What universally beloved videogame you just can't enjoy?

https://sh.itjust.works/post/21874505

What universally beloved videogame you just can't enjoy? - sh.itjust.works

2 picks for me: Stardew Valley, most boring shit ever, I don’t see the appeal, seriously how the hell did that thing sold 20 million copies? And Witcher 3, I own that game since 2019 and I regret buying it, funny thing is that I’ve finished Dragon Age 1 and 2, which are kinda same genre but I actually enjoyed those games. I guess the old BioWare sauce carried those games unlike Witcher where there’s nothing to enjoy in its massive pointless world.

The Fallout series. The worldbuilding is so sloppy and lazy that it grates pretty much from the get-go… and that’s without even mentioning the white supremacist subtext it’s all drenched in.
Fallout New Vegas has IMO very good world building. Can’t say anything about the other parts.

…that’s without even mentioning the white supremacist subtext it’s all drenched in.

What?

Oh look… a liberal that refuses to see white supremacism when it’s literally on a screen a few inches from their face.

Yawn.

Wo did you think the (so-called) “ghouls” really are a stand-in for? Who did you think the (so-called) “tribals” are a stand-in for?

What?
If you browse their profile, they’re just a reaction troll. Block, move on.

Go ahead, liberal… block me.

That won’t change the fact that the liberal fairy tales you’ve been feeding yourself is coming apart at the seams.

Fuckin whatever dingaling.

I think, if you’re serious, you may wish to consider challenging what you believe in. You won’t get a rise out of me, so don’t bother. I just wish to push you to try.

Cheers, friend. Hope you do. :)

you may wish to consider challenging what you believe in.

Then offer me something - show me how your ideology actually explain anything.

That is - if you can?

Sorry :)

I know from experience that the only way anyone who holds such strong beliefs will change their mind is when they are placed in a situation that seriously challenges it. So most of the time it is up to the individual to choose to challenge their beliefs, not me. I’m just a speaker you can ignore.

Good luck. I hope if you do that you end up at some conclusion that helps you. And yes, I know you will claim that this means I have nothing to show you. I guess you’ll have to decide if that means you’re unwilling to try.

I’m just a speaker you can ignore.

I’m not ignoring you - I’m giving you (and the rest of the liberals in here) the perfect opportunity to extoll the virtues of liberal “see no white supremacism, hear no white supremacism, speak no white supremacism” ideology.

Unsurprisingly, there are no takers. I am left to draw the obvious conclusion - that liberals are no less invested in the maintenance of racialized society than their fascist cousins are. It’s just the way this investment is expressed that differs.

Hahaha, yeah, you’re right, we ain’t biting. :)

You could, and this is just a thought, also choose to look up the many arguments and discussions on this exact topic online, since you’re so keen to explore it. Bootstraps, my friend. Gotta put in the work!

also choose to look up the many arguments and discussions on this exact topic online

Hold on a sec while I follow your advice…

Hold it…

Hold some more…

Just one more sec… done!

You mean like this?

“The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.” - Malcom X

You know what you’re doing. Taking a single radical source and using it to try and get people to pivot and engage. However, I now know you have the capacity to do a Google search. So good luck on your journey of information discovery and in challenging your beliefs. If you are fair in what you read and open-minded in what you learn, much of the time you will gain wisdom. Heck, you may even look back with some consternation at conversations and beliefs you once held. It’s in those moments of self-reflection and embarrassment where many of us realize how much we’ve grown as people.

That said, I will say this:

Inequality exists not due to Man, though rather due to nature itself. Therefore, as Man, we must then seek to challenge nature so that we may thrive in unity. If you personally were to take the dichotomy of our modern political and sociocultural systems and challenge them to prove their efforts in supporting a more inclusive and just world, which side would you choose?

The Red or the Blue?

One or the other. Because we both know they are not the same thing, not really, despite the words spoken by a man more than 60 years ago.

Taking a single radical source

Oh… you thought that’s the only one, huh?

Try this one on, then.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

Also, FYI… don’t use the term radical as a slur - it demonstrates how politically incompetent and intelectually shallow you really are.

You didn’t answer my question. :)
Your question is irrelevant - but if you must have an answer… you can take both and stick 'em where the sun don’t shine.

There’s the problem. You are unwilling to compromise. Change on this scale will require either a small miracle to do overnight, or I’d guess at least a solid 10 years of hard, consistent work by people much more intelligent and decisive than myself, and that’s just to set the foundation and create the outline. The first is an act of God and I don’t know about you, I’d rather keep religion out of this. That leaves the second, which means compromise to achieve a greater good over a longer period of time.

You see, I don’t really care about your beliefs, or anyone else’s, so far as they are yours to believe in. Thus action must take the place of opinion. I asked you to commit to something and the only action you were able to take was to tell all of us that you can’t stand it. That choosing between what is statistically and factually a greater evil and one that is statistically and factually attempting to be a far lesser evil, is not something you can do.

I’ll tell you what I believe in, and it’s pretty simple: I believe in what I feel will do good by the world and by its people. Not complete good untarnished by greed or malice, just a good that tries to do right. It doesn’t matter the source of the idea; all that matters is whether it is enacted in a way that helps more than it harms. Right, left, middle, none of this means anything. Though at the moment far more malice and hatred is coming from the Red than from anywhere else.

