The Perfect Apolitical/Politics Free Video.

Dreiko

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I edited the above post with a response to the "playing correctly" bit but yeah, I think there's a nuance between interpreting and playing. Interpreting comes after you play.
 

Buyetyen

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Less "playing" and more "interpreting" I guess? Distorting precious cultural artifacts which people are passionately devoted to, to promote your political ideology in a mercenary utilitarian way is bound to ruffle the feathers of the earnest fans.

Games shouldn't be treated as means to an end, they should be ends in-and-of themselves.
That's an arbitrary distinction. I went to film school and when I'm watching a movie, part of my brain is in film student mode analyzing and interpreting it. That's part of the fun for me, getting to more deeply engage with and understand the media I enjoy. By the standard you've set up, I'm doing it wrong and should only watch movies the way you watch movies, which I assume does not entail an academic analysis.

"Distorting precious cultural artifacts," Jesus Haploid Christ. They're games, not cave paintings. Is really that difficult for you to imagine that other people just have different takeaways from these games than you do?

Again, your argument amounts to nothing more than, "Stop playing video games wrong!"
 
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Xprimentyl

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Every Jimquisition episode now is about the evils of some company or another, and it just gets stale because often he isn't even talking about a new event and instead just digging into the same things. There used to be variety in his Jimquistions and I just dont feel like he is doing that anymore. Every Monday it feels like he is going, "Hey did you know that video game companies are fucking shit?"
To be fair, that says something about the state of the industry, that the most reportable news is how shitty they consistently are. I mean, what really needs to be said about games that are already out? Has anything really been different or groundbreaking enough to merit attention outside of the business practices behind them? And games yet to come, is there anything of note on the horizon that's truly exciting that won't be filtered through the sleaze and greed that all but defines the industry as it stands?

I'll agree, Jim's that guy who smells a fart and won't stop talking about it, but in this case, it's a pipping hot shit someone laid right on the dinner table; he can't help BUT talk about it until that someone is held to account and cleans it up.
 
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BrawlMan

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Just what is the track you think this topic is supposed to be on? All you did is throw up a video. You didn't raise a point or pose a question. So what is this topic supposed to be about? Is this just a comments section for the video? Are we just supposed to list games with politics in them, like you've been doing?
I actually did. Not my fault you refuse to pay attention, are this slow, willfully oblivious, thick headed, or only paying attention to reality when it's convenient for you. I suggest you go back and look at the first two pages, because you get nothing else. I already gave you answers several times already.
 

CriticalGaming

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I edited the above post with a response to the "playing correctly" bit but yeah, I think there's a nuance between interpreting and playing. Interpreting comes after you play.
You know, 99% of the time I play a game, I don't really notice the political theme that runs throughout. I am just playing the game, and either having fun, or I'm not.

Usually what happens to me is I tend to notice the specific political message (if any) within the game's world if I'm already not liking the game. If the gameplay has already lost me, then the story has to keep me and that makes me a bit more critical of it.

However if I am enjoying a game, I hardly notice any of the politicial undertones that run through it. I mean I do see them, like with the environmental theme in Final Fantasy 7, but since the game itself is so much fun i don't really care.

I think we are all a little bit guilty of this right? Where the annoying progressive messages that might be there are only highlighted because we've already not been enjoying the game as it is. That certainly had a large part of what made me dislike The Last of Us 2 so much.

I don't think I can think of a single game or even movie that i would have otherwise enjoyed if it didn't slap me in the face with the messaging. But on the other hand, I tend to think that good writing and good gameplay show off examples of how to do progressive messaging correctly.

With characters like the gay hunter in The Witcher 3, Bill from the first LoU game, and even the anti corporate messaging in Final Fantasy 7. The game around all these examples, highlight how you can effectively get a message across without interuptting the flow of the game itself.
 

Dreiko

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That's an arbitrary distinction. I went to film school and when I'm watching a movie, part of my brain is in film student mode analyzing and interpreting it. That's part of the fun for me, getting to more deeply engage with and understand the media I enjoy. By the standard you've set up, I'm doing it wrong and should only watch movies the way you watch movies, which I assume does not entail an academic analysis.

