RPGMemes

RPGs, much like SF, have always been a mechanism to explore social issues in philosophy, governance, and thought. In Human society I don’t personally believe that “politics” can be avoided in any group anywhere. —of course that’s just one man’s opinion.

You can tell what someone’s politics are by what they consider political.

I was astonished at some of the Steam reviews of Outer Worlds after playing it. People proper pissed off that their experience had been ruined because there’s a female side character with an optional side quest where she wants a date with another woman. Like how thoroughly filled with hate do you have to be as a person, to be fine with all the mass killing but suddenly get a moralistic high horse about a fictional character going on a dinner date you don’t approve of.

Sad that Steam are making a comment of their own by allowing those reviews to stay up.

I disagree, because typically it means someone is racist or sexist and just doesn't want to see people of color or queer characters. Such people may still be willing to engage with the political aspects of their gaming insofar as they may join initiatives like Stop Killing Games or argue that game devs should be treated better, but they're just bigoted assholes who can't handle people of color or queer characters.

Also don't mistake this as a defense of them. They're deplorable. I'm just saying I don't agree with the statement as written.

What's the political assumption of pong?

I mean I don't disagree with the sentiment, the moment something has world building or a story or goals that relate to real life non-abstractly, there's at least a political assumption, potentially an intentional statement. And people just don't notice when it conforms to their world view. But politics free entertainment can exist, even if being able to engage in that entertainment necessarily requires some sort of engagement with real politic systems.

Though the most memorable games tend to be the ones very intentionally making statements anyway.

Actually it's hard to keep politic out of RPG.

In game, politic is what makes the game more than just killing random person you know the Princess who want to escape a political marriage, the advisor looking to become the lord, the church and and the merchant guild trying to gain influence ? All of that is politics. and all of that is what makes your campaign fun.

In real-life, like any other social activity especially if you get wider than a closed circle, politics get involved, your club need to talk with the mayor to get a slot in the municipal culture centre or rent a room in a school. Moreover, RPG tend to have a bad reputation and be not correct according to conservative which make it even more political than tons of other RPG, if you let church and right-winger tell you which hobby are acceptable you won't be able to play RPG

I absolutely want politics in gaming. Without it, we'd be stuck in the arcade era. Sure, sometimes I also like to zone out on puzzle games which are largely devout of it. Imagine The Witcher 1 without politics, is there even a game there?

I love politics in gaming, I loved Fallout 3, NV,4 (I still enjoyed it but to a lesser extent), Cyberpunk, and Outer Worlds 1/2. I love it when a game has multiple factions, I love when you get to really understand the politics of a fictional world, and I love stories involving politics.

only conservatives ever think about this, same goes for movies/shows with "too much inclusivity, and diversity"

~~This douchebag isn't exactly the most appropriate for this meme.~~

*First draft was the op crowder meme. Good on op for updating it.

All I want is more nice unpolitical games like Bioshock or Wolfenstein

And not the woke nonsense of having female or PoC main characters.

People do not all have the same working definition of "politics". Many people seem to use it to mean "overt content about contemporary issues", but that's not really a good definition.

If your game has sentient creatures with agency and desires, it has politics.

For example, if your game has a king, there's politics. Having the people accept monarchy is a political statement. It's not as hot-button as, say, having slavery, but it's still political.

You might not be surprised if your players react to a world with chattel slavery by trying to free the slaves and end that institution. The same mechanism may lead them to want to end absolute monarchy. They see something in the setting they perceive as unjust, and want to change it.

A lot of people are kind of... uncritical, about many things. They don't see absolute monarchy as "political" because it's a familiar story trope. They are happy to accept this uncritically so they can get to the fun part where you get a quest to slay the dragon. (Note that the target of killing the dragon rather than, say, negotiating or rehoming it is also political)

People then get frustrated because they feel stupid, and they're being blocked from pursuing the content they want. They just want to, for example, do a tactical mini game about fighting a big monster that spits fire. They don't want to talk about the merits of absolute monarchy or slaying sentient creatures.

It's okay to not always want to engage in the political dimension. That doesn't mean it's not there. If someone responds to the king giving you a quest with "wait, this is an absolute monarchy where the first born son becomes king? That's fucked up" they're not "making it political". It already was political.

If you present a man and a woman as monogamously married in your game, that's political. That's a statement. If you show a big queer polycule, that's also a statement. The latter will ping the aforementioned uncritical players as "political", because it's more atypical, but both are "political".

Some of this can be handled in session 0. But sometimes you learn that some people in the group have different tastes and probably shouldn't play together.

Same people who complain about Nazis being the enemy in Wolfenstein

EVERYTHING is politics. It absolutely affects every aspect of life, ESPECIALLY fascism

EVERYTHING is politics and the shitheads who complain are the ones who made it that way.

I mean sometimes I just want to take a break from thinking about it and larp as "The good guys" for a while

"I don't want to talk about/see politics" is always synonym to "I support the status quo, and I will aggressively reject anything that goes against it".

Nothing that happens on a public space is free of politics, even when it's not controversial.

they want something that won't challenge their preconceptions one iota. they don't care about artists crafting a story, they want slop that confirms their biases.

"Politics are genuinely fun and everyone wants to see them all the time, and the people who say they don't want to see it like it even more, they just wish they were seeing different politics." -hbomberguy

Ghost of Tsushima:

A Samurai and several of his battle-ready female companions try to reclaim their island after Mongol invasion.

I remember thinking "did they really have female warriors and lords back then who called the shots and fought alongside the men? I like the message, but a bit of realism would be nice...."

And then our brave stoic rugged Samurai literally prostrates himself in front of his lord/uncle at every opportunity constantly grovelling and professing how unworthy he is and how he seeks only to serve, and then I'm thinking "oh yeah... the stoic Samurai is a trope, they were either small militias or snivelling arms of the state."

So I'm okay with realism being bent if it means I'm not constantly questioning the values of my main character.

"Politics" or "the way one sees the world"?

Because I'm pretty sure there's a language disconnect regarding worldview.

A dev has their game reflect their worldview, and a social curmudgeon experiences political rhetoric cognitive dissonance, illustrating the incongruency and the fact that they are, indeed, a tool. ARRGHHH MUH FREEDOMS

I don't care about politics in my games (and shows/movies) as long as it fits into the world and into the story. A TV show examples for that is Torchwood. It has to be the most gay scify show (at least it is the most gay I know) but all of it fits together and I love the show, even as a totaly hetero/cis guy. It doesn't feel forced but is just how everything just it. Not sure if I can explain it good, hope it is somewhat to understand.

Honestly, with how things are right now politically - FAIR!

Let me roll some silly dice as a silly little guy while I ignore the prelude to another world war.