NEXUS OPS is about mega-corporations competing to exploit the resources and fauna of some foreign world. They are riding half of them and recruiting the others to fight on their behalf. It's basically ANGOLA writ neon.
I have a lot of trouble, personally, playing PHANTOM LEADER, FIELDS OF FIRE and the like. I would not make good officer material, because I don't like telling some folks to go die because I need to be the boss of that hill. This may relate to my failures as a roleplayer. I always just roleplay me. Maybe "me" is a role I am playing? Anyway, I can't become Lt Hoogah and tell some grunts to get fucked because of "orders." I'm Lt. Jeb and I know they're going to die so let's play something else.
PAPERS PLEASE is a wonderful game that hits this "Sentitive Topics" theme amazingly well, and I applaud Jason10mm for bringing that one in.
jason10mm wrote: If there was a wargame that allowed you to sacrifice a unit in a no retreat suicide attack, would any player feel remorse?
I have occasionally felt a slight twinge of regret when I played the Expendable Unit card in the Shadowfist ccg. Those poor monsters have an almost comical look of concern as they are ordered into the burning building.
You know, this topic made me think of a popular and light hearted game that really glosses over true atrocious horror. That game is Small World
Think about it. You play an invading band of mauruders that cleanse the land of small indigenous tribes. Then you drive your people to maximum expansion and abandon them to eventual genocide when you move on to a newer shinier race. It is all coated in sugary sweet cartoon graphics but it is a horrible abstraction of colonialism.
It even extends to race selection. Less appealing races (representing less privilege) have to be heavily incentivized with end game victory points in order to be chosen.
jason10mm wrote: You know, this topic made me think of a popular and light hearted game that really glosses over true atrocious horror. That game is Small World
I've heard that it was based on Vinci, which used a real map of Europe?
Sons of Anarchy's theme (setting, whatever) didn't sit well with some folks I knew. It doesn't say "dope" in the rules, but it isn't coffee beans in those little packages*. There's also a meth lab, a "Cut and Bag" location, and a brothel.
Obviously there's a limit, we all have one, and I guess you'd better ask first if you're playing something like that.
*I just spent $500 to have my car repaired last week, and I thought I got off cheap. It cost $2000+ to have my transmission rebuilt, and I thought that was getting off cheap. Those SoA guys could've probably made more money with less gunfire by fixing transmissions than selling dope.
RobertB wrote: *I just spent $500 to have my car repaired last week, and I thought I got off cheap. It cost $2000+ to have my transmission rebuilt, and I thought that was getting off cheap. Those SoA guys could've probably made more money with less gunfire by fixing transmissions than selling dope.
I don't know if the Sons specifically fixed transmissions, but they operated a legit auto repair shop practically next door to their clubhouse.
The theme drift just goes to show that ALL games are abstracted and there is really no reason to be emotionally distraught over any board game unless it prompts real-world actions.
Video games have had horrible content for decades and no one (well, few) bats an eye about a game that requires you to kill several thousand nominal enemies on screen. Or the Civilization games that commodify government systems with terrible legacies into simple game stats fit for exploitation.
Even Chess has a fundamental class system of poor sacrificial pawns that have very little chance for survival or upward mobility. Everyone identifies as the King so I guess it is ok that every other piece dies in combat to protect him?
RobertB wrote: *I just spent $500 to have my car repaired last week, and I thought I got off cheap. It cost $2000+ to have my transmission rebuilt, and I thought that was getting off cheap. Those SoA guys could've probably made more money with less gunfire by fixing transmissions than selling dope.
I don't know if the Sons specifically fixed transmissions, but they operated a legit auto repair shop practically next door to their clubhouse.
My impression was that they "operated" it. Probably would be an awesome place to launder all that money, come to think of it.
My mind is still blown over the transmission shop quoting $8000 to rebuild a Nissan CVT.
Anyway, to stay on thread, I don't think I 100% agree with jason10mm above. I'm not going to play Concentration Camp Tycoon, no matter how great the game is.
jason10mm wrote: Video games have had horrible content for decades and no one (well, few) bats an eye about a game that requires you to kill several thousand nominal enemies on screen.
Great point. When I sat down to play more Vampire: Bloodlines the other day, I played a vampire with a fire axe who spent an hour running around an insane asylum, chopping up knife-wielding patients. At one point, I got lost, but was able to figure out where I had been by the fresh blood stains on the walls and floors.
RobertB wrote: Anyway, to stay on thread, I don't think I 100% agree with jason10mm above. I'm not going to play Concentration Camp Tycoon, no matter how great the game is.
See, you are the reason why every damned game is themed around pirates, Lovecraft, farming, ww2, and dinosaurs; preferably nazi dinosaurs being out farmed by cthulhu worshipping pirates!
But I agree, there are certainly disagreeable themes. But I don't think there is actually a moral difference between playing concentration camp tycoon versus the identical game themed around space mining or whatever. That impoverished kid in china being forced to stuff meeples into little bags so we can play a cheaper game in far off America probably doesn't think so either (note, I have no idea if the abhorent electronics/fashion factory system in china extends to panda games or other chinese sourced board games. I certainly hope not).
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