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this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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Carrying a definite political message is not the same as being a relatively message less environment that has politics as a mechanic.
"Political" games as mentioned by OP carry a message - e.g. who the "good guys" are (the rebels in Star wars are considered the good guys, and authoritarianism is shown as bad). In Civilization games, does it have a storyline that has an equivalent political statement? Or does it serve to let you make whatever statement you want as a sort of sandbox?
I honestly don't know the story of Civ, but hopefully that demonstrates the difference between something that could be "Politics: the game" (a "politics simulator") and something that carries a political statement
The argument ive been trying to make here (probably badly because I'm tired and not a great persuader even when at full power) is that all games have political messages, then if they're not literally about government.
Civ is kind of a sandbox, but to reuse an example I already posted, saying "if you kill everyone else, you win!" is a political statement.
There are many win conditions in Civ, so it having "killing everyone else is winning" as a political statement would be a very weak argument imho
"genocide is good and a valid way to win" is pretty fucked up, if you think about it. So is "obliterate their culture".
You could also have a civ game where you lose if things get to the point of genocide, or the world devolves into a monoculture.