+1000 (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, February 22, 2021, 15:59 (1157 days ago) @ Malagate

We know only that they're not going to try to address the politics. That doesn't mean that the game can't have an impact on how people feel about war. That impact could very well persuade them to take a political position that many of the critics agree with. That's not good enough for some people--even though it might be more effective than making a game leaning into a political narrative.

We know that their goal is to attempt to show something close to the objective reality of what happened to certain people at a certain time in a a certain place. If such a thing is not possible, why do we bother to communicate?

Way late to the party here, but such a thing certainly is possible. The undeniably political issue here is the context from which they are attempting to render it. Even if the last thing the devs want to do is delve into the geopolitical (or boots-on-the-ground locally political) effects of the conflict; they are going to be doing so by default. This echoes a point Cody made up-thread.

Because a historical event has controversial political narratives around it doesn't mean it's not worth focusing on individual stories connected to that event without addressing the potltics. You say they can't help but be political, but that denies any objectivity from anyone, in which case why not just present whatever best serves their preferred political narrative?

It is quite the privileged (and I would go so far as to say bordering on ignorant) stance to take that rendering a contemporary conflict as entertainment could somehow be selectively done and not incur some serious backlash.

Do you think they take that stance? Do you think they don't know it's a challenge? They surely expect some backlash, because it's 2021 and...

All art is political, full stop. This is a fairly well-established school of thought.

It is, and I'm very familiar with that school of thought, and I believe it is wrong-headed and lacks imagination. It inevitably leads to people saying things like "everything is political." Worse yet, they believe what they're saying and act like it, thereby making everything political in their domain, using politics as the measure of all. It's quite depressing.

Anything a person (or company) creates and brings to life is an artifact of its context and the perspective of the creator at that time.

Yes, but that's not the same thing as being political. There is more context than political. There is more perspectives than the political. Most of all, there is more to creators than the political. At least if they don't themselves subscribe to the belief that that's the motivation behind why they create, in which case, they aren't creating art, but I repeat myself.

All they are doing by insisting that they aren't going to be engaging with the political aspects is leaving it up to everyone else that experiences their efforts within the context of the real world.

Perhaps the way to look at it is they're trying to present a limited slice of the real world, and they respect their audience enough to know that the audience will provide context and knowledge of larger events, or, this game will spark their audience's desire to know more.

Personally, I think that's kind of reckless, but if they want to handle things that way it's their perogative. I have a feeling they're going to come to regret it.

That sounds ominous, like they could have some punishment coming their way for making something the authorities won't approve of. Let's face it, the game could be very political in the correct direction, and it wouldn't be enough for those in twitterville who won't like it because they believe someone at that studio is a fascist or some other grotesque distortion.

~m