Wow! If this is you schizoposting, then please schizopost more :') I have mostly avoided understanding Baudrillard, partially because he's been synthesized by culture into a very annoying strain of Matrix-style bong-rip, and partially because I feel like understanding Baudrillard is a great way to essentially hypnotize yourself into psychosis. But I think I kind of get his deal now. And I definitely get Raiden's whole deal now, which is almost certainly much more important. It is curious to me that contemporary video games seem almost entirely uninterested in this sort of politically-loaded subject matter! (But also I stopped paying attention to vidya c. 2014, so maybe this impression is wrong. Is it?)
(Humorous coincidence: this one dropped in my inbox at the same time as a stray ping from a comment on Frank Lantz' post about Kojima. He is, uh, less enthused by MGS than you are: https://franklantz.substack.com/p/are-games-bad)
Thanks, I have found myself wanting to write a little less disciplined lately, which can build some self-indulgent habits if unchecked, but maybe the Kojima stuff is a natural fit for that style. Let's play every Metal Gear Solid game and go insane together!
Re: Baudrillard, I basically agree. He's really hard to get your mind around fully, so it makes him ripe for misuse--I kind of worry I'm doing that here frankly. And yeah, clearly he will have your reaching for your corkboard and red string really quick.
Political video games... I'm coming up pretty empty. I remember people praising The Outer Worlds (or Outer Wilds? Still have never learned which game is which) for being like 'capitalism is bad' and Spec Ops: The Line is similarly the war game with the message 'war is bad' but that's typically about as deep as it goes
Danny, I loved this piece. I have to jump in months late to say The Outer Worlds is absolutely the pseud slop you paint it as here but that Outer Wilds is one of the best games of the past decade. Extremely worth one’s time!
OK, I should specify here that there are definitely video games that have explicit political viewpoints here: like, the last REAL video game I finished was the roguelite "Going Under" which is explicitly about VC and startup culture (with a boss explicitly modeled after a shirtless Jeff Bezos, whose Cloud Strife-style sword is called the "Union Buster" lmao), and I feel like there's plenty of games like that, particularly among indie developers. But that "that" is "Hades/Balatro/Stardew/etc ripoff with a #anticapitalist aesthetic" and not, like... Kojima-style insanity. There are lots of insane self-published *novels* marinated in political ranting; where are the insane RPG Maker titles where characters rant about Deleuze or whatever??
Okay yes great point! Now that you say it, it does seem odd. Although I feel like the overlap between "programmer using RPG Maker" and "strong political opinions" would generate a lot of Ayn Rand screeds or like actual Nazi shit so maybe we're better off haha
I really enjoyed this. Nice one.
Appreciate it!
Wow! If this is you schizoposting, then please schizopost more :') I have mostly avoided understanding Baudrillard, partially because he's been synthesized by culture into a very annoying strain of Matrix-style bong-rip, and partially because I feel like understanding Baudrillard is a great way to essentially hypnotize yourself into psychosis. But I think I kind of get his deal now. And I definitely get Raiden's whole deal now, which is almost certainly much more important. It is curious to me that contemporary video games seem almost entirely uninterested in this sort of politically-loaded subject matter! (But also I stopped paying attention to vidya c. 2014, so maybe this impression is wrong. Is it?)
(Humorous coincidence: this one dropped in my inbox at the same time as a stray ping from a comment on Frank Lantz' post about Kojima. He is, uh, less enthused by MGS than you are: https://franklantz.substack.com/p/are-games-bad)
Thanks, I have found myself wanting to write a little less disciplined lately, which can build some self-indulgent habits if unchecked, but maybe the Kojima stuff is a natural fit for that style. Let's play every Metal Gear Solid game and go insane together!
Re: Baudrillard, I basically agree. He's really hard to get your mind around fully, so it makes him ripe for misuse--I kind of worry I'm doing that here frankly. And yeah, clearly he will have your reaching for your corkboard and red string really quick.
Political video games... I'm coming up pretty empty. I remember people praising The Outer Worlds (or Outer Wilds? Still have never learned which game is which) for being like 'capitalism is bad' and Spec Ops: The Line is similarly the war game with the message 'war is bad' but that's typically about as deep as it goes
Danny, I loved this piece. I have to jump in months late to say The Outer Worlds is absolutely the pseud slop you paint it as here but that Outer Wilds is one of the best games of the past decade. Extremely worth one’s time!
Thank you! Okay that was my instinct but I just never felt sure. Now that a real person has confirmed which is which I will remember and check it out
OK, I should specify here that there are definitely video games that have explicit political viewpoints here: like, the last REAL video game I finished was the roguelite "Going Under" which is explicitly about VC and startup culture (with a boss explicitly modeled after a shirtless Jeff Bezos, whose Cloud Strife-style sword is called the "Union Buster" lmao), and I feel like there's plenty of games like that, particularly among indie developers. But that "that" is "Hades/Balatro/Stardew/etc ripoff with a #anticapitalist aesthetic" and not, like... Kojima-style insanity. There are lots of insane self-published *novels* marinated in political ranting; where are the insane RPG Maker titles where characters rant about Deleuze or whatever??
Okay yes great point! Now that you say it, it does seem odd. Although I feel like the overlap between "programmer using RPG Maker" and "strong political opinions" would generate a lot of Ayn Rand screeds or like actual Nazi shit so maybe we're better off haha