Please don't make it political.

[Raubritter]

Don't inject contemporary, real-world politics and/or Reddit-tier cringe memes into the game.
To be clear I don't care about the devs' beliefs or opinions, just don't make the mistake to use your game as a vehicle to push an agenda, dividing the community and ruining immersion in the process.

Edit: typos

Edit 2: some people are to lazy to read, I guess strawmaning and insulting is easier. So here's what I posted on page 3:

I think my original post was not clear enough. Of course I don't mind issues that exist today (most relevant for this game, the threat of another World War) to be depicted in the game, hell it would be impossible not to do it given the setting.

What I meant is that modern issues that have nothing to do with war, or rampant industrialization (these seem to be the main themes of the game), and that already get talked about 24/7 even in contexts where it makes no sense, should be omitted IMO.

I say that for "both" sides of the current political spectrum by the way (though the old left-right divide is obsolete IMO.)
I don't want my scavenger to take a break from being hunted down by giant mechas to go on a rant about the gender pay gap, nor do I want him to talk about the damn migrants stealing his job. That's what I meant.

[rick073]

"War is Hell" is political, and is the main thing they're going for in the game.

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

Originally posted by rick073:

"War is Hell" is political, and is the main thing they're going for in the game.

Having political themes does not make the game political.

Bioshock is not political, despite being entirely about Ayn Rand Objectivism under the gritty biopunk ruins. Metal Gear Solid is not political despite being entirely about the criticism of war and all it's depraved motivations, despite the giant mechs and cyborg ninjas and wacky Kojima ♥♥♥♥. Slime Rancher is not political despite being a kids game that provides a nuanced and realistic criticism of work hustle culture, corporatism, the work life balance of high ranking officials and how it affects their families, and how the free market can be perverted into something poisonous for society, all while you feed cute chubby slimes their own crystallized fecal matter for fun. Disco Elysium, a game made by biased Belarusian commies with a vendetta against the world, is not political, despite EVERYTHING revolving around a failed communist state, a burgeoning black market economy, an entire underground society of homosexuals avoiding persecution, actual nazi-adjacent insurgents masquerading as "traditionalists," and all manner of nuanced and delusional takes on local and world politics.

So: A game being about politics or containing political world-building does not make a game political, it makes it political fiction. A game being political is any game randomly calling out, say, black people and crime statistics from notoriously unreliable law enforcement agencies, or how white supremacy is, was, and always will be the worst evil in the universe, or how Islam is a religion of jihadist pedophiles, or how Christianity is a religion is crusading pedophiles, or how women are victims despite being one being the 1st First Lady and another being the vice president of America, or how Men are victims because "Stacy went out with Chad" instead of the obese neckbeard, or how real communism has never been tried and that you, the player, ought to feel bad for owning a computer and (not) the games on it, you bourgeoisie sack of ♥♥♥♥.

I am sick of this willingly ignorant refusal to understand the separation being made. Propaganda is Propaganda and people are sick of paying for Propaganda. Modern day relevant issues should stay in the real world, unless the art in question is being advertised specifically to criticize the issue being discussed. I don't want my neon cyberpunk point and click to suddenly call me, the player, bigoted because the boss ♥♥♥♥♥ CEO of the biggest company in the setting still thinks women are somehow more oppressed than the rest of the working class being beaten to death by super-militarized police and gangbangers. Games can talk about real politics, and while they are still Political, if they are advertised as such, in their honesty are appreciated. RIOT literally provides the history and context of everything from Stonewall to the LA Riots to the Troubles and the developers openly advertise that and their opinions as such. and you can sway the riot to either side, even if the developers openly disagree with it. Real World Politics, Real World Opinions on the events in question, Real World Activism, but advertised as such. That game sold thousands of copies without much advertising at all.

TL;DR, because nobody has an attention span:
A game being about political themes or with political narratives is Not Political.
A game being used to openly propagandize a real world cause is Political.
A game being about something other than politics and never touching it is Not Political.
A game being injected with real world activism is Political.

People are willing to buy Political games if they are advertised as such.
People are sick of being tricked into buying Politicized games when there is no advertising as such.
People instinctively dislike causes that try to deceive or shame them into agreeing with them.

Addendum: To really hammer it in, the key difference is that Propaganda focuses on actual movements and issues in the context of a world where they are irrelevant or out of place or being deliberately advertised as critiques. A game playing with concepts and abstractions is not political simply because there is no real world movement attached and as such the movement cannot be preached or derided, even if there are coincidental or similarly relevant events and movements at the time of release.

[Kayneth]

Originally posted by Peregrino:

Don'rt inject contemporary, real-world politics and/or Reddit-tier cringe memes into the game.
To be clear I don't care about the devs' beliefs or opinions, just don't make the mistake to use your game as a vehicle to push an agena, dividing the community an ruining immersion in the process.

"Please don't make the game political" is in of itself a "Reddit-tier cringe meme".

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

/snip

Normal People: "Hey buddy, how's it going!"

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

Originally posted by Kayneth:

Normal People: "Hey buddy, how's it going!"

