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Reggie:Making politicl statemnts are for other people todo, we want people tohave fun

HawthorneKitty

Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Sometimes simple goes a long way.

For instance the television show 24 having an African American President of the United States in 2001 in many ways normalised the idea of an African American as US President among the general population. Pre 24 most representations of the US President were your typical older white male.

You probably dont get President Barack Obama without 24's President David Palmer. This is why Art matters. Its fair to say America electing their first black President was a big deal
Sucks they couldn't make a female president happen too.
 
Absolute dogshit. "We just want people to have fun! Keep politics out of video games!" is such a non-answer.


This is not what he said. He didn't say keep politics out of video games, he said they leave that to other people.

Nice job trying to equate Reggie to gamersgate though.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
Games are an escape for me, from the world in general and all the stresses and ugliness it can produce. I think his answer points to that sort of outlet for those that count on games to just get away. Politics, as we all know, is something that's saturating pretty much every facet of media these days. Do we really need it on Nintendo platforms too?

Art is intrinsically political.
Some forms of interactive media can be less overly political or almost entirely apolitical.

Yet, it's always there.

Whenever you perceive something as neutral it's possible that it's because it's catering to you. Which is a form of privilege

For example, adding dark skin to Mario would be performed as "political", yet somehow him and most other characters always having light skin isn't?
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
This is not what he said. He didn't say keep politics out of video games, he said they leave that to other people.

Nice job trying to equate Reggie to gamersgate though.

Yes

What he meant is that Nintendo typically doesn't make explicitly political commentary which is true.

He just didn't say it in the best way.
 
For example, adding dark skin to Mario would be performed as "political", yet somehow him and most other characters always having light skin isn't?

I'm assuming you mean a playable character or "main" character (as in Mario, Peach, Daisy, Luigi, Pauline, Rosalina)? Because there are black people all throughout New Donk City in the new Mario game.

new-donk-city-tweet-05.JPG
 

jdstorm

Banned
Sucks they couldn't make a female president happen too.

Its happening though. Female Depictions of the US president or analogues have been increasing in recent times. From 2005's Geena Davis veichle Commander in Cheif, Veep, Madame Secretary, Parks and Recreation, Supergirl, Game of Thrones ect.

Thats just a small list off the top of my head. The normalization of female political leaders is happening. It has just faced 2 major issues. Fistly no show on that list outside of Game of Thrones has attained the cultural relevance that 24 had, and secondly many of those shows are comedies and dont deal with the same highly politicized subject matter 24 did.

24 was the quintessential Hollywood response to 9/11. It was about Heroic American's hunting down terrorists who would seek to harm America. It was a key part of America's post 9/11 healing process. In contrast Veep is 5 seasons of what if Sarah Palin became vice president jokes.

Despite all this. I think the idea of a female US President has been normalised. It was just that in the last US Election the female candidate that ran was poor.
 
Its happening though. Female Depictions of the US president or analogues have been increasing in recent times. From 2005's Geena Davis veichle Commander in Cheif, Veep, Madame Secretary, Parks and Recreation, Supergirl, Game of Thrones ect.

Thats just a small list off the top of my head. The normalization of female political leaders is happening. It has just faced 2 major issues. Fistly no show on that list outside of Game of Thrones has attained the cultural relevance that 24 had, and secondly many of those shows are comedies and dont deal with the same highly politicized subject matter 24 did.

24 was the quintessential Hollywood response to 9/11. It was about Heroic American's hunting down terrorists who would seek to harm America. It was a key part of America's post 9/11 healing process. In contrast Veep is 5 seasons of what if Sarah Palin became vice president jokes.

Despite all this. I think the idea of a female US President has been normalised. It was just that in the last US Election the female candidate that ran was poor.

Welll, about that (TV show spoilers for a semi-recent show)
Claire from House of Cards becomes President in the last episode of the recent season
 

Branduil

Member
Gaming journalists should really just stop talking to Reggie. I cannot remember the last time he said a single thing of value.
 
Sounds like a pretty standard PR response from Reggie. Nintendo's in the business of making timeless games, not ones that feel horribly dated after a few years because of some hot bed topic that the game happened to be making at the time of it's development. Nintendo has always been above that mentality.
 

npm0925

Member
Whatever, Reggie. Nintendo is clearly liberalized because 1) there are no firearms in the school in Animal Crossing to defend against bear attacks, 2) the fairies do not charge Link a copay when they recharge his hearts, and 3) their wall building game actually helped bring two countries together.
 

canedaddy

Member
Agree with him 100%.

Politics (meaning strident, ignorant and obnoxious politics) have ruined a lot of things lately. I hope the people who want to drag games down too are unsuccessful.
 

