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

TheJoRu

Member
They're usually not directly political, but in everything you do you send a message which could be indirectly interpreted as something political. So he's right, but at the same time they send indirect messages, and so I think it's important that you think about that kind of stuff even if the end goal is "just to have fun" (which in of itself is a good thing in life). But I think in most cases they do good, positive things.

For example: maybe it was never intended for people to think of it that way, but I found the (slight BotW sidequest spoiler)
Tarrey Town sidequest to be a beautiful statement about diversity and how we can work together no matter race or background to build a society.
 

Rncewind

Member
Mother 3 actually makes extremely strong and obvious political statements about society. You see it most obviously in the development of Tazmilly and later when the citizens move to New Pork City.

hence mother 3 is a unfun game and reggie dont want to asked about it

another mystery solved
 

nynt9

Member
Funny thing is Xenoblade X did a much better of incorporating social issues and themes than all these western games with their hamfisted, overbearing implementations.

This sounds like a straw man parody of Western games written by someone who hasn't played any, and XCX was pretty silly.
 

Some Nobody

Junior Member
Every piece of art is influenced by the views of the people who made it. "Statements" aren't necessarily beating players about the head with an idea and don't even have to be intentional to be made.

If you read into Kirby, Yoshi, DK, and most of the time even Mario--that's on you. It's got nothing to do with Nintendo.

I want to say "not everything needs to be political" but that's become right-wing speak for "don't put anyone in my game but straight white dudes" and I don't mean it that way. To me for instance, your game isn't political because you put a black woman or an asian dude in the lead role. Now if your story is about colorism or subverting the stereotypes associated with asian people? That's different. But diversity per se isn't a statement to me--that's just being realistic about your audience because there's no overwhelming single majority buying your games. It's the right thing to do but IMO that's not political.

In Nintendo's case, 80% of their characters are just cartoon animals. Outside of Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Monolith there's no story for me to draw things from really, and I don't care to personally.
 

Springy

Member
You might say Mario always saving Princess Peach is making a statement about gender roles, but for Nintendo, it's just some stupid fairy tale barebones plot that they've used for nearly every Mario game, because they literally don't care and need an excuse for him to explore and fight Bowser

But those roles being the norm for storytelling is a product of the culture that birthed it and worthy of questioning why they exist and are unthinkingly propagated.

This is literally gender roles 101.
 

DarkKyo

Member
Honestly fuck politics. There should be avenues of entertainment that can exist outside of the political realm. Escaping that crap is why entertainment exists to some extent.
 

CazTGG

Member
Someone wants us to forget about this game.

PS_3DS_TomodachiLife_enGB.png
 

oti

Banned
This must be one of the poorest answers Reggie gave in a long time.

Not even his usual top spin, just poor.

Eh, I don't think there's much to say here for Nintendo. In the end all their games are about love and peace and how friendship can solve everything and so on.

What they need to get better at are same-sex relationships in their games. I wonder if Miitopia allows for that. Tomodachi Collection was a PR nightmare for them. And good on press and social media to put the pressure on them.
 

charsace

Member
People should not expect big companies in gaming to say anything of substance. The possiblity that they might upset stupid people and lose a sale as a result is too much for these companies.
 
I don't ever recall a players gender choice or sexual preference dictating gameplay or enjoyment of a game.
They literally just said they would enjoy that so... there's someone who feels that way?
That doesn't mean it's making a statement. A user making inferences doesn't change the intentions of the developer. Does it change the interpretation? Yes, but not the intention.

Let's take the idea of making Twintelle black. Some people might see that as some nonsense forcing in of diversity, even if for the developers, it was probably because they just designed Twintelle as being black.

You might say Mario always saving Princess Peach is making a statement about gender roles, but for Nintendo, it's just some stupid fairy tale barebones plot that they've used for nearly every Mario game, because they literally don't care and need an excuse for him to explore and fight Bowser
like I said, statements don't have to be intentional. If analysis and theory around games, books, films, music, any media really only looked at author intent, there wouldn't be much to say.
 

XandBosch

Member
This thread seems to be full of University/College students currently taking political science.

At least that's what it reminds me of.
 
I'm not sure exactly how the rabid fringe desperate for a political Nintendo game expect that to manifest itself. Of all the audiences to appeal to, that's among the worst.
 
I'm with him 100%. Why can't a company just focus on people having fun? There's so much bullshit in everyone's real life day-to-day, can't a company just focus on having fun and trying to bring a smile to people's faces?

Same here. I was unaware that games having a political message was a requirement now. If a developer wants to do something like that, they are free to. It shouldn't be something they are forced to add.
 

rudger

Member
Wow. There is a lot of projecting going on to such a non-answer to a question that should frankly never have been asked to Reggie of all people.
 

kunonabi

Member
I feel like this is a question he was unprepared for and thus gave a bad-sounding answer. A better answer would be that Nintendo games do convey messaged but they're more general and universal, just not as focused or immediate as other games tackle, which is fine. Nintendo is sort of the Disney of gaming, it's not like Disney films say nothing or are devoid of some message creators want to transmit to their audience, but they're not contemporary documentaries either.

