Is this game politically neutral?

*A little disclaimer: please do NOT use this thread to start flame wars, as it is against the forum rules. Consider skipping this thread if you are a hypersensitive type.*

Hello,

I've stumbled upon this game recently and instantly liked it.

The question I wanted to ask before acquiring it - is if it is a politically neutral game (do not confuse with "political correctness").
If there is a story in this game - what is it about? (feel free to spoil)
If there is an NPC interaction in this game - are the they forcing the developer's definition of good and bad along with Marxist lessons, miscegenation, c. enrichment and other "progressive" thinking to the player?

I'm looking forward to getting answers to above listed questions, preferably from people who are informed regarding upcoming changes to the game (I'm well aware that it's currently in the beta state).

Regards,
Carnehan

P.S. I know that it might be unusual for some people to see this type of questions asked, but please refrain from the ad hominem type of arguments. Thank you.

 

It's early beta (some people insist on calling it alpha, even). There's no story line in yet, and NPC interaction is limited to a few merchants, and one liners.

Long story short, no one can answer your questions at this time. Come back in a few months when the quest lines are in.

Also, I'm not sure this in the context of your posts is actually abiding by the rules, and might act as a shield for people who (with good reason) decide to flame you.

I mean, really man. It's 2013.

 

I'm sorry, isn't this topic made by someone that is hyper sensitive themselves and is afraid that this game will contain something to offend them?

Also, no narrative is ever neutral. There is always a message conveyed, an opinion expressed or view point explored. Absolute neutrality is an impossibility.

Also, you put progressive thinking within quotation marks. That does not endear you to me in the slightest.

 

What is this I don't even...

Why can't a game just be a freakin' game?

 

This game indirectly discourages the sacrificing of one's own species to fictional deities. Yuck, "progressive thinking."

 

Rumor has it that after finishing tier 10 it automatically signs you up for insurance through the ACA.

 

It's a video game, if you have to ask questions like these then video games aren't for you.

 

You know, there isn't really a lot of Marxist theory in contemporary videogames to my knowledge, so you're probably safe there. Not sure what "c. enrichment" is, either.

 

"I'm an anti-communist racist, don't flame me." Yeah...

 

Deciding to play a game or not based on the amount of socialist propaganda it might contain? You are very discerning (in the whack job sense of the word). I imagine you can find something to piss you off in everything if you look at it from your point of view. Even Big Bird is a commie because he teaches kids to share, right?

 

Consider skipping this game, or any game, since you seem the hypersensitive type yourself.

 

Wow never expected a thread like this. Mc carthy's ghost has joined the forum.

 

I'm giving this thread a chance on the assumption people can y'know, talk about something. Even if the subject at hand is "Is Starbound a politically neutral game?"

To answer your questions:

Yes, there is a story - you're an outcast for whatever reason from your race so you pick up your Matter Manipulator and beam down from your ship onto a planet. You then decide to make a crafting bench, and go pick up some stone to make a pickaxe. With your trusty stone pickaxe, you now decide to make a hunting bow and collect meat, which you proceed to cook (you cook it medium rare I believe) and eat, since you were hungry. You then make a furnace, find some Iron ore and proceed to smelt it into Iron Bars and make an anvil.

Then you make a distress beacon and a ship comes to help you.

Yes, there is NPC interaction. You are forced to either let them live or brutally slaughter everyone - it's your decision on how you want to handle that small town of Glitch people.

 

You probably won't like this game, especially if "micegenation" is actually something that bothers you given that you know... you're going to be mixing with players and NPCs are entirely different species not to mention different races and cultures of each species

If there is a story in this game - what is it about? (feel free to spoil)

The "story" varied between player races. The humans have a somewhat dark comedic background about Earth having been consumed by a planet-scale parasite, and trying figure out what to do about it. The Apex are largely dominated by a 1984-style totalitarian government, with the player character starting out a resistance member looking for support in overthrowing their government. The Avians are a very religious species, but the player has found themselves outcast after coming as being an atheist. The hylotl consider themselves the most awesome civilisation ever and are trying to spread their cultural ideals. The Floran are rather primitive, and tend to view things in terms of 'does it fit in my mouth?'

I should stress that these serve as backstory fluff to your character's race and origin. It does not define or guide what direction you take your character in.

If there is an NPC interaction in this game - are the they forcing the developer's definition of good and bad along with Marxist lessons, miscegenation, c. enrichment and other "progressive" thinking to the player?
Some of the race backstories are culturally loaded (notably apex and avian) but until the game is fleshed out we won't know whether you are forced to follow the path set out by your backstory, or whether it merely represents a starting point. At present there is very little judgement of a players actions, you could slaughter star-systems without consequence, or create a multi-cultural crew

 

Beta, by definition, generally means its feature-complete. Which, Starbound is not, and the version we have is anything but. So it's perfectly understandable why people are calling it an alpha.

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To answer the original poster's question(s), really only have one thing to say-

You're seriously over-thinking it.

Honestly, does it HAVE to have a message? No. Sometimes someone just wants to tell a story for pure entertainment. Sometimes a game is just a game. People simply look for reasons to go beyond that. Makes no sense to me.

 

I mean, it's kind of neutral, in the sense that it doesn't favor any one kind of thinking over all others. Each race seams to have their own opinions and at no point (thus far into the development) does the game outright say 'Xrace is better than Yrace.' Each species is, from the flavor text on some of the items, at a different level of technological development, which kind of seems like a class system, but no one race claims openly to be better than any other.

 

This game is about as progressive as any other game these days, I sure hope you're just doing research on some kind of assignment, your post could have been better worded, considering you've portrayed yourself as a racist lunatic.
Anyway, there's race mixing in this game in the sense that the races can co-exist, though depending on what race you play, the others respond to you differently, right now there's no deep story further then "You left your home world for reasons, do stuff"

 

Your worries seem make you quite unsuitable for any kind of game or frankly the internet as a whole (considering how your views will only attract flamewars, and who would ever want that, right?), so you might want to consider leaving this one behind you.

 

.... and when you think you've seen everything, you get this kind of post... you should perhaps explain yourself better or you come out looking like a xenophobe.

I don't see why any of that matters, I can play a game as a Nazi or a hippie and not really agree with either and still enjoy the game.
You got different races based off real world factions and you can choose to raid them or leave them be. There is no diplomatic conflict or ala fallout factions.

If you're THAT worried about being politically neutral you should just... No, can't think of anything, there is no such thing as being politically neutral.

 

If you want to know any of this just wait for the game to come out. You're not gonna get too much information about this stuff until then. However I gotta say this is probably the stupidest reasoning for buying or not buying a game I have ever heard.