Political illiteracy is required to enjoy MGR:R if you are anything right of anti-capitalist.
The games end theme of non interventionist foreign policy, anti-imperialism, anti-corruption and America being so unhinged they’ll take children’s brains to turn into soldiers to benefit the war economy were what… side plot?
In fact the overt references to American imperialism and cruel foreign policy and anti-humanism are actually just one writers artistic licence and not the games inherent message /s.
The game is in fact a right wing carrion call for further military action /s.
Anyone who thinks this is a right wing game also thinks covid vaccines turns you gay.
It’s neoliberal af but can’t we just have a treat once in a while without angry cis het virgins crying about how HoI4 wasn’t turned into a Netflix original?
The perils of parody. If you do anything that isn’t explicitly, full-throatedly, 100% unequivocally… fuck, who are we kidding? You’d just get some dipshit Randroid insisting this was an allegory for Evil Communism and thank god they put Dan Crenshaw in the game to make sure America wins.
The first bossfight disappointed me so much by its very existence I gave up on the whole experience why are there even bossfights at all in my walking simulator
Chuds get mad at games that either A) have explicit, overt sympathy for socialism (Disco Elysium) or B) focus on the perspective of women, non-white people, LGBTQ people, or all of those at once (Night in the Woods, Life is Strange, Gone Home, etc). Since chuds are largely media illiterate, they mostly get mad at B and merely get confused by A.
The final boss of the game isn’t a nuclear armed walking mecha - it’s a giant piece of mining equipment. I don’t know if you can have a boss fight more thematic that that.
When will people stop talking about this culture war nonsense like “neo nazism” that we all know is nonsense politics and focus on the real political issues like pronouns in video games
They want to get back to wholesome nonpolitical historically accurate stories where a grizzled middle aged father figure white man uses lots of violence against dehumanized others to avenge his fridged wife and/or rescue/protect some camera-oogled teenage daughter figure.
I think chud , whether they’re 15 year olds getting poisoned by and Andrew Tate or 50 year old divorce dads getting poisoned by, well, and Andrew Tate, have a hard time even visualizing what a living family that loves them might look like so it has to be postmortem revenge or estranged violence-will-win-them-back edginess.
You bring this up a lot but the only game I can think of that comes close to matching this description is TLOU, and I wouldn’t call that a bad game and I don’t think the narrative is inherently right wing or anything. Obviously chuds did end up loving it because their reaction to TLOU2 shows they were attached to Joel (despite Joel being a morally grey character at best, who was always going to meet the violent end that he did meet. And I think Naughty Dog intended for that so I think much like characters like Walter White they didn’t really write the character to have the hero worship he got.) Also does the camera ogle Ellie in the original? I haven’t actually played the game lmao but I’m not aware of it doing so and it doesnt in the footage I’ve seen. I think perverts that sexualized her just imposed their sexuality on her regardless.
Bioshock Infinite has the daughter figure that gets male gazed, but I dont think she’s underage? And the enemies aren’t dehumanized others really. Its also a mess of a game narratively that both sides racism of course but yaknow.
If there’s other games like that I’m not aware of them. Or I’m forgetting about them.
Not trying to challenge or argue just kind of curious what games you are referring to when you say this.
You bring this up a lot but the only game I can think of that comes close to matching this description
There’s shades of it in Bioshock (no fridged wife, but definitely defend/protect the daughter), Gears of War at the very start (fridged wife is the primary plot motivator), God of War (dead wife as plot motivator at the very start), the Witcher series (adopted daughter figure as a primary motivator and one of the only people the narrative rails don’t punish the player for trying to be nice to them), and its all over the Walking Dead games, the Dishonored series (though the daughter is given more agency and playability as time goes on so I guess there’s that) and it’s in the bones of the Fatal Frame series with some cliche-bending twists (such as playing the daughter figure and the father figure being absent) but in some ways it’s worse there when it comes to overall creepiness, and the above examples are just off the top of my head. There’s more but it’s a blur because I noticed that avenge-dead-wife-and/or-rescue/protect-daughter-figure plot cliche so many times I started rejecting it in advance.
but I dont think she’s underage
Dubiously aged is often the point, where there’s wiggle room to escape controversy while still inviting titillation (anime/manga does this all the time with “she is actually 1000 years old but looks and acts and talks like a child” tactics), especially because that character in Bioshock is both the player protagonist’s daughter and is constantly showing cleavage shots on the promotional material, which makes her age less of a hurdle to cleanly clear when it comes to getting s off.
OK I’m mostly with you here. I’m putting my foot down on The Walking Dead Telltale game being included in this! Clementine isn’t sexualized in the slightest, not a teenager, and is a well developed character with her own agency. And the relationship between her and Lee is sweet, not weird. I know your focus is the narrative device in general but I feel icky putting Clem in the same category as Elizabeth lol.
It also helps that Clem becomes the player character in the sequels.
Also I havent played the Witcher games but from what I know of them I think Ciri deserves a bit more credit than that as well, even if I can see how it fits into the general category of the plot device.
ETA: No arguments about the prevalence of fridging though.
Political illiteracy is required to enjoy MGR:R if you are anything right of anti-capitalist.
The games end theme of non interventionist foreign policy, anti-imperialism, anti-corruption and America being so unhinged they’ll take children’s brains to turn into soldiers to benefit the war economy were what… side plot?
In fact the overt references to American imperialism and cruel foreign policy and anti-humanism are actually just one writers artistic licence and not the games inherent message /s.
The game is in fact a right wing carrion call for further military action /s.
