There’s not a time in history sports and games weren’t political.
My favorite sports political protest of all time.
And the white dude was ostracized in Australia for being there, in solidarity with Aboriginal persons.
Politicize Pac-Man
Pac man disrespects the dead by eating ghosts, which is considered highly disrespectful in cultures that practice ancestor worship. What’s more, Pac man has a wife who is explicitly shown to be as capable as he is, to the point where the only real difference between them is that Mrs Pac man has a bow and lipstick. A bold statement on gender roles if I’ve ever seen one. In summary, this game is a feminist masterpiece that pokes fun at superstitious conservative countries. Truly a thought provoking piece that will be remembered in the same vein as other great provocative works, such as A Modest Proposal or the movie Borat.
Easy, the sequel was Ms. Pac-Man. /s
Pac-man was made specifically to appeal to women, a demographic that was rarely targeted with video games at that time. Its core design came right out of the idea that “women like to eat”.
Is this feminist-misogynist sandwich political enough for you?
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is literally one of the best games I’ve ever played and it’s entire basis is politics.
I’ve always wanted to play it, but I never have. Same for all of the metal gear games, lol.
If only I could play them on PS5 :(
It’s the only one I’ve played, I’m waiting for the Metal Gear collection to go on sale on Steam
Rising is very very different to any other MGS game. Fair warning. I recommend every MGS game wholeheartedly, but don’t play Rising and then pick up Snake Eater or MGSV expecting it to be more of the same.
Thanks for the heads-up
The Metal Gear franchise is political from the beginning. No one really batted an eye because everyone can get behind the “screw the government”, “fuck Illuminati”, “fuck corporations” and at the first game everyone cheers on killing a duciplitous warlord.
And is another fucking case where people who played it rooted for the villain, and missed the point.
I yearn for the day where I meet someone who tries to justify the actions of possibly the single most cartoonishly evil villain in entertainment history.
Maybe second only to the original Thanos, who wiped out half of all life in the universe not to bring balance, but because he was horny.
I guarantee you that’s where Turnip’s team got the slogan. Some unpaid internet played the game and mentioned it as Orange was walking by.
That’s so funny to think about lol
Yeeah, by the time Trump used it, it was a cliché slogan for cinematic hard-right-wing movements and political parties in America. I think the one in The Purge is Keeping America Great
So it was a clue during the campaign that Trump was meaning to do a literal fascism.
I mean the slogan came from Reagan and predates the game.
It was a Reagan campaign, and people like Roger Stone and Steve Pieczenick were involved. Listening to him on Knowledge Fight covering Infowars, they aren’t in touch enough to know video game references, unfortunately, since that would have been hilarious.
It originated from Reagan who took it from Thatcher, with Reagan not getting the “Make Britan Great Again” pun works because Great Britain is the name of the English portion of the UK
Great Brittain is the big island that England, Scotland and Wales lie on, but yes it’s dumb that Reagan just lost the pun
It’s not about killing the king. The king can never be killed. It’s about keeping him in check until he can’t move anymore
It’s also worth noting the term is “capture”. And outside of rare instance - you didn’t really want to kill knights and the like: You captured them, and ransomed them back to their family/liege lord etc.
And there is a reason the term “Kings Ransom” exists. John the II of France for instance was captured, and Ransomed for something like 300000 gold coins of the day - something like 300 million or up to about 3 billion in today’s dollars (conversion is a little fuzzy but to put it simply: A BLOODY TONNE OF MONEY).
The term “check mate” literally means “the king is dead”.
We know the word for king from other known forms like “sheikh” or “Shah”. I don’t think the word for “dead” was loaned to English from Persian or Arab in any phrases or sayings except “check mate”.
Yeah, but it’s about killing the king. It’s also about protecting your own king, so not a game of republicanism.
Apparently that might or might not be a mistranslation?
https://www.etymonline.com/word/checkmate
mid-14c., in chess, said of a king when it is in check and cannot escape it, from Old French eschec mat (Modern French échec et mat), which (with Spanish jaque y mate, Italian scacco-matto) is from Arabic shah mat “the king died” (see check (n.1)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat “be astonished” as mata “to die,” mat “he is dead.” Hence Persian shah mat, if it is the ultimate source of the word, would be literally “the king is left helpless, the king is stumped.”
King’s* Ransom
No politics here, we can go about our business.
If chess were a new game released today, I imagine a lot of these “why’d they make it political” types would probably object to the fact that the most powerful character in the game is the only one that’s clearly stated to be a woman.
Don’t let your pawns transition to female: promote to knight or rook
Bishop? Fuck off with that chastity thing, they’re probably non-binary perverts with genders or something.
Well, originally, the piece is Vizier - king’s advisor, the gender of which isn’t specified. (but implied to be male?)
So what you’re saying is that switching it from Vizier to Queen isn’t about progressive feminism, but instead about monogamy and heteronormative gender roles? Way to ruin it for everybody! 😠
Idk if I’m saying that, but it’s definitely woke. They should’ve came up with a new character instead of just gender-swapping an existing one!
The Vizier also only moved one space at a time, like the king but without significant importance. It wasn’t until the French changed the Queen in the 1600s to move as far as she wants that she was liberated from the shackles of the patriarchy.
The wazir only moved a single space horizontally or vertically.
The name change from wazir to queen started as early as the 10th century, but the current move set dates from the late 15th century.
Actually it’s still called Vizier (or something close) in several languages.
But we’re talking about that piece as the most powerful in the game, which happened in Europe, where it had been called a queen for hundreds of years.
