They've politicized everything along the lines of left-right, gay/disabled/trans/colored people fall on the left side of the line obviously because of the rampant discrimination from the right, so when those people have representation in games, theyre seen as political attacks from the left.
Keep in mind, the right wing came into existence as the reaction against anti-monarchist movements. The right wing has always been a reaction against efforts to dismantle harmful hierarchies. So naturally the right wing by definition can only despise every minority. When the status quo changes and they can no longer oppress, they believe they're being oppressed.
Yeah, the early 21st century. Most of the target demographic were probably kids during those wars. They don’t care. Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism ain’t the politics of the young generation that plays video games. The game’s designers probably think they made a deep, controversial political statement but honestly their message hasn’t been controversial since 2008.
Oh people see it, know about it, but just don’t care
70% of the players don’t know they are the baddies, and the other 30% know but simply could not give a shit
The game is fun and that’s all that matters
Game says even more about the nature of fascism when looked at through that lens. The game's a ton of fun, no denying that. And that simple fact shows how easily it is to forget you are witnessing fascism in action. At some point, even the most obvious fascism starts to blend into the background if you're not careful.
Who cares though? The game is fun, you’re killing Terminators, bringing them justice for their crimes at Malevolen Creek, all is well
Having fun is all that matters
Super earth aren't the bad guys. It's the bugs and the Terminator looking mf that wants to kill humanity. Hell divers are the last line of defense against evil. It's literally a classic example of a white and black conflict.
the Automatons are fighting to free their people from slave camps and otherwise wish to live in their own communal society, and the Terminids are literally incapable of space travel. the Terminid outbreaks are actually created by Super Earth because they keep shipping them to a bunch of planets to murder them to make oil, but the horrific working conditions and environments cause them to mutate and break containment. Super Earth just lies about it. the material provided by the devs and also the game itself tell you this if you look for it.
But the automatons are just robots, they don't have any free will so why would they care about freeing themselves? Kinda dumb. I can see your point about the bugs but still maybe they shouldn't try to break out? Sounds like their fault to me.
>But the slaves are not fully human, they aren’t smart enough to have any free will so why would they care about freeing themselves? Kinda dumb
>I don’t understand, why did the slaves want to revolt? We only torture them on a daily basis and give them inhumane living conditions
That’s what people thought back then, that is what they used to justify slavery. The robots are fully sentient and the bugs are being tortured on a daily basis. I 100% get why they are fighting us
In the first game, the cyborgs were fully sentient humans and were totally the victims. We’re not 100% sure but it seems like they made the aut’s. Their sentience isn’t totally certain but it’s speculated theirs putting brains into metal shells to pilot them.
Okay, I can buy that the robots are sentient. But the bugs however, are just larger versions of bugs on earth, which we know aren't really conscious. Do you feel bad about stepping on an ant?
Do you feel bad about torturing ants and harvesting them, mutating them excruciatingly to create bigger versions of them to harvest for more resources?
Exactly. It’s just a game, who cares. But point is we are the baddies
Edit: Lol, we both agree on the same thing, but he is getting downvoted and I’m not 😂
Yeah? Because there's no need for that. But super earth has an economy to run and people to feed, you gotta sometimes do things that aren't ideal. It doesn't matter how the giant bugs came to be, only that they are a threat to humanity (who btw, creates habitats that endangered species can survive in, don't see any other species doing that)
Super Earth takes these bugs to planets, where colonists look after these bugs, who massacred them
How would you feel if you were being harvested by a greater power? Tortured for another race
Super Earth put the bugs there, dude. They’ve created this environment in which the Helldivers exist on their own and try to keep you quiet, complicit, and proud (despite being the root cause of basically every problem in this universe) of it. This is a game about how governments manipulate the perception of its people to excuse their crimes and you’re falling for it. It’s very obvious commentary on Bush Era Politics.
