I Don't Get It

[Tazilon]

Road 96 constantly preaches that youth need to rise up and initiate change, but the entire goal is to run away. No character you get to play wants to stay and actually initiate change.

Whether you agree or disagree with the message and extreme politics, it seems the entire story is out of sync with what it is trying to say.

[Gunslinger Matt]

Originally posted by svennoj:

All the endings are violent though. And to get the 'best' ending, Vandalizing posters and an innocent rock wall is part of the approved tools :)

On the other side, it certainly does not promote non violence. There are no consequences to helping Stan and Mitch along, no consequences to stealing either.

But that's no different from other games. Game logic is luckily not representative of the world!

The endings are violent because there are people so desperate that they found no other way to fight a tyrannical government. It's certainly isn't wishable but it's inevitable. Revolutions do not go peacefully and like I said several times already, there are things happening that are beyond our control.

Even though I hate the man, there's that quote from Mao which is 100% right about revolutions:

"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."

Using Stan and Mitch as an example to prove your point is a bad one in my opinion. In most encounters, you are only helping them find a guy who's after Sonya, how is this such a bad thing? Also, the game has never promoted stealing as being morally right, only depicting the one thing that matters most to someone trying to cross the border: survival. When you are in a situation of survival, you do not always have the luxury to uphold your moral values or principles, sometimes necessity demands that you break those in order to survive. I would like to see if you'd still uphold your moral values when you have little to no resources and are constantly putting your life at risk.

The game doesn't promote anything other than changing society when its foundations are too corrupted and crumbling, nothing else. How you want to change society is your decision.

[zyzz]

Originally posted by svennoj:

All the endings are violent though. And to get the 'best' ending, Vandalizing posters and an innocent rock wall is part of the approved tools :)

Calling vandalism violence is a huge stretch when you're talking about drawing on posters that represent a regime that is putting children in concentration camps. If you insist though, it's clearly in self defense and defense of others, since vandalizing the posters is shown to be effective in getting the camps shut down. As for the rock, the rock thankfully doesn't care about what's painted on it. If the kids were collaring trees to get their message across, then you might be onto something.

[Magus]

Originally posted by svennoj:

All the endings are violent though. And to get the 'best' ending, Vandalizing posters and an innocent rock wall is part of the approved tools :)

On the other side, it certainly does not promote non violence. There are no consequences to helping Stan and Mitch along, no consequences to stealing either.

But that's no different from other games. Game logic is luckily not representative of the world!

The Karma system in the game, does not work the way you are describing.

There are consequences to stealing, as well as the other "bad karma" actions.

The Karma system in Road 96 is subtle, but it does not reward stealing and other negative actions. It specifies very clearly that "what goes around comes around" meaning if you rack up bad karma, bad things happen to your characters.

Watch for the Karma in your next play through.

Originally posted by Gunslinger Matt:

The endings are violent because there are people so desperate that they found no other way to fight a tyrannical government.

I think we are in spoiler territory, but the game is about escaping and/or overthrowing a tyrannical regime. The velvet revolution argument is disingenuous, as it ignores the plot points of the game and glosses over the physical danger and power of the Tyrak regime.

Originally posted by zyzz:

Calling vandalism violence is a huge stretch when you're talking about drawing on posters that represent a regime that is putting children in concentration camps. If you insist though, it's clearly in self defense and defense of others, since vandalizing the posters is shown to be effective in getting the camps shut down. As for the rock, the rock thankfully doesn't care about what's painted on it. If the kids were collaring trees to get their message across, then you might be onto something. :staxelCow:

Civil disobedience is often misrepresented, as violent and nefarious. This kind of fallacious pearl clutching is a type of virtue signaling.

The same "vandalism" would be quickly defended as a freedom of speech issue, if it weren't for the progressive message of overthrowing an authoritarian dictatorship.


Now a spoiler for the unpleasant people who keep playing pretend that this game is somehow a conspiracy against their favorite tyrant, or that it promotes violence, or that is somehow corrupting the youth:
Tyrak literally attacked the citizens of Petria in 1986, not the Black Brigades. Defending this fictional leader of a fictional country says more about the person defending Tyrak than about the fictional character.

Even the most violent members of Black Brigade, specifically Robert, are shown to have reaped their karmic reward at the end. Jarod has Robert, and Robert is going to die a bad death. Violence = bad ends.

The whole point of the game is that voting is the best outcome you can hope for. That protest, not rioting, will reinforce the results of the vote. That civil disobedience and hard evidence will provide the best outcomes.

Road 96 has consequences for every violent and malicious action available in the game. Maybe take some time to really pay attention, instead of instantly jumping on team "defend the tyrant".

Watch the karma system. Pay attention to the actual plot line. Stop being obtuse.