The words "rich" and "poor" are too spicy for gamers
Even back in 2012 G*mers were whinging on about "politics" in games. And here I thought it was a like post gamergate thing.
They'd always been reactionary, but GG made them fully embrace extreme right-wing politics
Remember, back in the New Atheism days :joker-gaming: equated right-wingers with desiccated Evangelical Christian corpses complaining about DnD, GTA and Rock n Roll
Then they realised they could forge a new identity as epic Viking Crusader Nazis
I unironically believe "Just liek BLIDEO GAME! :so-true:" is an underrated meme. It basically infantilizes their worldview, which is ultimately no different than their 40+ counterparts who like to larp as badass cowboys like Chuck Norris.
there were rumblings of it a little beforehand, but it had a different form. The main thing I remember prior to GG was a vague kind of anti-censorship sentiment, with g*mers mad at Jack Thompson or Tipper Gore complaining about violence in games. There's a ctrl-alt-delete comic (not the loss one) where the author's self-insert even threatens politicians who would dare censor games, even using the phrase "don't fuck with us." Looking back on it now I can kinda see the vague outline of what would eventually become gamergate.
I remember the most ferocious opinions had to do with games being serious or meaningful if they were extremely violent, had racist jokes, and used women as sexual objects. Like you look at a game like Postal 2 back then and somehow that didn't scan as political, despite how crassly racist and misogynist it often is. A game that attempts to defy those kinds of bigotry does scan as political to g*mers.
Right before GG kicked off in earnest, I remember feeling something bad was in the water because of the reaction to the game Gone Home. It received scathingly negative reactions from communities I thought had good taste at the time, then I started seeing really pointed homophobia. Something in my stomach dropped back then, I knew it couldn't lead anywhere good. That was in late 2013, GG began in earnest around early 2014.
I was playing a huge amount of Planetside 2 back in '13. I was vaguely in the Reddit TEST/Goonswarm alliance on Vanu (purple space communists). The TR faction (Red space fascists) was dominated by a clan called The Enclave, after the fascist genocidal US government in Fallout 2 and 3. The Enclave accepted open racism and bigotry and had some proto-neo nazis in it. Their leader had kind of a cult of personality as a proto-joker figure. Looking back it was obvious that he was creating a space for what would become the alt-right to incubate. It's kind of fascinating looking back because the 2013 Planetside scene turned out to be a snapshot of what politics would become over the next ten years.
Banning the word stoic until these losers stop enabling bastards
"gamers" have become complacent. 90% of them can't handle playing without a huge crosshair and patronizing minimap to tell them where to go.
the funny thing about point #5 is that the game pretty much was doing stoic "people are bastards." It also did a lot of "white savior" garbage particularly in the favela levels. Just in a pseudo "self-aware" way . Max Payne 3 acknowledges that he's a PTSD-addled monster mercenary created by capitalism but he doesn't do anything about it. He just keeps shooting brown people the whole game. The game is very political, but in a way that pretends The ex-cop yankee doing contract work in Brazil is just as bad as the impoverished gang members he's gunning down. At least in the last level he's killing cops and shit.
anyway, all that mess aside the shooting is actually great. Better than 99% of games that came out afterwards.
The gameplay was consistently praised at the time. I'm not sure how well it held up, but it was a great evolution
i played it again in like 2019 and it was pretty good. Not being able to skip cutscenes was annoying, but the gameplay itself held up. Cover system was like GTA but more polished. you could mix and match 1-handed weapons when dual wielding (like an uzi in one hand and a glock 9mm in the other), the diving/rolling/mechanics were smooth, the bullet time mechanics were smooth, the euphoria physics were sick. The levels were mostly the right length and didn't overstay their welcome.
"people are bastards" So insightful and subversive! :so-true:
They dropped that word in favor of "uninstall" when they feel polite and "kys" when they don't. :heated-gamer-moment:
I don't remember enough of the plot to make any points about the politics of the game, white savior stuff aside. The biggest problem I had with it at the time was that they got lots of non-Brazilians doing voiceovers for Brazilian characters. There was a guy, I think one of the villain's bodyguards/militia leader, who was just so blatantly wrong, to the point of breaking immersion if you're a native speaker.
Oddly enough, the random gangsters in the favela level were all legit native Portuguese speakers. It was hilarious hearing some rando shouting "pega esse gringo filha da puta" (get this gringo son of a bitch) and the like. The gunplay was fucking awesome too, I don't know what this guy is going on about.
The politics of the game actually aren't that bad for what it is. The white savior stuff is addressed, with Max himself realizing by the end the only thing he's good at is killing people and being addicted to painkillers. He fails to have meaningful relationships with anyone and even in situations where he's around normal people, it's either awkward or he's actively in a firefight. The plot mainly involves Max uncovering a scheme that a São Paulo city councilman, Victor Branco, is attempting to become mayor by paying off a fascist special police force to do assassinations and organ theft. I remember the game being pretty honest and directly calling Branco a right-winger a few times. There are also more than several points made about how the USA bullies and colonizes central and South America.
The only questionable politics I remember have to do with a dichotomy being made between good cops and bad cops, but it's a Max Payne game where a lot of the characters are themselves cops, so that's just gonna happen.
There was a guy, I think one of the villain’s bodyguards/militia leader, who was just so blatantly wrong
MP3 Spoilers:
spoiler
Not Brazilian so I can't weigh in on other characters, but Passos, Max Payne's supposed ally and friend not really being Brazilian was actually a plot twist. I think it was even specifically mentioned that the bad guys relied on Max being enough of a dumb gringo that he wouldn't be able to pick up on his Portuguese sounding off. Is that who you were talking about?
No, it was actually one of the bad guys, let me see if I can find it.
Alright, watched part of a video of all the cutscenes, and found that it was the security chief for the Brancos, Theo Becker, who really bothered me. It turns out that he's a native speaker, but just an atrociously bad voice actor, lmao
Some of the Brazilian characters are clearly not native speakers, though, but it's funny now that I remember that what broke the immersion was the dialogue not sounding at all like natural Portuguese, except for the random gangsters you get to shoot.
haha Becker, hell yes. His bad voice acting makes him the most enjoyable boss fight imo
They crammed in an entire flashback level where you massacre socialist guerrillas in defense of a rich white lady's yacht, and even that's not enough for these spoiled pigs
Max Payne 3 explicitly talks about "right-wingers"? Maybe I should check it out, idk what it's about though, I thought the first one was amazing but didn't get into the sequel
You kill hundreds of Brazilian right-wing paramilitaries and SWAT guys in MP3 (also tons of poor brown favela gangsters).
spoiler
MP2 is also really good and I recommend checking it out.
The plot is weird. After years of serving capital and murdering hundreds of people, somehow Max suddenly realizes that's actually a bad thing and he should be fighting the people he fought for previously. But then he remembers he likes money, so he only half commits.
Still a fun game, would recommend.
i think a main part about Max is that he's so addled with PTSD and addictions that he frankly doesn't care about anything anymore. He's long since dissociated. He knows he should care about things, but doesn't. The games only kinda sorta bring this up as a flaw.
If I remember right, the main villain is explicitly called a fascist at least once and it's an accurate descriptor.
:heartbreaking: The unskippable cutscenes did legit make me never play the game again.