Anyone who thinks this is a right wing game also thinks covid vaccines turns you gay.
It’s neoliberal af but can’t we just have a treat once in a while without angry cis het virgins crying about how HoI4 wasn’t turned into a Netflix original?
The perils of parody. If you do anything that isn’t explicitly, full-throatedly, 100% unequivocally… fuck, who are we kidding? You’d just get some dipshit Randroid insisting this was an allegory for Evil Communism and thank god they put Dan Crenshaw in the game to make sure America wins.
British media killed satire and Saturday night live killed parody.
Like when Tim Pool said Parasite was anti-communist and that he “couldn’t see” how anyone thought otherwise
Dim Tool strikes again.
Exactly
in the same way that there is no such thing as an antiwar movie, there is no such thing as an antichud video game
I think some come close, like those “walking simulators” that they foamed with rage about for the last decade.
I wish Death Stranding had more walking and less throwing piss at ghosts
That would disappoint @[email protected]
The first bossfight disappointed me so much by its very existence I gave up on the whole experience why are there even bossfights at all in my walking simulator
Chuds get mad at games that either A) have explicit, overt sympathy for socialism (Disco Elysium) or B) focus on the perspective of women, non-white people, LGBTQ people, or all of those at once (Night in the Woods, Life is Strange, Gone Home, etc). Since chuds are largely media illiterate, they mostly get mad at B and merely get confused by A.
The final boss of the game isn’t a nuclear armed walking mecha - it’s a giant piece of mining equipment. I don’t know if you can have a boss fight more thematic that that.
You can if you close your eyes and brain.
The nuclear armed walking mecha was the tutorial boss
I read this comment, and that night I had a dream I was going up a giant mobile dredging machine in an asbestos mine
Good thing these right wingers are politically illiterate and media illiterate!
They couldn’t spot fascism if it wore Hugo boss smh
They can’t spot a political message if it’s already comfortable and cozy to them.
When will people stop talking about this culture war nonsense like “neo nazism” that we all know is nonsense politics and focus on the real political issues like pronouns in video games
They want to get back to wholesome nonpolitical historically accurate stories where a grizzled middle aged father figure white man uses lots of violence against dehumanized others to avenge his fridged wife and/or rescue/protect some camera-oogled teenage daughter figure.
Extra points if his daughter died in the opening
I think chud
, whether they’re 15 year olds getting poisoned by 
and Andrew Tate or 50 year old divorce dads getting poisoned by, well, 
and Andrew Tate, have a hard time even visualizing what a living family that loves them might look like so it has to be postmortem revenge or estranged violence-will-win-them-back edginess.
I think you might be right but good luck telling
that
Lol i have that but because of trauma so
Doesn’t mean I wish violence to get the love i’m missing.
You bring this up a lot but the only game I can think of that comes close to matching this description is TLOU, and I wouldn’t call that a bad game and I don’t think the narrative is inherently right wing or anything. Obviously chuds did end up loving it because their reaction to TLOU2 shows they were attached to Joel (despite Joel being a morally grey character at best, who was always going to meet the violent end that he did meet. And I think Naughty Dog intended for that so I think much like characters like Walter White they didn’t really write the character to have the hero worship he got.) Also does the camera ogle Ellie in the original? I haven’t actually played the game lmao but I’m not aware of it doing so and it doesnt in the footage I’ve seen. I think perverts that sexualized her just imposed their sexuality on her regardless.
Bioshock Infinite has the daughter figure that gets male gazed, but I dont think she’s underage? And the enemies aren’t dehumanized others really. Its also a mess of a game narratively that both sides racism of course but yaknow.
If there’s other games like that I’m not aware of them. Or I’m forgetting about them.
Not trying to challenge or argue just kind of curious what games you are referring to when you say this.
There’s shades of it in Bioshock (no fridged wife, but definitely defend/protect the daughter), Gears of War at the very start (fridged wife is the primary plot motivator), God of War (dead wife as plot motivator at the very start), the Witcher series (adopted daughter figure as a primary motivator and one of the only people the narrative rails don’t punish the player for trying to be nice to them), and its all over the Walking Dead games, the Dishonored series (though the daughter is given more agency and playability as time goes on so I guess there’s that) and it’s in the bones of the Fatal Frame series with some cliche-bending twists (such as playing the daughter figure and the father figure being absent) but in some ways it’s worse there when it comes to overall creepiness, and the above examples are just off the top of my head. There’s more but it’s a blur because I noticed that avenge-dead-wife-and/or-rescue/protect-daughter-figure plot cliche so many times I started rejecting it in advance.
Dubiously aged is often the point, where there’s wiggle room to escape controversy while still inviting titillation (anime/manga does this all the time with “she is actually 1000 years old but looks and acts and talks like a child” tactics), especially because that character in Bioshock is both the player protagonist’s daughter and is constantly showing cleavage shots on the promotional material, which makes her age less of a hurdle to cleanly clear when it comes to getting
s off.
OK I’m mostly with you here. I’m putting my foot down on The Walking Dead Telltale game being included in this! Clementine isn’t sexualized in the slightest, not a teenager, and is a well developed character with her own agency. And the relationship between her and Lee is sweet, not weird. I know your focus is the narrative device in general but I feel icky putting Clem in the same category as Elizabeth lol.
It also helps that Clem becomes the player character in the sequels.
Also I havent played the Witcher games but from what I know of them I think Ciri deserves a bit more credit than that as well, even if I can see how it fits into the general category of the plot device.
ETA: No arguments about the prevalence of fridging though.
:chefs-kiss:
Thank you all 🫂
Carry-on call also works