Socialism in Gaming II

[MarxSchmarx]

Continue this thread

http://www.revleft.com/vb/socialism-gaming-t96053/index.html

here

Note original list:
Update 2 - June 29th 2009
Update 1 - Dec 24th 2008

This thread will help direct people looking for socialist themes in video gaming (Console, computer, etc. I'm not familiar with board games or anything like that so if anyone else is then feel free to post additions)

Overtly Or close enough to being overtly Socialist

Red Faction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Faction) - First Person Shooter. The name itself is said to be inspired by the Militant Marxist German group "Red Army Faction". The player plays a "mine worker" who goes through a worker revolution on Mars, pretty clear what ideology is at work here.

Stalin's Dilemma (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=2997) - "a game about Soviet economic development between 1928-42. "

Soviet Economic Simulator (http://www.orgburo.com/games/ses.php) - Based on Stalin's Dilemma (http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/abandonware/pc/simulations/games_s/stalin_s_dilemma.html)

Crisis in the Kremlin (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?name=Crisis+in+The+Kremlin) - More of a political game about the late Soviet Union, player deals with late politics of the USSR and tries to prevent its fall.

Democracy (http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy/democracy1.html) - Policy simulator. You can implement "socialist" policies to make your socialist base happy, although many of those policies are really just reformist social democratic policies. Although the game's sequel has a mod that allows for government control of industry: link (http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy2/modlist.html)

Guerrilla War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_War_%28arcade_game%29) - Originally released in Japan as "Guevara". You play as either Che or Castro fighting in the Cuban revolution. Although the American release was renamed to Guerrilla War due to the obvious anti-Communism of America, only names were changed. It was originally and arcade game but was later released for NES. The NES version can be played online at virtualnes.com (http://www.virtualnes.com)

Also see: http://www.molleindustria.org/en/home - Anti-Globalization flash games



Not Socialist but one can do "socialist things"

Civilization IV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_iv) - (And the rest of the series). Player can develop her civilization to eventually move towards "communism" or at least have state owned property, in expansion packs they add corporations which can be eliminated by going the socialist route.

Victoria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria:_An_Empire_Under_the_Sun) - Grand Strategy game about the 19th century. After a while, Marxism becomes popular and the player can usher in a "proletarian democracy".

Tropico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropico) - You can be Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others. You can take power in a communist revolution, KGB-planned coup, etc. You can orient your embassy towards the USSR, carry out trade missions with the USSR, etc. You can run your country along socialistic lines.

Tropico 3 (http://www.tropico3.com/)

Supreme Ruler 2010 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Ruler_2010) - You can be north Korea, etc. Socialistic policies are possible, but advisers are limited to the "liberal-moderate-conservative" spectrum.

Hidden Agenda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Agenda_%28game%29) - You're the head of a post-revolutionary government in Central America (based on Nicaragua in the 80's). You can enact socialist policies, favor unions over bosses, trade with Cuba, etc. You have to deal with a hostile U.S. administration.


Player can "Be a Socialist" but socialism itself isn't relevant



Red Alert Series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert_series) - Player can be the USSR and fight against the West, RTS game. Also in the later game "Generals" you can be "Red" China.


World in Conflict (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_in_conflict) - RTS. I believe players can play as Soviets. I also believe that the expansion has a Soviet story line.

Rush For Berlin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_for_berlin) - You can play as the USSR, fighting against the Nazis in WW2.

Balance of Power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_Power_%28computer_game%29) - You can be either the US or the USSR and engage in geopolitical battles to "control the globe" in a sense.

Thanks To other users who have contributed to this list, I'll keep trying to update with additions.

[B5C]

Just to give you all a heads up. If you guys didn't get Tropico 4 yet. Because of EA's fallout of Sim City. Steam is offering the entire Tropico 4 collection just for 10 bucks. :thumbup1:

[KurtFF8]

*Soon I will work to update that original list*

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

It might not have been the intention of the author, but the Geneforge series of (very good, if graphically dated) indie RPGs can be read in a slightly Marxian manner - despite the somewhat fantastic setting, battles between rival feudal lords and so on, the driving theme of the series (at least as I read it) is the inevitability of change, particularly social change that comes with technological changes.

[p0is0n]

As you may know, and as is mentioned in the previous thread, East vs. West is coming out soon. I am so fucking excited. I am gonna play as North Korea and conquer the South for the Dear Leader! Death to the U.S imperialist aggressor pigdogs!

Company of Heroes 2 is coming out soonish aswell. For those of you who do not know what it is, its basically a world war 2 RTS game. The first game was about the western front, this one is about the eastern front, so you can play the USSR. What could be better than raining down sacred revolutionary fire on fascists people torturers with your Stalinorgel? Fuck yes.

[Starship Stormtrooper]

I was going to mention the Anarchist-Communist faction in the new Bioshock, but then I saw that TheRedAnarchist got there before me in the last thread. I suppose that its beneficial in that more people will be exposed to our ideals (albeit in a much distorted form), but I think that in all likelihood it will be quite a reactionary portrayal, especially as they are partially inspired by the RAF. My biggest worry is that it will turn out to be completely counter-revolutionary and give us a bad (or an even worse) reputation in the gaming community as well as provide a convenient leftist counterpart to "Rapture" that only serves to reinforce the status quo.

[Red Commissar]

I was going to mention the Anarchist-Communist faction in the new Bioshock, but then I saw that TheRedAnarchist got there before me in the last thread. I suppose that its beneficial in that more people will be exposed to our ideals (albeit in a much distorted form), but I think that in all likelihood it will be quite a reactionary portrayal, especially as they are partially inspired by the RAF. My biggest worry is that it will turn out to be completely counter-revolutionary and give us a bad (or an even worse) reputation in the gaming community as well as provide a convenient leftist counterpart to "Rapture" that only serves to reinforce the status quo.

They already did alot of that with Bioshock 2 I think. The villains in that game had an ultra-collectivist streak and that was a foil to that of the more objectvist ones of the first.

But yeah BioShock Infinite will likely fall into the spheel of condemning violence perpetrated by extreme ideologues. It's kind of become lazy (IMO) in popular works now where the protagonist is stuck between caricatures of the left and right. With respect to the latter it's obvious with the way the Columbia crew has been designed that it's the American exceptionalism crowd taken to 11.

[Mauve Osprey]

I like the early call of duties and World at war because you can play as the USSR and kill loads of fascists. Also there's a mod for Call of Duty 2 that is for the Spanish Civil War and you can fight for the Republicans. Also despite its horrid inaccuracies and the fact that you play as a U.S. Agent the Just Cause series is pretty good because you get to fight right wing dictators and help maoist guerrillas. Also there is Republic the Revolution which allows you to create your own political organization and it can be revolutionary socialist

[Starship Stormtrooper]

I haven't gotten to the second one yet as my games collection dramatically increased during the steam winter sale, so I'm unfamiliar with its politics. I've been meaning to give it a go just before the third one comes out though. Of course, now knowing the content of the second one, I'm a bit less eager to play it. I would also have to agree with you about the recent laziness of developers in setting up such caricatures. Metro 2033 is one game I've noticed when they've done that in the levels with Communists and Nazis.

[B5C]

We have a new Civ V expansion:

http://www.civilization5.com/bravenewworld/


Sid Meier's Civilization® V: Brave New World is the second expansion pack for Civilization V - the critically acclaimed 2010 PC Game of the Year. This new expansion provides enhanced depth and replayability through the introduction of international trade and a focus on culture and diplomacy. Your influence around the world will be impacted by creating Great Works, choosing an ideology for your people and proposing global resolutions in the World Congress. As you move through the ages of history you will make critical decisions that will impact your relationship with other civilizations.

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World also introduces nine new civilizations, eight new wonders, two new scenarios, four new gameplay systems and dozens of new units, buildings and improvements offering an expanded variety of ways to build the most powerful empire in the world.

First confirmed Civ:
Poland- Casimir III the Great
http://downloads.2kgames.com/civilization/bravenewworld/images2/pic1.jpg


The only screenshot as of now looks like an Assyrian siege weapon? Confirm of the Assyrians?
http://downloads.2kgames.com/civilization/bravenewworld/images2/pic4.jpg

Neo-Assyrian Empire Siege Weapon:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j-jjwSBqZys/TSdrKNorJYI/AAAAAAAAAGA/06tE97BZMtE/s1600/assyrianwarfare1.jpg

Also there is an scenario called "Scramble for Africa." That could be a sign of the return of the Zulu.