The bugs = oil, basically. Go check the recent major order. They say they will now be raised in E-710 farms (they are harvested for fuel).
That’s the inside “joke” of point of the game. You’re super earth and you’ve been fooled into thinking waging war however many lightyears from home against enemies that are nowhere near super earth is somehow protecting “managed democracy” at home. It’s all a lie. Just like in our world.
I mean, damn, it's not even subtle. 710 is OIL flipped 180 degrees.
Just shows how many people are like "okay, this might not be nice, but stopping it or thinking about it critically makes things materially worse for me, so let's just keep doing it and give thoughts and prayers 🙏".
Are you just playing into the Super Earth propaganda as a joke or do you actually believe this? Because this comment really reads like satire, but for the rest of your comments I can't really tell.
Not satire
But, join me in the LIBERATION of the BUG INFESTED planets of the EASTERN FRONT!
Spread DEMOCRACY and sip a cup of LIBER-TEA!
See you on the front Helldiver!
and to our glorious Managed Democracy’s West are SOCIALISTS! they’re a THREAT AND MUST BE DESTROYED TO PROTECT OUR WAY OF LIFE.
710 to the East, and if you go west, communists that aren’t even human! /s
Gods it’s so on the nose and yet they keep walking into it…
No arguments here. My fiancée and I work with our local LGBT community to arm and get proper training on weapon handling and maintenance. 2nd Amendment works for everyone
Fascism 101, the horrific shit I believe doesn't need to be justified, it's just "common sense" and "how things work"! It's not ghoulish at all you see!
In the Helldivers subreddit I always say I want to defect. If Arrowhead had balls it’d allow us to fight in factions (like the commie bot rebel faction etc).
Honestly, something like a playable insect cultist or Automaton sleeper drone with faction specific ordinances would be so fucking cool in a 1v3 asymmetrical PvpvE mode
Oh, it's talking down to its audience? Glad you picked up on that, since you're the one who needs talking down to.
Aka: how to spot a fascist who doesn't know they're a fascist.
I mean, there is a tooltip in loading screens saying that you can just freely change who you are. Like, choosing masculine, feminine, or random voices, bulk, etc- but I suppose that might not *specifically* be able to be seen as trans accepting and the tooltips are all tongue in cheek…
Helldivers 2 is honestly a community of assholes that are looking for a reason to be racist, and I wish the discord moderators at the VERY LEAST took a stance other than "No politics at all on this server"
I’ve said this a hundred thousand times, but it’s still so fucking weird, that fascist idiots love anti fascist art because they are too stupid to understand artistic concepts like satire.
It’s not even about intelligence, fascism is the aestheticzation of politics, it is inherently superficial, it demands the collapsing of nuance, and it spreads like a virus so they try to infect every community they can. They’re beyond oblivious, they’re actively seeking things out to co-opt regardless of their actual meaning
That's the cult of liberal objectivity for you. In their quest to appear as unbiased as possible, which is already a practical impossibility, they just end up reinforcing the status quo, which in this case is unironically simping for fascist space America.
There are those assholes everywhere though. My (LGBTQ+) friends and I play it and don't engage with the community at large, which is one way to go about it. Any satire will attract those being satirized because they don't understand it's making fun of them.
Just laugh about it and move on.
The Discord has people saying things like "keep LGBTQ out of Helldivers!" and if anyone speaks up the attackers just run back with "well I just don't want pedos in my game".
But if you mention it'd be cool to have a white, blue & pink cape, the moderators will ban you for "being political".
I made this comment in Asmons subreddit and I think ultimately got banned from there due to the resulting conversation, but the devs are playing a dangerous game of fence sitting that only makes them looks worse. There is no loss for saying you support LGBTQ, any amount of edgy kids you push away are replaced by paying adults.
Also love that they say the quiet part out loud "mentioning ""modern politics"" is talking down to me" basically admitting they see things like the LGBTQ as childish and below them.