KtSlime

Member
Nintendo of America doesn't even make video games, most of Nintendo's games are still developed in Japan and the ones that are not are still checked by Nintendo before being published. Even if there are political statements to be made by games, and even if games are an appropriate medium to convey these statements, Nintendo really isn't in the position to effectively make any of those statements, so it is best for them to stick with what they do know.
 

Cpt Lmao

Member
Eh, time for nintys pr blunder after Sony's and ms this e3.


They need a better answer though. The it's FUN! defence is a little thin these days in these.clearly highly political charged times. Sony and ms has convincingly shown where they stand on important issues via both their games and actions.

Ninty has in the past ,but their wishy-washy attitude is always a disappointing aspect to them.

What Microsoft/Sony first party games competently made a political statement? Particularly Microsoft, as I'm more familiar with their library.
 

jdstorm

Banned
What Microsoft/Sony first party games competently made a political statement? Particularly Microsoft, as I'm more familiar with their library.

Ever play a series called Halo.

Playing as the Arbiter in Halo 2 was a political statement given the social context that game released into. To go against the political grain that was demonizing "the other" and showing the complex nature of people you previously viewed as an enemy in the post 9/11 environment where America was at war with Iraq was a huge statement.

Edit.

On Sony Platforms Horizon Zero Dawn is massivly critical of modern corporate culture.

The Last of Us: Left Behind normalises a same sex relationship.

Recent PS+ game Tales of the Borderlands normalises interacial dating.
 

Feffe

Member
Reggie might deny it but Nintendo overall philosophy is left. It's inclusive and not exclusive, it's always for changing the status quo and so on. It's always been. I mean, look at Megadrive sexist advertisement versus Snes "for the whole family" ones, look at games aimed at girls like Animal Crossing and Style Savvy versus the average game on other console which is for your average white male teenager.
Nintendo is a company with left values and that's big reason I'm a fan of them
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
What Microsoft/Sony first party games competently made a political statement? Particularly Microsoft, as I'm more familiar with their library.
Why/What do you think
A)Ellie is in front of Joel on the cover of TLOU or what TLOU is even about, coupled with Ellie being the main playable character in TLOU2
B)Both playable fireteams in halo 5's campaign have an equal number of men and women of various ethnicities?
C)the new Uncharted games features a campaign where the two main characters are women
D)Sunset Overdrive is about?
E)Horizon Zero Dawn is about?

Just to name a few examples
 

Ran rp

Member
Reggie might deny it but Nintendo overall philosophy is left. It's inclusive and not exclusive, it's always for changing the status quo and so on. It's always been. I mean, look at Megadrive sexist advertisement versus Snes "for the whole family" ones, look at games aimed at girls like Animal Crossing and Style Savvy versus the average game on other console which is for your average white male teenager.
Nintendo is a company with left values and that's big reason I'm a fan of them

Hm? Being family friendly with a few games marketed towards girls is like.. bare minimum stuff. Not what I'd give them strong progressive points for.
 

mindatlarge

Member
Art is intrinsically political.
Some forms of interactive media can be less overly political or almost entirely apolitical.

Yet, it's always there.

Whenever you perceive something as neutral it's possible that it's because it's catering to you. Which is a form of privilege

For example, adding dark skin to Mario would be performed as "political", yet somehow him and most other characters always having light skin isn't?
Like you said, it's all about personal perception as you can make interpretations about a lot of things to support a certain idea. My reference was to the void of blatant politics being inserted into Nintendo's games, not ones left open to interpretation. If they decided to do as you suggest and redesign a decades old character with dark skin, I would more see that as a celebration of the diversity of humanity and less as a political statement.
 

jdstorm

Banned
PSY・S;241030654 said:
Hm? Being family friendly with a few games marketed towards girls is like.. bare minimum stuff. Not what I'd give them strong progressive points for.

Bare minimum is impressive when no one else even bothers to do it.
 

JC Lately

Member
But they do.
zelda-breath-of-the-wild-bolson-construction-700x389.jpg


Put in a character that, if another dev had made the game, would have made a big deal out of how inclusive they were. Instead Nintendo treats him literally the same as any other character in the game

bar.jpg


Include an all female society with a variety of skin tones, body types and personalities. Again, they make no "comment" on it or how progressive they are. They're simply treated like any other race in the game

Exactly. They don’t make political ‘statements’. They create content like this and keep their damn months shut to let it be embraced or rejected on its own merits. Unlike say, Bioware, who feels the need to jump and down and go “look it, look it, FemRyder is the marketing default! We’re so progressive!!!!!!11111."

Meanwhile Nintendo is like. “Hey, here’s like 15 things about Super Mario Odyssey” and like at number 9 they mention Pauline is a good mayor, and then move on to number 10 immediately.
 
I think them not boasting about it is part of the reason why people simply don't realize it. Everytime Bioware made a gay character they shouted it from the rooftops and got praised left and right for it. maybe it's because you can start relationships with them.

