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APOLITICAL APOCALYPSE: A recent article at VG247.com interviewed (as part of the piece) games designer and writer, Chris Avellone––writer/designer of games such as Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II–––who argued not only that his writing was without any political inspiration nor had any political agenda (small “p”), but that he “[didn’t] condone developers who [wanted] to do political games or make a statement” (McKeand). In fairness, the quote has since been edited by VG247.com, replacing “condone” with “condemn”, softening Avellone’s criticism a little bit, stating that Avellone wrote “doesn’t condone” accidentally and his actual sentiment is more clearly presented with the correction. Still, this makes us think––are games (or any text in popular culture) apolitical, or can they be? Andrew and D. Bethel investigate how this is a problem.

RELEVANT LINKS:

• McKeand, Kirk. “Can Stories Be Apolitical? We Asked Some Video Game Writers and Narrative Designers.” VG247.com. Gamer Network, 31 May 2019.
• Sinclair, Brendan. “(Religious Game) Developer or Religious (Game Developer)?” GamesIndustry.biz. Gamer Network, 04 Jun. 2019.
• The Wikipedia overview of the literary theory of New Historicism.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

• “Episode 91 – Trying to Keep Sharp.” (08 Apr. 2016) Where Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the controversy around the inclusion of a trans character in Baldur’s Gate: The Siege of Dragonspear.
• “Shortcast 53 – Aggressive Compliments.” (04 May 2018) Where the Battletech pronoun controversy is discussed.

INFO:

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FEATURED MUSIC:

• “Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod
  • Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3652-disco-medusae
• “District Four” by Kevin McLeod
  • Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3662-district-four
• Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)