Saturday, April 10, 2004
Are video games "deeply conservative?"
Found on boingboing: Reason: Free Play: The politics of the video game
Interesting article, though I don't know if the individualist impulse that underlies so many video and computer games is "deeply conservative."
This is the thing that's caused me so much trouble with deciding on a political affiliation for myself, that when you look closely at what either side is "supposed" to believe in, you find many contradictions. I'm extremely individualist myself. When I look at the Republicans, however, I don't see the party of individualism-for-all. I see people who are individualist, so long as you can afford it. In favor of huge corporations, so big so as to almost become government themselves. While Democrats, or more accurately liberals, who are in favor of broad programs to ease suffering, which invariably stamp on individual rights, are the ones most in favor or preserving freedoms of speech and action, and are arguably more small-business friendly than the current administration.
But anyway, back to the article. It's interesting to see how upset people get when a game doesn't reflect their assumptions. That's one of the reasons, I think, that people are quick to get vicious when dissing a game. One person in the review complained about the game's handling of raising tax rates -- that it presumes that such an action will have a negative effect on the city.
My response to that is, well, duh. Of course it hurts the city. Whenever you take money away from someone, you're hurting that person. But it doesn't imply a conservative worldview for the game, because once you have that money, you can use it to zone additional property, provide the services the citizens need to prosper, build roads, in short, do everything cities are supposed to do. If you do all those things then the city will prosper because of the higher tax rate.
Now again I'm confused -- I look at that paragraph I just wrote, and I wonder, is it conservative, or is it liberal? It looks both to me.
SimCity gets knocked around a fair bit by the article. I guess that means you've hit the mainstream, Sim. Good going, I think.
Found on boingboing: Reason: Free Play: The politics of the video game
Interesting article, though I don't know if the individualist impulse that underlies so many video and computer games is "deeply conservative."
This is the thing that's caused me so much trouble with deciding on a political affiliation for myself, that when you look closely at what either side is "supposed" to believe in, you find many contradictions. I'm extremely individualist myself. When I look at the Republicans, however, I don't see the party of individualism-for-all. I see people who are individualist, so long as you can afford it. In favor of huge corporations, so big so as to almost become government themselves. While Democrats, or more accurately liberals, who are in favor of broad programs to ease suffering, which invariably stamp on individual rights, are the ones most in favor or preserving freedoms of speech and action, and are arguably more small-business friendly than the current administration.
But anyway, back to the article. It's interesting to see how upset people get when a game doesn't reflect their assumptions. That's one of the reasons, I think, that people are quick to get vicious when dissing a game. One person in the review complained about the game's handling of raising tax rates -- that it presumes that such an action will have a negative effect on the city.
My response to that is, well, duh. Of course it hurts the city. Whenever you take money away from someone, you're hurting that person. But it doesn't imply a conservative worldview for the game, because once you have that money, you can use it to zone additional property, provide the services the citizens need to prosper, build roads, in short, do everything cities are supposed to do. If you do all those things then the city will prosper because of the higher tax rate.
Now again I'm confused -- I look at that paragraph I just wrote, and I wonder, is it conservative, or is it liberal? It looks both to me.
SimCity gets knocked around a fair bit by the article. I guess that means you've hit the mainstream, Sim. Good going, I think.
