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Politics in a Sonic game


NoirSuede

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I'm deeply uncertain about what place there is in Sonic for long cutscenes full of dialogue between characters who aren't the player character, and political plots - both in terms of ones embracing real-world issues and complex narratives involving multiple suspicious organisations and their shifting allegiances - strike me as very difficult to execute without said cutscenes.  I just don't think it's the right genre.  On the other hand, if you can present a plot point with zero dialogue in a Sonic game, go ahead.  In-level dialogue playing out over gameplay is something the series should be making more of an attempt to utilise, too, along with actual gameplay objectives tied in to the narrative and not just "reach the non-diegetic goal marker."

To be clear, I like strong characterisation and complex narratives as much as the next well-read person.  But the series has not convinced me that the "speedy platformer" genre is the place to be asking the player to stop and listen to a lot of dialogue.

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The comics did a lot with that with the whole bureaucracy thing, and SA2's corruption was alright, but that's as far as it goes. Sonic games should have game material, and any sort of  complex political stuff just couldn't be implemented there like it is in the comics.

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Yeah, the word "politics" doesn't automatically imply Metal Gear Solid or Ghost in the Shell levels of political heaviness. Heck, even considering what SA2 did with corrupt military conspiracies, it's not like this thing hasn't been done before without being overwhelmed by it. Politics involves the activifities associated in an area, mainly what we call a country, and can deal with the conflict of individuals or groups hoping to achieve power. Almost anything you want can be considered political depending on how you look at it, whether subtly, indirectly, or blatantly.

For example, almost each single game in Megaman X-ZX has politics to an even greater extent than SA2 has done with human governments and military forces labeling Reploids who are simply disobedient for wanting their own country as "Mavericks" that you have to stop in X (specifically X4) while the series deals with a powerhungry, genocidal robot seeking the extermination of humans for being powerhungry themselves; said government becoming facist and enacting genocide of innocent Reploids in the Zero series before getting seized by a madman; and a new government in ZX coupled with infighting as the main villian, who is one of the leaders, goes on his own to destroy the old world and create a new one. (and is somehow for kids, go figure)

Ratchet and Clank, much more cartoony and slapstick than Sonic has been, has politics in the form of corporate corruption in games like Going Commando, and even uses it as part of a backstory during the Future series over how Ratchet became one of the few of his kind in his dimension due to a certain other lombax using his political status to give one of the villains access to technology and inadvertently spelling doom to the entire race.

Then there's Freedom Planet where the three cities are fighting, an enemy civil war in Pokemon Black and White between Team Plasma's two leaders (EDIT- forgot the "ecoterrorism" of Team Magma and Aqua in R&B), heck freaking Mario has it every time Bowser invades the Mushroom Kingdom to kidnap Princess Peach - that's what we'd call an act of war in any other setting, and technically is given that Bowser outright sends airships to attack it. The key thing here is that they don't call it "politics," but instead call it "the game's plot".

Edited by ChaosSupremeSonic
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Every game has had conflict, though. It's just very straightforward conflict. "Eggman/The Deadly Six/Lyric/whoever is doing something bad, so go stop them!" still counts as conflict, however simple it may be. Hey, Lost World even shook things up by having conflict between the heroes (and temporary ally Eggman) in addition to the villainous threat. It's not a political conflict, but it is an interpersonal one that plays as a backdrop to the larger game plot.

Of course, the writers have been really vague about human activity in the series since Unleashed, so political/military/etc. action may be on an embargo of some kind for the time being. As someone who actually liked Gerald (as well as the cartoony humans of Unleashed), I'd be all for seeing human NPCs again, but I get the feeling we won't for some time, simply because they're associated with poorly-received games (even if their presence isn't why those games were poorly received).

I wasn't stating that the games had literally no conflict.  I was exaggerating on the point that the conflicts have been lacking in thematic depth, internal exploration, and world-building and analysis, with Lost World making a valiant effort but not quite getting there.

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Technically speaking, if you don't have a conflict, you don't have story...unless you're writing a Slice of Life plot (and sometimes even then).

Edited by ChaosSupremeSonic
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Well I can't say for sure about how I would feel about politics in a Sonic game, it really does depend on how its about it. Shadow the Hedgehog was too high on narm, edge, and heaping amounts of pork content concerning line deliveries for me to take it seriously. SA2, though better in its approach, kinda rubs me the wrong way all the same, though I can't pinpoint what exactly it is.

