I've been a longtime fan of rimworld and the new dlc, ideology, came out. I have a major problem with its handling of real world religions, my religion of Islam as well as others like Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism are featured as game mechanics and factions. They all have randomized names like the blue Islam cannibalism cult or the buddhist people's nudist temple. I find it pretty offensive that I would have to fight other muslim factions in game and these factions often have beliefs (called memes in game) that are just contradictory to what Islam actually practices. When I bought this I was expecting something a little more secular. I wouldn't have bought this knowing how my religion is treated as a tasteless game mechanic. I'm not gonna play rimworld again unless there's a patch that removes all references to real world religions. Islam doesn't need to featured in a game where the primary mechanics are death camps and cannibalism, it's absolutely not okay.

Lol https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2553766942

  • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I had the same yikes reaction when I saw the just overt use of actual real world religions too. like you can do the Dune thing where things are clearly inspired by and so on, but just using them outright especially in a game like that where doing fucked up things is half the mechanics is always going to look crass as fuck. why did this need to be int he game? it didn't, there is no reason other than not giving a shit about peoples real world faiths, and how that affects players with those faiths and how others see them because of the game

    • epicgamer666 [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I've seen the shit people have done with dwarf fortress, not good shit. I fear that giving people a sandbox to make ideological cults just opened pandora's box. Like at least their was a degree of separation from reality before this dlc, not anymore.

      • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        right, it's one thing to say like "haha, my colonists are cannibals who enslave people" vs "my Islamic community in this game are cannibals who enslave people". there's an abstraction there, a disconnect from implications on real world humans, and you yourself have shown this does impact the people whos faiths are being depicted. if somebody wants to RP as a fucked up racist version of Islam, you can't stop them, but to make that a mechanic that is right there at the creation screen of the ideologies and to have it occur naturally in the game with AI factions is clearly inviting people to do that and normalise that portrail