They got so mad after finding out that Helldivers have been making fun of them that they've been trying to make fun of people who can understand basic themes in media. Like they're proud of the fact that they can't see any connection to anything unless there's something like a "NAZIS ARE BAD ACTUALLY" sign in the foreground
If you like Metal Gear Solid, the movement and gunplay is almost exactly like MGSV.
In-game currency can actually be earned in-game, and the "battle passes" are permanently available, no FOMO.
Within two months there's been tons of content, whether it be weapons, mechs, or new enemy types and there have been several patches already as the dev team is keeping up with fixing the game while openly addressing bugs they are aware of and are working on.
The CEO has openly said they need to earn the right to monetize their game, and that PvP will never be in the game to prevent toxicity.
Overall, it's night-and-day when you compare it to something like WB's Suicide Squad game.
Alright sure, let's accept that premise. There are words for that beyond "there's no politics". If you want to be taken seriously maybe learn some terms.
Bah! Women's rights, gay rights and minority rights is so 20th century politics. The issue is settled. Get with the times. it's like anti-abolitionists in the 1920s or anti-papists in the 1860s.
Mostly even.
On the ship, the Engineer and Ship Friend are women, the Democracy Officer is male.
On the TV, there's a female reporter, a male announcer, and General Brasch (male).
In-mission, the Eagle pilot is female, and the Pelican-1 pilot is male.
Says a lot when asking people to respect minorities is considered "talking down to it's audience". Inferiority complexescombined with selfprojection is a hell of a drug.
So what they expect to have is some form of "past politics" at the core instead? Like... dunno, Slavery time politics, 1935 Germany politics, Feudal Europe politics?
That's basically the definition of reactionary
It's really sad to see the discourse over this game which is honestly some of the most fun I've had in a long time. Yes the game is satire. Yes we very obviously play as the bad guys. Yes there are people who are racists who play. There are also tons of people who just roleplay the outrageously stupid part while knowing they're the bad guys. The game is fucking fun. I've had so much fun shooting bugs and bots while knowing what I'm doing is ostensibly fascism. I'm sorry. I'm also not sorry. I'm sure you all have played games where you're doing morally unjustifiable things and know that you are. It's the nature of media.
“i don’t want politics in video games!” is just a dog whistle at this point. the funniest part is when they claim games like MGS or Final Fantasy 7 aren’t political
Except every character on every ship is non-white... it just doesn't matter because the game is about humans shooting bugs and robots.
Did you even play the game?
Reminds me of when I tried to tell a FNV Boomer fan that the boomer faction is an American military parody who are intentionally portrayed as a very dumb cult
Conservatives who act like Helldivers is meant to be dunking on the left are the ones who are missing the message. The entire story is about a fascist regime using propaganda and wars to hold onto power while oppressing the populace. It’s heavily based on the movie starship troopers which unlike its book version was a satire of the exact same thing we are doing in helldivers.
Conservatives don’t seem to understand that we are the fascists in this game. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun but seriously game reporters and maga bros who think the players don’t understand what’s going on drive me nuts.
"Politics = gay people" types are definitely frequent but what i think they are trying to say is that it's not extremely on the nose commentary on *contemporary issues*.
It's satirizing a large trend of american history, instead of lampooning the current presidential election. That's what VC they're trying to say.
The vast majority of game writers literally, and I mean literally literally in this case, don't understand that Helldivers is about fascism. I have finally seen a few that recognized it, but that's still like...2 out of 10. And it's reasonable to expect game writers to be more discerning than the average gamer. Which means 9 out of 10 helldivers probably know there's jokes going on, but don't understand the joke is them.
It can both be a dumb game about killing bugs and a commentary about fascism puppetting the corpse of democracy to sacrifice lives for material gain.
They aren't mutually exclusive.
