Repulsive Political Agenda

[Ryika]

I recognize that it's only a game, but it's also an art-form in that it can influence the world-view of younger players whose real-world experience is necessarily limited. Artists have an ethical responsibility to show truth, not to parrot the stale lies of the political Left.

Well, I'll very honest here: This thread made me smile a bit, because after all the attempts of the left to censor games and what else people can do in their free time that I've heard of and seen recently, it's good to know that the right is still also in the business of censorship as well. Boy, what would the world be without moral busybodies?

Artists don't have an "ethical responsibility" to do anything. Particularly in this case, the game is not a history simulator. It's a "What if...?"-machine. The game doesn't claim to offer accurate history either, it does the exact opposite. If a child doesn't understand that, and then goes through their life thinking that Communism is this great, successful thing based on what they've seen in a game that they played X years ago... I'm sorry, but then your education system is utterly useless. Campaign to fix that, don't try to restrict art.

 

[God of Kings]

Political scientist Francis Fukuyama categorizes what Civ VI call Democracy and Civ V call Freedom as "Liberal Democracy."

 

[God of Kings]

Well, I'll very honest here: This thread made me smile a bit, because after all the attempts of the left to censor games and what else people can do in their free time that I've heard of and seen recently, it's good to know that the right is still also in the business of censorship as well. Boy, what would the world be without moral busybodies?

Moral Guardians are alive and kicking. If the left were indeed censoring the Civilization games, then why is it possible to play as the Confederates in the American Civil War scenario in Civ V: BNW?

Artists don't have an "ethical responsibility" to do anything. Particularly in this case, the game is not a history simulator. It's a "What if...?"-machine. The game doesn't claim to offer accurate history either, it does the exact opposite. If a child doesn't understand that, and then goes through their life thinking that Communism is this great, successful thing based on what they've seen in a game that they played X years ago... I'm sorry, but then your education system is utterly useless. Campaign to fix that, don't try to restrict art.

Replace "Communism" with "Confederates." It would make zero difference.

I seriously doubt a child would believe that communism or fascism or neo-Confederate ideology is the greatest ideology just because they learned it from a highly inaccurate but entertaining historical simulator.

Every ideology is repulsive to some degree.

 

[Ryika]

Moral Guardians are alive and kicking. If the left were indeed censoring the Civilization games, then why is it possible to play as the Confederates in the American Civil War scenario in Civ V: BNW?

Well, that's typically not the type of game the censorious parts of the left are after, although there speaking about the Confederates, in 2015 Apple removed a ton of games from their platform merely because they use the Confederate Flag to represent the Confederates after the flag had become the target of outrage after the Charleston shooting, so there's that. This was self-censorship of course, or at least I'm not aware of a campaign that specifically asked Apple to do that, but it was still a reaction to outcries that asked for the flag to be banned from being displayed publicly.

Overall however, I was more thinking about games like for example Hatred, which sparked a huge wave of moral panic among large parts of the left-wing media outlets, the more traditional right-wing outlets and social media. Or really any hitpiece written about GTA these days.

If you really want to you can of course also put Anita Sarkeesian with her extremely one-sided "analysis" of gaming onto that list. People like her don't call for outright censorship either, but are heavily trying to influence the political climate into one where certain types of games become unacceptable.

I seriously doubt a child would believe that communism or fascism or neo-Confederate ideology is the greatest ideology just because they learned it from a highly inaccurate but entertaining historical simulator.

I agree, but that was the "fear" brought forward by the OP.