Somehow, Kamala returned
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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I wonder if Kamala Harris herself knows what that means.
On the one hand it's a bit like how it was newsworthy that Barack Obama's campaign was on Twitter. I remember the hearings in '94 when congress flipped their collective dentures over video games, and the president of Nintendo of America promised congress that Night Trap would never be available to play on Nintendo hardware. Video games were particularly expensive toys for sex accidents at the time. Well the accidents grew up and registered to vote. Now look at Washington. "Congressman Ocasio-Cortez and vice presidential candidate Walz play Crazy Taxi."
There are sitting politicians today, probably including Harris and absolutely including Biden, who campaigned to ban video games because that's what was popular with the 55 to 95 demographic. I don't know if I should forgive them as a cohort for that.
All this does is remind me how hollow and inhuman politicians are.
I've got no clue if Harris or Biden campaigned ever to ban video games ... But let's say they did. Wouldn't it be a good thing to have had their opinions change? I know my opinion changes regarding a lot of things as time goes on.
There are sitting politicians today, probably including Harris and absolutely including Biden, who campaigned to ban video games…
Doubtful that Harris would have ever said anything about banning video games, but happy to be proven wrong here. She’s the same age as Walz and became an elected official an entire decade after the 1993-94 Senate hearings, and also would have been in her late teens/early twenties during the tail end of the arcade era and the rise of home consoles like the NES. I really doubt Harris has a closed minded view on video games “corrupting the youth” or whatever..
I mean, why not
This isn't weird, you just don't like fortnite.
I don't either, but I'm not exactly holding out for them to put a political ad scroll in noita.
idk it certainly feels weird to me that videogames- even ones I don't personally enjoy- are viewed as relevant enough to get this kind of political attention.
Realistically, if I take a step back from it I'm just stuck in 2008, but.. yeah.
Besides, weird isn't necessarily a requirement here. Just 'it looks like satire but isn't'.
Also: you have excellent taste in videogames. Noita is great.
Games do feel like an oddity as political outreach, but the more I think about the idea the more I think it has capabilities (as Lancelot Brown might have put it). With legacy media like papers, books, art, film, recorded music and all, you are a passive consumer of the media. With video games as art, you are an active participant and your choices define your experience with the work. Games like Planescape: Torment, Tyranny, and Disco Elysium are great examples where you're expected to engage with political or moral ideas as a participant. You aren't being treated as a receiver of propaganda per se, but as someone who can develop understanding and agency in the context of certain ideas, which seems like an improvement over propaganda in legacy media, don't you think?
Narrative-driven games give players the illusion of choice. To me this seems like it would lend itself to being even more effective than traditional propaganda because it's capable of tricking the player into thinking they came to a conclusion on their own.
Don't get me wrong, I love Disco Elysium, but it is very effective communist propaganda. Propaganda has a negative connotation but is not inherently bad or dishonest, though it certainly can be.
Yes, it is still weird. Wewve just gotten used to it.
The weirdness of that stuff is the reason people don't like fortnite.
I'm not sure how to have a conversation about this if weirdness has a secret definition. What is normal but the weird stuff you're used to in life?
I don't have a comprehensive definition of "weird". But having "concerts" and election propaganda in a multiplayer shooter isn't weird to you?
I heard there have been concerts in Minecraft that were popular. Anything beats doing it in Zuckerberg's whatever thing, imo. Virtual concerts seem lame certainly, but some enjoy it.
As for election propaganda, video games are big media. Bigger than Hollywood. Whatever my preferences, it would be absurd to expect it to be some kind of ideological dead zone.
Like I said I feel pretty disinterested, but more on grounds of taste than any firm feelings of social norms.
I've played Fortnite many times. I just think it's odd for a politician to create a map.
It's certainly novel, but there aren't many voters who will object to being reached out to on their own terms. The election will be the one to decide whether it's stupid or not. It'd be far from the weirdest aspect of American culture, at any rate.
When Biden ran in 2020, they gave out patterns in Animal Crossing. But if I'm being honest, I didn't mind that pandering and some effort was involved, plus it was kind of what everyone was going during lockdown. Now this... mixed feelings but it must not have been cheap and at least there's some effort there (likely from a staffer). I only hope it works.
Gamer me only really trusts AOC, though.
You must not have seen Walz playing Crazy Taxi with AOC then! I reckon he has at least dipped a toe in Fortnite.
I heard about it; although Walz is definitely pro-game, poor guy had to give it up nearly 20 years ago. He's more likely aware of it, though, and what the fun is about.
Didn't Hillary Clinton have her own Animal Crossing village?
Not sure but Biden certainly did
I uhh... I got nothing. If this isn't in the new South Park season I don't know what is.
what a time to be alive
I mean, how many gamers are there of target voting age (especially those on the cusp of going to the polls)? These days probably a lot more than those that watch commercials. There is no way they'd invest in this without proper numbers backing it up. Games are as much entertainment now as sports or TV.
Pokemon go to the polls!
We're living in the strangest timeline.
She is locking down the gamer vote, I guess. Good luck with that.
Between this, and the Walz/AOC Madden stream, yeah they're really going after the gamers!
Call me when it's maga hats on the lycans in Resident Evil.
Or a re-release of the game somebody already made: Nazi Zombies.