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When did the "activist" game developer mindset start?
Most strange phenomena can be pinned down to a single date or title, such as the first game to feature a turrent section, or the first game to feature quick-time events (I'm glad those two features are gone). So, what was the first game where the developers had a "activist" mindset, where they didn't care about their customers at all and actively fought against them brazenly. When did this terrible, narcissistic mindset start, and what's the first game to be plagued by it?

I can pinpoint such a mindset with movies, with Ghostbusters 2016. That was the first movie I saw where the director, the actors, and even the studio funding it actively went against the customers and fought against them so openly. It was pretty weird, which made it satisfying when the movie flopped and it sequel was cancelled.

But what about games? What was the first game to be plagued with the "activist" mindset that ruined it?
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Showing 1-15 of 1,223 comments
ReBoot
27 Jun @ 8:04am 
The movie was pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. No idea what your problem with the movie was (I'm guessing it's the male insecurity about female leads) but it is a fun movie. Way better than the 2 next part of the series.

As for games, Name an example.
Last edited by ReBoot; 27 Jun @ 8:05am
#1
Namsan
27 Jun @ 8:17am 
Pong probably
#2
Vaulty
27 Jun @ 8:32am 
so activism is when quick time event?
#3
BJWyler
1
27 Jun @ 8:35am 
Originally posted by Namsan:
Pong probably
Pretty much this. The actual "activists" are the ones who search around trying to find activism in anything they don't like. So it started when politicians saw the opportunity to give themselves more power by building a Group Think army that marches around the internet reguritating bullet points and buzz words.

Our forms of entertainment have always been a commentary on and a look into our society of the time. From prose to music and art over the centuries to radio, television, cinema, and games. It's all been a reflection of us as humans. It only becomes "activism" when it holds up a mirror to our faces and we don't like the reflection that we see.
Last edited by BJWyler; 27 Jun @ 10:07am
#4
The nameless Gamer
27 Jun @ 9:14am 
Some of the earliest examples would be "Final Fantasy VII", which some people would classify as "environmentalist virtue signaling" and there's the rather "anti-capitalist" messaging in the Fallout franchise.
#5
Start_Running
27 Jun @ 9:18am 
Originally posted by They Live, We Sleep!:
Most strange phenomena can be pinned down to a single date or title, such as the first game to feature a turrent section, or the first game to feature quick-time events (I'm glad those two features are gone). So, what was the first game where the developers had a "activist" mindset, where they didn't care about their customers at all and actively fought against them brazenly. When did this terrible, narcissistic mindset start, and what's the first game to be plagued by it?

I can pinpoint such a mindset with movies, with Ghostbusters 2016. That was the first movie I saw where the director, the actors, and even the studio funding it actively went against the customers and fought against them so openly. It was pretty weird, which made it satisfying when the movie flopped and it sequel was cancelled.

But what about games? What was the first game to be plagued with the "activist" mindset that ruined it?
In movies that activist mindset has been a thing since.. well the 60's.
In video games, I'd say since the 80's .


This isn't new m8.
#6
JuicyJuggs
27 Jun @ 9:22am 
It all starts and exists in your minds. This "activist" mindset you create for yourselves and view the world in. If you don't like options, variety, beauty, and change just say that.
#7
IFIYGD
27 Jun @ 9:28am 
All forms of entertainment have always had commentary included in them- books, movies, TV shows, games, art, plays, cartoons, music- all of it. The Internet and social media just made it possible to yell about it and have millions of people see it instantly if it was commentary or messaging that we did not agree with. It didn't just start recently. It's always been there.
#8
D. Flame
27 Jun @ 9:29am 
You can't pin it down to a single instance because it wasn't a natural movement that caught on and expanded over time. It was an unnatural collusion that was taking place behind the scenes on multiple games at once.

If I hand to point to a major landmark of this crap though, it would be when Sony moved their Playstation HQ from Japan to California.
Last edited by D. Flame; 27 Jun @ 9:56am
#9
sfnhltb
27 Jun @ 10:23am 
Books, Movies and Computer Games made about ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that only look out for themselves and screw everyone else tend to be pretty niche, whereas those about the opposite sort of people tend to sell quite broadly. So right wing topics and interests are rarely going to get a huge amount of support in entertainment media, except in parody, and "activists" will always be present because they have a positive tale to tell that most people react well to.
#10
Riskbreaker Y
27 Jun @ 10:31am 
Weren't games also censored due to activist pressures? Thinking like Final Fight with Poison and games with Christian imagery or symbology or violence had to be toned down when brought stateside like Castlevania and Actraiser (surely forgetting others). Just an observation.
#11
wesnef
2
27 Jun @ 10:39am 
The belief in some terrible "woke"/SJW/"activist" developer thing was truly launched by the Gamergate idiocy. And magnified by social media/influencers/MAGA, because the whole "omg, the Evil Woke Conspiracy is destroying the True Western Civilization of Straight White Men!" persecution complex feeds in to their whole schtick.
#12
Kai Shan
27 Jun @ 12:13pm 
Originally posted by ReBoot:
No idea what your problem with the movie was (I'm guessing it's the male insecurity about female leads)

The movie was shat, and no one has an 'issue' with female leads, that is just standard gunk from leftist/feminist NAZIs that don't want to examine the real issues. Did we have a problem with the female lead in the first Alien movie? Did we have a problem with the female lead in Tomb Raider? No, we did not. What we have a problem with is people that think it is a good idea to remake a good movie into a leftist piece of drivel. If you have any actual creative potential then make a NEW movie, with a new concept, don't just regurgitate the past with females.
Last edited by Kai Shan; 27 Jun @ 12:13pm
#13
Kai Shan
2
27 Jun @ 12:16pm 
Originally posted by wesnef:
The belief in some terrible "woke"/SJW/"activist" developer thing was truly launched by the Gamergate idiocy.

Just so we are clear; ''GamerGate" was the audience publicising that the industry was bribing gaming journalists to write articles to script. The industry responded by falsely claiming that it was 'right wing incels' crying about feminists; which is totally not what it was. So anyone that subscribes to the gamergate myth is a tool of a corrupt media industry.
#14
Kai Shan
27 Jun @ 12:20pm 
Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:
and there's the rather "anti-capitalist" messaging in the Fallout franchise.

Such as?
I do enjoy Fallout (except that the dog won't stay put at home), but I do not see any 'anti-capitalist' progaganda in it. It is dystopian, but I don't see it laying blame on either the USA or Communist China, just stating that it was a war between them that ended the world.
#15
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Date Posted: 27 Jun @ 8:01am
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