Pretty close to how I see it. (Destiny)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Tuesday, October 24, 2017, 18:24 (2632 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Note that when I mention abolitionists and civil rights advocates, I'm not just talking about those who were minorities. I certainly believe that the success of the 1960s civil rights movement owes a great debt to MLK's religious appeal to a mostly religious country. Successful non-violent revolutions depend on those with power having a conscience. I have to ask, based on your post, what is the other side of the non-violent revolution coin? I'm really having trouble parsing this sentence: "That just makes your minorities bloodthirsty savages." I don't know what "that" or "your minorities" refers to. The Vox uprising in the game is an amalgam--there are obvious similarities to Nat Turner's rebellion and to the Boshevik revolution, both of which were pretty freaking bloody.

The Vox and Founders do not have a master slave relationship, so Nat Turner is irrelevant. It completely parallels the situation of blacks in the USA in the mid century, so Boshevik is irrelevant. I mean dude, the game is drenched with historical Americana and notions of white superiority.

Sure. Columbia is the worst of America in relief, and maybe Levine's gutsiest move was not adhering to today's identity politics construction of history. Racism is not the sole domain of the powerful. Violence is not either. Both are contagions orviruses, and both live on generation after generation.

But it ignores the reality of how the civil rights movement in America was actually won. The way the Vox behaved… perhaps the founders were right to oppress them. That's what's uncomfortable. The game cops out by saying both sides are equally bad. That's a chickenshit way to make a game that aspires to great ideas.

It ignores all kinds of reality. It's a city floating in the fricking sky. I sense that you want it to have a certain message, and I say it's better and more interesting piece of art because it does make us uncomfortable, and it doesn't provide a didactic message, except maybe that history presents us with certain patterns, and those patterns tend to repeat. Maybe recognizing those patterns helps us understand with compassion how we got here, and not be so self-righteous that we're better than all who came before. Of course the game is also about gaming, and the limits to our agency in that activity. There's a lot to unpack--it's a shaggy monster of a game that has its flaws, but I'm very glad it exists.