Keeping politics out of gaming?

[CevaQ]

I love the idea of keeping politics off of gaming sites. My question is how will it be possible when so many of the AAA games have such a strong political and self ideological tone especially the story driven games? We see it in games like BF5 and AC : Odyssey and we are going to see it in games like TLOU2, so shouldn't we start by getting politics out of gaming itself first? I know nothing about game development but to those that do, wouldn't the first step be to start a go-fund-me to develop a good game that isnt tied down by politics? It is the way the comic book industry is moving.

Now I know developing a game costs a lot more than writing a comic book but I believe that if the idea is good coupled with a great demo, people will support it. because right now the gaming industry is in the wrong hands and we need to take it back otherwise gaming, for the majority of us will come to an end.

[Saskia]

Ah, there we go. Welcome to the forum CevaQ!! ⭐️

[Zoltor]

I will defend Goblins till the end.

Please stay within the CoC, most posts here have, but I'm seeing a few that are getting closer and closer, but no, we won't be banning calling video game characters ugly

I hope one of my posts Isn't one of them. The OP wasn't really getting it, and completely misunderstood the no politics as it pertains to reviews aspect, so on one of my posts I decided to be more specific, and even gave a example. It's the question section, and I was honestly just trying to answer someone's question, so I figured as long as I didn't linger on that one post, it wouldn't be too bad?

[Tonic]

"No Political/Religious/Gender/Sexuality/Physical Attribute Discussions"

CoC has been updated.
- the mods

I will defend Goblins till the end.

Please stay within the CoC, most posts here have, but I'm seeing a few that are getting closer and closer, but no, we won't be banning calling video game characters ugly

[aileron]

Can I mention that characters are ugly in a game, or would that be considered politics?

"No Political/Religious/Gender/Sexuality/Physical Attribute Discussions"

CoC has been updated.
- the mods

[Aidy]

According to who? What about Mass Effect or Wolfenstein do those meet the criteria or how about TLOU2 and Druckmann himself tweeting that all games must be political or maybe BF5? No? Not meeting your definition of said criteria? AC Origins and its pandering doesnt do it for you either right? "Put in a female gladiator even though there werent any female gladiators" to name but one section. How about Overwatch and the Kevin Spacey effect? Nothing?

Look, this is going off the rails, if I wanted people to push my buttons I would just go to Polygon, all I did was ask a simple question and if you dont have the capacity to answer it then just ignore it I will take Zoltor's answer as the official one and I will move along.

I'm not familiar with all of those games, but of the games you've mentioned I have played I see none of the political agendas you see. Given you have a 100% failure rate at games I do know, I think it is probably safe to assume you have a similar failure rate about the games I don't know. Even to give you the benefit of the doubt, of the thousands and thousands of games released over the last few years you have still only mentioned about 5. If 5 games out of thousands offend you so much then why do you spend so much time and energy focusing on them?

[Aidy]

Because that's not how the world was in ancient greece, and changing history to reflect some unrealistic social ideal is a deliberate political move.

Ok, so let's look at some other things that were different from actual Greece....

*** SPOILERS START FOR Assassin's Creed: Odyssey ****




I can jump off a cliff and fall 100 feet onto concrete completely unharmed.
I can breathe underwater simply because I am holding a particular spear
I fight a literal Cyclops, a literal Medusa, a literal Minotaur
I wear armour that brings me back to life when I die
I can conjure fire out of thin air
I found Atlantis
I lived for 1000 years





*** SPOILERS END FOR Assassin's Creed: Odyssey ****

Do you know why you can do these things? BECAUSE IT'S A GAME. It's not a simulator. Why do you have a problem with female warriors but not any of the stuff above? Why is female warriors a political statement but there is nothing behind any of the above? I'll tell you why, because female warriors is not a political statement either, you're just choosing to say it is. The fact that you are so selective about what you take offence at shows the problem is not the game, it's you.

Because you have no option for the romances in question, you can't opt out.

What? The romance options are signaled by hearts next to the dialog choices. If you don't want to romance someone you don't pick those options. And you are asking me if I've played the game?

And a character saying "I was sentt to answer your prayers" is mocking religion.

That's your interpretation. Your interpretation that female warriors is some kind of political statement is also just your interpretation.

ROTFLMAO, are you for real? Which of the things I mentioned aren't there?

