Current Events > Are modern video games too "political"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Those damn anime waifus always spreading the hate agenda

Remember when it was agreed that Nazis were the bad guys?

If anything they aren't political enough. Give me more stuff like Dwarf Fortress, where they originally had capitalism, then moved to state capitalism, and finally to communism when the previous forms of government failed hardcore style.

Most AAA games do their best to avoid taking any kind of stance, so no

But some people think the mere existence of minorities is political

My favourite apolitical game was Final Fantasy X being an allegory about mixing religions and political decisions together. I wish we had less political games and more allegory about the separation of church and States

I think modern games should focus less on being "political" and more and being actually good complete experiences at launch

Honestly, I think older games are MORE political.

It's just that alt-right dweebs associate the term "political" with the existence of minorities instead of anything pertaining to actual politics.

A game where you kill Nazis is unironically apolitical to them for some reason.

I miss the good ol' days when games didn't try to force politics down our throats all the time and actually focused on being good, well made experiences.

That's why BioShock is peak, jack.

I'm okay with games being political as long as they don't make the characters ugly. Like, Aloy is ugly as sin. Why'd they have to do her like that? They beat her with that ugly stick.

Theyre not political enough. I remember all the "controversy" around Far Cry 5 because (iirc) people thought the bad guys were parodying MAGA Cultists, and Ubisoft absolutely should've fully leaned into that because they actually played it really safe.

Cephalopods posted...

Theyre not political enough. I remember all the "controversy" around Far Cry 5 because (iirc) people thought the bad guys were parodying MAGA Cultists, and Ubisoft absolutely should've fully leaned into that because they actually played it really safe.

Which is funny because the insane religious cult ends up being right.

Environmentalism (FF7) and military industrial complex (MGS)? That's not political!

Now having a gay couple or chick as the main character? That's political! /s

But really, that's all it is. Games were political back then, but there were only straight people and had male leads. Now LGBT+ are represented and there are women main characters. That's the only difference and that's a bridge too far for them.

Depends. What is politics?

trivialbeing posted...

I think modern games should focus less on being "political" and more and being actually good complete experiences at launch

"Political" is just code for "minorities existing" 99% of the time

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Honestly, I think older games are MORE political.

It's just that alt-right dweebs associate the term "political" with the existence of minorities instead of anything pertaining to actual politics.

A game where you kill Nazis is unironically apolitical to them for some reason.

Brainwashing. If they repeat the same buzzword over and over again, they think they are the only ones who "see society like it is"(that's unironically how cults think) and that everyone else is "brainwashed"https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c9ca04c0.jpg

Plumeofdusk posted...

I'm okay with games being political as long as they don't make the characters ugly. Like, Aloy is ugly as sin. Why'd they have to do her like that? They beat her with that ugly stick.

I think calling it more "social commentary" than "political" would actually make more sense

Plumeofdusk posted...

I'm okay with games being political as long as they don't make the characters ugly. Like, Aloy is ugly as sin. Why'd they have to do her like that? They beat her with that ugly stick.

I don't think that has anything to do with politics though. I feel that's just realism leading to uncanny valley. This is a whole different issue that people latched on to "politics" for some weird reason.

They're fine. Political themes are fine

The issue is that back in the day, games being political was at least somewhat subtle where you had to think about what was happening for a few seconds to realize it, and it was organic: the games were political because the people creating them wanted them to be. So you just got immersed in it and didnt notice much of the time until looking at it with a critical eye.

Now, lots of times the marketing is focused on the political elements, and consumers have a sense that a lot of it was caused because some greedy executive forced that decision in search of greater profit, which rubs people the wrong way. This affects the ability to get immersed in it as well, which makes it worse.

But yeah, political nowadays basically means diversity for the sake of it. Ive been playing Triangle Strategy which is entirely about politics and difficult choices, but I dont think it would be considered a political game colloquially.

Legolas what do your elf eyes see?

People be going "racist!" Lol

Armored Core's depiction of a world run by corporations seems to have whooshed right over a lot of people's heads.

The problems in most people's minds are when you take current political figures or issues and put them in your game, like if Link was battling Trump to keep the wall from being built

Now I would play that in a heartbeat, but that isn't the same as having a vague theme of immigration and racism in a fantasy world

I'm not saying I'm for or against anything, just shedding light on what people are talking about when they say political. Or at least from what I've seen

Smackems posted...

The problems in most people's minds are when you take current political figures or issues and put them in your game, like if Link was battling Trump to keep the wall from being built

Now I would play that in a heartbeat, but that isn't the same as having a vague theme of immigration and racism in a fantasy world

I'm not saying I'm for or against anything, just shedding light on what people are talking about when they say political. Or at least from what I've seen

This doesnt happen in any game.

IceCreamOnStero posted...

