Jesus, some you guys have a hard on for this kinda of stuff... I probably would of played once, and didn't even realize if it was dei or not or cared about it and moved on to the next; if its fun, I don't care honestly. Its not like I see the taliban inventing their own anti dei video game, to groom children with for their politicians .. they should tho.
I believe you anti dei guys love these games...I believe its the only reason why these games survive; the dei crowd is only a tiny Minority %... which can hardly keep any of these studios or games afloat, and I doubt they care for video gaming; they are more about their whiny politics if not. Meanwhile people like me, probably will not play it or get bored of it maybe without me realizing it.
Lot of popular games have "dei" even before the "term" became popular, lot of people play without noticing or "trolling" about it, its only thanks to our pedo in chief and their cabaal. Even the games people play now, I can spot many dei crap in t heir games.
Well first off, there is no anti-DEI guy. There is just a rejection of DEI.
Secondly, you're trying to say that the entirety of customers who make the survival of games like this possible are anti-DEI guys. This is an honestly retarded claim, which hints at your political leaning.
The reason why I point propaganda out is because "no one" else does. What are you doing?
This is not a real critique of the video game. You can have your own opinions about minorities or whatever, but if your only critique of the 'woke DEI games' is that they're 'woke DEI' and other meaningless buzzwords, I don't think the game was that bad to begin with. Let's start discussing mechanics you don't like instead of skin colors, eh?
Well, its not my intention to critique the game mechanics. Besides, I am sure there are plenty of sources to get that kind of information from. It's more of a public service anouncement, to point out thing that goes "unnoticed" for most people.
Saying woke DEI is a meaningless buzzword says a lot about your understanding of the topic and your political leaning. As long as the "game mechanics" are good you are seemingly willing to consume anything, regardless of the level of propaganda contained within it. Otherwise this would matter to you in terms of overall game quality or deciding if you want to expose yourself to this type of manipulation. The fact that you boil my remarks down to "not liking certain skin colors" is more proof of that.
To sum it up; I's not my job to review the game. I am here to point out the modern day propaganda and virtue signaling in video games. So either you have a compelling argument or you keep consuming your DEI games.
My point is that your point from the beginning was irrelevant. 'Woke/DEI' is the simple act of minorities existing in content to begin with - which, yes, is racist or whatever -ist that minority is - to be against. Almost every time I see that label being thrown around, the game is not actually political in the slightest. And in their hypocrisy, nobody complains when MGS has BLATANT, unobscured anti-war sentiments, or Fallout, or any other mainstream example - it's conveniently only when the promotion of minority characters are involved that an opinion becomes propaganda.
Your compelling argument is nonexistent. What is propaganda about it? What is virtue signalling about it? The fact that you don't like it is propaganda? Unlike you, I actually played the game - and it doesn't say anything that could be remotely construed as propaganda, nor does it get up in your face and say 'BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' like you seem to think it does. POC characters simply exist, same as with the white ones. You're also free to choose a white main character. Otherwise, the game is a shop management sim with Stardew Valley-esque affinity cutscenes with characters, and so far there has been NO mention of anybody's race or political affiliations beyond the Stardew-standard anti-big-corporation message.
Then he proceeded to leave the convo instead of explain how the game was propaganda as requested when I took up his challenge and deconstructed his clearly non-argument, classic.
You'll also notice that in his post he dodged my initial accusation of irrelevance to the actual game (which I continued to dig into in my larger post since it's kind of idiotic to review a game based on things that don't exist IN the game AND being completely uninformed as to the game's contents itself), as well as claiming a lack of interest in reviewing the actual game so that he can place the blame (of being the dreaded Woke Mind-Controlled Sheeple) and more importantly the burden of proof upon me.
This is both despite the fact that he never made any intelligent claims to his own proof in the first place and how he has since ignored my response when I did counter every facet of his post even though I didn't have to, going so far as to use my in-game experiences which he can't deflect as someone who's prematurely deemed it 'The Unexplainable Propaganda' so he doesn't have to provide any explanation whatsoever.
Tl;dr: this is a common conservative/alt-right tactic to look smarter than your opponent without actually providing any meaningful resistance or commentary (in the modern times this has been most famously employed by one Donald Trump).
I doubt anyone else is reading this thread at this point, but eh, I figured a deep dive into the behaviors behind this was worth writing up, even if I think the IGG comments section is a largely conservative/alt-right crowd anyway... oddly, despite the, y'know, freedom theming of piracy and all, but whatever. America exists as a world of contradictions in that regard too.
