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Helldivers 2’s Politics Appear To Be Flying Over The Heads Of Some (www.forbes.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/games@sh.itjust.works

201 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There is currently a very funny, kind of sad dust-up over Helldivers 2, in which self-proclaimed “anti-woke” gamers have previously heralded it as a rare game where they believe “politics” does not play a factor. Their faith was been shaken by an Arrowhead community manager they believed they found to be (gasp) progressive who was then subsequently harassed, but their head-scratching reading of Helldivers 2 as a “non-political” game is worth examining.

The only thing that makes sense is that these players have the shallowest of surface-level readings of the game. You are a patriotic soldier serving Super Earth. You must kill bugs and evil robots trying to hurt your brothers-in-arms and innocent citizens. There are no storylines to insert progressive causes into, everyone wears helmets so no “forced diversity.” Therefore, no politics.

Of course, this is…wildly off the mark, as Helldivers 2 is about the most blatantly obvious satire of militaristic fascism since the film that inspired it, Starship Troopers.

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[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 71 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

I never played the game but watched some trailers and gameplay videos. I'm 99% certain that Helldivers 2 is following the Starship Troopers formula and purely making fun of patrionism, propaganda, war, the military, military personnel, "freedom", heroism, politics and military advertisements and turning that into a game. There's just so many obvious signs, it seems impossible to miss. In other words, it is a political game. Or maybe I just really don't get either of the two.

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 57 points 8 months ago (2 children)

You nailed it. It's 100% inspired by Starship Troopers and is a criticism of US propaganda in the same vein while also being an incredibly fun co-op game.

The only thing you're missing is just how obtuse some people are. It runs into the same thing as the Warhammer 40k universe, where the humans are obviously just as bad as everybody else, but people praise their fascist military industrial complex society. Either people are so incredibly media illiterate that it makes your head spin, or they're wilfully ignorant because it supports their worldview. Take your pick, but I go for a little of both.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's an easy worldview. Those people need the world to make sense, and fascism and authoritarianism give easy answers.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 8 months ago

fascism and authoritarianism give easy answers

Because you don't have to think about it, big brother does that for you. You just have to cheer the loudest and not ask any questions.

[–] exocrinous@startrek.website 3 points 8 months ago

To be fair, some Warhammer writers also don't understand that they're writing satire. The Imperium lights it's spaceships with candles because they're too religious for common sense, and yet some claim only a fascist government is efficient enough to save humanity.

The Administratum is such a tangled and immense bureaucracy that entire planets are a rounding error to them. Their propaganda says this is because the Imperium is too big to manage efficiently. But the true reason is, fascists are bad at math

[–] MacAttak8@lemmy.world 26 points 8 months ago

You definitely get it. Pure satire.

[–] narrowide96lochkreis@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Maybe these people are too young to know Starship Troopers. How old is it now?

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 8 months ago

Even when the movie came out, people didn't get that it was satire and thought it was 100% serious.

[–] Cold_Brew_Enema@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I mean, yeah. That was extremely obvious.