Adventure Gamers - Forums
You are here: Home → Forum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread
Post Marker Legend:
- New posts
- No new posts
Currently online
Political and ideological discourse in adventure games
I find the way tentacles are represented in some adventure games as disgusting. Either they do nothing and have a band, who’s claim to fame is how loud it is (are they implying tentacles can’t be proper musicians?) or they are evil and want to take over the world. Where are the normal tentacles who have a job? It shows the game creators are Western, white, middle-aged conservatives who know nothing about their surroundings.
I am offended.
I disagree. AMFV shows the effects of a pure populist being elected into office - not necessarily a Republican, or a Democrat. (The fact that Reagan was himself quite the populist doesn’t really factor into it.) And I think it does a great job of tracing out the cause-effect path over the five decades of Rockvil’s decay.
Yeah, that’s how it played for me too. What counts is the player’s experience of the game, and I don’t agree with Frogacuda’s negative comments. But here’s what Steve Meretzky said about AMFV in the documentary Get Lamp:
I wanted to show people what a warmongering Christian Right pandering, environment trashing, rights trampling asshole Reagan was. And of course the game was so succesful we never had another President like that.
And then he laughed.
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
I find the way tentacles are represented in some adventure games as disgusting. Either they do nothing and have a band, who’s claim to fame is how loud it is (are they implying tentacles can’t be proper musicians?) or they are evil and want to take over the world. Where are the normal tentacles who have a job? It shows the game creators are Western, white, middle-aged conservatives who know nothing about their surroundings.
I am offended.
This is an excellent post. Kudos.
But here’s what Steve Meretzky said about AMFV in the documentary Get Lamp:
I wanted to show people what a warmongering Christian Right pandering, environment trashing, rights trampling asshole Reagan was. And of course the game was so succesful we never had another President like that.
And then he laughed.
Haha! I knew that Reagan was the catalyst for AMFV (even though I still think they hide it well) and I’d seen Get Lamp but I just don’t remember that quote. Epic.
Sam and Max episode Abe Lincoln Must Die was a great model to show how political themes should appear in an adventure game. There was no indoctriniation or propaganda, the disturbing truths were presented in a funny and clever way.
True, but it’s a hilarious comedy game. Should we prevent non-comedy games from using the political motives? I think not, but it needs to be done properly, meaning it must not resemble TV News program.
I can’t think of any games right now (perhaps Spycraft to an extent) that does that (haven’t played The Moment of Silence), but I’m sure there’re good mysteries/thrillers that had done it.
Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale
well, I guess I should be fair to Syberia at this point. Despite including some themes I detest, it does a good job showing the truth about idealized middle class yuppie life.
You are here: Home → Forum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread