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With the incredibly depressing and demolishing election results, Trump and his white supremacist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, imperialistic ideology will be sitting with the world's strongest military, a mass surveillance apparatus in the form of NSA and Homeland Security, an extrajudicial drone program, a militarized police force that shoots an kills black and brown people without punishment, an embrace of fossil fuels in the face of cataclysmic climate changes, a legitimization of white supremacist militia like the KKK, a rise in hate crimes following the results, the LGBTQ suicides following the election, deportation of immigrants, and the list goes on and on. And all of these alarming capabilities of fascist ideology is unchecked with the Republicans controlling the house and the senate, and even being able to put in a Supreme court justice. Whether you like it or not, the games industry and culture are not detached from this fallout and "we" cannot escape into the comfortable nature of entertainment away from what's going on "outside" (especially if we are affected by his policies). Games are part of society and can (should?) reflect what we are going through as human beings. Therefore, publishers, developers, journalists, critics, Youtubers, players, consumers, etc. have to take a stand in this ugly downturn in history. Being neutral doesn't cut it in the face of oppression and fascist ideology. Here are some examples of what some game developers and writers have done: Austin Walker wrote an editorial for Waypoint on how they embrace diversity and push back against bigotry. Fullbright are making their game Gone Home free for everyone Itch.io are in the process of making a bundle where all the proceeds go to the ACLU. Double Fine are explicitly hiring diverse candidates. Editor-in-Chief of Gamesindustry.biz James Brightman did an editorial about the diversity of games and how the industry and culture have to shut down the Gamergaters and alt-right that are in line with Trump's fascism. What other avenues can publishers, developers, writers, communities, players do? Will EA/Activision/Ubisoft/Square Enix donate profits to more civil rights unions? Will they hire more from the groups who will face the oppression of the government? Will they emphasize diversity and multiplicity in their games and their marketing? Will IGN, Gamespot, Eurogamer, Polygon, etc. include address the societal context in which they do their coverage and reviews? Will Microsoft consider how their own company is situated in a country with a white supremacist government? Will Gaming Youtubers address their audiences about what's going on and remind them that this is serious business and that people, especially Muslims, LGBTQ, Black, poor, etc., will be hosed over by the policies? I think the important thing is that the games industry in as many instances as possible does not accept or normalize Trump's and the Republicans' fascist platforms. That they don't continue the status quo and that they don't ignore it. Feel free to add or contribute with other articles or videos or PR statements by companies that touch on this.
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Nov 12, 2016 21:18
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:26 |
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You could probably argue that the biggest game companies should donate their profits to civil rights organizations - ACLU, Planned Parenthood, SPL, BLM, and so on. That would be one step for them (in addition to fixing their own problems).
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Nov 12, 2016 21:42
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Nov 12, 2016 22:56
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Collecting my ideas for discussion on a new page: I want people to look at the consequences of their vote. - A fun cool cops game but after a few levels you get orders to beat up a peaceful protest and then you end up killing a little Hispanic kid and it's super graphic and everybody is still like YEAH! GOOD JOB! - A drone game where you think you're making a difference on the other side of the world, but you find out that you're bombing poor black neighbourhoods. - An economics game where you need to find places to cut funding in order to secure tax breaks for the corporate interests who will get you re-elected, and the white neighbourhoods will balk at losing money, so you have to take it from communities of colour - A day-to-day first person life simulator but instead of a power fantasy, you get spit on and pushed and harassed constantly and you don't know why except that your hands are a different skin colour than those of your harassers - A word-matching game which starts with neutral emotional language but gradually becomes loaded with racial slurs and strongly coded violent language until it's revealed that the player is generating talking points for hate speeches - A neighbourhood simulator where your character is rewarded greatly for spotting specific behaviour from your neighbours and reporting on it, which causes the police to swoop in and disappear them, but then you notice your neighbours are watching you too - A prison simulator which starts relatively innocently but then you start getting mandates to torture specific segments of the population - A Bully-style game in which the player completes tons of minigames to educate themselves, works hard to do well in school and keep their nose clean, then on graduation day they're shot by a police officer and there's nothing the player can do about it - A flight sim with a futuristic jet that never lands and must refuel and repair in the air but eventually it's revealed that it's because its trillionaire passengers have exploited the world's population so badly that landing anywhere is certain death - A city planning game where pollution is an unsolvable problem but it can be temporarily fixed by diverting it into poor communities and closing schools & increasing police presence there
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Nov 13, 2016 00:11
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Nov 13, 2016 01:18
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 00:26 |
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Nov 13, 2016 15:27
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