The "political statements" you are seeing.

Can I mention that characters are ugly in a game, or would that be considered politics?

I'm not aware of the game you're talking and I'm not going to discuss something I have no knowledge of. I have, however, played AC which is why I don't mind tackling issues you have with that specific game.

[Animusisters]

Just dont bring the political aspects up when talking about it.

[CevaQ]

Look ma! I'm already bored of this meta topic!

https://www.exclusivelygames.com/for...pens-in-gaming

https://www.exclusivelygames.com/for...-get-political

https://www.exclusivelygames.com/for...litical-speech

and for good measure here is the CoC
https://www.exclusivelygames.com/for...ode-of-conduct

Also would it have killed you to make your first thread/post an introduction?

Hi, my name is CevaQ and I'm a gamer.

[CevaQ]

However in all of your posts you have managed to name two, neither of which meet the criteria.

According to who? What about Mass Effect or Wolfenstein do those meet the criteria or how about TLOU2 and Druckmann himself tweeting that all games must be political or maybe BF5? No? Not meeting your definition of said criteria? AC Origins and its pandering doesnt do it for you either right? "Put in a female gladiator even though there werent any female gladiators" to name but one section. How about Overwatch and the Kevin Spacey effect? Nothing?

Look, this is going off the rails, if I wanted people to push my buttons I would just go to Polygon, all I did was ask a simple question and if you dont have the capacity to answer it then just ignore it I will take Zoltor's answer as the official one and I will move along.

[MadMummy76]

No. Why would it be?

Because that's not how the world was in ancient greece, and changing history to reflect some unrealistic social ideal is a deliberate political move.

I found more often than not you had the option where you could make your character religious or atheist. You were regularly given options like "The gods sent me to answer your prayers" or "I'm just a man who was passing by, but I'll try to help you." I don't think these options had any effect on the game, it was simply an option for you to "role play". Similarly it was your option about how you "romanced", if anyone.

Have you even played the game? Because it doesn't seem so from this. Because you have no option for the romances in question, you can't opt out. And a character saying "I was sentt to answer your prayers" is mocking religion. Which you'd know if you were playing the game, or wasn't being disingenuous.

No, it's you seeing things that simply aren't there.

ROTFLMAO, are you for real? Which of the things I mentioned aren't there?

And don't for a moment think I'll let you off the hook for dodging the main question:

Can I mention that characters are ugly in a game, or would that be considered politics?

[MadMummy76]

Because none of it matters, it's all subjective. These are just YOUR opinions of those games, just because you see them from that angle doesn't make it the absolute truth. I don't see them that way at all, so who's right or wrong? Neither. And this is why we don't discuss politics here, because everybody wants to push their opinion as fact which always ends up devolving into a flame war. Fuck politics.

Those are facts that you have to mention when reviewing a game, otherwise you're omitting information that might be relevant to someone. You confuse "doesn't matter to me" with "doesn't matter at all" .

[Drecq]

I don't think games that base their stories off "people" in general is going to have politics and social things in it...it has to. BUT that said don't panhandle and don't back down from how your game is designed. No matter what people will love AND hate a game for their own reasons and that is ok. But a company just needs to say, "this game is a game...deal with it" and leave it at that. Games are meant to be fun...not a political statement.

[Aidy]

Assassin's Creed where every second warrior/mercenary/soldier is female, isn't that a political agenda?

No. Why would it be?

Or the main character constantly dropping atheist remarks in a time period where it is completely unrealistic?

I found more often than not you had the option where you could make your character religious or atheist. You were regularly given options like "The gods sent me to answer your prayers" or "I'm just a man who was passing by, but I'll try to help you." I don't think these options had any effect on the game, it was simply an option for you to "role play". Similarly it was your option about how you "romanced", if anyone.

Whether you care to admit it or not, this is the direct result of the politics of some people who are in game development.

No, it's you seeing things that simply aren't there.

[Saskia]

It's one thing to not be bothered by this, but why actively deny the existence of political undertones in games?

Because none of it matters, it's all subjective. These are just YOUR opinions of those games, just because you see them from that angle doesn't make it the absolute truth. I don't see them that way at all, so who's right or wrong? Neither. And this is why we don't discuss politics here, because everybody wants to push their opinion as fact which always ends up devolving into a flame war. Fuck politics.