Also there is a main focus on ideologies where you can select an ideology you want and promote it. The more power you have in your ideology. Other nations people's could revolt their current system and join yours. Devs said that some ideologies get so big that cold wars could develop.

Socialism anyone?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/15/civilization-v-brave-new-world-preview/


RPS: And you’re completely locked to it once you choose it, presumably there’s no way to switch out to another one?

Ed Beach: Mostly. You can change it. You probably don’t want to, but there is this idea of a brand new system we have for cultural victory. Before in cultural victory all you were trying to do was just fill up policy trees, and you weren’t interacting with the other civilisations at all, very, very different now with Brave New World.

With Brave New World what you’re doing is you’re creating Great Works as well as Wonders, basically all sorts of different items that will attract people to want to come and visit your civilisation and sample all the great elements of culture that you have present in your civilisation. That starts producing what we call Tourism, and what you’re doing with the Tourism is you’re taking the glories of your civilisation and you’re pushing it out on all the other players and civilisations in the world, and getting them to realise what an amazing civilisation you’ve created.

If you push that cultural pressure out on them hard enough, and you have a different ideology than they do, then you can actually start to see effects in the game that are sort of similar to the 1989 bringing down of the Berlin wall, maybe Arab Spring sort of thing that we’ve seen more recently, where the people within those AI civilisations will start to become very unhappy about their leadership having adopted an unpopular ideology. And they will actually gain a whole bunch of unhappiness and they can actually choose, wow, we really need to switch and adopt freedom or order, or whatever the ideology that’s putting that cultural pressure on them is.


RPS: So you could basically disrupt someone’s autocracy and either they roll with it and adapt to what their people want or they basically end up losing because they’re in a state of revolt?

Ed Beach: Right. And as a player, if you are put in that position, then, you were saying do you ever switch ideologies, well you could, you might be in a situation where maybe you’re a very scientific player and you’ve been ignoring this whole cultural, diplomatic, theological battle, but your people are telling you that you picked the wrong ideology. You could go and switch to a different one and hopefully get your scientific progress still fast enough that you can get to the finish line before everyone else does.

Dennis Shirk: And you can certainly suck it up, if you’re not playing a culture game and your people are getting brow-beaten by this other ideology and they want to switch, I might decide to do the strongman thing and instead build plenty of happiness-inducing buildings and try to offset that loss of happiness to stick with the ideology that I believe in. So as a player you have options for that.

RPS: Ok. And with the ideologies, presumably there can be any amount of say, freedom ideologies, they don’t get taken out of play like building a wonder does once the first person chooses it or anything?

Ed: That’s correct, that’s a good point because the way the religion system works is as you’re configuring your religion, you’re pulling those religious beliefs out of the common pool, and once you lock that belief into your religion, it wasn’t available to anyone else.

Ideologies are a little bit different but they are more free-form than the social policy trees that are in the game right now, where there are five different choices, and the way they branch is all kind of hard-wired into them. With the ideology system, we just have level one, level two and level three social policies, we actually call them ideological tenets, and you can mix and match those and configure them. You can’t get a level three tenet until you have a certain number of pre-requisite level one and level two tenets, but you can kind of build up your own ideology. Your Russian order ideology is drawing from the same pool as the Chinese order ideology of your neighbour, but they might decide to choose exactly what social policies are slotting in where, and build it a little bit differently than you are.

RPS: I guess it kind of does the Cold War thing a little bit as well, where two countries are really opposed without necessarily being in open conflict.

Dennis Shirk: Right. Also the way that it ties into the New World Congress to the way that you’re going to have horse-trading in terms of the buying and selling of tech with other civilisations. A lot of that coming into play in the late game, combined with the ideologies really gives it this 1980s/1990s Cold War feel.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

I was going to mention the Anarchist-Communist faction in the new Bioshock, but then I saw that TheRedAnarchist got there before me in the last thread.

No worries, this is a new thread anyway.


I suppose that its beneficial in that more people will be exposed to our ideals (albeit in a much distorted form), but I think that in all likelihood it will be quite a reactionary portrayal, especially as they are partially inspired by the RAF.

I hate it when they missrepresent us, or when they use our symbol for something that has nothing to do with it.


My biggest worry is that it will turn out to be completely counter-revolutionary and give us a bad (or an even worse) reputation in the gaming community as well as provide a convenient leftist counterpart to "Rapture" that only serves to reinforce the status quo.

They already made the right-libertarians look bad.

[Futility Personified]

Ye to be fair to the bioshock people they had a go at the Rand lovers, they're now nailing the tea party and ahem, "occupy" or us, depending on how far left their conceptions go. That said we've all yet to sample the delights of floaty land but from what i've seen there's people's executions of postmen, so optimism is not something that's going spare. I think they did fascism in bioshock 2? But I was real high when I was playing that and my conceptions were from a few hours gameplay so.... I dunno, I want bioshock as it looks good and I think a more open feel will benefit the gameplay, story seems interesting also, but after the epic fail of FNV, the outright demonisation of Black Ops, the unrelenting blandness that the RF series has become, it'd be nice to be "the good guys" and have that cultural support for once like all the jingoists and to be quite frank muppets get.

[Doflamingo]

While it's not a socialist game, in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey you get to kill a corrupt capitalist that is using demons as test subjects.

[Red Commissar]

I think they did fascism in bioshock 2?

If BioShock 1 tackled the ultra-individualism of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, Bioshock 2 tackled ultra-collectivism. The villain(s) in that had some weird Jim Jones vibe, I'm not sure it can be seen as hitting fascism. If anything it's been interpreted (crudely) as Communism.

[Comrade Samuel]

I looked around for a long time but I am still unable to find a free version of Stalin's dilemma. The one linked above requires you to pay a subscription to the site.

Any suggestions?

[KurtFF8]

Adam Sessler's review of BioShock Infinite was quite in depth and explores the ideological components of the game in an interesting way:

jchIi-vR_js

(Thanks B5C for posting this elsewhere)

[Yugo45]

Anyone here played Bioshock Infinite? If so, how are the Vox Populi shown? Are they portrayed negatively, etc.?

[Münchhausen]

Anyone here played Bioshock Infinite? If so, how are the Vox Populi shown? Are they portrayed negatively, etc.?

Just finished the game. As expected the 'political message' of the game is kind of centrist. In the beginning both main characters express some form of sympathy to the vox popoli, after they witness the racism and poverty of the city themselves. Later in the game the vox popoli are clearly gaining the upper hand and suddenly the characters proclaim that their leader is just as bad as the racist theocrat they're trying to topple (multiple times). What follows are some scenes of summary executions and killings of capitalists and their families. For the rest of the game you pretty much have to shoot your way through throngs of revolutionaries who talk about how they 'want to drink your blood' and destroy the whole city just for the sake of it etc.. Also it's implied, that at least a certain part of the guys are rapists...

So all in all the portrayal is rather negative. They are pretty much a caricature of 'bloodthirsty revolutionaries destroying society'. I was a little disappointed after the game started of with saying, that they are the 'good guys'....