Malcom X and MLK fought for a more equal country, at the end of the day. If their words ring true in your ears at all, it should be obvious where your support must, by necessity, move towards. Else the only way out may be more Malcoms and more Martins.

You are unwilling to compromise.

Compromise with whom? You?

You have nothing to offer except more of the same, Clyde…

factually attempting to be a far lesser evil

…and you’re going to have even less to offer when your “lesser evilism” claptrap hits rock bottom either this November or, if you (somehow) manage to kick the can further down the road, in four year’s time.

Since I’m not mean, I won’t ask you what (supposed) “actions” you will be “committing” to if that should happen (because I know your liberal ideology has left you too intellectually paralyzed to think any further than that)… but that doesn’t change the fact that you have nothing to offer except more of the same.

Malcom X and MLK fought for a more equal country,

Don’t use radical figures to try and hide your investment in the status quo, Clyde - that only works on liberals.

Up to you. I said what I wanted to say. Whether you listen or not is, as always, your choice.
So you admit you have nothing to offer, liberal?
The narrative structuring around ghouls generally paints them as being unjustly denigrated, so even if they are race stand-ins it wouldn’t be for the purpose of promoting white supremacism.

The narrative structuring around ghouls generally paints them as being unjustly denigrated… but still an undeniable “other” that diverges from the “norm” (ie, whiteness) - exactly the way liberal ideology has always excused white supremacism.

FTFY.

By that logic any depiction of any form of supremacy, or otherism as a concept, regardless of intent, is detrimental. So, homogeneity only? Commentary is an excuse? Talking about the problem is the same as endorsing it?

Nah, race isn’t implied in any of that. Ghouls were originally portrayed sympathetically, for the most part, at least until they turned zombie-like. Do you think zombies imply racism?

As for tribals; surprise! Humans arrange ourselves into small groups, often referred to as tribes, no matter what our shade of skin, nation or origin, or even our level of technology.

Do you think zombies imply racism?

Lol! I guess you haven’t realized why the majority of protagonists in the “zombie apocalypse” genre are always paragons of middle-class WASP-ness?

As for tribals; surprise!

Sure, Clyde… I guess the reservations exist purely because their inhabitants like the view, correct?

Sorry buddy, these are not the stereotypes you think they are.

Frankly, zombie movies have much more to say about modern life than other genres.

Only if you see the world through the same white supremacist lens that is so prevalent in (so-called) “prepper” communities.

If they focus on white people more, it’s typically

You mean it has nothing to do with the (supposed) “threat” posed to white middle-class Americans by all these “othered” peoples? I wonder what would happen if we were to replace the word “immigrant” with the word “zombie” in US main-stream media - would it make it any different or would the propaganda work pretty much the same? You need me to remind you how US authorities treat marginalized people during natural disasters?

But you have by no means established that Fallout made ghouls as racist stereotypes.

I don’t have to… the games pretty much does that all by itself. The relationship between humans and these “ghouls” in the games is a perfect representation of the “race relations” lens through which white liberals view the subject of white supremacism - which is, not concidentally, the furthest liberalism will allow discourse on white supremacism to go.

We have them now, everywhere.

Lol! So what’s the name of yours, then? Where’s your “tribe,” Clyde?

You were aware that it’s literally peak white supremacism to simply assume that everybody living in un-colonized spaces exist in (so-called) “tribes,” right?

Nor frankly, have you demonstrated that you speak for Native Americans.

No go, Clyde - you don’t get to deflect from white supremacism by using Native American folk as camouflage.

Wow. Just think. You typed all that for nothing.

You typed all that for nothing

Soooo… no word on that (alleged) “tribe” of yours, huh?

No surprises there.

Yawn.

You still talking?
Ahem - you were saying something bout your (alleged) "tribe?
Nope, I wasn’t. That was all in your silly little head.

This wasn’t you?

Tribes have always existed, in every people group. We have them now, everywhere. We grow up in them. We build them on our own.

Soooo… where’s your (alleged) “tribe,” Clyde?

Lookit you! Awww.

Oh… so that was you?

Glad we got that sorted out. So…

Are you having trouble remembering this (supposed) “tribe” of yours?

Oooh, reply again?

In other words… you don’t have the foggiest clue what it is you are talking about.

Is there anything you say that shouldn’t automatically be dismissed as verbal gonorrhea?

Oooh, reply again!

Soooo… nothing?

No surprises there.

No surprise at all, I’m sure! I am deliberately and maliciously wasting your time. You get nothing whatsoever.

Cmon, reply again?

Name your “tribe,” Clyde.
The protagonist of Fallout 2 is literally a tribal that goes to save his tribe and in the end kills the president of USA.

Oh look… a conservative that refuses to see white supremacy when it’s literally on a screen a few inches from their face.

FTFY. Yawn.

“Conservatives” are liberals, Clyde - they’re simply liberals that are further along the “lib-to-fash-pipeline” than you are.

