this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 145 points 8 months ago (4 children)

If chess were a new game released today, I imagine a lot of these "why'd they make it political" types would probably object to the fact that the most powerful character in the game is the only one that's clearly stated to be a woman.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Wokeness is why she's not in a bikini or hot. Look at this. ♕

End WOKENESS

/s

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If chess came out today, some mod author would give her huge badonkers

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Some mod authors have most definitely already done that. Only 250$ USD for a hand carved set on Etsy.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Sometimes I see a nude depiction and wonder to myself if it's artsy or pornographic. In this case she's fingering herself, so that answers that question

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

I was about to make a point but I'm scared what results will come up in google

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

At least she's spiky... Spicy

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And now I want to 3D print myself a couple sets of pieces - One that is Woman in Bikini's in Pin-up poster poses, and the other in Hot AF Beach boys and the like in poses accenting there form.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Well, originally, the piece is Vizier - king's advisor, the gender of which isn't specified. (but implied to be male?)

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So what you're saying is that switching it from Vizier to Queen isn't about progressive feminism, but instead about monogamy and heteronormative gender roles? Way to ruin it for everybody! 😠

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Idk if I'm saying that, but it's definitely woke. They should've came up with a new character instead of just gender-swapping an existing one!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

The Vizier also only moved one space at a time, like the king but without significant importance. It wasn't until the French changed the Queen in the 1600s to move as far as she wants that she was liberated from the shackles of the patriarchy.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't let your pawns transition to female: promote to knight or rook

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Well, not if chess were created today, the way it was created originally. It took until 997 for The Queen to replace The Chancellor/Minister, and even then she could only move one square diagonally only. It took till the 1400's for her to gain a flying mount, or whatever the explanation is for her current OP movement status.

Bishops replaced Elephants in the 1200s, but could only move 2 squares, diagonally, at a time.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is literally one of the best games I've ever played and it's entire basis is politics.

Armstrong was screaming Make America Great Again about three years too early.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I’ve always wanted to play it, but I never have. Same for all of the metal gear games, lol.

If only I could play them on PS5 :(

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Rising is very very different to any other MGS game. Fair warning. I recommend every MGS game wholeheartedly, but don't play Rising and then pick up Snake Eater or MGSV expecting it to be more of the same.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's the only one I've played, I'm waiting for the Metal Gear collection to go on sale on Steam

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

I guarantee you that’s where Turnip’s team got the slogan. Some unpaid internet played the game and mentioned it as Orange was walking by.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

I mean the slogan came from Reagan and predates the game.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

It was a Reagan campaign, and people like Roger Stone and Steve Pieczenick were involved. Listening to him on Knowledge Fight covering Infowars, they aren't in touch enough to know video game references, unfortunately, since that would have been hilarious.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It originated from Reagan who took it from Thatcher, with Reagan not getting the "Make Britan Great Again" pun works because Great Britain is the name of the English portion of the UK

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Great Brittain is the big island that England, Scotland and Wales lie on, but yes it's dumb that Reagan just lost the pun

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

And is another fucking case where people who played it rooted for the villain, and missed the point.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's not about killing the king. The king can never be killed. It's about keeping him in check until he can't move anymore

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago

No politics here, we can go about our business.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's also worth noting the term is "capture". And outside of rare instance - you didn't really want to kill knights and the like: You captured them, and ransomed them back to their family/liege lord etc.

And there is a reason the term "Kings Ransom" exists. John the II of France for instance was captured, and Ransomed for something like 300000 gold coins of the day - something like 300 million or up to about 3 billion in today's dollars (conversion is a little fuzzy but to put it simply: A BLOODY TONNE OF MONEY).

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The term "check mate" literally means "the king is dead".

We know the word for king from other known forms like "sheikh" or "Shah". I don't think the word for "dead" was loaned to English from Persian or Arab in any phrases or sayings except "check mate".

Yeah, but it's about killing the king. It's also about protecting your own king, so not a game of republicanism.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The only apolitical video game is Tetris, and its export history is Cliff's Notes for cold-war economic shenanigans.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

It's history which weirdly includes a lot of Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell's father.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Tetris is a hyperabstract policing simulator. The shapes are people, your job is to shove them into boxes and keep them in line. Too many get out of line and you lose. Some people are easy to fit in, like lines and squares, some go out of their way to be helpful like Ls and Ts and some people...well, some people are just always gonna be Zs facing the wrong direction.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The Fallout community is ludicrous with this. New Vegas is one of the most politically charged games in recent years, and yet chuds think it's somehow not extremely anticapitalist and pro-leftist.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

That's because those people have a hard on for the Brotherhood and don't see how they're basically technonazis.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (5 children)

You want a game about politics? Play fallout new vegas. Yes, there is no true government, but the whole game is about factions trying to establish themselves like a government.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Chuds still think somehow it's a right wing game, despite being overtly anti-fascist and anti-Capitalist, with several positive portrayals of Socialism, such as the Gun Runners, Westside, and of course the Anarcho-Communist Followers of the Apocalypse.

It's wild how many unironic Legion fans there are.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

There's not a time in history sports and games weren't political.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

Pac man disrespects the dead by eating ghosts, which is considered highly disrespectful in cultures that practice ancestor worship. What's more, Pac man has a wife who is explicitly shown to be as capable as he is, to the point where the only real difference between them is that Mrs Pac man has a bow and lipstick. A bold statement on gender roles if I've ever seen one. In summary, this game is a feminist masterpiece that pokes fun at superstitious conservative countries. Truly a thought provoking piece that will be remembered in the same vein as other great provocative works, such as A Modest Proposal or the movie Borat.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Pac-man was made specifically to appeal to women, a demographic that was rarely targeted with video games at that time. Its core design came right out of the idea that "women like to eat".

Is this feminist-misogynist sandwich political enough for you?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Easy, the sequel was Ms. Pac-Man. /s

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Chess does not involve politics, because there is no decision making in groups. The chess in Harry potter where the pieces can talk to you... That has politics

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I mean, killing people as a function of time plays a role here, right?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

"The Finals" has different approach - you, as a real person, play video game, in which you control a character while in inner "virtual reality".

Or you know - controlling a virtual character to kill other virtual characters isn't so bad, isn't it? 😅

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

When people say this it's an extension of telling people you're "not interested in politics" as a more polite alternative to "you're a windbag and not nearly as smart as you think you are, so I'd rather stick to things it's fun to talk to you about." Nobody complains about games like New Vegas and Deus Ex because they're written by people with enough education and skill to pull it off. That's why it's always the same games being used as examples. That level of writing is nowhere close to the norm.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The story I heard (now apocryphal) is the chess was invented (using live actors as pieces) to allow a prince to explain to his mother why it was necessary to kill his brother on the field of battle. A literal lesson in politics.

Sadly, I can't find the source and Wikipedia says the origins of Chess are debated by scholarly historians.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

That sounds like the kind of fact that they'd have had on an early series of QI, only to retract it in a later series and redistribute points.

Just checked, looks like that story comes from an 11th century Persian epic poem, Shahnameh. It doesn't seem to be referenced in that article, but is discussed in this one.

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