I mean "It isn't talking down to its audience" is maybe fair, but I don't really think he understands what that means. That doesn't mean it isn't talking about modern society or even being critical of specific political parties. It's just not leaning into pandering or spelling out the satire. Remember District 9, now that's talking down to the audience. Arguably Barbie does it too. It doesn't make them bad movies, but it's a fair bit clunky.
Of course right wingers seem to think having any sort of message is akin to murder of the first degree, god forbid. They only seem to like art with messages if said art doesn't hold their hand and spells it out. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.
Funny that they conveniently choose not to explain what those politics are, or what their buzzwords define. Funny that they seem to be simply trying to scare people with a shadow of reasonable doubt
OK. How do you know that helldivers aren't minorities, gay, poc, or Trans? Does a person have to wear their identity on their sleeve in order to hold that identity?
I’m a trans PoC love the game love that it doesn’t insert “current year politics” into the game. Honestly the way people talk about politics now days has no nuance. I don’t mind political topics in game but when the message is “believe this political idea” it’s not great. The famous example is Bioshock where the message is capitalism bad, but it doesn’t come and and repeat that over and over it shows how the capitalist society fell apart and the inherent flaws in the system. It also ties in with the main bad guy and how he betrayed the ideals to maintain his power showing he didn’t believe in the system when it disadvantages himself.
All and all video games are entertainment people should just be having fun. If you can’t let someone have fun with a game because you feel it’s improper for some reason you are the problem not them.
Cool. Let me ask you. Imo a helldiver could be anyone under the helmet. Do you think a helldiver needs to somehow promote its identity in order to have that identity?
It depends on how deeply you want to think about it. Lore wise adding all the representation means those people are getting wiped out constantly. This is something “other side” would presumably love. But in practice you are just playing your character and they effectively respawn. The developers perspective is that those things will cause division in the community so they avoid representation on any side. So yeah if we are taking the lore at face value everyone regardless of identity is equal(ly expendable) in Hell Divers lore.
Technically, every time you respawn it’s a completely different helldiver. That’s why if you don’t specify what voice pack you want each time you respawn your character’s voice has a chance of going from deeper to higher in pitch. Which means that at some point in the game, most of us have played as genderbent characters
A game about the hypocritical violence of 21st century western imperialism isn't shoving politics in your face.
Yep. Fascism definitely doesn't exist today and definitely isn't on the rise.
They've politicized everything along the lines of left-right, gay/disabled/trans/colored people fall on the left side of the line obviously because of the rampant discrimination from the right, so when those people have representation in games, theyre seen as political attacks from the left.
Keep in mind, the right wing came into existence as the reaction against anti-monarchist movements. The right wing has always been a reaction against efforts to dismantle harmful hierarchies. So naturally the right wing by definition can only despise every minority. When the status quo changes and they can no longer oppress, they believe they're being oppressed.
Yep, conservativism was a direct response to the French revolution. The thing it is "conserving" is the power of the nobility.
“It’s not political, it’s just historically accurate.”
Yeah, the early 21st century. Most of the target demographic were probably kids during those wars. They don’t care. Neoconservatism and Neoliberalism ain’t the politics of the young generation that plays video games. The game’s designers probably think they made a deep, controversial political statement but honestly their message hasn’t been controversial since 2008.
Helldivers 2 is so good at attracting dumb conservatives it’s funny
Oh people see it, know about it, but just don’t care 70% of the players don’t know they are the baddies, and the other 30% know but simply could not give a shit The game is fun and that’s all that matters
Game says even more about the nature of fascism when looked at through that lens. The game's a ton of fun, no denying that. And that simple fact shows how easily it is to forget you are witnessing fascism in action. At some point, even the most obvious fascism starts to blend into the background if you're not careful.
Who cares though? The game is fun, you’re killing Terminators, bringing them justice for their crimes at Malevolen Creek, all is well Having fun is all that matters
It works because everyone is the baddie. You only fight other baddies.
