"I don't want Politics in my Gaming!"
Seriously. Every form of entertainment has baked-in political assumptions, and that definitely includes #ttrpg . You might choose not to examine them, but this is an active choice on your part, and you don't get to pretend that your entertainment is "free of politics".
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Do the world and yourself a favor, and use this template instead.
Done. Thanks for the suggestion!
What template was he using before?
Steven Crowder
This douchebag isn't exactly the most appropriate for this meme.*First draft was the op crowder meme. Good on op for updating it.
He changed it to Calvin, but this comment is hilarious now.
Now it's like...
Deleted by creator
This template really needs to die.
Edit: this was meant for the Crowder template. Calvin is cool.
Your comment now serms hilariously hostile after the edit.
I came here after the edit and got scared that Watterson did something.
This comment is really funny now that OP is using the new format, please leave it up.
Hah, gotta edit it at least a bit. I'll leave the original viewable.
"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.
Just MLK's white moderate doing white moderate things. Funny how shit don't change.
I don't like politics in ttrpgs because that means less time SMITING and more time with boring words. Unless the politicians are secretly vampires, then I can keep SMITING.
NO TALK ONLY SMITE.
This post has been brought to you by the palabian gang.
Now with the vampire politicians gone you can help shape the new government of the city
Anything they see in there that goes against their own personally DESIRED to be status quo is an insult. Theyve just got shit views so well rounded culture shocks them and it reminds them all about how their shit stinks and they aren't really all that smart or morally sound. Cause if they were, they wouldn't have identified with any that stuff to begin with or realized the perils.
And it makes them know the cringe at how they're viewed (but they say its just how they're PORTRAYED to pass the buck on being that way being their own fault and indicative of their lack of stats and general lack of character) 😄😂
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.
Steam definitely has a libertarian streak, seemingly. I wish I had started switching over to GOG a lot sooner.
How DARE you make your game try to reflect reality.
While I haven't read those reviews, I think the implications of Steam removing reviews would be worse, since they would effectively be manipulating the user score of a game. User reviews are just that, user reviews. The score should indicate what users think, whatever their reasons may be for thinking it, no?
I don't disagree with the rest of what you said though.
EVERYTHING is politics and the shitheads who complain are the ones who made it that way.
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
that's not politics. That's just normal people getting offended at things. It's normal because it's not possible to please everyone at once so there will always be someone.
I feel like a lot of people, who complain about politics in gaming are not choosing to examine/not examine the political assumptions, they are simply not realising that they’re there. Often these themes reside deeper in the storytelling so you have to actually engage with it to be aware of them. People who complain about it only choose a handful of topics to be mad about, because they are against it.
No. Their politics is being default to the point they can completely avoid self awareness.
Exactly. What they're really mad about is the fact that there's a black person, a gay person, or woman with normal sized tits in the game.
I hate normal sized tits!
/s Just in case 😄
normal sized tits are such a rarity
That may be the case for some people, but a lot of people just want some good lighthearted fun without any of the real world implications attached to it. This obviously doesn't excuse bigoted mindsets. I'm talking about campaigns where me and my players just want to do some good old goblin slaying without the need for anyone to chime in with a "UM actshually those goblins have families too".
Aren't goblins ontologically evil in most DND settings? That should take care of that specific issue anyway.
Nah, they've long fallen to the usual cycle of "here is a species of interesting antagonistic creatures" -> "Oh wow, that sounds interesting. I want to play them" -> "Yeah sure, here's a playbale variant of that species. We've removed all traces of evilness and uniqueness because god forbid players playing evil characters". Same as Drow, Orcs, Fairies and Goliath.
It's not just their inherent evil nature BTW. It's also stuff like daylight sensitivity.
I mean I can understand having occasional exceptions to the rule so the players can get an interesting non standard experience, but straight evil aligned critters should always be present in fantasy settings especially ttrpg and DND specifically.
I'm not sure about always. That's just lazy world building to have orcs naturally evil instead of predominantly mind controlled or ruled by evil leaders or some sort of blood fued. It's the same with good aligned races. Unless you want to focus on the definition of good and evil.
Easy moral patch: These specific goblins have all made unambiguously evil choices that warrant a good slaying. Like kicking dogs. You're not slaying goblins because they're goblins, you're slaying dog-kickers that happen to be goblins. There are plenty of goblins who do not kick dogs, but they're not a part of this fight.
