video game racism vent -
There's an American Civil War FPS in the top-selling list on theme which is just a lot of dog whistles
called "War of Rights"
says you can "fight to defend your family and livelihood with the Confederacy"
boasts "historical accuracy" without mentioning the term "slavery" at all
basically just taking the trappings of history and turning into a gory playset
my reaction is extremely skeptical but I'm also wondering what the "responsible" way of doing this is?
re: video game racism vent -
I dunno, maybe there is some form of play within the possibility space of realistic battle scenes from the civil war that helps people engage with history or deal with the emotional trauma of the past--and therefore a compelling reason for the game to exist.
But it's a lot more culturally dangerous than the fictional wars of Overwatch and Black Ops, and I would like to see the developer say not just "we don't support the views depicted in this game" but more specifically "we think the Confederacy had some screwed up ideas but this scenario doesn't make sense without them"
Like Mafia 3 did
re: video game racism vent -
The upside, I suppose, is that being able to play as the bad guy does communicate the banality of evil. Maybe it's fun (in a horror/thriller way) to be scared of situations, made plausible through rules and simulation, where key battles of history unfolded differently; to see the world as being more mutable and not taking any human rights victory for granted.