Is there some leftist critiques one could make about this series of video games, particularly the antagonists?
I'd be very interested in leftist analysis of The Jackal, Vaas and Pagan Minn in particular (and video games in general, why isn't this more of a thing? I'd love A Pervert's Guide To Video Games).
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If you can make ideological analysis about toilets and feces anything is possible.
Well, thanks for the input, pal.
some other anons floated that idea a while ago. I still think it would be a cool board project.
I wish I was smarter and more knowledgeable about leftist ideas, but I'm still pretty much a novice in that regard. It would be a good idea. Any clue how we'd get that ball rolling?
Well the first two games no. They're just campy action games. Far cry 3 also really doesn't have much going on in terms of politics. It still had a very interesting plot in my opinion. As I understand Far Cry 4 has a more political plot but I haven't had a chance to play it yet. I'm looking forward to it but I don't pay more then 10 dollars for a computer game. So I probably won't until the winter steam sale.
I'm not really a fan of one, but surely there is some stuff to look at in the Jackal.
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Watching this makes me think of Mao's observation that failed revolutionaries often become bandits and the role Dark Triad sociopaths have in destroying revolutions for their own gain.
You could argue that Pagan Min is an Imperialist who needs to be removed, but the problem is the people seeking to remove him are either set up to be far worse. You either get Taliban'esque religious extremists (who immediately begin a great purge of their enemies once the revolt is over, or a "pragmatic" future king pin who seeks to exploit the countries vast opium fields to create a wealthy drug state and do so through forced child labour.
I haven't finished the game yet, but so far I've sided with the dude. Kinda spoiled the ending of it for me a little, but no big deal I guess.
lolno
It's not like video games are high art. If Zizek can analyze capeshit, what's wrong with this stuff?
What would make it valuable to analyze the antagonists in the Far Cry games, exactly?
It entertains me, for one.
Two, they're written widely enough to be able to glean what you want out of them.
So basically you have shit taste and chose something because its politics are vague.
lol k
Say what you will, Far Cry 2 is boss as fuck.
And do you think the stuff Zizek talked about was overtly political?
didn't play it tbh
I'm not saying the work needs to make a political statement. I'm saying that choosing a work for being up to many interpretations is a shit reason. In the case of Far Cry, it's because Ubishit can't write for shit and came up with villains who represent tired narratives about le inherent evil in human nature or other such pseudo-philosophical platitudes.
There are probably better games out there for analyzing. None come to mind though.
Deus Ex has been beat to death, Red Faction is kinda too obvious.
Why are widely drawn characters inherently bad? What's wrong with moral grey areas or even amorality in general? All the decisions in Far Cry 2, 3 and 4 are all pretty shitty.
It's not a question of grey areas. It's more that as far as I'm concerned the narrative of Far Cry is pretty much bereft of anything interesting to say or to be gleaned from. It should have just been a big dumb open world FPS, but instead it tried too hard to be smarter than it was.
Nihilism shouldn't be a shield for being a shithead.
And if you say so, what I got from Vaas was how leftist groups can degenerate into banditry and how the Jackal represents the criminal side of capitalism.
It's pretty subjective and that's what I like about it.
Whoa. That guy is despooked.
A while back I thought about how cool it would be to have Zizek analyze MGS.
"zeehs ees de ideolochy of Beeg Bawss *sniff* and sho on."
Vaas was just a drugged-up shithead.
Wait, like *actual* cultural Marxism?
lmao
pic related, comrade