It's a common fallacy to claim that these characters are "merely existing". The Idea of Wokeness/DEI is to actively push so-called minorities into every form of entertainment. It's a politcal agenda.
When I quoted the game studios website "Our goal is to build a sustainable and inclusive game studio" I was pointing out the game studio's involvement with and adherence to said DEI propaganda. To what degree it exists in the game, I can't tell.
I am also not saying that there isn't other forms of propaganda in other video games but you're clearly upset that I am shitting on a game you enjoyed. So my point initial point wasn't irrelavant. It was only "irrelevant" to you.
Your final point simply isn't true, considering I played the game after responding to your original comment (in-between my first reply and second reply). You just don't want to believe anybody with an unbiased opinion would disagree with you on principle alone.
Onto your definition of Wokeness/DEI - sure, I guess that's applicable, but then isn't the opposite true? Actively not adhering to Wokeness/DEI and steering others clear of it means you're also projecting your own political agenda. Or not doing so in game development, for that matter. The very act of not promoting diversity is in itself political, since making every character white is just as deliberate unless you're willing to make the (racist) statement that white is the 'normal' skintone and that's the sole reason why everyone uses it.
Just about everything is political, so unless the agenda is radical, I don't see the point in avoiding it. What is the problem with diversity in games, even if it is propaganda of some sort? In my eyes, it does no harm, beyond enriching the color palette of the characters and potentially adding in interesting culture points. MANY games use minorities' cultures for folklore and such without including said minorities, why is that okay but having the minorities actually deliberately added into the game isn't?
I'll be a bit more polite this time and ask exactly what your reasoning is for excluding minorities other than 'it's propaganda' - since, as I said previously, there's propaganda of all sorts in pretty much any game, including the anti-war sentiments of Metal Gear Solid (which I agree with, and I think it's an amazing series, but it's still a sort of propaganda being pushed).
"Your final point simply isn't true, considering I played the game after responding to your original comment (in-between my first reply and second reply)."
Then why did you say in your first reply "I don't think the game was that bad to begin with."? Saying you played the game AFTER your first comment makes your statement irrelevant since you didn't even play the game. Like, wtf.
"The very act of not promoting diversity is in itself political, since making every character white is just as deliberate unless you're willing to make the (racist) statement that white is the 'normal' skintone and that's the sole reason why everyone uses it. "
You're basically using the "everything is political" argument, but the other way around, saying that not promoting something is also promoting something. While that might be true conceptually it is irrelevant because it doesn't negate the fact that the game company is adhering to the idea of "inclusivity" (DEI), as stated in my very first comment.
Another misconception, which is part of the brainwashing, is that white is not normal. Of course not everyone is white, but the western world (Europe/USA) is predominately white and has been predominately white in the past. The reason the white skintone is used is probably because it was perceived as normal by those (white) programmers in the past as they identify with it and target an audience (customers) that is more white than anything else. In my estimation it simply hasn't been questioned by people in general until the diversity propaganda started putting the idea into people's head that the western world is too white and needs more "representation".
Your last question is based on the misunderstanding of how DEI indoctrination works, which is a deliberate effort to distort reality and people's peception. You are thinking that the targeted media (games) are a depiction of reality, when in truth they are designed for you to accept the notion of multiculturalism and other things.
WHY would they push that sort of idea? Well, maybe the increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees that western governments allow into everyone's country has something to do with it? I don't know.
So technically there is nothing wrong with having "minorities" in games and media. But what purpose does it serve if it's merely virtue signaling and "representation" and adds nothing of value to the game?
Your first comment ignores the rest of what I said in that sentence, which is that if your only gripe is the least offensive 'propaganda' imaginable, I doubt the game is bad. This is before you stated you had no intention of judging the game on any other metric, so I'd assumed you'd at least looked into the gameplay at this point rather than judging pre-emptively what it was like based on your initial assumption.
Also, yes, that is exactly what I'm saying - everything IS political, whether or not you choose to involve yourself with any form of politics is in itself political. It's not irrelevant because that's what I'm posing towards you, as a question, outside of this specific example. But to humor you, I'll say that whatever their motive for doing so, what the game company chose to do is an act of promotion of minorities to uplift them, and you perceive that to be so hostile to you that you actively avoided it on the sole basis of what the developer vowed to do - again, an extremely harmless stance, even if it may be completely valueless as you stated (or not) - rather than taking any account of what's actually in the game or the gameplay itself. Even if it IS virtue signalling for brownie points among the minorities, what does that actually matter? You avoid an entire game that might be good because you're slightly annoyed by the devs taking the moral high ground?