Yep, Nintendo is just low key about it, they don't make it a big deal to get brownie points with people.
 

KtSlime

Member
Bare minimum is impressive when no one else even bothers to do it.

This is exactly what I was about to type.

That said, I don't think making games which are enjoyable for everyone is making a political statement, nor do I think having an inclusive cast of character is either. Political statements are a bit more, overt about their messaging.
 

Yukinari

Member
But they do.
zelda-breath-of-the-wild-bolson-construction-700x389.jpg


Put in a character that, if another dev had made the game, would have made a big deal out of how inclusive they were. Instead Nintendo treats him literally the same as any other character in the game

bar.jpg


Include an all female society with a variety of skin tones, body types and personalities. Again, they make no "comment" on it or how progressive they are. They're simply treated like any other race in the game

Honestly the best way to handle it instead of the forced way companies like Ubisoft approach it.

Same reason why Mission Hill gets praised for Gus and Wally being a gay couple. Its not shoved in your face.
 
Given Nintendo's brand image, Reggie's answer makes sense, and is the one I would have given if I was a Nintendo executive.

That said, the idea of apolitical art, even in Nintendo games, is ridiculous. Whether it was intentional or not, stuff like your inability to be dark skinned in Animal Crossing, or the ability to have gay relationships in Fire Emblem, are political statements.

So long as Nintendo is cognizant of that fact, I'm fine with Reggie's statement being their PR position.

P.S; I don't ever expect Mario to sit Bowser down and explain intersectional feminism to him, but recent games like ARMs and Splatoon featuring characters with dark skin and Fire Emblem Fates having (admittedly poorly written) gay relationships, does suggest to me that Nintendo is more socially and politically aware these days, even if they claim otherwise
 

KtSlime

Member
PSY・S;241031365 said:
Nah, screw being impressed by scraps. Surprised? Sure. But let's not reward minimal effort with more credit than it deserves.

You are right, we should demand the other companies to at least meet Nintendo's bare minimum.
 

Altairre

Member
Honestly the best way to handle it instead of the forced way companies like Ubisoft approach it.

Same reason why Mission Hill gets praised for Gus and Wally being a gay couple. Its not shoved in your face.
Huh, how is the diversity in Ubisof games forced? Care to give any examples?
 
Neutrality is always a political position.

Frankly I care more about what they portray in their games, and less about how they talk about it. On that front, I think the Nintendo of 2017 is much more progressive than it's ever been before.
 

Majukun

Member
But they do.
zelda-breath-of-the-wild-bolson-construction-700x389.jpg


Put in a character that, if another dev had made the game, would have made a big deal out of how inclusive they were. Instead Nintendo treats him literally the same as any other character in the game
What about him?I heard people saying that he is supposed to be homosexual,but is it stated in the game?
 

Alienfan

Member
I think them not boasting about it is part of the reason why people simply don't realize it. Everytime Bioware made a gay character they shouted it from the rooftops and got praised left and right for it. maybe it's because you can start relationships with them.

Neither did Bioware, people just thought it was cool, and it was, so you heard a lot about it. Considering there aren't any playable gay protagonists, and Bioware let you play as one if you wish, I think that's worth bragging about (but they didn't regardless).

What's wrong with "shouting from the rooftops" about a game being inclusive? Games shout from the rooftops about their new graphics and gameplay features all the time, but all of a sudden when a developer talks about inclusiveness, it's seen as political or pandering
 

Giever

Member
What about him?I heard people saying that he is supposed to be homosexual,but is it stated in the game?

It's not really clear that he's gay at all, he's just flamboyant. I mean, he could be, just like most of the characters in the game could be, but there's no real indication outside of his having some stereotypical characteristics.
 
What about him?I heard people saying that he is supposed to be homosexual,but is it stated in the game?
If I remember correctly, the Dutch translation of the game specifically says he's thinking of looking for a wife. It's just a translation though, it might be an error or a conscious change to the script.

Take it as you will.
 

Rodion

Neo Member
It's not really clear that he's gay at all, he's just flamboyant. I mean, he could be, just like most of the characters in the game could be, but there's no real indication outside of his having some stereotypical characteristics.

He even says at the end of the Tarrey Town quest that he would retire and search for a spouse. I think they wanted to left it open, unless the japanese dialogue is different.
 
Reggie might deny it but Nintendo overall philosophy is left. It's inclusive and not exclusive, it's always for changing the status quo and so on. It's always been. I mean, look at Megadrive sexist advertisement versus Snes "for the whole family" ones, look at games aimed at girls like Animal Crossing and Style Savvy versus the average game on other console which is for your average white male teenager.
Nintendo is a company with left values and that's big reason I'm a fan of them

Nintendo had its share of sexist advertising during that time, too. It was a stupid thing that most game companies did to get teenage boys' attention.
 
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