5 ms·
The points are valid but let's step back and remember that this is a game. When someone plays Call of Duty, there is a suspension of disbelief that allows the p
by bastawhiz 9y ago
The points are valid but let's step back and remember that this is a game. When someone plays Call of Duty, there is a suspension of disbelief that allows the player to ignore the horrors of war (and zombie nazis and whatever else they're doing these days). When I play Civ, I suspend my disbelief when Ghandi tells me that nukes are the way of the future in 200BC and Teddy Roosevelt declares war on Cleopatra.
Civ is not a perfect reflection of history, society, or civilization, let alone an idealistic society or civilization. And in truth, that's what makes it fun. Pinning the fate of our "IRL" civilization on a game because it perpetuates the myth of perpetual growth is a bit ridiculous. The perils of capitalism are not going to be defeated by changing the mechanics of a Sid Meyers game.
If we want to talk about the harm video games bring about, let's talk about loot crates and microtransactions in F2P games.
- creep 9y agoI didn't get the totally preachy vibe from the article that you may have. In all honesty, I thought he was going for slight moralization but mostly just wishing there were realistic civilization-type games that have a complex endgame and are not based on an endless growth model. I'd welcome some of his propositions-- they seem more challenging and consequently more engaging and fun.
- Brakenshire 9y agoThere's nothing special about a game compared to any other form of media, or any form of fictional storytelling which make them immune to having an influence. You have to suspend disbelief in any novel, nevertheless no matter how outlandish the material it always communicates some ideas about the way the world works. I'm actually really looking forward to people giving up on the implicit idea that video games are just fancies or toys, because it's at that point that video games which set out to communicate interesting or unsettling ideas or perspectives will become mainstream.
- andrewflnr 9y agoFair, but GP's argument transfers perfectly to non-interactive media. They may have good points, but you still have to be careful trying to apply their ideas to the real world.
- bastawhiz 9y agoAre you saying it's irresponsible, then, to publish a novel whose plot revolves around the success of perpetual growth (or success of a civilization embracing perpetual growth)? Influential or not, we shouldn't censor media that we find enjoyable because its real world counterpart is destructive.
- Brakenshire 9y ago> Are you saying it's irresponsible, then, to publish a novel whose plot revolves around the success of perpetual growth (or success of a civilization embracing perpetual growth)? Influential or not, we shouldn't censor media... Would you respond to a critical book review by saying "we should not censor media"? Criticism and censorship are two vastly different concepts, you should not conflate the two.
- smadge 9y agoCritizing a creative work is not censorship. Using the authority of the state to repress a creative work is censorship. I am free to, and in some sense ethically obligated to criticize the ideological implications of creative work.
- humanrebar 9y agoYou can use other kinds of authority and power to censor. "No platform" is a form of mob censorship. Though I agree that critical analysis and censorship are two different things.
- bitumen 9y agoPeople have a right to free expression, they don’t have a right to have thst expression amplified by third parties. I’ve noticed that when an emotive word is overused, often with a new word in front of it, it’s bullshit. “Mob censorship” “white genocide” and so on for some glaring examples, might as well have the first words replaced by “Not really.” Co-opting words with strong emotional valence for the sake of an appeal to emotion is petty, and speaks to the weakness of the underlying argument.
- eksemplar 9y ago> The points are valid Some of them are. There is certainly an endgame challenge in 4x games, but real world civilizations don’t really fall at the pace needed for the comparison to make sense. Rome is still the center or one of the largest world religions today for instance.
- profalseidol 9y ago> Teddy Roosevelt declares war on Cleopatra. He did say ‘The Only Good Indians Are the Dead Indians’ https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/events/theodore-roosevelt-the-only-good-indians-are-the-dead-indians/ https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/events/theodor... And did declare war against the Spanish Empire which resulted in many genocides in South America and the Philippines.
- bastawhiz 9y agoThe point was that they lived thousands of years apart.