idk it certainly feels weird to me that videogames- even ones I don’t personally enjoy- are viewed as relevant enough to get this kind of political attention.
Realistically, if I take a step back from it I’m just stuck in 2008, but… yeah.
Besides, weird isn’t necessarily a requirement here. Just ‘it looks like satire but isn’t’.
Also: you have excellent taste in videogames. Noita is great.
Games do feel like an oddity as political outreach, but the more I think about the idea the more I think it has capabilities (as Lancelot Brown might have put it). With legacy media like papers, books, art, film, recorded music and all, you are a passive consumer of the media. With video games as art, you are an active participant and your choices define your experience with the work. Games like Planescape: Torment, Tyranny, and Disco Elysium are great examples where you’re expected to engage with political or moral ideas as a participant. You aren’t being treated as a receiver of propaganda per se, but as someone who can develop understanding and agency in the context of certain ideas, which seems like an improvement over propaganda in legacy media, don’t you think?
Narrative-driven games give players the illusion of choice. To me this seems like it would lend itself to being even more effective than traditional propaganda because it’s capable of tricking the player into thinking they came to a conclusion on their own.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Disco Elysium, but it isvery effective communist propaganda. Propaganda has a negative connotation but is not inherently bad or dishonest, though it certainly can be.
Every carefully crafted game has a deliberately narrowed scope in service of a vision. The saving grace of such deliberate textual framing is that when it’s done well you might notice it, but it gives you a shared point of reference with others in conversation. Instead of e.g. discussing racism in abstract, we can talk about how Measurehead, despite being everything his worldview espouses, is still ultimately a tiresome pawn.
I totally cede the point about framing, but not the one about DE being effective propaganda. To me it reads more like the author had a lot of complex feelings about communism’s promise and its shortcomings.
Narrative-driven games give players the illusion of choice.
What do you mean by this? There’s a finite amount of possibilities coded into the game? You only get (number) of possible choices so choice is an illusion?
I heard there have been concerts in Minecraft that were popular. Anything beats doing it in Zuckerberg’s whatever thing, imo. Virtual concerts seem lame certainly, but some enjoy it.
As for election propaganda, video games are big media. Bigger than Hollywood. Whatever my preferences, it would be absurd to expect it to be some kind of ideological dead zone.
Like I said I feel pretty disinterested, but more on grounds of taste than any firm feelings of social norms.
It’s certainly novel, but there aren’t many voters who will object to being reached out to on their own terms. The election will be the one to decide whether it’s stupid or not. It’d be far from the weirdest aspect of American culture, at any rate.
This isn’t weird, you just don’t like fortnite.
I don’t either, but I’m not exactly holding out for them to put a political ad scroll in noita.
Mina for president
If they’re not too busy being an upstart deity, they have my vote
idk it certainly feels weird to me that videogames- even ones I don’t personally enjoy- are viewed as relevant enough to get this kind of political attention.
Realistically, if I take a step back from it I’m just stuck in 2008, but… yeah.
Besides, weird isn’t necessarily a requirement here. Just ‘it looks like satire but isn’t’.
Also: you have excellent taste in videogames. Noita is great.
Games do feel like an oddity as political outreach, but the more I think about the idea the more I think it has capabilities (as Lancelot Brown might have put it). With legacy media like papers, books, art, film, recorded music and all, you are a passive consumer of the media. With video games as art, you are an active participant and your choices define your experience with the work. Games like Planescape: Torment, Tyranny, and Disco Elysium are great examples where you’re expected to engage with political or moral ideas as a participant. You aren’t being treated as a receiver of propaganda per se, but as someone who can develop understanding and agency in the context of certain ideas, which seems like an improvement over propaganda in legacy media, don’t you think?
Narrative-driven games give players the illusion of choice. To me this seems like it would lend itself to being even more effective than traditional propaganda because it’s capable of tricking the player into thinking they came to a conclusion on their own.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Disco Elysium, but it is very effective communist propaganda. Propaganda has a negative connotation but is not inherently bad or dishonest, though it certainly can be.
Every carefully crafted game has a deliberately narrowed scope in service of a vision. The saving grace of such deliberate textual framing is that when it’s done well you might notice it, but it gives you a shared point of reference with others in conversation. Instead of e.g. discussing racism in abstract, we can talk about how Measurehead, despite being everything his worldview espouses, is still ultimately a tiresome pawn.
I totally cede the point about framing, but not the one about DE being effective propaganda. To me it reads more like the author had a lot of complex feelings about communism’s promise and its shortcomings.
What do you mean by this? There’s a finite amount of possibilities coded into the game? You only get (number) of possible choices so choice is an illusion?
Yes, it is still weird. Wewve just gotten used to it.
The weirdness of that stuff is the reason people don’t like fortnite.
I’m not sure how to have a conversation about this if weirdness has a secret definition. What is normal but the weird stuff you’re used to in life?
I don’t have a comprehensive definition of “weird”. But having “concerts” and election propaganda in a multiplayer shooter isn’t weird to you?
I heard there have been concerts in Minecraft that were popular. Anything beats doing it in Zuckerberg’s whatever thing, imo. Virtual concerts seem lame certainly, but some enjoy it.
As for election propaganda, video games are big media. Bigger than Hollywood. Whatever my preferences, it would be absurd to expect it to be some kind of ideological dead zone.
Like I said I feel pretty disinterested, but more on grounds of taste than any firm feelings of social norms.
I don’t remember my election propaganda in real movies released during election season
Damn, that’s crazy
I already understand what you linked to, but that isn’t stuff about specific (not even a la roman a clef) candidates released during election season
I’ve played Fortnite many times. I just think it’s odd for a politician to create a map.
It’s certainly novel, but there aren’t many voters who will object to being reached out to on their own terms. The election will be the one to decide whether it’s stupid or not. It’d be far from the weirdest aspect of American culture, at any rate.