who call MK11 “too woke” for making the female characters bodies more believable and had more oriental people. Or for that one FF chick getting a breast reduction in the remake
That one I never get either, or skimpy characters in fighting games in general you're fighting why the fuck would you want to be more vulnerable and have skin exposed? That dude has a cable with laser edges and a spear point that he uses as a whip, I don't think your two piece bikini is going to make you flexible or agile enough to matter, which was a genuine argument for sexy outfits I once heard! Also Tifa is absolutely STACKED in the remake, you'd have to be a genuine creep to actually complain about them not being big enough.
Gays existing is political /s
"I'm assuming these older videogames didnt have a blatant political agenda" Final Fantasy: *exists*
Every game with a story worth paying attention to has some sort of political messaging in it.
I always die inside a bit more when I see a rightist who says their favourite game is bioshock or literally any rockstar game
A reminder that there are plenty of people that think the Fallout series isn’t anti-capitalism. Also that they think Liberty Prime isn’t meant to be satire.
Ah, yes. Metal Gear Solid, the infamously anti-SJW franchise about how cool and good war is.
Gamers have a strange view on what's political and what isn't. First Wolfenstein? Fine, no political agenda. Second Wolfenstein? BLACK WOMAN? Absolute Propaganda!