Current Events > "Japanese devs aren't interested in politics!"

(+) Yeah! (+)

scar the 1 posted...

hitokoriX posted...

averagejoel posted...

hitokoriX posted...

IMO you can apply a political lens to almost anything, but that doesn't mean the work itself is trying to be political.

whether or not a work is actively trying to be political has no bearing on whether or not it actually is political

Then what does determine it? A falling chandelier can be a metaphor for the end of the bourgeois or it can just be a chandelier. Who gets to decide (aside from very obvious context)

No one "gets to decide". People are political, and they make political things. That doesn't mean that a game will be crammed full of tacky metaphors.

Do you think a story or piece of media can be apolitical?
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hitokoriX posted...

Do you think a story or piece of media can be apolitical?

No, it can't
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This has me confused on what political actually means.
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kirbymuncher posted...

Do you think these recent avengers movies were carefully designed and intended as vehicles to push a certain political ideology? Probably not, and I don't really think so either. But that doesn't stop them from reflecting prominent political views of the era and region they were made in

Did you sleep through all of Black Panther?
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Dyinglegacy posted...

This has me confused on what political actually means.

Well, imagine some games with the following story/setting/structure/etc

1.

You play as a farmer in some medieval times in a country ruled by a mysterious king. You don't have much autonomy and life kinda sucks, so you band together with some other farmers and form a squad to sneak into the castle, assassinate the king, and topple the ruling class

2.

You play as a farmer in some medieval times in a country ruled by a mysterious king. You don't have much autonomy and life kinda sucks. As taxes increase you are forced to provide for your family through illegal hunting, which you must do carefully in secret as anyone caught is immediately executed

3.

You play as a farmer in some medieval times in a country ruled by a mysterious king. You don't have much autonomy but honestly even though your life is simple it's not so bad. You just kinda grow vegetables and chickens and etc year after year and eventually gameplay continues as your descendent who does the same sort of thing.

no subtlety here at all beause I wrote these in a few minutes and I'm by no means a good writer or anything. But I think it should be clear how these are a handful of games which do not directly reference modern political parties or their policies or etc but clearly have varying political messages to them. I could imagine any 3 of these games being made with no particular intention to push a certain political viewpoint.

#1 is like your standard ragtag band of misfits rpg
#2 for some reason makes me think of papers please
#3 could be a variation on something like stardew valley
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Tyranthraxus posted...

Did you sleep through all of Black Panther?

admittedly I have not watched every marvel movie and this is one of the ones I have not, and I forgot about it. Based on what I've heard/read about it I can see why you'd question this but I think even with one or two exceptions my point in using that example still stands
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kirbymuncher posted...

to those saying "not that type of politics": I think it should go without saying that japanese devs are generally not invested in american internal politics. making a tweet expressing this as some sort of grand statement is bizarre

Making a retort like the one presented in the OP is equally as bizarre by that standard
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MrPeppers posted...

kirbymuncher posted...

to those saying "not that type of politics": I think it should go without saying that japanese devs are generally not invested in american internal politics. making a tweet expressing this as some sort of grand statement is bizarre

Making a retort like the one presented in the OP is equally as bizarre by that standard

Japanese developers make games relevant to the politics of Japan.

Ace Attorney series is a satire of Japan's busted Criminal Justice system, for example. Kind of like a less violent GTA.

lots of JRPGs are coming of age stories about young men / women assuming the responsibilities of an adult for the first time, often with little or no ability to prepare.

There's also a lot of Japanese cultural references that most people don't understand. Waluigi's name, for example, is actually a clever pun that only makes sense in Japanese. If you didn't know that, you would think they just slapped "wa" to the beginning of his name and called it a day.

And sure Japan makes its fair share of non political games. There isn't anything remotely political about Mario Party, but that's not always the case. Radiant Historia is a game about fighting climate change, for example.
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