Thursday, November 27, 2008

EPISODE FIFTEEN: "The Politics of Gaming"

Least imaginative title ever, I realize. But I hope the content-proper makes up for it. Hey, YouTube? Y'know what'd be awesome? Letting people put non-YouTube hyperlinks in annotations. Just a thought.



Summation: "How would YOUR favorite gaming icon have voted?" I like to think of this one as 95% hit-baiting jokes about whom fictional characters might've voted for, 4.5% newsworthy griping and 0.05% thought-provoking discussion of political themes present in games you may not have thought of. Enjoy!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Hmm. Lemme try matching up those characters with Dutch parties. I'll translate most of the party names for convenience, obviously. Also, I'll skip the characters I don't know well enough.


Guile - Freedom Party, probably. Though he may not be quite as xenophobic as Wilders.

Bridget - Christian Democrats. But only because I'm assuming religion still holds some importance for him what with the nun outfit and because the CDA hasn't made a move to overthrow gay marriage.

DeDeDe - People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). The right-wing free market types concerned with fiscal responsibility and reducing the state's debt.

Peach - Tricky. VVD is probably the party for what aristocracy we have left, but she may just as easily vote Green Left.

Tingle - Animal Party.

Robotnik - VVD

Knuckles - Hmm. Maybe Socialist Party.

MetaKnight - VVD

Mario Brothers - Socialist Party or Labour Party. In my admittedly highly limited experience, 'working class types' only really vote right-wing when they dream of making it big soon, are scared of foreigners or are simply douchebags. Now, while Mario may at some point marry into wealth, I really don't think that's gonna change his outlook on life that much.

Link - Gonna have to go with Green Left here after all.

Snake - Labour Party, I think.

Fox - You know, we really lack a 'militarism yay!' party, though Freedom Party might come close (too early to tell, I guess). So I'm gonna go with VVD, but only for the bloody-minded independence he displayed at the end of Lylat Wars.

And just for laughs:

Duke Nukem - Proud of the Netherlands. But only because of the name.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

You know what, I take back what I said about Tingle. It might still hold true for Tingle from Majora's Mask, but the later Tingles are more money-obsessed than they are fruity.

So... VVD.

Mr. I said...

Heh...nicely done, as always. Though it's not quite as deep or revealing or likely to get your fans obsessive about every word that happens to come out of your mouth, it's a really unique take. Going down the list of game characters very quickly was an absolutely hilarious idea, great on paper and great in execution. The only thing I'd be concerned about is that you listed off, with the exception of Guile and the fair Princess, MAYBE Robotnik and Knuckles but that's pushing it, generally B-list or not-as-heroic/villainous characters immediately while spending more time on the big guys. Yeah, I know that Mario deserves a ton of time in the sun, Link's views would be cool and deserving, and Fox was there to prove a point. But...after Metal Gear Solid 2...I just can't pin anything on Snake but the democratic banner. Yeah, you made that point, but it just feels a bit forced that stereotypically, buff soldiers am Republican. I understand you were trying to make a point, but it leaves sort of a sour taste in my mouth...just personally, though. I would have loved to see how Psycho Mantis or Dimentio (Super Paper Mario) or a before-and-after Banjo-Tooie of Klungo...just really interesting characters that'd leave you with a "huh, wouldn't have thought of that" as a result.

But, as I did with your last comment, I'm rambling now and most likely your back is getting sore from my dumping walls of text upon your back...or you're just going to end up really annoyed at me. Either way, your videos are still exceptional, though I haven't enjoyed the last two QUITE as much due to the seemingly jumpy nature of the videos. Great subjects, great commentary, great job.

Unknown said...

Nicely done there bob. I just wanted to say I feel the exact same way about World at War being released on Veteran's day, pretty messed up if you ask me, but as a consumer whore I did go out and buy it on Wii. (The Wii control scheme is so perfect for shooters)Now if only we can get some popular strategy games on Wii. (Blizzard, EA....this means your guys.)

Anyway keep up the awesome work buddy.

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

Well I do notice certain themes in games.

Capitalism is a-#1. I can think of very few games with a communistic monetary system. Only one comes to mind. In Quest 64 you could get one of any item in a store. But only one. You could get another if you used it, but you could only ever have one. To each according to his need, eh?

Also, anybody who wants to save the world has at the very least a slight liberal bent. Shouldn't conservatives and libertarians wait for the free market of kingdoms to "correct itself?" :D Aren't Princesses getting kidnapped and dark power falling into the hands of bad people the kingdom's fault, and wouldn't bailing them out of that lead to a "moral hazard?" :D

Good fun.

counterpoint said...

nice job, bob.

Glad to have you back with a "real video". Great job, and a very interesting concept, as usual.
I was thinking of a few other characters, and I can't quite decide how they'd vote....
Olimar from Pikmin: He's a scientist (liberal?), but he's really rather disrespectful of wildlife and ecosystems (Palin?)
Same deal with Gordon Freeman. Also, Samus is a bit hard to pin.
Then there are the easy ones...... Kratos, Mega Man, for example.
Anyways, keep up the good work!

Unknown said...

CoD:WaW was announced and trailer released on Veteran's Day?

Wow. I never knew that, and though i do love playing a few rounds online when i can nick some time on it from my flatmate, announcing a War Game on Veteran's Day is just the dictionary definition of poor taste.

Unknown said...

With all due respect to your opinions which I very often like and agree with the thing you should know is that the Call of Duty games are always released on that day as a tradition although.

Unknown said...

Liberal = big government? Go to the origins of the word; Libre, freedom. Liberalism is about a small government, it's only that you've applied a new meaning to it. Conservative on the other hand, is derived from conserve, which means to keep. As in to "keep earlier politics and change as little as possible." Of course politicians have used the terms in so wrong ways for so long, so they don't mean the same anymore (they don't mean ANYTHING anymore really), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least TRY.

squall lee said...

@fatalbert1990

the dictionary term liberal does in fact mean lot of something, and conservative means a small amount.

But when applied to government, yes, your meanings are correct.

Anyway, I loled at the Link=Ted Nugent comment. Now I await the day when somebody makes an AMV of Zelda with "Call of the Wild"

Unknown said...

Actually let's think about Final Fantasy for a moment. Particularly Final Fantasy VII because that's about a group of Eco-terrorists trying to destroy a giant corrupt corrperation because it has grown to big for the government to handle and now trods all over the rights of people. I honestly think it's one of the most liberal games of all time.

alphabet1 said...

Akimaru makes a good point, but that only applies to ff7.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know how Sparkster the Rocket Knight would have voted? If so, please tell me.