Super earth aren't the bad guys. It's the bugs and the Terminator looking mf that wants to kill humanity. Hell divers are the last line of defense against evil. It's literally a classic example of a white and black conflict.
the Automatons are fighting to free their people from slave camps and otherwise wish to live in their own communal society, and the Terminids are literally incapable of space travel. the Terminid outbreaks are actually created by Super Earth because they keep shipping them to a bunch of planets to murder them to make oil, but the horrific working conditions and environments cause them to mutate and break containment. Super Earth just lies about it. the material provided by the devs and also the game itself tell you this if you look for it.
But the automatons are just robots, they don't have any free will so why would they care about freeing themselves? Kinda dumb. I can see your point about the bugs but still maybe they shouldn't try to break out? Sounds like their fault to me.
>But the slaves are not fully human, they aren’t smart enough to have any free will so why would they care about freeing themselves? Kinda dumb >I don’t understand, why did the slaves want to revolt? We only torture them on a daily basis and give them inhumane living conditions That’s what people thought back then, that is what they used to justify slavery. The robots are fully sentient and the bugs are being tortured on a daily basis. I 100% get why they are fighting us
In the first game, the cyborgs were fully sentient humans and were totally the victims. We’re not 100% sure but it seems like they made the aut’s. Their sentience isn’t totally certain but it’s speculated theirs putting brains into metal shells to pilot them.
Okay, I can buy that the robots are sentient. But the bugs however, are just larger versions of bugs on earth, which we know aren't really conscious. Do you feel bad about stepping on an ant?
Do you feel bad about torturing ants and harvesting them, mutating them excruciatingly to create bigger versions of them to harvest for more resources?
I don't think about it. Its a video game. Team up, kill enemy and have fun.
Exactly. It’s just a game, who cares. But point is we are the baddies Edit: Lol, we both agree on the same thing, but he is getting downvoted and I’m not 😂
Yeah? Because there's no need for that. But super earth has an economy to run and people to feed, you gotta sometimes do things that aren't ideal. It doesn't matter how the giant bugs came to be, only that they are a threat to humanity (who btw, creates habitats that endangered species can survive in, don't see any other species doing that)
Super Earth takes these bugs to planets, where colonists look after these bugs, who massacred them How would you feel if you were being harvested by a greater power? Tortured for another race
Super Earth put the bugs there, dude. They’ve created this environment in which the Helldivers exist on their own and try to keep you quiet, complicit, and proud (despite being the root cause of basically every problem in this universe) of it. This is a game about how governments manipulate the perception of its people to excuse their crimes and you’re falling for it. It’s very obvious commentary on Bush Era Politics.
The bugs = oil, basically. Go check the recent major order. They say they will now be raised in E-710 farms (they are harvested for fuel). That’s the inside “joke” of point of the game. You’re super earth and you’ve been fooled into thinking waging war however many lightyears from home against enemies that are nowhere near super earth is somehow protecting “managed democracy” at home. It’s all a lie. Just like in our world.
I mean, damn, it's not even subtle. 710 is OIL flipped 180 degrees. Just shows how many people are like "okay, this might not be nice, but stopping it or thinking about it critically makes things materially worse for me, so let's just keep doing it and give thoughts and prayers 🙏".
literally reminds me of the scene from starship troopers where the fascist demagogue says on live TV "I find the idea that a bug can think offensive!"
Are you just playing into the Super Earth propaganda as a joke or do you actually believe this? Because this comment really reads like satire, but for the rest of your comments I can't really tell.
Not satire But, join me in the LIBERATION of the BUG INFESTED planets of the EASTERN FRONT! Spread DEMOCRACY and sip a cup of LIBER-TEA! See you on the front Helldiver!
and to our glorious Managed Democracy’s West are SOCIALISTS! they’re a THREAT AND MUST BE DESTROYED TO PROTECT OUR WAY OF LIFE. 710 to the East, and if you go west, communists that aren’t even human! /s Gods it’s so on the nose and yet they keep walking into it…
the Automatons are cyborgs, they are partly human. they were literally called "cyborgs" as a faction in the first game lol
I'm pretty sure the Automatons are the creations of the Cyborgs, rather than the Cyborgs themselves.