In my opinion, having shitty milquetoast minority characters by people who aren't that good at writing them is better than not having any for the minorities in question to have rapport with. As long as they're not racist stereotypes, anyway, but at least this game didn't do that. There's simply not very many (in comparison) notable minority characters in media, so it's a 'take what you can get' sort of situation, even if it isn't ideal.
I'm not sure where you're going with the accepting multiculturism thing, but I'm guessing you live in some place where it's largely one culture all across the board. Here in the backwaters of the US where I live, sure, it might not be that culturally diverse, but even in the smaller towns (like the one in Discounty) there's places where black people outnumber the whites, so this isn't what I would call a 'distorted reality' like you're insinuating. Multiculturism isn't some fictional premise. Maybe a PERFECT multiculturist society is, but y'know, real life is never perfect. Still, I've seen real life locations more culturally diverse than most games classified as 'DEI', this one included.
TL;DR: I've accepted that you may not be exactly racist, but it reads like you're just as indoctrinated as how you're claiming I am. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, to posit that the other is the brainwashed one too gullible to think for themselves. The only thing I'll say in your defense is that I do think it's possible to overdo diversity or do it badly, but I still wouldn't go so far as to say the worst examples I've encountered (yet) are propaganda deliberately meant to 'brainwash' people into the deeply sinister evil of believing in multiculturalism. Mostly those are just tone-deaf.
Well, the misconception you still have is that I actually care about the game or ever thought about playing it. That's why I didn't really engage with you on that level. I'd agree with you on the notion that games can be enjoyable regardless of their level of DEI or whatever propaganda, but I don't like DEI stuff in my games in general and usually will avoid playing them if I notice them and they break my immersion. There are exceptions, but they are few.
I just wanted to point out that the devs are DEI clowns.
I don't think you really understand the extend to which this whole thing goes, what DEI actually entails in practice. How much money and effort is pumped into this agenda, which essentially is the opposite of what it claims to be.
Since I can't reply to the other one - I did Google DEI, just now, just for you, and I got a bunch of articles that only defined what it is (something I already know), not explaining your conspiracy theory or why you seem to think it's evil. You're making shit up and saying 'just Google it'. You're the one wasting my time. What a dead end intellectually.
Why even comment then if you had no interest in the game at all from the beginning? Just to be a hater? That's what I don't understand. You genuinely are treating DEI like it's the Bubonic Plague, as though it'll obliterate gaming as a whole, when it's really not that deep and can't possibly be.
For one thing, this is an indie game, they're hardly pumping big bucks into it and it wouldn't have taken that much money or effort to change skintones of a few characters, even if the sprites were entirely completed when they decided this (unlikely).
I highly doubt the devs behind this game are a part of some larger scheme lurking beneath the surface like the Illuminati, nor is any other DEI dev. That is, entirely, a conspiracy theory unfounded in logical grounding, unless you have a very strong source to back that up. The most I'll accept without that is that (only) AAA games are interconnected through companies they hired to help them promote diversity (since there is no way indie devs could afford or would particularly want to hire them, as an indie dev myself). Though, on that account, I'll say the strange cultish belief I've seen around DEI talks that Sweet Baby Inc. in particular is strong-arming them rather than being willfully contracted is funny.
Game is linear at best. You never get to own the supermarket, I finished the game in a day or two of playing sporadically. There's no tangible relationship with the npcs, there's nothing meaningful. If you come looking for something like Traveler's rest, cheft RPG or stardew valley but with a supermarket... you'll get big disappointment.
"Our goal is to build a sustainable and inclusive game studio"
Just look at those characters... The devs are white danes and it looks like they're building the arche noah.
I believe you anti dei guys love these games...I believe its the only reason why these games survive; the dei crowd is only a tiny Minority %... which can hardly keep any of these studios or games afloat, and I doubt they care for video gaming; they are more about their whiny politics if not. Meanwhile people like me, probably will not play it or get bored of it maybe without me realizing it.
Lot of popular games have "dei" even before the "term" became popular, lot of people play without noticing or "trolling" about it, its only thanks to our pedo in chief and their cabaal. Even the games people play now, I can spot many dei crap in t heir games.
Secondly, you're trying to say that the entirety of customers who make the survival of games like this possible are anti-DEI guys. This is an honestly retarded claim, which hints at your political leaning.
The reason why I point propaganda out is because "no one" else does. What are you doing?
