Originally posted by zaphodikus:

I have to agree on missile command, although by that logic you could drop entire genres into the activism bucket. For example Monopoly was invented in 1904 as a response to the Prosperity Monopolism culture of the day. So computer games are trumped by boardgames at an impossible to beat date.

But yeah have to agree Missile Command would qualify, although it might not be as obvious as other games are.

The developer/programmer was inspired by a nightmare they had where they were on a hill watching nucler missles rain down on his home city.

It's rather telling that Missile command is an unwinnable game that forces you to make harder decisions. and in the end , no matter what you do, you are gonna be destroyed.

DO you sacrifice a city or maybe two so you can better concentrate your defenses. DO you let a missile base fall or do you save it and doom a city...

And yes. That's the interesting thing, Activism is only activism when it's someone else's ideals.

Originally posted by Kiryn:

When did the "activist" game developer mindset start?

When culture war influencers convinced a lot of angry online dudes that anything they didn't like was caused by "activists".

Prertty much.

I've often said if the OG Metroid was only developed and released today they'd call that woke!

Gianna Sisters would also get the woke branding.

Originally posted by Start_Running:

I've often said if the OG Metroid was only developed and released today they'd call that woke!

Which is an obvious strawman fallacy.

Originally posted by Skankhunt42:

Gianna Sisters would also get the woke branding.

1987 gets my vote.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

I've often said if the OG Metroid was only developed and released today they'd call that woke!

Which is an obvious strawman fallacy.

Then explain the curator groups on Steam blacklisting games and calling them "woke" for having female characters in them.

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Which is an obvious strawman fallacy.

Then explain the curator groups on Steam blacklisting games and calling them "woke" for having female characters in them.

Explain Stellar Blade.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

Then explain the curator groups on Steam blacklisting games and calling them "woke" for having female characters in them.

Explain Stellar Blade.

IIRC, that game is "Not recommended" by the curators I've mentioned, because it features a woman showing unrealistic feats of strength and combat prowess.

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Explain Stellar Blade.

IIRC, that game is "Not recommended" by the curators I've mentioned, because it features a woman showing unrealistic feats of strength and combat prowess.

Then link it.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

IIRC, that game is "Not recommended" by the curators I've mentioned, because it features a woman showing unrealistic feats of strength and combat prowess.

Then link it.

It appears that "DEI detected removed all their reviews with blatant and obvious antagonization of non-white people and women. I haven't checked their activity in a while, was going to link them. They're still a group I would NEVER follow though. So... my bad.

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Then link it.

It appears that "DEI detected removed all their reviews with blatant and obvious antagonization of non-white people and women. I haven't checked their activity in a while, was going to link them. They're still a group I would NEVER follow though. So... my bad.

More like you looked it up, and it agreed with me.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

It appears that "DEI detected removed all their reviews with blatant and obvious antagonization of non-white people and women. I haven't checked their activity in a while, was going to link them. They're still a group I would NEVER follow though. So... my bad.

More like you looked it up, and it agreed with me.

If you want to see it that way. I had put them on "ignore" so I had to undo that to view their content. By the way, I think there are way better examples of good games than "Stellar Blade". The Kiseki and Ys series have much better designs and their characters are actually more than just shallow sex appeal.

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

More like you looked it up, and it agreed with me.

If you want to see it that way.

I mean, it is literally what happened:

https://deidetective.com/games/stellar-blade/

Originally posted by Skankhunt42:

Gianna Sisters would also get the woke branding.

The original Tomb Raider would.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by The nameless Gamer:

If you want to see it that way.

I mean, it is literally what happened:

https://deidetective.com/games/stellar-blade/

At the very least we're not arguing Saints Row this time.

Tito should not appeal to media literacy when he’s demonstrated his own lack of literacy overall. See his admitted lack of discernment practice when judging whether a Wikipedia article is currently contentious.

He did not come to the conclusion that the humans in Starship Troopers (the film) were the bad guys because of actually watching the movie.

He doesn’t understand that they are, in the film, portrayed as the good guys, because it is a satire.

That they aren’t good guys is a view derived from knowledge external to the film itself (which is how satire works). It’s necessary that we understand that they are not good guys by our standards in order for their portrayal as good guys in the film itself to produce humor.

Similarly, within the context of Robocop, the police are good guys. Ours (or the Author’s) position relative to “ACAB” wouldn’t alter what is exegetic.

I read a lot of “Neo-Wushu” comics recently. The protagonist is the hero, and everyone who opposes him or even disrespects him deserves everything the protagonist decides to do to them.

Protagonist chokes one of his rivals’ wives to death in her sleep after torturing her with nightmares. He later finds out she was pregnant and says he’d gladly do it again.

This is not a good person to me, it’s a horrible person actually. But this is what the story is telling me, exegetically, what they think a hero is. And unlike starship troopers I don’t have any external knowledge from the author of whether or not satire is intended.

Well many devs have always consciously or subconsciously inserted their politics into games. Bioware is a good example. All of their work has featured progressive elements which over time opened the door and led to the infamous "I'm non-binary" scene. Leftwing politics as a whole are a slippery slope where the extremes become normalized as time goes on.

To answer your question more specifically the activist mindset as you'd call it was promoted heavily by Matt Lees back when he gave presentations at Gamescom and PAX to others devs urging them to be political. He took the stance of types like Anita Sarkeesian who believed everything was political and that those who wished to be apolitical were enemies. Gamergate of course kicked off the culture war as we know it when activists spun the narrative that gamers were all evil White supremacists and that devs shouldn't seek to have a gamer audience. The rise of Trump in 2016 further radicalized the left, etc. It's all just one thing building upon another.

If you want more of a general answer to when did this kind of insane toxic activism start well you'd have to go back to around the turn of the century when a certain demographic of people immigrated to America, established Hollywood, began to take over academia, and the media.