idk it certainly feels weird to me that videogames- even ones I don't personally enjoy- are viewed as relevant enough to get this kind of political attention.
Realistically, if I take a step back from it I'm just stuck in 2008, but.. yeah.
Besides, weird isn't necessarily a requirement here. Just 'it looks like satire but isn't'.
Also: you have excellent taste in videogames. Noita is great.
Games do feel like an oddity as political outreach, but the more I think about the idea the more I think it has capabilities (as Lancelot Brown might have put it). With legacy media like papers, books, art, film, recorded music and all, you are a passive consumer of the media. With video games as art, you are an active participant and your choices define your experience with the work. Games like Planescape: Torment, Tyranny, and Disco Elysium are great examples where you're expected to engage with political or moral ideas as a participant. You aren't being treated as a receiver of propaganda per se, but as someone who can develop understanding and agency in the context of certain ideas, which seems like an improvement over propaganda in legacy media, don't you think?
It's certainly novel, but there aren't many voters who will object to being reached out to on their own terms. The election will be the one to decide whether it's stupid or not. It'd be far from the weirdest aspect of American culture, at any rate.
I mean, how many gamers are there of target voting age (especially those on the cusp of going to the polls)? These days probably a lot more than those that watch commercials. There is no way they'd invest in this without proper numbers backing it up. Games are as much entertainment now as sports or TV.
I wonder if Kamala Harris herself knows what that means.
On the one hand it's a bit like how it was newsworthy that Barack Obama's campaign was on Twitter. I remember the hearings in '94 when congress flipped their collective dentures over video games, and the president of Nintendo of America promised congress that Night Trap would never be available to play on Nintendo hardware. Video games were particularly expensive toys for sex accidents at the time. Well the accidents grew up and registered to vote. Now look at Washington. "Congressman Ocasio-Cortez and vice presidential candidate Walz play Crazy Taxi."
There are sitting politicians today, probably including Harris and absolutely including Biden, who campaigned to ban video games because that's what was popular with the 55 to 95 demographic. I don't know if I should forgive them as a cohort for that.
All this does is remind me how hollow and inhuman politicians are.
I've got no clue if Harris or Biden campaigned ever to ban video games ... But let's say they did. Wouldn't it be a good thing to have had their opinions change? I know my opinion changes regarding a lot of things as time goes on.
There are sitting politicians today, probably including Harris and absolutely including Biden, who campaigned to ban video games…
Doubtful that Harris would have ever said anything about banning video games, but happy to be proven wrong here. She’s the same age as Walz and became an elected official an entire decade after the 1993-94 Senate hearings, and also would have been in her late teens/early twenties during the tail end of the arcade era and the rise of home consoles like the NES. I really doubt Harris has a closed minded view on video games “corrupting the youth” or whatever..
When Biden ran in 2020, they gave out patterns in Animal Crossing. But if I'm being honest, I didn't mind that pandering and some effort was involved, plus it was kind of what everyone was going during lockdown. Now this... mixed feelings but it must not have been cheap and at least there's some effort there (likely from a staffer). I only hope it works.
I heard about it; although Walz is definitely pro-game, poor guy had to give it up nearly 20 years ago. He's more likely aware of it, though, and what the fun is about.
Is this worse than funding a genocide? And has Biden not had 4 years to reverse this? To be very clear: Fuck Donald Trump. But why do you people act like he is all powerful, but your leadership isn't responsible for anything?