This is a fantastic question and I hope he has the balls to answer it.
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Tim Sweeney (Epic Games): Companies should divorce from politics, Android is a fake open system, iOS is worse, "respect Gamer rights and freedoms"
- Thread starter Chairmanchuck (另一个我)
- Start date
This is a fantastic question and I hope he has the balls to answer it.
So a company can write gay characters but shouldn't pubically support gay marriage.
is that what are you and Tim are supporting? Because that what this will end up with
They're completely contradictory, unless political games are relegated to non-commercial endeavors. How are you supposed to market a game with a political message without "pushing politics?" Bear in mind that even releasing a trailer violates Tim's principle unless the trailer is specifically cut to excise the game's themes and message (and, for a lot of gamers' definition of "politics", any non-straight-white-male characters). The only real out is to say that political games just shouldn't be marketed, which I don't think is defensible either.
This standard is impossible for anyone outside the company to judge.
Uh when did I say I supported that? I even said multiple times in the thread I think companies should be able to take political stances. I was just arguing that Tim wasn't saying that creatives can't put politics in there games.
Yep. He has fuck you money and a game that keeps bringing said money in. He dgaf about optics now.
So then gaming devs can be as divisive as they want but marketing should hide that divisiveness?
That's how it sounds to me and I think it's wrong (for consumers anyway) just as I think this guy just wants a better deal from google and could care less about gamer freedom and rights.
I think you are absolutely right. I just don't think Tim sees it that way. Or perhaps hes wanting to have his cake and eat it too.
I think hes saying that developers can be divisive and political with their art, but the company themselves shouldn't take public stances on political issues. Personally I like when companies take sides, then I know whether or not that company culture harbors bad politics (like chik fil a)
What even is this?
"I don't agree with his execution but I agree with the sentiment. I don't always want sports in all my gaming or entertainment. We live that shit all day every day everywhere. Sometimes I just want to escape from it all for a few hours. I don't want mine or anyone else's genre preferences forced on people that are just looking to blow off some steam after a long hard day.
I'm not saying sports should be completely excluded from gaming or other forms of entertainment. If someone wants to make a game about a particular sport that's fine. More power to you. But there's nothing wrong with wanting some non-sports games."
Nah I get it, if it's a part of the story or a part of the key narrative of the game or represents those creating it or their ideas then it's great and encouraged but if the marketing team is just like "put in a girl or a gay guy to score some points with the woman rights activists or lgbtq community" then it's wrong and is just taking advantage of the current political climate.
Basically it needs to be genuine. But I stilldon't fully feel Sweeney is 100% right herebut in this one example I agree
How would you ever determine this? Plus this standard would so clearly be used to punish games with women and minority representation, regardless of why it's there.
This just leads to people claiming that "girls and gay guys" in gaming are for points and not actually what the developers intended.
Basically its alt right fuel.
Sweeney can get lost with his "neutral, centrist, no politics" crap. Poor oppressed gamers my ass.
My favorite part of people saying "keep politics out of my games" is when they later say their most anticipated game is Cyberpunk 2077 or The Last of Us II.
Clearly the pinnacle of apolitical.
Clearly the pinnacle of apolitical.
At a time where Parasite, Irishman, and Uncut Gems are bonafide major hits yeah gaming should decide to be less political unlike every other medium.
And there's no shortage of people here and elsewhere that inexplicably defend him.
I totally get what you mean but this prompt opens the doors for some funny answers. Try doing the politics of Pong or Tetris!
Politics play a hilariously large part in inform and structuring people's world views. Such statements about divorcing from politics have never made any sense once you apply even a modicum of thought towards it.
Put him in the same bin as Boogie. Ultimately, for both of them, it comes down to making a buck.
it doesn't matter if that is what you support or not.
That is the type of logic that Sweeney is supporting.
And his main example isn't even about marketing. Chi k-flia does not advertise or market about its anti-LGBT funding, it does that privately, the consumer backlash is when consumer found out about it and reacted accordingly.
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Tetris is a TERRIBLE example of a game that can be considered apolitical, so you're not doing yourself any favors here with that example.
This statement means nothing though. If everything is political then political is just a state of being and thus defacto not an important characteristic. It's like how we cannot have a conversation about how video games are made of bits, that's just what they are. We either need specificity (what arrangement of bits) or something to contrast against (analogue games). A narrower definition is more useful.
He gonna spin this shit so hard, and people will believe him, because you know..... free games and shit.
I love that straight up question. Wish more media had the balls to ask
His weird opinions aside, this just seems like a terrible keynote presentation, especially as you are there representing other (industry) people than yourself.
I think one possible take-away here is that Epic Games are changing from a publishing company that dabbles in development to a platform. More responsibility comes with that, and it's that kind of responsibility that Sweeney is trying to reject before people realize that Epic Games are becoming Valve who control not just hugely influential games where community moderation is central, but also a distribution platform with a community attached to it that similarly has to be held to certain standards.
Hopefully he at least is smart enough to not add community reviews of games, or it's going to be Valve's laissez-faire approach to review bombing of certain games all over again.
And that's without considering the implications of the Unreal Engine developer pipeline that's currently eating Unity's lunch by the look of it.
I think one possible take-away here is that Epic Games are changing from a publishing company that dabbles in development to a platform. More responsibility comes with that, and it's that kind of responsibility that Sweeney is trying to reject before people realize that Epic Games are becoming Valve who control not just hugely influential games where community moderation is central, but also a distribution platform with a community attached to it that similarly has to be held to certain standards.
Hopefully he at least is smart enough to not add community reviews of games, or it's going to be Valve's laissez-faire approach to review bombing of certain games all over again.
And that's without considering the implications of the Unreal Engine developer pipeline that's currently eating Unity's lunch by the look of it.
Pong is a commentary on the evils on capitalism and how there can be no winners without losers. Endlessly toiling way in a pointless back and forth for the sake of invented measures of success. And Tetris of course has an anti-Soviet undercurrent with its theme of stopping walls from being built up. Obviously.
Yep, hopefully he follows Boogie sooner than later into irrelevancy.
Honestly never hard him say anything political; but it puts some context around some of his other shit that makes it all worse lol
I'd argue that chicken restaurants shouldn't be making clear their political affiliations but what do I know.