[B5C]

This may explain a bit more about the Vox Popoli:


On the other hand, the Vox Populi were based on historical factions that often splintered into small, independent groups that undertook violent actions, such as the Red Army Faction from the 1970s and the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front of present day.[12] During the course of the game's development period, the series of "Occupy" protests occurred across several cities; Levine, comparing these protests to other historical ones already incorporated into Columbia's history, used the real-time events to refine the game's story. Specifically, due to the nature of the various decentralized groups involved with the "Occupy" protests, Levine was able to define how the Vox Populi group would grow from its haphazard beginnings.[63] Levine reflected that despite the game's earlier setting, many of the modern day political turmoil calls back to similar tactics and behavior used in the early days of America's democracy, and thus provided a means to flesh out these aspects within the game.[64] In the various reveals of the Founders and Vox Populi, Levine and Irrational Games were criticized by various groups; upon demonstrating the Founders, people that favored the ideals of the Tea Party felt the game was attacking that movement, while on the announcement of the Vox Populi, Levine found some websites claiming the game was an attack on the labor movement, including one white supremist website that claimed "The Jew Ken Levine is making a white-person-killing simulator."[65] Levine considered that Infinite, like BioShock before it, was a Rorschach test for most people, though would be taken negatively in nature and upset them, as his vision in crafting the stories was "about not buying into a single point of view"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_Infinite#Plot



THE VOX POPULI

As with the ultranationalist movements, Irrational Games canvassed history for inspiration for this wayward faction. One left wing movement Levine drew inspiration from was a German group from the ‘70s known as the Red Army Faction. With many West German institutions still under the control of those who had been in positions of power during the Nazi regime, an earnest protest group developed in open opposition to what it perceived as the fascist leanings of the government and its oppressive bourgeois values. After an incident when one of the protesters was killed, swelling emotions soon transformed it into a radicalized student movement that misappropriated Marxist teachings, bombed police buildings, and formed ties with paramilitary organizations such as the PLO.

Far left movements are still alive to this day, with groups like the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front adopting guerrilla tactics and arson as a means to their philosophical ends. Usually far removed from the actual political process, these groups are often poorly organized, with small factions of loosely aligned cell groups acting independently.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/09/12/columbia-a-city-divided.aspx?PostPageIndex=2


Basically: Vox Populi stared like our version of Occupy Movement. Then it became radicalized. (Weather Underground, Red Army Faction, & ELF) Later on it was suppose to fall apart because each tendency fought each other.

[Yugo45]

That is kind of dissapointing, but I knew from the start that they wouldn't be "the good guys". Still, I was hoping they would be a bit more positive then what Munch described. Ah well, I'm still going to play it since it seems like a shit ton of fun and they say the story is pretty good.

Now if the torrent speed was at least a bit faster, that would be great.. Or if I had 60€ for a video game, that would also be great.

[Münchhausen]

This may explain a bit more about the Vox Popoli:

[...]

Basically: Vox Populi stared like our version of Occupy Movement. Then it became radicalized. (Weather Underground, Red Army Faction, & ELF) Later on it was suppose to fall apart because each tendency fought each other.

Yeah, I read that too, but i really couldn't see that in the game. It seemed to me, that the vox populi were an armed group from the beginning. For example you encounter a store early in the game, were obviously a shootout between the vox and the police happened recently. But maybe i just misinterpreted the situation... And I neither perceived them as 'falling apart' later in the game. But that's probably because the developers carefully avoided to give any info on the actual politics of the group, except for their enemies calling them 'anarchists'. If they had actually given them a little more of a political profile such an internal struggle would have been a bit more plausible, i think.

Also the comparison to the ALF and ELF seems ridiculous to me.

Anyway, the gameplay and story are actually really great (except for said disappointment) so i can only recommend it to anyone who thinks about playing it!

[Yugo45]

Yeah, I read that too, but i really couldn't see that in the game. It seemed to me, that the vox populi were an armed group from the beginning. For example you encounter a store early in the game, were obviously a shootout between the vox and the police happened recently. But maybe i just misinterpreted the situation... And I neither perceived them as 'falling apart' later in the game. But that's probably because the developers carefully avoided to give any info on the actual politics of the group, except for their enemies calling them 'anarchists'. If they had actually given them a little more of a political profile such an internal struggle would have been a bit more plausible, i think.

Also the comparison to the ALF and ELF seems ridiculous to me.

Anyway, the gameplay and story are actually really great (except for said disappointment) so i can only recommend it to anyone who thinks about playing it!

Well, the Vox Populi started before the actual game starts, so you can't really see the transformation in the game, but it is briefly mentioned on some places, according to Bioshock wiki.

[B5C]

And I neither perceived them as 'falling apart' later in the game. But that's probably because the developers carefully avoided to give any info on the actual politics of the group, except for their enemies calling them 'anarchists'.

It was not added due to time or story reasons. The original plan was that the main character was suppose to see the Vox fall apart and fight with each other.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

It was not added due to time or story reasons. The original plan was that the main character was suppose to see the Vox fall apart and fight with each other.

Just like real leftist revolutionaries!

[Münchhausen]

Well, the Vox Populi started before the actual game starts, so you can't really see the transformation in the game, but it is briefly mentioned on some places, according to Bioshock wiki.

Oh, I must have missed that...



Also not as a serious addition to the list, but maybe worth mentioning is the indie-game 'Dungeons of Dredmor'. It's a fantasy-rpg/rougelike parody and you can choose all kind of weird skills while creating your character (like Veganism or Archaelogy). And in one expansion they added communism to the available skills. The seven abilities of this skill-tree are called 'Guerilla Attack', 'Socialized Healthcare', 'General Winter', Dialectical Materialism', 'Vanguard Party', 'Iron Curtain' and 'They've got the Bomb!'. I'm not sure if it's meant to be anti-communist or not (probably not), but i thought it was rather funny :grin:

[Astarte]

Not sure if anyone mentioned these already but:


In "Final Fantasy Tactics" Wiegraf and his group known as the "Death Corps" which are a group of ex-soldiers who were conscripted from the peasantry by the nobility are considered "anarchists" - also the game makes clear the heavy burdens the commoners face - namely famine.

There is a shitty old Atari 2600 game called "Communist Mutants from Outer Space" the wikipedia entry reads: "Aliens from the communist planet of Rooskee are invading peaceful, democratic planets and turning their inhabitants into "Communist Mutants." The communist mutant armies are controlled by the Mother Creature, a strange alien who has gone mad due to irradiated vodka."

"Rush'n Attack" released in 1985 by Konami, I don't think its explicitly made clear that you are fighting "Communism", but it is clearly implied.

"Ring of Red" for the PS2 - storyline is that Japan was divided after WWII by the USSR and USA/Allies with the North becoming "Communist" and the South a Bourgeois Republic a la the Korean peninsula.

"Golgo 13" and "The Mafat Conspiracy" for the NES, released in the mid to late 1980s - also heavily Cold War themed revolving around intrigue between the CIA and KGB.

There are a lot more games pertaining to Socialism or Communism that I have floating around in the back of my mind - as I remember them I will mention them in this thread.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Anyone here played Bioshock Infinite? If so, how are the Vox Populi shown? Are they portrayed negatively, etc.?

I did a piece here on them: http://kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/bioshock-infinite-a-class-perspective

[Red Commissar]

I thought this was a pretty funny summary of Infinite's plot. Plus this is coming from areas outside of our circles so people are also picking up on how they treated the Vox. Spoilers if you haven't played it.

http://bphennessy.com/bioshock.html


PLOT SUMMARY, BIOSHOCK INFINITE

A gruff male with the pleasantly old-timey name of Booker DeWitt travels by rocket chair to Columbia, a flying city where people make 20 second recordings of their deepest secrets and leave them lying around in cupboards. He has been sent to retrieve a woman named Elizabeth, who has the magical ability to summon a box full of first aid kits from an alternate dimension.

Booker wanders around in awe, observing the racist population as they throw machine gun ammunition in the trash and stare silently at nothing. But his sightseeing is cut short when a policeman tries to grab him and he's forced to explode 1000 heads with a giant rotating hook in self-defence.

After exploding enough heads, Booker is taken to an alternate reality where the underclass of Columbia has risen up in rebellion. "These revolutionaries are as bad as their racist oppressors," says the deadliest serial killer in the history of human civilization, "because they are violent." Fortunately, the entire setting is erased from existence and nothing of consequence ever happens. Metacritic rating 95 (94 on Xbox).

—8 April 2013

[p0is0n]

I've played some Company of Heroes 2 and it wasn't as good as I had hoped. A bit disappointing. Not worthless or bad by any means, but disappointing. The pioneers going "This land now belongs to the Workers and Peasants of the Soviet Union" or "We must capture it for the Rodina" in broken Russian sort of make up for the constant mortar spam.

[Broviet Union]

I love to play the Hearts of Iron series. I recently played a game where I won the Spanish Civil War for the Republican side and turned the country Stalinist. I have also played a game where I conquered the entire earth as the Soviet Union, and one where I turned the US communist and allied with the USSR to convert every country on Earth to Marxism-Leninism.

