Seriously. Every form of entertainment has baked-in political assumptions, and that definitely includes #ttrpg . You might choose not to examine them, but this is an active choice on your part, and you don’t get to pretend that your entertainment is “free of politics”.

Turns out that competently educated adults hate it when politics are crammed into a story in a way that would make their children roll their eyes.

If you’re an adult and find that kind of story telling compelling… well. Read a book or two perhaps before playing more games. Doesn’t have to be Dostojevsky, there are plenty of perfectly fine, easy to read books in the scifi and fantasy genres.

yep they exist. but I don’t need to solely focus on them. and this entire thread seems to be people saying that fact over and over again. (as you just did as well)

is there some kind of meme I missed or something? I’m confused as to why there’s so much hostility in the comments.

Seriously. Every form of entertainment has baked-in political assumptions, and that definitely includes #ttrpg . You might choose not to examine them, but this is an active choice on your part, and you don’t get to pretend that your entertainment is “free of politics”.

Oh, quite the opposite. Most people around me are awesome. And I’ve gotten pretty good at sorting out the few who aren’t. In fact, after deleting Reddit, pretty much my entire dipshit intake stems from Lemmy. I sometimes really do wonder what I’m still doing here. Because clearly, this entire community has some serious issues to work through.

I don’t care about politics in my games (and shows/movies) as long as it fits into the world and into the story. A TV show examples for that is Torchwood. It has to be the most gay scify show (at least it is the most gay I know) but all of it fits together and I love the show, even as a totaly hetero/cis guy. It doesn’t feel forced but is just how everything just it. Not sure if I can explain it good, hope it is somewhat to understand.

When I say “I don’t want politics in my gaming,” I mean it literally.

Like, I don’t care for the Star Wars prequels because they spend a lotta time just doing politics instead of space battles.

I don’t wanna sit through boring ass senate sessions listening to motions and passing votes. I wanna blow shit up!

Seriously. Every form of entertainment has baked-in political assumptions, and that definitely includes #ttrpg . You might choose not to examine them, but this is an active choice on your part, and you don’t get to pretend that your entertainment is “free of politics”.

support artists that make the art you want. don’t shit on the stuff others enjoy.

can you imagine fallout new vegas without the politics? og deus ex?

Seriously. Every form of entertainment has baked-in political assumptions, and that definitely includes #ttrpg . You might choose not to examine them, but this is an active choice on your part, and you don’t get to pretend that your entertainment is “free of politics”.

can you imagine fallout new vegas without the politics? og deus ex?

You picked games that were built around the politics, and especially in case of NV did it very well.

Let’s pick an example where politics are hamfisted and poorly: Last of Us 2. I can imagine a Last of Us without hamfisted politics, or actually, even better than that: I don’t have to imagine. I can just look at Last of Us 1.

As a great counter-example from another type of media: a significant character in the TV series Pluribus is gay. You can easily spend several episodes watching the series without even realizing that, because for the most part, it has no significance on the story. It does has some significance later on, but it’s portrayed brilliantly and without the hamfisting I mentioned.

I’m not opposed to politics, also when it’s politics I disagree with. I’m opposed to bad storytelling. Sometimes the line between the two is not clear.

You can tell what someone’s politics are by what they consider political.

I was astonished at some of the Steam reviews of Outer Worlds after playing it. People proper pissed off that their experience had been ruined because there’s a female side character with an optional side quest where she wants a date with another woman. Like how thoroughly filled with hate do you have to be as a person, to be fine with all the mass killing but suddenly get a moralistic high horse about a fictional character going on a dinner date you don’t approve of.

Sad that Steam are making a comment of their own by allowing those reviews to stay up.

What’s the political assumption of pong?

I mean I don’t disagree with the sentiment, the moment something has world building or a story or goals that relate to real life non-abstractly, there’s at least a political assumption, potentially an intentional statement. And people just don’t notice when it conforms to their world view. But politics free entertainment can exist, even if being able to engage in that entertainment necessarily requires some sort of engagement with real politic systems.

Though the most memorable games tend to be the ones very intentionally making statements anyway.

Glancing at Wikipedia for any Pong discourse. Found a likely example. Turns out Pong had a bug (read: feature) that contributed to its place as the first commercial success in video games. Quote,

the in-game paddles were unable to reach the top of the screen. This was caused by a simple circuit that had an inherent defect. Instead of dedicating time to fixing the defect, Alcorn decided it gave the game more difficulty and helped limit the time the game could be played [per payment]

So, Pong established the concept of video games systematically favouring the rich. Are we there yet, is that political enough?

Nah some people genuinely just want an escape from the world. Politics is a shit show right now and is always in our faces while many of us feel helpless.

There is still no political assumption in the game itself. Of course the moment you consider the means of acquiring it, everything touches on politics, even going to the forest and throwing a random stick, because forests existing is politics, them being accessible is politics, and you being allowed (or not) to throw a random stick is politics. That doesn’t make the concept of “throw stick at target for fun” political.

Alright yes, if you deliberately draw a circle around a portion of your entertainment and say “this is the part I like because it’s not political!” that’s still a political choice, which is the entire point OP is making, ICYMI.

Everything is political, even the choice to isolate one thing as non-political. The fact is that politics are only escapable if you’re privileged to be the kind of person who gets to say “shut up about politics, I’m trying to play Pong!”

Yeah generally when talking about a thing you draw a circle around the thing, that’s how that works. My glass from ikea isn’t making any political statement or assumption in its design as a finished product (unless you consider presumed size requirement for a beverage container to be political, though inherently nothing about it even states its purpose, so even that is doubtful) the process behind its design, manufacturing, and sale very much is political as fuck though.

What’s the political assumption of pong?

I mean I don’t disagree with the sentiment, the moment something has world building or a story or goals that relate to real life non-abstractly, there’s at least a political assumption, potentially an intentional statement. And people just don’t notice when it conforms to their world view. But politics free entertainment can exist, even if being able to engage in that entertainment necessarily requires some sort of engagement with real politic systems.

Though the most memorable games tend to be the ones very intentionally making statements anyway.

You can tell what someone’s politics are by what they consider political.

I was astonished at some of the Steam reviews of Outer Worlds after playing it. People proper pissed off that their experience had been ruined because there’s a female side character with an optional side quest where she wants a date with another woman. Like how thoroughly filled with hate do you have to be as a person, to be fine with all the mass killing but suddenly get a moralistic high horse about a fictional character going on a dinner date you don’t approve of.

Sad that Steam are making a comment of their own by allowing those reviews to stay up.