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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 46-60 of 1,223 comments
Lunacy
28 Jun @ 2:39am 
It slowly started in 2004 and ramped up after 2014.
We're still fighting to get that rot out of the industry so we can have good games again.
#46
Franz
28 Jun @ 2:39am 
My guess is the guy who came out around 2000 after two decades of concerns about prejudice and homophobia isn't a hard right conservative, no. But he also talks openly about what it means to be a leader, make tough decisions, criticizing, and being criticized by, the people you then still have to manage, which are not your boilerplate "progressive agenda" topics.

What he seems to be a lot more passionate about is the importance of getting an education, be it through school and university or self-taught, which carries you on to being your own person and finding your place in life and develop critical sense and your own ideas.

... moreover, if we broaden the lens a tinsy bit, his most recent IP is space war with dystopian megacorporations who literally own their employees, you don't have to have a black belt in subtext to decipher that one.
#47
Crazy Tiger
28 Jun @ 2:41am 
None. I don't look at games with an "activist" mindset
#48
O Ri O
28 Jun @ 3:00am 
Originally posted by Franz:
... moreover, if we broaden the lens a tinsy bit, his most recent IP is space war with dystopian megacorporations who literally own their employees, you don't have to have a black belt in subtext to decipher that one.

Indeed. As we discuss the idea of media literacy, we should consider literacy itself, and the concept of reading levels.

If we propose that media literacy could be similarly graded in terms of reading level, we might be able to, perhaps, identify a nonpartisan source of discontent for people about some media compared to other media.

Has the messaging in our media gotten simpler and/or less subtle?

The Outer Worlds Marketing definitely is a lot less subtle than the game itself for certain. The Secret level episode they did was satisfyingly allegorical.

(Edit: “Secret Level” was an anthology tv show presented on Amazon that featured a number of games through short features)
Last edited by O Ri O; 28 Jun @ 3:02am
#49
Reiya
28 Jun @ 3:55am 
Originally posted by Lunacy:
It slowly started in 2004 and ramped up after 2014.
We're still fighting to get that rot out of the industry so we can have good games again.

You're not fighting anything other than windmills. And there are plenty of good games out there, you just want to pretend that you never called them woke.
#50
Tito Shivan
28 Jun @ 4:47am 
Originally posted by Underprivileged White Male:
I stopped listening at "bigotted'
Ok, have a cookie, milk is on the fridge. Have fun.

Originally posted by Reiya:
And there are plenty of good games out there, you just want to pretend that you never called them woke.
Because it only matters what makes them right now. So when a game that's been lambasted for 'being woke' or 'activism' turns out to be a blast they'll do a 180 and pretend none of that was ever said, or even claim the game was all the opposite from the beginning so they win again!
#51
They Live, We Sleep!
28 Jun @ 5:19am 
Originally posted by Lunacy:
It slowly started in 2004 and ramped up after 2014.
We're still fighting to get that rot out of the industry so we can have good games again.

You don't have to do much fighting. Nearly 1/3 of U.S. game developers have been fired since 2024, most of them being activist. I guess chasing after the mystical, magical "modern audience" wasn't such a good idea, now was it? No, it wasn't. Who would have guessed that uglifying female characters to appeal to mentally ill troons who think they are women, blackwashing characters to appeal to self-loathing activist, and making everything lame and gay wasn't such a great idea. Who would have guessed, right? I hope another 1/3 gets fired. Those morons deserve to be unemployed.

Instead of learning to code. Those losers are gonna have to learn to put the fries in the bag.
#52
D. Flame
28 Jun @ 5:25am 
Originally posted by Tito Shivan:
Because it only matters what makes them right now. So when a game that's been lambasted for 'being woke' or 'activism' turns out to be a blast they'll do a 180 and pretend none of that was ever said, or even claim the game was all the opposite from the beginning so they win again!
I have been arguing in favor of attractive characters and fanservice since this ♥♥♥♥ started, and that was my main reason for being against woke activism in game. The examples that you always tried to "counter" with were full of attractive women and even sex scenes.

Your entire premise was flawed. But of course, you refuse to ever acknowledge this point, instead choosing to reply only to people that agree with you so that your can plat each other on your collective backs.
#53
datCookie
28 Jun @ 5:35am 
Originally posted by D. Flame:
Originally posted by Tito Shivan:
Because it only matters what makes them right now. So when a game that's been lambasted for 'being woke' or 'activism' turns out to be a blast they'll do a 180 and pretend none of that was ever said, or even claim the game was all the opposite from the beginning so they win again!
I have been arguing in favor of attractive characters and fanservice since this ♥♥♥♥ started, and that was my main reason for being against woke activism in game. The examples that you always tried to "counter" with were full of attractive women and even sex scenes.