[B5C]

Flag planting will be in version .20 of Kerbal Space program. I am ready!

http://i.imgur.com/9GaAk7m.png
Credit: goes to Phobokin_Chicken (http://www.reddit.com/user/Phobokin_Chicken) of r/kerbalspaceprogram
(http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1efbv2/my_flag_for_the_ccck_space_program/)

[Sky Hedgehogian Maestro]

As this forum can already guess, my game of choice as of late is Dishonored. You get to brutally slay aristocrats and the rich, so boom- I'm sold.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Been playing The Last of Us.

Goddamn, but this game is awesome.

Seriously, even before I'd even gotten a tenth of a way through, this game had impressed me more than any other game I've played this generation.

It's from Naughty Dog, of course, so you already know its going to be pretty high quality. But even with the game being in the shadow of the Uncharted trilogy, this game knocks it out of the park in almost every single way. The writing is topnotch and flows naturally, the graphics are astonishingly beautiful (the set and level design is mindblowing), and the gameplay is both challenging and engaging.

People have sort of compared it to The Road, and that's pretty accurate in many ways. It does indeed have that sense of desolation and decay that Cormac McCarthy's novel portrays. It doesn't even have to beat you over the head with information to get it across......the scenery does the job by itself. In the beginning you get this image of a decaying cityscape, with collapsed buildings barely kept standing by leaning on other buildings. Nature is slowly reclaiming everything. It's breathtaking.

The basic story revolves around the massive, global pandemic that throws the world into chaos. A strain of the parasitic fungi Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis (which, I'd like to mention before I go on, is an actual fucking thing that actually fucking exists) mutates and begins to infect humans. Normally, this parasite attacks small animals like ants, literally taking over their central nervous systems and bending them to its will. This mutated strain does the exact same thing, only to humans. The result is something that, though similar to a 'zombie', is far more quick and intelligent than your cliched shambling brain-eater.

I won't spoil alot, but this game doesn't just throw you into the middle of it. The game begins with a prologue that takes place just as the plague hits Texas. The game then jumps 20 years and takes place in a quickly decaying version of Dallas, Texas that is under marshal law by remnants of the U.S. Military.

I won't spoil anymore.

Play this game. Play it NOW.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

I hope talk about tabletop games is allowed in here :>

I've recently got a new group together (we're using GURPS) and we were wondering about what setting to play over a few (a lot) of drinks last night. We discussed a few things from pretty traditional fantasy or sci fi stuff to fairly goofy stuff like using Bunnies and Burrows (imagine Watership Down with more nerds)

One of us struck on a really cool idea though. What about setting it in the Politburo of the thirties, with each player roleplaying a significant historical figure? It'd probably require giving most of my players a crash course in the early history of the Soviet Union, but I think it would work really well. hardly any combat but lots of fun intrigues and trying not to upset Stalin.

[#FF0000]

I love to play the Hearts of Iron series. I recently played a game where I won the Spanish Civil War for the Republican side and turned the country Stalinist. I have also played a game where I conquered the entire earth as the Soviet Union, and one where I turned the US communist and allied with the USSR to convert every country on Earth to Marxism-Leninism.

I played one as Brazil where I joined the Axis and shut down the Atlantic by filling it with Brazillian U-boats. Eventually Germany started losing to Russia and the USSR conquered all the way to Portugal and much of Africa while the British and Americans were caught up in some savage jungle warfare in the Brazilian Amazon.

[D-A-C]

I've been playing Wargame Airland Battle which is about what happens if the Cold War turned hot.

Its a pure RTS where you control armies (no base creation/management) and its pretty good. You can play as either PACT or NATO.

I also play Tropico 4 which is a city builder style game that also contains a heavy dose of social satire on the politics of the Cold War.

You are 'El Presidente' and you build a citiy on different types of island's (heavy on resources, low on resources, high rebel threat, tourist economy etc) and you can choose to run it like a Communist if you want to ... well, sort of lol.

There are various factions you have to keep satisfied, nationalists, communists, capitalists, intellectuals, etc but its all pretty much the same build order in most games.

Its still loads of fun, and the satire of people like Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, Che Guevera and others is good fun. The graphics are also really good, and its not very difficult or intense unlike alot of city builders.

[KurtFF8]

I just found this game online, interesting concept:

http://deepnight.net/games/proletarian-ninja-x/



The year is 1930. You are the Proletarian Ninja X. You fight the great capitalism with murder and violence. Peace is for the weak.
Problem is: you really have many many people on your Kill List. Consequently, you definitely cannot spend more than 10 seconds on each contract. But, hey, you’re a ninja, remember?

[ComradeLeninist]

I been playing Red Alert 2&3, Victoria II as the Soviet Union, and tropico 4.
Great Games

[The Intransigent Faction]

So this is random, but if anyone here still plays SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic), what are your feelings about the politics of the story? The galaxy at that point in the timeline is a dystopian shithole being ravaged by a war between a bureaucratic Leviathan (Galactic Republic) and an outright fascist tinpot dictatorship (Sith Empire). Add to this that as a Jedi at one point you can pretty much run around slaughtering anarchist caricatures who's only apparent crime was breaking out of prison, and while the story has awesome moments, the politics of it just leave you wishing the whole galaxy would explode and start over. So naturally I'm an Imperial. :grin:

As a gamer in general, how do you react to being pigeonholed into two or more awful choices? Do you give up, flip a coin, etc.?

[A Psychological Symphony]

So this is random, but if anyone here still plays SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic), what are your feelings about the politics of the story? The galaxy at that point in the timeline is a dystopian shithole being ravaged by a war between a bureaucratic Leviathan (Galactic Republic) and an outright fascist tinpot dictatorship (Sith Empire). Add to this that as a Jedi at one point you can pretty much run around slaughtering anarchist caricatures who's only apparent crime was breaking out of prison, and while the story has awesome moments, the politics of it just leave you wishing the whole galaxy would explode and start over. So naturally I'm an Imperial. :grin:

As a gamer in general, how do you react to being pigeonholed into two or more awful choices? Do you give up, flip a coin, etc.?

When I'm in that position I pick whichever side looks cooler :thumbup1:

So my reasonable choice was the Sith

[KurtFF8]

As a gamer in general, how do you react to being pigeonholed into two or more awful choices? Do you give up, flip a coin, etc.?

That's an important question for progressive gamers in a way actually. Usually even if you pick a side you feel is more likely to "do the right thing", the game's story writers will throw in twists and turns in the plot to demonstrate how the "good guys" actually had ulterior motives or the like in the end. This is mostly a weakness in writing in my opinion but it does present a problem in these situations. And of course, games with two or three paths are limited in what they can allow players to do, so it ends up depending on the writing of a script, much like a film's script.

[Red Commissar]

It seems the whole idea of a twisted or bad revolution has been a common trope in media for sometime, more recently I'm reminded of the way Bioshock Infinite treated the Vox- basically the old idea of the new government being no better than the old oppressor, in Infinite's case they kind of went for the "pox on both of their houses" approach by showing both extremes as pigheaded and brutal with respect to Comstock and Fitzroy. I liked the game but that did bug me really even though it was ultimately tangential to the game's story.

Skyrim ain't a scion of storytelling but they did pull off a similar dynamic with the Stormcloaks and Imperials, the formers being presented as the rebels. The way the game is set up, unless you're already familiar with the world's lore and the anti-elven sentiment among some Nords (as I was), that most players might join the Stormcloaks out of a sense of "Yeah revolution!" only to find out later that the Stormcloaks have some very human-centric if not racist views on elves and beast-folk and probably get regret over it later.

I anticipated the same thing with Last of Us, since they did a good job of playing up the Fireflys as a source of resistance against the military order in the back story, that it was an inevitability with the way these games progress you'd conflict with them in some way.

idk I guess I'm seeing this more as a lazy copout to a cynical if not nihilistic view on political involvement (why bother if they're all dicks?). If anything it would kind of make people more apathetic and disengaged when honestly nowadays it's more of a necessity.

