Games ruined by creator's politics

Alucrid

Banned
I still blast RKelly even though he peed on a minor. Michael Jackson is still the king in my books despite even the most recent allegations. I fucking love Mel Gibson movies, yet he's a total douche in the real world.

Guess I'm just good at separating art from the artist. If a game designer likes Trump it won't stop me from buying the game. Hell I'll buy the new Mass Effect even though one of the devs on Twitter is blatantly trying to start a race war.

Now if profit of the game went to actively support hate, I'd draw the line. Luckily the Aryan Brotherhood doesn't seem to be big on game development.

which bioware dev is trying to start a race war now?
 

Orayn

Member
I think how a studio treats its employees falls under the umbrella of "politics" insofar as labor is a political issue.
 

gafneo

Banned
Gabe Newell. Pranks everyone by leaving us with a cliffhanger for 20 years, tells us Half Life 3 is coming out, goes missing, takes tons of money from fans.
 

EmiPrime

Member
I won't touch anything by Chair (a bit too chummy with OSC for me to give them the benefit of the doubt), Doug TenNapel (homophobe) and Dennis Dyack (abusive narcissist and GamerGater). Luckily they're all irrelevant.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Are you accusing me of something?



A lot of people had aligned themselves with GG before actually learning what it was. It's probably the most bizarre, inconsistent mess of a movement I've ever seen, and yet people still get taken in by what it allegedly was in the beginning.

The last thing I could find on What American Mcgee said was just anti-censorship related and had assumed that was GG's main goal. He just hasn't taken the time to do any further research apparently. Allied with doesn't mean he's officially apart of it.



It's nothing serious, but I'm also not keen on doing it unless I know for a fact it won't get me banned. It was honestly more her attitude than the base politics (which I mostly agreed with), but I consider attitude part of politics as well. Stuff that pushes people away that would otherwise be on your side.

And let me just clarify that I don't hate Quinn and am incredibly sensitive to her plight (hell, I've been harassed by gamergate as well though obviously nowhere near the same level). But I do believe we can separate a person's experiences from both their works and their politics. Just as someone can not be fond of TB for his politics despite him having cancer and dying, or Notch for his politics despite his crippling depression and self-loathing.

You're saying she had a bad attitude at a Game Jam? No shit, everyone has bad attitudes at Game Jams, because you're on little sleep and on edge. Compound that with the natural types of questions and personalities that would gravitate towards Quinn at such an event, and sorry if I don't feel swayed on her because she was curt or impolite.
 

Salarians

Member
CfJq_bPUEAELXHh.jpg
Actual photo of CONFIRMED racist Manveer Heir on his way to slay white folk and collect our tears for his tear mug
 
Are you accusing me of something?



A lot of people had aligned themselves with GG before actually learning what it was. It's probably the most bizarre, inconsistent mess of a movement I've ever seen, and yet people still get taken in by what it allegedly was in the beginning.

The last thing I could find on What American Mcgee said was just anti-censorship related and had assumed that was GG's main goal. He just hasn't taken the time to do any further research apparently.



It's nothing serious, but I'm also not keen on doing it unless I know for a fact it won't get me banned. It was honestly more her attitude than the base politics (which I mostly agreed with), but I consider attitude part of politics as well. Stuff that pushes people away that would otherwise be on your side.

And let me just clarify that I don't hate Quinn and am incredibly sensitive to her plight (hell, I've been harassed by gamergate as well though obviously nowhere near the same level). But I do believe we can separate a person's experiences from both their works and their politics. Just as someone can not be fond of TB for his politics despite him having cancer and dying, or Notch for his politics despite his crippling depression and self-loathing.

If you think what you have to say about her might be banworthy, then I think I have a good read on what you're going to present. You can't redefine something as politics to suit your needs at the moment.

Your gripes with Quinn's attitude may be 100% valid but that's not what this thread is for, especially if, as you've said, you're actually in agreement with her actual politics, whatever those may be.

As for being ignorant of Gamergate-most things ending with "-gate" aren't pleasant.
 

