Video Games should just stop pretending they’re not political

After finishing the campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Super War 80s War last week it tweaked a nerve in my brain that has been getting a real workout these past months. Borne from reading the same old comments and arguments online about a lot of movies and video games that come close to dealing with real-world issues in their narratives and themes.

It’s the butting heads of irate gamers getting upset because they don’t want creators to become “political”, going up against the creators who do seem to want to say something in their work, all while their marketing team and managers frantically bow their heads and insist their games aren’t political at all.

Which is a load of crap if you ask me.

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Is making Superman into a villain a sign of our increasing xenophobia?

I was talking about the DC Fandome last week and the new Batman movie that got announced during it. At which point I made a comment about how writers seemed to want to treat Superman like some terrifying, angry God more and more rather than the symbol of peace and justice he once was.

And then it got me thinking, are we really becoming so afraid of people like Superman? Not deity-like aliens, but selfless, honest people who only want to do good? We certainly don’t revere them the same way as we used to in our media.

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The Uzuki-Chan Drama – Twitter imposing their morals on a foreign culture

These past couple of weeks, I’ve seen Hana Uzaki, the titular character from Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! showing up on my Twitter timeline a lot. Weirdly tough, her viral popularity isn’t one of people excited about her or of her becoming a new meme template. Rather, there is this wave of sentiment amongst people to try and “fix” her.

It’s a weird collective take that enough of the internet has globed onto that it’s become a talking point. And all I can think when I encounter is it: “Is this the first time these people have seen an anime character?”.

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