Should Video Games be a Platform for Political Commentary?

"With the popularity of the internet allowing for a huge amount of transparency in politics, how can video games keep up with modern ethics without trampling on country boundaries?" | Explosion.com

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Hopefully people don't try to create controversy on purpose in video games. But I am all for exploring social and ethical issues in the world today. That's why I loved Deus Ex Human Revolution so much and believe it has a legitimate chance at being a good movie if they do it right. Exploring ethics in stories are what makes some TV Shows, Movies, Etc. better than others and I welcome that in games.

But I think the FF14 gay marriage thing will end up being a bigger deal than it needs to be. Same with all this talk about women in games. If people want to debate or send some kind of a message then they should keep it out of games and find another way to express their opinions.

[Qrphe]

Exactly, I see nothing wrong with creating political commentary in games. It'd be hypocritical to criticize SE for taking a political stance when we pretty much have corporations publicly donating money to political parties and movements plus everything they feed into us with their media.

If SE wants to us to challenge our viewpoints with their messages have them go at it.

[ChronoJoe]

To be fair loads of MMOs have had gay marriage. Never seen people have a problem with it. It's not real marriage, it's not a religious ceremony... regardless... so it's hard to understand why anyone would get offended over it, even if they're against gay marriage. (I'm not).

[Bimkoblerutso]

Games should be completely free to explore any subject they want, but to tell the truth, I really don't like when politics are injected into art.

I don't mind when art explores the more general ideologies of politics, but when the subject becomes as specific as the battle between our current day political parties, things often start to feel manipulative and overly suggestive toward one side or the other. Not that it's always handled that way, but too often the subject is treated as a podium for preaching rather than an objective pallet for us to form our own opinions from.

[Somebody]

If they mesh it subtly and organically into the game's main story then it's fine.

If it just to stir controversy to rack up free publicity or tacked on because one of the writer have strong personal feeling about a certain topic, then no it's bad for gaming.

[BioDio]

TERA is exploring Politics in an MMO environment, but right now, it's still in a VERY early stage...

[DwightOwen]

I play games to get AWAY from politics (unlike most gamers, I actually watch and read the news), and I despise turning on my Xbox 360 only to see Barack Obama or Rachel Maddow or Bill O' Reilly on my dashboard!

[Hicken]

Not that they SHOULD. Rather, they shouldn't be forced into it, nor restricted from exploring such themes.

No other media is prevented from doing so, unless I'm mistaken. So why should video games shy away?

[knifefight]

Exactly, especially if we're going to consider games as a form of art.