Saying woke DEI is a meaningless buzzword says a lot about your understanding of the topic and your political leaning. As long as the "game mechanics" are good you are seemingly willing to consume anything, regardless of the level of propaganda contained within it. Otherwise this would matter to you in terms of overall game quality or deciding if you want to expose yourself to this type of manipulation. The fact that you boil my remarks down to "not liking certain skin colors" is more proof of that.
To sum it up; I's not my job to review the game. I am here to point out the modern day propaganda and virtue signaling in video games. So either you have a compelling argument or you keep consuming your DEI games.
Your compelling argument is nonexistent. What is propaganda about it? What is virtue signalling about it? The fact that you don't like it is propaganda? Unlike you, I actually played the game - and it doesn't say anything that could be remotely construed as propaganda, nor does it get up in your face and say 'BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' like you seem to think it does. POC characters simply exist, same as with the white ones. You're also free to choose a white main character. Otherwise, the game is a shop management sim with Stardew Valley-esque affinity cutscenes with characters, and so far there has been NO mention of anybody's race or political affiliations beyond the Stardew-standard anti-big-corporation message.
You'll also notice that in his post he dodged my initial accusation of irrelevance to the actual game (which I continued to dig into in my larger post since it's kind of idiotic to review a game based on things that don't exist IN the game AND being completely uninformed as to the game's contents itself), as well as claiming a lack of interest in reviewing the actual game so that he can place the blame (of being the dreaded Woke Mind-Controlled Sheeple) and more importantly the burden of proof upon me.
This is both despite the fact that he never made any intelligent claims to his own proof in the first place and how he has since ignored my response when I did counter every facet of his post even though I didn't have to, going so far as to use my in-game experiences which he can't deflect as someone who's prematurely deemed it 'The Unexplainable Propaganda' so he doesn't have to provide any explanation whatsoever.
Tl;dr: this is a common conservative/alt-right tactic to look smarter than your opponent without actually providing any meaningful resistance or commentary (in the modern times this has been most famously employed by one Donald Trump).
I doubt anyone else is reading this thread at this point, but eh, I figured a deep dive into the behaviors behind this was worth writing up, even if I think the IGG comments section is a largely conservative/alt-right crowd anyway...
oddly, despite the, y'know, freedom theming of piracy and all, but whatever. America exists as a world of contradictions in that regard too.Read the other post, it basically adresses everything, aside from your projection.
When I quoted the game studios website
"Our goal is to build a sustainable and inclusive game studio"
I was pointing out the game studio's involvement with and adherence to said DEI propaganda. To what degree it exists in the game, I can't tell.
I am also not saying that there isn't other forms of propaganda in other video games but you're clearly upset that I am shitting on a game you enjoyed. So my point initial point wasn't irrelavant. It was only "irrelevant" to you.
Onto your definition of Wokeness/DEI - sure, I guess that's applicable, but then isn't the opposite true? Actively not adhering to Wokeness/DEI and steering others clear of it means you're also projecting your own political agenda. Or not doing so in game development, for that matter. The very act of not promoting diversity is in itself political, since making every character white is just as deliberate unless you're willing to make the (racist) statement that white is the 'normal' skintone and that's the sole reason why everyone uses it.
Just about everything is political, so unless the agenda is radical, I don't see the point in avoiding it. What is the problem with diversity in games, even if it is propaganda of some sort? In my eyes, it does no harm, beyond enriching the color palette of the characters and potentially adding in interesting culture points. MANY games use minorities' cultures for folklore and such without including said minorities, why is that okay but having the minorities actually deliberately added into the game isn't?
I'll be a bit more polite this time and ask exactly what your reasoning is for excluding minorities other than 'it's propaganda' - since, as I said previously, there's propaganda of all sorts in pretty much any game, including the anti-war sentiments of Metal Gear Solid (which I agree with, and I think it's an amazing series, but it's still a sort of propaganda being pushed).
Then why did you say in your first reply "I don't think the game was that bad to begin with."? Saying you played the game AFTER your first comment makes your statement irrelevant since you didn't even play the game. Like, wtf.
"The very act of not promoting diversity is in itself political, since making every character white is just as deliberate unless you're willing to make the (racist) statement that white is the 'normal' skintone and that's the sole reason why everyone uses it. "
You're basically using the "everything is political" argument, but the other way around, saying that not promoting something is also promoting something. While that might be true conceptually it is irrelevant because it doesn't negate the fact that the game company is adhering to the idea of "inclusivity" (DEI), as stated in my very first comment.
