Everything has to have a message

[Anon Mous]

I would first like to point out that this started in the What are you playing? thread, but then got ranty so I moved it here.

It should be no surprise that since I was able to get a Lunar Walking School with the English translation that is the game I have been playing. Now I knew this was more of a Lunar side game than a full sequel, but I can honestly say I am somewhat confused about the themes of this one. It is very . . . girls vs boys.

All through high school and college I stayed away from political issues, because they never ended well. Flash forward to a few years ago when the Millennials, later to be renamed Snowflakes, started making their appearance I started to see a rise in political issues that I was being dragged into. I was working for a game retailer. I didn't want to talk about racial divides that some see and others don't, wage gaps that may or may not exist, or the LGBTLMNOP movement. Now I look at Lunar Walking School and I can't help but see the way the story is portrayed as politically charged, instead of what I believe to be Japanese humor.

I am okay with female protagonists (I was fine with Ghostbusters having an all female cast, I just wasn't okay with that female cast). I am not okay with making the female strong by making her male counterpart a caricature (I had been on a cartoon kick on Netflix with Animaniacs, Garfield, Justice League, etc. and this Ladybug show kept showing up in recommended. I finally broke down and watched a couple of episodes. Cross between magical girl and super hero, made for little girls. The main heroine is strong, but her male counterpart is surprise, surprise, aggressive, a bit dense, overly cocky, can't do anything without his partner, and is only really good at destroying things). I am for equality, but equality doesn't mean that what was one way for many years, now has to be the other way to equal out. Peach had a DS game in which she had to save Mario. It's a rare game because it didn't sell that great. The majority of the people that I sold it to in my time were guys.

I wondered if maybe all of my old games were politically charged and I just didn't notice because I was young. I tried to think back and even popped a few in briefly and found that most of them weren't. I came to a realization of why I like those old games so much. The stories remained neutral. Mega Man fought Dr. Wiley because he was using his robots to destroy. Simon Belmont hunted Dracula because he was unholy and causing harm. Alex went to rescue Luna because Ghaleon wanted to enslave the deity of the world and she was it. That's when I came to my epiphany.

I have always liked a good story, and the stories from that era of games are not only good, they're neutral on the politics. I'll still play my new Lunar, and new games as they come out, but I really hope this political explosion ends soon. It takes too much out of me not to explode and snap at someone. I've already done it once .

[Roas]

Amen, brother.

I just want my entertainment to entertain me.

I don't need someone's ideology or message crammed down my throat just because they have a podium and I don't.

I could make my own list of shows I've walked away from in the past couple of years all because they couldn't keep themselves from preaching at me instead of just telling me a story with decent characters and plots. Nope, had to get their "message(s)" drilled into me constantly to the point where I just couldn't take it anymore.

I don't need someone to change the meaning of a book, movie, or classic story just to get what they believe is the "right" message out. When someone has to do that, IMO, when they have to do some pretty twisted gymnastics to change something, and then to convince you it's better than what you were expecting to get...it's probably crap.

When they have to work hard to PCify something just to check the boxes to make sure all the "right messages" are given voice for all possible parties, then it's probably crap because it's devoid of soul and merit. You write a story or create something based upon an idea you have...not to make sure you check a message box so you can pat yourself on the back for being such a good person.

Once you create something and give it out to the public for consumption, it will either be liked or dislike. People will decide if something is good because it is good, not because it preaches a message.

Current best example?

Black Panther has crushed everything in its path for five weeks, finally to be dethroned by Pacific Rim 2 this weekend. Full disclosure, I'm first going to see Black Panther this Wednesday, but by all rights even though it addresses some of the issues of the day, it's still just a story of good against evil. I don't think it has preached at people, and the public responded.

On the other hand you have A Wrinkle in Time, which has been a disaster because of its super social and politically charged rewrite that no one cares about. Again, full disclosure, I hated that trilogy when they made us read it in school, but when you strip out everything that made the book special and refill it with what you think it's message should be....that's wrong. And you know what? The consuming public responded in kind by not spending money on it, making it a $100 million boondoggle. But that hasn't stopped all the reviewers from saying "although the movie is cringe worthy and bad, it's message is right and you should watch it."

I believe we are at the end of this kind of crap. The PC era is coming to an end, because the public is increasingly not buying it.

Oh, and if you are still watching Justice League, I recommend stopping just before the last episode of Season 3 and watching all of Batman Beyond. I did that earlier this year, and it worked out well.

