If you’ve spent any amount of time in online (or offline, for that matter) gaming communities, you are likely to have heard the age-old rallying cry of “keep politics out of video games!” This demand is nonsense. Let us first walk through why games cannot possibly avoid politics, and then go on to discuss why they should not avoid politics anyways.
Games Can’t Avoid Politics
First of all, and most importantly, video games simply cannot avoid politics, because everything is political. Often times, people will think that games that don’t take any political stances are apolitical. However, a game that does not take any stances and uncritically presents the world as it is is a game that is endorsing the status quo. For example, a military shooter based on the US military is a game that endorses the foreign policy practiced by the US. Similarly, a game that uncritically presents a police officer on the beat is most likely endorsing police brutality. In addition, a game that does not feature women or people of color is expressing its comfort with spaces free of those people.
Games Shouldn’t Avoid Politics
Games cannot avoid politics, but even if they could, they should not. If video games are an artistic medium, like music, movies, TV, and books, then they should take political stances, even if they are not the main theme. In fact, since games are an interactive medium, there is even more reason for games to take stances on important issues. When coupled with the fact that so many gaming circles are becoming oppressive to various minority groups, it almost becomes a responsibility.
Games Have Always Been Political
Finally, games have always been political. The two games that popularized FPSes (Wolfenstein 3D and Doom) were about a Jewish soldier killing Nazis and a soldier who refused orders to shoot on civilians, respectively. Pac-Man was created as a game that could appeal to both women and men, instead of just men. Then, of course, there’s the nuclear politics of the Metal Gear series. In other words, when people yearn to go back for a time that games weren’t political, they are yearning for a time that never really existed in the first place.
Games cannot be apolitical, but more importantly, they shouldn’t be apolitical. Political messages are present in pretty much every piece of media ever, and game developers can either choose to engage with those themes or just show their contentment with the status quo. Finally, games have never been apolitical in the first place, so it is nonsense to demand for them to be apolitical now.