Yasumi

Banned
Back while the weird edits and censorship in #FE were popping up (removing a girl's pelvic bones in a cutscene, black flames over cleavage in one scene, gone the next, poorly edited additions, re-recorded audio, etc.), Robert at Zeboyd Games and I had a fairly large disagreement about it.

I was highly against what I saw as censorship, he was strongly for what he saw as localization. I decided I wasn't going to be supporting Cosmic Star Heroine, as I strongly disagreed with Robert's views on the subject, and got quite a lot of flack for it. The game certainly wasn't ruined for me, I just lost interest due to ideological differences.
 

Red Frost

Banned
If you think what you have to say about her might be banworthy, then I think I have a good read on what you're going to present. You can't redefine something as politics to suit your needs at the moment.

FYI, it had nothing to do with gamergate, feminism, inclusivity, or anything along those lines.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Back while the weird edits and censorship in #FE were popping up (removing a girl's pelvic bones in a cutscene, black flames over cleavage in one scene, gone the next, poorly edited additions, re-recorded audio, etc.), Robert at Zeboyd Games and I had a fairly large disagreement about it.

I was highly against what I saw as censorship, he was strongly for what he saw as localization. I decided I wasn't going to be supporting Cosmic Star Heroine, as I strongly disagreed with Robert's views on the subject, and got quite a lot of flack for it. The game certainly wasn't ruined for me, I just lost interest due to ideological differences.

While obviously your prerogative, you do know that Robert isn't the artist at Zeboyd, right? Bill is.
 
I think some time has passed so that I can finally voice this dangerous opinion.

I simply found Zoe Quinn an insufferable wanker until gamergate started, when she was elevated to the rank of super-human monster/heroine from the most incredible internet craze I ever witnessed. You can say that the 'gators won, as I stopped looking at her as the person I knew until then (Zoe Quinn, the pretentious indie star), and actively considered her only as the victim of an organized hate movement. I still think she's both insufferable and the sad victim of a profound undeserved injustice.
 
I think some time has passed so that I can finally voice this dangerous opinion.

I simply found Zoe Quinn an insufferable wanker until gamergate started, when she was elevated to the rank of super-human monster/heroine from the most incredible internet craze I ever witnessed. You can say that the 'gators won, as I stopped looking at her as the person I knew until then (Zoe Quinn, the pretentious indie star), and actively considered her only as the victim of an organized hate movement. I still think she's both insufferable and the sad victim of a profound undeserved injustice.

So

What about her politics?

"I don't like person" has nothing to do with their politics, unless you don't like them because of their politics.
 

Red Frost

Banned
While obviously your prerogative, you do know that Robert isn't the artist at Zeboyd, right? Bill is.

Isn't Zeboyd a two-man team?

I was watching that thread as a lurker and I won't lie, some of the stuff he said was a turn-off. Not to the point of not getting CSH, because it looks great and I got nothing personally against Rob, but I'm not a fan of his politics.
 
Back while the weird edits and censorship in #FE were popping up (removing a girl's pelvic bones in a cutscene, black flames over cleavage in one scene, gone the next, poorly edited additions, re-recorded audio, etc.), Robert at Zeboyd Games and I had a fairly large disagreement about it.

I was highly against what I saw as censorship, he was strongly for what he saw as localization. I decided I wasn't going to be supporting Cosmic Star Heroine, as I strongly disagreed with Robert's views on the subject, and got quite a lot of flack for it. The game certainly wasn't ruined for me, I just lost interest due to ideological differences.

I fully agree with you that the #FE situation was baffling censorship, and am anti pretty much any 'localisation' changes.

Given Zeboyd aren't a localisation team though, why choose not to support them based on difference of opinion rather than simply not support poor localisation decisions?
 

Yasumi

Banned
While obviously your prerogative, you do know that Robert isn't the artist at Zeboyd, right? Bill is.
I do, but he's still designer/programmer/writer. I'd call that a creator.
I fully agree with you that the #FE situation was baffling censorship, and am anti pretty much any 'localisation' changes.

Given Zeboyd aren't a localisation team though, why choose not to support them based on difference of opinion rather than simply not support poor localisation decisions?
A lot of people here have already mentioned cases not wanting to support games for reasons not related to that creator's field. I just feel strongly in this particular subject.
 

