this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 140 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.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 65 points 8 months ago (9 children)

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

End WOKENESS

/s

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

At least she's spiky... Spicy

[–] Formesse 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Bet you it already exists. Either it's been made and sold physically, or someone else has an STL you can use.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] grue 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.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] AngryCommieKender 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.

[–] JusticeForPorygon 58 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] 14 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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[–] JusticeForPorygon 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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[–] DarkMessiah 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

[–] JusticeForPorygon 4 points 8 months ago

That's so funny to think about lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Yeeah, by the time Trump used it, it was a cliché slogan for cinematic hard-right-wing movements and political parties in America. I think the one in The Purge is Keeping America Great

So it was a clue during the campaign that Trump was meaning to do a literal fascism.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] JusticeForPorygon 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I yearn for the day where I meet someone who tries to justify the actions of possibly the single most cartoonishly evil villain in entertainment history.

Maybe second only to the original Thanos, who wiped out half of all life in the universe not to bring balance, but because he was horny.

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[–] [email protected] 49 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] 25 points 8 months ago

No politics here, we can go about our business.

[–] Formesse 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).

[–] wieson 9 points 8 months ago (1 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.

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

Apparently that might or might not be a mistranslation?

https://www.etymonline.com/word/checkmate

mid-14c., in chess, said of a king when it is in check and cannot escape it, from Old French eschec mat (Modern French échec et mat), which (with Spanish jaque y mate, Italian scacco-matto) is from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.1)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, if it is the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped."

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (2 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.

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

extremely anticapitalist and pro-leftist

There's definitely some enlightened centrist bullshit crammed in there pretty unironically.

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

The NCR is both Capitalist and Imperialist, the fact that the people of the Mojave don't want the Neoliberal expansionist empire or the fascist gang of slavers is more to the general leftist, almost Anarchist slant.

It's only centrist if you consider the NCR as the end of the spectrum, and not just a lesser of two right wing evils.

[–] RIP_Cheems 19 points 8 months ago (2 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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[–] TankovayaDiviziya 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And a random courier is somehow trusted to be the kingmaker. Which is more strange considering that I roleplayed as a kind of mercenary playing all sides until there comes the fork on the road where I had to choose which faction to give my full support.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The player character isn't really trusted to play kingmaker, they just do regardless, and because the balance of power is fragile, the Courier is the tipping point for the scales.

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[–] NatakuNox 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)
[–] Jomega 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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

My favorite sports political protest of all time.

And the white dude was ostracized in Australia for being there, in solidarity with Aboriginal persons.

[–] [email protected] 9 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

[–] AgentOrangesicle 9 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] 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.

[–] Hoomod 3 points 8 months ago

Getting your piece to the other side in checkers it becomes a king

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