this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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this literally has nothing to do with the game itself. it's about behavior towards other people, which is intently political.
also video games are art which makes them political as well.
the fact that you kneejerked into this reaction feels super insecure and reactionary.
More like I'm just sick of people hijacking my favorite art form to express political/social issues or sexual fetishes, both of which are becoming too common. It's exactly why I've grown more and more in favor of retro gaming, back when neither of those expressions were anything but a fringe group of miserable individuals and weirdos that most gamers ignored. Not going to argue further, I've spoken my piece.
"My position is so tenuous yet so important to my identity that I will not tolerate the slightest challenge."
Alternatively, "That's why my favorite book is Moby Dick, no frou-frou symbolism. Just a good simple tale about a man who hates an animal."
Psychonauts is about trauma. Fallout is anti-war. FFVII is environmentalist. Samus as a woman was an intentionally subversive choice. Video games have had socual commentary for as long as it's been able to be expressed.
I've heard this before but "a man who hates an animal" makes me laugh so hard
Tetris is about trying to fit into a society, that wants to destroy you.
Space invader is about uniting all of earth's peoples against a common challenge.
Pong is about the heated but honest exchange of ideas that makes a democracy stronger.
(/jk I agree with you)
if you think about it, in tetris once you fit perfectly you get destroyed. but if you don't, you stand and eventually help each other get to the top. maybe it's a caution against conformity.
I'm glad, because you're talking nonsense.
what you're referring to is a time when you were a kid and didn't realize the politics. now you're aware of it and are acting like it's new. this is just illiteracy.
Ugh. Thank you, I was just about to say it myself. There's been politics in games for forever. Even the simplest shit like, "environmental destruction bad, so Sonic fight Eggman"
People are just too dumb to realize that they were kids back then...
even mechanics can be unintentionally political. there was a really cool errant signal video years ago talking about civilization games. it was mostly about what the games idea of a "civilization" is and how the win conditions reinforced the idea that one civilization has to be the superior one to rule them all...
but also these ideas were further reinforced by the way barbarians were depicted. that word already has baggage but the interesting thing is that in civ4 they share a banner with wildlife. like, they're almost like animals or natural disasters and not people at all.
what conservatives don't understand is that you can think about things like this and acknowledge what they mean and still enjoy the game and or understand why these choices were made. they're not necessarily political choices as much as they're mechanical, but that doesn't mean we can't think about what mechanical choices might mean to the player, or what messages they send. if video games are art, they can—and I would say must—be critiqued.
fear of change is at the core of conservatism, and that drives their utter aversion to introspection, and also to criticism of things and people they like. and vice versa, they can't bring themselves to appreciate any part of anything they don't like. if they like a person they can do no wrong. if they like a game it must be perfect. if they dislike a song it's the harbinger of the fall of civilization (ooh look at me bringing it full circle).
in a world of absolutes, there can be no discussion. don't ask me to think about things please. leave your thoughts and opinions out of my fun time, lest my views get challenged. this is what's funny about the likes of ben shapiro pretending that they have the facts while liberals are too emotional. their entire world view is based on their feels, and their arguments follow those as justification.