#politics in videogames

[faif-girlcel]

Been playing Mass Effect lately and have to say it's so interesting how paragon Shepard is the definition of a "good cop". You're upholding a racially hierarchical regime where some aliens are explicitly stated to be seen as lesser and incapable of self governance despite being literal spacefarers with their own personal governments, and the actual emphasized incompetence of those supposedly "capable of governing", the council allows for all sorts of excesses and brutality among it's guard seemingly, and chooses on whims whether or not to aid certain species in their struggles based on favoritism, there is, from the councils perspective, *literal* slave labor used on the citadel that they're indifferent to because again, lesser species (they don't know that the keepers are designed to upkeep the citadel they just see them as an alien race to take advantage of at 0 cost), there is seemingly overt misogyny present among most races that is in no way tackled or challenged, limitations on free speech, genocide apologia from the highest ranks and engrained into educational databases, and throughout all of this, Shepard can't offer any institutional critique, despite being the good guy hero jesus person, because she's incapable of analyzing the system she exists in and actively serves and furthers. sure she criticizes individual actions of the council and can be rude to them, but ultimately she remains beholden to them, and carries out their missions, choosing to resolve them as a good cop or bad cop, which again maybe individually means saving a life or committing police brutality, but she still ultimately reinforces a system built upon extremely blatant oppression and never seriously questions this, not even when she leaves and joins Cerberus briefly.

And then there's the crew, barring Liara (who incidentally is the crewmate least linked to the military, and who,, is less excluded from this list in ME2,, but i wanna focus on 1) Mass Effect 1 feels like Bad Apple fixer simulator, you start with

Garrus: genocide apologist (thinks the genophage was justified) who LOVES extrajudicial murder

Ashley: groomed into being a would-be klan member

Tali: zionist who hated AI before it was cool (in a genocidal way)

Wrex: war culture mercenary super chill on war crimes

Kaidan: shown as the other "good cop" and generally the most reasonable person barring Liara, but also he did just murder someone in boot camp in a fit of rage

Through your actions, you can fix them! You can make the bad apples good apples (kinda) but like,,,,

2 of course moves away from this theme a bit while still never properly tackling corrupt institutions in a way that undoes the actions of the first game, but its focus is elsewhere and the crew is more diverse in its outlook

Ultimately i just find it interesting how Mass Effect is a game showcasing how a good apple or whatever is capable of making individual changes for the better but is ultimately still a tool of an oppressive system and can't do anything to fundamentally change that, even if they're the most important good apple in said system.

Worth noting maybe this'll change in Mass Effect 3, which i have yet to play as im in the process of finishing 2 currently (im a dragon age girl) but idk i like how it's handled at first i was iffy on it but no it's actually pretty cool.

Also sorry if this is super retreaded ground im new to mass effect discourse this is just my takeaways from it lol

#mass effect #politics in videogames #bioware #police #maybe stating the obvious

[locuas642]

Both HBomberguy and Defunctland have recently (November 20th 2022) released new videos which, surprisingly, touch on very similar themes. I highly recommend watching them. Especially if you are worried about the topic of authorship and want to learn more about music and sound in media.

And remember, your media is made by countless invisible individuals, not a faceless company or just one person

#hbomberguy #defunctland #youtube #video #video essay #documentary #disney #videogames #politics #capitalism #music #alex lasarenko #Joey Kuras #Youtube #kevin perjurer

[itsbansheebitch]

#I know I'm parasocial as hell... but I'm happy I had faith in some creators #palestine #free palestine #israel #gaza #free gaza #yemen #south africa #international court of justice #politics #us politics #world politics #jacksepticeye #video games #games #gaming #pc games #indie games #videogame #video gaming #lgbt #lgbtqia #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #queer #trans rights #indigenous rights

[gofloresgo]

#go play videogame #videogrames #psyop #psyops #go flores go #gofloresgo #amores #lovers #draw #illustration #black cat #misinformation #hypocrisy #american politics #us politics #lies #anarchy works #anarchy battle #anarchy stocking #socialism #anticapitalism #anarchist #anarchocommunism #game design #game art #gaming #video games #fps #video gaming

[huggingtentacles]

"Ah yes, I hate when they put politics in games! I prefer my games without politics! Why don't they make apolitical games anymore, like Bloodborne?"