Orayn

Member
Back while the weird edits and censorship in #FE were popping up (removing a girl's pelvic bones in a cutscene, black flames over cleavage in one scene, gone the next, poorly edited additions, re-recorded audio, etc.), Robert at Zeboyd Games and I had a fairly large disagreement about it.

I was highly against what I saw as censorship, he was strongly for what he saw as localization. I decided I wasn't going to be supporting Cosmic Star Heroine, as I strongly disagreed with Robert's views on the subject, and got quite a lot of flack for it. The game certainly wasn't ruined for me, I just lost interest due to ideological differences.

While I loved TMS and wasn't terribly bothered by the changes, I appreciate that you at least expressed this in a cogent way instead of making a driveby post with a link to a 2 hour video by some GG demagogue.

It's stuff like this that makes the difference between people disagreeing with you vs. getting instantly dogpiled.
 
How do you feel about american developers?

USA committed a lot of atrocities in Latin America, just in the last 60 years. They basically destroyed democracies, enabled military coups with thousands of people getting killed or never heard of again, families separated, kids being taken away from their pregnant mothers, Guatemala syphilis experiment, El Salvador terrorism USA groups, Los Contras in Honduras, Salvador Allende assassination and the following regime of Pinochet with USA backing it, etc.

I doubt more than 5% of developers in USA would recognize all those things and say USA's government until before Obama were war/terrorist criminals.
You need to be careful about blanket statements such as this cause with that kind of reasoning, you shouldn't support pretty much every game created.

USA has the above atrocities associated with it so don't support US devs

European nations have wreaked havoc among much of the world during the colonial era, don't support European devs

Japan has committed many wartime atrocities Asia, don't support Japanese devs

you see where I'm going with this?
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Isn't Zeboyd a two-man team?

I was watching that thread as a lurker and I won't lie, some of the stuff he said was a turn-off. Not to the point of not getting CSH, because it looks great and I got nothing personally against Rob, but I'm not a fan of his politics.

They also outsource music to another group, yeah.

Robert and I disagree quite often, but he's also pretty active in gaming forums in general. It's natural to disagree with someone who will frequently make his opinion known, that's just how all discourse goes. I think it'd be impossible to never disagree with someone especially if they are active members of a community.

I just don't think that the types of opinion Robert was talking about in that thread are areas of CSH that he'd be in charge of. Bill is the primary artist of the team. Robert primarily handles the coding.
 

The Argus

Member
but like...what exactly is he doing to constitute "trying to start a race war"

As another poster stated, he's being crass/crude in tweets about diversity. Does it bother me much? Nope. Does it bother the "GG" people, hell yes. He's purposely making people uneasy and belligerent, that's a race war in my books. There are better ways to bring up diversity in gaming than saying "I hate white people".


Making games where non-white characters, women, and lgbt people are given important roles in the story?

Not at all my point. This is the type of shit I'm talking about:
https://mobile.twitter.com/manveerheir/status/309349895318417408
That's crass.
 

Red Frost

Banned
Given Zeboyd aren't a localisation team though, why choose not to support them based on difference of opinion rather than simply not support poor localisation decisions?

The thread is about political/ideological differences. While I think in that case, not supporting them is a bit extreme as they have no power to affect the localization-relevant climate, it's pretty in line with what the thread is about.
 
As another poster stated, he's being crass/crude in tweets about diversity. Does it bother me much? Nope. Does it bother the "GG" people, hell yes. He's purposely making people uneasy and belligerent, that's a race war in my books. There are better ways to bring up diversity in gaming than saying "I hate white people".


Not at all my point. This is the type of shit I'm talking about:
https://mobile.twitter.com/manveerheir/status/309349895318417408
That's crass.

He must not have been tryin too hard, since it's now three years later.

I'm going to guess he's not actually saying "I hate white people." Is this another "gamers are dead" reading trouble thing?
 

foxuzamaki

Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
David cage. Think the team he has is good at what they do but he always is the core problem with each game due to his writing and his deluded belief that he can actually write a coherent plot. You wouldn't believe how relieved I was when I heard his latest game has additional writers.
Yeah, beyond two souls had extra writers aswell
 

Alucrid

Banned
As another poster stated, he's being crass/crude in tweets about diversity. Does it bother me much? Nope. Does it bother the "GG" people, hell yes. He's purposely making people uneasy and belligerent, that's a race war in my books. There are better ways to bring up diversity in gaming than saying "I hate white people".