This doesnt happen in any game.

Not any that I've played or that come to mind, no

Maybe life is strange but I don't know much about that

brestugo posted...

Armored Core's depiction of a world run by corporations seems to have whooshed right over a lot of people's heads.

IceCreamOnStero posted...

This doesnt happen in any game.

These illustrate what Im talking about.

AC6s political themes are subtle enough many if not most people wouldnt get them until they were pointed out.

Whereas if the political themes are so obvious they feel like theyre being beaten over the head with them, they feel like they basically just took Trump, changed his name and appearance, and stuck him in a game, or did the equivalent with some other modern politics thing.

Thats the disconnect. Most people dont like the state of modern politics and dont want to think about it or be reminded of it. If theres something where the politics tends to go over their heads, theyll be blissfully ignorant. And may be more respectful of it if a friend points them out. But if they notice, they cant help drawing the parallels to reality, and this harms their suspension of disbelief.

Plumeofdusk posted...

I'm okay with games being political as long as they don't make the characters ugly. Like, Aloy is ugly as sin. Why'd they have to do her like that? They beat her with that ugly stick.

i don't think aloy is ugly but there needs to be more ugly female mc's so people like you get bored of complaining about it

I can't even think of an example of it being the case.

PraetorXyn posted...

The issue is that back in the day, games being political was at least somewhat subtle where you had to think about what was happening for a few seconds to realize it, and it was organic: the games were political because the people creating them wanted them to be. So you just got immersed in it and didnt notice much of the time until looking at it with a critical eye.

Now, lots of times the marketing is focused on the political elements, and consumers have a sense that a lot of it was caused because some greedy executive forced that decision in search of greater profit, which rubs people the wrong way. This affects the ability to get immersed in it as well, which makes it worse.

But yeah, political nowadays basically means diversity for the sake of it. Ive been playing Triangle Strategy which is entirely about politics and difficult choices, but I dont think it would be considered a political game colloquially.

People will just hide the fact that they don't want to see minorities under the "political" tag, it sounds less offensive that claiming they think minorities deserve less media representation

PraetorXyn posted...

These illustrate what Im talking about.

AC6s political themes are subtle enough many if not most people wouldnt get them until they were pointed out.

Whereas if the political themes are so obvious they feel like theyre being beaten over the head with them, they feel like they basically just took Trump, changed his name and appearance, and stuck him in a game, or did the equivalent with some other modern politics thing.

Thats the disconnect. Most people dont like the state of modern politics and dont want to think about it or be reminded of it. If theres something where the politics tends to go over their heads, theyll be blissfully ignorant. And may be more respectful of it if a friend points them out. But if they notice, they cant help drawing the parallels to reality, and this harms their suspension of disbelief.

Uhm... FFX was released during a time where religious organisation had tons of scandals

Without a doubt yes

Someone post the you made it political meme

PraetorXyn posted...

AC6s political themes are subtle enough many if not most people wouldnt get them until they were pointed out.

They absolutely are not. It's just that there is a non-trivial amount of simple-minded individuals that cannot fathom that something in games that isn't "*insert literal real world thing here* is bad" can actually be related to real world anything. Like, FFVII practically beats you over the head with "stop polluting" and people *still* did not get that it was political. There is just a level of inability to accept that things that aren't the existence of women or minorities is a political thing. There is no "back in the day games were subtle", it's "back in the day people were kids who never actually had a single thought about politics in their head."

rexcrk posted...

Someone post the you made it political meme

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/24fbf16d.jpg

There's many variation of this

ellis123 posted...

They absolutely are not. It's just that there is a non-trivial amount of simple-minded individuals that cannot fathom that something in games that isn't "*insert literal real world thing here* is bad" can actually be related to real world anything. Like, FFVII practically beats you over the head with "stop polluting" and people *still* did not get that it was political. There is just a level of inability to accept that things that aren't the existence of women or minorities is a political thing. There is no "back in the day games were subtle", it's "back in the day people were kids who never actually had a single thought about politics in their head."

Wakka saying typical racist thing to Rikku and justifying it with religion like some people in real life was not subtle.

I think you can argue that their messages might have been more "people can change", but Final Fantasy's allegories are not suble at all

ellis123 posted...

There is no "back in the day games were subtle", it's "back in the day people were kids who never actually had a single thought about politics in their head."

This is true. A lot of political games in the past were not subtle (same with comic books and other media). You were just a kid/teenager then and simply didn't have an opinion on things back then. Now you do, and with how polarized things are, some people just don't want to see opposing viewpoints at all. No doubt some games of the past were released today, people would whine about them being political.

Ivynn posted...

This is true. A lot of political games in the past were not subtle (same with comic books and other media). You were just a kid/teenager then and simply didn't have an opinion on things back then. Now you do, and with how polarized things are, some people just don't want to see opposing viewpoints at all. No doubt some games of the past were released today, people would whine about them being political.