I suppose these are useful for that

Bomb Throwing Anarchists (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BombThrowingAnarchists)
Dirty Communists (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DirtyCommunists)
Not So Different (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NotSoDifferent)
Meet the New Boss (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MeetTheNewBoss)
The Revolution Will not be Civilized (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized)
People's Republic of Tyranny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny)
Full Circle Revolution (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FullCircleRevolution)

[The Intransigent Faction]

idk I guess I'm seeing this more as a lazy copout to a cynical if not nihilistic view on political involvement (why bother if they're all dicks?). If anything it would kind of make people more apathetic and disengaged when honestly nowadays it's more of a necessity.

I can see how it could be taken that way. If this is a sign of a shift in cultural trends away from Manichaean idealism and toward disaffected cynicism, though, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. As socialists/communists after all, we all see continued wars between various bourgeois regimes as a path to nowhere (even national liberation is, for socialists who support it, not an end in itself). So if our fiction reflects this in a stream of constant wars between such regimes or rebel factions, that might not be so bad. It's more accurate than the fictional narrative of "good vs. evil" used even by bourgeois politicians to this day (i.e. the neocon take on a "clash of civilizations").

[Sabot Cat]

I can see how it could be taken that way. If this is a sign of a shift in cultural trends away from Manichaean idealism and toward disaffected cynicism, though, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. As socialists/communists after all, we all see continued wars between various bourgeois regimes as a path to nowhere (even national liberation is, for socialists who support it, not an end in itself). So if our fiction reflects this in a stream of constant wars between such regimes or rebel factions, that might not be so bad. It's more accurate than the fictional narrative of "good vs. evil" used even by bourgeois politicians to this day (i.e. the neocon take on a "clash of civilizations").

Disaffected cynicism is not an ideology for revolutionaries. It's an ideology for those who are comfortable enough in the status quo, those who are not directly affected by the real evil that exists institutionally in global capitalism, not get up off their ass and try to do something about it. Obviously, many people can't do anything about it with their limited resources, but we cannot wage a class war against the bourgeois unless the proletariat knows that what we're fighting for actually matters and has value, and that goodness can be more than a shadow of a word in the mouths of our oppressors.

[Radio Spartacus]

The class/political narrative of bioshock infinite is hilariously ill-concieved. The portrayal of leftist revolution is both insulting to working folk (who apparently cant handle having power in their own hands for once) and nonsensical.

We start out with the main character judging a bunch of poor people who kill their slave owning racist capitalist oppressors. The protaganist has been dismembering shooting and beheading these same oppressors for the entire game, but he judges the vox for killing the people he has been killing.

Then, in the laziest and cheapest turn ever, fitzroy just decides to try and kill the protagonist. Also children? The excuses given for both were so poorly thought out I dont even remember them. Bear in mind the only leftist concept in this revolution was having cool red flags, no attempt was made to critique actual leftist thought by showing expropriation or something. It fails to reach the level of satire because it is mocking a complete strawman.

Then we have these leftists start winning, and what do they do? They don't change the mode of production. They dont even try to take over. They start to destroy Columbia. Literally they try to burn everything. Why? because they're mad, that's why. Forget that they're on the verge of a military victory that would allow them to take control of all the resources in the city, fuck goals. Even if you wanted to do the trite "leftists always start slaughtering people because leftism is bad" rather than try and make a point about historical conditions, this doesn't make sense. If you're trying to have us look power hungry at least let us take power, the stalinists Infinite is reducing us to wouldnt try to blow up the earth if they started winning.

It's a shitty point, one about being content with oppression and working within the system, and it's not even made in an internally consistent way.

[Red Commissar]

I can see how it could be taken that way. If this is a sign of a shift in cultural trends away from Manichaean idealism and toward disaffected cynicism, though, maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. As socialists/communists after all, we all see continued wars between various bourgeois regimes as a path to nowhere (even national liberation is, for socialists who support it, not an end in itself). So if our fiction reflects this in a stream of constant wars between such regimes or rebel factions, that might not be so bad. It's more accurate than the fictional narrative of "good vs. evil" used even by bourgeois politicians to this day (i.e. the neocon take on a "clash of civilizations").

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for injecting healthy skepticism of any political organization's goals, but it seems to me the more recent examples of this is less a case of people rejecting blindly following the bullshit of leaders with ambitions of power, and more a "better the devil you know" deal. I mean it wasn't like you got subtle hints here and there that the Vox would turn into a French Red Terror x 1000, the game really did go for a more cynical "look how oppressed these people are" and then turning them into a mirror, if not worse, image of the Founders in red livery. I guess we could come away with the idea that any form of oppression is bad (the people's stick...), but I can see how other people'd though walk away skeptical of any group fighting for change, regardless of it's a group fighting political change or one for a more fundamental change in society.

I mean I guess in The Last of Us I guess a case could be made too that even if it didn't boil down to the Fireflys having to kill Ellie to cure the plague, with Joel interacting with the remnants of humanity- both in the safe zones the military controls and the brutality of bandits who emerge after order left like in Pittsburgh- that the cure was not going to do any good as people'd still be dicks. They were better off banding together and keeping to themselves rather than handing the cure to be used by the military and bandits and let them continue about their business


The class/political narrative of bioshock infinite is hilariously ill-concieved. The portrayal of leftist revolution is both insulting to working folk (who apparently cant handle having power in their own hands for once) and nonsensical.

We start out with the main character judging a bunch of poor people who kill their slave owning racist capitalist oppressors. The protaganist has been dismembering shooting and beheading these same oppressors for the entire game, but he judges the vox for killing the people he has been killing.

Then, in the laziest and cheapest turn ever, fitzroy just decides to try and kill the protagonist. Also children? The excuses given for both were so poorly thought out I dont even remember them. Bear in mind the only leftist concept in this revolution was having cool red flags, no attempt was made to critique actual leftist thought by showing expropriation or something. It fails to reach the level of satire because it is mocking a complete strawman.

Then we have these leftists start winning, and what do they do? They don't change the mode of production. They dont even try to take over. They start to destroy Columbia. Literally they try to burn everything. Why? because they're mad, that's why. Forget that they're on the verge of a military victory that would allow them to take control of all the resources in the city, fuck goals. Even if you wanted to do the trite "leftists always start slaughtering people because leftism is bad" rather than try and make a point about historical conditions, this doesn't make sense. If you're trying to have us look power hungry at least let us take power, the stalinists Infinite is reducing us to wouldnt try to blow up the earth if they started winning.

It's a shitty point, one about being content with oppression and working within the system, and it's not even made in an internally consistent way.

To me it was a "look both extremes are bad" kind of deal, this is a very common vehicle in popular culture- in my post you'll see links to how this portrayal of blood-letting in a socialist uprising (or any revolution in general) has been used many times, though this has been inspired by history really. What bothered me though is I think they treated the leader of the Vox, Daisy Fitzroy, very lazily. It came off more as an "angry black woman" deal with all its unfortunate implications in the end (kill whitey!), especially before she is killed by Elizabeth when she takes the founder kid hostage. Through the voxophones they do try to give her some backstory about how she was abducted and basically pressed into virtual slavery, but generally the Vox and Daisy basically went from secondary protagonist to primary antagonist and eventually went exit stage left to total irrelevance. Comstock arguably got a hell lot more exposition but I guess that's because of how you find his relation to Booker is later.

It kind of seems funny though for Booker to make a comment basically of how violent the Vox is as a matter of principle, considering that up to that point he had done his fair share of killing too. But eh, I guess someone could argue that their portrayal of the Founders was just as much a strawmen

Come to think of it, this game did have more similarities with The Last of Us. Besides the revelation of the seemingly good group as jerks, protagonists in both games were old men with troubled pasts (depressed dads?), found a younger character with whom they formed a father-daughter relationship with (and yes I know infinite's case might be a special case), and the leader of the good-turned-bad groups both happened to be black women with a brutal, "ends justify the means" outlook.

[The Intransigent Faction]

Disaffected cynicism is not an ideology for revolutionaries.

I never claimed that it was, so...yeah, I agree.

