Cyberpunk 2077 - Mike Pondsmith on Politics in Games

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That being said, what we have a tendency to do now is to say "it's not political" unless it's lining up with our politics, and that's part of the problem. It's that people see it as a tool or a weapon to be used with or against their own personal beliefs.

I tend to look at it as "freedom is important" not for the area of the people involved, but in a society or indeed a civilization. Freedom allows a civilization to get checks, balances, to grow, to learn from its mistakes.

That's part of the foundational elements I see in politics in a game.

Along with that, I've also said that if you want somebody to see your point of view, you really have to stop preaching. When you preach at people and they don't find it out themselves what happens is invariably they shut down because you're now threatening what they see. They say "you're wrong and my way is right."

You may not be right or only partially right and that's when you need to be able to talk to other people and find out what's right for a lot of people. If you preach you don't get there. You're just basically giving your side of the statement and it never seems to work that way.

What I believe is that the way to do politics in games it should be something that occurs in the game but doesn't necessarily have a visible agenda.

At no point does anybody in Cyberpunk come up and go "you should follow this belief structure." What they're saying is "There's this situation here. This is not a world designed to promote your life and livelihood and your friends and your neighborhoods, and anything that you care about."

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TheSHEEEP said:

Pondsmith is a wise man.
A ton of people in games media should listen to him. Preaching indeed does not work, only pushes people away.

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Nereida said:

Particularly in politics, but also in general, there are still a lot of people who think they have the right to tell how others what is the right way to think, live, look, dress, sleep with, and in which positions. Luckily, this century they stopped being the ones in charge, so the best thing to do is just ignore them.

It's like those who cry in rage when there is a strong-willed female or black character in a movie or game because it's done in the name of modern social justice and equality. Perhaps it is done in the name of allowing others than standard caucasian white heterosexual males to also feel identified and relate to the movie/videogame they love and its characters, because the world isn't anymore about caucasian white heterosexual males.

There was a time when you could burn in the town square anyone who didn't think like you or you just didn't like by saying they were heretics, or witches. Times change. Get used to it.

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President Ronald Reagan watched the film more than a month before its screening, on Columbus Day, October 10, 1983. He wrote in his diary that the film was "very effective and left me greatly depressed," and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a "nuclear war". The film was also screened for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A government advisor who attended the screening, a friend of Meyer's, told him "If you wanted to draw blood, you did it. Those guys sat there like they were turned to stone." Four years later, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed and in Reagan's memoirs he drew a direct line from the film to the signing.

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Cacheperl said:

If anyone wants apolitical games, I can suggest Pong. Maybe Tetris, but it's a stretch.

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Irian said:

That's a strange argument, no matter how many times I hear it: "It does not have world-changing consequences, so it's not good." What are you waiting for? A magical fairy offering you to solve all of mankind's problems with one wish? Would that be acceptable for you? Or would it not because there might be problems other planets have and that wish would not solver theirs? So, instead let's wait for the galaxy-wide problem solving magical fairy? But what about other galaxies…?

Yes, such changes only are small improvements, as random example a few million gamers will feel a tiny bit better because more games include characters with whom they can identify, too, instead of the usual male, white hero cliche. Even if we believe this is not a world changing thing, it's still a small step in the right direction.

There is not one step that will take you to the end by itself. But many, many, many small steps might. And the big advantage these steps have: We can start doing them today. The magical fairy is unfortunately on vacation, sorry about that.

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