I think people forget that when we were kids, some old people tried to cancel Harry Potter, Pokemon and DND(Probably many others) and before I was born, most 80s bands for being "satanic" lol

epik_fail1 posted...

Wakka saying typical racist thing to Rikku and justifying it with religion like some people in real life was not subtle.

I think you can argue that their messages might have been more "people can change", but Final Fantasy's allegories are not suble at all

Quite. Like, not everything has to be a political thing, but at this point it's just a level of utter mental ineptitude that leads to people not getting the vast majority of actually political things in games.

ellis123 posted...

Quite. Like, not everything has to be a political thing, but at this point it's just a level of utter mental ineptitude that leads to people not getting the vast majority of actually political things in games.

I am pretty sure FFX played of being role of me becoming an atheist tbh

PraetorXyn posted...

Whereas if the political themes are so obvious they feel like theyre being beaten over the head with them, they feel like they basically just took Trump, changed his name and appearance, and stuck him in a game, or did the equivalent with some other modern politics thing.

Persona 5 puts a thinly veiled Shinzo Abe as its main antagonist for most of the game. There's a pretty interesting video explaining the people the palace rulers are based off of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgf_XY3Q5mQ&pp=ygUXcGVyc29uYSA1IHBhbGFjZSBydWxlcnM%3D

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

The Witcher books were pro-choice stories. Though he claims his books were apolitical. Something along the lines of "Women's bodies aren't political".

As for abortion, I definitely liked Sheri S. Tepper's approach to the problem in ,,Beauty" (...). 30 years before the women's marches, the title Beauty (...) ends up in hell, a place of eternal condemnation and punishment for sins. There is a place there for the opponents of abortion and contraception - their punishment is constant pregnancy. Their bellies grow, they give birth and da capo.

The Witcher's are forced to give up their reproductive rights through the trial of grasses. The Witch's are forced to give up their reproductive rights due to some old magical women just believing magic should never be inherited. Everyone in Ciri's life works hard to make sure she understands she should never give up those rights no matter what. Because her choice is important. Geralt refuses to put her through the trial of grasses. Yennefer sternly warns her that no amount of magical knowledge is worth losing her freedom of choice. And then there's all that stuff where everyone wants Ciri's baby because of prophecy.

Ivynn posted...

Environmentalism (FF7)

Not just Environmentalism. It's anti-capitalist too. Shinra Corp is meant as a reference to Japanese Zaibatsu. Possibly Mitsubishi specifically. In the west we associate Mitsubishi with just their cars. But they're also one of the largest banks in the world (By assets, currently sitting in 7th place, immediately behind Bank of America). They build everything from naval ships (both commercial and military), to rockets (both the space kind and the missile kind), to tanks. They're also one of Japan's biggest energy suppliers.

Also Genova, her influence over Shinra Corp, the ability to create puppets to do her bidding, and the whole METEOR thing are quite probably meant to represent America and her bombs. In fact Japan's consistent usage of otherworldly gods to prop up the current, evil status quo may overall have been built out of anti-american sentiment that over time became just another trope. Even Elden Ring used this, and possibly not by accident given their history with the Armored Core games.

Yes... I mean there might me a woman a black person in it. There was even one with a gay person in it. Time are hard for people who just want to see 30 something brown hair white dudes in games....sarcasm. but this what ppl really think

ellis123 posted...

They absolutely are not. It's just that there is a non-trivial amount of simple-minded individuals that cannot fathom that something in games that isn't "*insert literal real world thing here* is bad" can actually be related to real world anything. Like, FFVII practically beats you over the head with "stop polluting" and people *still* did not get that it was political. There is just a level of inability to accept that things that aren't the existence of women or minorities is a political thing. There is no "back in the day games were subtle", it's "back in the day people were kids who never actually had a single thought about politics in their head."

Theyre subtle for people who dont read, how about that?

People who dont read arent capable of any level of literary analysis whatsoever. Thats most people.

trivialbeing posted...

I think modern games should focus less on being "political" and more and being actually good complete experiences at launch

Kitt posted...

I miss the good ol' days when games didn't try to force politics down our throats all the time and actually focused on being good, well made experiences.

That's why BioShock is peak, jack.

Which games are you talking about?

ellis123 posted...

There is no "back in the day games were subtle", it's "back in the day people were kids who never actually had a single thought about politics in their head."

honestly this, I think games and cartoons and stuff only seem more political now that we all grew up and aren't dumb kids anymore that can understand the subtle (or not-so-subtle in some cases) messaging in those forms of media

also like mentioned already "political" to alot of people these days simply means having a non-white or gay character in a game lol which is "too political" for some people now...