politics in video games and other creative media?

put this on the political thread.

I dunno it isn't really discussing the actual politics themselves, moreso the concept of politics in creative media.

Yeah, keep your out of my Badlur's Gate, Beamdog.

I am talking about somebodies political views influencing the work they create.

I am curious what you would consider somebody shoving a political opinion down your throat when viewing something somebody else created? Can you give an example?

Yeah I agree with that, of course I would never say that people can't create this sort of content however I do think it is poor writing to do something like this.

All creative media should be required by law to express only anarchist or libertarian viewpoints.

I cannot tell if you are being serious or not, Mouse...

Well if one is going to be on the dark side side, might as well be open about it, ha.

What I find especially annoying with politics and current or trending social topics is how they tend to crop up in game narratives wholly divorced from our reality and so detract from the setting. BioWare is the biggest offender in this regard (IMO) though there are certainly other developers who have done this.

A science fiction world, filled with myriads of strange and decidedly alien species… and all the narrative wants to do is focus on how X human minority or subgroup is represented and that they get their soapbox to stand on.

Humans, and our latest #hashtag movements are incredibly boring. Especially when we have a freaking alien in the background that we could go and talk to otherwise. I can easily turn on the news, load up twitter, or just stick my head outside to get a dose of what the latest buzzwords or social movements are. I can not do the same for something like a rachni or elcor on the other hand.

All of this potential for interesting storytelling, or even just exploration of non-human concepts at the very least... but no, we get to listen how this character has daddy issues, or who this other character happens to be sexually attracted to instead. 

Shoehorning those topics into the setting only makes whatever point the developer is trying to get across feel cringe worthy as well as overtly preachy.

Want to talk about gender fluid dynamics in your science fiction game (for example), and not have it come across as forced? How about instead of inserting human NPC spokesperson to list the bullet points of that subject, you instead work it into a more palatable part of the setting? The Liir of the Sword of the Stars universe had to have been the most interesting and level-headed approach to representing gender dynamics, and even transgenerism, in a game while at the same time not coming across as preachy or out of place considering the setting that they exist in. IMO.