[The Intransigent Faction]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for injecting healthy skepticism of any political organization's goals, but it seems to me the more recent examples of this is less a case of people rejecting blindly following the bullshit of leaders with ambitions of power, and more a "better the devil you know" deal. I mean it wasn't like you got subtle hints here and there that the Vox would turn into a French Red Terror x 1000, the game really did go for a more cynical "look how oppressed these people are" and then turning them into a mirror, if not worse, image of the Founders in red livery. I guess we could come away with the idea that any form of oppression is bad, but I can see how other people'd though walk away skeptical of any group fighting for change, regardless of it's a group fighting political change or one for a more fundamental change in society.

Fair enough, thanks for not twisting my words. :P

Some degree of disaffected cynicism might be convenient for the ruling class, and certainly cynicism about any form of revolutionary change is, but cynicism toward the current power structures can get you halfway, at least. I'm just speaking from experience with talking to cynics (contrary to the above response it's not just a luxury embraced by the comfortable, but a way plenty of workers respond to alienation) who are at least more open to the idea of revolution than those who fervently believe that the current system is "good" but is beset by some external "evil" (religion, immigration, etc. etc.) and hence are actively counterrevolutionary.

Oppression can certainly beget oppression, as well, and I suppose people will take from that the idea that any response to oppression is doomed, but that's more fatalism than cynicism. I don't buy the idea that games are incapable of showing why socialist revolution has particular 'motivators' which prevent it from just replacing one oppressive regime with another, but yes they haven't done this yet as far as I can tell, and certainly not in Bioshock Infinite.

[Future]

In "Batman: Arkham Origins" there is an amazing radio speech given by the character Anarky. Anarky is an anarcho-communist who gives this 10 minute long rant on a radio station you can hack into as Batman throughout the game. He takes a huge shit on capitalism and the state and does so in a shockingly accurate and passionate manner, which means that whoever wrote that dialog for the character is a total commie. I was pleasantly surprised and shocked by that while playing the game.

Anarky was created by former anarchist Alan Grant back in the 1980s and he became a very popular character until Grant decided to switch sides and become a derivitive of an Ayn Rand Objectivist. After he made this switch, Grant transformed Anarky into an anarcho-capitalist, thus Anarky lost his anarchist status in the comics world. Anarky went from being of hope to many young people fed up with the system to being a traitor who spat in the faces of true Anarky fans.

Fortunately, the version of Anarky that the creators of Arkham Orgins decided to go with was the anarcho-communist Anarky. Anarky has historically been portrayed as a villian, but only because he takes up terrorist activities - the reader is made to sympathize with this young man wanting to change the world despite his inability to control his emotions and commit terroristic acts. It's the same way in Arkham Origins; the game makes you sympathize with Anarky as much as possible. Somebody with clout over at WB Games Montreal is a total red. :ohmy:

[Münchhausen]

In "Batman: Arkham Origins" there is an amazing radio speech given by the character Anarky. Anarky is an anarcho-communist who gives this 10 minute long rant on a radio station you can hack into as Batman throughout the game. He takes a huge shit on capitalism and the state and does so in a shockingly accurate and passionate manner, which means that whoever wrote that dialog for the character is a total commie. I was pleasantly surprised and shocked by that while playing the game.

Anarky was created by former anarchist Alan Grant back in the 1980s and he became a very popular character until Grant decided to switch sides and become a derivitive of an Ayn Rand Objectivist. After he made this switch, Grant transformed Anarky into an anarcho-capitalist, thus Anarky lost his anarchist status in the comics world. Anarky went from being of hope to many young people fed up with the system to being a traitor who spat in the faces of true Anarky fans.

Fortunately, the version of Anarky that the creators of Arkham Orgins decided to go with was the anarcho-communist Anarky. Anarky has historically been portrayed as a villian, but only because he takes up terrorist activities - the reader is made to sympathize with this young man wanting to change the world despite his inability to control his emotions and commit terroristic acts. It's the same way in Arkham Origins; the game makes you sympathize with Anarky as much as possible. Somebody with clout over at WB Games Montreal is a total red. :ohmy:

I liked the part where batman infiltrates the police station and saves a homeless guy from a bunch of cops that are beating him up or something. After the fight batman tells the guy to go to a shelter and the homeless guy says something along the lines of 'Going to a shelter was how i ended up here. That's where they round us up. You have no idea what it's like to be a poor guy in gotham. Anarky is doing way more for us than you.'

I'm not sure if they meant to portray him (Anarky) all that positive, though... I felt like he was portrayed as rather naive in comparison to batman and also rather arrogant. Also he seems to have very little esteem for the guys working for him. He lets them stand next to the bombs they plant literally until they explode and during the boss fight he throws molotov cocktails at batman while he's surrounded by his men.
Also after you beat him he remains tied up in the room and if you stay you can hear him hold another ~5 min. speech going through different emotions. Had some good bits though.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Anarky is undoubtedly one of my favorite comic book characters, one that has been woefully underused in the past. Grant's switch over to Neo-Tech did hurt the character overall, but even some of those stories are pretty good (politics aside).

The Anarky that appears in Arkham Origins is definitely a step in the right direction.

[Taters]

Fortunately, the version of Anarky that the creators of Arkham Orgins decided to go with was the anarcho-communist Anarky. Anarky has historically been portrayed as a villian, but only because he takes up terrorist activities - the reader is made to sympathize with this young man wanting to change the world despite his inability to control his emotions and commit terroristic acts. It's the same way in Arkham Origins; the game makes you sympathize with Anarky as much as possible. Somebody with clout over at WB Games Montreal is a total red. :ohmy:

It was hardly a flattering portrayal of an anarcho-communist. Anarky was the embodiment of the "well-intentioned terrorist" trope; he was a loud-mouthed, verbose, arrogant, naive, and dangerous teenager. So he had to put down by Batman, because after all there are better ways to change things.

So, uh, no I don't think some writer at DC was trying to inject some subversive content in the game.

[Comrade Chernov]

This might just be my opinion, but survival mode on Minecraft, played in a group, seems like one of the easiest ways to go about setting up a working commune. It's extremely easy to equally distribute resources and work for the common good of the group.

[Leo]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Grim Fandango.

The main character is a member of a revolutionary organization in a Mexican themed land of the dead and the game has plenty of political themes and referances. In a memorable scene, you have to incite workers to go on a strike and when you succeed the Internationale plays in the background.

A pretty good novel has been written about the game, which has even more political referances: http://www.grim-fandango.com/novel.php

[Münchhausen]

Speaking of socialism in gaming: Has anyone played the two Metro games? They are based on the novel Metro 2033 and it's sequels by Dimitry Glukhovsky. The story takes place in the metro tunnels of Moskow in which a postapocalyptic society has formed since to surface was made inhabitable during a nuclear war. The games (and the books) feature a 'communist' faction ('the red line'). The are portrayed very negatively though. They are hardcore authoritarian warmongers and for the most part seem to be evil without any reason.
For example in the game Metro: Last Light they
spread some sort of devastating plague through large parts of the metro in a covert operation and waltz in to kill everyone who is infected to make the people think they saved them or something like that. You also meet one of their soldiers early in the game and he helps you through some levels just to betray you the first good chance he gets.

I was rather disappointed... The game was good though.

Edit: Added spoiler tags

[Red Commissar]

Fair enough, thanks for not twisting my words. :P

Some degree of disaffected cynicism might be convenient for the ruling class, and certainly cynicism about any form of revolutionary change is, but cynicism toward the current power structures can get you halfway, at least. I'm just speaking from experience with talking to cynics (contrary to the above response it's not just a luxury embraced by the comfortable, but a way plenty of workers respond to alienation) who are at least more open to the idea of revolution than those who fervently believe that the current system is "good" but is beset by some external "evil" (religion, immigration, etc. etc.) and hence are actively counterrevolutionary.

Oppression can certainly beget oppression, as well, and I suppose people will take from that the idea that any response to oppression is doomed, but that's more fatalism than cynicism. I don't buy the idea that games are incapable of showing why socialist revolution has particular 'motivators' which prevent it from just replacing one oppressive regime with another, but yes they haven't done this yet as far as I can tell, and certainly not in Bioshock Infinite.

