What's the 3 best video games out of this list?

What's the 3 best video games out of this list?


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It's a revisionist history similar to Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds or Django Unchained. It is intended to explore the potential dark side our country might have walked if it wasn't for men like Abraham Lincoln. The fact our protagonist is named "Booker" shouldn't have been lost on anyone from the opening scenes.
I haven't seen either of those movies. What's the significance of the name Booker? Game felt like a bunch of white guilting.
 
I haven't seen either of those movies. What's the significance of the name Booker? Game felt like a bunch of white guilting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington
220px-Booker_T_Washington_retouched_flattened-crop.jpg
 
The fact that the protagonist is white with a dutch last name doesn't really jive with that theory though.
"DeWitt" is a Flemish name that means "white". None of these racial allusions is a mistake. When you consider the Jim Crow inspirations for the game's environment/world it becomes obvious that allusion to the most famous "Booker" who ever lived (by a landslide) isn't a mistake. Our protagonist is intended to reflect someone with a foot in both worlds.

The floating city of Columbia itself (and its art style) were modeled on the "White City" from the World Fair in Chicago which celebrated the European discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. Consider that in the context of expositions in the game itself. For example, in the museum, there is the native American exhibit about the destruction of the Native Americans by Custard (in this revisionist history he won the battle of Little Big Horn). The World Fair itself that year specifically celebrated the optimism of the industrial revolution. But, as so many leftists will point out today, there were subcultural "losers" in this history that were ground up in the cogs of this giant, industrial machine that became the seat of our great nation's power. The slaughtered Native Americans in that exhibit reflect one of these groups. Slaves are another. Slaves are great for profits.

The game's story is all about imperialism and nationalism; the ways in which industry can come to reflect deeper racist tendencies within a culture. It's also about how histories often contain lies which reflect the values and perspective of those in power, or somehow protect the interests of that group. This is why we are presented with deviant histories. Are they alternate histories in this alternate reality, or are we simply being sold lies? This is all a take on the postmodern mantra: "the winners write the history". Everything about the game's narrative is about the collision of culture's with the invisible, oppressive presence of white supremacy/nationalism symbolized by Zachary Hale Comstock. Think even of his great avatar: the giant robotic bird. It's like a bald eagle, yes? Our national bird. The fact that it is mechanized reflects the machine of industry: the industrial revolution. Even his "Patriots" are motorized robots built in his image.
 
"DeWitt" is a Flemish name that means "white". None of these racial allusions is a mistake. When you consider the Jim Crow inspirations for the game's environment/world it becomes obvious that allusion to the most famous "Booker" who ever lived (by a landslide) isn't a mistake. Our protagonist is intended to reflect someone with a foot in both worlds.

The floating city of Columbia itself (and its art style) were modeled on the "White City" from the World Fair in Chicago which celebrated the European discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. Consider that in the context of expositions in the game itself. For example, in the museum, there is the native American exhibit about the destruction of the Native Americans by Custard (in this revisionist history he won the battle of Little Big Horn). The World Fair itself that year specifically celebrated the optimism of the industrial revolution. But, as so many leftists will point out today, there were subcultural "losers" in this history that were ground up in the cogs of this giant, industrial machine that became the seat of our great nation's power. The slaughtered Native Americans in that exhibit reflect one of these groups. Slaves are another. Slaves are great for profits.

The game's story is all about imperialism and nationalism; the ways in which industry can come to reflect deeper racist tendencies within a culture. It's also about how histories often contain lies which reflect the values and perspective of those in power, or somehow protect the interests of that group. This is why we are presented with deviant histories. Are they alternate histories in this alternate reality, or are we simply being sold lies? This is all a take on the postmodern mantra: "the winners write the history". Everything about the game's narrative is about the collision of culture's with the invisible, oppressive presence of white supremacy/nationalism symbolized by Zachary Hale Comstock. Think even of his great avatar: the giant robotic bird. It's like a bald eagle, yes? Our national bird. The fact that it is mechanized reflects the machine of industry: the industrial revolution. Even his "Patriots" are motorized robots built in his image.
Did you read this somewhere or did you come up with that yourself?

What I don't like is the focus on white nationalism. Haven't most ethnicities/cultures been guilty of enslaving others at some point in history? Why isn't more made of what the Spanish did to other cultures?

It seems like nowadays it's popular to shit on whites for it and you even hear such statements as 'It's impossible for African Americans to be racist'.

Have you ever heard of Christopher Newsom or Channon Christianson? Most haven't because it doesn't fit the narrative of our media nowadays. There was a video recently posted about a woman asking a guy if he could prove that he lived in their apartment building.

The media made special note of the fact that he was black and she was white. If the roles had been reversed then we wouldn't hear about it. The pendulum swings both ways.
 