Ah yes, Bloodborne, famously a game that has no politics in it at all. Nope. Not a single thing. You can't make a single connection to real life events. Pure fiction in a vacuum.

#Bloodborne #sarcasm #shitpost #politics in my videogame about a church perpetuating and profiting from a cycle of violence that they created? more likely than you think

[poulpy838]

Well mannered

A very polite blorbo.

Original:

#art #artists on tumblr #kirby fanart #digital art #digital fanart #kirby #videogame fanart #fanart #kirby nintendo #meta knight #kirby memes #meme art #well mannered #very polite

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

#brazil #politics #brazilian politics #brazilian elections #videogames #super mario #funny posts #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt #brazilian elections 2022

[arconinternet]

Rovescino (DOS, Paolo Grasso, 1992)

An implementation of an Italian card game, featuring caricatures of famous Italian politicians. You can play it in your browser here.

#internet archive #in-browser #dos #dos games #game #games #video game #video games #videogame #videogames #computer game #computer games #obscure games #card games #italy #italian history #italian politics #caricature #caricatures #retro games #retro gaming #retro graphics #1992 #1990s #90s

[convertgrapeling]

Look at what we could have won.

"Thatcher's Techbase" was made in support of Living Rent, who work to support tenant rights in Scotland.

(I don't recommend the article, it's shite)

#uk politics #Jeremy Corbyn #margaret thatcher #doom #videogames

[allthecanadianpolitics]

When Lisa Funnell played the 2013 version of the Tomb Raider video game, she remembers the moment when her character, Lara Croft, was killed while trying to escape a man who was sexually assaulting her.

"I was very shocked when I was playing it the first time, and when I died, I found it incredibly triggering. It made me not want to continue playing the game, and it made me question … who decided that this content is OK?"

Funnel and Angela Stukator are members of the professional advisory council helping to steer a new game design program at Hamilton's Mohawk College, in an industry where women are not always welcome.

"Certainly AAA games are male dominated — young, white male dominated — and we wanted to design a program that would bring in a diverse student body and have the courses be taught by an equally diverse [faculty]," said Stukator.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#Videogames #Gaming #racism #sexism #cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #canadian #rape tw #Ontario #hamilton ontario #Mohawk College #feminism

[vonlipvig]

see, i don't get how people can get through the whole game in one sitting. you're telling me you kissed your butler, your best friend since you were kids, finally accepting your true feelings and deciding in that moment that neither law nor class status will ever keep you apart...and then you just kept playing?

#like i need to rest. i'm exhausted dude. i can't go back to politics rn I'M A MESS. #but also like. i can't go like two scenes without needing a break lmao i really love taking my time. #first playthrough is for FULL IMMERSION i am LIVING this in my marrow. i love drama and art and videogames. #but cheers to all the gameplayers who will have guides ready for my next playthrough lmaoo #jules plays suzerain #suzerain spoilers #kingdom of rizia spoilers

[feluka]

my dragon age origins hot take is that the fade section and ESPECIALLY the deep roads sections of the game were incredible and so much fun

#i will never ever complain about the deep roads quest because i WISH the rest of the dragon age games had anything like that #give me dwarves! give me dwarven lore! the atmosphere!! the dread!! it's SO rich with lore and incredible #the only part that genuinely upsets me is hespith's poem but the rest of it is so exciting to me #i loved learning about dwarven politics. i am so sad the rest of the games dont expand on dwarven society #the combat is challenging enough to be fun if maybeeee a tad repetitive in the deep roads #the way it was set up such that enemies come from all directions in such an enclosed space really forces you to strategize #and think about party positioning. i live for that #i love learning about the darkspawn. broodmother notwithstanding #i would kill for another videogame experience like dragon age origins honestly one of my favourite games of all time #the only dragon age game i finished on nightmare difficulty just because gameplay was do much fun for me #i watched the descent dlc of inquisition on youtube and it seems cool too #deep roads my beloved.

