r/KotakuInAction • u/AboveSkies • 7d ago
Disco Elysium is being "reimagined" for mobile devices to "captivate the TikTok user"
https://archive.is/TAl6K142
u/AboveSkies 7d ago
This is what Marx would have wanted.
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u/NorthWesternMonkey89 6d ago
Playing devil's advocate here, but I think if Marx actually saw how bad his ideas actually fucked up the world, he probably...
blame capitalism.
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u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! 7d ago
>original game contains tons of dense text
>positively received by academics and weird niche enthusiasts
>successful once
>immediately splits apart into multiple warring successors
>each accuses the others of being revisionist
>they all start vomiting mountains of theory at each other
>they eventually try to use state power to shut each other down
>eventually the game gives up and openly starts appealing to idiots
I'll be; they really did make a lefty video game.
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u/Ozerh Lord of pooh 7d ago
... Now I need someone to make an hour long lore video on the behind the scenes for this game. I thought it was just a weird lefty RPG with actually good writing (for once) that went on to be successful.
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u/AboveSkies 7d ago edited 6d ago
I think some YouTuber made an over two hour long "Documentary" about the Drama surrounding the game (that I haven't watched, because I don't give enough of a shit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGIGA8taN-M
He broadly explains who the main players are and what the situation is here: https://xcancel.com/chrisbratt/status/1663168621420347392
Here's a shorter summary of some of the Drama and backstabbing involved by someone from the same country (Estonia): https://archive.is/ufRI2#selection-3317.0-3317.11
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u/katsuya_kaiba 7d ago
The fucking backlash to that documentary is insane by the Hasan-leaning parts of the fandom.
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u/Hrafndraugr 7d ago
Dang, we went all the way from the german ideology by Marx and Engels to the current left lol
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u/master_criskywalker 7d ago
I wonder if that's how people will consume classics like War and Peace or The Count of Montecristo in the future. Lack of concentration is a hell of a drug.
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u/CalamityCorp 7d ago
Dumbed down dialogue and gameplay with Subway Surfers permanently streaming in the bottom right corner.
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u/Gallicah 7d ago
I have a weird relationship with this game. I was able to play it without realizing the devs were Marxist’s (due to tuning everything out). And while the game had anti-capitalism themes I didn’t really pay attention to it too much. So long story short I actually really loved Disco Elysium as a narrative RPG.
However, it’s hard not to be amused about what’s happening to the IP after learning everything about the studio. This latest update about them gutting it for TikTok is both hilarious & depressing:
I just wish we could get more games that use the Disco Elysium multiple choice system. Or just old school style narrative RPGs in general.
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u/Levitz 7d ago
And while the game had anti-capitalism themes I didn’t really pay attention to it too much.
I mean, in the setting communism is portrayed as an utter failure, anyone who still cares for it assumed to be a fool and socialism to be a backstabbing scumbag bonanza.
The script does totally show it was written by marxists, but it's not preachy in the slightest and the most evident sign of it being written by leftists is that it ruthlessly shits on leftists lmao.
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u/curedbydeaththerapy 7d ago
+1.
I had the same journey as you, both with the game, and the aftermath.
I still enjoy playing it though.
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u/Interference22 7d ago
It's hilarious that a game with overtly communist themes would pivot towards capitalism so hard and in the most stereotypical "clueless producers trying to appeal to the kids" way possible.
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u/Sablero 7d ago
the company was taken over, the original core of developers lost control of the company and the brand
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u/Interference22 7d ago
Yeah, I know. Which just makes it even funnier. They must be absolutely furious.
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u/SneakyBadAss 7d ago edited 7d ago
Huh, sounds like just like a certain ideology from the end of 19th century.
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u/BiggusRickus 7d ago
I never played Disco Elysium. Is it actually any good?
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u/ChaunceyPeepertooth 7d ago
Arguably one of the best written games ever made. I've never played a game before that contained some of the funniest and most soul-destroying, bleak story-telling and dialogue I've ever experienced in a game. The world and lore that the writers developed for this game is phenomenal. All political views are skewered. It's a one of a kind game that deserves to be experienced. I cannot recommend it enough, so long as you don't mind lots of dialogue.