This is still a political statement that dog kickers are evil. I doubt anyone would mind that, and those that do are better off leaving my table anyway.
Or, you know. We could just ignore those pseudo-moral excuses and do some good old goblin slaying because they're in the dungeon, laying traps and we want the loot. Not everything needs 12 layers of logical depth. Sure, it's fun to explore moral implications from time to time, but more often than not, no one cares.
But you're making the statement that it's okay to kill people if you want their stuff. The politics are there even if you don't choose to examine them.
No, I'm not. Because my mental development moved past three years old and I'm able to differentiate reality from fiction. Do you also believe that Super Mario players advocate for animal cruelty towards turtles?
Have you taken any literature or maybe other media classes at the 200 level?
Sometimes people say really weird things and I wonder if they just don't know any better. Maybe they're a teenager.
But like "fact from fiction" is irrelevant here. No one's saying Dracula is non-fiction, but you can still read it and take meaning from the text. Furthermore, it's not just a story about a guy who bites people. The read on how women are expected to behave is pretty obvious, for example.
You don't have to care about the subtext of "kill all the goblins and take their stuff", but saying there is no subtext or "no one cares" is absurd and self-centered.
That's an interesting point you make and I partly agree. There are certain undertones and sometimes you can create a better story by engaging these undertones and creating a monster in noble clothing and a metaphor for the societal corset women are forced ro wear.
But other times I just want to enjoy a trash movie or 15$ airport library book. And the undertones there are purely accidental and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Both forms of entertainment serve their purpose and you can insist on pointing out the political statements and societal undertones in a cheap slasher movie. but that doesn't make you smart or enlightened. It just makes you an ass who enjoys shitting on other people's lighthearted entertainment.
And one last note: "'fact from fiction' is irrelevant here". No, it's not. If someone accuses me of encouraging mindless slaughter of people based on some mindless dungeon crawling, then it does matter. Because that's exactly the idiotic killer games argument of the early 2000s that has been disproved 100s of times! Killing goblins in a ttrpg has absolutely nothing to do with any moral standpoints I hold outside of the game and only an idiot would believe otherwise!
I mean the statement is being made within the universe. Super Mario does advocate for violence against koopas. You don't have to examine it, but that doesn't make it apolitical.
All I want is more nice unpolitical games like Bioshock or Wolfenstein
And not the woke nonsense of having female or PoC main characters.
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.
I learned after the fact, that most of Torchwood is just how John Barrowman is. He insisted on having a scene with a shirtless Stephen Amell in Arrow as well.
Maybe that why it feels so "real" and "authentic" and not just forced onto the story.
I haven't actually seen Torchwood, but I am skeptical that it could possibly be gayer than my beloved Sense8.
I do like that era of Doctor Who though, so maybe I should check this out for myself...
I never seen Sense8, so yes there is the possiblity that it is gayer then Torchwood.
The last TV season of Torchwood has unfortunately a huge open ending, but Big Finish has very good audio dramas to cover that if needed/wanted.
"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
“I don’t want politics in my gaming” = “I stopped growing, emotionally, the first time I saw Jugga in Conker’s Bad Fur Day”
Feels kind of ironic using Chowder for this meme, but I agree with the message :P
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.
It means “I don’t believe in anything and my media must reflect the status quo of (my) politics or I will throw a little baby tantrum because you dared to make me think about the cost of the comfort I enjoy”
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?
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.
Glancing at Wikipedia for any Pong discourse. Found a likely example. Turns out Pong had a bug (read: feature) that contributed to its place as the first commercial success in video games. Quote,
So, Pong established the concept of video games systematically favouring the rich. Are we there yet, is that political enough?
There is still no political assumption in the game itself. Of course the moment you consider the means of acquiring it, everything touches on politics, even going to the forest and throwing a random stick, because forests existing is politics, them being accessible is politics, and you being allowed (or not) to throw a random stick is politics. That doesn't make the concept of "throw stick at target for fun" political.
Alright yes, if you deliberately draw a circle around a portion of your entertainment and say "this is the part I like because it's not political!" that's still a political choice, which is the entire point OP is making, ICYMI.
Everything is political, even the choice to isolate one thing as non-political. The fact is that politics are only escapable if you're privileged to be the kind of person who gets to say "shut up about politics, I'm trying to play Pong!"