[jemandrr]

accidentally browsing a (very niche) female-dominated gaming space and seeing people TEAR into people who want an option to change the player character's pronouns to he/him or they/them without changing anything else because it'd invite men to invade a safe space. For a game purely about dating men. Like, I've been through plenty of female-dominated spaces where queer people and similar-interest straight men are welcome (in this case it'd be bi men but yknow), so it's just this one community, but jeez. The amount of fear that anyone who isn't explicitly a femme female would come in and A. hit on the faceless women there or B. taint the game by making the devs add designs of men who they don't want to date?

I got such a strong terf-y rhetoric from that community, like we can't have anything in common with people who aren't like us going on. All about taking 'our' things. And a lot of people contradicting one other but not trying to find out what the truth is because they have the same conclusion. Like two people saying A>B or B>A and no argument arises and no one shows interest in which is true because both people conclude C.

A lot of people even saying that, likewise, things that appeal to female or queer audiences should NOT be added to mainstream media just like queer content should not be added to female-oriented media. These hard walls around what belongs to who is like...they were raised by toy companies or something.

Like what is (paraphrasing so it isnt searchble) "I would never come into a male dominated community because I feel like I would be invading their safe space, so I don't get why men would want to come here and talk about liking men." At least the people who are scared of sexual abuse are warranted, I've seen tons of abusive language towards people they think are women in male dominated online spaces, but what is this fear of even...sharing interests with men? I know we've been in a new era of gender role enforcement with the tradfem movement, but jeez. And as for these last two points, they both are ones that were contradicted. People also said they do believe in diversity BUT just *this* shouldn't count.

Some people even said it's not fair that they get pushed to be more inclusive when mainstream media never does. Which makes me wonder if they're so deep in their niche 'I only experience content made by and for exclusively straight women' content that they haven't noticed any of the movements in media going on over the last 1.5 decades. Like it's true that we haven't made that much progress, but how do they think that no media gets pressed to increase diversity? The more rigid/right-leaning male audiences of tons of media have been complaining about forced diversity for years in exactly the same way (and sometimes, when it really WAS forced diversity, everyone complains because it's not representing anyone really but yknow). But I guess they wouldn't know that if all of them avoid mainstream media?

Also...what is the fear that gay men like men in a 'wrong' way...(and again, the unargued contradiction being plenty of people saying that they also like media about gay characters, but just they shouldn't make these characters gay)

And like I do get it, in the sense that being marginalized makes you skeptical and fearful of things you don't understand in its own separate way from how being in a privileged class makes you skeptical and fearful of things you don't understand. There's a lot more fear of exploring things different and new because the possible retribution feels/has been higher.

Honestly, this post isn't actually about a couple hundred to low-thousand women in a small community for niche games. Not like, I think it's important, I want to actively make them change. It's not that big a deal, not that surprising in the grand scheme. It's similar rhetoric to things i've seen before (Tradfem/terf). I've seen screenshots of, like, facebook mom groups before. And I've seen way bigger communities be way more open and welcoming, it's just a little outlier.

I'm just writing this because I'm a bit shellshocked because I forget how much that those kinds of people are not just the older, tech-illiterate generations, and not just shallow influencers who will say anything for the clicks (or because someone behind the scenes is funding it), their views behind the camera up in the air. Like I think I cultivate the people I interact with a bit too well. Too many of the people I actually interact with or witness the thoughts of regularly are queer and have flitting relationships with gender and then I remember the other side of the coin has people who think they're being progressive by suggesting that everyone who is different be segregated and therefore safe from each other with no room for intersectionality.

