Real-Life Issues you'd like to see a Game address

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

RPGs have been my favourite genre for most of my life. While I recognize the need to make an interactive experience alongside any story no matter how good, some of my favourite experiences have come from seeing parties of disparate individuals through the worst time of their lives and helping them beat down their inner demons, usually quite literally. Certainly lots of other games do this, but being the most character and dialogue-oriented genre, RPGs were the first to do so, to the point that a common complaint for more heavy-handed ones is being too much like a 'self-help booklet'.

Everyone probably has at least one example that relates to an issue they've seen in their own lives, and it would be great if we could have more RPGs and other games that do it in a subtle yet meaningful way, perhaps the most common issue being prejudice and strife between fictional races or social classes giving rise to a far worse crisis (Wild Arms 5, Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy Tactics). That's certainly something we've all seen, but it's also such a 'safe' approach without any controversy since nearly everyone can agree it's bad.

What kind of social/personal issue would you like to see an M-rated RPG (or another type of game) deal with and what type of role would your party of expert fighters and spellcasters play in resolving it? Or is it resolved?

 

[pilouuuu]

Things like cloning, time travel (although it's still not real as far as we know), social classes as you already said and discrimination.

I'd also like a game that talks about violence and its consequences and which would punish you for using it. Dishnored does that to an extent, but I'd like a game that analyses violence in our society and criticizes it.

Also more conspirations and corporation power on society (a good Syndicate, please!).

I'd also like games about first contact with aliens. Surprisingly I don't remember many right now, except for XCOM.

Also games that talk about topics like those in To The Moon (I don't want to spoil it).

Games about philosophy, existencialism and the meaning of life!

Games have such a potential for interactive storytelling that it's a shame not to have more varied topics in games.

 

[FalloutJack]

Here's one I don't see often: Suicide.

An in-game dealing-with-suicidal-feelings might be worth a try. Frankly, I can think of some people who could benefit from getting some personal revelations out of playing a game.

 

[Zhukov]

Nah, video games shouldn't try to do that sort of thing.

They should leave that serious stuff to the boring mediums like books and those shitty French "art" films. After all, they're called video games. Games are meant to be fun. Anybody remember fun? Y'know, that thing that games used to have before all the pretentious pricks and ugly women came along and started ruining it?

I play games to get away from real world problems. I don't need that shit getting crowbarred into my leisure time.

We need more games that put me in the shoes of a manly man with lots of really big and suspiciously phallic looking guns (or swords, those are cool too, just so long as they're phallic looking) who shoots other big, manly men to show that he's tougher than them all. Also, he should have some big tough friends who constantly tell me how much more manly and powerful I am than them. Oh, and a few hot babes with hardly any clothes who constantly mention how much they want to have sex with me. And as you play the game gives you increasingly bigger guns and bigger swords with bigger numbers attached to them.

Nowhere near enough games like that if you ask me. Nowhere near enough fun.

Fuck stories. Fuck characters. Fuck emotion. Fuck themes. Fuck philosophy. Fuck introspection.

Fuck all that. Games exist for the sole purpose of indulging me with fantasies of power that allow me to express simulated dominance over digital images that resemble people/creatures/monsters who would scare the living shit out of me if they were real. It makes me feel better about my near complete lack of genuine power in the real world.

That's what it's all about you see. Fun!

...

[sub][sub][sub]I'm not in a grumpy mood. Shut up.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

EDIT: Jesus Christ people, I'm being sarcastic! (Although evidently not sarcastic enough.) Stop bloody agreeing with me, it's embarrassing.

 

[skywolfblue]

Nah, games shouldn't try to do that sort of thing.

They should leave that serious stuff to the boring mediums like books and those shitty French "art" films. After all, they're called video games. Games are meant to be fun. Anybody remember fun? That thing that games used to have before all the pretentious pricks and ugly women came along and started ruining it?

I play games to get away from real world problems. I don't need that shit getting crowbarred into my leisure time.

We need more games that put me in the shoes of a manly man with lots of really big and suspiciously phallic looking guns (or swords, those are cool too, just so long as they're phallic looking) who shoots other big, manly men to show that he's tougher than them all. Also, he should have some big tough friends who constantly tell me how much more manly and powerful I am than them. Oh, and a few hot babes with hardly any clothes who constantly mention how much they want to have sex with me. And as you play the game gives you increasingly bigger guns and bigger swords with bigger numbers attached to them.

