unforum

[addlepated]

Politics in ARGs

[jamesi]

I think the last thing we need is a differentiation between red state games and blue state games.

[joebrent]

[imbri]

Well said Joe. I agree very much with you, despite our different biases - Green Acres is the place for me.

I don't believe that all stories have to have an inherrant bias, but it is difficult to write without one. It takes a very talented author to do so. It takes an even more talented author to construct a story that encourages thought and discussion of a philosophical nature without driving you to one side of the debate or another. It is something that I've always wanted to be a part off, in an ARG, but don't have the ability (or faith in my ability) to do so and it's not something that one should do just half assed.

It's one of the reasons that the Beast was so magical for me. Here was a story with many plot lines surrounding a world struggling with civil rights... should sentient machines have the same rights as humans. The issue was presented in a variety of ways, some incredibly overt and some with a soft hand. When it came time to vote, I know that I wasn't the only one torn on the issue. The message was brilliant and, in many ways, it was left to the players to create. I still get all crazy thinking about it. Thousands of virtual strangers gathered together around a single event discussing, fairly and with respect, human rights on a basic scale. It was an amazing part of the game for me and yet the game didn't require one to participate in the discussion or even to participate in thinking about the issue. But for those of us that enjoy such discussion, it was an option and it was presented in such a way that I never felt as if I was recieving some sermon from Microsoft (at that point, it wasn't Sean & Elan behind the game for me, it was Microsoft). In fact, despite the four years that have passed, there are still times when I think about the choice that I made, the vote that I cast. Did I make the right decision? If I was ever in such a situation, would I make the same one?

Four years and I still just don't know.

- b

[oliverkeers13]

WOW. For a minute there i thought that you were Leeravitz, Joe

[Dorkmaster]

My personal opinion (nothing more, of course) is that ARG, at least, should stay away from this. Unless it's a device of the game, I tend to think it's just destructive to the community aspect, rather than constructive. (Why splinter a community, when it does nothing for your story... why alienate players?)

I think many many mediums have a valid reason to advance political agendas, or to be viewed from certain viewpoints, but for our purposes, I tend to think that ARGs should be free of an overarcing "viewpoint" and instead could have characters that have differing views regarding said political climates.

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of politics in general, cuz I've never seen people get along better after disagreeing on politics, so I am likely skewed too far to have a completely objective view, but yeah... that's what I think.