Not at all my point. This is the type of shit I'm talking about:
https://mobile.twitter.com/manveerheir/status/309349895318417408
That's crass.

well uh, okay then. but you know that when you type the words "race war" into google the top results are breitbart, zerohedge, some shitty alt right site with a pokemon banner and hitler, right? just so you know the imagery you're invoking when you say "race war" to describe crass tweets you dislike
 
I keep myself separated from creators or writers or singers etc. politics and opinions so that I don't get put off by them. For instance I really really liked Beck's music - then I found out he is a Scientologist and I barely listen to him now. If I had never found out that I would still be listening to his albums (Don't ask what I think about Religious Belief and we'll get on fabulously :D)

As for games I know almost nothing about the people who write/code/animate etc and I like to keep it that way. Bury my head in the sand? Me? Can do.
 
So

What about her politics?

"I don't like person" has nothing to do with their politics, unless you don't like them because of their politics.

Nothing about her politics. I don't think she ever voiced her own opinions in that regard.

i think you should re-read my post with more attention.

That's what I was trying to say. She has been made political by the hate she received. And she recived that hate because she was a woman, she incarnated an ideal role of indie artsy developer and she made an experimental game about depression.

I didn't like her personally at the time, and from then on I had to shutdown my personal view of her as a person because of the shit she received. I always defended her because of that. To the point that you could have mistaken me for a fan of her as a public personality and as an artist.
 
Nothing about her politics. I don't think she ever voiced her own opinions in that regard.

i think you should re-read my post with more attention.

That's what I was trying to say. She has been made political by the hate she received. And she recived that hate because she was a woman, she incarnated an ideal role of indie artsy developer and she made an experimental game about depression.

I didn't like her personally at the time and from then on I had to shutdown that thought because of the shit she received and I always defended her for that. To the point that you could have mistaken my for a fan of her as an artist.

Glad to see you made it through that hard time breh.
 

The Argus

Member
well uh, okay then. but you know that when you type the words "race war" into google the top results are breitbart, zerohedge, some shitty alt right site with a pokemon banner and hitler, right? just so you know the imagery you're invoking when you say "race war" to describe crass tweets you dislike

Fair enough. Maybe race war wasn't the best way to describe it, but in the end even though I don't like the tweets I'm still buying the game as one Dev doesn't speak for everyone.
 
The entire USA tangent isn't entirely misguided, because the heart of this debate is "nothing is inherently apolitical" versus "there is no ethical consumption in late-stage capitalism anyways."

It's not entirely off-topic, but it's also a classic minimization tactic. The context for Sugiyama is an individual who actively advocates a position in favor of covering up war crimes and who gives huge amounts of money to organizations to support them in doing so. That's not the same as judging any Japanese developer for the average attitude about Japanese war crimes in Japan (i.e. maybe not really thinking they're a big thing) and so it's hardly comparable to judging every American developer for the problems with the country.

Now, if there's a specific creator who actively advocates for unconscionable acts by the government, that's an entirely different story.
 
Nothing about her politics. I don't think she ever voiced her own opinions in that regard.

i think you should re-read my post with more attention.

That's what I was trying to say. She has been made political by the hate she received. And she recived that hate because she was a woman, she incarnated an ideal role of indie artsy developer and she made an experimental game about depression.

I didn't like her personally at the time, and from then on I had to shutdown my personal view of her as a person because of the shit she received. I always defended her because of that. To the point that you could have mistaken me for a fan of her as a public personality and as an artist.

We're talking about a devs politics putting you off their work; you just didn't like her then felt you had to pretend you did because of Gamergate.

Ok then
 

Bastables

Member
There was a quote from Ken Levine getting passed around Twitter the other day, where he rather clunkily talked about BioShock 1 & Infinite - and how it related to the plights of Jewish Americans.