Yeah generally when talking about a thing you draw a circle around the thing, that's how that works. My glass from ikea isn't making any political statement or assumption in its design as a finished product (unless you consider presumed size requirement for a beverage container to be political, though inherently nothing about it even states its purpose, so even that is doubtful) the process behind its design, manufacturing, and sale very much is political as fuck though.
You slightly moved the goalposts there. The assertion is not "Everything is making a political statement" it's "Everything is political." Your ikea glass reflects your social class, the international relations between where you are and where it was made. It may have been made by an oppressed person in some third world shithole (or even sweden!) It may even be a political statement, like a designer somewhere made it curvy because he thinks people are more likely to buy something with a "feminine" silhouette.
Okay, well I'm drawing a circle around how much more interesting it is to talk about politics than whatever this was.
Pong represents the slow but inevitable march towards socialism
That's a false argument your are making here.
First : it's a TTRPG group. You can't have TTRPG without world building, story goals, etc.
Second : Pong is not a TTRPG. AFAIK.
Third : In case you don't know, people who tend to say "no politics in my gaming" (like gamergaters) actually do a very political statement as for them "being black" or "being gay" or "being a woman" etc. is often seen as "politics in [their] gaming".
Sure, you can try to argue with the words, but it's not just words, they exists in a context and the context is that it's a fascist dog whistle.
The statement was "every form of entertainment". Tbh tho yea i didnt really notice it being rpgmemes so it wasnt super relevant, that statement was surely not just meant for ttrpgs tho.
I fully agree you can't have a ttrpg without political assumptions
Closest I've got, which I'm surprised nobody has mentioned, is the very concept that entertainment is a worthwhile pursuit, and that we aren't made solely to work. Pong serves no functional utility, which is a statement unto itself.
That said, it feels a bit like a cop out to me, from what that quote is supposed to mean. I'd be content to rephrase it to "any sufficiently complex entertainment has politics in it". For example, I feel like this could almost certainly be said about stories in general, but I'd struggle to find the politics in many simple children's books, besides "children should be read to". Although the more I think about it, teaching all children to read was once quite political.
Children's stories have tons of politics. They're almost always intentionally pushing a message of some kind, like "Be nice to ugly people because they might turn out to be really hot and/or magical later."
We are trying to indoctrinate children though
Pong is competitive rather than cooperative, and I find that very meaningful.
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.
Yes agree, scheming and politicking can make the game mechanics really work.
Feminism ruined video games means i cant play a video game without thinking about it from a feminist point of view lol
calvin >>>>>>>> that conservative cunt
If it has a story it’s political
If it involves people it's political.
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
The politics those people wish to avoid is things like the princess wanting to escape a political marriage because she's gay
They don't mind politics just so long as it's not gender or identity politics
The Irony, is that while at least in my local community, the young generation includes a lot of openly neurodivergent gay/enbi players, I feel like that the reason why the theme is so sensitive for older player is that many of the older player never thought the time to question about-it, you know, the 50 year old "straight" conventionally attractive long term single who always play the other gender, may not just be too busy to date
I'm in a pretty progressive city. My group's 60 year old man was married to his husband. The rest of us are in our 40s and I'm pretty sure wouldn't even notice same sex couples or cross dressing (though, in worlds with magic, proper transition ought to be available so no one might be able to notice anything but magician shopfronts advertising sex changes)
It means "I don't want politics that I don't agree with in the game"
You can assign politics to anything, so it really up to you to bring that in.
If you are going to allow yourself to get testicular torsion over a gender swapped character or having to play a character that is not your gender, than enjoy yourself.
Over all I do agree with you. When I play it is to unwind and not think about anything other than the electronic challenges in front of me or the mindless grind, whatever I am in the mood for.
Incidently that is one of the many things I loved about GOW 2018. You could go do the puzzles and combat or you could just go grind to your hearts content.
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.
Meanwhile every Ubisoft title, no matter how inoffensive, add the disclaimer:
only conservatives ever think about this, same goes for movies/shows with "too much inclusivity, and diversity"
Politics in gaming is awesome, ham fisted writing and design wrapped up in an opinion lecturing the player so it breaks the universe ruleset is crap and does more damage to what ever message you were trying to push.
Sadly a lot of socially important messages are pushed as a selling point by people who don't really have the background to fully create a bridge that speaks to People.