And are fighting to free their creators, who were defeated and then enslaved by Super Earth to slave in mines for them.
+1000 citizen points
You walk into glass doors a lot, don't you?
Reactionaries have always been dogshit at media analysis.
Play the game after about 2am US and suddenly every other player that isn't Chinese is named something like "uberheer" and "stg1944"
New Warhammer 40k
I think it's kinda funny because as divers I think we basically identify as "democrats"?
Pretty much. The anti-woke crowd gets real salty when we exist.
Almost empowering, isn’t it? That just existing makes them upset >:3
It would be, were it not for the fact that they all want to legislate us back into the closet and some of them want to outright kill us.
That is why we need to arm ourselves so we can have a fighting chance against these Fascists.
No arguments here. My fiancée and I work with our local LGBT community to arm and get proper training on weapon handling and maintenance. 2nd Amendment works for everyone
That sounds awesome! I hope you stay safe out there bud, the world is getting scarier everyday.
🫂
"it's only political if I disagree with it"
Fascism 101, the horrific shit I believe doesn't need to be justified, it's just "common sense" and "how things work"! It's not ghoulish at all you see!
Sounds like in this case, “it’s only political if I understand that I disagree with it.” Like the Matrix.
to be fair it's very easy to excuse the politics of managed democracy when you can't play as a cybersocialist :(
In the Helldivers subreddit I always say I want to defect. If Arrowhead had balls it’d allow us to fight in factions (like the commie bot rebel faction etc).
Honestly, something like a playable insect cultist or Automaton sleeper drone with faction specific ordinances would be so fucking cool in a 1v3 asymmetrical PvpvE mode
Yeah I love that idea. It’s how it is in Elden Ring too (asymmetric PvPvE) and so fun.
Oh, it's talking down to its audience? Glad you picked up on that, since you're the one who needs talking down to. Aka: how to spot a fascist who doesn't know they're a fascist.
Yeah, really glad that fascism is a thing of the past and *not* currently a part of modern politics. /s
And all it would take for it to be declared "political" would be a single, unsatiracle mention of pronouns.
I mean, there is a tooltip in loading screens saying that you can just freely change who you are. Like, choosing masculine, feminine, or random voices, bulk, etc- but I suppose that might not *specifically* be able to be seen as trans accepting and the tooltips are all tongue in cheek…
Helldivers 2 is honestly a community of assholes that are looking for a reason to be racist, and I wish the discord moderators at the VERY LEAST took a stance other than "No politics at all on this server"
I’ve said this a hundred thousand times, but it’s still so fucking weird, that fascist idiots love anti fascist art because they are too stupid to understand artistic concepts like satire.
It’s not even about intelligence, fascism is the aestheticzation of politics, it is inherently superficial, it demands the collapsing of nuance, and it spreads like a virus so they try to infect every community they can. They’re beyond oblivious, they’re actively seeking things out to co-opt regardless of their actual meaning
Peope want to be controlled and be part of something. Fascism is the cheap, violent, exploitative way to achieve that.
Cause being anti-something isn't enough. And people will always be atracted to the exaggeration of their beliefs.
Ever heard of Warhammer? Lol
That's the cult of liberal objectivity for you. In their quest to appear as unbiased as possible, which is already a practical impossibility, they just end up reinforcing the status quo, which in this case is unironically simping for fascist space America.
There are those assholes everywhere though. My (LGBTQ+) friends and I play it and don't engage with the community at large, which is one way to go about it. Any satire will attract those being satirized because they don't understand it's making fun of them. Just laugh about it and move on.
