For those unfamiliar, the first text of the game is a warning claiming that this narrative depicts unsanitized reality of civil rights era America, and admittedly it doesn't pull punches when it comes to domestic racism, yet the Vietnam war is treated as a mere set dressing, plot device to emphasize the protagonist's 'competence and valor' as presented in the first cutscene.

10 minutes into the game Lincoln (the black protagonist) is asked about his worst experience in Vietnam, and his answer is: during a civilian evacuation a mother chooses to throw her baby into a lake (that is then saved by soldiers) in order to bring a pig on board, he rationalizes her action by claiming life is cheap there. Why would a black dissident in 60s America regurgitate the sleazy propaganda of those who sent him to die is beyond me.

Despite the trauma he endured as a result of an imperialist war and the persistent discrimination at home by the same warmongers, Lincoln never reflects on how the two share the same social roots. His PTSD ends up being treated as a badge of honor rather than a potentially revolutionary motive, war is decontextualized and accepted as a given, his experience as a necessary sacrifice. Well, black GIs who were disproportionately effected by the draft and made a bulk of frontline casualties only to return to poverty and segregation did in fact connect the two, and took action that bolstered the civil rights and antiwar movement. Lincoln's indifference as their stand-in does a disservice to their dignity and struggle.

Glorifying war in a video game? More news at 9. This wouldn't be a complaint of mine if the game didn't ask you to take it seriously by claiming to critically portray American history and politics.

It is only acceptable when oppressors use violence

🤜💥💰🤛

By: @leftistgamermemes

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DedRumCsAWr/

If you wanna join join

It's called the Red Army but if you want you can join our paramilitary "Workers Defence Force"

It's a fact that video games are obsessed with post-apocalyptic scenarios. Something, something... Was it Žižek, I think, who said that it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. I often think of that quote whenever anyone left or right starts doomposting, as it shows something insidious about how the capitalist mode of thought (as well as production, I need not say this) is embedded in our lives.

Though I'm not coming here from a philosophical standpoint that much, in all frankness. I'm just curious, in this sea of videogames, which ones did you find do something differently? The more thankless task of showing a world after a good ending of sorts, and the much more interesting premises this can potentially entail, both as a kind of reflection of the worse world we left behind as well as what's needed to achieve this.

This is so visibly lacking in many games I found, aside from a few cozy games I played this year. Namely two which I want to talk about: Loftia (which I fell in love instantly during the beta) and my much more recent (and ngl funnier) discovery that is Future? No Thanks!

I'll start with Loftia first since odds are higher you'd heard of it in passing at least. On first looks, it's a cozy MMO in the vein of something like Palia, but having played the beta I can tell you that the setup is much darker (beneath the surface, once you read into it) and the implications are everywhere that the tight community on these floating islands is only possible because we ravaged the world below so badly that strict eco-management and community engagement are basically mandatory for our survival. A kind of the reverse of the premise of Gachiakuta (if you watched the anime, if no - look it up) where the elite below just keeps using the earth below as a dumping ground. I find the implications interesting, that the easiest way to imagine a future better world is through a mistake so bad that not repeating is what our survival depends on. Though I personally think humanity is too stupid to ever learn from history, at least not in a meaningful enough way (I'm trying to shut up the pessimist in me, okay?) but this is pretty much the only way I can see any socialist movement getting that critical mass needed for worldwide changes.

Ah, now onto Future, No Thanks! This is one is pretty funny and I'm glad I randomly found it by looking for solarpunk inspired games. It's basically your model social-democratic utopia where everyone's needs are met.... BUT you're an old badger who can't fit in, basically the model of the unadjusted boomer, on his way to get himself euthanized. It's a hilarious premise, because - and I like repeating this to all my left-leaning friends - there WILL be, in every society, people who will find things to complain about, even if those things they lack would be (if they had them) detrimental to their lives. Hell, some people truly, deeply do not even want to be happy, this is also a real thing. Or are unadjusted in different ways. The game is a really funny take on that, not really subversive but an interesting perspective on such a stereotypical utopian setting.

These are just two example freshest off my mind of course, and I deepthunk this probably more than most people would. I also played Solarpunk (the base builder survival game that released this year) and some others that tackle these sorts of utopian settings but Solarpunk just... lacks any story or worldbuilding to speak of. But since it's a survival game, I can only suspect that the premise is more or less the same as Loftia's, even if nothing explicitly suggest that.

Anyways, what do you think about this and what interesting examples can you share? I went with the newest games I tried, since truth be told, the deeper I went back, the fewer of these games I was able to find. Google's AI search is beyond bad, lemme tell you

It's time to take WoW and its swampy terrain of streamers seriously. It's time for some theOnion style coverage.

Issue 2 coming next week.^{(satire/passion project/not for profit})

thegrilledlurker.com for better view/zooming

I've been thinking about how differently certain games might be discussed 10 or 20 years from now, particularly if the political climate in America changes significantly.

I genuinely believe that if the Trump administration eventually loses its grip on American politics, and the wider MAGA movement begins to lose its cultural influence, we're going to see a trickle-down effect across other parts of society. And I think gaming discourse will be one of them.

Obviously, Trump disappearing from politics wouldn't magically eliminate the far right. These movements existed before him and will continue to exist afterwards. But I do think there's a difference between reactionary politics existing and reactionary politics enjoying the level of mainstream legitimacy, institutional support and cultural influence they currently possess.

Look at something like Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. We're talking about a franchise that has spent decades allowing players to kill Nazis, yet its marketing campaign literally faced backlash for using the slogan "Make America Nazi-Free Again". Think about how absurd that is. A game about fighting Nazis became controversial for being openly anti-Nazi.