This is the same for a lot of creative work our artists are increasingly coming from privileged and protected backgrounds that we're losing the depth and edge of the art. Indie games as usual are the standard games like Star dew address so much about humanity in a beautiful way.
I play crusader kings for the plot not the politics😄
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.
When I say "I don't want politics in my gaming," I mean it literally.
Like, I don't care for the Star Wars prequels because they spend a lotta time just doing politics instead of space battles.
I don't wanna sit through boring ass senate sessions listening to motions and passing votes. I wanna blow shit up!
Let me introduce you to Spec Ops the Line. A game where wanting to blow stuff up is the political statement.
So, you want less bureaucracy and more warfare? That's a pretty bold political statement right there. I'm sure there's nothing political about war.
Imagine if you had to file paperwork for every demon killed in Doom. You'd practically never be killing demons after the first level because of all fhe paperwork from all the demons you killed in the first level!
Nah, you'd just write up the first level in an Incident Report covering multiple dead demons. And more to the point, both bureaucracy and warfare are forms of politics, so killing demons is still a form of politics, with or without paperwork.
I think there's a middle ground where the game 'world' can acknowledge there are political maneuverings happening, while not forcing you to track the shipments of food and goods so you can squeeze nobles who depend on certain economic routes into complying with the king's orders to rally troops for a cause.
Bounty orders style campaigns are fun for a short while, but there's only so many 'go here, kill x, biggest change is the layout of the dungeon and enemy vulnerabilities' before the game sessions all bleed into one long blurry dice roll. That's close to warhammer/battletech/etc territory. I want a real story to go with the campaign, and that necessitates a 'politics' somewhere unless you're playing one of the barbarian/end-of-the-world games where there is no civilization or npcs at all aside from enemies.
But I think we can all agree that the "politics" of motions and passing votes is not what was being addressed by OP.
Prequels? You don't think the original Star Wars had tons of politics in it?
So you don't like narratives involving politics. That's a very different statement to "I don't want politics in my gaming."
I'm very curious what political message shapez is sending. It's a factory building game that takes place in a seeming void where magical shapes appear out of nowhere and then simply get thrown into what appears to be a black hole there's no particular discernible story or message just a fun puzzle
My thought?
The factory grows. This is good. You must shut up and let the factory grow. The factory grows. The factory must grow.
I mean sometimes I just want to take a break from thinking about it and larp as "The good guys" for a while
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ame0j8jbMY4
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.
I'm not super familiar with either the game or Japanese history, but I found this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha
It seems that women were regarded more equally prior to confucianism.
The page for the game says:
Totally-not-samurai-looking armor:
Yeah I've made peace with what I want from the game, because period-perfect accuracy would be way too jarring to stomach
"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
It's a classic case is "What I do is my world view, what you do is politics." Maybe sometimes the more radical variant "What I do is reality, what you do is politics."
You know, like the older version of that, "What I do is religion, what you do is superstition."
When talking to people, especially on the right side of the political spectrum, it's sadly quite common that people cannot separate their opinion from reality.
"faith based"
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.
man I just wanna play my lyre and have an adventure and have fun. I don't wanna argue over politics. I game to get away from all that.
I think it's ok to want to have some space between stuff.
Respectfully; if we aren’t close and it doesn’t come up organically in game, I’m super not interested in hearing political opinions in games. While they may have some degree of politics baked in, that doesn’t mean Im interested in hearing people interpretation of them beyond gameplay. I play games to relax and socialise in a friendly, respectful setting.
That includes if I agree. I see this “if they don’t, they agree with the status quo/don’t want to deal/etc” used frequently but people who borderline grandstand in front of people who they know likely share their view are insufferable. At least that been my experience the one time someone has brought up politics at a table. Then again I avoid public/rand tables for a reason these days. Not saying all political discussion goes thay way at a table but the image just paints it in a very binary manner.
Nah some people genuinely just want an escape from the world. Politics is a shit show right now and is always in our faces while many of us feel helpless.
If you want mindless slop, then play it. It certainly exists. Real art and proper storytelling makes you feel things and reflects the the world we live in.
You can have a story without AI slop or politics.
I wasn't talking about AI slop. With "slop," I meant mindless games that don't take any position on anything.
IMHO, the best games are ones that make you feel something or question something critically. You can have games that make a political statement and are fun to play. Helldivers, GTA, BioShock, Disco Elysium, etc. If you're uncomfortable with the point that a game is making, then that's on you (and is the point of OPs comic).