The modern crop of Disney films outside of Moana have been super political and not at all that subtle about it so that isnt a great comparison.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Eh, I don't think there's much to say here for Nintendo. In the end all their games are about love and peace and how friendship can solve everything and so on.

What they need to get better at are same-sex relationships in their games. I wonder if Miitopia allows for that. Tomodachi Collection was a PR nightmare for them. And good on press and social media to put the pressure on them.

He shouldn't have opposed making a political statement to smile and have fun. It sends the wrong message. I understand what he wants to say, but it's incredibly poorly worded.
 
Can some one point me to far cry 5s politixal stuff. What is the main issue. Granted after far cry 3 they shouldnt even be authorized to tell stories in games though.
 

Cindro

Member
Actions speak louder than words, and Nintendo has made awesome strides in inclusivity and representation in recent years (cross dressing in animal crossing, Gerudo in BotW, Pauline being an accomplished artist and politician in Odyssey, Twintelle in ARMS, the return of a Metroid game where Samus' characterization appears to again be her calm, inner-strength, lots of female presenters and diversity on Treehouse Live, skin color selection in Splatoon, etc etc etc)

They aren't perfect, but Nintendo's political philosophy when it comes to equality is pretty clear.
 

xealo

Member
Can some one point me to far cry 5s politixal stuff. What is the main issue. Granted after far cry 3 they shouldnt even be authorized to tell stories in games though.

It takes place in rural america with a christian militant cult as the backdrop. This upset the alt-right leaning groups of people.
 
He shouldn't have opposed making a political statement to smile and have fun. It sends the wrong message. I understand what he wants to say, but it's incredibly poorly worded.

Maybe he doesn't have the same ideas of what you view as a political statement. For example some people would claim inclusion of LGBT characters as making a political statement.

I could just as easily assume he doesn't think those types of issues should be considered political or as making a "statement", so much as just being included to expand the audience for enjoyment of said game
 

oti

Banned
People should not expect big companies in gaming to say anything of substance. The possiblity that they might upset stupid people and lose a sale as a result is too much for these companies.

Sony is sponsoring Pride. That alone says more than Nintendo ever has. It's fine to ask these questions. Even Nintendo.
 
I'm usually not trying to make a political statement with my art either, but that doesn't mean that people won't find or interpret one. We're all shaped by our values and culture and so is everything that we produce so like it or not there's going to be some message outside of fun.

I personally can't find much fault with Nintendo although I've heard that some of the gay routes in Fates were kinda weird/lame (I didn't see em cause I was too busy playing as the cute girl). Hopefully they continue to grow there I guess.
 
People should not expect big companies in gaming to say anything of substance. The possiblity that they might upset stupid people and lose a sale as a result is too much for these companies.
Both Microsoft and Sony sponsor pride events.
If you read into Kirby, Yoshi, DK, and most of the time even Mario--that's on you. It's got nothing to do with Nintendo.

I want to say "not everything needs to be political" but that's become right-wing speak for "don't put anyone in my game but straight white dudes" and I don't mean it that way. To me for instance, your game isn't political because you put a black woman or an asian dude in the lead role. Now if your story is about colorism or subverting the stereotypes associated with asian people? That's different. But diversity per se isn't a statement to me--that's just being realistic about your audience because there's no overwhelming single majority buying your games. It's the right thing to do but IMO that's not political.

In Nintendo's case, 80% of their characters are just cartoon animals. Outside of Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Monolith there's no story for me to draw things from really, and I don't care to personally.
I understand what you're saying, but personally I view the product just as important in what it "says" as the author intention. For example, Ken Levine probably would say that Bioshock Infinite was about extremism and violence, while pretty much every person who's analysed it says that Bioshock Infinite says that "both sides are the same".
 

13ruce

Banned
While his response is bad i do agree that some games do mimic real life issues and political things a but too much.
 
I feel like "political statement" is such a loaded term that it makes sense for Reggie to say that their games avoid it, but you can infer a political statement out of anything. Is including gay characters or POC characters a political statement, or just a way to be more inclusive and realistic about your audience's diversity? Is it a political statement to NOT do that? Keeping to the traditional tropes despite being culturally outdated can be seen as careless or inconsiderate. So I think Reggie's intent is to say "we don't make controversial statements that are designed to draw attention away from the fun of the game," and I think that's fine, but avoiding controversy might be inevitable if you, say, never have black or brown or gay characters in your games.
 

nynt9

Member
Actions speak louder than words, and Nintendo has made awesome strides in inclusivity and representation in recent years (cross dressing in animal crossing, Gerudo in BotW, Pauline being an accomplished artist and politician in Odyssey, Twintelle in ARMS, the return of a Metroid game where Samus' characterization appears to again be her calm, inner-strength, lots of female presenters and diversity on Treehouse Live, skin color selection in Splatoon, etc etc etc)

They aren't perfect, but Nintendo's political philosophy when it comes to equality is pretty clear.

They could have just stated this. "we try to be inclusive to all audiences with our games" and leave it at that instead of Reggie's dumb non answer.
 
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