I wouldn't have minded if they were portrayed oppressively- I just think they did a rather lazy job of doing it. I know It's a game so anything goes and plausibility is out the door, but Radio Spartacus does bring up a good point- it would've been more plausible for the Vox to try to take control of the city. I think it may've been more interesting to see a Vox-run Columbia even if it had obvious signs of repression- secret police, executions, censorship (and really communism and revolution isn't a picnic affair either so this isn't me speaking from a pacifistic standpoint) - rather than the Killing Fieldseque scenario we got when they warped into that dimension/alternate future. If they insisted on making Fitzroy go mad with power, it would've been more plausible for her to try and take advantage of the weaponized Columbia (I mean, they were already leading up to the danger of Comstock wielding it) and park that thing over Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, or some other major city to enforce her demands or let all hell rain loose, as opposed to deciding "hey let me kill some random motherfuckers". Just seems anti-climatic, but I guess maybe there was some nihilistic intent there, especially if you're going to go from the degradation of a "noble" group, with Vox having more OWS undertrappings early on with a coherent ideology and goal, to a later-stage violent one reminiscent of RAF as a user mentioned earlier where they become more desperate and pretty much devoid of any original ideology and doing violence for its own sake.

Though to be fair, this whole arc doesn't play a major role in the overall story and kind of seems more like a sideshow in the plot compared to the main story, so I guess that's one thing. I don't think the creators of the game had a particular axe to grind with anyone but it largely what passes for "sophisticated" political critique nowadays.


It was hardly a flattering portrayal of an anarcho-communist. Anarky was the embodiment of the "well-intentioned terrorist" trope; he was a loud-mouthed, verbose, arrogant, naive, and dangerous teenager. So he had to put down by Batman, because after all there are better ways to change things.

So, uh, no I don't think some writer at DC was trying to inject some subversive content in the game.

Yeah Anarky was portrayed more as a well-intentioned extremist in the end if not a naive dork and idealist, but I think all things considered it could've been handled worse- if anything compared to the other criminals he comes off as more clean in a way, since the others are generally driven by money (Copperhead, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Penguin, Croc), just want to see shit blow up (Joker, Firefly), a bizarre fixation on Batman (Bane, Joker again) or serving another objective (Lady Shiva).

I didn't care much for Anarky though- from a gameplay perspective the submission seemed uninspired. It seemed more of the thought went into his background. Someone at WB Montreal did have a bit too much interest in Anarky- he has a lot more exposition than any other villain in the game. The radio frequency he's on has him reading "Plain Words (http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/plainwords.html)" verbatim which Future is referring to, and the different Anarky tags (24 in total) in the game are usually a paragraph or two long criticisms of that respective business with parallels to real life events. At the very least someone did do an absurd amount of research for a very minor Batman character in the grand scheme of things most people'd not give two shits about, especially compared to heavy hitters like the Joker, Bane, Penguin, etc.

Not saying he was well portrayed and it should be lauded, but compared to what it usually is it did come off as a minor improvement (much less Batman which has hosted more than the usual amount of right-wing writers in comic industry). Nowadays it's hard to find many with a fair portrayal that ultimately doesn't boil down to leaving such individuals as either useful idiots or naive idealists unfortunately.


I'm surprised no one has mentioned Grim Fandango.

The main character is a member of a revolutionary organization in a Mexican themed land of the dead and the game has plenty of political themes and referances. In a memorable scene, you have to incite workers to go on a strike and when you succeed the Internationale plays in the background.

A pretty good novel has been written about the game, which has even more political referances: http://www.grim-fandango.com/novel.php

I've seen this game recommended outside of this forum, I've been meaning to give it a try. It's interesting to me how the 90s had a lot of those types of games- the point-and-click adventure types- I really missed out on that considering my age. I wasn't aware of those values though, thanks for that.


Speaking of socialism in gaming: Has anyone played the two Metro games? They are based on the novel Metro 2033 and it's sequels by Dimitry Glukhovsky. The story takes place in the metro tunnels of Moskow in which a postapocalyptic society has formed since to surface was made inhabitable during a nuclear war. The games (and the books) feature a 'communist' faction ('the red line'). The are portrayed very negatively though. They are hardcore authoritarian warmongers and for the most part seem to be evil without any reason.
For example in the game Metro: Last Light they
spread some sort of devastating plague through large parts of the metro in a covert operation and waltz in to kill everyone who is infected to make the people think they saved them or something like that. You also meet one of their soldiers early in the game and he helps you through some levels just to betray you the first good chance he gets.

I was rather disappointed... The game was good though.

Edit: Added spoiler tags

I've never played the second game, only the first when I grabbed it when it dropped down to like $5. It was an interesting survival game- good environment and such- but yeah I agree about the simplistic way the factions were portrayed. The author of the series is obviously extrapolating from the more liberal interpretation of the modern political climate in Russia and using strawmen from there when developing the Neo-Nazis and Communists, since they're generally viewed by those types as extremists equally as bad as the other and focused on violence and power more than anything else. That is, Communists as a tankie dinosaur of the past, and Neo-Nazis as the ugly development post-90s.

Unfortunately though, considering the representative of what most Russians might see as Communism in Russia today (KPRF) with their fixation on nationalism, social conservatism, traditions, and the military, I can see how this mess gets perpetuated. Still, the author does definitely come off as one of those that push the BS of Nazism=Communism deal. I don't think it was a narrow jab at stalinism but communism in general.

That's my impression of the game, I haven't read the book but I'm assuming this is the case from what people've mentioned about it before and what parts of the original text played into the creation of the game.

[Bala Perdida]

I'm playing GTA 5 right now. Although you can invest in stocks and other crap, you can still see some anti-capitalism I guess. At least I do. Primarily with Trevor, he and some of his "hill billy" friends seem to be anarchists. He says it in a mission ounce, referring to the "hill billy anarchist journal" or something. He also makes the anti-government stance clear a lot. I also like the missions that the guy with the glasses gives you, the ones where you assassinate rich capitalists for ex. a fake Mark Zuckerburg. I haven't finished that game yet, so more on that later.
Anyways, despite black open 2's demonisation of Communists, i.e. Cuba/Angola, I still like playing with a nice custom emblem online of an anarchy-A, hammer and sickle, red star ect....
I also picked up a cheap used Fallout 2. I played some of it and know about the Great Kahns and NCR, but is there any socialist/anarchist groups or sectors? It creates a perfect environment for them. I modeled my character after a young Hugo Chavez and named him Alfonso Cano.

[Yugo45]

It seems the whole idea of a twisted or bad revolution has been a common trope in media for sometime, more recently I'm reminded of the way Bioshock Infinite treated the Vox- basically the old idea of the new government being no better than the old oppressor, in Infinite's case they kind of went for the "pox on both of their houses" approach by showing both extremes as pigheaded and brutal with respect to Comstock and Fitzroy. I liked the game but that did bug me really even though it was ultimately tangential to the game's story.

Skyrim ain't a scion of storytelling but they did pull off a similar dynamic with the Stormcloaks and Imperials, the formers being presented as the rebels. The way the game is set up, unless you're already familiar with the world's lore and the anti-elven sentiment among some Nords (as I was), that most players might join the Stormcloaks out of a sense of "Yeah revolution!" only to find out later that the Stormcloaks have some very human-centric if not racist views on elves and beast-folk and probably get regret over it later.

I anticipated the same thing with Last of Us, since they did a good job of playing up the Fireflys as a source of resistance against the military order in the back story, that it was an inevitability with the way these games progress you'd conflict with them in some way.

idk I guess I'm seeing this more as a lazy copout to a cynical if not nihilistic view on political involvement (why bother if they're all dicks?). If anything it would kind of make people more apathetic and disengaged when honestly nowadays it's more of a necessity.


I think a game that has dealt with this well was Fallout New Vegas. You have four choices. A slaver, almost fascist, openly expansionist faction. A fake democracy, thinly disguised expansionist/imperialist faction. And an Andrew Ryan kinda psycho dude. And of course, you can fuck them all off and go your own way (heavily implied to be anarchy). So yeah that was pretty good. Very satisfying ending, too. Watching that NCR general shit his pants infront of my massive robot army.

Good game, New Vegas.

[Radio Spartacus]

I think a game that has dealt with this well was Fallout New Vegas. You have four choices. A slaver, almost fascist, openly expansionist faction. A fake democracy, thinly disguised expansionist/imperialist faction. And an Andrew Ryan kinda psycho dude. And of course, you can fuck them all off and go your own way (heavily implied to be anarchy). So yeah that was pretty good. Very satisfying ending, too. Watching that NCR general shit his pants infront of my massive robot army.