That said, a game that actually placed Sonic characters at various ends of the political scale though would be a sight to behold.

Edited by Gabe
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It can, but the politics used has to:

- Make sense

- Move the plot forward

- Reason for being there

 

There's some ways to make it feel more Sonicy. I'd suggest raising the scifi bar up some. The president could be using holocomputers, for instance. Or any other councilor or whatever. Sonic is a mix of scifi and magic, use them to separate it from the real world.

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Politically, Sonic's somewhat of an anarchist and an environmentalist mixed together. ... That's all I got, I don't know much about political stuff.

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Time to put my four years of Criminal Justice to work.

 

Right, so let's get the definition of politics out of the way; first off, while its generally used to cover things that happen within a government setting, politics is actually pretty damn broad. Politics can literally be as simple as arguing who gets the last cookie in the jar. So in that sense, you can really apply it to Sonic too. Its not inherently out of place :V

 

But since I'm assuming the OP is referring to government politics, guess I'll refer to that. Its really dependent on the context; I mean Eggman (owning an army and all) and GUN, and the president are the only real political figures within the series. The former more or less just plays the villain, while the latter two are more backdrops for more interesting plot points.

For the series to really delve into politics, it'd actually need to get a bit more complex than "The wonderful adventures of Sonic & Tails" that we've been getting for the past couple of years. But let's give the series the benefit of the doubt and brainstorm how politics in Sonic can work. To start, you need a conflict, generally a conflict that can't be solved by Sonic running really really fast and destroying robots. Now at this point everyone is probably like "Fuck that shit, its not Sonic if I can't run fast or break shit", but let's be a bit more open-minded shall we. Ok, so you'd have to establish a conflict that forces the heroes to address the activities of a governing party; I dunno, Sonic & Tails find a village where violence is illegal. Eggman being the smooth talker he is, almost manages to take over said village without throwing a single punch. So the focus would be on Sonic & Tails trying to resolve the conflict diplomatically. Hell, Tails can be the focus of the game considering he's the brains between him and Sonic and Sonic becomes the sidekick for once. 

That said, such a premise would probably be better suited for an RPG, where you can actually focusing on developing such a conflict. At least that's my preference, platformers tend to be more action-orientated by nature and a game about non-action approaches is kinda jarring. 

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Politically, Sonic's somewhat of an anarchist and an environmentalist mixed together. ... That's all I got, I don't know much about political stuff.

I'm not quite sure where I get the idea that Sonic would be an anarchist.  He values freedom and justice, but never in such a way that entails he does not like an overarching government or a sense of order.

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I'm not quite sure where I get the idea that Sonic would be an anarchist.  He values freedom and justice, but never in such a way that entails he does not like an overarching government or a sense of order.

As the one character who has mastered the art of becoming one with the forces of Chaos and the Wind....and being the type of guy who doesn't care about what others say and only listens to what he wants to do.... I doubt he cares much about an overarching government and order.

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As the one character who has mastered the art of becoming one with the forces of Chaos and the Wind....and being the type of guy who doesn't care about what others say and only listens to what he wants to do.... I doubt he cares much about an overarching government and order.

None of those things are exactly related.

An anarchist is someone who firmly believes in the disestablishment of a central government.  What you've described is at best someone who is apathetic to government.  But that being said, Sonic's views on the government existing have not been disclosed, but we can probably infer that he supports its existence as long as it doesn't interfere with his life.

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Yea, the only time Sonic has opposed the government is when they were going after him directly, it was self defense more than anything. I doubt Sonic has an issue with any form of government as long as they don't hinder his (or anyone else's likely) freedom./

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If Sonic's close to anything on a political spectrum its in relevance to Socialism. He cares deeply for the wellbeing of people and knowing that they have the freedom to do what they will without harming one another and stands for a lot against the industrial complex i.e. Eggman's whole master plan.  

Vote for Bernie the Hedgehog 2016. 

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That said, such a premise would probably be better suited for an RPG, where you can actually focusing on developing such a conflict. At least that's my preference, platformers tend to be more action-orientated by nature and a game about non-action approaches is kinda jarring. 

Actually, it can work in a platformer. The key to this is to streamline it and move it at a faster pace than how RPGs do it, given the latter's heavier integration with narrative in gameplay.

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Psh, the easy way to bring a political spin on the franchise is to just tag along the same topic that every superhero flick uses to ground their stories in a believable and real political setting.