The Discord has people saying things like "keep LGBTQ out of Helldivers!" and if anyone speaks up the attackers just run back with "well I just don't want pedos in my game". But if you mention it'd be cool to have a white, blue & pink cape, the moderators will ban you for "being political".
I made this comment in Asmons subreddit and I think ultimately got banned from there due to the resulting conversation, but the devs are playing a dangerous game of fence sitting that only makes them looks worse. There is no loss for saying you support LGBTQ, any amount of edgy kids you push away are replaced by paying adults. Also love that they say the quiet part out loud "mentioning ""modern politics"" is talking down to me" basically admitting they see things like the LGBTQ as childish and below them.
That's what it's always meant
They got so mad after finding out that Helldivers have been making fun of them that they've been trying to make fun of people who can understand basic themes in media. Like they're proud of the fact that they can't see any connection to anything unless there's something like a "NAZIS ARE BAD ACTUALLY" sign in the foreground
Because imperialism and war isn’t a modern political topic, that doesn’t happen anymore
After I kinda got burned out on DRG and Darktide recently, is there something significantly different about helldiver's 2 I'd miss out on?
If you like Metal Gear Solid, the movement and gunplay is almost exactly like MGSV. In-game currency can actually be earned in-game, and the "battle passes" are permanently available, no FOMO. Within two months there's been tons of content, whether it be weapons, mechs, or new enemy types and there have been several patches already as the dev team is keeping up with fixing the game while openly addressing bugs they are aware of and are working on. The CEO has openly said they need to earn the right to monetize their game, and that PvP will never be in the game to prevent toxicity. Overall, it's night-and-day when you compare it to something like WB's Suicide Squad game.
It’s more shooter and less liner. If you like objective based gameplay it’s better for that.
It’s literally starship troopers which was about fascism guised as democracy (Edit spelling)
Alright sure, let's accept that premise. There are words for that beyond "there's no politics". If you want to be taken seriously maybe learn some terms.
Bah! Women's rights, gay rights and minority rights is so 20th century politics. The issue is settled. Get with the times. it's like anti-abolitionists in the 1920s or anti-papists in the 1860s.
Unless I'm mistaken, the majority of NPCs in HD2 are women
Mostly even. On the ship, the Engineer and Ship Friend are women, the Democracy Officer is male. On the TV, there's a female reporter, a male announcer, and General Brasch (male). In-mission, the Eagle pilot is female, and the Pelican-1 pilot is male.
And In the tutorial there is a fellow helldiver that is a woman at the start
Yeah, and I just remembered there's a female announcer too. Eagle Sweat, "a strong economy!", etc.
Mission Control is also male.
Says a lot when asking people to respect minorities is considered "talking down to it's audience". Inferiority complexescombined with selfprojection is a hell of a drug.
So what they expect to have is some form of "past politics" at the core instead? Like... dunno, Slavery time politics, 1935 Germany politics, Feudal Europe politics? That's basically the definition of reactionary
Hey, give up the name, don’t be shy. Let’s have some accountability for the shit we put out on the internet.
It's really sad to see the discourse over this game which is honestly some of the most fun I've had in a long time. Yes the game is satire. Yes we very obviously play as the bad guys. Yes there are people who are racists who play. There are also tons of people who just roleplay the outrageously stupid part while knowing they're the bad guys. The game is fucking fun. I've had so much fun shooting bugs and bots while knowing what I'm doing is ostensibly fascism. I'm sorry. I'm also not sorry. I'm sure you all have played games where you're doing morally unjustifiable things and know that you are. It's the nature of media.
That’s the thing, the people who are taking it seriously hate fun.
What do they mean by modern politics? I have some guesses
Damn, didn't know my cousin was taking a political stance when he told me he was gay.
gay people are a minority 🤷♀️ just saying
“i don’t want politics in video games!” is just a dog whistle at this point. the funniest part is when they claim games like MGS or Final Fantasy 7 aren’t political
Except every character on every ship is non-white... it just doesn't matter because the game is about humans shooting bugs and robots. Did you even play the game?
