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The Escapist getting relaunched, "leaving politics at the door"
- Thread starter KoolAid
- Start date
You need to understand the simple truth that entertainment doesn't necessarily grow up with you.
Nor should it.
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You may need to play some games released in the last 18 years or so to understand how the medium has grown in terms of content and themes. This naturally affects how us, adults, may want to cover the medium.
He's not really wrong about Mario though. He's always been a family friendly brand largely aimed at kids. Even if you count Odyssey, it's only a shift back to the N64/GC era style of gameplay and still having a very simple story. Nothing is particularly deep with Mario's story. Mario is not intended to grow up with its players like the rest of the industry has done to some of their games and characters (Jak series).
Of course politics are in Mario games as they are with everything around us but it's shallow and not very deep save the princess story and not likely to get discussed in great detail compared to newer games where their intention is to tell a deeper story like say The Last of Us or whatever else.
Again, are you serious?
edit: To provide a little clarity. The politics of Mario, simply due to its continued history, have created a form of politics that is far more layered and complex than it was when he was just an 8-bit pixel man running left to right. This is pretty much unavoidable, as the character went from a character in a video game, to a mascot, to a brand in its own right. Things didn't get simpler as more Mario games were created. They have inherently become more complex as more content and more creative work involved with the character has continued to be created.
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Are you?
EDIT: Never mind. Read back through the conversation string. Ignore.
Of course you are right and I agree. I suppose I was interpreting the "leave politics at the door" comment as "we'll try to leave our opinions at the door and report without bias as much as possible."
I mean it's not like there's a shortage of opinion out there for those that want to view gaming content through whatever political lens they choose. I accept that I'm probably being naive and what "leave politics at the door" really means is that they don't want to piss off their alt-right readers.
Okay, you're going to have to fill me in here. I can understand reviews being unable to avoid politics, but you're going to have to provide some stuff on Mario games and how it has grown up with the audience. I've seen so many say that Mario series should grow up and be more difficult and get more involved with its story for ages now, same for Pokemon, same for many Nintendo titles.
See my above edit, but to put it simply: the creation of new works involving a character, brand, or mascot, adds more politics to the mix. They are inherently more complex as they have a history.
As an example - the politics related to Mario and sexism have continued to evolve over time, from something simple and banal to a need to interrogate the design decisions of Nintendo at large, due to the mixed-messages they seem to present with regards to how Mario relates to other characters across the history of games the character has been involved in.
It might be good to think about it this way: The more time, and the more popularity something or someone has, the more politics are likely to increase and evolve around that something or someone.
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This is just... ridiculous. Since there are many reviews that do not delve into the political climate you describe. Just because you are aware and care about the political aspects doesn't change the fact that many discussion completely ignore that information which is kinda the point of this thread. It's not, can a gaming website exist in a complete vacuum of politics?
None of this really tells me anything on how Mario has really grown up with the audience and now aiming to an older audience. That's what it entails to say "not all entertainment grows up with you". I mentioned Jak series specifically because it went from game made for kids rated E to a game made for teens and older getting more and more complex with its story and politics. That's what I was getting at. And even then, Mario does not get more complex that what we see within their family brand, though they can if they wanted to.
Mario isn't inherently more complex or grown up because of an adjustment in themes and content because it's not really going to dive into those things. Mickey Mouse has also had a lot of adjustments to its themes, content, and interactions with characters, yet the stories are no more complex or political than they've ever been.
Not talking about something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. This is where the whole "putting your head in the sand" thing comes from.
Yes, if you're willing to ignore history, I'm sure nothing ever really becomes more complex. Most people aren't going to do that though, because it kneecaps discourse.
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I'd say that game is very political, hell the entire series is political due to character additions, balancing, competitive vs casual, and more. Politics means far more than just social, economic, and geopolitics. The politics in the Smash Bros community, as well as the fighting game community, is pretty big and has affected the series post-brawl.
Yeah, fighting games in particular have an extraordinarily huge dearth of politics about their mechanics, hitboxes, gameplay styles, etc. Not to even mention all the other topics the FGC is also involved with. And this wasn't always the case. It has evolved greatly over time, and people look back at old fighting games with a very different eye than when they were new.
No one is ignoring history. I don't feel like you're even listening. Whatever is intentional or unintentional, that someone notices will get talked about whether in review or opinion piece. And most often when it comes to Mario, it's an opinion piece to discuss the history and its issues not any one particular game. Talking of just Mario Oddysey, it's no more complex than Sunshine or Galaxy. Peach still gets kidnapped and Bowser wanting to marry her, the only difference is the ending where she essentially rejects both of them and goes on her own adventure. Also 3D World? She's playable, but now a bunch of female fairies are captured. Notice a theme and how the damsel in distress thing has not at all been addressed? things changed but everything is still the same and not even remotely more complex in your goals, etc.
Just because it got a few adjustments does not mean it has grown up, or matured, or a lot of things. To grow up with the audience, that people often demand is not always being rated E for everyone. The entire point of growing up with an audience and its history of use from people and companies is to often reboot the IP to be for older audiences. Youkai Watch is doing just that, aiming for older audiences, the audience that grew up watching and playing it because their IP isn't reaching many kids as they once did.
I do agree with wanting a bit more changes to Mario on some subjects like I mentioned. But adjustments that people want from Mario, like I mentioned, is not one to age the series up with the audiences, it's to get with the times.
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Okay, but that's not what was stated. A game doesn't become "grown up" just because it got a higher ESRB rating.
And again, what you're limiting politics to is just one bit of a much larger picture. Even games with no story at all can become more politically complex as time goes forward. If they're popular, they're almost assuredly going to.
Stating, "the story isn't very complex", is wholly different from stating, "the politics aren't very complex". The former is true of most Mario games, the latter is not.
More specifically, I would say it's "getting with the times" by having a more active female voice, because more girls/women are playing games. Which dips towards (if not actually into) gender politics and how society has changed towards being more even-handed in its treatment of the genders.