Obsidian says it doesn’t want The Outer Worlds to be ‘a politically-charged game’
- Thread starter vestan
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People pick up patterns and context and when folks say they don't want to get "potlical" it 9.999/10 it is usually some fuck shit.
It is really disappointing to see how many developers are so afraid of standing for anything, while their games actually do so on their own! There's no need to even make a statement, your game does it for you!
you can have a story that's political In the story world and not reflect the real world, but I would say many stories.. fictitious as they may be reflect what's going on or what has gone on in the past as good stories are often relatable to the reader in some form.
Actually I think apolitical in the current landscape, where many things are so heavy handed and preachy, simply means "co-director Boyarsky said the studio has been "very careful" not to "lecture" players with the themes featured in the game ". Let people think for themselves. And personally I think it's the right way to do it.
Wow, the quote has some nuance, title doesn't reflect that...
Era: F you obsidian you gutless wonders!
Era: F you obsidian you gutless wonders!
It's really not. Saying that he doesn't want people to think it's heavily political isn't the same as being apolitical. The game can simply not delve deeply into this stuff.
I edited my post but whatever, I'll just add this in a different post:
Yes, the actual Boyarsky quote is different. That changes the context, but my point still stands despite not being particularly relevant to what LB said, so... I'll add something different too: I disagree with him about the current state of our world (and he's obviously entitled to his opinion), but at least I appreciate that he's not going full "apolitical" when the setting and themes are obviously very political at its core. The tone might be humorous, but there's a critique in there.
I think there's a difference between "it's apolitical!" and "hard-hitting politics aren't at the front of our story", tbh.
Nazis were mad with gender options in Mordhau, so they gave them a toggle off option. The world sucks.
It is really frustrating to see someone complain about nuance and in their next statement, lump everyone's opinions together and discredit them.
Exactly. I haven't heard a peep about it. They could have let their game speak for them. Many games poke fun at megacorporations.
What did he say in his interview that sounded scared of alt right?
"The Outer Worlds' story is less a critique of modern capitalism and more about "power and how power is used against people who don't have it."
I reject the notion that if you're not full on an anti-capitalist then you are an alt righter. People can believe in capitalism and still support individual rights. People can believe in capitalism and say the way it's been implemented currently is an abuse of power, a bad trend and doesn't respect those who don't have power.
I see too many comments in here responding to the OPs thread title and not responding to the actual interview.
i don't really understand the problem. everything he said could apply to the wire, which is a very political program. it just expresses a desire to depict political ideas in fiction with nuance. do people actively want to be beaten over the head by strawmen characters and political lectures in long monologues because it validates their worldview? that's the calling card of embarrassingly bad fiction.
I feel you but when reading the full text, I really don't think it's about both-siding nazis or whatever.
What? He literally says the game is about "power and how power is used against people who don't have it (his exact words). His quote says he doesn't want the game to be preachy and lecture the player, but I have no idea how you go from "the game is about [theme]" to "the game doesn't delve deeply into [theme]".
I strongly believe that the word he meant to use is "preachy", not "political".
I edited my post a bit, tbh, but I think Boyarsky's original phrasing changes the context, because to me there's a difference between "it's apolitical" and "hard-hitting politics aren't at the forefront". The second one doesn't deny the existence of political themes and developments, while the first one does. And the first one wasn't actually said by LB, it was just an improper headline.
#facts
If there ever was a thread of people not reading any actual content before posting.
I'll give you that it was a knee jerk reaction but that's what this thread is. There is very little nuance in the discourse. Cheers.
Can you name a game that's preachy about politics? I'm struggling to think of one. It isn't really something games do.
Co-director of company that has been acquired by a trillion dollar company says new game is not a critique of modern capitalism. Hm... lol.
Seems pretty in line with what they've shown. The game is about corporations with too much power, but they didn't write it as a manifesto to the overthrow of capitalism nor could they have forseen the political shifts that have taken place in the last several years.
Because ResetEra is a minority and he still needs to sell video games.
How many times have seen this rollercoast ridden in context of some evil shit? Forgive me if i don't take the millionth time at face value. Especially in an industry that almsot always carters to just plain evil shit.
Well, yes, he said that. The thread and article title says that Obsidian doesn't want it to be a "politically charged game". Both don't really correlate.