There are certainly plenty of games that take no political stance on anything that I'm sure you can numb your mind with. Just play something else if you are feeling too judged.
For some people an escape from the world is cute squirrel who can't remember where they buried all their treasures. Others will cry that the squirrel is unnecessarily political because they don't use he or she pronouns.
Some people do make politics their personality and can find it in anything.
Agreed. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's a big difference between playing a gay character and derailing the entire campaign because you choose to lead a gay rights movement while the world is being overrun by the demon king's hordes.
I don't care about the former and have done so myself, but I'll boot you from my table for the later. Not because I'm against gay rights, but because that's not the kind of story I'm interested in DMing and you're free to find a DM who's interested in this storyline, but you won't take my campaign and players hostage for your narcissistic urge for self-promotion!
This maps kind of easily onto "We can't fight for gay rights right now. They just blew up the twin towers!" or similar "wait your turn for justice" arguments.
I get the impression that you don't see that kind of thing, and furthermore don't care. You run whatever kind of game you want, but I would be surprised if your settings weren't full of unexamined biases and defaults.
Lol, nice strawman you built there. There's no need to "wait your turn for justice". Just get yourself a group who enjoys that kind of campaign and you're good to go! This isn't a "We can't fight for gay rights right now. They just blew up the twin towers" scenario.
In fact, you're arguing exactly like the people on the opposite side: "How dare you care about gay rights. We need thoughts and prayers for the 9/11 victims right now and everyone who doesn't focus entirely on thoughts and prayers is a terrorist supporter!" That's your argument right there!
I dunno man, you're the one that said the players can't talk focus on gay rights now. there's a demon invasion. Which, again, maps pretty cleanly to that kind of attitude. But I think you might be the kind of person who doesn't understand subtext, or maybe text.
How come gay people don't already have rights in your setting?
They do. Doesn't stop dipshits from arguing though. Case in point.
That doesn't make any sense. If they already have rights then what are they arguing for?
As I wrote in my original post, some people just have a narcissistic need for self-promotion. They will preach to the choir and bring irrelevant political topics into the game because they feel like the real world doesn't appreciate their valiant efforts towards weaponized inclusivity enough.
Your language choices give a phobic vibe, just FYI. "[...] they feel like the real world doesn't appreciate their valiant efforts towards weaponized inclusivity enough." Like you know they're suffering actual IRL oppression, right? Stuff like that could be giving LGBT players the impression that you're hostile towards them.
My language choice is not phobic, it's aggressive, because I'm once again realizing, why half of this sub is permanently looking for groups.
I can assure you, that there is no inclusivity issue in any of my worlds. But it's also not anything I pay any mind to at all unless my players are looking for connections or love interests. Other than that I try to avoid heteronormativity for the very few occasions NPCs are actually in a relationship that matters to the game and that's it.
And as I commented before, if you want a world and story FOCUSED on inclusivity and LQBTQ issues, then I'm sure there are countless DMs who will be happy to provide that. Because I am not. My games focus on adventuring, nature and mystic, long forgotten places and that's exactly how I and my players like it!
I don't want North-American politics in my gaming.
Turns out that competently educated adults hate it when politics are crammed into a story in a way that makes their children roll their eyes.
If you're an adult and find that kind of story telling compelling... well. Read a book or two perhaps before playing more games.
support artists that make the art you want. don't shit on the stuff others enjoy.
can you imagine fallout new vegas without the politics? og deus ex?
You picked games that were built around the politics, and especially in case of NV did it very well.
Let's pick an example where politics are hamfisted and poorly: Last of Us 2. I can imagine a Last of Us without hamfisted politics, or actually, even better than that: I don't have to imagine. I can just look at Last of Us 1.
As a great counter-example from another type of media: a significant character in the TV series Pluribus is gay. You can easily spend several episodes watching the series without even realizing that, because for the most part, it has no significance on the story. It does has some significance later on, but it's portrayed brilliantly and without the hamfisting I mentioned.
I'm not opposed to politics, also when it's politics I disagree with. I'm opposed to bad storytelling. Sometimes the line between the two is not clear.
meh. artists grow over time. and studios grow in the flexibility they have to message. support another studio that gives you what you want.
What's-her-face being gay is like the least political thing about Pluribus.