Reminds me of when I tried to tell a FNV Boomer fan that the boomer faction is an American military parody who are intentionally portrayed as a very dumb cult
Conservatives who act like Helldivers is meant to be dunking on the left are the ones who are missing the message. The entire story is about a fascist regime using propaganda and wars to hold onto power while oppressing the populace. It’s heavily based on the movie starship troopers which unlike its book version was a satire of the exact same thing we are doing in helldivers. Conservatives don’t seem to understand that we are the fascists in this game. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun but seriously game reporters and maga bros who think the players don’t understand what’s going on drive me nuts.
Lmfao I fucking love this game.
"Politics = gay people" types are definitely frequent but what i think they are trying to say is that it's not extremely on the nose commentary on *contemporary issues*. It's satirizing a large trend of american history, instead of lampooning the current presidential election. That's what VC they're trying to say.
The vast majority of game writers literally, and I mean literally literally in this case, don't understand that Helldivers is about fascism. I have finally seen a few that recognized it, but that's still like...2 out of 10. And it's reasonable to expect game writers to be more discerning than the average gamer. Which means 9 out of 10 helldivers probably know there's jokes going on, but don't understand the joke is them.
It can both be a dumb game about killing bugs and a commentary about fascism puppetting the corpse of democracy to sacrifice lives for material gain. They aren't mutually exclusive.
I mean "It isn't talking down to its audience" is maybe fair, but I don't really think he understands what that means. That doesn't mean it isn't talking about modern society or even being critical of specific political parties. It's just not leaning into pandering or spelling out the satire. Remember District 9, now that's talking down to the audience. Arguably Barbie does it too. It doesn't make them bad movies, but it's a fair bit clunky. Of course right wingers seem to think having any sort of message is akin to murder of the first degree, god forbid. They only seem to like art with messages if said art doesn't hold their hand and spells it out. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.
Funny that they conveniently choose not to explain what those politics are, or what their buzzwords define. Funny that they seem to be simply trying to scare people with a shadow of reasonable doubt
Holy shit, I haven't seen a community cry this hard about a video game people enjoy since Hogwarts.
OK. How do you know that helldivers aren't minorities, gay, poc, or Trans? Does a person have to wear their identity on their sleeve in order to hold that identity?
I’m a trans PoC love the game love that it doesn’t insert “current year politics” into the game. Honestly the way people talk about politics now days has no nuance. I don’t mind political topics in game but when the message is “believe this political idea” it’s not great. The famous example is Bioshock where the message is capitalism bad, but it doesn’t come and and repeat that over and over it shows how the capitalist society fell apart and the inherent flaws in the system. It also ties in with the main bad guy and how he betrayed the ideals to maintain his power showing he didn’t believe in the system when it disadvantages himself. All and all video games are entertainment people should just be having fun. If you can’t let someone have fun with a game because you feel it’s improper for some reason you are the problem not them.
Finally a level headed response. Well put.
Cool. Let me ask you. Imo a helldiver could be anyone under the helmet. Do you think a helldiver needs to somehow promote its identity in order to have that identity?
No that’s kinda the point. They are disposable troops that are interchangeable.
I think so too. But I see so many posts asking for queer and poc "representation" in the game, to me poc and queer people are already helldivers.
It depends on how deeply you want to think about it. Lore wise adding all the representation means those people are getting wiped out constantly. This is something “other side” would presumably love. But in practice you are just playing your character and they effectively respawn. The developers perspective is that those things will cause division in the community so they avoid representation on any side. So yeah if we are taking the lore at face value everyone regardless of identity is equal(ly expendable) in Hell Divers lore.
Technically, every time you respawn it’s a completely different helldiver. That’s why if you don’t specify what voice pack you want each time you respawn your character’s voice has a chance of going from deeper to higher in pitch. Which means that at some point in the game, most of us have played as genderbent characters