Treating evil stuff with nuance so it isn't black and white shit is bad storytelling now? What the hell do you want from an actual fictional story, then?
Bioshock Infinite. But it's preachy in a "both sides" kind of way and comes across as pretty dopey overall. I'd imagine that's the sort of game he's trying to avoid.
they are under microsoft now so maybe they have to watch their tongue
So basically the game will be "not politically charged" in similar ways Fallout New Vegas was "not politically charged"; that is, it IS a heavily politically-charged game, with heavily political themes. But it doesn't beat the player over the head with its "message" which is what I think the dev meant.
But man... words have meanings my dude.
But man... words have meanings my dude.
Yeah exactly, it's flat-out contradictory which is why I keep saying, he must have used the wrong word.
The game is obviously political, and he knows that. He is saying its political, but its not gonna beat you over the head about it, which is a good thing.
The word apolitical is never used by the co-director. He just says it's not politically-charged, which is different. He's not saying politics don't exist within the writing.
I'm not familiar with that website, but it's an awful article title compared to what was said in the interview.
Hmm I unfortunately never played BioShock Infinite so I can't comment on it. I'll take your word for it.
I'm just surprised that this even needed to be said, no one expected the game to be BioShock. I always thought it was like a mashup of Borderlands/Fallout.
I'm not sure what "some fuck shit" means, but my guess, based on the context of the interview and history of the developers here, is that they created a scenario based on ideas that were divorced from what would be politically construed.
For instance, most games create scenarios that come from a design standpoint primarily, not a messaging standpoint. So they want a villain, they think of big, evil corporations. They think of wacky characters that populate their worlds and allow them to create missions with twists and turns and surprises and, mostly, lots of fodder to shoot with a gun. A lot of times, these missions are created to move a plot, not a message.
That doesn't mean that the message can't exist, but it's entirely secondary to the laugh, the surprise, the reveal, or the chase.
Also, things can be designed with a generalized message, but due to iteration, limitation, multiple hands on it, all that gets muddled to the point of near-nonsense, even if the structure is basically the same.
So 4 years on and 200 people working on it, the person gets asked "is it political", and in the back of their head they know that it wasn't created with intentionality towards some message, and even if it was, it was touched and altered by so many hands that they don't even know what that message would be (or maybe they know, but there might be 2 major quests that aim at that message and 12 side quests that completely undermine it) so the answer is....."errrr, it's not political". Insofar as it wasn't created or followed through with any sort of intentionality.
So the game uses political elements, and undoubtedly presents something about something, but it wasn't created to, especially in a holistic sense.
I actually agree with this. So then we're disagreeing with semantics on what's political. That's hardly nefarious and it's not what people in here are ranting about.
People saying that the title makes it seem worse than it actually is: the creators of the game are intentionally sidestepping a critique of capitalism, which conveniently ignores one of the core issues with society. Yeah, people use power to exploit others. But how do they do so? They use their capital and take advantage of those with a lack of capital.
I can't really fault him. This is Capitalism in a nutshell. The bottom line, and this is true of every company, they are not trying to turn away money, not even from people who are reprehensible and again, companies only do that in so much as they think it will help their profit margin more. Art and Capitalism are inherently at odds with each other and its a very strained relationship.
It reads to me like it's going to be political, like any game with themes and stories to tell, but instead of beating you over the head with those themes they expect the player to form their opinions on them.
I personally enjoy stories that are ambiguous and not so cut and dry this is good and this is bad. It allows me to use my moral compass and have some moral reflection on some stories.
I personally enjoy stories that are ambiguous and not so cut and dry this is good and this is bad. It allows me to use my moral compass and have some moral reflection on some stories.
This is so fucking cowardly.
The best response is to tell shittrolls that you don't need their business.
But even a more realistic response would be to say that they stand by their work and that the message is reflective of the problems they see in society today. Let the trolls reveal themselves by taking umbrage at things in the game, but stand by that you're sending the message that you intended to.
The best response is to tell shittrolls that you don't need their business.
But even a more realistic response would be to say that they stand by their work and that the message is reflective of the problems they see in society today. Let the trolls reveal themselves by taking umbrage at things in the game, but stand by that you're sending the message that you intended to.