Well, not if chess were created today, the way it was created originally. It took until 997 for The Queen to replace The Chancellor/Minister, and even then she could only move one square diagonally only. It took till the 1400’s for her to gain a flying mount, or whatever the explanation is for her current OP movement status.
Bishops replaced Elephants in the 1200s, but could only move 2 squares, diagonally, at a time.
Wokeness is why she’s not in a bikini or hot. Look at this. ♕
End WOKENESS
/s
At least she’s spiky… Spicy
If chess came out today, some mod author would give her huge badonkers
I was about to make a point but I’m scared what results will come up in google
Some mod authors have most definitely already done that. Only 250$ USD for a hand carved set on Etsy.
Sometimes I see a nude depiction and wonder to myself if it’s artsy or pornographic. In this case she’s fingering herself, so that answers that question
What’s Botticelli’s Venus doing with her hair?
Probably not much, her hand is on her thigh. Though I guess it’s possible that a goddess has articulated hair. If you zoom in on this chess piece her finger is clearly extended and going between her legs
I could see myself owning this if I had the money
And now I want to 3D print myself a couple sets of pieces - One that is Woman in Bikini’s in Pin-up poster poses, and the other in Hot AF Beach boys and the like in poses accenting there form.
Bet you it already exists. Either it’s been made and sold physically, or someone else has an STL you can use.
Getting your piece to the other side in checkers it becomes a king
Chess does not involve politics, because there is no decision making in groups. The chess in Harry potter where the pieces can talk to you… That has politics
The only apolitical video game is Tetris, and its export history is Cliff’s Notes for cold-war economic shenanigans.
It’s history which weirdly includes a lot of Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell’s father.
Tetris is a hyperabstract policing simulator. The shapes are people, your job is to shove them into boxes and keep them in line. Too many get out of line and you lose. Some people are easy to fit in, like lines and squares, some go out of their way to be helpful like Ls and Ts and some people…well, some people are just always gonna be Zs facing the wrong direction.
The movie’s great btw.
Tetris the movie?
Yes, this one: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt12758060/
The Fallout community is ludicrous with this. New Vegas is one of the most politically charged games in recent years, and yet chuds think it’s somehow not extremely anticapitalist and pro-leftist.
That’s because those people have a hard on for the Brotherhood and don’t see how they’re basically technonazis.
extremely anticapitalist and pro-leftist
There’s definitely some enlightened centrist bullshit crammed in there pretty unironically.
The NCR is both Capitalist and Imperialist, the fact that the people of the Mojave don’t want the Neoliberal expansionist empire or the fascist gang of slavers is more to the general leftist, almost Anarchist slant.
It’s only centrist if you consider the NCR as the end of the spectrum, and not just a lesser of two right wing evils.
I mean, killing people as a function of time plays a role here, right?
“The Finals” has different approach - you, as a real person, play video game, in which you control a character while in inner “virtual reality”.
Or you know - controlling a virtual character to kill other virtual characters isn’t so bad, isn’t it? 😅
You want a game about politics? Play fallout new vegas. Yes, there is no true government, but the whole game is about factions trying to establish themselves like a government.
And a random courier is somehow trusted to be the kingmaker. Which is more strange considering that I roleplayed as a kind of mercenary playing all sides until there comes the fork on the road where I had to choose which faction to give my full support.
The player character isn’t really trusted to play kingmaker, they just do regardless, and because the balance of power is fragile, the Courier is the tipping point for the scales.
I would have liked if Obsidian had put consequences of having helped the enemy in certain quests. Mr House knew I put bug into his building, helped NCR or the Legion, but he did nothing. Had Obsidian gotten more time to polish the game, they probably would have wrote script of Mr House punishing me for being a triple agent.
Not quite what you’re asking for, but the mod The Living Desert adds far more consequences and natural encounters for decisions you make.
Chuds still think somehow it’s a right wing game, despite being overtly anti-fascist and anti-Capitalist, with several positive portrayals of Socialism, such as the Gun Runners, Westside, and of course the Anarcho-Communist Followers of the Apocalypse.
It’s wild how many unironic Legion fans there are.
And that’s why it’s important. Why do so many people agree with the Legion despite how obviously horrible it is? I think it’s not so much what the Legion does that pushes people away, I mean, there are so many messed up things that happen in fallout, but maybe it’s the way they treat you. Hear me out. The NCR couldn’t give a shit about it’s solders and will actively do everything they can to advertise they’re old world ideals but fail to fix its flaws and this leads to almost every solder contemplating suicide just so they don’t get caught by the Legion or khans. Now how does the Legion treat you? Initially, hostile, but when you actually become a member, your treated as an equal in the horrible system. The only thing that gives any amount of status is your effort and cunning.
I think it’s just the usual gamer to fascist pipeline, they see a brutal terrible slave army and think its cool because they long for a strong sense of nationality and belonging to a greater whole.
The story I heard (now apocryphal) is the chess was invented (using live actors as pieces) to allow a prince to explain to his mother why it was necessary to kill his brother on the field of battle. A literal lesson in politics.
Sadly, I can’t find the source and Wikipedia says the origins of Chess are debated by scholarly historians.
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When people say this it’s an extension of telling people you’re “not interested in politics” as a more polite alternative to “you’re a windbag and not nearly as smart as you think you are, so I’d rather stick to things it’s fun to talk to you about.” Nobody complains about games like New Vegas and Deus Ex because they’re written by people with enough education and skill to pull it off. That’s why it’s always the same games being used as examples. That level of writing is nowhere close to the norm.