Nowhere near enough games like that if you ask me. Nowhere near enough fun.

Fuck stories. Fuck characters. Fuck emotion. Fuck themes. Fuck philosophy. Fuck introspection.

Fuck all that. Games exist for the sole purpose of indulging me with fantasies of power that allow me to express simulated dominance over digital images that resemble people who would scare the living shit out of me if they were real.

That's what it's all about. Fun.

...

[sub][sub][sub]I'm not in a grumpy mood. Shut up.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

Hear hear!

It seems that every time a game says it "Addresses Real Issues" it really means "Pushing Someone's Agenda".

 

[Zhukov]

[snip]

Hear hear!

It seems that every time a game says it "Addresses Real Issues" it really means "Pushing Someone's Agenda".

I hope to god you're just matching sarcasm with sarcasm there.

 

[skywolfblue]

[snip]

Hear hear!

It seems that every time a game says it "Addresses Real Issues" it really means "Pushing Someone's Agenda".

I hope to god you're just matching sarcasm with sarcasm there.

I was being serious. Aside from some of the more sexist lines, I do agree about games being about fun instead of trying to be serious about real life "issues".

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Nah, video games shouldn't try to do that sort of thing.

They should leave that serious stuff to the boring mediums like books and those shitty French "art" films. After all, they're called video games. Games are meant to be fun. Anybody remember fun? Y'know, that thing that games used to have before all the pretentious pricks and ugly women came along and started ruining it?

I play games to get away from real world problems. I don't need that shit getting crowbarred into my leisure time.

We need more games that put me in the shoes of a manly man with lots of really big and suspiciously phallic looking guns (or swords, those are cool too, just so long as they're phallic looking) who shoots other big, manly men to show that he's tougher than them all. Also, he should have some big tough friends who constantly tell me how much more manly and powerful I am than them. Oh, and a few hot babes with hardly any clothes who constantly mention how much they want to have sex with me. And as you play the game gives you increasingly bigger guns and bigger swords with bigger numbers attached to them.

Nowhere near enough games like that if you ask me. Nowhere near enough fun.

Fuck stories. Fuck characters. Fuck emotion. Fuck themes. Fuck philosophy. Fuck introspection.

Fuck all that. Games exist for the sole purpose of indulging me with fantasies of power that allow me to express simulated dominance over digital images that resemble people/creatures/monsters who would scare the living shit out of me if they were real. It makes me feel better about my near complete lack of genuine power in the real world.

That's what it's all about you see. Fun!

...

[sub][sub][sub]I'm not in a grumpy mood. Shut up.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

I feel like everyone who doesn't prioritise this in games needs to get some sort of brain rewrite into thinking so. In a nutshell, it seems like faaaaaaar too many pretentious hipster types want stuff like Dear Esther to be praised as all that's good and holy, even going so far as to want games that feature nothing but a path, movement keys and story fluff to take over ones which are actually entertaining entirely.

That said, you can only diversify gameplay in so many ways. There is a place for more story-focused games, so long as that isn't pretty much all the game is. If that's the case you may not even be able to call it a game anymore.

Anyway I don't particularly mind what themes games focus on, so long as they're explored well and make the game more enjoyable and more memorable as a result.
I would like more games to do it in a more comedic manner though, feels like every game and it's grandma comes off as way too serious nowadays, and comedy, black humour, satire and such can be a great way to get an audience interested in whatever you're trying to say.
You know Blackadder? Seen as one of the most bleak, deepest and insightful depictions of the ludicrous and terrible nature of the First World War and the follies of human conflict in general, and it's a comedy.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I prefer a videogame to have it's own self-contained story, that can perhaps apply some of it's themes to real life thought, but perhaps not intentionally.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Snip

Thank you for this, I laughed my ass off reading that awesome post.

Anywho...

I don't have any specific real-life issues I want to see addressed in video games. My biggest concern is whether or not they feel natural within the game or if they feel forced. I'm cool with a game trying to tackle an issue as long as it's done in a way that doesn't ruin immersion and take me out of the story.

Games that try to hammer in big issues awkwardly as an attempt to be topical and/or edgy usually irritate the hell out of me. Ditto for games that are entirely about a big issue and nothing else while completely sacrificing anything that could be even remotely considered gameplay.

 

[Full]

Maybe do what Spec Ops and No More Heroes did and make an allegory for violence in games and the media, but with gameplay consequences rather than mental ones.

