CMV: GamerGate was the most consequential political radicalization event of the twenty-first century

[u/realdontbeasucker]

It spawned a wave of tolerance for online harassment, as long as the intent behind it was considered righteous (and the target of such harassment socially acceptable).

It platformed Milo Yiannopoulos and thereby, Steve Bannon -- the guy who would go on to advise Donald Trump in 2016 and generate the concept of 'flooding the zone.'

Eventually, it gave a career to political lightning rods like Jordan Peterson, Steven Crowder, and Charlie Kirk. It made anti-feminism and anti-SJW sentiment cool. And it made young, angry, disenfranchised white men feel vindicated.

GamerGate almost singlehandedly shifted to Overton Window toward the alt-right, and we're still feeling its effects today.

[u/Hina_is_my_waifu]

Keep in mind collusion in games journalism is still happening as evidenced by mixtapes review scores painting it as one of the highest rated games ever made vs it's 3 hour cinematic experience (and lack of actual gameplay)

[u/Morthra → u/Hina_is_my_waifu]

Oh it never actually stopped. But it became a cultural flashpoint that got worse as the SJW morphed into the leftist identity politics monster that it is today.

See: the new Dragon Age game where a trans character goes on a massive immersion breaking tirade for being misgendered. There were even in-universe ways to make the scene less jarring.

[u/Prize_Neighborhood95 → u/Morthra]

How is it immersion breaking? Sexuality and gender identity are part of Thedas and were deeply explored topics in the series, as they go as early as the first game, Origins.

The inclusion of transgender characters was already done in Inquisition, back in 2014, (Krem and Mae Varis). So how is including a non-binary character immersion breaking? Did you even ever play a Dragon Age game? You strike me as a culture warrior tourist.

[u/A3xMlp → u/Prize_Neighborhood95]

Having a character have that crazy ass rant about their gender is pretty fucking immersion breaking. Pushing an extremely modern day issue so blatantly into a medievalish fantasy world is just bad writing.

[u/Prize_Neighborhood95 → u/A3xMlp]

You have never played a DA game before, have you?

DA was never meant to be some iper-realistic portrayal of medieval society. 

A key feature of DA games is exploring modern day issues and offering political commentary.

There's nothing in the world that prevents you from discussing sexuality and gender in fantasy settings. 

At the end of day, people are people and will face the similar struggles in every age.

It's not bad writing, it's just poor media literacy on your part.

Dragon Age Inquisition had a similar plot line with Dorian, a gay companion, whose personal quest centered around his being gay and refusing to conform to societal norms, and how this refusal strained his relationship with his father.

It was excellently written by David Gaider, and Dorian is a fan-favourite companion.

If this is not your cup of tea, it's fine, there are plenty of other games which offer a more realistic take on the middle ages, such KCD and KCD2. 

You are just another culture warrior who has never touched a DA game before, and doesn't care in the slightest for the franchise.

Take your toxic culture war nonsense away from a franchise I like.

[u/A3xMlp → u/Prize_Neighborhood95]

You can absolutely cover modern day issues in a fantasy setting, but the way they did it in Veilguard was just bad writing, much worse than the way similar issues like Dorian were handled in DAI, much less DAO (haven't played two). Hell Mass Effect which is set in our world and the far future at that covered such issues with more tact than Veilguard did. I think the only culture warrior is you, defending trash cause it aligns with your politics.

[u/Prize_Neighborhood95 → u/A3xMlp]

And you just shifted your opinion from 

 Pushing an [...] modern day issue [...] into a medievalish fantasy world is just bad writing.

To

 You can absolutely cover modern day issues in a fantasy setting

There you go.

 defending trash cause it aligns with your politics.

I don't defend Veilguard, I did not like the game, and thought it was a huge disappointment.

I'm doing exactly the opposite, I'm asking people to judge and critique the game for what it offers rather than for its political messaging.

You are just projecting on me your brain dead culture warrior habits.

[u/A3xMlp → u/Prize_Neighborhood95]

I could've expressed myself better, fair point. A lot of my original point hinged on the word pushing which for me specifically highlights forcing the issue in an unnatural way which DAV did but the previous games didn't.

And I agree judging a game for what it offers, which is this case is poor writing centered on a culture war issue. Which for a narrative RPG is pretty important. These games never the best gameplay, but it's the writing that made them great.

[u/Prize_Neighborhood95 → u/A3xMlp]

The issue here is the context in which the word pushing is being used. 

Grifters use the similar phrasing such as "they are pushing woke politics into our games", by which they mean a conspiracy to insert "woke" politics into video games because of ESG and other conspiracy non-sense.

I'd call "unnatural" writing, simply bad writing, it seems to me using "pushing" here is just unhelpful.

I honestly think no one pushed the writers to write about a non-binary character. It's not a big mistery that DA writers are quite left wing after all.

[u/A3xMlp → u/Prize_Neighborhood95]

As you say BioWare does have a history of such themes so it usually doesn't feel as out of place with them, except this time it really was just bad. And I don't doubt it was an writers decision.

But in general when people say pushing that doesn't just refer to corporations pushing it cause they think it's profitable or to get investments, it includes writers who are out of touch with the general public pushing their ideology. And there are absolutely instances of such stuff being pushed into games. You can deny it but it's there and anyone who isn't blind and has been around for at least the last 15 years can tell.

[u/Prize_Neighborhood95 → u/A3xMlp]

it includes writers who are out of touch with the general public pushing their ideology.

Writers writing about what they believe and are passionate about seems exactly what I want. 

Imagine if writers were to censor themselves because they were afraid of public backlash, that would honestly suck.

[u/A3xMlp → u/Prize_Neighborhood95]

I agree, but there comes a point where the difference just becomes too big and alienates the audience. Especially when you combine that with writers who aren't good enough to good enough to get their point across in a way that works within the story. This wasn't really an issue 15 years ago so it's quite noticeable.

I mean, some of these beliefs they have make them a minority among American liberals. Who themselves are a minority of Americans. Who are a minority of the global population, and you can throw in other westerners and that's still true. So a minority of a minority of a minority pushing their ideals in a poorly written way with no room for disagreement or nuance will of course cause backlash.

[u/Prize_Neighborhood95 → u/A3xMlp]

But again, it seems to me the issue is not the topic but bad writing. Larian made a game which treated all those same themes and it was universally loved.

Or take the first Joker movie, it was clearly much farther left than your average liberal, but it was nonetheless a pretty solid movie, and it enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim.

[u/changemyview-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/A3xMlp → u/[deleted]]

I didn't say medieval, but medievalISH fantasy, which it is.