Another misconception, which is part of the brainwashing, is that white is not normal. Of course not everyone is white, but the western world (Europe/USA) is predominately white and has been predominately white in the past. The reason the white skintone is used is probably because it was perceived as normal by those (white) programmers in the past as they identify with it and target an audience (customers) that is more white than anything else. In my estimation it simply hasn't been questioned by people in general until the diversity propaganda started putting the idea into people's head that the western world is too white and needs more "representation".
Your last question is based on the misunderstanding of how DEI indoctrination works, which is a deliberate effort to distort reality and people's peception. You are thinking that the targeted media (games) are a depiction of reality, when in truth they are designed for you to accept the notion of multiculturalism and other things.
WHY would they push that sort of idea? Well, maybe the increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees that western governments allow into everyone's country has something to do with it? I don't know.
So technically there is nothing wrong with having "minorities" in games and media. But what purpose does it serve if it's merely virtue signaling and "representation" and adds nothing of value to the game?
TL;DR I am not a racist, get over it.
Also, yes, that is exactly what I'm saying - everything IS political, whether or not you choose to involve yourself with any form of politics is in itself political. It's not irrelevant because that's what I'm posing towards you, as a question, outside of this specific example. But to humor you, I'll say that whatever their motive for doing so, what the game company chose to do is an act of promotion of minorities to uplift them, and you perceive that to be so hostile to you that you actively avoided it on the sole basis of what the developer vowed to do - again, an extremely harmless stance, even if it may be completely valueless as you stated (or not) - rather than taking any account of what's actually in the game or the gameplay itself. Even if it IS virtue signalling for brownie points among the minorities, what does that actually matter? You avoid an entire game that might be good because you're slightly annoyed by the devs taking the moral high ground?
In my opinion, having shitty milquetoast minority characters by people who aren't that good at writing them is better than not having any for the minorities in question to have rapport with. As long as they're not racist stereotypes, anyway, but at least this game didn't do that. There's simply not very many (in comparison) notable minority characters in media, so it's a 'take what you can get' sort of situation, even if it isn't ideal.
I'm not sure where you're going with the accepting multiculturism thing, but I'm guessing you live in some place where it's largely one culture all across the board. Here in the backwaters of the US where I live, sure, it might not be that culturally diverse, but even in the smaller towns (like the one in Discounty) there's places where black people outnumber the whites, so this isn't what I would call a 'distorted reality' like you're insinuating. Multiculturism isn't some fictional premise. Maybe a PERFECT multiculturist society is, but y'know, real life is never perfect. Still, I've seen real life locations more culturally diverse than most games classified as 'DEI', this one included.
TL;DR: I've accepted that you may not be exactly racist, but it reads like you're just as indoctrinated as how you're claiming I am. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, to posit that the other is the brainwashed one too gullible to think for themselves. The only thing I'll say in your defense is that I do think it's possible to overdo diversity or do it badly, but I still wouldn't go so far as to say the worst examples I've encountered (yet) are propaganda deliberately meant to 'brainwash' people into the deeply sinister evil of believing in multiculturalism. Mostly those are just tone-deaf.
I just wanted to point out that the devs are DEI clowns.
I don't think you really understand the extend to which this whole thing goes, what DEI actually entails in practice. How much money and effort is pumped into this agenda, which essentially is the opposite of what it claims to be.
Maybe do some research. Until then..
For one thing, this is an indie game, they're hardly pumping big bucks into it and it wouldn't have taken that much money or effort to change skintones of a few characters, even if the sprites were entirely completed when they decided this (unlikely).
I highly doubt the devs behind this game are a part of some larger scheme lurking beneath the surface like the Illuminati, nor is any other DEI dev. That is, entirely, a conspiracy theory unfounded in logical grounding, unless you have a very strong source to back that up. The most I'll accept without that is that (only) AAA games are interconnected through companies they hired to help them promote diversity (since there is no way indie devs could afford or would particularly want to hire them, as an indie dev myself). Though, on that account, I'll say the strange cultish belief I've seen around DEI talks that Sweet Baby Inc. in particular is strong-arming them rather than being willfully contracted is funny.
And you have no understanding of how propaganda works.
Stop wasting my time. Start digging.
I don't want to walk all over the place, especially when most buildings are locked, or the interiors are tiny anyway and serve almost no point.
Moving shelves around and restocking is also tedious, with a "dirty floor" mechanic that doesn't even really make the game more engaging.
Can't recommend it overall, since it doesn't seem to value a player's time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIYfvL8-1CA