Cyberpunk 2077 - Mike Pondsmith on Politics in Games

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Twinfinite reports on a panel attended by Mike Pondsmith where he was asked about politics in games and his vision for Cyberpunk 2077.

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That being said, what we have a tendency to do now is to say "it's not political" unless it's lining up with our politics, and that's part of the problem. It's that people see it as a tool or a weapon to be used with or against their own personal beliefs.

I tend to look at it as "freedom is important" not for the area of the people involved, but in a society or indeed a civilization. Freedom allows a civilization to get checks, balances, to grow, to learn from its mistakes.

That's part of the foundational elements I see in politics in a game.

Along with that, I've also said that if you want somebody to see your point of view, you really have to stop preaching. When you preach at people and they don't find it out themselves what happens is invariably they shut down because you're now threatening what they see. They say "you're wrong and my way is right."

You may not be right or only partially right and that's when you need to be able to talk to other people and find out what's right for a lot of people. If you preach you don't get there. You're just basically giving your side of the statement and it never seems to work that way.

What I believe is that the way to do politics in games it should be something that occurs in the game but doesn't necessarily have a visible agenda.

At no point does anybody in Cyberpunk come up and go "you should follow this belief structure." What they're saying is "There's this situation here. This is not a world designed to promote your life and livelihood and your friends and your neighborhoods, and anything that you care about."

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