So no… you didn’t fix squat.

Even if you’re right, you don’t need to be such a smug prick about it. They’re literally just asking a question.

I’ll try and keep that in mind.

But I am dealing with liberal here, you know.

Dude if you care at all about expanding your ideology beyond yourself, it behooves you to not be an insufferable jerk to literally everyone you talk to. Your demeanor completely undermines any effort you might make here to (perhaps even rightly) challenge the societal norms you deem inadequate, unjust, or otherwise bad. People will just assume you sit in a continuous state of masturbatory rage and dismiss anything you might have (even potentially of substance) to offer to the conversation. Frankly I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything in print which so clearly expressed an air of self-righteous smugness, save for perhaps something by Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins.

Figure out how and when ad hominem is appropriate. Learn how to disagree tactfully. Try to exercise some empathy, at least to the point of being able to connect with folks long enough to rattle off whatever rhetoric you have in the ol’ back pocket.

Dude if you care at all about expanding your ideology beyond yourself,

You are assuming I’m here to “expand” an ideology - that’s a bad assumption, and you should feel bad about that.

you sit in a continuous state of masturbatory rage

I wish - that sounds lie a lot more fun than whatever this is.

self-righteous smugness, save for perhaps something by Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins.

Okay, I have to admit - that kind of stings.

Learn how to disagree tactfully.

I’m afraid that I don’t have the energy to waste on respectability politics - I don’t have a thousand years to wait until liberals (magically) become “ready” to hear how the liberal consensus has screwed them (and the rest of us) over. It’s going to have to happen in a more abrupt fashion - but I can assure you… they will come out the other side without a scratch on them.

whatever rhetoric you have in the ol’ back pocket.

I’m not here to recruit people for some “ism.” I’m here to throw a wrench into the machinery of recruitment itself. Nobody here will hear the rhetoric I “have in the ol’ back pocket” no matter how loudly I shout it - but they will sure hear the rhetoric they use to defend this ideology, and it will probably be the first time they hear themselves thinking it out loud, too. Let’s face it - liberals do not have a lot of practice thinking about liberalism at all. All I’m doing is giving them the opportunity to do so - they sure won’t be getting that from the media and political establishment racketeers gaslighting them into not thinking about it.

You’re trying to dismantle the echo chamber by amplifying voices inside to the point that they think what they’re saying no longer or has never made sense, and by extension alienate folks outside looking in.

It sounds like an interesting strategy, and might be fun if that’s what your about, but I doubt it’s very effective. I think the risk of it backfiring is probably too high to see a very good return on your effort. Maybe you’re different, but I could also see the toxicity of the cynicism required to maintain the strategy would decompartmentalize and seep into other parts of my life, potentially causing me to alienate my friends and family as well as affecting my mental health.

I any case, I got respect for anyone willing to stick to their guns for what they think is right, especially if it’s for positive social change. I just hope you’ve weighed the consequences of your method.

It sounds like an interesting strategy, and might be fun if that’s what your about, but I doubt it’s very effective

I’ve been doing this since 2016 - the only thing the alternative strategy is effective at is to ensure it’s users suffer endless burnout.

As you can see… I’m still very much at it.

I think the risk of it backfiring is probably too high to see a very good return on your effort,

Backfire to what? Simply flowing along the “liberal-to-fascist” pipeline like they were doing anyway?

I expect no “return” here - this is not a business. I don’t treat people like “political assets” that has to be gaslit into doing what this or that faction of the political establishment wants at all costs - here on lemmy.world, I leave that shit to the “vote blue no matter who” brigade.

but I could also see the toxicity of the cynicism required to maintain the strategy decompartmentalizing and seeping into other parts of my life

Not really… my irritation with people who think they can “vote” fascism away is short-lived and skin-deep - it’s very hard to stay angry at people when you know exactly how the politics that have been drilled into their heads got there in the first place. You might just as well stay angry at people for catching the cold.

potentially causing me to alienate my friends and family as well as affecting my mental health.

The group of people privileged enough to be able to convince themselves that politics is simply a spectator sport they can opt out of whenever something better is showing on the other channel is shrinking by the day - the friends and family I’ve lost to the far-right had very little to do with my behavior, I’m afraid. It’s almost like liberal politics primes people to either lurch towards the right or merely acquiesce to it after a smidgen of ineffective protest - and I have a hunch that’s no coincidence.

Alright. Good luck.
Man… you went so far out of left field to reach that conclusion that you’ve landed in touchdown territory!
Not sure if troll or mentally ill…
To be well-adjusted to a sick society is no sign of mental health, Clyde.

Fallout’s worldbuilding is fundamentally based on the 1980s game Wasteland, which had some of the best worldbuilding of its era, right up there with Ultima. Fallout 1 was essentially a remake of Wasteland. And they’ve only added to the worldbuilding since.

I’m much more a fan of team-building turn-based strategy games like Fallout 1 and 2, but I can’t claim that the worldbuilding is sloppy with the later sequels because the world was already well-built and they’re just adding details at this point.

Just the fact that the worldbuilding of the game was able to sustain a really good TV series season without the series adding much to the lore is pretty damn amazing.