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Did you read this somewhere or did you come up with that yourself?
This is all me. I didn't know the World's Fair trivia off the top of my head, when the game came out, but the rest of this stuff is acquired knowledge for me, Robo, which is invaluable for analyzing a work of art as you experience it. I'm one of the people who tends to generate readings like this that others will share, or constructively plunder. The internet's crowdsourcing power for critical analysis is astonishing, but ultimately, it does depend on thought generators to illuminate the strongest readings. There's a reason that so many will reach the same conclusions. These ideas are intentional. I'm certainly not the only person to notice the conspicuousness of "Booker" in this setting, but I also didn't require the others to point it out for me.
 
That's one possibility. Another possibility, my dear Watson, is that he used IMDb's highest ranked video games-- the list he linked in his OP-- to determine his entries for the poll.

How disappointing. Says something about IMDbs community. No hespect for the classics.
 
This is all me. I didn't know the World's Fair trivia off the top of my head, when the game came out, but the rest of this stuff is acquired knowledge for me, Robo, which is invaluable for analyzing a work of art as you experience it. I'm one of the people who tends to generate readings like this that others will share, or constructively plunder. The internet's crowdsourcing power for critical analysis is astonishing, but ultimately, it does depend on thought generators to illuminate the strongest readings. There's a reason that so many will reach the same conclusions. These ideas are intentional. I'm certainly not the only person to notice the conspicuousness of "Booker" in this setting, but I also didn't require the others to point it out for me.
Your analysis is impressive in its depth but I still think that the general sentiment behind it is common nowadays so can't say that I'm surprised that there are many others who are drawing similar conclusions or that said references are intentional by the developer. As I mentioned from the get go, the game does seem purposefully focused on exaggerating white oppression throughout history.

Personally, I'm sick of hearing about how racist my ancestors supposedly were. My family never had slaves (my grandfather was actually threatened by the kkk). Bioshock Infinite is only one example in a culture currently obsessed with the evils of white nationalists.

I also can't say I'm surprised that you addressed only one sentence of my last post but it's alright. This is the videogame discussion, not the war room.

I'm more annoyed that Elizabeth won't unlock the door than I am by Infinite's sjw theme.
 
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How disappointing. Says something about IMDbs community. No hespect for the classics.
Mario and Doom didn't crack the list. Speaks to the credibility of imdb.
 
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I'm surprised that Mario and Doom didn't crack the list. Speaks to the credibility of imdb.
It has more to do with the Bayesian weighting that IMDb wisely uses. It's actually a very good thing. If a game doesn't get enough votes there is no way for it to make the list.

Super Marios Bros. has a 9.1 rating, but only 3,848 votes. Meanwhile, the Tomb Raider game that made the bottom of the list only scored an 8.9, but had 12,139 votes. You can see how this mathematical weighting affects movies/games more steeply the fewer votes they have. There's a standard deviation affect. You can see this easily in my thread from earlier this week:
The Best New TV of 2017 & 2018?
If you go to the show's actual IMDb pages you'll notice the shows with a really small number of votes have higher scores on their IMDb page. But I'm not quoting their raw score. I'm quoting their weighted score (as it is ranked in the "Top 250 TV" or "Top 250 Movies" lists).

IMDb is still highly useful, and a genuine voice of the people. Rottentomatoes and Metacritic are industry marketing, now. They're horseshit.
 
It has more to do with the Bayesian weighting that IMDb wisely uses. It's actually a very good thing. If a game doesn't get enough votes there is no way for it to make the list.

Super Marios Bros. has a 9.1 rating, but only 3,848 votes. Meanwhile, the Tomb Raider game that made the bottom of the list only scored an 8.9, but had 12,139 votes. You can see how this mathematical weighting affects movies/games more steeply the fewer votes they have. There's a standard deviation affect. You can see this easily in my thread from earlier this week:
The Best New TV of 2017 & 2018?
If you go to the show's actual IMDb pages you'll notice the shows with a really small number of votes have higher scores on their IMDb page. But I'm not quoting their raw score. I'm quoting their weighted score (as it is ranked in the "Top 250 TV" or "Top 250 Movies" lists).

IMDb is still highly useful, and a genuine voice of the people. Rottentomatoes and Metacritic are industry marketing, now. They're horseshit.
You know a lot of stuff
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What the hell is, Life is Strange.

Been playing video games since super Mario Bros one and never heard of this
 
What the hell is, Life is Strange.

Been playing video games since super Mario Bros one and never heard of this

You know Telltale games like Walking Dead right? It's like that, but with a time travel gimmick on top. You walk around and interact with the setting, talk to people and make decisions. I was the asshole who gave it it's only vote in the poll. I've never been invested in a game like I was with Life is Strange
 
Should I not vote if I haven't played all the games?
 
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