fesoferbex
Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2013
- Messages
- 49
As a person born to the "Gamer" generation, I have grown up as a gamer. Now nearing 30 I have responsibilities that far outweigh the time I can put into gaming. In all honesty I really only play Minecraft these days if I play a game at all!
However, I've kept an eye on the industry and watched it grow and change. And, I couldn't help but notice the incredibly aggressive attitude that a number of companies have adopted as of late with incredibly brutal DRM schemes and so forth.
But, that isn't the part I find most disturbing, because that's all in plain sight, somebody already reasonably educated will likely see the flaws in those paradigms; the insidious growth is in storytelling.
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Let me give a recent example. A game was released on Steam in late January this year called "Strike Suit Zero." You can watch the full intro (about 3 minutes) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4S_t58kelg
Or the Cliff Notes version of the backstory: Earth was technologically advanced, a unknown signal was received with information on how to travel great distances (warp, slipstream, whatever the heck you wanna call it). So, Earth sends colony ships out especially towards the signal to figure out what it is. They don't find anything but they settle a lot of planets. The colonies build up and explore their worlds. After a while they find the crash site emanating the signal. The colonies had already been pushing on Earth to recognize their independence, but like any good (tyrannical) government they said "no." So they strike a deal with Earth, they allow their scientists to study the wreckage in exchange for independence. The deal sticks and everyone's happy. Well of course after a while, Earth finds amazing technology they don't want to share. The colonies don't like this so they expel the scientiests (note: not execute, not imprison, not steal the information, they just expelled them, sent them back to Earth). Earth revokes recognition of the colonial independence. The colonies won't have that, so Earth attacks the colonies.
In this game you play as a fighter in some sort of advanced fighter-craft defending Earth (not the colonies). The colonies are supposed to be the "bad guys" in this story.
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So, that brings me to the activism part of the TL;DR. I know I will, but I also encourage others to do similarly. I'll be contacting Born Ready Games via [email protected] and politely express why on principal I can not purchase their product, despite the clearly great effort they put into the gameplay and graphics.
Further, I plan on contacting the game reviewers who mostly glass over this fundamentally broken backstory in favor of telling us, the consumers, how "awesome" the graphics are and how much "fun" it is.
Personally, I don't think there is anything "fun" about tyranny. And this ONE game is just ONE example. Many games are starting to incorporate thoughts like this into the backstories.
Thoughts?
However, I've kept an eye on the industry and watched it grow and change. And, I couldn't help but notice the incredibly aggressive attitude that a number of companies have adopted as of late with incredibly brutal DRM schemes and so forth.
But, that isn't the part I find most disturbing, because that's all in plain sight, somebody already reasonably educated will likely see the flaws in those paradigms; the insidious growth is in storytelling.
================================
Let me give a recent example. A game was released on Steam in late January this year called "Strike Suit Zero." You can watch the full intro (about 3 minutes) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4S_t58kelg
Or the Cliff Notes version of the backstory: Earth was technologically advanced, a unknown signal was received with information on how to travel great distances (warp, slipstream, whatever the heck you wanna call it). So, Earth sends colony ships out especially towards the signal to figure out what it is. They don't find anything but they settle a lot of planets. The colonies build up and explore their worlds. After a while they find the crash site emanating the signal. The colonies had already been pushing on Earth to recognize their independence, but like any good (tyrannical) government they said "no." So they strike a deal with Earth, they allow their scientists to study the wreckage in exchange for independence. The deal sticks and everyone's happy. Well of course after a while, Earth finds amazing technology they don't want to share. The colonies don't like this so they expel the scientiests (note: not execute, not imprison, not steal the information, they just expelled them, sent them back to Earth). Earth revokes recognition of the colonial independence. The colonies won't have that, so Earth attacks the colonies.
In this game you play as a fighter in some sort of advanced fighter-craft defending Earth (not the colonies). The colonies are supposed to be the "bad guys" in this story.
===================
So, that brings me to the activism part of the TL;DR. I know I will, but I also encourage others to do similarly. I'll be contacting Born Ready Games via [email protected] and politely express why on principal I can not purchase their product, despite the clearly great effort they put into the gameplay and graphics.
Further, I plan on contacting the game reviewers who mostly glass over this fundamentally broken backstory in favor of telling us, the consumers, how "awesome" the graphics are and how much "fun" it is.
Personally, I don't think there is anything "fun" about tyranny. And this ONE game is just ONE example. Many games are starting to incorporate thoughts like this into the backstories.
Thoughts?
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At least I'm not watching FAUX News, CNN or MSNBC ..