"Distorting precious cultural artifacts," Jesus Haploid Christ. They're games, not cave paintings. Is really that dou arifficult for you to imagine that other people just have different takeaways from these games than you do?

Again, your argument amounts to nothing more than, "Stop playing video games wrong!"
What you're doing is called "not being present". It's like going to a comedy store and saying "that's funny" instead of laughing from the heart.

There's a place for both, and you can be in "film student mode" where you're reflecting on the meta-elements, behind the scenes stuff, technical things like "where they must have put the camera to shoot this" or "how many shots did this scene take", so on and so forth, all that stuff is fine.

But you are missing out if you are unable to turn that off for a couple of hours and just be present once in a while too, in the moment, and enjoy the film as it was meant to be enjoyed since it was made for the general public and not just for film students.

I think a lot of issues come when people can't turn off their political lens they see everything through and just enjoy something like a normal generic person once in a while. They are too bogged down by their quest for justice to get things that other people get, and they project their politics onto the work when the work itself is without them, they are what I call joyless and fun-hating, because they're too focused on fulfilling their political ends and will sacrifice the art they're consuming in that pursuit.

I do not think that it is such a departure to put forward that if you are a gamer, you should actually care about games enough to not treat them thus.


You know, 99% of the time I play a game, I don't really notice the political theme that runs throughout. I am just playing the game, and either having fun, or I'm not.

Usually what happens to me is I tend to notice the specific political message (if any) within the game's world if I'm already not liking the game. If the gameplay has already lost me, then the story has to keep me and that makes me a bit more critical of it.

However if I am enjoying a game, I hardly notice any of the politicial undertones that run through it. I mean I do see them, like with the environmental theme in Final Fantasy 7, but since the game itself is so much fun i don't really care.

I think we are all a little bit guilty of this right? Where the annoying progressive messages that might be there are only highlighted because we've already not been enjoying the game as it is. That certainly had a large part of what made me dislike The Last of Us 2 so much.

I don't think I can think of a single game or even movie that i would have otherwise enjoyed if it didn't slap me in the face with the messaging. But on the other hand, I tend to think that good writing and good gameplay show off examples of how to do progressive messaging correctly.

With characters like the gay hunter in The Witcher 3, Bill from the first LoU game, and even the anti corporate messaging in Final Fantasy 7. The game around all these examples, highlight how you can effectively get a message across without interuptting the flow of the game itself.
Yeah that's cause you're present. You're going into it with the game being an end in and of itself. Not going into it to further your political ends through whatever means may avail themselves to you that day.

The proportion of the strength of the slapping-in-the-face has to be consistent with the ongoing events of the world, not to feel something external that was slathered on top cause cynical market analysts decided it's what the young people are into these days.
 
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Buyetyen

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What you're doing is called "not being present". It's like going to a comedy store and saying "that's funny" instead of laughing from the heart.
Way to prove me right on you being judgmental of how others consume media. "Stop watching movies wrong!"
 

Dreiko

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Way to prove me right on you being judgmental of how others consume media. "Stop watching movies wrong!"
You do see the rest of my post below the quote you have here right?

I clearly wrote that there's a place for that, referring to how you watch movies.
 

Houseman

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I actually did.
I looked at the first two pages, and didn't see anything from you that could answer the question of "what is this topic supposed to be about?" so I can only conclude that this statement is not true.

Of course, you're welcome to prove me wrong, or better yet, just come out and say what you think this topic is supposed to be about. Or you could just throw more insults at me, which is totally not the tantrum-behavior you accused me of engaging in.

"Distorting precious cultural artifacts," Jesus Haploid Christ. They're games, not cave paintings. Is really that difficult for you to imagine that other people just have different takeaways from these games than you do?
If, for example, you lived in China and the government wants to take away a game or a movie that you enjoy, but you have the opportunity to give testimony to keep it around, would you defend it? Would you tell the court that "they're watching the movie wrong" and that the art isn't against China's ideals?

