On The National nightly newscast yesterday, a small feature was based on politics in video games. This follows on from Far Cry 5’s reveal, with people commenting that Ubisoft’s game has a political theme based on its setting and backstory.
Reggie Fils-Aime was interviewed briefly, and gave Nintendo’s stance on politics in video games. “Making political statements are for other people to do,” he said. “We want people to smile and have fun when they play our games.”
So, it looks like Nintendo won’t be getting involved in politics within their titles any time soon. Given that Nintendo is typically a family friendly company, it would make sense for them to avoid such subjects.
||Good, politics are for primitives…||
Good
Reminds me of their shots at communism in Mario Party 2, where Bowser steals everyone’s money (and stars?) to divide equally.
I honestly agree. same for me.
Thank goodness! Nintendo is a neutral company and I think staying as far away from politics will benefit them in the long run, whilst Microsoft with their Exclusionary GDC conferences and Sony call all of us “Sexist” for not seeing Ghostbuster Reboot, I’m just glad Nintendo took the high road and just ignored the whole idea of politics.
Not Sony’s brightest moment, that’s for sure…
I didn’t see any political case or something on Nintendo games.
Perfectly ok with me. These days, I get enough of that stuff just walking down the street. Just give me a great story, great gameplay, and Metroid Prime 4…and a new Kid Icarus…and an F-Zero wouldn’t hurt.
and mother…
Whether Nintendo realizes it or not, there are political themes in some of their games. Fire Emblem, for instance. You don’t have to be a democratic government to have politics as even kingdoms had them; they were simply called royal decrees back then. Not to mention censorship is also a by-product of politics. As for using politics in an actual game’s story, if done right, they can be a nice driving force for the game they are in. So with that said, Nintendo shouldn’t actually strive to completely ignore such themes but actually use them when they can fit in with a particular story.
Fantasy politics and real world political statements are two very different things.
They are both still politics, though. If Reggie had made the distinction, I wouldn’t have bothered with my comment.
I didn’t see any case with politics and video games mix together. So, if they want to get in to politics, that’s fine.
Splatoon is pretty politic heavy tbh lol
Even a non political statement is made by refusing to make one. It’s a stance of neutrality and passiveness. He could simply say that the kind of games Nintendo make are family oriented and so more serious themes aren’t touched upon in depth at all and not the company’s style.
Lame of him but w/e
… he literally says “We want people to smile and have fun when they play our games”. touching upon serious themes, like politics and such, is very likely going to go against that
PLEASE, DON’T MIX POLITICS AND VIDEO GAMES TOGETER. IT WILL CREATE DUBIOUS FOOD. LOL! Seriously though, politics and video games don’t mix. Politics are boring as hell.
Everything is politics, it’s just that you don’t notice that.
Good.
The last thing we need is more wars between the liberals and conservatives.
That sort of thing been getting out of hand for years.
Okay, but this new far cry is literally about killing neo-nazis. Like, who the fuck doesn’t want to kill nazis?
You’re seriously asking that question? lol But it’s not like we care if they get offended. They’re Nazis!
I’m a big believer in freedom of speech (as opposed to “freedom from speech”), meaning, I believe that people should be able to express their views, popular or unpopular in just about any medium they feel like. Therefore, I feel Far Cry’s developers are well within their rights to completely and unabashedly politicize their game if they so choose. Good for them.
That said, I try to stay as far away from politics as I can in my life in general, and kinda take the stance of “if I want a sermon, I’ll go to church.” Therefore, I VASTLY prefer Nintendo’s stance here. Lemme just have my fun!
One last thing: I’m very neutral in my politics, very “purple” you may say. I am neither a “conservative”, nor a “progressive”. I’m the kind of “classical liberal”, that says “let the conservatives be conservative and let the progressives be progressive.” I refuse to equate the terms “liberal” and “progressive”, and don’t want to be identified with either camp, though naturally I find various points of agreement and disagreement with both (upon which I refuse to elaborate here).
So all that just to say this: even though I’m not a conservative, I still can’t help but notice that when games, movies, and often times even music are “political” it’s almost NEVER conservative. And even though I’m once again not a conservative myself, if I can’t have my happy little way of just not being faced with politics and world views in my entertainment in the first place, I’d sure at least like a little bit more balance in the “sermonizing” I get in my….well…..everything. It’s just so much more monologue than dialogue, it seems.
……anyway, retreating back to my “no politics” zone now. Tata!! :-)