 

two words. Collateral Damage. that's it.

 

At a certain point, a section of the populous and the people who run it will have to get sick and tired of the connection between Sonic and the tidal wave of carnage that always seems to follow him around. Despite being a world renowned hero, its not hard to look at sonic as a harbinger of destruction or a forerunner of some pretty dark times.

 

I think it would be interesting to see a population that simply doesn't want his help. Lest they end up like station square, angel island or any of the other god forsaken zone's Eggy's added a personal touch to. Where Sonic goes, stuff explodes and we never stop to think about the people who get caught in the cross-fire. Sonic didn't un-pollute oil ocean or clean up the debris left behind from the crashed Death Egg. He just blasted through and kept on trucking.

 

I could see a president, or a leader of an organization like GUN take a rather... anti-Sonic stance on that. Making his job as a hero that much more complicated. I think I'd like a story like that actually. Sonic would have his work cut out for him if he has to fight Eggman, the government and the people he's trying to help. Going to need to do more than run fast to fix all that.

Edited by Sega DogTagz
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Actually, it can work in a platformer. The key to this is to streamline it and move it at a faster pace than how RPGs do it, given the latter's heavier integration with narrative in gameplay.

How would you do it then ?

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How would you do it then ?

By keeping it simple and to the point?

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I think complex morals and political questioning can be done in a way that also compliment a simple arcade style platformer.  Using the aforementioned example of the heroes visiting a village where violence in all forms is frowned upon, instead of making the game about non-violently attempting to pursue Eggman and put an end to his plans diplomatically, make a plot which raises the question as to rather Sonic's actions are right or wrong, give us objectives within action stages other than "beat the robot a billion times."  Maybe emulate Ace Attorney by giving us a series of choices and responses that lead you in either the right or wrong direction.

You don't have to have particularly complex mechanics or a change in overall medium to make use of complex social and political dynamics within a platformer.

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It's always good to touch upon what politicians think of a world changing event in fiction to create an expansive universe. The consequences don't even have to be entirely game changing, just addressed.  Whether or not they want to create said universe is the big question...

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Another thing to note about politics is that they are pretty much omniscient and inherent in entertainment. If you make any kind of work, the characters, setting, conflict, and resolution are going to suggest a belief of some sort even if the work doesn't exist in a governmental environment. Steven Universe for example is pro-feminist and pro-LGBT without having a government official make any sort of speech about these things because the characters, conflicts, and beliefs they espouse are merely the surface covering for the subtext that is pro-feminist and pro-LGBT ideals. So if you don't want to have actual sociopolitical stuff in a work (and for Sonic we probably wouldn't), just make use of symbolism and character action. Repeat colors, patterns, or objects to suggest viewpoints (ex. red = right-leaning, blue= left-leaning). Have characters make decisions or engage each other in ways that imply or reference political beliefs and thoughts (questions and actions regarding free will, responsibility, collateral damage, helping or not helping people, misanthropy, inequality, etc.). Use plot devices that are parallels to real world concepts, such as in Steven Universe's case again where fusion is a parallel to a personal relationship. You can make a sociopolitical statement out of something that is fantastical and cartoony.

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I'm not against metaphor and symbolism, but there's a fine line between using that successfully and using it to address a conflict without actually stating what the conflict is.  Steven Universe is a good example and one where I can understand why they might do it when the actual implications of a "forced fusion" would be highly inappropriate for a children's television series, and even with all the symbolism in tact, the key message (that forcing someone into a relationship is wrong) is abundantly obvious to children and adults alike.  But then you have things like MLP's problematic portrayals in seasons 4 and 5, wherein they want to include a character that has a physical disability and two characters that are lesbians, but instead of explicitly stating it, they sort of beat around the bush and leave it as an "obvious for adult fans, but children might not understand it" sort of approach.  To me, not only is it incredibly half-supportive ("We want to be supportive of our disabled and lesbian fans, but also don't want to lose money by upsetting ableist and homophobic fans"), but it's also just weak writing.  I feel that a work should avoid making moves that are only meant to win over one audience, particularly when that one audience in question is actually the secondary demographic.

Metaphor and symbolism are great tools, but are also the easiest tools to abuse.  It's okay to delve into something metaphorically, but only when used to strengthen the message or connect it to a narrative, as opposed to avoiding the conflict altogether.

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