Your entire premise was flawed. But of course, you refuse to ever acknowledge this point, instead choosing to reply only to people that agree with you so that your can plat each other on your collective backs.

How can one even argue in favour of something that's entirely subjective?

"I want attractive characters!", no game dev is going to care about what your definition of attractive is, ever. Attractiveness may not even be a factor in the character design for various reasons.

It's all just utter nonsense.

Having said that, activism in media has been a thing for decades. People really need to get over it.
#54
Tito Shivan
28 Jun @ 6:02am 
Originally posted by D. Flame:
I have been arguing in favor of attractive characters and fanservice since this ♥♥♥♥ started, and that was my main reason for being against woke activism in game. The examples that you always tried to "counter" with were full of attractive women and even sex scenes.

Your entire premise was flawed. But of course, you refuse to ever acknowledge this point, instead choosing to reply only to people that agree with you so that your can plat each other on your collective backs.

Maybe people should stop overfixating on outrage grifters focusing on cherrypicked images to waste hours speaking of things like 'DEI chin' or calling the last one on the line 'ugly'
https://tombraiders.net/stella/images/timeline/lara_croft_evolution_new.jpg
#55
Vanity
28 Jun @ 6:11am 
So one more straight boy crying because he thinks a minor character might be secretly gay or something and this is offending him due to how woke and activist it is..
#56
Reiya
28 Jun @ 7:31am 
Originally posted by They Live, We Sleep!:
Originally posted by Lunacy:
It slowly started in 2004 and ramped up after 2014.
We're still fighting to get that rot out of the industry so we can have good games again.

You don't have to do much fighting. Nearly 1/3 of U.S. game developers have been fired since 2024, most of them being activist. I guess chasing after the mystical, magical "modern audience" wasn't such a good idea, now was it? No, it wasn't. Who would have guessed that uglifying female characters to appeal to mentally ill troons who think they are women, blackwashing characters to appeal to self-loathing activist, and making everything lame and gay wasn't such a great idea. Who would have guessed, right? I hope another 1/3 gets fired. Those morons deserve to be unemployed.

Instead of learning to code. Those losers are gonna have to learn to put the fries in the bag.

Who would've guessed that the need for infinitely inflating profits would eventually create an unsustainable system that would collapse regardless of the quality of games.

Did you know that Final Fantasy XV was considered a Financial Failure? Which by the way, earned 912 million dollars. And it was being considered a financial failure when it was only making 700 million.

Did you know that by comparison, FFXVI only made 330 mil?

Oh and if I were to combine all of the FFXV verse, which by the way, Square Enix stated was a financial failure... you get $1,442,600,000.

Financial Failure, by the way. When you make a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ billion and you're calling your game a financial failure, that's not your culture war ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that's a problem with the chase for ever higher profits. Eventually, you get to a point where you cannot meet your goal.
#57
ReBoot
28 Jun @ 7:36am 
Originally posted by Kai Shan:
leftist/feminist NAZIs that don't want to examine the real issues..
Yup, "good" old insecurity. Kiddo, you don't even know what a nazi is.
Last edited by ReBoot; 28 Jun @ 7:36am
#58
Start_Running
28 Jun @ 7:44am 
Originally posted by Vanity:
So one more straight boy crying because he thinks a minor character might be secretly gay or something and this is offending him due to how woke and activist it is..
The idea that there are peiople in the world not like him is very disturbing to them.
#59
D. Flame
28 Jun @ 8:00am 
Originally posted by datCookie:
Originally posted by D. Flame:
I have been arguing in favor of attractive characters and fanservice since this ♥♥♥♥ started, and that was my main reason for being against woke activism in game. The examples that you always tried to "counter" with were full of attractive women and even sex scenes.

Your entire premise was flawed. But of course, you refuse to ever acknowledge this point, instead choosing to reply only to people that agree with you so that your can plat each other on your collective backs.

How can one even argue in favour of something that's entirely subjective?
It is pretty self-explanatory:
https://i.imgur.com/sImrHTK.jpeg
#60
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Date Posted: 27 Jun @ 8:01am
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