*As an above poster said, some more comedic parodies would be nice. Although, there really isn't much you can do with funny gameplay. Well, I can't think of anything anyway.

 

[Zeema]

i wouldn't mind seeing Transgender and Depression topics. how it affects that person and stuff

 

[LifeMakesMeLOL]

Abortion.

Not as a central game mechanic, but maybe something that a particular character would have to deal with at some point in the plot. I know it's a hot button issue, but as long as the game itself kept a neutral opinion on it I think it could be pretty interesting.

 

[Angie7F]

Well, here is a card game for cross dressers. not transgender though.

http://www.07th-expansion.net/GM.htm

 

[Orsoeus]

Religion, Atheism, and the possible morality and conflict behind the two ideas.

 

[Orsoeus]

Nah, video games shouldn't try to do that sort of thing.

Games are meant to be fun. Anybody remember fun? Y'know, that thing that games used to have before all the pretentious pricks and ugly women came along and started ruining it?

We need more games that put me in the shoes of a manly man with lots of really big and suspiciously phallic looking guns (or swords, those are cool too, just so long as they're phallic looking) who shoots other big, manly men to show that he's tougher than them all. Also, he should have some big tough friends who constantly tell me how much more manly and powerful I am than them. Oh, and a few hot babes with hardly any clothes who constantly mention how much they want to have sex with me. And as you play the game gives you increasingly bigger guns and bigger swords with bigger numbers attached to them.

Nowhere near enough games like that if you ask me. Nowhere near enough fun.

Fuck stories. Fuck characters. Fuck emotion. Fuck themes. Fuck philosophy. Fuck introspection.

Fuck all that. Games exist for the sole purpose of indulging me with fantasies of power that allow me to express simulated dominance over digital images that resemble people/creatures/monsters who would scare the living shit out of me if they were real. It makes me feel better about my near complete lack of genuine power in the real world.

I cannot for the life of me tell if your being serious or not, but if you are, you're a very sad human being. I'd also like to point out that 99% of games follow that exact plot you mentioned, so you have more than enough. You should watch some Extra Credits, and realise games are not, and should not, just be about fun. Just look at Spec Ops 'The Line'.

 

[DoPo]

I cannot for the life of me tell if your being serious or not, but if you are, you're a very sad human being. I'd also like to point out that 99% of games follow that exact plot you mentioned, so you have more than enough. You should watch some Extra Credits, and realise games are not, and should not, just be about fun. Just look at Spec Ops 'The Line'.

And on the off chance Zhukov joking, like, for example, making fun of the people who'd actually protest. What then?

 

[Mr F.]

Terrorism.

Not on a Modern Warfare scale. Not on a "So huge it is impossible to comprehend" scale. But on a small, personal scale. I'm thinking realistic shooter (And I mean realistic, not "Modern Warfare" realism but actual realism, cannot think of the game name right now, there was some military shooter I saw someone play, that was realistic. One shot = dead, shit like that) where you take the role of the police and if you fuck up, well, people get torn to pieces.

And protests. That would be good.

Hell, I have even been thinking of an RTS based around protests. Satirical in nature, naturally, but still, could be good. I ran a very odd D&D campaign set around protests.

And finally...

A real depiction of civil war and the horrors that it brings. After playing a strange old WC3 scenario I realised just how much fun an RTS where one or more players are trying to bring down the player being the state could be. Set in, say, the early 20's or the interwar yearsin some fictional state... Meh, it sounds interesting to me and it could be a good way of trying to get people to understand more complex issues like those surrounding both Irish Independence and the birth of the IRA or perhaps even the complex issues behind the spanish civil war. I believe the best way to educate is to entertain, the lack of a game based upon the spanish civil war depresses me.

 

[Not Matt]

Abortion.
Not as a central game mechanic, but maybe something that a particular character would have to deal with at some point in the plot. I know it's a hot button issue, but as long as the game itself kept a neutral opinion on it I think it could be pretty interesting.

there is. sadly. it's called RapeLay and ... wahhhhhhhhhhh read it yourself, if i describe it the way i feel it deserves to be described the MODERATORS [footnote] said in a deep and dramatic voice as if i am announcing the arrival of god [/footnote] will be very angry at me http://www.giantbomb.com/rapelay/61-16696/

i get why you wanna see it in a game. it is a pretty tense subject but i think we reached the one subject this medium shouldn't touch
(oh my god this game is so f***ing stupid and disgusting)