People do not all have the same working definition of “politics”. Many people seem to use it to mean “overt content about contemporary issues”, but that’s not really a good definition.

If your game has sentient creatures with agency and desires, it has politics.

For example, if your game has a king, there’s politics. Having the people accept monarchy is a political statement. It’s not as hot-button as, say, having slavery, but it’s still political.

You might not be surprised if your players react to a world with chattel slavery by trying to free the slaves and end that institution. The same mechanism may lead them to want to end absolute monarchy. They see something in the setting they perceive as unjust, and want to change it.

A lot of people are kind of… uncritical, about many things. They don’t see absolute monarchy as “political” because it’s a familiar story trope. They are happy to accept this uncritically so they can get to the fun part where you get a quest to slay the dragon. (Note that the target of killing the dragon rather than, say, negotiating or rehoming it is also political)

People then get frustrated because they feel stupid, and they’re being blocked from pursuing the content they want. They just want to, for example, do a tactical mini game about fighting a big monster that spits fire. They don’t want to talk about the merits of absolute monarchy or slaying sentient creatures.

It’s okay to not always want to engage in the political dimension. That doesn’t mean it’s not there. If someone responds to the king giving you a quest with “wait, this is an absolute monarchy where the first born son becomes king? That’s fucked up” they’re not “making it political”. It already was political.

If you present a man and a woman as monogamously married in your game, that’s political. That’s a statement. If you show a big queer polycule, that’s also a statement. The latter will ping the aforementioned uncritical players as “political”, because it’s more atypical, but both are “political”.

Some of this can be handled in session 0. But sometimes you learn that some people in the group have different tastes and probably shouldn’t play together.

I’m not sure about always. That’s just lazy world building to have orcs naturally evil instead of predominantly mind controlled or ruled by evil leaders or some sort of blood fued. It’s the same with good aligned races. Unless you want to focus on the definition of good and evil.

Let me introduce you to Spec Ops the Line. A game where wanting to blow stuff up is the political statement.

Deleted by creator

Hah, gotta edit it at least a bit. I’ll leave the original viewable.

Meanwhile every Ubisoft title, no matter how inoffensive, add the disclaimer:

This game was created by a diverse team of people with different beliefs, sexual orientations, and gender identities

“Politics are genuinely fun and everyone wants to see them all the time, and the people who say they don’t want to see it like it even more, they just wish they were seeing different politics.” -hbomberguy

Anything they see in there that goes against their own personally DESIRED to be status quo is an insult. Theyve just got shit views so well rounded culture shocks them and it reminds them all about how their shit stinks and they aren’t really all that smart or morally sound. Cause if they were, they wouldn’t have identified with any that stuff to begin with or realized the perils.

And it makes them know the cringe at how they’re viewed (but they say its just how they’re PORTRAYED to pass the buck on being that way being their own fault and indicative of their lack of stats and general lack of character)

No, I’m not. Because my mental development moved past three years old and I’m able to differentiate reality from fiction. Do you also believe that Super Mario players advocate for animal cruelty towards turtles?

They do. Doesn’t stop dipshits from arguing though. Case in point.

That doesn’t make any sense. If they already have rights then what are they arguing for?

As I wrote in my original post, some people just have a narcissistic need for self-promotion. They will preach to the choir and bring irrelevant political topics into the game because they feel like the real world doesn’t appreciate their valiant efforts towards weaponized inclusivity enough.

I don’t want North-American politics in my gaming.

I mean the statement is being made within the universe. Super Mario does advocate for violence against koopas. You don’t have to examine it, but that doesn’t make it apolitical.

All I want is more nice unpolitical games like Bioshock or Wolfenstein

And not the woke nonsense of having female or PoC main characters.

Sounds like you’re either not picking up on the fact that your world isn’t actually supportive of gay rights (because of subconscious prejudice or something) or you’re bad at communicating that it is, or both.

“Weaponized inclusivity” jesus christ so its clearly the former

“Narcissistic urge for self-promotion” insane statement. Check your prejudice.

When everyone around you seems like a dipshit, you’re probably the dipshit.

The point is that there are politics in your game, like it or not. Whether you make them a central focus is another story entirely.

I hate normal sized tits!

/s Just in case

Your language choices give a phobic vibe, just FYI. “[…] they feel like the real world doesn’t appreciate their valiant efforts towards weaponized inclusivity enough.” Like you know they’re suffering actual IRL oppression, right? Stuff like that could be giving LGBT players the impression that you’re hostile towards them.