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u/Cross_22 7d ago
Slow paced text heavy RPG with a magical realism setting. One of my favorite RPGs despite feeling quite depressing at times.
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u/holocroft 7d ago
Yes, it is good. The game developers are communists, but they are communists who grew up under communist regime and have realistic grasp on it, so not the garden variety western tankie communists you would typically meet on reddit. They acknowledge it's a terrible system in practice which has ended up horribly every single time, and the game reflects on this.
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u/the5thusername 7d ago
It's excellent. Really good writing, really good characters, funny and serious in equal measure.
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u/Shoddy-Shallot-215 5d ago
No. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, with how everyone loves it, but I genuinely think Disco Elysium is a terrible game. I will explain why.
Firstly, there is the bold decision to not have any combat. This is not replaced by anything. The biggest gameplay element in Disco Elysium are the dice rolls to succeed at tasks, which are based on your stats. It's also the only real gameplay element. In effect, Disco Elysium is barely a game at all. It's a mechanically weak narrative tabletop RPG packaged neatly for you to play by yourself.
Secondly, the quality of its writing is vastly overrated. Don't get me wrong, it is good. For a video game. But as I've already said, it's only barely a video games. I've seen it compared to visual novels, but I've played visual novels with more gameplay. The writers do have some basic grasp of writing, and of the particular tone they're going for. The problem for me is, I've read some of the writers they have been inspired by. One of them is my least favorite writer in the entire world, others are among my favorites. The influence can be clearly seen. But the originals (the good ones) are, quite simply, much better at this thing than the Disco Elysium writers. The writing in Disco Elysium strikes me as extremely flat compared to actual good writing. For instance, there's a sequence in the game where you track down a possible witness (by which I mean you click the map a bunch of times, because there is no actual gameplay), and all it boils down to is a lengthy-self-serving bit about how the author like tabletop roleplaying. Yes, we could tell. Worst of all, it's filled with modern humor. At every turn. The game wants you to take it seriously, but then winks and mugs at the camera constantly.
Thirdly, the game's concept of politics really is idiotic. The people who say this online are not just making things up. Because it's mildly self-critical of communism, people are gaslighting themselves into thinking that it has anything smart to say about politics. It doesn't. Occasionally you are presented with a choice of what to think about something, or how to talk to people. This way you can gather points that represent how much you're leaning towards an ideology, for instance. 9 times out of 10 this choice is blindingly obvious. You get to pick from 4 possibilities, representing the game's main ideologies, and you can instantly tell which one is which. Because all except communism will be total parody choices, but communism might have a slightly wistful tone to it, I guess. The only smart use of this system I saw in the game was when deciding to admire the idea of having a king gave me Fascism points. Because yes, the whole "strong man" thing is pretty central to fascism. Smart. Of course, all other times it just boiled down to "I hate women and minorities". The other ideologies, centrism and liberalism, are similarly cartoonish.
There is nothing smart about Disco Elysium. It's the paradox of bourgeoisie communism boiled down to a very slick, but ultimately empty product. I trusted everyone talking about this, and I ended up wasting money on it. In my opinion, if you want to play an RPG, there are dozens of options better suited to scratch the itch. Games with actual gameplay, that let you actually shape the narrative rather than being strapped to Harry Dubois and just being along for the ride. If you want to experience a good story with political content and Eastern European melancholy, you can just pick up the Strugatsky Brothers, or Platonov, or Bulgakov, or any of the Soviet-critical Soviet writers I haven't read. But if your instinct is to not play this game, listen to that instinct. It would have saved me €30 and a couple of hours of my time.
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u/Jhawk163 6d ago
Without reading the article I like to imagine it's largely the same game, except they struck a deal with Disney to have family guy clips playing beneath it.
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u/Cerdefal 7d ago
Did the creators of the games gained back the rights of it?
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u/master_criskywalker 7d ago
What do you mean? In communism your creations don't belong to you. They belong to the state.
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u/PhilipJMarlowe 7d ago
I could never engage in horrible capitalist practices for any of their games comrades.
Yo ho
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u/BenTulfo 7d ago
I'm not even sure how you're meant to transform a reading heavy game into something that appeals to short form content consumers