Reading the article charitably - which I'm not inclined to do, but will indulge for a moment - I think the author is trying to say that all games should be didactic resistance narratives about fighting fascism, and worries anything less obscured the moral clarity of this momenthttps://twitter.com/nivenus/status/1291154656782098432 …
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My biggest take out of all this is that it illustrates that the common interpretation of The Last of Us Part II as being a game about trying to guilt the player and emphasize everyone's humanity puts TLOU2 & Undertale perhaps closer to one another than either are to anything else
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The piece's author themselves somehow, and again I literally cannot think of how other than whatever explains C- composition assignments in classes, makes the conflation themselves between the morality they think they want, and what I call the uwu aesthetic
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Because that's literally the only way you can argue "we have too much ambiguity in game narratives about who is good or bad, and whether it's okay to kill bad guys, which it is, that's why Undertale is the best game"
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As others have pointed out it's not coherent to condemn the statements of characters in Bioshock Infinite (statements which are racist and suck btw) about the rebels being as bad as the oppressors bc they use violence, and then holding up a game which is entirely against violence
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The article isn't even doing what a bunch of frustrating games discourse does and arguing for the logically consistent position that we should move away from games violence and show nonviolence as a contrast. Like, "why don't the Bioshock rebels prove they're Better Than This"
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I honestly don't see how the article can be read as anything other than a caricature or parody of the sort of position I feel I've had to argue with for the last month, a sort of nebulous "because of current politics, all non-uwu art is hereby condemned"
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I don't actually WANT to interpret it that way, because I don't want to believe anyone actually thinks that (as opposed to accidentally reinforcing trends towards it).
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But it's actually kind of astounding because it really does seem to be calling for Inglorious Basterds but also Steven Universe, which isn't even *comprehensible*
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Again, the position "with all the real life Nazi problems we're having, it sure would be nice to pick up a controller and kill some fictional Nazis without guilt" is not one I am going to fault anyone for having. Neither is "putting stupid both sides plots in is dumb"
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But Undertale IS a BothSides plot! It says that the hero is on the edge between hero and genocidal monster! So is everyone else in the story! A natural playthrough without a guide would in fact look a lot like an 8 bit non gory TLOU2 where the hero fights and kills and then stops
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There's no "Nazis" in Undertale but many/most enemies are portrayed as having done horrid things and yet having their own stories - which the article explicitly condemned
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Disclaimer: I haven't played Undertale, bc of accessibility concerns I've brought up. The author of the piece I'm discussing has played a negative amount of Undertale. They understand Undertale to the level I feel they must have reverse-played it. Unplayed it. -289 hrs on Steam
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End of conversation
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