Good game, New Vegas.

I once argued with someone, for fun more than actually believing it, that New Vegas was all about presenting the different stages of societal development in a way somewhat similar to Marx.

It was a pretty shaky argument but you do see tribes (primitive communism), implied semi-feudal relations amongst the legion, early capitalism in pre-ncr new vegas, and then the NCR is lenin's imperialist modern capitalism.

If the independence option was fought for by workers instead of robots you could probably take that further and say something about the game having an option to establish a DOTP to develop the industrial capacity of the wastes for socialism? You could probably tie it to some of Lenin's ideas on national struggles as is.

Yeah, it's a long shot.

[RedCornFlakes]

I always thought of Minecraft as being a socialist game

[Futility Personified]

I downloaded Bioshock and Metro Last Light off Playstation plus. Excellent gameplay, the stories? Good until /that/ point. IIRC one of the few games that was kind to revolutionaries was the Red Faction series (or at least 1 or 2, I lost wood for it by the third, was there a plot to that game or was I Thor on smack?) I don't feel much doubt in my mind that while some writers are terrible, others are being schtummed to reduce pro-leftist outputs. What a terrible deal! At least we should be comforted by the lazy criticisms.

[The Intransigent Faction]

I found this a while back, probably through the SWTOR forum, and it's what prompted me to post here:

http://sortiv.com/?p=2236

I'd love to see more critiques like this somewhere.

[KurtFF8]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Grim Fandango.

The main character is a member of a revolutionary organization in a Mexican themed land of the dead and the game has plenty of political themes and referances. In a memorable scene, you have to incite workers to go on a strike and when you succeed the Internationale plays in the background.

A pretty good novel has been written about the game, which has even more political referances: http://www.grim-fandango.com/novel.php

I loved that game when I first played it. That was before I was politicized so perhaps it had its small part to play. (I don't recall this part however)

[Ritzy Cat]

I feel Portal / Portal 2 is sort of taking a stab at "big" government or fascism. You "wake up" in a testing chamber where all you do is work for the glory of Aperture Science... and they try to sensationalize what they are doing by repetitively saying "its for science", and some all-knowing voice in the sky "the state" that you can never escape... All I could think about was socialist ideals when I was playing that game

[Red Commissar]

I didn't see Portal as a jab at state or governments. Kind of a usual "machines gone mad" bit that the first gradually reveals and the second expands upon. Aperture Laboratories came off more to be as a parody of business owned by erratic personalities (like Howard Hughes, William Randolph Hearst) and the excess of such companies bidding heavily for government contracts at all costs. Or kind of the parody of science labs, especially during the peak of interest in the future during the 50s and 60s like the Venture Bros does. The owner of Aperture, Cave Johnson, comes off as a egotistical southern "good ol' boy" who overvalues his own intelligence and ingenuity, and accordingly his place in society.

I think HL2's setting opens up for more of that stuff though, at least simplistic interpretations from some people seeing a dystopian setting as socialist. Most people when they play portal it's about the portals (no shit), one-liners, cake, and potatoes.

[Stalin Baratheon]

A Force more Powerful - A game about non-violent protest tactics.

This game is not communist AT ALL, not only due its pacifist crap, but because it is made but the anti-communist organization headed by Gene Sharp, intellectual responsible of various Colour Revolutions. You can enter in the game and see that the missions involve things like allying yourself with businessmen in Walesa-like scenarios. What have that of communist?

[Zoroaster]

I remember playing Bioshock: Infinite and seeing the effects of Fascist economics on the working class. While Elizabeth was whining about Paris, I was calling the Founders "Tea Party Republican bourgeois scum" in my normal rage mode combo between Clint Eastwood and Friedrich Engels.

[RedWorker]

There's this DOS adventure game called KGB made by the same developer as Dune (the original adventure game, not Dune 2, one of the first RTS games) which is set in late-90s Soviet Union, under Gorbachev and reforms. You're a member of the KGB and have to solve a mystery. The atmosphere is quite well made and it's extremely difficult. You can play it with DOSBox.

[The Intransigent Faction]

I loved that game when I first played it. That was before I was politicized so perhaps it had its small part to play. (I don't recall this part however)

I really want to track this down now.

[RedWorker]

I really want to track this down now.

Well, this is a video of the part of Grim Fandango in which L'Internationale plays (23:50): http://youtube.com/watch?v=8SqdaC9EtOg#t=1430

[Iakovsko]

Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea: Episode 2. Right off the bat you enter into a "school" or whatever and it's plastered with anti-communist rhetoric and such, including a list of why Communism is "bad". Seems to be a bit more political than the other games already, painting the evils of Capitalism (Rapture).

[The Intransigent Faction]

So...this exists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Mutants_from_Space

:laugh:

[Non-Aligned]

Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea: Episode 2. Right off the bat you enter into a "school" or whatever and it's plastered with anti-communist rhetoric and such, including a list of why Communism is "bad". Seems to be a bit more political than the other games already, painting the evils of Capitalism (Rapture).
Rapture was about Objectivism, the Ayn Rand created philosophy. It includes unfettered Capitalism, which is the main part of Objectivism.

[KurtFF8]

Well, this is a video of the part of Grim Fandango in which L'Internationale plays (23:50): http://youtube.com/watch?v=8SqdaC9EtOg#t=1430

Apparently there will be a remake of the game for PS4. (http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/184022-remastered-pc-classic-grim-fandango-cements-ps4s-lead-with-classic-gamers)

[Arlekino]

Can anybody recommend video game for me, I am fussy about that. I used liked play Lara Croft which is available freely online feeling fed up. I want to try something new. My preference would be not much killings, more puzzles, less explosions. Ah I am middle age person so for me old fashion games would be good. Many thanks Arlekino.

[bropasaran]

Being that people have mentioned games referencing USSR, there's an indie puzzle game about living a tedious life of a immigration inspector called "Papers, please", it can be found on torrents.

[Zoroaster]

Being that people have mentioned games referencing USSR, there's an indie puzzle game about living a tedious life of a immigration inspector called "Papers, please", it can be found on torrents.

That game is amazing.

[bcbm]

Can anybody recommend video game for me, I am fussy about that. I used liked play Lara Croft which is available freely online feeling fed up. I want to try something new. My preference would be not much killings, more puzzles, less explosions. Ah I am middle age person so for me old fashion games would be good. Many thanks Arlekino.

there are lots of point and click adventure/horror/mystery games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Point-and-click_adventure_games)that are more puzzle and story based you could try out.

[PeoplesRepublics]

The Stanley Parable is quite a good game.

[Slavic]

The Stanley Parable is quite a good game.

Meh, for like 5 minutes, then you wonder why you spent money on it. (Which I didn't but could you only imagine if I did, yuck)

[bropasaran]

That game is amazing.
With that grim inspector coming to check up on you

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130901131017/papersplease/images/thumb/e/ed/Moadirector.png/120px-Moadirector.png

Glory to Arstotzka :grin:

[Guardia Rossa]

Does anyone knows any socialist mods for fallout?

EDIT: Sorry but I had to ressurect this

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

In anticipation of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, I'm playing the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection, which collects all of the main Metal Gear games (including the original MSX2 games), all the way up to Guns of the Patriots and Peace Walker.

The one thing I've noticed about this entire series is that it's essentially Hideo Kojima's statement against the spectre of the Military Industrial Complex. The idea that war could actually become a commodity that could be purchased. The idea that arms manufacturers are in this unholy pact with the world's governments in order to increase the profits of their respective shareholders whilst building up and crumbling entire nations in the process.

Also, Big Boss may be one of the greatest video game characters of all time. He is this shell-shocked veteran whose been through hell, and is determined to shape the world into his own vision of a soldier's paradise. He's supposed to be the greatest soldier the United States Mlitary ever had....and he's determined to make the Powers of the world pay for what they've done to their people.

[Ibn.AL.Muqafaa]

Red faction workers have an armed revolution against the Ultor Corporation which had been exploiting them.
A corporation EA The soviets in the Red Alert series are more communist than Russia