And?

I'll have to check it for myself this summer, but Tropico seems to me like wonderful realpolitik game where ideology is tool for staying and accumulating power, rather than something which is actively promoted. Also, a tool for players who want to roleplay.

So if you want to be Right wing dictator, you can freely be that. Zero problems. Also, I believe it's more profitable.

Is it just your belief that being "right-wing" is more profitable in Tropico or you have the actual proof of that? Because if it isn't true than Tropico *doesn't* explicitly promote "right-wing" ideology in a way Tonight We Riot promotes socialist revolt.

I think I have explicitly said Tropico is realpolitk game which doesn't promotes ideological beliefs unlike games which actually do, Tonight We Riot being an example. But being realpolitik game, absolutely condones any ideology... if it's a mean to gain and hold power. Now I don't have proof that going "Right wing" is more profitable, but knowing my management and strategy games, "capitalism" is usually quite an easy and effective way of making money compared to more "socialist" options. I'll be right back to you after I play it.

Now being somebody who is free from ideology myself (unless you count nihilism as an ideology), I don't see problems with games explicitly or implicitly promoting any ideology. Now if GOG doesn't want particular ideology here, that's their thing.

...

I am not participating in the current debate. I have no interest in arguing about governments types. IMO that goes nowhere... and is certainly contrary to GOG's policy. But...

... I did want to clarify something I touched on yesterday...

IMO games can be whatever they want to be -- including propaganda. Certainly there are many, many games over the years that could be classified as such. At the same time...

... I don't remember a game (or series) like say Call of Duty...

... ever advocating attacking a class of people based solely on their class (as Tonight We Riot does on the GOG game page). I can only remember games like Call of Duty either using a broad historical context for "enemies" (ie WWII shooters) or making a specific argument within the narrative for why the "bad guys" must be stopped.

Tonight We Riot may have a narrative that reasons why class violence is needed, but I find the suggestion that an entire class of people deserve to be "punched in the throat" detestable. Why? Because the criteria for what class "deserves it" changes with the political winds. What Tonight We Riot seems to suggest is not justice, but payback... revenge... where the banner of guilt is broad, unwavering, based on a bank account, and final.

As I read people defending the attacking of the wealthy (prior to mod removal), I am keenly aware that the same arguments -- they control the banking... they hoard the money... etc. -- sound eerily familiar to any student of history (and certainly should to any European). Substitute a certain "race" for billionaires in the game page quote about punching them in the throat, and you have a frightening reminder of times past.

In closing, I am not advocating for billionaires' innocence, but instead advocating for due process when ascribing guilt... and for no guilt to be ascribed simply because of color, class, ethnicity, religion, or station in life. While I do not know the content of the game Tonight We Riot, I see from the store page what IMHO feels a childish and even dangerous glorification of class condemnation -- sans due process -- and it sickens me.

In the end, this is probably the controversy the developers hoped to use in order to draw sales... and this game will probably be forgotten rather quickly... but I do believe that games that promote hurting others -- based solely on aspects like social class / status -- should be called out... just as I'd never accept a game about beating the poor, hungry, and penniless.

Guys, you're all getting a bit ahead of yourselves here...

Having played it for a bit, this so obviously and transparently a parody, I don't know how it could be any more blatant. The closest thing that comes to my mind would be something like Cannon Fodder. You have this pixel art sidescroller, only that every now and then you have a dialogue window open up with one of your heroes shouting empty rhetoric and catchphrases (Workers of the world, unite!). You'll be fighting mechs by level 3 and all the baddies look like clones of Donald Trump. It's kinda sad we live in a world where such outlandish buffoonery is actually misunderstood as an actual incitement to violence.

Remember 20 years ago when Cannon Fodder came out and your boomer parents got all upset because they felt it was mocking the fallen soldiers in WW2 and/or glorifying violence? Don't be like your boomer parents, mmkay.

"Area liberated"... by Communists. This game has to be one big troll.

Well, while I understand your point and experience of the game, the developers were trying to make something very different.

From a Polygon interview:

https://kotaku.com/tonight-we-riot-devs-wanted-to-make-an-unapologetically-1843321038

Tonight We Riot marks the culmination of five years of work, during which the developer sought to provide an entertaining game while also arguing the merits of leftist ideologies in a medium that rarely elevates them.

“There’s tons and tons of games that have been delivering pretty strong political messages, whether they meant to or not,” Tonight We Riot code steward Stephen Meyer told Kotaku. “Most of the games in the [modern military] genre are like [neoconservative] fantasies. They enforce this idea that the very best way to make the world a better place is by massive military force, that you don’t need organization and societal change. And there’s lots of xenophobia in there, too. You see these neocon fantasies all the time and you don’t really see leftist fantasies. In our tiny little way, we were trying to be an answer to that.”

Ted Anderson, veteran game developer and art steward on Tonight We Riot, finally felt pushed to try creating a leftist video game after playing through Bioshock Infinite. That game also depicts a violent uprising, but employs a bit of horseshoe theory in making the perpetually downtrodden masses just as sociopathic and murderous as their lifelong oppressors, a “both sides” argument that doesn’t really do justice to the importance of political revolution.

“I really loved [Bioshock Infinite], but I felt that the people in charge of writing the story kind of painted themselves into an ideological corner,” Anderson explained. “I felt like whoever [wrote] it was probably very liberal but very uncomfortable with the idea of what a revolution actually entails. It’s not a Tea Party and that people are probably going to get hurt. I was like, ‘What would happen if you made a really honest, straightforward, unapologetically leftist game?’ I’ve been playing video games since I was like four years old and I’ve never seen one. I sought to really honestly pursue that and see where it would take us.”

After reading a few articles and interviews with the developers, I get the distinct feeling they don't know what they're doing... and certainly know nothing about history and how riots and revolutions work.

Unless they are just trolling in that interview.

I've read more on them since. No... they're just clueless

You can never be sure on the internet. Though I do think they truly are sincere in their beliefs and not master trolls, lol.

That dude's not entirely wrong here.

In any case, let's play devil's advocate for a moment: Imagine you'd make a massive troll game. We all know that video game "journlolism" is filled to the brim with neomarxist agitators. So, how are you going to get these guys to give you positive coverage? Are you going to say "Yo, we're basically making fun of Antifa by exaggerating the ideology to preposterous levels!"? Probably not.

All I can say is that I found it to be in no way "really honest, straightforward, unapologetically leftist". I think there would have been much better ways to make those points (even in a video game format) than turning the whole thing into a completely over-the-top cartoon.

Okay, but if you want to achieve mass market appeal, wouldn't it be easier to just ignore positive coverage from gaming journalists altogether since nobody follows them anyway, if you are just making a massive troll game?

Let me put it this way - if the game was about Hitler rallying nazi party, or someone in US leading KKK movement, or organizing Crusade against Islam, with all the same over-the-top pixelated aesthetics - mechs, suicide bombers, voodoo priests as enemies - would you (and other people) be ok with such game?

These days many things that seem to be satire are actually not, see also "Not the Onion":
http://www.theon1on.com/

Also, read this:
https://means.tv/pages/meansinteractive They seem to be serious.