I can think of some obvious examples to start with, but my subtle but insidious nominee is Fable III. Fittingly for a pretentious grifter like Molyneux, the game requires you to raise a specific amount of gold or your kingdom is destroyed and you get a bad ending. The goalposts are moved by the game if you raise money in ways it doesn't approve of, and it is simply impossible to reach the fundraising goal in any way that isn't at least Enlightened Centrist levels of evil, the kind that lanyard-wearing neoliberals giggle about. That's right, you need to be at least this evil or your kingdom is destroyed. So deep and really makes you think about the hard decisions that are made by the ruling class, doesn't it? :zizek:

  • RedundantClam [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Honestly replaying the series with the Legendary Edition has been kind of an eye opener when it comes to just now much of a neoliberal hellhole that universe is, didn't give it much thought as a kid. The Batarian thing always threw me just because it's like they sat down with the intention to design a race for you to hate.

    • RamrodBaguette [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Now that I think about it, the reason it was shocking to me (and maybe to you as well) was because it felt out of place with the socially Liberal tone of the series. If it were consistent, it would have at least made the "government, not the people" distinction but no, mask off. At least they sorta get treated like people by Mass Effect 3.