this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Yes I know that fascism measurehead is a playable ideology in Disco Elysium, but presenting fascism as with its integral ugly reality, glaring contradictions, and unsustainable death drive is a pretty leftist (and correct) way of portraying it. de-encyclopedia

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[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 38 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Way too easy answer: Ethnic Cleansing

Slightly less easy answer: I think Postal 2 is the ur-chud game. Even as a teenager the racism, misanthropism and overall edgelord content was way too much for me, and it's all covered in that supposed plausible deniability :smuglord: "Well, it was your choice to do that edgelord shit. The game allows you to play it peacefully" shit that chuds love so much because it's essentially another version of the smuglord "I never said the welfare queens in my story were black. Sounds like you're the real racist here" deflection.

Off topic, but I do think there's an interesting game to be made with the whole "the player chose to do these bad things" narrative mechanic, which you could say Spec Ops: The Line and Undertale did to various degrees. Of course, Postal 2 was never going to be that game since it was made by sophomoric edgelords.

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 35 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I misread that as Portal 2 and was confused as fuck for the next sentence

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 22 points 2 years ago

That's impossible, because Portal 2 was released several years after I was no longer a teenager skeleton-wave

[–] axont@hexbear.net 19 points 2 years ago

I came here to mention Postal 2. I still think the premise is kind of clever, in that you're never truly forced to act violently and you can escape every confrontation without harming anyone if you know what you're doing. That could probably be done better though, but I personally have a soft spot for games that use the player's frustration as a mechanic.

But it really does communicate the American reactionary mindset. It's racist, it's smug, it presents a world where other people are aggressive and horrible for no reason. You fight against leftist-coded protestors at various points. It presents mass murder as a cathartic solution to problems. The developers seem like they're chuds as well, like deep in the weeds variety. They put that Milo Yiannopoulos guy in a DLC, voiced by himself.

[–] KittyBobo@hexbear.net 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I enjoy those types of games but stuff like SWAT 4 and Ready or Not where you're the hyper-competent police who are the only thing saving the sheeple from drugs, politicians, and corruption. And if you happen to kill a civilian then you get an Oopsie-Daisy sticker on your performance sheet.

[–] envis10n@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago

Zero Hour is similar in that you play as a counter-terrorist agent and it focuses on tactical play. I've never shot a civilian in the game, but it certainly makes it seem like there will be big consequences for doing so. I usually don't make it past traps setup by the enemy because I'm blind and step into the wires

[–] jaeme@hexbear.net 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I've played postal 2 as well and there is a very good reason why the only things that come out from that game is the "sign my petiton" level and Gary Coleman (as well as Rick Hunter's performance as the protagonist which most likely is why the game was popular in the first place).

The rest of the game is a time capsule incomprehensible to anyone who isn't a white teenager just after 9/11. Maybe it has some little value that way.

[–] WIIHAPPYFEW@hexbear.net 8 points 2 years ago

The rest of the game is a time capsule incomprehensible to anyone who isn't a white teenager just after 9/11. Maybe it has some little value that way.

Say what you will but no other game is as pure a distillation of the mid-2000s cultural miasma