Normal People: "All to hell."

[Raubritter]

Originally posted by rick073:

"War is Hell" is political, and is the main thing they're going for in the game.

I think that's more of a philosophical point thanpolitical. Besides, I was talking about modern-day politics specifically. War is timeless.

[Jack The Dripper]

How is war is he'll political? It's a fact mass death is horrific

[Nerdlin Geeksly]

Not sure there's anything left of politics in this games world, It's just war, death, monsters, and survival.

[thomashooperh]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

Originally posted by rick073:

"War is Hell" is political, and is the main thing they're going for in the game.

Having political themes does not make the game political.

Bioshock is not political, despite being entirely about Ayn Rand Objectivism under the gritty biopunk ruins. Metal Gear Solid is not political despite being entirely about the criticism of war and all it's depraved motivations, despite the giant mechs and cyborg ninjas and wacky Kojima ♥♥♥♥. Slime Rancher is not political despite being a kids game that provides a nuanced and realistic criticism of work hustle culture, corporatism, the work life balance of high ranking officials and how it affects their families, and how the free market can be perverted into something poisonous for society, all while you feed cute chubby slimes their own crystallized fecal matter for fun. Disco Elysium, a game made by biased Belarusian commies with a vendetta against the world, is not political, despite EVERYTHING revolving around a failed communist state, a burgeoning black market economy, an entire underground society of homosexuals avoiding persecution, actual nazi-adjacent insurgents masquerading as "traditionalists," and all manner of nuanced and delusional takes on local and world politics.

You used an awful lot of words to say that you don't know what the word "political" actually means.

[pyr0kid]

ultimately, anything worth talking about is going to be political to someone.

the problem is not when things are political, its when things are ♥♥♥♥.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

Originally posted by rick073:

"War is Hell" is political, and is the main thing they're going for in the game.

Having political themes does not make the game political.

Gas lighting is the hallmark of the "current thing" brigade. So while you have a fair point. as a company using an entertainment medium for the sake of pushing a message will never be popular.

We live in an era most would define by the "culture war" and every medium is subject to be caught in the battle. Is it a good thing? Absolutely not. Though that is simply the nature of the beast because of the times we live in. Not to be a pessimist, but you could say we are in the "strife" period at the moment globally, which only ends one of two ways: global conflict or major economic disaster that leads to conflict. Because the only way conflicts end is one side subjugating (to put it kindly since I can't speak the truth on Steam) the radicals and powerful interests backing of the other side.

Or in short, the pendulum is going to keep swinging until people stop pushing the thing.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Originally posted by Peregrino:

Originally posted by rick073:

"War is Hell" is political, and is the main thing they're going for in the game.

I think that's more of a philosophical point thanpolitical. Besides, I was talking about modern-day politics specifically. War is timeless.

Some might say War is quite the Classic.

Joking aside, it's a popular perspective that has been iterated since the first world war. As we all know that from 200 B.C. to 1500 A.D. the kingdoms of old certainly had a more diverse perspective on war. To some an Art, to others the path to greatness, and to the rest a tragedy of the human experience.

I'd just call it human nature personally.

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

Originally posted by thomashooperh:

You used an awful lot of words to say that you don't know what the word "political" actually means.

Your right, it's stupid they are using the term "Political." I'm actually really frustrated that people aren't actively trying to disambiguate this. They should be saying "Politically motivated" instead of "Political," because then people like you wouldn't be able to play dumb in spite of the clarification that, believe it or not, a lot of people seem to agree with.

A game going into depth about the horrors and motivations of a massive war is not political, it's just good world building. A game shoehorning in, say, the Ukraine Russia conflict, or the emboldened Chinese invasions of Taiwan, or trying to incite a real world race war, and trying to boost sympathy for either side, is political, as in politically motivated, as in propaganda. That's the distinction. I hate repeating myself all the time on this.

[bel]

its inherently political like 90% of things in this world, i think only tetrist and pong are apolitical video games, also why are you asking this in an ANTI WAR GAME THE MOST POLITICAL GENRE THERE IS

[bel]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

Originally posted by thomashooperh:

You used an awful lot of words to say that you don't know what the word "political" actually means.

Your right, it's stupid they are using the term "Political." I'm actually really frustrated that people aren't actively trying to disambiguate this. They should be saying "Politically motivated" instead of "Political," because then people like you wouldn't be able to play dumb in spite of the clarification that, believe it or not, a lot of people seem to agree with.

A game going into depth about the horrors and motivations of a massive war is not political, it's just good world building. A game shoehorning in, say, the Ukraine Russia conflict, or the emboldened Chinese invasions of Taiwan, or trying to incite a real world race war, and trying to boost sympathy for either side, is political, as in politically motivated, as in propaganda. That's the distinction. I hate repeating myself all the time on this.

OH ok i get what you were cookin, the difference from political, to like, pushing an agenda

[Insomniac]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

lot of words

Completely agree. Can always have political themes and stories in its own world that doesn't deal with ours or propagandize real world causes. That's all i DONT want games to contain.