Title. Need some examples of games that had lefty politics and leanings and weren't too ashamed to hide it. Platform/country of origin is irrelevant. I know about FF7's support for ecoterrorism, and even the nuance about the people caught up in the middle, and there's plenty of games that take an anti-corporate stance, but that can be easily brushed aside.

I'm specifically interested in this era as it's when games first acquired the ability to become fully immersive in their narratives with the adoption of multimedia melding into the core gameplay loop via the use of full motion video, voice acting, detailed images and so on.

Reminder: all games are political; even abstract puzzle games.

  • Ericthescruffy [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I feel like this work’s to the message’s advantage. Creating contrast between the text and subtext, or the text and its presentation, is more likely to get the audience thinking about the themes and leave a lasting and more profound impression than preachy moralizing, and it’s more likely to lead the audience toward a deeper understanding of the ideas presented as they have to do some thinking of their own to square the circle, so to speak.

    Oh absolutely. I don't disagree at all. In fact I think part of what makes Metal Gear and Kojima's vision so compelling is that he on some level either understands or (more likely) shares the American fetishization and romanticization of violent warfare and the way its tied up with super/action hero narratives and media tropes. Part of what I find so interesting about the series is that its ostensible hero and "main character" Solid Snake is actually usually characterized as a complete dupe and tool for the establishment while its villains are instead idealists with grander ambitions who actually drive a lot of the forward momentum of the story Snake is trying to stop. That gets even more explicit as the series shifts to Big Boss.