Nah, it predates that. I think it’s more about material reality for them; many gamers are white, typically come from comfortable means (as gaming, especially PC gaming, is not exactly a cheap hobby), and thus occupy a position of relative privilege.
For them, fascism can just be something like “funny inappropriate joke”, since it’s something that isn’t exactly threatening to them or the structure that helps them sit in comfort. Materialism can also at least partially explain why so many of them are rabidly anti-communist/anti-leftist (fear that anything resembling “wealth redistribution” would affect them).
especially PC gaming, is not exactly a cheap hobby
hey, us East Europeans just play CS 1.6 on our banged up machines still running Windows XP, you can PC game for pretty cheap. But yeah, people going on about their fancy liquid nitrogen cooled PCs that light up like a christmas tree definitely have a lot of disposable income
as gaming, especially PC gaming, is not exactly a cheap hobby
More then that: this very much applies when you start extrapolating it out to the professional career gamers (whether that means streamer or competitor) because even now the barrier of entry is quite high either to play/stream with the best hardware.
One of my favorite unintentional experiments and case studies that’s taken place is within the fighting game community, because unlike every other competitive scene its one of the very few that began and still in many ways resides in the arcades where the barrier of entry is measured in quarters rather then hundreds of dollars. Covid, better net code, and overall increases in internet speeds has changed things up more recently but even up until just a few years ago ‘online warrior’ was a term used relatively dismissively. Even though the games are generally not played on arcade cabinets anymore…they are still almost universally played and standardized on consoles rather then expensive gaming PCs.
Given that: I think its very interesting to note that young men of color overwhelmingly dominate the competitive scene.
Fighting games, even on consoles are much more social than shooters. Yeah you CAN do a LAN, but the preparation is higher than 2 controllers and 2 or more friends. I know there are also occasionally issues with multiple controllers on some Pc setups.
It’s true. This is also one of my go-to pushbacks again Christman’s thesis on gaming and it’s inherently alienating nature. Fighting games and their community are actually one of the things that finally got me out of my cave.
:farquaad-point:
fascism cannot exist in a feudal economy! fascism is not racism! this entire thread is full of utopian thought and wholly lacking in materialism.
where then, do the politics of Skirim lie? within the primitive conflict of the theocratic feudal and imperial states and the emancipated peasant movement. the bourgoisie are almost non-existant (Belethor and Valerius represent). the socio-economic struggle is therefore constrained to the non evolutionary path of landlords and peasant resistance.
who are these bagaudae? these front line fighters for economic justice? Skirim perjoratively names them “Bandit”. the Player is inevitably levied into the institutions waging war against them. Those Pinkertons in Jorrvaskr are a private death-squad who are subcontracted to wipe out squat encampments in vacant tombs, forts, and cave systems on behalf of the State. Every Jarl has the Player collect the scalp of the local People’s Commissar in order to proceed–indeed to even become a legal property-owner.
Even the de jure “illegal” organisations of Assassins and Theives, whatdoyouknow, target and destroy revolutionary cadres with no mercy. The fucking COLLEGE has quests wherein the player mercs freedom fighters.
There is a problem, however. the egalitaria of the so-called Bandits are a struggle without end. there can be no liberation from squalor and subsistence until the winds of economic progress enable it. Is the Player merely an instrument of the brutal modern project? Are they the arch-revolutionary of their time, consolidating the economic and magicko-economic forces under a single regime to build the productive forces necessary for the next stage of economic decelopment? After all, is not the player the ideal Bourgeoise Actor? is the tidal wave of production and commerce in their wake not the anvil upon which the systen shall be broken?
Small. Business. Dragonborn. Executes the rival government leaders and installs a regime loyal to themself. Becomes the leader of every organisation in the land–representing all the vectors of social control: Labor Discipline (Companions), Education (College), Political Repression (Dark Brotherhood), and Economic (Thieves Guild-the most business-like and economically manipulative org)
Does Skyrim make you into a Fascist? No. It makes you into JP fucking Morgan
you gotta hand it to bethesda for creating a factional dispute that people still argue about over a decade later
Hoping the new ESO expansion changes that.
I gotta find out the new and interesting ways these guys are racist.
Also they do team up with the Redguards to genocide the Orcs quite a lot as well. To the point where Orcs are on their fourth Orsinium.
What are stormcloaks? You just run around caves and crash when your mods corrupt save files
Did you download that mod that creates like 100+ new dungeons as well?
I forget the name of it but it vastly expands the playable space and mob variety.
