Anyone else think that there is something more going than just what we see in the postal games? I have done some research and found a theory that states that in postal 2 your playing from the perspective of a conspiracy theorist. If you actually think about what the postal dude from postal 2 sees and says, this theory actually makes some sense. Like the pipe leading to a terrorist base behind his trailer or how terrorists are hiding out a a market or even on Friday when the newspaper says "Government denies releasing mind-altering gasses".

Having done no research on this topic whatsoever, I would have to say that I had never considered deeper meanings in a game like this. With that said, I have not played the new DLC so I am not sure if they try to flesh out anything about the Postal Dude in that expansion, but from what I can tell these diverse elements and locations exist simply for the sake of satire or just to wreak havoc in diverse settings. Any chance you could share the source of the theory?

I only played Postal 1, and Postal 2. I saw some of Postal 3, and it's not my type of game at all. I also only really like Postal 1. Postal 2 is a very, very different game.

With that said, I only care about Postal 1 and the dark reality it holds, and of course I liked the dark humor. For me personally, there was never a deeper story to it. It was about someone going postal. Something in society made him snap, and he went ballistic on all those with authority.

If you really want to look deep into it, in my opinion, I'd look at society as a whole. Not at what made him specifically go postal, but at all the stress, pain, and B.S. that goes on in society. I see stuff all the time in the not-mainstream media that can make my blood boil. There's many people out there that are a stone throw away from going postal, not in the same way as the guy does in Postal 1, but there is a limit many of us can only take before we reach the mindset of the guy in the game.

So not really a deeper story for me, but it does tell me a small story of a guy that had enough of all the B.S. those in power have shoved down his throat. Like at the end of Postal 1 when he tries to kill all the kids. When does the B.S. start? When you're young in a public school.

Are you sure this is how you want to phrase it? Most great works of art have no subtext? Let's test this then:

- 'Alien' is just a movie about a monster that kills people on a space ship. It does not allude to the horror of being raped, represented by the face huggers impregnating you through your mouth and the xenomorph that looks like a penis-monster with a penis-like tongue stabbing you.

- 'War of the Worlds' is a book about aliens from outer space invading earth. It does not represent the injustice of colonialism where civilisations with superior technology force themselves upon and make others subservient.

- 'The Thin Red Line' is just a WWII war movie with American and Japanese soldiers fighting in the pacific. It is not a movie about men who do not understand each other and therefore fear one another, nor is it about the tragedy that leaving your loved ones behind and what the horrors of war does to men. (The movie ends with a Japanese soldier verging on tears pleading for an American soldier to surrender because he doesn't want to kill him, but the American doesn't understand the command and believes he will be tortured to death if he surrenders and provokes the Japanese to shoot him. Wow.)

- 'Drive' is just a movie about a cool but slightly creepy guy who tries to help a girl he likes. It isn't a character study of a sociopath who tries be human but ultimately realises he can't escape his violent nature. This is what we usually call satire, and that is perhaps all Postal ever was beyond it's gameplay. The first game is argueably putting the player in the shoes of someone who is suffering a violent psychosis, shown by how the game starts with people attacking him and he has to defend himself rather than the player deciding to go on a rampage, but it isn't really exploring this theme so much as using it to motivate gameplay. The second game is more focused on satirising a few aspects of early 00's Americana and doesn't actually say that Postal Dude is having a psychosis. He's just the snarky straight man in an insane world. Again, this isn't so much a theme as it is a way to motivate gameplay.

On this point, I agree with you. The postal games do not have a message. They don't have meaning beyond their gameplay loops. When anti-game violence activists storm the game developer office, it becomes extreme satire that is more of a joke than commentary. At most, we can glean that the developers don't like these critics and treat them like cannon fodder in their game. They are not pointing out a hypocrisy as is usually the purpose of political satire, they are only extending a middle finger.

Perhaps Postal just isn't a great work of art. Who would have thought?

A deeper meaning in the Postal Games?

Now THAT is funny.

The problem I have with the games is that the gameplay gets very repetitive,and the satire in the games is not nearly as funny or clever as the designers thought it was.