#for the record in other communities talking about the same game i saw several people sharing tips for making androgynous or slightly butch #characters which is the wholesomeness on the other side #ranting into the void #is this one of those situations of like #'the celebrity you call ugly will never see this but the person you know who shares those features will?' #but with 'The men who want to invade your safe spaces will never see this but the he/him butch and other queer people who are otherwise #generally your advocates in political and social spaces will' #also ngl being gay admittedly does make this so much easier #but i cannot imagine having the idea that #categorically #'you and your partner cannot have any interests in common' but so many do #And honestly I would have trouble believing that any women who says they're scared ofplaying or discussing a videogame #with a gnc or gay person- would say that irl they're not a terf and they would let gnc and trans people into the same public bathroom #like i can believe it because people hold lots of contradictory ideas but #if more than 20% of them said it i would think that was legitimately virtue signalling #because while i think trans panic is waaaaay less common than the media thinks #inside a community with those beliefs when they can talk anonymo usly #itd be a tough sell for me. I have to imagine most of those women are the kind who would find out their partner was bi #and start feeling uncomfortable about the state of their relationship- with the way they talk about how men can't enjoy female things like #dating men and such #ALSO there are more women than men #wtf do you mean mainstream media is only for straight men #straight adult men is #like 30-odd percent of the us tops #they got more purchasing power cus of sexism and homophobia and so on but #its so self defeating to think of mainstream media as exclusively the purview of straight men

[adam-sadmon]

So I was on the Diablo 4 subreddit looking up a recent log-in error and this is the top post of the month

It dawned on me that having secluded myself mainly to single player experiences and especially newer games I've forgotten about the decrepit blight that is 'boomer' gamers, try thinking of a more wretched combination of words.

The entire sub is grown men whining about non-existent zoomers ruining the game that isn't even out yet by complaining that it's too old school, and the comments under the above post is nothing but "all in the name of body positivity" and crying about how their fem-druid isn't an inch supermodel.

For the record I really like how each class has their own body type, and they all make sense: Barbarians are pure muscle, Rogues are lean and svelte like acrobats, necromancers are intensely scrawny, sorcerers are skinny and the druids are the Maui or classic strongman type of buff, the realistic type of buff you'd get from that sort of lifestyle, and I LOVE it, I LOVE how my druid looks like Thor from God of War, how he's way more physically imposing than even the Barbarian but with a sorta gentle giant quality, and then you have the Diablo 4 redditors who want a standard body slider presumably because it goes well with the formless grey mush they prefer to eat.

#Diablo 4 #Diablo #Blizzard #Diablo 4 druid #Diablo druid #Video games #Videogame politics

[zozo-01]

neoliberalism is a topic that i can and will go forever and forever about

#you know how most people's special interest was like a show or a videogame??? #mine is politics #i k i d y o u n o t #my ideal date is talking about the long lasting effects of colonialism and white supremacy and how as Individuals we can break that cycle #to make a bettwe world #<3333333333 #this is zo speaking

[bittershins]

andor is the root for my star wars interest since like. February. But also fault cannot be denied re: mark Hamill gender envy

#iiiiiiiiiiiiiii wish #cannot find the gif I had saved where he ruffles his hair #sw #GOD #Also I find it incredibly interesting how many different genres star wars explores and alllllllll of the different thematic facets #it can explore #like andor is incredibly neat with its anti fascist and anti-authoritarian stances and it pacts absolute punches visually #vs. the like. ~weird~ political state of the prequels #vs. the novelization of ROTS which FULLY leans into the tragedy element #or the first two seasons of the mandalorian wherein that post empire timeline/guy who knows FUCK ALL aspect #is played well #I wish I liked videogames so I could play KOTOR or Jedi fallen order #and the thing is #I knowwwww it is making Disney fuck loads of money #but at the same time it leaves so much room to explore different thematic stories #like rogue one and the prequels are both tragedies!!! but they handle themselves completely differently #the force related storylines feel so epic #whereas the storylines of something like andor explore elements of tension/weight that the previous stuff hasn't really had space to handle #with more grounded and socially critical elements