And I think that's symptomatic of a much larger problem with modern gaming discourse. So many conversations about games have become inseparable from the wider culture war. Diversity, feminism, LGBTQ+ representation, anti-fascism, even the mere existence of certain characters can become political battlegrounds before anyone has seriously engaged with the actual game.

I'm not arguing that every game accused of being "woke" is secretly a masterpiece, or that legitimate criticism doesn't exist. Quite the opposite. My problem is that so much of the discourse is contaminated by ideological agendas that it becomes difficult to distinguish genuine criticism from people who were politically motivated to dislike something before it even released (e.g. Current Wolverine discousrse) and I think that will change as the political environment changes.

If the American right loses some of its cultural influence, particularly the enormous ecosystem of commentators and influencers who have built careers around manufacturing outrage, I suspect we'll gradually see fewer games being judged primarily through that political lens.

Games that became punching bags during this period might finally receive more honest reassessments. People might actually discuss their writing, characters, themes and mechanics without every conversation being hijacked by complaints about DEI or woke agendas and frankly, I think we'll look back on some of the controversies of the 2010s and 2020s with genuine embarrassment.

Of course, none of this is inevitable. The right-wing outrage machine isn't going to disappear overnight, and there's no guarantee that American politics will move in a more progressive direction. But I do think people underestimate how much the political climate influences supposedly apolitical spaces like gaming.

Remember: Gaming culture doesn't exist in a political vacuum. If the wider political environment becomes less hospitable to reactionary movements, there's no reason to assume gaming discourse would remain completely unaffected.

I'm curious whether other people see this happening too? Are there particular games you think will benefit from being revisited in a less reactionary political climate? And do you think the eventual decline of Trumpism would meaningfully change gaming discourse, or has the culture-war industry become too profitable to depend on any particular political movement?

Urqu, the Mountain Commune, rests upon the tallest mountains in the whole world of Abexilas. Along its peaks revolution was carved away the despotism of the dictatorship. In its placed was enshrined the power of the Players, of the working class of Krasnoi and of the whole server. Here, over centuries the stubborn, but proud Urquan people, helped make the Zaryt Republic of Kasnoi complete. It is a place of industry and history; having been one of the first communes to undergo the project of developing a planned economy in Minecraft but also where the national language of Cura was first studied and standardized from.

From its brutalist towers and stony steps, echoed the pride of all peoples.

💌 DM if want to play with us.

Strips humanity of their agency and executes anyone that remotely steps out of line or technologically advances, and demands total subjugation but nah, Phanes and the Shades are really good guys here!

Lesser evils lib logic.

I haven’t bought the dlc yet but the thing that is making me hesitate is the price because it’s 30$ while it adds a lot to the game the price seems a lot to me even compared to crimson desert new upcoming dlc which is 24$ and remnant 2 dlc bundle which is also 24$. maybe it’s just me but these two 25$ dlcs add a lot too but cost less, maybe If dark arisen 2 added new vocation then maybe it be worth the price. am I just overreacting and overthinking?

Imagine that you get your memory wiped right now. 

You would probably check your ID or your phone to check who you are but... what if someone manipulated that too? What if it told you you were a completely different person altogether? What if this not only happened to you but to everyone around you.

Now add 20 years to that and you get the odd folk of Torovo. They cling to fabricated memories and fictional customs to try to justify who they are. 

Now just because those memories are not theirs... does that truly make them any less real?This is the key question that we, and the player, explore in our game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4952830/Torovo/

Looking for some woke friends to play some games with. It's difficult finding people who speak let alone people who aren't shit heads.

I like zombie games and shooter games but also crafting and survival.

Comment or DM if interested in joining :)

Last month Reform put "Small Boat Scramble" in their app, an arcade game where you turn back Channel boats for a £5,000 high score prize. It made me so angry I built a questline about it.

In M.O.M. - Ministry of Misery you play the "Minister of Everything" in a very broken British government. In this one the Home Office wants a response to the crossings, and you can do nothing, send in force, blame France, offer asylum with fast-track work... or spend £16 million of public money on a phone game about stopping the boats. The papers do the rest.

The joke is on the politicians, never the people in the boats.

Steam page if you want to follow it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5304890/Ministry_of_Misery/

I'm Maggie, I'm looking for comrades who'd be interested in playing in a socialism nation in Minecraft! We have an over two and a half year old socialist community on a larger GeoPol server. Our nation's name is the Zaryt Republic of Krasnoi, Zaryt meaning Council in one of our Conlangs Cura. We have a history of building a socialism system under pretty dire conditions; we had to exile our former dictator, build out a planned economy, form a Communist for all of the different republics. Ultimately we managed to overcome those challenges! We have defended against war threats, reconstructed a new International alliance of socialists and helped start smaller socialist communities all across the server!

What do we get up to in Krasnoi?

The server we play on has a pretty large player run economy we play in. So often we brew custom potions and enchant war gear. In our democratically run towns we build and plan their development. Seasoned PVPers and committed recruits train in PVP to defend ourselves and our allies. As Communists of course we write and study the economics and politics on the server to further the project of socialism. But of course we also hang out and banter a lot too. Most of the time we don't actually talk about politics.

We are also a pretty multi-national community with people from the US, Germany, other parts of Europe, South America, and Canada. We also have a pretty sizable Queer population too! Most of our leadership is actually Queer and/or Black and they’re all dedicated to running a fun and chill community.

So if you're interested in playing with us feel free to reach out to me 💚