Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
Seriously. Every form of entertainment has baked-in political assumptions, and that definitely includes #ttrpg . You might choose not to examine them, but this is an active choice on your part, and you don't get to pretend that your entertainment is "free of politics".
I'm very curious what political message shapez is sending. It's a factory building game that takes place in a seeming void where magical shapes appear out of nowhere and then simply get thrown into what appears to be a black hole there's no particular discernible story or message just a fun puzzle
My thought?
The factory grows. This is good. You must shut up and let the factory grow. The factory grows. The factory must grow.
When I say "I don't want politics in my gaming," I mean it literally.
Like, I don't care for the Star Wars prequels because they spend a lotta time just doing politics instead of space battles.
I don't wanna sit through boring ass senate sessions listening to motions and passing votes. I wanna blow shit up!
I think there's a middle ground where the game 'world' can acknowledge there are political maneuverings happening, while not forcing you to track the shipments of food and goods so you can squeeze nobles who depend on certain economic routes into complying with the king's orders to rally troops for a cause.
Bounty orders style campaigns are fun for a short while, but there's only so many 'go here, kill x, biggest change is the layout of the dungeon and enemy vulnerabilities' before the game sessions all bleed into one long blurry dice roll. That's close to warhammer/battletech/etc territory. I want a real story to go with the campaign, and that necessitates a 'politics' somewhere unless you're playing one of the barbarian/end-of-the-world games where there is no civilization or npcs at all aside from enemies.
But I think we can all agree that the "politics" of motions and passing votes is not what was being addressed by OP.
Prequels? You don't think the original Star Wars had tons of politics in it?
So you don't like narratives involving politics. That's a very different statement to "I don't want politics in my gaming."
I mean sometimes I just want to take a break from thinking about it and larp as "The good guys" for a while
Ghost of Tsushima:
A Samurai and several of his battle-ready female companions try to reclaim their island after Mongol invasion.
I remember thinking "did they really have female warriors and lords back then who called the shots and fought alongside the men? I like the message, but a bit of realism would be nice...."
And then our brave stoic rugged Samurai literally prostrates himself in front of his lord/uncle at every opportunity constantly grovelling and professing how unworthy he is and how he seeks only to serve, and then I'm thinking "oh yeah... the stoic Samurai is a trope, they were either small militias or snivelling arms of the state."
So I'm okay with realism being bent if it means I'm not constantly questioning the values of my main character.
I'm not super familiar with either the game or Japanese history, but I found this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha
It seems that women were regarded more equally prior to confucianism.
The page for the game says:
Jin's samurai armor and katana are not historically accurate, with his armor based on that of the Sengoku period during the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Chris Zimmerman, one of Sucker Punch's cofounders, samurai armor from the 13th century was "jarring looking" and did not align with players' expectations of what samurai armor would look like.
Totally-not-samurai-looking armor:
Yeah I've made peace with what I want from the game, because period-perfect accuracy would be way too jarring to stomach
"Politics" or "the way one sees the world"?
Because I'm pretty sure there's a language disconnect regarding worldview.
A dev has their game reflect their worldview, and a social curmudgeon experiences political rhetoric cognitive dissonance, illustrating the incongruency and the fact that they are, indeed, a tool. ARRGHHH MUH FREEDOMS
It's a classic case is "What I do is my world view, what you do is politics." Maybe sometimes the more radical variant "What I do is reality, what you do is politics."
You know, like the older version of that, "What I do is religion, what you do is superstition."
When talking to people, especially on the right side of the political spectrum, it's sadly quite common that people cannot separate their opinion from reality.
"faith based"
Honestly, with how things are right now politically - FAIR!
Let me roll some silly dice as a silly little guy while I ignore the prelude to another world war.
Agreed. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's a big difference between playing a gay character and derailing the entire campaign because you choose to lead a gay rights movement while the world is being overrun by the demon king's hordes.
I don't care about the former and have done so myself, but I'll boot you from my table for the later. Not because I'm against gay rights, but because that's not the kind of story I'm interested in DMing and you're free to find a DM who's interested in this storyline, but you won't take my campaign and players hostage for your narcissistic urge for self-promotion!
Respectfully; if we aren’t close and it doesn’t come up organically in game, I’m super not interested in hearing political opinions in games. While they may have some degree of politics baked in, that doesn’t mean Im interested in hearing people interpretation of them beyond gameplay. I play games to relax and socialise in a friendly, respectful setting.
That includes if I agree. I see this “if they don’t, they agree with the status quo/don’t want to deal/etc” used frequently but people who borderline grandstand in front of people who they know likely share their view are insufferable. At least that been my experience the one time someone has brought up politics at a table. Then again I avoid public/rand tables for a reason these days. Not saying all political discussion goes thay way at a table but the image just paints it in a very binary manner.
man I just wanna play my lyre and have an adventure and have fun. I don't wanna argue over politics. I game to get away from all that.
I think it's ok to want to have some space between stuff.
The point is that there are politics in your game, like it or not. Whether you make them a central focus is another story entirely.
yep they exist. but I don't need to solely focus on them. and this entire thread seems to be people saying that fact over and over again. (as you just did as well)
is there some kind of meme I missed or something? I'm confused as to why there's so much hostility in the comments.