This is what Dreiko said: " But when you put politics into things you're doing the things the Nazis and Communists did where they destroyed art and literature because of the politics THEY projected into them, the politics they put into them. Same as why in the soviet union they didn't let kids listen to rock and metal, it was seen as capitalist."
 
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Buyetyen

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You do see the rest of my post below the quote you have here right?

I clearly wrote that there's a place for that, referring to how you watch movies.
Yeah, after you told me I was doing it wrong and then repeated your assertion that people are playing games wrong because they don't play them the way you do.
 

Dreiko

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Yeah, after you told me I was doing it wrong and then repeated your assertion that people are playing games wrong because they don't play them the way you do.
No I do the same thing you do sometimes, I just acknowledge it as being me not being present and try to correct myself. After you play enough games you start seeing hitboxes and animation cancels and invulnerable frames everywhere.

Doesn't mean it's good just because I do it too. Doesn't hurt anyone to try and be more present in their joy-having time.
 

BrawlMan

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I looked at the first two pages, and didn't see anything from you that could answer the question of "what is this topic supposed to be about?" so I can only conclude that this statement is not true.

Of course, you're welcome to prove me wrong, or better yet, just come out and say what you think this topic is supposed to be about. Or you could just throw more insults at me, which is totally not the tantrum-behavior you accused me of engaging in.
Once again, your problem if you can't figure it out. You must really love throwing accusations at people don't you? Don't answer that. I already know the answer.
 

Buyetyen

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No I do the same thing you do sometimes, I just acknowledge it as being me not being present and try to correct myself. After you play enough games you start seeing hitboxes and animation cancels and invulnerable frames everywhere.

Doesn't mean it's good just before I do it too.
I can do both at once. I'm sorry you can't. But hey, you don't have to if you don't want to. See how I'm not forcing you to write any essays there?
 

Dreiko

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I can do both at once. I'm sorry you can't. But hey, you don't have to if you don't want to. See how I'm not forcing you to write any essays there?
You may be able to do that but the people who I was describing above with relation to politics sure as hell can't lol.
 

Buyetyen

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You may be able to do that but the people who I was describing above with relation to politics sure as hell can't lol.
Like I said, they don't have to if they don't want to. They are free to enjoy media however they want to.

Like, does knowing that I have a more analytical eye toward cinema in any way diminish your enjoyment of the movies you've seen? Have other people seeing a feminist idea in Horizon Zero Dawn retconned the hours you enjoyed with the game out of existence or render it unplayable from here on out? Be honest.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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Ok we doing this again are we?

Well I think this video from a while ago is a good counter to it.


What people are getting fed up of is often hollow politics. Then people are getting fed up of that being defended with "Everything is political".

As an example I'll explain two scenes from two different Doctor Who adventures.

Scene 1 from the end of Scream of the Shalka

Companion: "Doctor you did it you got reversed the damage to the atmosphere that the Shalka did, but one question, why didn't you fully restore it and undo all the damage that has been done by humans actions too?"

The Doctor: "That isn't my job, it's up to you humans to sort that one out yourselves"

Scene 2 From Series 12 episode Orphan 55

Companion: Doctor was that Earth? Was Orphan 55 earth?

Doctor: yes

Companion: So that's what's going to happen?

Doctor: it's what could happen, but there's still time, there's still time for humanity to change. To stop the stupid wars. To stop polluting and destroying the environment. To be better, that change is up to you though or, well, you know what's waiting for you if you don't

*cut to showing images from the episode of the mutated dwellers of a desolate wasteland of a planet*


The difference is in the first one it is more of a side comment about things going on it comes off more as The Doctor remarking on it to his companion.
In the second case though it comes off as The Doctor talking to the audience, the scene is done with The Doctor looking to camera almost looking towards the home audience not the companion and seemingly lecturing people at home that they need to change. The issue is with the first one The Doctor was placing the emphasis on all humanity while in the second one it's being placed on the viewers at home who are ultimately responsible when in reality the average viewer in home and their capacity to change things is far less than is really needed when other parts of humanity are the ones who are declaring wars or polluting more. Changing in your own home will change so little compared to industry and other sectors but anyone who has looked into it and knows about the politics etc will tell know about just that thus "Oh people at home change your ways you're the ones who decide how things will go" when ultimately you're not and more so a lot of companies would really love you to think that it's up to you so they can avoid change themselves and not face people calling for them to change things. Far better neighbours are shaming one another for not being green enough than to have both of them realise even if both of them were green the difference then make is probably 0.3% with local industry making up far more of the issue up to 90% or so.

