An interview with the co-director of The Outer Worlds recently discussed how they planned on dealing with the political elements in the games and their response made me happy!
According to the interview with PC Gamer, Leonard Boyarsky says:
the studio is not trying to make its upcoming RPG The Outer Worlds into “a really hard, politically-charged game,” and that it is being very careful not to “lecture” players about its themes. But his description of those themes, which include “power and how power is used against people who don’t have it,” has an awfully political ring to it.
Essentially to break it down into simpler terms, the team at Obsidian are going to paint the picture/portrait and let us the gamer interpreted it in our own way. They’ll ensure that the characters in the game don’t draw a hard line for you, don’t preach to us about what’s right and what’s wrong and basically let us decide that for ourselves as you role play in this galaxy dominated by mega-corporations and rampant capitalism. That makes a lot of sense to me. Hearing this gets me even more interested in this game than I was previously.
I have seen some people on Twitter make statements that the game is clearly contradicting itself, as the theme of the game is rooted in political affairs so therefore they must take some stance. However, I think most of these people don’t seem to understand what the devs at Obsidian are trying to create with The Outer Worlds. A game can have politics in it, but it can also let you the player interpreted it in your own way. It doesn’t have to tell you what’s right or wrong. That’s up to you to decide. I remember when Ubisoft made their choice to be apolitical and they too caught heat for it. Is it so bad to let people think for themselves?
I like the stance that Obsidian have taken and I wish more devs will follow suit in their endeavor.