Source

Essentially, it sounds like Levine is saying that the moral of BioShock Infinite is that oppression breeds oppression. But some questionable connections pop up once you think about the real world. Is he saying that in contemporary society, Jews (and in the case of Infinite, African-Americans) have taken on roles as oppressors?

I still love both games, but it's become clear over time that Levine's view on the subjects he wrote about may be a bit questionable.

I'm not sure his base argument that oppression does breed oppression is incorrect at all. It's generally accepted that family violence is passed down, with few exceptions. And it's certainly not untrue when he's discussing the Russian revolution with characters such as Stalin eventually "winning" the power struggles with telling insights of him asking his mother later "why did you beat me so hard?" (Edvard Radzinsky, p. 32). Note Stalin's would revert to calling for beatings to extract confessions "Beat and Beat and Beat again .Put them in chains, grind them to powder."

His views is also in line with the Indonesian revolution where unarmed dutch/mixed/sympathisers were publicly raped/impaled in a running amok or revenge due pent up grievances against a colonial power and threat of return.

Never mind the sepoy rebellion where rebelling units also executed and/or raped unarmed civilians.
Levine's view/argument is historically correct, monstrous systems of oppression that lead to violent uprisings do tend to bring out the same impulses usually motivated by revenge against the oppressors.

He points out that Ayn Rand wrote and was who she was due to the brutality of the Bolshevik revolution in particular to her and her families experience, which is mirrored in the character Andrew Ryan.
Darkly, as any dog owner knows that old saying; if you beat a dog don't be surprised when it finally attacks/turns viscious.

He literally points out that it's a dark feature about oppression, it brutalises everyone. He's not making some asinine false equivalence argument of the lower classes are beasties, he's pointing out that oppression causes some of the oppressed to react in a beasitial fashion, it's what their horrific society has taught them, everyone.
 

Aters

Member
Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative.
What a load of right wing. Good VN, but no.

I can separate Polanski's film and the rape, but that's probably because his films are too good. Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative are not that good.
 
We're talking about a devs politics putting you off their work; you just didn't like her then felt you had to pretend you did because of Gamergate.

Ok then

You're just being snarky for the sake of it. I was trying to make a more articulate point, to talk about the issue from another point of view. I guess that never pays off, right?
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I do, but he's still designer/programmer/writer. I'd call that a creator.
A lot of people here have already mentioned cases not wanting to support games for reasons not related to that creator's field. I just feel strongly in this particular subject.
Out of all the shady politics espoused by some game devs that have been cited so far, this is what you feel strongly about? A minor disagreement over the localization of underage scantily clad anime girls is what made you choose to boycott Zeboyd's games?

Huh. Okay then.
 
Honestly, there are a LOT OF things that I can't get into anymore. But for me, it depends if I find out that they're disgusting before or after consuming their product. For example, I still listen to Michael Jackson (even though his stuff isn't confirmed), but I never have and never will watch a Woody Allen movie.

Also obviously it depends on what they do. I can't consume stuff by racists, sexists or rapists, but I don't really care if someone's on a different political side as me. Also, I can definitely understand some of you when you say "don't blame the rest of the team for the leader's shittiness" or "just buy the thing anyways", but that's the thing. By buying their works we're almost enabling them to continue their horrid behavior.

Just my 2 cents.
 

Ullus

Member
None that I can think of, I try to separate the creator and the product.

Or maybe Hatred come to think of it, for obvious reason. (besides it being a shit game)
 

NahaNago

Member
I try to separate the work from the creator. Most people out there have something I will disagree with so I just either not try to seek out that information or just ignore it. If their work ends up supporting or spreading their views that's a different story.

Yep i pretty much try to do the same. This is also the reason why folks who sell things should never speak out publicly on issues outside of their product cause everything you say and do will be held against the sales of your games.
 
You're just being snarky for the sake of it. I was trying to make a more articulate point, to talk about the issue from another point of view. I guess that never pays off, right?

I honestly don't see the relevance. You only talked about your feelings about Quinn and how you felt forced to change them because of Gamergate, but know you can finally get how you really felt about her off your chest. You're not even discussing the issue the thread's about.

You don't like her, but you think it sucks that she's harassed. Not a new opinion or one really relevant to this thread.
 
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