The Division studio believes being openly political in games is bad for business - Sensationalist Headlines

Kinda ironic coming from Ubisoft who take a very left-leaning stance in most of their games, and have been for 10 years.

Reading this thread, I get the feeling a lot of you haven't actually played the first game, and are trying to make this to be something that it never set out to be in the first place. The premise of TD1 was basically about how a widespread catastrophe could disrupt a developed nation due to the inherent fact that everything is so interconnected (+ the futility of disaster response in densely populated areas). Thats pretty much it, there was no political angle (well the story is kind of barebones because ultimately its a co-op shooter). It just not the game where it would make sense. As if any of Ubisoft's shooters nowadays has to anything with Tom Clancy novels.

You don't remember that 500-page absolute thriller about 42 inventive special operatives all fighting each other over and over and over in a combat simulation? My favorite part was where they spent like 2 pages fighting actual real, highly inept terrorists in the same house, then went back to fighting each other in the simulation for the next 10 chapters.

It's a shame that even 'fascism and Nazism are bad, mmkay?' will lose you sales from GOP supporters in this day and age.

didnt assassins creed origins basically say "we dont care about historial accuracy so here's a bunch of inaccurate shit we shoved in because political correctness is the way to go" instead of just showing basic respect to history. i mean they want to teach people stuff so why the hell deliberately tell people "this is not what happened but we want to control how you view and think about these things"

*Character is lesbian* Gamer Bros: "omg can you stop being political?" and "yeah but give me a reason to why she's lesbian!"

What kind?

What does it mean to be political in games?

That's exactly it. I couldn't say when it started but I'm sure it's a very recent trend, this over-scrutinization of every single creative decision involved in media, mostly video games, sometimes TV shows and movies too. It makes it impossible to join in on discussion about a title, especially as an outsider, without that discussion getting clouded with pointless debate over psuedo-political ""issues"" like a character simply being gay, or being of colour, or a myriad of other nitpicky details that often time don't mean anything when looking at the bigger picture. There was that recent DLC or update or whatever it was for the Last of Us, that happened to further explore Ellie's sexuality, right? I had never played The Last of Us before but the headlines made by that story had me so intrigued. Had they really shoehorned an established character into being gay? I couldn't believe it! If you went off the headlines, the general discussion, you'd believe there was some huge controversy behind that decision. In fact, you'd be lead to believe that it was some insane revelation that the entire story was dedicated to. Then, after wading through all that bullshit, days on I find out that it's a character trait that was already long established and ultimately didn't make a damn bit of difference. I became overly intimate with an almost minuscule detail of a story I still haven't experienced because some people find it so outrageous that a character happens to be gay. It's insanity. Almost every game ever released these days comes attached with some manufactured political flare that might not have existed there in the first place.

Thank god someone realised this. Honestly I hate this in any media with certain exceptions where the stance is delivered in a nuanced way. Most of the time even if it's a stance I agree with it feels irritating, preachy and a bit lazy when politics gets ham fisted into media.

on the contrary, AAA games should be more politically charged. but the story in AAA games is usually shit so that's really just asking for seconds of a bowl full of shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E83CtWFkQW0

I can understand wanting to have escapism and not have to deal with real world issues for a while. That's fine. And not all games have to be the same either; some can have things to say, and some can just be escapism, and that's fine too. But Ubisoft saying they're being politically neutral in The Division when the game is about US Federal Agents killing US civilians in the streets, and the sequel is set in Washington motherfucking DC? Getthefuckouttahere. There's not wanting to be political, and then there's trying to not own or even care about the message your game is already sending.

The division isnt about foreign agents though, its about eco terrorists and gangs taking control of the state during complete societal collapse due to a plague. The only time Russia or any foreign nation is brought up is the russian consulate having a server farm trying to hack the country. That's what makes the division's setting so good, its division agents that are normally police/firement/doctors trying to maintain control of the country while all hell is breaking loose.

i dont play games to get swamped by political messages i play games cuz their fun

This. "Leave politics out of games" is a dog whistle for "I don't want to have to think about things I disagree with". Its especially hilarious coming from the developers of a game about extra judicial kill squads. Nope, no politics here.

I don't want to hear left, right or center or any fucking political ideology shoved down my throat when I play a game, so how about you jump to no weird conclusions instead.

i dont want to hear any fucking politics, jesus christ is this what overdosing on politics does to you? becoming so delusional that not wanting something is because of political stances? christ man, you sound like /pol/

Jeez, if people were this adamant about political sentiments back in the late 90s Deus Ex and Fallout would've never been made.

could that be because those games are extremely well-written and bring up several viewpoints allowing the player to think for themselves what they see as right or wrong?

deus ex was made purely with politics in mind. it wasn't half-baked into the story or forced it, they were a complete part of the story and the game revolved around it. i can appreciate the effort the devs went through to create story that's got depth to it revolving around politics, doesn't mean it's my cup of tea by any means.

That doesn't really change what I've said. A lot of people are of the opinion you shouldn't have any political messages in games when both of those games are loaded with plenty of political messages.

the user above you said it well. it was made with politics in mind. like the whole framework of deus ex is politics. so in this case it works because it's built into it instead of having some character grandstand about how "evil that Brump CEO" and how i should feel bad for all those poor refugee aliens. i already do feel bad in real life. i dont need it repeated.

It helps that they're well-written but well-written games actually often 'dull' the political messages for reasons you listed; there's usually several viewpoints and contentions being made in the writing. If writing isn't the focus in your game, but the context is still inherently political, you can't really avoid having some political themes without seriously doing your work an artistic disservice.

The way I see it though is that the politics play a part in the story and saying you don't want some half-baked politics in a story is basically like saying you think games with bad stories shouldn't be allowed. And while I'd agree with that sentiment I'd still find it a little unrealistic.

So, did nobody tell them who Tom Clancy was?

The issue is when games have thinly veiled (or even entirely unveiled) caricatures of modern political figures or issues. Deus ex was a very broad discussion of many different facets of geopolitics, society, basically everything but without anything that really nailed it down to a specific time or issue. That is what makes it still so good today, it covered a lot of broader topics that meant it could remain topical regardless of current politics. There wasn't a big Bill Clinton knock off called Bob Cunton or something with his evil sex affairs and shit. The Metal Gear Solid games are, for the most part, good about this too. It's not about one party, politician, or current event.

Jesus christ, there is no politics in the division. Thats the entire point of the game, the government is gone and its forcing the local militias, police, national guard to maintain order. It would makes more sense for wildlands to have a political view because youre part of the government. The agents are working for the feds, but they are about as political as a police officer. Even the book that released with the game has no political agenda in it, its people trying to survive in a plague infested warzone between the authorities and gangs/rogue military.

you what? half-baked stories are fine because i dont care about story unless it is so good it elevates any other flaws. i want gameplay in my games first and foremost. i just dont want some deluded developers idea of an ideology shoved down my throat. how do you not understand this?

you do realize that the division are government sleeper agents right you're not just random people with cool watches, you're literally government agents that get called for emergency cases