We don't need media telling us to be good people. We're not kids watching G.I. Joe PSAs anyone or watching Captain Planet. We don't need media condescending to us.

Hell to go back to Jim's video he's on about Trump putting kids in cages, yes Trump has been, but worth pointing out.


Yeh it wasn't started by Trump but people apparently only cared and it was only spotlighted with Trump and he's the only one getting flack for it.........

Jim's show will be political but there's a difference between political and partisan. It's partisan people are getting fed up of. It's the idea media needs to direct us poor clueless sheep how to act and behave for our own good because we're all clearly too stupid to know what's good for us right?

In the end if you want to make everything political and play the game of "Everything is political so you must always engage with politics" life would be hell. It really would be to demand that level of thinking about politics all the time. You going to the toilet is a political action due to indoor sanitation and people in other countries not having such luxury often not having proper running water instead having to potentially risk using outhouses in places where dangerous creatures live. Even typing on this forum is a political action because plenty of people don't have access to the internet. There's a limit to trying to call for empathy and action and if people truly lived by the mantra of analysing everything as a political action and analysing the politics of everything they'd go mad or end up burning out very fast. People can't be 100% politics 100% of the time and trying to tell people they should be just ends up looking hypocritical.



According to Ben Kuchera it was Russian supremacist propaganda
 
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CriticalGaming

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Like, does knowing that I have a more analytical eye toward cinema in any way diminish your enjoyment of the movies you've seen? Have other people seeing a feminist idea in Horizon Zero Dawn retconned the hours you enjoyed with the game out of existence or render it unplayable from here on out? Be honest.
This is kind of interesting. Because video games are art, everyone can interpret that art anyway you want. And there are some people who project their ideologies upon a piece of artwork that might not ever have been part of the creator's intention right.

It's funny how someone could label feministic ideas into Horizon, but not to something like Tomb Raider, or even playing Fem Shep in Mass Effect. But each person has their own projections upon the art and feminism, LBGTQ inclusivity, race, politics, all of these things are rising in relevance lately and i wonder if maybe video games are absorbing some of that just passively. Where these themes are being considered and included not out of deliberate desires from the developers but just through pure cultural osmosis.
 
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Silvanus

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That's a claim.
Do you have anything to back that up?
Well, I've never heard anybody complain about the political themes in GTA, or Final Fantasy, or Bioshock, or Call of Duty, or Battlefield, or (to use your example) Sonic the Hedgehog.

But I've heard those complaints endlessly about games having gay characters, or women doing things.
 
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Buyetyen

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This is kind of interesting. Because video games are art, everyone can interpret that art anyway you want. And there are some people who project their ideologies upon a piece of artwork that might not ever have been part of the creator's intention right.
That is the premise of "Death of the Author," yes. Authorial intent is nice to know from an academic standpoint, but you cannot control how the world will react to a piece of art you release into the public. Mary Shelley almost certainly had no idea that her scary story she thought up during a vacation in Switzerland would end up inventing an entire new genre of fiction. Nor could her friend, Dr. John Polidori guess that his vampire story would shape the vampire myth in pop culture for centuries to come. And the Wachowski sisters never could have predicted that their sci-fi movie about coming out would be appropriated by an anti-feminist, anti-queer movement.
 
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CriticalGaming

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But I've heard those complaints endlessly about games having gay characters, or women doing things.
I mean the only game I can think of where people where confused about why those dirty dirty girls where in the clubhouse was Battlefield V.

What other games, had negative push back simply for featuring women just because they were women? The reason why I ask is because women have been in games (even as leading role) since the begining of video games. So there must have been some other thing around these complaints, if they exist.