[skylark]

I was about to launch a counter-argument in response to Anon.

I was about to let the cork fly off and launch a massive rant at Roas, both for an apparent hypocrisy in his rant considering a 'potential' plot line he wanted to force on my characters for later in the saga, and for refusing to address the FUCKING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM THAT'S BEEN SITTING THERE FOR A YEAR AND A HALF that is his complacency for our Glorious President Comrade.

Then foresight kicked in that told me doing so would probably make me a pariah around here. So instead, here are my thoughts.

I'm all for stopping political correctness from going mad as much as the next person. I also believe that around half of the people spouting for causes are only doing it out of self-gain or to hear the sound of their own voice, and that those types can fuck right off. For the rest though... I'm just gonna leave this here:

Some anvils need to be dropped.

Now more than ever.

[Anon Mous]

Let me first start by saying that I don't think you would be ostracized by any of us simply for having an opinion. Also, whether you like or hate Trump, I don't really care (I said before he got elected that the greatest benefit of his campaign would come from after his term. If he did it right, they would keep it going. If he broke everything, they would have to fix things). This is not the issue. The issue is that there are enough things out there today to make us worry without picking up a game and wonder if half way through you will have to put it down because it doesn't mesh with your own personal politics in such a way that you can no longer deal with it, despite the goodness of the rest of the game. I'm not wanting to start a political war, I just want my neutral land to go play in. I want my gaming Switzerland. I want my politics over here and my entertainment over here. Is that too much to ask?

By the way, pointing out hypocrisy by not pointing out hypocrisy is still just as bad as pointing out hypocrisy. If you truly don't want to get a rise out of Roas, as you said, you wouldn't have said anything in the first place or would have chosen your words more carefully. I know this tactic well. For the sake of feelings and no misunderstandings, either state what you want to and look to work out the difference, or live with the fact that you won't agree and just let it the rest roll off you back. We joke about it, but when's the last time I tried to convince any of you that Square was bad?

Anyway this is way off topic now. That being, get politics out of video games.

[Rune Lai]

One thing I've come to realize is that games are only political if they challenge your politics. If you agree with the politics presented, the game is considered non-political. You won't even recognize the message is there because you already believe in it. If you don't agree with the politics, then the game is political.

It's really that simple.

What's happened in recent years is that games have gotten diverse, so there are games that don't adhere to the norm of twenty or thirty years ago (when nothing was considered political because everything was relatively the same). These days it's easier to stumble across someone's "OMG, I'm so happy there is finally a game that speaks to me!" while someone else is like "Why is this here? I don't want this in my game!" and they're talking about the exact same game.

It's the whole one person's trash is another person's treasure. One person agrees, another does not.

I know people who liked the female Ghostbusters and the new Wrinkle in Time because it spoke to them. Maybe they weren't box office hits, but a movie doesn't have to be a hit for someone to like it. For that matter, I know a guy who insists Suicide Squad was unfairly panned by the box office and was a good movie. Whether it's Wrinkle, Ghostbusters, or Suicide, irrespective of the politics involved, someone liked them and they all were lackluster in the box office.

The difference is that the previous two were aimed at a formerly underserved audience so they got more attention for being "message" or "political" films than something like Suicide Squad. But the root of the box office performance for all three wasn't the message. It's just that they weren't great films.

[Solana]

I see stories as a powerful agent of change. They can give voices to the voiceless, and speak to people in ways that a full on declaration cannot. The novel that I want to get published actually goes into this, the power (and responsibility) of wielding stories. I see fantasy as being especially good for this, as when working with created worlds, there's more of a sense of removal from the 'real world', but the message can still get through.

Can this be overly done, to the point of destroying the story and characters? Of course. And sometimes I want something lighter, and that's fine, too. That's why it's great that there's such a huge variety of good stuff out there, and there truly should be something for everyone.

Rune, you're definitely right. One of the webcomics I follow is an askblog style comic of Undertale, taking place when they live on the surface. Frisk is portrayed as non-binary, (since their gender is never mentioned in the game) and there's a lot of LGBT+ representation. And oh, the angry messages they get just for showing it, even the Undyne/Alphys pairing which is canon in the game! Tamora Pierce got some pushback for having one of her characters grow up and realize that she was a lesbian. I say, good for her and the webcomic writers. People need to see themselves in stories, too.