Since we’re on the topic of appropriating slogans, how about we appropriate “all lives matter” as an anti capital punishment slogan?
2 Likes
Science fiction riffing on contemporary social crisis in a heavy-handed way?
Notify the president! The end times are upon us!
The way a society processes things like this is precisely by making toy versions of it in fantasy contexts. That’s just what happens. Always has. In a way, I’d be shock if something like this wasn’t in the game.
As for the neutrality of the segregation, I’m actually glad for it. No, I don’t like segregation, my opinion of it is wholly negative, but it has to be reasonable in universe or the morality of it all is hollow and the story is boring. Otherwise your villains[1] might as well wear Human Suffering Is Great t-shirts and twirl their mustaches as they drop-kick puppies into woodchippers.
[1] Those supporting segregation. Of course those are the villains. You know it, I know it, the game designers know it. But they mustn’t look it otherwise their villainy means nothing.
4 Likes
Ftfy.
For what it’s worth, I too was raised in a xenofobic environment, only on the other side of the ocean.
1 Like
Or as an anti-drone-killing/anti-war slogan?
2 Likes
Let me express my disappointment that no-one appreciates the Deus Ex:Oh My God JC It’s A Bomb reference.
2 Likes
A bomb!
1 Like
It’s promotional art, and the defense is that its existence within the game’s fiction is a coincidence (when it clearly isn’t). One references these kinds of real world events in fiction in order to comment on those references - to add something to the discussion. But this isn’t doing that - it’s ham-fistedly appropriating a slogan to steal its power for itself in a way that doesn’t even make that much sense. It reminds me of art undergrads who decide to do work that references the Holocaust or some other emotionally charged subject just because they see it as giving their work weight, But if you don’t have anything meaningful to actually say about it, it’s just a meaningless prop that ends up trivializing the reference, not making your work more powerful.
Except it’s not. It’s just stealing the reference for superficial use without actually metaphorically examining the issue at all.
Are you disappointed in BoingBoing (readers)? Sorry, I did appreciate that reference, actually.
6 Likes
Well, you DO know that the line, or some variant, will be in the sequel.
And given the recent communiques from the people making the game, it might even be a serious reference.
I actually spent most of the last DX waiting for that line, every time adam climbed into that monstrous, beautiful air limousine.
1 Like
Definitely before the time in development: in which the publicist is paid to suggest you like the protagonist.
All those ragdoll engines gotta get paid for! [Imagines ‘Squidbillies’ creators, aging hard into 14, sighing and taking the check to a less-ironic policy think tank for financial planning service, relicensing Happy Wheels, etc.]
They do after all put quite an effort into making it uneasy for the unreliable protagonist to succeed, All Lives Matter or as mentioned Black. The past games included bits where your car with and without 6 NATO Divisions worth of hell in it would have to be moved to a different spot in the State building’s lot, against particular opposition.
The deafness could be deafening. Props to whoever hits skip in right places until the plot rankles with likeable authenticity.
Offworld Lives M…no? Progress over there? Okay then.
2 Likes
Just remembered the greatness of “Papers, Please”.
2 Likes
I haven’t actually played it, but it was absolutely top of my list of indie games that I had in mind that do deal with real issues in a non-clumsy way.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
