Chris Avellone catching flak from the PC brigade

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So, I saw this article today, and I just couldn't believe all the shit he's getting for being honest about wanting games to be more layered than simply pushing a popular political narrative. Not to mention that in the standard SJW fashion, his statement is being grossly misrepresented, so that they can bash their strawman to death for internet points.

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/...mes-to-be-used-as-political-propaganda/85481/

What's your take on it? Should he have been more careful with his words? Is he blind to his own privilege? Are people just upset that one of the best writers in the industry doesn't share their views?

I don't think this will affect his career in any way, but with the current state of things in western society, you never know.

 

Isn't that pretty much how that particular chronically raging segment of the internet/world is defined? Terminally upset about everything?

 

I can't argue with that, but if Twitter went away, the people that make it what it is would just find another outlet. At least this way, they're contained by their own need for validation.

Still, Twitter outrage can have far-reaching implications, especially for public personas. These days you can't be too careful about what you say online, although the PC brigade are just as likely to trip over something you said 15 years ago, even if you choose to keep your mouth shut.

 

So it's the new 4chan, that in turn replaced certain portions of Usenet?
God, most people these days don't even know what Usenet is. I'm getting old.

 

There are now people on Twitter that weren't even born when Twitter went online. Let that sink in.

 

Setting Twitter SJWarriorism aside (if that's even possible), Avellone's argument is, well, kind of right and I do agree that he's being misread. Sure, games-as-propaganda usually means that the game may not be great as a game. But Avellone saying "I want my games apolitical, like they were in the good old days" is just bury-your-head-in-the-sand dumb. Entertainment is never apolitical. Usually when someone says "Entertainment should be apolitical," they're just saying that they haven't ever looked for or thought about the ideology in a piece of entertainment before. Probably because their entertainment just regurgitates their dominant ideology back to them somehow.

/end grump

 

Games being apolitical, at least within this context, doesn't mean they shouldn't include politics. It means they don't always have to mirror the current political landscape in the real world (since you want them to stand the test of time) and, like Avellone said, you should be asking the big questions, but provide no definitive answer, allowing the player to think and choose for themselves.

I don't know, maybe both sides of the argument are reading too much into Avellone's words, but I honestly do think that he just doesn't feel like games should be used as political propaganda.

 

Doesn't the name say it all, TWITer? More of a twit?

 

I thought tumblr was as bad, if not more so, as twitter. Semantics, I guss.

And stuff said on twitter has been the cause for people losing their jobs, so that is a legitimate concern.

On the other hand, I agree with Chris Avellone on this matter, and I wish game developers wouldn't try to push the political stuff in there. It just dates the game and would make me think less of the game.

 

Political satire or even just politics has been in games since nearly the beginning. It infects every medium of expression. Writing, plays, music, movies, why should games be any different?
That said, I agree that they shouldn't be dropping anvils on people with politics, or making games designed to give a specific political message. It's no better than the children's books that hit kids on the head with a moral like a hammer. They tend to be awful.

That said, many TV shows had the same problems with politics in episodes. It gets heavy-handed. About the only one I can think of that actually pulled it off well was the original Star Trek, and to a lessor extent the rest of the franchise. TOS is almost all political or social commentary.

As for music? Well, tell me this isn't 1960's politics:

or this:

 

I don't know, I wasn't born in the 60s, grandpa.

 

Neither was I, but I was forced to listen to "Magic 104, Chicago's Oldies Station" (now defunct) almost exclusively when in my parent's cars.
I picked those examples specifically because they are old examples, although I think the message of "Black and White" is just as important today.