this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
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Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear, Oddworld, DE; plenty of options if you look hard enough in terms of "openly leftist and/or with leftist ideologues heavily represented in the game".
Is it bougie? I'd argue there is something to be said there, yeah. However, there is a significant chunk of people in the global south who have access to older games like that. A lot of Final Fantasy fans I've met online were from the Philippines, Chile, etc. So could also reasonably argue no but at the same time the part about it being almost inherently reactionary and bougie is true when you look at the origins of it and it's accessibility for online-gaming. Retro games is more situational.
I can't speak for every single videogame, I have not played all of them (of course), but I merely mean it in the sense that apart from maybe select independently developed titles, the vast majority of videogames are developed by large corporate entities with a profit motive first and foremost, and in turn the majority of games are specifically marketed towards those with disposable income from a certain social class. Videogames are an expensive medium, and on average the most expensive form of digital entertainment, with a high barrier of entry through hardware, internet and game costs themselves, then on top of that often also large time investments, microtransactions, subscription fees etc. It is not at all a coincidence that the "Gamer" sphere leans the way it does politically, dominated by primarily western, white, and young adult men, who have disproportionately more money and time to spend on such things than an equivalent in the global south. It sucks that it fosters such a culture, but I don't blame video game developers for catering to them, as it is literally their biggest market, and they are bound to cater to it.