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Should Video Games Get Political?

Should Video Games Get Political?

Deep Silver is finally releasing Homefront: The Revolution this week, and they have no qualms saying that they’ve tweaked their message in the game to align better with the current political climate of the United States ( GameIndustry.biz ). This is quite bold coming from the gaming industry, as companies usually shy away from stating too clearly that their games have anything to do with current politics. Even after mentioning it, Deep Silver appears to retract its boldness with, “we’re not doing a 1-to-1 politically charged comparison of, ‘Oh man, because Donald Trump won the election, this is where we’re headed.’ … But what we’re doing is a little bit more serious, and less current events politically charged.”

I really think the video game industry should stop being so afraid of mirroring reality in such a blatant way. Sure, the industry is quite talented in artful layers of subtlety – they’ve done it before with Call of Duty , Grand Theft Auto , and Bioshock . Despite Deep Silver’s bold statements, I don’t think Homefront: Revolution will be any different. They’ll be so focused on hiding their commentary under “alternate” pasts that their bold messaging will look like a lucky coincidence.

I’m sorry to pull out my English major, but they should take a page from John Wilmot, wit and poet of the 17 th century. This was a man so embittered and disgusted with present political, social, and cultural states that he forewent subtlety for shock. Wilmot wasted no time describing the filthy streets, horrid people, and dragging the reigning monarch and parliament through the mud of truth. I believe that in such tumultuous political times, it is the responsibility of current media to reflect and make strong statements regarding it.

Video games are most certainly a part of that media, and they should stop being afraid. They have been coloured with the same brush of ‘video games are only for entertainment’ for decades, it’s time to make a new brush. It hasn’t been true since the dawn of games and we should start acknowledging that. Take a Tom Clancy game and for once, allow the socio-political ideas of countries other than the United States to make an appearance. Or allow a game like Homefront: The Revolution to have a ‘real’ reality, rather than an ‘alternate’ one.

Should Video Games Get Political?

Media is about exploring possibilities too, so why not run with that? For example, The Day After Tomorrow answered the question, “if we continue to pollute the globe as we are now, what will the results be?” Or Bioshock answered the question, “if the anarchists had their way, what would their society look like?” Video games can take those questions and make them far more personal: “What would the result of our current government corruption be a decade from now” or, “what should we do about racism?” More to the point, the latter is a question Disney’s Zootopia managed to answer with grace. Disney. You know, the film company so behind the times that Frozen was a revolution in Disney storytelling. If one of the most conservative film companies can do it, I don’t see why the video game industry can’t either.

With the slight boldness of Deep Silver’s message with Homefront: The Revolution , I don’t see why it and other video game companies can’t take things one step further. I hope they will soon stop being afraid and make more bold statements about current events!

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